Infrastructure protectionNew materials, designs needed to fortify infrastructure against extreme weather
As cities prepare for the effects of climate change, higher temperatures for longer periods of time and a dramatic change in humidity and rainfall pose the highest risk to public infrastructure, scientists say. Buildings, roads, and bridges which were built for one set of climate conditions will have to function in another. Researchers say that analysis of changing conditions in Alaska, for example, shows that in thirty or forty years the state would have to rebuild roads every eighteen months unless new designs and materials were adopted.
As cities prepare for the effects of climate change, higher temperatures for longer periods of time and a dramatic change in humidity and rainfall pose the highest risk to public infrastructure, says Paul Chinowsky, co-director of the Institute of Climate and Civil Systems and the Mortenson Professor of Sustainable Development in the University of Colorado’s (CU) Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering. Buildings, roads, and bridges which were built for one set of climate conditions will have to function in another.
“Road surfaces get weaker in heat,” Chinowsky said. “Asphalt gets softer. As trucks and cars pass, you get a lot more potholes, more cracking. It won’t be a one-time event but a constant thing. That’s the part we don’t talk about, but that’s the part that’s going to have a huge economic impact.”
Daily Camera reports that over the last decade, Chinowsky has developed modeling tools to predict the effects of projected weather changes on infrastructure. Recommendations are then offered to property owners and governments to encourage implementation of building materials and systems designs which are more likely to withstand future climate conditions.
Chinowsky and his students in the Climate and Civil Systems Lab at CU developed their first model for Alaska when the state was performing an analysis of the impact of climate change on Alaska’s infrastructure. That analysis showed the state would have to rebuild roads every eighteen months in thirty or forty years unless new designs and materials were adopted. Soon after, the World Bank sought Chinowsky’s advice as the organization pledged $30 billion over a twenty-five year period to develop road infrastructure in Africa. “That’s a huge investment of member country money,” Chinowsky said. “They want to make sure that investment is viable and doesn’t have to be rebuilt right away.”
Chinowsky insists that the technology to foresee future infrastructure problems is readily available for cities and their governments. “I think a lot of people think we need to innovate our way out of this, and the reality is that we know what to do now and we can predict it now,” he said. The United States has an opportunity to rebuild much of the country’s infrastructure, similar to the development projects that occurred after the Second World War. “This is almost a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Chinowsky said. “If we miss this opportunity for another 50 years, the rest of the world is going to look at us and wonder why we didn’t think weather and climate and sustainability were important.”
