Climate change is causing irreversible damage to communities, the economy and the environment, and it is imperative that strong and sustained action is taken to limit its future impacts. Extreme weather events are projected to become more frequent and intense, increasing the vulnerability of transport network assets and the communities they serve. Climate change impacts the ability of transport networks to provide lifeline infrastructure services that are crucial to the distribution and continuous flow of goods and services essential for human livelihoods, the functioning of society and economic prosperity.
Asset management is key to planning, evaluation, operation, maintenance, upgrade and expansion of the transport network throughout its lifecycle, and Austroads member agencies are responsible for the management of network assets across Australia and New Zealand. Effective and responsible asset management practices balance performance, cost and risk over time to ensure that transport network needs are met while maximising the return on investment and providing the required levels of service. Asset managers have a crucial role to play in building the resilience of their assets and networks by integrating climate resilience into asset management systems and processes, addressing the physical risks of climate change across the lifecycle of the asset from planning through to reuse or disposal.
Our report provides practical guidance and user cases for asset managers within the transport sector to embed consideration of climate resilience into asset management. Key issues were identified covering asset management systems and processes, the asset lifecycle, criticality and vulnerability assessments, valuation of climate resilience measures and asset information management. For each of these issues, recommendations have been provided for asset managers to adopt to improve their processes and achieve their asset management objectives.