Impact of extreme weather assessed on transport, energy

Researchers in Ireland have received funding to examine the impacts of extreme weather events on EU transport and energy infrastructure.

The FP7 ‘Risk Analysis of Infrastructure Networks for Extreme Weather Events’ (RAIN) project has received €4.77m of funding from the European Commission to develop a systematic risk management framework which explicitly considers the impacts of extreme weather events on critical infrastructure. The project will develop a series of mitigation tools to enhance the security of the pan-European infrastructure network and will quantify the complex interactions between weather events and land-based infrastructure systems.

Dr Alan O’Connor, project leader and associate professor in civil structural and environmental engineering at Trinity College Dublin, said: “The outputs of RAIN will aid decision-making in the long term, securing new robust infrastructure development and protection of existing infrastructure against changing climates and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns.”

Technical and logistic solutions will be developed to minimise the impact of extreme weather events, such as droughts, rain-induced landslides, floods, winter storms, wildfires and hurricanes. Early-warning systems, decision-support tools and engineering solutions will be devised to ensure rapid reinstatement of the infrastructure network. These tools will be implemented within a novel, Europe-wide operational and response strategy that will emerge from this research. Partners from across Europe will be involved in the project.