Road Adaptation to Climate Hazards: Guidelines for Cost-Effective Measures

Climate change and extreme weather events present a significant challenge to the safety, reliability, effectiveness and sustainability of every transportation system. Extreme weather events such as tsunami waves, wildfires, floods and hurricanes constitute a big risk for the integrity of the road transport system, since they can severely harm the infrastructure and its assets. Far more disastrous is the eventual direct impact on passengers, vehicles and goods, suddenly and unforeseeably hit by the weather event while moving on the roadway. In the field of road adaptation to climate threats, different scientific approaches have been developed but they have not produced, so far, the expected results, as the road transport sector still suffers from extreme climate hazards. The present scientific paper investigates the reasons for this failure and suggests a different perspective for realistic and cost-effective measures of proactive character to reinforce the road infrastructure and to increase its resilience to climate threats. It makes distinction between preventive and protective measures, including intercepting engineering assets and digital alarm systems. Moreover, the scientific paper introduces several key-points, in terms of fundamental recommendations of a different perspective of the climate change impact on the road infrastructure. In this regard, it may constitute a useful tool for transport authorities and operators to rationally plan interventions on a road network scale.