Over the next decades, the effects of climate change will likely exert considerable pressure on the transport infrastructure of Central Asia. In response, policymakers and the engineering community need to implement resilient yet sustainable designs and construction solutions.
Manual for Climate Change Adaptation Measures for Transport Infrastructure in Central Asia, developed by the Asian Development Bank, provides overview of climate-driven stressors relevant to transport infrastructure in Central Asia and explores adaptation strategies.
The Central Asian region, which includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, is already feeling the growing impacts of climate change. The region can expect to face climate stressors including temperature rises, extreme weather events, and increasing glacial melt, alongside the continued expansion of deserts and arid areas.
The manual shows how Central Asia’s core transport infrastructure is expected to be impacted by the intensifying droughts, extreme rain events, glacial melt, and desertification predicted by climate change models.
In this manual, transport infrastructure refers to essential components such as asphalt and concrete pavement, embankments, bridges, slopes, trenches, and drainage systems. Railways share similar structural solutions with motorways (drainage, trenches, embankment, bridges, tunnels), as well as unique elements such as tracks, cables, and signaling. Airport pavement, which suffers the same distresses as flexible (asphalt) and rigid (concrete) road pavement, is also among the structures that are vulnerable to the impact of climate change.
This manual aims to equip government officials, consultants, and contractors with useful information and resources on how adaptation and mitigation measures can increase the resilience of the transport infrastructure. This includes flood adaptation, adaptation measures to reduce scour at bridges, adaptation measures to reduce the damaging effects of gravity flows, maintenance of drainage systems, embankment reinforcement, slope protection, control of surface runoff, bioengineering solutions, adaptation measures against rockfalls and more.
The full text of the Publication “Manual for Climate Change Adaptation Measures for Transport Infrastructure in Central Asia with a Focus on Uzbekistan” is available here: https://www.adb.org/publications/climate-change-adaptation-transport-central-asia#
///nCa, 25 December 2023