A global multi-hazard risk analysis of road and railway infrastructure assets
Top Cited Papers
Open Access
- 25 June 2019
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Nature Communications
- Vol. 10 (1), 1-11
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10442-3
Abstract
Transport infrastructure is exposed to natural hazards all around the world. Here we present the first global estimates of multi-hazard exposure and risk to road and rail infrastructure. Results reveal that ~27% of all global road and railway assets are exposed to at least one hazard and ~7.5% of all assets are exposed to a 1/100 year flood event. Global Expected Annual Damages (EAD) due to direct damage to road and railway assets range from 3.1 to 22 billion US dollars, of which ~73% is caused by surface and river flooding. Global EAD are small relative to global GDP (~0.02%). However, in some countries EAD reach 0.5 to 1% of GDP annually, which is the same order of magnitude as national transport infrastructure budgets. A cost-benefit analysis suggests that increasing flood protection would have positive returns on ~60% of roads exposed to a 1/100 year flood event.Keywords
Funding Information
- RCUK | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/N017064/1)
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