Adaptation of flood risk nfrastructure to climate resilience

This paper presents an adaptation process for flooding systems that can be applied whatever analytical method is used to account for climate change uncertainty. The process is aimed at providing flood risk infrastructure that is more resilient to climate change, where resilience is considered as the ability of the system as a whole to function as expected. It comprises five stages, which include the specification of a core and supporting strategy and the definition of a monitoring system to indicate whether performance is likely to be compromised. The core strategy gives the responses and potential adaptations for providing infrastructure that delivers an acceptable risk through time, maintaining expected performance. The supporting strategy addresses the internal and external changes that affect the performance of the core strategy. The monitoring system requires identification of indicators and thresholds for implementing adjustments to the infrastructure and the way it is utilised, and for reassessing the overall strategy. The added value of utilising the proposed adaptation process is illustrated as part of a ‘how-to’ guide for providing greater resilience in flood risk infrastructure.