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the worldwide costs would be astronomical. A more strategic approach is to tie infra-
structure adaptation to asset management cycles. Asset management recognizes the
projected life span of infrastructure, maintenance needs and rehabilitation schedules.
By tying adaptation measures to asset management schedules, most of its cost would be
tied to the normal rehabilitation or maintenance schedule of the asset. Costs to adapt are
therefore more appropriately limited to an incremental cost of the rehabilitation and are
thus minimized. This will lead to more realistic estimates of the true adaptation costs.
It also allows time for scientific climate assessments to improve and ranges to narrow
which beter targets the adaptation measure to the climate impact.
Some adaptation options may focus on land use rather than engineering solutions.
This approach may be employed where retreat from a highly vulnerable area is deemed
to be the most sensible alternative. If history is any guide, such options will be con-
troversial and difficult to implement. Where development already exists in vulnerable
areas, people and communities are typically loath to move. Barrier islands have seen sig-
nificant development despite risks of flooding and storm damage, and many communi-
ties already engage in major activities like beach replenishment to protect their property
and livelihoods. Disinvestment strategies, new land use restrictions, and development
prohibitions are likely to face serious political opposition and as a result require signifi-
cantly long lead times to be put in place. These strategies must be started early if serious
climate effects on these communities are to be avoided.
As a final note, the relative imprecision of our ability to estimate distant climate ef-
fects makes monitoring of the natural environment and of impacts on infrastructure criti-
cal. Since the climate record is fraught with periods of inconsistent change, vigilance is
necessary to identify the need for adaptive action and tie it to asset management sched-
ules to safeguard vulnerable infrastructure.
3) INSIGHTS FROM CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE RESEARCH
Published research on critical infrastructures and their interrelationships, although
limited, offers a number of insights about implications of climate change for infrastruc-
ture disruptions.
Relationships between climate change and infrastructure disruptions
Impacts from disrupted infrastructures occur almost annually from extreme weather
events (NSF 2009). In 2011, for instance, Hurricane Irene, the September San Diego
Blackout, and the flooding in the Upper Midwest illustrated both the cascading of dis-
ruptions through infrastructures and cascades reaching far from the original damage
zone in ways that are difficult to predict because of the complex connections of built
infrastructures (Perenboom, Fisher, and Whitfield, 2001). Climate impacts are likely to
increase flooding, wind damage and increased demand for services in areas currently
unequipped to handle the new challenges (DEFRA, 2011). Extreme weather events such
as hurricanes create direct and cascading impacts within the key infrastructure sectors
(DEFRA) 2011 such as:
• Energy (electric power, natural gas)(Rosato, Bologna, and Tiriticco, 2008)
• Water/wastewater (including sewage and sanitation)
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