Adaptation of Infrastructure to Climate Change - Brown Bag Seminar with Johan Silfwerbrand

Concrete is the world's most used man-made material and concrete production (actually cement production) accounts for 5-8% of global CO2 emissions, which is why it may be justified to exemplify how research has changed over time to deal with climate change. In the mid-1960s, it was established that reinforced concrete does not have an eternal lifespan. Research into durable concrete increased rapidly. Durable concrete has a longer life span reducing the extraction of natural resources, which is an example of a measure towards mitigation of climate change, even if it was not formulated that way. Research into creating more environmentally friendly cement and concrete (or a concrete with lower CO2 emissions) began in the 1990s and has been completely dominant in mitigation ever since. It is primarily about replacing parts of the Portland cement with various industrial by-products (Supplementary Cementitious Materials, SCM) that would otherwise end up in landfill.

There is less and less evidence that we can stop climate change. It will probably be difficult to reach the 1.5 degree target and there is a risk that the global average temperature will increase by more than 2°C sometime in the 21st century. Spends on mitigation will not be sufficient. Measures to adapt society, its built environment and its infrastructure to climate change will be necessary. Otherwise, the consequences can be catastrophic.

The aim of the present project is to identify knowledge gaps and research needs in the area of ​​infrastructure adaptation to climate change. The focus has been on Swedish conditions and it was therefore natural to primarily study what is happening and has happened within the four major technical universities (Chalmers, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Faculty of Engineering at Lund University and Luleå Technical University) as well as within the Swedish Transport Administration, Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SKR) and Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE). The work has been supplemented with searches on the Internet and in Swedish news media.

An analysis of ongoing and recently completed research in climate adaptation shows that adaptation encompasses many different parts. In the project, the following have been identified: inventory and limitations of consequences, changed loads, prerequisite for new construction, increased monitoring, protection measures, strengthening and relocation. The last three are both the most concrete and perhaps the most important considering that a year's new construction alone constitutes just under 1% of the built environment in our country. Many Swedish municipalities are working on these measures, but the research seems mainly to be about consequences and prerequisite including revised loads. The report concludes with a dozen sharp suggestions for future research projects.

The full report can be found here: kth.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1801499&dswid=-2581
The PP-presentation from the seminar: Adaptation Climate Change Silfwerbrand (pdf 2.5 MB)
Bring your own lunch.

Welcome!

This Brown Bag Seminar is part of a series of talks where the host holds a presentation of a project or topic, followed by discussion with peers. Everybody brings their own lunch. Would you like to host a Brown Bag Seminar? Send an e-mail to Karin Larsdotter: karinlar@kth.se.