The impact of climate change on the European road network

Anticipated climate changes in Europe over the next 100 years were estimated using two different scenarios of carbon dioxide emissions and two computational approaches. The principal manifestations of climate change within the European region are predicted to be a rise in temperature, an increase in...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Fifer Bizjak, Karmen, Dawson, Andrew, Hoff, Inge, Makkonen, Lasse, Ylhäisi, Jussi S., Carrera, Alessandra
Format: Article
Published: Thomas Telford 2015
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44527/
_version_ 1848796936488878080
author Fifer Bizjak, Karmen
Dawson, Andrew
Hoff, Inge
Makkonen, Lasse
Ylhäisi, Jussi S.
Carrera, Alessandra
author_facet Fifer Bizjak, Karmen
Dawson, Andrew
Hoff, Inge
Makkonen, Lasse
Ylhäisi, Jussi S.
Carrera, Alessandra
author_sort Fifer Bizjak, Karmen
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Anticipated climate changes in Europe over the next 100 years were estimated using two different scenarios of carbon dioxide emissions and two computational approaches. The principal manifestations of climate change within the European region are predicted to be a rise in temperature, an increase in rainfall intensity in most areas and a decrease in freeze–thaw cycling. The impacts of such possible climate changes were then estimated for pavements and the pavement-related infrastructure. It should be noted that the life cycle of pavements is much shorter than the time span over which climate change might have a statistically significant influence on pavement performance. Several analytical and numerical analyses were performed in order to simulate the effect of future climate change, taking into account the fact that the effect of these changes on pavements structures will depend on local conditions. In particular, temperature and rainfall increase will be a challenge for asphalts, as both rutting and stripping of asphalt layers can be expected. In countries where roads are presently frequently frozen in winter, the length of this period of freezing will be reduced. For this reason, many thin and unsealed pavements will need to be upgraded if high bearing capacity is to be maintained. In coastal and low-lying areas raised water tables may occur due to areas where flood waters may collect, or due to raised sea levels. For most applications, appropriate responses to these changes in pavement performance will be achievable through the use of new design criteria with regard to temperature and the return period of storm flows. More attention needs to be paid to drainage systems, which should be self-cleaning and easy to inspect.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T19:55:54Z
format Article
id nottingham-44527
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T19:55:54Z
publishDate 2015
publisher Thomas Telford
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-445272020-05-04T17:08:07Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44527/ The impact of climate change on the European road network Fifer Bizjak, Karmen Dawson, Andrew Hoff, Inge Makkonen, Lasse Ylhäisi, Jussi S. Carrera, Alessandra Anticipated climate changes in Europe over the next 100 years were estimated using two different scenarios of carbon dioxide emissions and two computational approaches. The principal manifestations of climate change within the European region are predicted to be a rise in temperature, an increase in rainfall intensity in most areas and a decrease in freeze–thaw cycling. The impacts of such possible climate changes were then estimated for pavements and the pavement-related infrastructure. It should be noted that the life cycle of pavements is much shorter than the time span over which climate change might have a statistically significant influence on pavement performance. Several analytical and numerical analyses were performed in order to simulate the effect of future climate change, taking into account the fact that the effect of these changes on pavements structures will depend on local conditions. In particular, temperature and rainfall increase will be a challenge for asphalts, as both rutting and stripping of asphalt layers can be expected. In countries where roads are presently frequently frozen in winter, the length of this period of freezing will be reduced. For this reason, many thin and unsealed pavements will need to be upgraded if high bearing capacity is to be maintained. In coastal and low-lying areas raised water tables may occur due to areas where flood waters may collect, or due to raised sea levels. For most applications, appropriate responses to these changes in pavement performance will be achievable through the use of new design criteria with regard to temperature and the return period of storm flows. More attention needs to be paid to drainage systems, which should be self-cleaning and easy to inspect. Thomas Telford 2015-05-25 Article PeerReviewed Fifer Bizjak, Karmen, Dawson, Andrew, Hoff, Inge, Makkonen, Lasse, Ylhäisi, Jussi S. and Carrera, Alessandra (2015) The impact of climate change on the European road network. Proceedings of the ICE - Transport, 167 (5). pp. 281-295. ISSN 1751-7710 https://doi.org/10.1680/tran.11.00072 doi:10.1680/tran.11.00072 doi:10.1680/tran.11.00072
spellingShingle Fifer Bizjak, Karmen
Dawson, Andrew
Hoff, Inge
Makkonen, Lasse
Ylhäisi, Jussi S.
Carrera, Alessandra
The impact of climate change on the European road network
title The impact of climate change on the European road network
title_full The impact of climate change on the European road network
title_fullStr The impact of climate change on the European road network
title_full_unstemmed The impact of climate change on the European road network
title_short The impact of climate change on the European road network
title_sort impact of climate change on the european road network
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44527/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44527/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44527/