Climate Adaptation of Transport Infrastructure Worldwide

The design and management of transport infrastructure are highly dependent on environmental impacts and factors. Climate change is causing weather patterns to become more extreme.

According to the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB) circular report, this will affect the lifecycle performance and maintenance of infrastructure elements such as culverts, earthworks, pavements, and other structures.

New studies on infrastructure adaptation in the transport sector strongly focus on risk. The report says that most of the transportation and infrastructure sector’s approach to climate change impact and adaptation is based on risk management, an approach also endorsed by the adaptation community.

The sector is already familiar with and has used a risk-based approach. The report cites the AASHTO Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) Bridge Design Specifications, which “incorporates risk into the calculations of bridge design parameters,” and the “design storm” or the “100-year flood,” which uses risk-based parameters as an example.

The report also states that “many transportation agencies and organisations around the globe have leveraged their familiarity with risk-based practices to develop risk-management frameworks that address climate change adaptation planning”.

This TRB circular, Risk-based Adaptation Frameworks for Climate Change Planning in the Transportation Sector, A Synthesis of Practice, aims to “synthesize the current state of adaptation planning and evaluation in the transportation sector, with a focus on risk-based frameworks.”

The report identifies several risk-based climate adaptation frameworks from around the world, organised into two categories.

The first group contains the adaptation frameworks that address the general infrastructure system, of which transportation is one component.

The circular mentions three adaptation frameworks from Australia: climate change risks to its coasts; climate risks for its coastal buildings and infrastructure; and infrastructure and climate change risk assessment for Victoria.

Climate adaptation frameworks from other countries, such as Canada, Scotland, and the United States, are also mentioned.

The second category comprises risk-based adaptation frameworks that address transportation infrastructure and management activities.

The circular cites two adaptation frameworks from the New Zealand Transport Agency — Climate Change Effects on the Land Transport Network, Volumes 1 and 2 — and one from Transit New Zealand adaptation, Climate Change Uncertainty and the State Highway Network: A Moving Target — as examples under this category.

The report concludes that although several limitations exist across the organisation’s and agencies’ frameworks, the transportation agency has developed a consistent approach to climate adaptation planning, using widely accepted risk standards as a guide. 

The report says that adaptation frameworks and strategies from these organisations will enable information sharing among agencies.

They will support those new to adaptation planning while helping mature agencies refine their practices.

The circular and the information will be helpful for individual practitioners in state and local transportation agencies, researchers in academic institutions, and other members of the transportation research community.

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