A review of emerging strategies for incorporating climate change considerations into infrastructure planning, design, and decision making

Abstract

Climate change is affecting infrastructure in complex and uncertain ways. Traditional load factors, safety factors, and design standards appear misaligned with current and anticipated future conditions. Thus, adapting infrastructure for a changing climate will likely necessitate balancing trade-offs between new and old design paradigms. This literature review summarizes advances in the implementation and research of resilient infrastructure within the context of climate change. We identified three categories of adaptation strategies: (1) assessments and frameworks to incorporate climate data and risks into infrastructure design and planning, (2) modelling of decision making under uncertainty and policy analysis, and (3) examples of best practices, case studies, and workarounds to enhance resilience. This work highlights advances in infrastructure decision making under uncertainty and ways to instill resilience into infrastructure systems. It is expected to help form a knowledge basis for transitioning to infrastructure planning, design, and implementation that is congruous with a changing world.