Toward indicators of the performance of US Infrastructures under climate change risks

Clim Change. 2020 Nov 25:163:1795-1813. doi: 10.1007/s10584-020-02942-9.

Abstract

Built infrastructures are increasingly disrupted by climate-related extreme events. Being able to monitor what climate change implies for US infrastructures is of considerable importance to all levels of decision-makers. A capacity to develop cross-cutting, widely applicable indicators for more than a dozen different kinds of infrastructure, however, is severely limited at present. The development of such indicators must be considered an ongoing activity that will require expansion and refinement. A number of recent consensus reports suggest four priorities for indicators that portray the impacts of climate change, climate-related extreme events, and other driving forces on infrastructure. These are changes in the reliability of infrastructure services and the implications for costs; changes in the resilience of infrastructures to climate and other stresses; impacts due to the interdependencies of infrastructures; and ongoing adaptation in infrastructures.

Keywords: Adaptation; Climate change; Indicators; Interdependencies; Reliability; Resilience; US infrastructures.