Impacts of Climate Change on Asset Deterioration

The study presented in this paper was established to increasing understanding of how climate change factors may alter the vulnerability to deterioration of our flood and coastal defence assets. This has included identifying how different asset types will be vulnerable in terms of deterioration as a result of climate change, and the nature of that vulnerability; as well as providing some indication of the potential implications for those asset types in terms of maintenance or repair and refurbishment.

Deterioration processes have been defined for a wide range of asset types and concentrated upon how certain changes in climate, such as increased sea levels, waves or storm surges, may affect the process of asset deterioration for each type of asset. Assessments for each type of structure have then been developed in the context of these specific climate change factors and provide a core building block in assessing the potential vulnerability of those structures from climate change. These identify the key elements and deterioration processes likely to be affected by climate change, and the factors that create that change in vulnerability.

As the work presented in this paper is now all published and freely available, this paper does not attempt to convey all details from the study, but instead is focussed on specific technical aspects.