The Effects of Climate Change on Mobility and Asset Management : NL-US Transportation Luncheon Symposium, January 11th 2024

Since 1998, the Royal Netherlands Embassy, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, Rijkswaterstaat (the Netherlands' national road and waterway administration), and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (U.S. DOT) Volpe National Transportation Systems Center have cooperated to exchange information, expertise, and innovative ideas. The Netherlands Embassy in Washington D.C. hosted the annual symposium in 2024. The 2024 symposium was focused on the Effects of Climate Change on Mobility and Asset Management.

As climate change intensifies, its impact on human mobility becomes progressively evident. Longer and more severe heat waves, sea-level rise, more frequent heavy precipitation, and extreme weather events are associated with a changing climate. These changes pose significant threats to transportation infrastructure and the human systems that rely on them. Extreme weather events may damage infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and transit systems, limiting mobility and access to critical services and necessities. Additionally, more gradual changes brought on by a changing climate, such as higher average temperatures, periodic flooding, or increased frequency and intensity of heavy precipitation may degrade infrastructure over time. For instance, flooding inundation weakens roads and damages soil qualities that support tunnels, highways, bridges, sidewalks, and railways. High temperatures can also cause damage to pavements and structures and accelerate the deterioration of transportation infrastructure.

These changes are already impacting transportation infrastructure around the world, with far reaching consequences. To support a resilient transportation system, planners and policymakers must incorporate threats from climate change in asset management and in planning multimodal transportation systems. This requires understanding transportation infrastructure and systems vulnerabilities as well as integrating adaptation considerations in transportation planning. Importantly, adaptations to increase climate resiliency must also support the decarbonization of transportation systems to slow, and eventually stop, climate change.