Climate Sense

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daptation

and

itigation

trategies

engineering projects. The greater challenge is how to

improve/adapt standards for existing infrastructure. Old

infrastructure assets were often constructed without

any kind of explicit standards. In addition, informa-

tion about standards and performance levels was often

patchy, or even totally absent. Affordability is the main

challenge when trying to improve standards for existing

infrastructure.

In most countries, modifying standards (whether or

not in response to climate change impacts) requires a

lengthy consensus-oriented consultation process and

the involvement of many stakeholders. Sweden follows a

pragmatic approach based on the European Committee

for Standardisation’s Eurocodes – where stand-

ards evolve in close correlation with expected future

weather loads, provided by Sweden’s Meteorological

and Hydrological Institute. The transferability of this

approach to other countries should be investigated with

high priority.

It is not always necessary to change standards

before taking action. Sometimes it makes sense to

set policy targets first. For example, in Great Britain

a targeted increase in drainage capacity of 20 per

cent was set due to predictions of more intense rain-

fall. Following this action, targeted communication

to policy- and decision-makers can then catalyse a

change in standards. Thus, urgent engineering work

can be started with the modification and adaptation

of standards to follow.

Engineering (maintenance, upgrading and

new infrastructure)

Planned engineering work will improve the robust-

ness of railway infrastructure against climate change.

Work will focus mainly on: new and upgraded drain-

age systems; stabilization and protection of tracks and

substructure; upgrading and protection of catenary and

signaling systems; and enhancement of special struc-

tures such as tunnels, bridges and dykes. Although

most upgrade activities focus on improving factors such

as line capacity and speed level, it should be possible to

improve resistance against climate loads simultaneously

– as long as the time to implementation is a long one

and the climate aspects are integrated at an early stage

of the planning process.

The greatest challenge – and at the same time the

greatest opportunity – of adapting railway infrastruc-

tures to climate change in the short and mid-term, is

in the area of maintenance activities. The most urgent

action to be taken is the general improvement and

reinforcement of existing maintenance standards. The

corresponding engineering standards do not require

adaptation at this time, as this would require a lengthy

and complicated process. Over the last three decades

the maintenance level in many companies, especially

in the areas of vegetation and water management, has

dropped significantly due to altered economic priori-

ties. This has led to a higher vulnerability with respect

to extreme weather events. The re-establishment of

• Engineering (maintenance, upgrading and new infrastructure)

• Company adaptation strategies and action programmes

• Networking and knowledge exchange.

Monitoring weather and infrastructure conditions

Monitoring weather and infrastructure conditions can be done using

a wide range of approaches from manual on-site monitoring and

forecasting approaches to highly sophisticated real-time measure-

ments utilising remote sensors and complex data processing. It is

important to consider what processes need to be followed to make

the products of such analysis genuinely useful to people. It is also

worth evaluating how the new equipment can be integrated with

any existing system.

Hazard and vulnerability mapping (locations and assets)

The objective of mapping is to identify the areas, locations and infra-

structure with the highest levels of vulnerability. This is usually

done by combining weather and climate data and scenarios with the

relevant infrastructure data. More advanced approaches tend to be

based on geographical information systems.

Vulnerability assessment should always include a careful and

detailed location check. When analysing, for example, impacts of

the UK summer floods it becomes obvious that 350 hospitals are

located on flood plains. Above a certain flood level rivers will always

flow into the floodplain, therefore, the vulnerability of these assets

can be considered as exceptionally high. Relocation of critical assets

like hospitals is, of course, not always feasible or cost efficient, but

in some very critical cases it can be the best way to avoid frequent

and large-scale damage. As such, it should be systematically checked

as a possible option.

Improved standards for new and existing infrastructure

Engineering standards govern all building and maintenance activ-

ity and, as such, define the weather and climate load resistance of

new and upgraded infrastructure. New standards for new infra-

structure are needed, but this will evolve naturally since climate

change aspects will be taken more and more into account in new

Unprecedented summer rainfall in 2007 caused havoc with British railways

Image: Network Rail