Abstract
AbstractWeather phenomena can result in severe impacts on railway infrastructure. In future, projected changes to the frequency and/or intensity of extreme weather events could change weather–infrastructure risk profiles. Infrastructure owners and operators need to manage current weather impacts and put in place adequate plans to anticipate and adapt to changes in future weather risks, or mitigate the impacts arising from those risks. The assessment of the risk posed to railway infrastructure from current and future weather is dependent on a good understanding of the constituent components of risk: hazard, vulnerability, and exposure. A good understanding of the baseline and projected future risk is needed in order to understand the potential benefits of various climate change adaptation actions. Traditional risk assessment methods need some modification in order to be applied to climate change timescales, for which decisions need to be made under deep uncertainty. This review paper highlights some key challenges for assessing the risk, including: managing uncertainties; understanding weather‐impact relationships and how they could change with climate change; assessing the costs of current and future weather impacts and the potential cost versus benefit of adaptation; and understanding practices and tools for adapting railway infrastructure. The literature reveals examples of progress and good practice in all these areas, providing scope for effective knowledge‐sharing—across the railway infrastructure and other sectors—in support of infrastructure resilience and adaptation.This article is categorized under: Assessing Impacts of Climate Change > Evaluating Future Impacts of Climate Change
Highlights
Railways represent a significant global asset, with more than 228,000 km of rail lines in the EU alone (EUROSTAT, 2016)
This review paper highlights some key challenges for assessing the risk, including: managing uncertainties; understanding weather-impact relationships and how they could change with climate change; assessing the costs of current and future weather impacts and the potential cost versus benefit of adaptation; and understanding practices and tools for adapting railway infrastructure
Vulnerability and exposure information are slowly developing as the recording of weather impacts gradually improves, the information captured in asset databases becomes more detailed, and the length of records increases, leading to a better understanding of what exactly happens following severe weather; the effects on both railway infrastructure and interdependent systems; and how any issues are remediated
Summary
Railways represent a significant global asset, with more than 228,000 km of rail lines in the EU alone (EUROSTAT, 2016). Delays following an event are an example of indirect consequences, which are country- and even route-specific, because factors such as existing alternative routes, increased network congestion, or the provision of alternative transport (via another transport mode) may need to be quantified in understanding the true extent of the influence of infrastructure failure Such quantification may or may not be monetized (Arup TRaCCA Phase 2 Consortium, 2016b). It is important to understand how climate change could affect the weather hazards already known to impact railway infrastructure. In the midlatitudes, moderately extreme rainfall over a large area can arise from the passage of synoptic-scale low-pressure systems, which may be captured adequately by lower-resolution models; localized, extremely heavy rainfall can arise from small-scale convective storms, which can only be resolved explicitly by higher-resolution models (Kendon et al, 2019)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
