EEA Expert Workshop - Transport Sector Adaptation 23/05/2013 1
Expert Workshop Adaptation in the transport sector in EEA member states23rd of May 2013
Markus Leitner
Transport sector in the EU Adaptation Strategy
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Outline
I. Background
II. Adaptation Strategy – State of Play
III. Transport in the Adaptation Strategy
IV. Further Needs
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Project to support EU strategy
Preparation of the EU Adaptation Strategy was supported from December 2011 till February 2013 by the project contract “Support to the development of the EU strategy for adaptation to climate change” – EU AdaptStrat (CLIMA.C.3/SER/2011/0026)
Project team:- Environment Agency Austria (EAA): Project Lead - Fresh Thoughts Consulting (FT): Project Co-Lead - AEA Technology plc (AEA)- FEEM Servizi Srl (FEEM) - Alterra
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EU Adaptation Strategy
Adopted on April 16th 2013 - Comprises the following objectives:
I. Promoting Action by MS - support & facilitate collaboration, knowledge exchange & best practices, etc. between MS, regions, cities and other stakeholders
II. Climate-proofing action at EU-level - Mainstreaming adaptation into policies, strategies and programmes
III. Enhancing the knowledgebase & widening information access – Climate-ADAPT
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EU action for adaptation in theTransport sector?
Transport sector: Europe`s transport infrastructure impact on the well functioning of
the European internal market transport infrastructure networks are often trans-boundary and
therefore, coordination efforts for adaptation are required is characterized by long investment cycles and thus it should be
conceived to increase resilience to the current and future adverse impacts of climate change
The specific aspects of interest: focus on transport infrastructure, operation and partly on
equipment four transport modes will be taken into account: rail, road, shipping
(inland and ocean shipping, including ports) and aviation (airports) + specific issues on urban transport
assess state of knowledge regarding climate impacts on transport sector as well as possible entry points into EU policies, strategies and programmes to foster mainstreaming (construction, transport and energy sector)
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Main adverse effects of climatechange for transport
Main adverse effects: increase of summer heat, especially in Southern Europe cold extremes will become rarer, with a substantial decrease
in the north change in precipitation patterns (magnitude and frequency)
- e.g. decreasing snow events; however, extreme snowfall events are expected to become more frequent in some regions
increase of extreme weather events decline in the probability of frost days and cold spell for wind extremes, changes are fairly uncertain, with
discrepancies among the climate models
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Main impacts from climatic change onspecific transport modes
Roads:leading to higher risk of impacts on road pavement and
instability of fundament as well as reduced life of asphalt road surfaces, drainage problems, etc. Railways:
leading to higher risk of track buckling, drainage problems, damage to the infrastructure (storms, floods), blocking or delay due to increasing amounts of snow, damage to power lines and control and signaling systems, etc. Shipping:
leading to higher risk of suspension of navigation, damage to the inland waterway infrastructure, reduced discharge and low water might decrease load factors and increasing costs, etc. Aviation:
leading to higher risk of damage to infrastructure, but positive aspects might occur such as increasing need of de-icing, etc.
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Transport in the Adaptation Strategy
Impacts of extreme weather events affect transport sector already today
in the past, precipitation in its various forms caused the most damage to transport
costs of past weather events on the transport sector amount to 2.5 billion Euro yearly (average year 2000 to 2010) (Enei et al. 2011)
- highest damage costs are found for road infrastructure (roughly 1.8 billion Euro annually)
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(Leviakangas et al., 2011)
Overview on critical weather phenomena, their occurrence by region with the most affected modes of transport(EWENT project)
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Change in average costs due to weather extremes by 2010-2050
Source: PESETA-Human health study, Watkiss et al, 2009
(Fraunhofer ISI, in Trinks et al. 2012)
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Identified knowledge gaps
Climate change adaptation and aviation needs to be further assessed in detail
Aggregated cost to transport systems from CC covering all impacts and all Europe
Costing of adaptation options, e.g. retrofitting railway bridges, usage of more heat resistant rail material, changes in stress free temperature standards for rails, retrofitting train air conditioning systems, climate-proofing of road bridges, etc.
More technical knowledge is particularly necessary to be able to suggest concrete amendments in standards and regulation
Mapping of relevant standards at European, national and business level
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Relevant research project might help to close some of the knowledge gaps
EWENT: Extreme weather events on EU networks of transport (2010-2012; FP7)
WEATHER: Weather Extremes – Impacts on Transport Systems and Hazards for European Regions (2010-2012; FP7)
ECCONET: Effects of climate change on the inland waterway networks (2010-2012; FP7)
PARAmount: imProved Accessibility: Reliability and security of Alpine transport infrastructure related to mountainous hazards in a changing climate (2007-2013; Alpine Space Programme)
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Contact:
Markus Leitner
Environmental Impact Assessment and Climate Change
T: +43-(0)1-313 04/[email protected]
Andrea Prutsch
T: +43-(0)1-313 04/[email protected]
Thank you!!!