Climate Change Risk Assessments and Adaptation for Roads – Results of the ROADAPT Project

Infrastructure is the backbone of our society. Citizens, companies and governments have come to rely on and expect uninterrupted availability of the road network. Extreme weather is an important factor for the reliability of the road network. At the same time it is generally understood that the climate is changing and that this will have significant effects on the road infrastructure. Since road infrastructure is vital to society, climate change calls for timely adaptation. Immediately, questions arise how to deal with the large uncertainties involved in the projections of future climate, how to assess their effects on the road infrastructure and related socio economic developments, and how to integrate adaptation into decision making. The ROADAPT project was commissioned under the CEDR Call 2012 ‘Road owners adapting to climate change’. It adopts a risk based approach using the RIMAROCC framework (Risk Management for Roads in a Changing Climate, developed under a previous ERA NET ROAD project). The approach addresses cause, effect and consequence of weather-related events to identify the top risks that require action with mitigating measures for climate change adaptation. Output of the ROADAPT project is a single ROADAPT-RIMAROCC integrating guideline.