Climate Change is anticipated to have a significant impact on the design, construction, maintenance and operation of global road infrastructure. The IPCC Climate change projections indicate that the earth will become warmer, some regions will become wetter and some will become drier, sea levels will rise and storm surge height will increase, snow cover and extent of sea ice will reduce, and the frequency and severity of extreme weather events will increase. This in turn will result in significant global and regional challenges related to climate change in both the short and long-term.

The PIARC International Climate Change Adaptation Framework for Road Infrastructure, published in 2015, guides road authorities through the process of increasing the resilience to climate change of their networks and assets. It takes users through four stages: Identifying scope, variables, risks and data (Stage 1); Assessing and prioritising risks (Stage 2); Developing and selecting adaptation responses and strategies (Stage 3); Integrating findings into decision-making processes (Stage 4).

A reason for wanting to broaden the applicability of the Framework is the fact that some countries already apply a methodology for risk assessment, which is different from the one incorporated in this Framework. Some adjustments are, therefore, proposed so that countries can benefit from the structure of the Framework and combine it with their own established methodologies for risk assessment.

This Report provides the methodological detail supporting each stage of the refined PIARC International Climate Change Adaptation Framework for Road Infrastructure, by referring to state-of-the-art case studies examples. It is based on 59 collected and classified case studies that were analysed and classified.