Impacts of a changing climate on Infrastructure: Buildings, Support Systems, and Industrial Facilities

The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA, 2005) is an international effort that has evaluated Arctic climate change and its impact on the region and the world. This paper presents a summary of the results from the ACIA-report related to infrastructure. The paper discusses the potential impacts of climate change on arctic infrastructure including buildings, support systems and industrial facilities. Particular concerns are associated with permafrost warming and degradation, coastal erosion, the stability and maintenance of transportation routes, and industrial development. Adaptation, mitigation, and monitoring techniques will be necessary to minimize the potentially serious detrimental impacts. Climate change is likely to have significant impacts on existing Arctic infrastructure and on all future development in the region. In most cases, engineering solutions are available to address climate change impacts, thus the issue is more economic than technological. It is possible that the uncertainty associated with projections of future climate change will increase the cost of new projects in the Arctic, due to a conservative design approach.