Climate change risk and vulnerability assessment on the local roads

Abstract

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges we face right now. Although the factor of climate change was not considered when designing roads in the Republic of Serbia, in foreign practice, the assessment of the climate resilience of road infrastructure is an integral part of the road design process. The international community, already with the first appearance of the problem and following the forecasts of their intensification in the future, recognized the need to adapt to the effects of climate change. One of the recommended tools is the "Climate Change Risk and Vulnerability Assessment", which serves to identify the climatic risks of a certain area with the intention of developing appropriate measures to mitigate the impact of climate change and to improve infrastructure projects. The document provides an overview of the assessment methodology risks and vulnerabilities from climate change in accordance with this methodology, as well as examples of good practice that were applied on selected local roads in the Republic of Serbia, bearing in mind that the practice showed a significantly greater vulnerability of these roads compared to those of higher level.