American Journal of Civil Engineering

| Peer-Reviewed |

Sustainable Infrastructure: Climate Changes and Carbon Dioxide

Received: 13 August 2017    Accepted:     Published: 14 August 2017
Views:       Downloads:

Share This Article

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.

DOI 10.11648/j.ajce.20170505.11
Published in American Journal of Civil Engineering (Volume 5, Issue 5, September 2017)
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), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Infrastructure, Sustainability, Climate Change, Carbon Dioxide

References
[1] R. W. Kates, T. M. Parris, and A. A. Leiserowitz. 2005. What is Sustainable Development? Environment, 47, 3 (2005) 9-21.
[2] City of Riverside, Captial Improvement Program Summary, http://www.riversideca.gov/finance/PDF/budget-1618/CommunityImprovementProgramSummary.pdf Accessed May 15, 2017.
[3] C. D. Martland. Toward More Sustainable Infrastructure; Project Evaluation for Planners and Engineers. 2012 Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.
[4] R. S. Lindzen. Global Warming: How to approach the science. Fourth International Conference on Climate Change, May 16, 2010, Heartland Institute, Chicago.
[5] A. Arguez, R. S. Vose. The Definition of the Standard WMO Climate Normal. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 6 (2011) 699-704.
[6] USEPA 2010. USEPA Climate Change Web Page; Basic Information. http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/basicinfo.html (Accessed May 20, 2010).
[7] W. Soon, R. Connolly, M. Connolly. Re-evaluating the role of solar variability on Northern Hemisphere temperature trends since the 19th century. Earth-Science Reviews, 150 (2015) 409-452.
[8] L. J. Grey, W. Ball, S. Misios. Solar Influences on climate over the Atlantic/European Sector. Radiation Processes in the Atmosphere and Ocean (IRS 2016) AIP Conf. Proc. 1810, 020002-1-020002-8.
[9] A. I. Shapiro, W. Schmutz, E. Rozanov, M. Schoell, M. Haberreiter, A. V. Shapiro, S. Nyeki. A new approach to long-term reconstruction of the solar irradiance leads to large historical solar forcing. Astronomy and Astrophysics (2011) arXiv: 1102. 4763 v 1.
[10] N. Scafetta. Testing an astronomically-based decadal-scale empirical harmonic climate model versus the IPCC (2007) general circulation climate models. Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 80 (2012) 124-137.
[11] G. Ja. Khachikjan, G. J. Kofko. On 3 to 6 year cycles in the time of geomagnetic storm sudden commencement occurrence and ENSO climate cycles. Advances in Geosciences, 6 (2006) 87093.
[12] S.-L. Yao, J.-J. Luo, G. Huang, P. Wang. Distinct global warming rates tied to multiple ocean surface temperature changes. Nature Climate Change (2017).
[13] H. Svensmark, M. B. Enghoff, J. O. P. Pedersen. Response of Cloud Condensation Nuclei (> 50 nm) to changes in ion-nucleation (2011) arXiv: 1202.5156 [physics.atm-clus].
[14] P. R. Goode, E. Pallé. Shortwave forcing of the Earth’s climate: Modern and historical variations in the Sun’s irradiance and the Earth’s reflectance. Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 69 (2007) 1556-1568.
[15] W. Knorr. Is the airborne fraction of anthropogenic CO2 emissions increasing? Geophysical Research Letters 36, 21 (2009) L 21710.
[16] P. Longaboardi, A. Montenegro, H. Beltrami, M. Eby. 2016. Deforestation Induced Climate Change: Effects of Spatial Scale. PLoS ONE 11, 4 (2016) e 0153357.
[17] L. Huang, J. Liu, Q. Shao, X. Xu. Carbon sequestration by forestation across China: Past, present, future. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 16, 2 (2012) 1291-1299.
[18] M. Higashino, H. G. Stefan. Hydro-climatic Change in Japan (1906-2005): Impacts of Global Warming and Urbanization. Air, Soil and Water Research, 7 (2014) 19-34.
[19] Y. Wang, X. Yan, Z. Wang 2016. A preliminary study to investigate the biogeophysical impact of desertification on climate based on different latitudinal bands. International Journal of Climatology, 36, 2 (2016) 945-955.
[20] IPCC. Climate Change: The Scientific Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, (2001) Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
[21] G. A. Meehl, W. M. Washington, J. M. Arblaster, A. Hu, H. Teng, C. Tebaldi, B. N. Sanderson, J.-F. Lamarque, A. Conley, W. G. Strand, and J. B. White. Climate System Response to External Forcings and Climate Change Projections in CCSM 4. Journal of Climate, 25 (2012) 3661-3683.
[22] C. M. Cooney. Downscaling Climate Models; Sharpening the Focus on Local-Level Changes. Environmental Health Perspectives, 120, 1 (2012) A 22-A 28.
[23] R. McKitrick. A Critical Review of Global Surface Temperature Data Products. (August 5, 2010). http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1653928.
[24] T. C. Peterson, R. S. Vose. An Overview of the Global Historical Climatology Network Temperature Database. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 78 (1997) 2837-2849.
[25] T. C. Peterson, R. S. Vose, R. Schmoyer, V. Razuavev. Global Historical Climatological Network (GHCN) Quality Control of Monthly Temperature Data. International Journal of Climatology 18 (1998) 1169-1179.
