Infrastructure, Engineering and Climate Change Adaptation

Infrastructure, Engineering and Climate Change Adaptation – ensuring services in an uncertain future, 2011. The Royal Academy of Engineering, London, UK This study was an activity of the Engineering the Future partnership, carried out on behalf of Defra by The Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institution of Engineering and Technology, the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Institution of Chemical Engineers. The conclusions of the study will feed into the Defra led cross-Government Infrastructure and Adaptation project. The study was carried out from the perspective of the engineering profession and the engineering response to the demands of climate change adaptation. Engineers will be central to the process of adaptation, both ensuring that current infrastructure assets are protected from the long term and acute effects of climate change, and developing new infrastructure systems fit for changing climate conditions. Investing in engineering efforts to protect infrastructure is essential both to minimise risks to infrastructure, and thereby the public and the economy, due to climate change; and to maximise opportunities for the profession and the economy in developing cost-effective and marketable solutions to adaptation needs.