International Seminar: Climate Change Adaptation And Resilience Of Road Networks (In Low And Middle Income Countries)

Climate change impacts and all-hazard events are causing more frequent and severe damage to road infrastructure and operations. The seminar will share ways road and transportation agencies around the world are making transportation infrastructure more resilient to climate change. The goal is to exchange information between countries, with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa.

Time

14:00 - 17:00 EAT

Topics

• Infrastructure Risk, Vulnerability and Resilience.
• Impact of Climate Change, All-Hazards and Environmental Threats on Road Infrastructure and operations.
• Adaptation Frameworks, Strategies, Methodologies and Tools (including refinements to the PIARC International Climate Change Adaptation Framework).
• Building Capacity for Adaptation Economic, Social and Environmental aspects of Resilience.
• Impacts of COVID-19 on Resilience.

The World Road Association

The World Road Association (PIARC) was founded in 1909 as a non-profit, non-political Association. PIARC’s goal is to organise the exchange of knowledge on all matters related to roads and road transport and is made up members from governments, as well as regions, groups/companies and individuals. It is the first global forum for the exchange of knowledge, policy and practice on roads and road transport.

The work of the Association is conducted over a four year cycle (2020-2023) and involves Technical Committees and Task Forces which operate under four strategic themes according to the PIARC Strategic Plan PIARC Strategic Plan.

The PIARC Technical Committee

PIARC Technical Committee 1.4 Climate Change and Resilience of Road Networks forms a Technical Committee within PIARC Strategic Theme 1: Road Administration. It is comprised of two Working Groups and an internal Case Study Task Force that were established to develop two issues:

• Issue 1.4.1: Uniform And Holistic Methodological Approaches To Climate Change And Other Hazards.
• Issue 1.4.2: Update Of The PIARC International Climate Change Adaptation Framework For Road Infrastructure.

Issue 1.4.1 aims to cover “Uniform and holistic methodological approaches to climate change and other hazards”. This includes the concepts of all hazards and threats and a holistic approach to resilience where wider impacts beyond assets across the whole network are considered for all-hazards as well as climate change. Within this issue, there is consideration of resilient approaches such as risk management approaches, decision-making and uncertainties/deep uncertainties, as well as economic, social and environmental aspects of resilience management such as the identification of socio-economic impacts of hazards on roads, identification of decision areas that need enhanced socio-economic information, and on the key users of such information, and identification of economic and other evaluation measures to increase resilience. Consideration will also be given to the implementation of resilience into asset management practices. The aim of this task is to explore the effectiveness of a possible PIARC all-hazard framework for resilient road networks. It is intended that the work of this Working Group will pave the way towards establishing an all-hazard resilient Framework in the future.

Issue 1.4.2 covers an update of the PIARC International Framework for the Adaptation of Road Infrastructure to Climate Change (detailed below).

The Internal Case Study Task Force has the role of assisting the Working Groups in identifying all relevant literature sources from countries worldwide, and to support the development of the Reports for each issue.