Climate, resilient infrastructure to cope with extreme events

In mid-September, the rain of an entire year fell on Central Europe in five days. Cyclone Boris swept across half the continent, from Poland to Emilia Romagna, passing through the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania, all of which were flooded by floods that swept over bridges, broke through two dams and ripped up kilometres of track, causing transport to come to a standstill, particularly at the important railway hub of St. Pölten, near Vienna. The effects of the floods will be felt for months to come, especially on freight transport, for which Austria is a central hub for the whole of Europe.

With the climate crisis, extreme events are becoming the norm. In Italy, too, we are touching this extreme with our own hands: according to Legambiente's Climate City Observatory, in 2023 floods and river overflows increased by 170 per cent compared to the year before, landslides from heavy rain by 64 per cent, hailstorm damage by 34.5 per cent, and flooding by 12.4 per cent. With the tragic recurrence of hurricanes, floods, extreme heat and forest fires, the risks to infrastructure change. Infrastructure not only has to withstand climate impacts, but also be able to recover quickly after disruptions.

Climate resilient infrastructure is infrastructure that is planned, designed, built and managed with this new unpredictability in mind. It is necessary to 'transform emergency response into preventive action', recommends a recent study by Ref Ricerche, entitled 'From climate risk to infrastructure: how to build climate-proof resilience' and signed by its director Donato Berardi together with Roberto Bianchini, Michele Tettamanzi and Samir Traini. It is a matter of 'studying emergencies to identify the weakest links in the infrastructure system, using a framework of measurements and wide-ranging actions to identify adaptation responses, as codified by OECD, Ipcc and the European Commission: we need to start from here', suggest the authors.

Understanding where funds are allocated makes it possible to identify the areas of greatest fragility, with specific reference to infrastructure, but the funds allocated for emergencies are only the tip of the iceberg. Quite different is the size of the investments to be foreseen for a resilience strategy. "To meet climate and development goals by 2030, an annual investment of $6.9 trillion is needed in sustainable infrastructure globally," estimates the OECD report 'Infrastructure for a Climate-Resilient Future'. On the other hand, investing in climate-resilient infrastructure pays off. According to the World Bank, every dollar invested in resilience generates a return of $4, avoiding the need to rebuild. MIT research found that investments in climate resilient construction pay for themselves within two years in avoided damage costs. Yet resilience investments are difficult to initiate because the advantage is that nothing happens. Governments, says the OECD, must encourage investment in climate resilience through tax incentives and guarantees for green financing.

The long-term vision is to provide designers, engineers, planners, hydrologists and property owners with a clear framework of data to reliably assess risks and improve the resilience of future projects.