Impacts of climate change on infrastructure planning and design:Past practices and future needs

Abstract

Climate change is challenging the way utilities plan and design their infrastructure. The variability of climate change repercussions adds new uncertainties to the fundamental assumptions of infrastructure engineering. Utilities are faced with the prospect of modifying existing planning and design practices to address the risks presented by climate change; however, the difficulty lies in determining for which climate risks utilities need to plan. This article evaluates the potential effects of climate change on water utility planning and design through survey and case studies. On the basis of these findings, various strategies for adapting to the wide range of projected climate change impacts are discussed. A general framework for evaluating the effects of climate change on facility planning and design is also presented. This framework helps utilities identify which aspects may be sensitive to climate change as well as options that can be used to reduce the risks associated with climate change uncertainty.

A Review of Climate Change Impacts to Oil Sector Critical Services and Suggested Recommendations for Industry Uptake

“…As the term resilience, encompasses the ability/capacity of any CI (or their network) to prevent, protect and prepare for CC impacts [9,10], the accurate collection is a critical step to identify exposure, vulnerabilities, and impacts to the interconnected and interdependent CI of oil industry [11,12]. Any accurate vulnerability assessment requires a thorough analysis of existing literature review, design standards, and operational parameters of the climate impacts on the assets of the oil infrastructure [13,14]. As it is described further in Section 2.1, these weather-related thresholds can be found in literature and are values above or below a level, which the likelihood of a climate impact is considered sufficient to render the asset or operation exposed to severe damage and/or disruption of service critical operations (Table A1 of Appendix A [15].…”

Fusing strategic risk and futures methods to inform long-term strategic planning: case of water utilities

“…Opening "mental maps" and helping to initiate new conversations among the different actors at the utility, city and basin levels strategic risks (Luís et al 2015), and an assessment of how these risks evolve under a range of alternative futures, shaped by a set of drivers of change (Luís et al 2016). Herein lies the potential for combining scenario planning to help utility managers move beyond single point forecasts of risks to focus on the most critical dimensions of uncertainty that are fundamental to the resilience of corporate objectives and their vulnerability to external pressures (Swart et al 2004;Means et al 2010). Incorporating the use of alternative future scenarios supports the development of flexible strategies that can cope with changing baselines and alternative outcomes.…”

Assessing interdependent operational, tactical and strategic risks for improved utility master plans

“…At the strategic level, risks are best assessed across a whole system (International Standards Organisation, 2009). However, strategic risks have been appraised in isolation, leading to a growing recognition of the need to integrate and harmonize these analyses (Means et al, 2010;Hamilton et al, 2006;Renn, 2008;Larson et al, 2009;International Standards Organisation, 2009;Prpich et al, 2011). Attempts to relate physical or environmental risks like water quality, supply and resource have existed for over a decade (Bouwer, 2000;Hamilton et al, 2006;Pollard et al, 2004b;Powers et al, 2012), but a step change is still required to further integrate physical water risks with regulatory, financial and reputational risks (Frigo and Anderson, 2012).…”