[26] R. W. Spencer, J. R. Christy. Precise monitoring of global temperature trends from satellites. Science, 247 (1990) 1558-1562.
[27] C. A. Mears, M. C. Schabel, F. J. Wentz. A reanalysis of the MSU channel 2 tropospheric temperature record. J. Climate, 16 (2003) 3650-3664.
[28] S. Po-Chedley, T. J. Thorsen, Q. Fu. Removing Diurnal Cycle Contamination in Satellite-Derived Tropospheric Temperatures: Understanding Tropical Troposphere Trend Discrepancies. J. Climate, 28 (2015) 2274-2290.
[29] S. Po-Chedley, Q. Fu. A Bias in the Midtropospheric Channel Warm Target Factor on the NOAA-9 Microwave Sounding Unit. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol. 29 (2012) 646-652.
[30] J. R. Christy, R. W. Spencer. Comments of A bias in the midtropospheric channel warm target factor on the NOAA-9 Microwave Sounding Unit. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol., 30 (2013) 1006-1013.
[31] S. Po-Chedley, Q. Fu. Reply to “Comments on ‘A Bias in the Midtropospheric Channel Warm Target Factor on the NOAA-9 Microwave Sounding Unit’” Jour. Atmos. Oceanic Technol. 30 (2013) 1014-1020.
[32] R. E. Swanson. A Comparative Analysis of Data Derived from Orbiting MSU/AMSU Instruments. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol. 34 (2017) 225-232.
[33] S.-L. Yao, G. Huang, R.-G. Wu, X. Qu. The global warming hiatus—a natural product of interactions of a secular warming trend and a multi-decadal oscillation. Theor Appl Climatol 123 (2016) 349-360.
[34] C. Hedemann, T. Mauritsen, J. Jungclaus and J. Marotzke 2017. The subtle origins of surface-warming hiatuses. Nature Climate Change, 7 (2017) 336-339.
[35] G. L. Stephens, T. L’Ecuyer. The Earth’s energy balance. Atmospheric Research, 166 (2015) 195-203.
[36] A. E. Petersen. Simulating Nature. A Philosophical Study of Computer-Simulation Uncertainties and Their Role in Climate Science and Policy Advice. (2006) Het Spinhuis, Amsterdam.
[37] G. A. Meehl, W. M. Washington, J. M. Arblaster, A. Hu, H. Teng, C. Tebaldi, B. N. Sanderson, J.-F. Lamarque, A. Conley, W. G. Strand, J. B. White. Climate System Response to External Forcings and Climate Change Projections in CCSM 4. J. Climate, 25 (2012) 3661-3683.
[38] S. Kravtsov. Pronounced differences between observed and CMIP 5-simulated multidecadal climate variability in the twentieth century. Geophysical Research Letters 44 (2017) 5749-5757.
[39] W. S. Parker 2010. Predicting weather and climate: Uncertainty, ensembles and probability. Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics. 41 (2010) 263-272.
[40] C. A. Varotsos, M. N. Efstathiou, A. P. Cracknell. Plausible reasons for the inconsistencies between the modelled and observed temperatures in the tropical troposphere. Geophysical Research Letters 40, 18 (2013) 4906-4910.
[41] K. C. Green, J. S. Armstrong. Global Warming: Forecasts by Scientists versus Scientific Forecasts. Energy and Environment 18 (2007) 997-1021.
[42] D. T. Milhailovic, G. Mimic, I. Arsenic. Climate Predictions: The Chaos and Complexity in Climate Models. Advances in Meteorology (2014) Article ID 878249.
[43] NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service. Summary of Monthly Normals 1981-2010. Riverside Municipal Airport, CA US GHCND: USW 00003171. Generated on 05/02/2017.
[44] B. Y. Tam, W. A. Gough, T. Hohsin. The impact of urbanization and the urban heat island effect on day to day temperature variation. Urban Climate 12 (2015) 1-10.
[45] Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report p 37.
[46] NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory Global Monitoring Division. Trends in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide. https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/ (Accessed June 29, 2017).
[47] G. Gerlich, R. D. Tscheuschner. Falsification of the atmospheric CO2 greenhouse effect within the frame of physics. International Journal of Modern Physics B, 23 (2009) 275-364.
[48] S. S. Schwartz, R. J. Charlson, R. Kahn, H. Rodhe. Earth’s Climate Sensitivity: Apparent Inconsistencies in Recent Assessments. Earth’s Future, 2 (2014) 601-605.
[49] Y. V. Kissin. A simple alternative model for the estimation of the carbon dioxide effect on the Earth’s energy balance. Energy and Environment 26 (2013) 1319-1333.
[50] A. Otto et al. Energy budget constraints on climate response. Nature Geoscience, 6 (2013) 415-416.
Author Information
  • Department of Civil Engineering and Construction Management, Gordon and Jill Bourns College of Engineering, California Baptist University, Riverside, California, USA

Cite This Article
  • 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

    Copy | Download

    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

    Copy | Download

    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

    Copy | 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://download.sciencepg.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}
    }
    

    Copy | Download

  • 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  - 

    Copy | Download

  • Sections