Weather Extremes: Impacts on Transport Systems and Hazards for European Regions (WEATHER)
Description:
The WEATHER project approaches the topic of present and future impacts of extreme weather events on the transport system from an economic perspective. It quantifies in monetary terms the costs and benefits of different abatement measures and of alterative emergency strategies.
The project core objective is to "determine the physical impacts and the economic costs of climate change on transport systems and identify the costs and benefits of suitable adaptation and emergency management strategies".
The project provides some insight on the expected changes in climate in Europe in the next 40 years, and the increase of extreme weather events. The predicted change in average costs due to weather extremes in the next 40 years point to regions, where transport systems are affected above average by extreme weather events, in particular France, Middle Europe and the Alpine region as well as at the probably most affected modes of transport, in particular rail transport. These regional and modal core areas must be focused on future climate change adaptation policies.
The need for expensive investments in transport infrastructures can be limited or at least postponed by good maintenance practices, which are sensitive to the impacts of changing climate and weather conditions. With adapted maintenance routines, most infrastructure measures should be possible within standard renewal cycles of the assets, and thus will cause zero or only moderate additional costs.
Project information
Lead
Fraunhofer-Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI)
Partners
Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Helenic Institute for Transportation (CERTH-HIT)
http://www.hit.certh.gr/
Société de Mathématiques Appliquées et de Sciences Humaines - International research Center on Environment and Development (SMASH-CIRED)
www.centre-cired.fr
Center for Disaster Management, Institute for Industrial Production at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, University Section (KIT-U)
www.cedim.de
www.iip.kit.edu
Institute of Studies for the Integration of Systems (ISIS)
Herry Consult GmbH
www.herry.at
Agenzia regionale per la Prevenzione e l'Am-biente dell'Emilia Romagna (ARPA-ER)
www.arpa.emr.it
NEA Transport research and training
www.nea.nl
Source of funding
European Commission FP7
Published in Climate-ADAPT Jul 18 2016 - Last Modified in Climate-ADAPT Dec 12 2023