The prioritisation and adaptation for climate change resilience of rural access roads

Abstract

It has been estimated that by the end of the century, $150 billion will be required to repair and maintain existing roads in Africa, the majority of which will be low volume rural access roads. Research into the prioritisation and adaptation of roads to improve their climate resilience has shown that it is essential to provide good vulnerability assessment information to allow unbiased and equitable prioritisation for the installation of adaptation measures. Such measures will depend on the expected modes of climate change (higher or lower precipitation, higher or lower temperatures, etc) as well as the nature, topography and materials along the road alignment. Most adaptation techniques will rely on existing good engineering principles, although innovative and low cost solutions directly applicable to each situation will be necessary for low volume roads to ensure economic feasibility.