Many decisions concerning long-lived investments already need to take into account climate change. But doing so is not easy for at least two reasons. First, due to the rate of climate change, new infrastructure will have to be able to cope with a large range of changing climate conditions, which will make design more difficult and construction more expensive. Second, uncertainty in future climate makes it impossible to directly use the output of a single climate model as an input for infrastructure design, and there are good reasons to think that the needed climate information will not be available soon. Instead of optimizing based on the climate conditions projected by models, therefore, future infrastructure should be made more robust to possible changes in climate conditions. This aim implies that users of climate information must also change their practices and decision-making frameworks, for instance by adapting the uncertainty-management methods they currently apply to exchange rates or RD (ii) favouring reversible and flexible options; (iii) buying “safety margins” in new investments; (iv) promoting soft adaptation strategies, including long-term prospective; and (v) reducing decision time horizons. Moreover, it is essential to consider both negative and positive side-effects and externalities of adaptation measures. Adaptation–mitigation interactions also call for integrated design and assessment of adaptation and mitigation policies, which are often developed by distinct communities.

Strategies to adapt to an uncertain climate change

Foundation scour is among the main causes of bridge collapse worldwide, resulting in significant direct and indirect losses. A vast amount of research has been carried out during the last decades on the physics and modelling of this phenomenon. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to provide an up-to-date, comprehensive, and holistic literature review of the problem of scour at bridge foundations, with a focus on the following topics: (i) sediment particle motion; (ii) physical modelling and controlling dimensionless scour parameters; (iii) scour estimates encompassing empirical models, numerical frameworks, data-driven methods, and non-deterministic approaches; (iv) bridge scour monitoring including successful examples of case studies; (v) current approach for assessment and design of bridges against scour; and, (vi) research needs and future avenues.

/pdf/the-science-behind-scour-at-bridge-foundations-a-review-319ldfl34z.pdf

The Science behind Scour at Bridge Foundations: A Review

Climate change may have multifaceted impacts on the safety and performance of infrastructure. Accounting for the different ways in which potential climate change scenarios can affect our infrastruc...

Bridges in a changing climate: a study of the potential impacts of climate change on bridges and their possible adaptations

Monitoring of transport infrastructure exposed to multiple hazards: a roadmap for building resilience

Vulnerability of bridges to individual and multiple hazards- floods and earthquakes

An overabundance of evidence, both observational and from model projections, indicate that changes to the climate system are taking place at unprecedented rates. Although the magnitudes of these ch...

https://tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/23789689.2019.1593003

A review of the potential impacts of climate change on the safety and performance of bridges

The potential risks of climate change on the built environment involve large uncertainties. This poses an intricate problem to designers and challenges a long-standing tradition of built infrastructure design. More specifically, designers are faced with this challenging question: how to rationally account for climate change risks when designing a new asset? A framework that holistically addresses this difficult question is missing from the current literature. This study contributes to this gap by (1) proposing a conceptual framework for rationally considering the effects of climate change in the design of these assets and (2) identifying the challenges that need to be overcome to facilitate the transition, and further development, of the proposed framework into practice. First, a detailed overview of important infrastructure performance requirements that are relevant to the proposed framework is presented. The different stages of the proposed conceptual framework are then outlined. The proposed framework progresses in the following order: ranking the importance of the asset, identifying the potential climate change risks, analyzing these risks, selecting a design strategy, and finally evaluating the final design. Lastly, several challenges that impede the application of the proposed framework in practical settings are identified. The proposed conceptual framework and the identified challenges comprise a necessary steppingstone towards addressing this pressing issue and developing a more practically applicable framework for considering the risks of climate change in the design of built infrastructure assets.

Towards a Conceptual Framework for Built Infrastructure Design in an Uncertain Climate: Challenges and Research Needs

Recent decades have seen an increased attention towards the threat of climate change to our built environment and not least our infrastructure. Accounting for the different ways in which potential climate change scenarios can affect our infrastructure is paramount in determining appropriate adaptation and risk management strategies. This paper presents the initial findings of a new research project which is concerned with establishing an improved management of the risks to our infrastructure, especially bridges, in light of a changing climate. In this paper, a preliminary survey of the climate change related risks on bridges is conducted. Timely consideration of these impacts is of utmost importance to ensure a satisfactory performance of our bridges in the future. The interplay between the different risks and how the occurrence of one risk may influence other risks is also briefly discussed. The future stages of the project are mentioned as well. The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the Swedish Transport Administration. Any opinions, findings, or conclusions in this work are those of the authors and are not necessarily in accordance with those of the Swedish Transport Administration. (Less)

Climate change impact on safety and performance of existing and future bridges

The financial support provided by the Swedish Transport Administration and the strategic innovation program InfraSweden2030 is gratefully acknowledged.

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Amro Nasr

Papers

A review of the potential impacts of climate change on the safety and performance of bridges

Bridges in a changing climate: a study of the potential impacts of climate change on bridges and their possible adaptations

Towards a Conceptual Framework for Built Infrastructure Design in an Uncertain Climate: Challenges and Research Needs

Climate change impact on safety and performance of existing and future bridges

Towards a holistic prioritization of climate-change risks for bridges