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

In Southeast Asia, climate change will potentially have negative consequences for urban transportation infrastructure (UTI). It is necessary to improve the understanding of climate change-associated loss and damage in relation to UTI to ensure the sustainability of existing transportation assets and for prioritizing future investments. However, there is currently limited knowledge on how to practically assess loss and damage for UTI in the context of climate change and then to incorporate appropriate adaptation measures and strategies to future-proof transportation planning. This study presents the results and experiences from assessing climate change-related loss and damage to UTI in six cities of Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. One pilot city from each country was selected for assessment by applying NK-GIAS software to determine loss and damage for urban roads. It was found that the six selected cities were highly vulnerable to climate change given their location and 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 Hoi An, 3 million USD for Kampot and 21 million USD for Samut Sakhon, corresponding to water levels of 3.4 m, 4.0 m and 2.7 m respectively. Damage to the road network was identified as a key impact related to climate change. Further research is recommended to develop appropriate damage curves through laboratory analysis, addressing both flood depth and duration, to strengthen the NK-GIAS analyses undertaken in this study.