Assessment of Climate Change Impacts on Geotechnical Assets and Ground-Related Hazards for National Highways

About

National Highways awarded a contract to WSP UK LTD for a research project assessing the vulnerabilities of and impacts on geotechnical assets and ground-related hazards due to climate change projections.

The project involved reviewing existing National Highways ground-related hazard information, including outputs from the Geotechnical Resilience: Enhanced Hazard Products initiative, to identify where climate projections could be integrated and where new information was needed.

It also reviewed third-party hazard information products such as BGS GeoClimate UKCP18 projections.

A set of climate metrics based on UKCP18 projections was developed and used to assess future susceptibility of ground-related hazards across the Strategic Road Network.

The project brought together multiple information sources and findings from preceding tasks within the Geotechnical Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation programmes to assess the vulnerability of geotechnical assets to climate change, informed by academic research (e.g., ACHILLES) and engagement with other asset owners (e.g., Network Rail, Environment Agency).

It built upon the National Highways Geotechnical Resilience Assessment Framework and was informed by stress testing against LA114 'Climate' requirements and UKCP18 projections.

The contract value was £321,902.8.