Table 3. Global impacts of severe... | Emerald Publishing

Table 3.

Global impacts of severe climate variations on underground infrastructure

Country/region	Phenomenon	Causes	Impacts	Examples
Arctic/sub-arctic	Permafrost thaw	Rising global temperatures	Settlement, deformation of underground tunnels and pipelines	Deformation of underground pipelines in Siberia due to thawing permafrost (Ivanov et al., 2024)
Europe (Netherlands)	Groundwater level shifts	Intense precipitation, drought	Instability of underground metro systems and seepage	Amsterdam metro experiencing foundation issues and seepage from groundwater shifts (Jiang and Tan, 2022)
China	Heavy rainfall	Increased storm intensity	Flooding in underground tunnels and drainage system failures	Zhengzhou metro flooding (2021): 14 passengers killed in a tunnel during a heavy storm (Mishra, 2019)
Japan/Norway	Freeze–thaw cycles	Temperature fluctuations	Cracking and water ingress in underground tunnels	Hokkaido rail tunnels suffering frost heaving and cracking (Mishra, 2019; Aursand, 2013)
USA (New York)	Urban flooding	Inadequate drainage systems and sea level rise	Submersion of subway systems, electrical equipment damage	New York subway system flooded during Hurricane Sandy (2012), $5 billion in damage (Cariolet et al., 2019)

Country/region	Phenomenon	Causes	Impacts	Examples
Arctic/sub-arctic	Permafrost thaw	Rising global temperatures	Settlement, deformation of underground tunnels and pipelines	Deformation of underground pipelines in Siberia due to thawing permafrost (Ivanov et al., 2024)
Europe (Netherlands)	Groundwater level shifts	Intense precipitation, drought	Instability of underground metro systems and seepage	Amsterdam metro experiencing foundation issues and seepage from groundwater shifts (Jiang and Tan, 2022)
China	Heavy rainfall	Increased storm intensity	Flooding in underground tunnels and drainage system failures	Zhengzhou metro flooding (2021): 14 passengers killed in a tunnel during a heavy storm (Mishra, 2019)
Japan/Norway	Freeze–thaw cycles	Temperature fluctuations	Cracking and water ingress in underground tunnels	Hokkaido rail tunnels suffering frost heaving and cracking (Mishra, 2019; Aursand, 2013)
USA (New York)	Urban flooding	Inadequate drainage systems and sea level rise	Submersion of subway systems, electrical equipment damage	New York subway system flooded during Hurricane Sandy (2012), $5 billion in damage (Cariolet et al., 2019)