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Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research

Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research

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Peer-reviewed publication

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

Climate change (CC) will potentially have negative consequences for urban transportation infrastructure (UTI). It is important to improve our understanding of CC-associated loss and damage in relation to UTI. However, there is limited knowledge on how to practically assess loss and damage for UTI in the context of CC, and future-proof transportation planning. This study presents the results and experiences from the assessment of CC-related loss and damage to UTI in six cities of Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. It was found that the selected cities were highly vulnerable to CC given their location, exposure to sea level rise, storm surge, flooding, and salinity intrusion. Through analyses conducted using NK-GIAS software, economic losses for different flood scenarios were determined. The linkage between flooding and road damage was demonstrated, with maximum damage estimations under the most extreme flooding scenario of approximately 20 million USD for HoiAn, 3million USD for Kampot and 21million USD for Samut Sakhon, corresponding to water levels of 3.94 m, 4.7 m and 2.7 m respectively. Road damage was identified as a key impact related to CC. Further research is recommended to develop damage curves, addressing both flood depth and duration, to strengthen the NKGIAS analyses.