Building Climate-Resilient Transport Systems in Small Island Developing States
Studies show that in SIDS, it is the transport sector that absorbs the major share of infrastructure damage costs from extreme weather events. For instance, when Fiji was struck by TC Winston in 2016, the transport sector accounted for 61 percent of the infrastructure damage costs. Damage to transport infrastructure also has significant multiplier effects, interrupting economic activity, preventing access to essential goods and services (hospitals, schools), and inhibiting disaster recovery. Transport networks in SIDS typically have low adaptive and investment capacity, as also limited redundancy: SIDS often have just one international airport and one international port.
All this makes it vital to build climate resilience proactively into transport networks in SIDS. Drawing on insights from its experience in supporting transport sector reconstruction and resilience in SIDS across the Pacific, Africa, and the Caribbean, the World Bank has developed an approach called the Transport Infrastructure Lifecycle Framework to support SIDS enhance the resilience of their road, maritime, and aviation sectors.
This framework marks an evolution in climate adaptation from an asset-based understanding of transport sector climate resilience to a holistic systems-based approach that includes elements like systems planning, climate-informed design, institutional strengthening, and contingency programming. This approach now underpins programs like the World Bank’s Pacific Climate Resilient Transport Program (PCRTP), a series of transport sector projects initiated from 2019 onwards across seven SIDS in the Pacific region.
Figure 1: Transport Infrastructure Lifecycle Framework
Source: World Bank.
The Transport Infrastructure Lifecycle Framework incorporates climate resilience in the development objectives of projects by focusing on five pillars of action.
Institutional capacity and coordination. SIDS need to create the right enabling environment by strengthening their climate-resilient transport infrastructure policies or standards and adapting their legal framework. This also requires SIDS to streamline institutional arrangements to facilitate inter-agency coordination and collaboration.
Systems planning. This involves conducting climate risk assessments and analyzing transport systems at network level to identify critical infrastructure, chokepoints, levels of redundancy, and exposed transport assets. The analysis is then used to inform the development of transport policies and strategies. For example, Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), and Cabo Verde have developed vulnerability assessments and climate-resilient road strategies to inform their transport planning and investment programming.
Engineering and design. The resilience of transport infrastructure can be enhanced through climate-informed design, construction standards, and materials specifications. Network vulnerability can be addressed through the deployment of enhanced protection and resilience through traditional engineering solutions, Nature-based Solutions (NbS), or a combination of the two. The World Bank-funded Samoa Climate Resilient Transport Project is an example of this approach. Innovative materials can also be deployed in the specific context of SIDS. The World Bank has supported Tuvalu and Kiribati in constructing geocell pavements using high-density polyethylene (HPDE) formwork that is light and easy to transport and can be applied by local labor and portable equipment.
Operations and maintenance. Climate-resilient transport asset management includes making inventories of transport assets and its conditions; identifying climate risk hotspots and vulnerable assets that require special attention; and strengthening routine and periodic maintenance of the asset base to avoid premature deterioration and to reduce infrastructure rehabilitation and replacement costs.
Contingency programming. Even after comprehensive integration of climate considerations along the transport asset lifecycle, contingency programming is needed to manage the residual risks. Measures under this category include the establishment of early-warning systems; the development of emergency preparedness and response plans; and the development of financial mechanisms to facilitate access to finance for disaster response. For instance, as part of a long-term effort by the World Bank to build transport sector resilience in Haiti, there has been planning for standardized emergency bridges that can be assembled within 2–3 months from predesigned components. In the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew in 2016, one such bridge was mobilized to restore access for 1.3 million people in less than four months instead of the usual 12.
This integrated approach also builds on a key insight, which is that a suite of measures to address key gaps and opportunities in transport sector resilience often generate higher benefits than isolated interventions. For example, in Tonga, the deployment of a transport resilience package that combines improved road maintenance and deployment of climate-resilient road design standards can result in a reduction of asset losses of 24 percent, compared to the 7.2 percent reduction in asset losses with only the deployment of the climate-resilient design standards.
Recommendations
- Transport asset rehabilitation, upgrading and construction should use climate-informed design standards, reflective of the country context.
- It is necessary to strengthen technical and managerial capacity in transport agencies for improved management of climate-resilient transport networks. To address the specialized needs related to climate-resilient transport planning, asset management, and construction and operations, transport professionals often require bespoke on-the-job learning and training opportunities.
- Hybrid engineering and NbS solutions often provide long-term benefits, also generating additional socioeconomic benefits to local communities.
- Technological innovations can offer cost-efficient opportunities for data collection, enabling the regular update of asset inventories and spatial analysis to improve stakeholders’ understanding of climate risks.
- Implementing climate-resilient road design standards is vital for SIDS, but not as effective as a combined package of adaptation measures.
- To manage residual risks from natural hazards and climate change, SIDS can adopt contingency and business continuity planning tools and financing mechanisms for fast disbursement of emergency funds.
Written by Chandrahas Choudhury based on chapter ‘Transport’ by Sean Michaels and Maria Cordeiro (WB)
The ideas presented in this article aim to inspire adaptation action – they are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Global Center on Adaptation.
