Damage to road and rail infrastructure due to natural disasters could result in annual costs of approximately US $14.6 billion globally, according to a paper published in Nature Communications.
The modelling study, global multi-hazard risk analysis of road and railway infrastructure assets, suggests roughly 73 per cent of damage will be caused by surface water and river flooding.
Lead researcher Elco Koks used global road and railway asset data and hazard maps to calculate the exposure and risk to transport infrastructure from natural disasters, including tropical cyclones, earthquakes, surface flooding, river flooding and coastal flooding.
“Due to the wide spatial distribution of transport infrastructure, many transport assets are exposed and vulnerable to natural hazards, increasing the costs for national transport agencies and operators,” the study reads.
“Examples are the major infrastructure damages during Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017, large-scale road and bridge damages in Sulawesi during the 2018 earthquake and widespread infrastructure damage following the Tohoku Earthquake in 2011 in Japan.”
The authors found around 27 per cent of global transport infrastructure is exposed to at least one hazard, and the cost of global expected annual damages could range from US$3.1–22 billion.
The study identified the transport infrastructure of small developing island states, such as Papua New Guinea, as particularly vulnerable, however found greater absolute damage was expected in high-income countries such as China and Japan.
The study argues to minimise spending on all assets, it is critical countries include risk information in their transport planning assessments.
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