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Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research

Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research

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Project • CAF2014-RR09-NMY-Huong, CAF2015-RR09-CMY-Huong

Climate change risk assessment and adaptation for loss and damage of urban transportation infrastructure (UTI) in Southeast Asia (SEA)

Climate change will potentially have negative impacts on urban transportation insfrastructure (UTI) in Southeast Asia. Therefore, improved understanding of climate change loss and damage, as well as the linkages between hazards, vulnerabilities, adaptive capacity, is critical. However, there is a shortage of practical methods for estimating loss and damage in the context of climate change and urbanization and particularly for UTI. Management of UTI is a complex issue and there is limited knowledge of how to incorporate appropriate adaptation measures and strategies into urban transport planning at the city level. This research presents results and experiences of rapid assessment that were conducted in six cities located in three countries including Viet Nam, Cambodia and Thailand, for current climate change loss and damage of UTI. One pilot city from each country was selected for assessment by applying NK-GIAS to determine loss and damage for urban roads. The Rapid Vulnerability Assessment (RVA) results showed that the six selected cities are highly vulnerable to climate change due to their geographic location, sea level rise, storm surge, flood and salinity intrusion. Climate change threats to UTI are especially related to road damage. It was interestingly found that through application of NK-GIAS, economic losses for each flood scenario were determined, showing how increasing flood depth increased damage costs in each city. Further studies are recommended to develop appropriate damage curves through laboratory analysis, addressing both flood depth and duration, to strengthen NK-GIAS analyses.