Keywords
PIEVC Protocol, Risk Assessment, Climate Change, Town of Essex, Road Infrastructure
Abstract
Severe weather resulting from climate change conditions pose threats to infrastructure system’s functionality, performance, as well as public safety in Canada and around the world. Considering this, an increasing number of organisations and agencies that provide public services have recognized climate change adaptation as a top priority because of its importance in protecting the public interest. Severe weather events exacerbate demand on infrastructure and services that are already under stress. Infrastructure's age, material deterioration, flaws in design and construction, increased demand, as well as a lack of maintenance, extended service life beyond design or increased severity or frequency of weather events can lead the asset to failure in addition to the variables that diminish the capacity of the system.
Infrastructure vulnerability and risk assessments are the basis for ensuring that climate change is considered in the design process, operations, and maintenance of public infrastructure, buildings, and services. This allows infrastructure owners to design and implement cost-effective solutions for adapting to these changing weather patterns.
Public Infrastructure Engineering Vulnerability Committee (PIEVC) was formed by Engineers Canada and its partners in response to the climate change challenge. The protocol developed by PIEVC was implemented for assessing the vulnerability of road infrastructure for the Town of Essex, under future climatic conditions. Currently, there are no infrastructure components that are at high-risk and require immediate attention. However, there are 17 medium risk elements that require further analysis. Considering the future changes in temperature and precipitation patterns, there needs a change in the design and operation and maintenance standards.
Primary Advisor
T. Bolisetti
Program Reader
R. Ruparathna
Degree Name
Master of Applied Science
Department
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Document Type
Major Research Paper
Convocation Year
2021