CIViC - Critical Infrastructure Vulnerability to Climate Change

Project Description

The project aims to increase existing knowledge relating to the vulnerability of Irish Infrastructure to climate change. This is achieved via three main steps. Firstly, a geospatial inventory of Ireland's critical infrastructure will be assembled. This will include infrastructure across four sectors; transport, energy, water and telecommunications. The second step involves a high-level assessment of climate change impacts and adaptation strategies for Ireland's critical infrastructure. This analysis will be conducted on a sector specific level and will consider spatial variability using the GIS (Geographic Information System) inventory, established in the first project step. This assessment will help to inform climate change adaptation policy in Ireland and Europe. Having conducted a high level assessment across all infrastructure sectors, the final main component of the project involves a more detailed vulnerability case study of a single part of Ireland's critical infrastructure. This case study utilises probabilistic methods to examine a critical infrastructure network in the level of detail necessary to facilitate management decisions for climate adaptation. Overall the project will 1) establish the vulnerability of Irish critical infrastructure through high-level assessment and detailed probabilistic modelling, 2) investigate climate adaptation feasibility, and 3) inform climate adaptation policy at the national and international levels.