Civil infrastructure provides the physical backbone of all societies. Water supply, wastewater treatment, transportation systems, and civil structures must be sustainable over multiple decades (e.g. 20, 30, 50 years) for human populations to survive and flourish. Over such a long time-period, climate changes are inevitable. The global atmospheric system is dynamic. Weather and climates are constantly adjusting. To date the effects of carbon dioxide have been evaluated almost exclusively using a global reference frame. However, civil infrastructure is stationary and local in nature. A locational reference frame is introduced here as an alternative framework for evaluating the effect of carbon dioxide on civil infrastructure. Temperature data from the City of Riverside, California from 1901 to 2017 are analyzed to illustrate application of a local reference frame. No evidence of significant climate change beyond natural variability was observed in this temperature record. Using a Climate Sensitivity best estimate of 2°C, the increase in temperature resulting from a doubling of atmospheric CO2 is estimated at approximately 0.009°C/yr which is insignificant compared to natural variability.
| Published in | American Journal of Civil Engineering (Volume 5, Issue 5) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ajce.20170505.11 |
| Page(s) | 254-267 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2017. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Infrastructure, Sustainability, Climate Change, Carbon Dioxide
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APA Style
Frederick W. Pontius. (2017). Sustainable Infrastructure: Climate Changes and Carbon Dioxide. American Journal of Civil Engineering, 5(5), 254-267. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajce.20170505.11
ACS Style
Frederick W. Pontius. Sustainable Infrastructure: Climate Changes and Carbon Dioxide. Am. J. Civ. Eng. 2017, 5(5), 254-267. doi: 10.11648/j.ajce.20170505.11
AMA Style
Frederick W. Pontius. Sustainable Infrastructure: Climate Changes and Carbon Dioxide. Am J Civ Eng. 2017;5(5):254-267. doi: 10.11648/j.ajce.20170505.11
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ajce.20170505.11,
author = {Frederick W. Pontius},
title = {Sustainable Infrastructure: Climate Changes and Carbon Dioxide},
journal = {American Journal of Civil Engineering},
volume = {5},
number = {5},
pages = {254-267},
doi = {10.11648/j.ajce.20170505.11},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajce.20170505.11},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajce.20170505.11},
abstract = {Civil infrastructure provides the physical backbone of all societies. Water supply, wastewater treatment, transportation systems, and civil structures must be sustainable over multiple decades (e.g. 20, 30, 50 years) for human populations to survive and flourish. Over such a long time-period, climate changes are inevitable. The global atmospheric system is dynamic. Weather and climates are constantly adjusting. To date the effects of carbon dioxide have been evaluated almost exclusively using a global reference frame. However, civil infrastructure is stationary and local in nature. A locational reference frame is introduced here as an alternative framework for evaluating the effect of carbon dioxide on civil infrastructure. Temperature data from the City of Riverside, California from 1901 to 2017 are analyzed to illustrate application of a local reference frame. No evidence of significant climate change beyond natural variability was observed in this temperature record. Using a Climate Sensitivity best estimate of 2°C, the increase in temperature resulting from a doubling of atmospheric CO2 is estimated at approximately 0.009°C/yr which is insignificant compared to natural variability.},
year = {2017}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Sustainable Infrastructure: Climate Changes and Carbon Dioxide AU - Frederick W. Pontius Y1 - 2017/08/14 PY - 2017 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajce.20170505.11 DO - 10.11648/j.ajce.20170505.11 T2 - American Journal of Civil Engineering JF - American Journal of Civil Engineering JO - American Journal of Civil Engineering SP - 254 EP - 267 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2330-8737 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajce.20170505.11 AB - Civil infrastructure provides the physical backbone of all societies. Water supply, wastewater treatment, transportation systems, and civil structures must be sustainable over multiple decades (e.g. 20, 30, 50 years) for human populations to survive and flourish. Over such a long time-period, climate changes are inevitable. The global atmospheric system is dynamic. Weather and climates are constantly adjusting. To date the effects of carbon dioxide have been evaluated almost exclusively using a global reference frame. However, civil infrastructure is stationary and local in nature. A locational reference frame is introduced here as an alternative framework for evaluating the effect of carbon dioxide on civil infrastructure. Temperature data from the City of Riverside, California from 1901 to 2017 are analyzed to illustrate application of a local reference frame. No evidence of significant climate change beyond natural variability was observed in this temperature record. Using a Climate Sensitivity best estimate of 2°C, the increase in temperature resulting from a doubling of atmospheric CO2 is estimated at approximately 0.009°C/yr which is insignificant compared to natural variability. VL - 5 IS - 5 ER -
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