Efforts to Build Infrastructure Resiliency to Future Hydroclimate Extremes

Extreme hydroclimate events are increasing in frequency and intensity with climate change. This, alongside aging infrastructure, increasing population, and land use changes, makes quantifying and reacting to future changes incredibly difficult. This paper highlights two successful interdisciplinary efforts led by the water management community to manage critical infrastructure for climate resilience when current operational paradigms no longer apply. We highlight these efforts to illustrate (1) best practices and lessons learned when prioritizing and designing projects that enhance infrastructure resilience, and (2) key characteristics that make projects focused on increasing infrastructure resilience to changing hydrometeorological extremes successful. These case studies illustrate the importance of relationships built between researchers, decision makers, and stakeholders, and our recommendations stress the value of collaboration throughout, from project design to project assessment. We also identify the need to integrate prognostic weather and climate products when infrastructure functionality is characterized and to uncover ways to enhance resilience when current operations are not adequate to cope with future hydroclimate extremes.