Towards Climate Change Adaptation of Existing and New Deteriorating Infrastructure

Abstract

Infrastructure assets are essential components to the economical development of modern societies. They are designed to ensure target levels of serviceability and safety on the basis on past experiences and current knowledge on design, construction and maintenance practices. However, changes in climate could modify the lifetime performance of infrastructure by increasing or decreasing failure risks. Therefore, a rational and scientific approach is necessary to deal with the adaptation of existing and new deteriorating infrastructure in a comprehensive way. This keynote paper provides an overview of recent works on this area including: (i) assessment of climate change effects, (ii) adaptation to new environmental conditions for future climate change scenarios and (iii) decision-making under a changing climate. Several examples for different kind of deteriorating infrastructure assets are also presented and discussed in this paper.

Degradation Models and Maintenance Strategies for Reinforced Concrete Structures in Coastal Environments under Climate Change: A Review

“…The effects of climate change will be diverse. Bastidas-Arteaga [184], divided the influence of climate change on infrastructure into three axes involving two types of events:…”

“…Main Topic Highlights [181] Risks to port infrastructure due to changes in wave agitation Sea-level rise and changes in wave agitation can reduce port operability, affecting productivity and risk [184] Three axes of influence: extreme events, progressive events, and combination of both…”

Climate change indicators dataset for coastal locations of the European Atlantic area

“… The database consists of atmospheric and oceanic datasets that provide an objective basis for understanding and predicting future evolutions, and related effects for the built environment, of atmospheric, and oceanic variables or river flow in specific locations of the European Atlantic area. This database was mainly proposed for research institutions and enterprises interested in estimating the durability, consequences, vulnerability, and cost-effectiveness of adaptation measures for infrastructure assets and buildings in specific locations of European Atlantic regions [1 , 2] . However, other sectors could also take advantage of this database.…”

“…This database was mainly proposed for research institutions and enterprises interested in estimating the durability, consequences, vulnerability, and cost-effectiveness of adaptation measures for infrastructure assets and buildings in specific locations of European Atlantic regions [1 , 2] . However, other sectors could also take advantage of this database.…”

Conditional seasonal markov-switching autoregressive model to simulate extreme events: Application to river flow

“…Extreme weather events such as droughts and floods are expected to increase in frequency and intensity in some places due to climate change, which in turn will impact the infrastructure in several ways [12].…”