Resilience in the Transport Sector

Overview/Impact and importance of Resilience in transport sector

Globally the number of natural disasters, i.e. climate related disasters such as flooding, drought, storms/cyclone and extreme temperature changes are increasing worldwide, particularly in the last few years.

Within the period from 2000-2012, climate related disasters* had a serious impact on the world. In total they have caused

• US$ 1.7 trillion of damage
• 2.9 billion people have been directly affected
• 1.2 million people have been killed

• Within this section we will be considering a wide range of natural disasters but will be primarily focusing on natural disasters associated with climate change.

It has been forecasted that if the trend continuous damages could reach up to 20% of the entire global GDP at the end of the century.

Over the period of the last 10 years, of the 10 deadliest disasters that have occurred worldwide, 7 have occurred within counties of Asia. In the graph below, the countries in red experienced more than 119 natural disasters. A closer look reveals that most of these countries lie in the Asian region.

File:Asian two.png

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Urbanization exacerbates the damages that natural disasters causes, thus necessitating the need for communities to become resilient.

Resilience is defined as the ability of an individual, household, community, a country or a region to withstand, adapt and quickly recover from stresses and shocks caused by natural disasters.

An important strategy to increase overall resilience is to improve the resilience of the transport system. Under normal conditions, it provides capable mobility options for moving passengers as well as goods. However under emergency or evacuation situations the significance of a system’s utility and value as a support role become more apparent. The same holds true for the system’s ability to support post-disaster recovery and supply efforts.Transport systems allow movements away from adverse conditions (i.e. removing things or people away from the destruction or damage being caused) or towards areas of greater need (i.e. provide resources to help with recovery work). In addition, the longer a transport system remains disrupted during and after a shock, the more severe economic losses will be for community/region. Climate changes taking place, in form of more natural disasters occurring, have the ability of severely disrupting transport services and/or damaging the infrastructure thus limiting mobility or putting it to a standstill in time of dire need.

Thus an efficient transportation system can play an important role towards making the community resilient. The limited funds that are available for supporting transport infrastructure need to be used in an efficient and just manner in order to make the communities’ mobility resilient. This can be done by designing, developing and maintaining transport infrastructure that is able to meet the existing and future climate change conditions.

The following tables provide information on resources and projects on resilience in a transport sector, with a focus on adaptation to climate change. Please also have a look at the article Adapting Urban Transport to Climate Change (https://energypedia.info/wiki/Adapting_Urban_Transport_to_Climate_Change) which provides more in-depth information.

Projects and Resources in field of Resilience and Transport

Implementation Projects

Title	Country/region	Thematic area / keywords	Description	Links
Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment Pilots	USA	Climate Change, Risk on Transport	This project funded by DOTs and MPOs aims to conduct a pilot Conceptual Model to use in conducting vulnerability and risk assessments of infrastructure to the projected impacts of global climate change (GCC). The purpose of the pilots was twofolds; 1) to assist State DOTs and MPOs to quickly advance existing adaptation assessment activities and 2) to assist FHWA in "test-driving" the model.Based on the feedback received through the pilots, FHWA will revise and finalize the model for national application.	Read More
Bangladesh: Coastal Climate Resilient Infrastructure Project (CCRIP)	Bangladesh	Climate Change, Infrastructure, Road maintenance	The goal of CCRIP is to achieve improved livelihoods, in the form of higher incomes and food security, for poor households in the selected Upazilas. The project development objective is to achieve enhanced climate resilience of coastal road and market infrastructure and people in the project area.	Read More
Transport Sector Development Project	Solomon Islands	Road maintenance, Transport Infrastructure	The project is aimed towards improving access to socioeconomic opportunities by rehabilitating and maintaining land, sea, and air transport infrastructure. Solomon Islands has been offered significant parallel grant co-financing from the governments of Australia and New Zealand but has insufficient capacity to plan and implement the necessary civil works. The project will therefore strengthen transport sector institutions by establishing a central project implementation unit (CPIU) to reform the government's institutional structure, implement civil works, and conduct technical and managerial capacity development	Read more
Resilient Transportation Systems in a Post-Disaster Environment: A Case Study of Opportunities Realized and Missed in the Greater New Orleans Region, 2010	USA	Climate Change, Transport	This project uses the New Orleans Region as a case study to assess transportation resiliency both pre and post- Katrina, the devastating storm of 2005. Using the Katrina experience as a point of reference, the project aims to understand how the New Orleans region progressed in terms of transportation resiliency. Pre–event planning and post-event recovery highlighted the importance of a transportation system’s ability to withstand the stresses associated with a catastrophe of this magnitude. In order to review the system as a whole, the study focused on pre-storm transportation and policy composition, the failures that resulted from the event, and what policy changes have strengthened the post-storm transportation system. “Lessons learned” and key policies in both the public and private sector post-disaster are highlighted. Inputs from planning and government officials were also used to identify policy and procedural changes that affected both evacuation and disaster response.	Read More
Climate Resilience in Cities in the Greater Mekong Sub-region	Vietnam, Cambodia, Lao PDR	Climate change adaptation planning, Climate change impact and vulnerability assessments, Climate change modeling, Community engagement, GIS and spatial analysis, Mainstreaming environment and climate change	This ADB project is designed to assist Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) cities to increase their understanding of climate change impacts and adaptation, to promote ‘climate resilient’ development. ICEM will conduct a climate change threat and vulnerability assessment in the towns of Battambang (Cambodia), Dong Ha (Vietnam), and Kaysone Phomvihane (Lao PDR), focussing on critical infrastructure. Through knowledge-sharing events and policy dialogues on climate change risks and adaptation, participating towns will learn about climate change impacts on critical infrastructure and the tools and processes necessary to adapt to climate change, tailored to their unique circumstances. The information and lessons learnt will be synthesized into a handbook, outlining good adaptation practices from the region and internationally.	Read More

Concluding remarks / Summary

As illustrated through the work undertaken under various streams mentioned above, it is clear that at present our transportation systems are fragile. On the other hand, the transport sector plays a vital role in achieving economic growth of a country. Thus to ensure unhindered economic progress, it is increasingly becoming urgent to safeguard the transportation systems against the after math of natural disasters whose frequency of occurring is increasing at an alarming rate. To design such a resilient transportation system will require a robust regulatory reforms from the governments. Hence transportation sector should be considered as a key mitigating enabler towards making communities more resilient towards the climate change.