Resilience of Infrastructure Systems to Sea-Level Rise in Coastal Areas: Impacts, Adaptation Measures, and Implementation Challenges

Beatriz Azevedo de Almeida and Ali Mostafavi
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Beatriz Azevedo de Almeida: Infrastructure System-of-Systems Group, Environnemental Engineering Student, Fluminense Federal University, Rio de Janeiro 20081, Brazil
Ali Mostafavi: Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A & M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA

Sustainability, 2016, vol. 8, issue 11, 1-28

Abstract: Expansive areas of low elevation in many densely populated coastal areas are at elevated risk of storm surges and flooding due to torrential precipitation, as a result of sea level rise. These phenomena could have catastrophic impacts on coastal communities and result in the destruction of critical infrastructure, disruption of economic activities and salt water contamination of the water supply. The objective of the study presented in this paper was to identify various impacts of sea level rise on civil infrastructures in coastal areas and examine the adaptation measures suggested in the existing literature. To this end, a systemic review of the existing literature was conducted in order to identify a repository of studies addressing sea level rise impacts and adaptation measures in the context of infrastructure systems. The study focused on three infrastructure sectors: water and wastewater, energy, and road transportation. The collected information was then analyzed in order to identify different categories of sea level rise impacts and corresponding adaptation measures. The findings of the study are threefold: (1) the major categories of sea level rise impacts on different infrastructure systems; (2) measures for protection, accommodation, and retreat in response to sea level rise impacts; and (3) challenges related to implementing adaptation measures.

Keywords: sea level rise; infrastructure systems; coastal areas; impacts; adaptation measures; implementation challenges; energy; water and wastewater; transportation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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