Climate change risks and climate adaptation engineering for built infrastructure

A changing climate may result in more intense tropical cyclones and storms, more intense rain events and flooding, and other natural hazards. Moreover, increases in CO2 atmospheric concentrations, and changes in temperature and humidity, may reduce the durability of concrete, steel and timber structures. There is increasing research that takes into account the changing climate risks and life-cycle costs in engineering to reduce the vulnerability or increase the resiliency of infrastructure - we define this as 'climate adaptation engineering'. The paper will describe how risk-based approaches are well suited to optimising climate adaptation strategies related to the construction, design, operation and maintenance of built infrastructure. Stochastic methods are used to model infrastructure performance, risk reduction and effectiveness of adaptation strategies, exposure, and costs. These concepts will be illustrated with state-of-the-art research on risk-based life-cycle assessment of climate adaptation strategies. Uncertainties of climate projections are also discussed. This will pave the way for more efficient and resilient infrastructure, and help 'future proof' new and existing infrastructure to a changing climate.