IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i24p13856-d702916.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Adapting Railway Maintenance to Climate Change

Author

Listed:
  • A. H. S. Garmabaki

    (Operation and Maintenance Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, 97187 Luleå, Sweden)

  • Adithya Thaduri

    (Operation and Maintenance Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, 97187 Luleå, Sweden)

  • Stephen Famurewa

    (Operation and Maintenance Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, 97187 Luleå, Sweden)

  • Uday Kumar

    (Operation and Maintenance Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, 97187 Luleå, Sweden)

Abstract

Railway infrastructure is vulnerable to extreme weather events such as elevated temperature, flooding, storms, intense winds, sea level rise, poor visibility, etc. These events have extreme consequences for the dependability of railway infrastructure and the acceptable level of services by infrastructure managers and other stakeholders. It is quite complex and difficult to quantify the consequences of climate change on railway infrastructure because of the inherent nature of the railway itself. Hence, the main aim of this work is to qualitatively identify and assess the impact of climate change on railway infrastructure with associated risks and consequences. A qualitative research methodology is employed in the study using a questionnaire as a tool for information gathering from experts from several municipalities in Sweden, Swedish transport infrastructure managers, maintenance organizations, and train operators. The outcome of this questionnaire revealed that there was a lower level of awareness about the impact of climate change on the various facets of railway infrastructure. Furthermore, the work identifies the challenges and barriers for climate adaptation of railway infrastructure and suggests recommended actions to improve the resilience towards climate change. It also provides recommendations, including adaptation options to ensure an effective and efficient railway transport service.

Suggested Citation

  • A. H. S. Garmabaki & Adithya Thaduri & Stephen Famurewa & Uday Kumar, 2021. "Adapting Railway Maintenance to Climate Change," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-27, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:24:p:13856-:d:702916
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/24/13856/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/24/13856/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Edwar Forero-Ortiz & Eduardo Martínez-Gomariz & Manuel Cañas Porcuna & Luca Locatelli & Beniamino Russo, 2020. "Flood Risk Assessment in an Underground Railway System under the Impact of Climate Change—A Case Study of the Barcelona Metro," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-26, June.
    2. Erika Palin & Hazel Thornton & Camilla Mathison & Rachel McCarthy & Robin Clark & John Dora, 2013. "Future projections of temperature-related climate change impacts on the railway network of Great Britain," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 120(1), pages 71-93, September.
    3. Gu, Yu & Fu, Xiao & Liu, Zhiyuan & Xu, Xiangdong & Chen, Anthony, 2020. "Performance of transportation network under perturbations: Reliability, vulnerability, and resilience," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    4. Dawson, David A. & Hunt, Alistair & Shaw, Jon & Gehrels, W. Roland, 2018. "The Economic Value of Climate Information in Adaptation Decisions: Learning in the Sea-level Rise and Coastal Infrastructure Context," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 1-10.
    5. Adithya Thaduri & Diego Galar & Uday Kumar, 0. "Space weather climate impacts on railway infrastructure," International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management, Springer;The Society for Reliability, Engineering Quality and Operations Management (SREQOM),India, and Division of Operation and Maintenance, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, vol. 0, pages 1-15.
    6. Françoise Nemry & Hande Demirel, 2012. "Impacts of Climate Change on transport: a focus on road and rail transport infrastructures," JRC Research Reports JRC72217, Joint Research Centre.
    7. Maja Rotter & Esther Hoffmann & Anna Pechan & Rebecca Stecker, 2016. "Competing priorities: how actors and institutions influence adaptation of the German railway system," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 137(3), pages 609-623, August.
    8. Chinowsky, Paul & Helman, Jacob & Gulati, Sahil & Neumann, James & Martinich, Jeremy, 2019. "Impacts of climate change on operation of the US rail network," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 183-191.
    9. Adithya Thaduri & Diego Galar & Uday Kumar, 2020. "Space weather climate impacts on railway infrastructure," International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management, Springer;The Society for Reliability, Engineering Quality and Operations Management (SREQOM),India, and Division of Operation and Maintenance, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, vol. 11(2), pages 267-281, July.
    10. Torsten Ehlers, 2014. "Understanding the challenges for infrastructure finance," BIS Working Papers 454, Bank for International Settlements.
    11. Harry Otway & Detlof von Winterfeldt, 1992. "Expert Judgment in Risk Analysis and Management: Process, Context, and Pitfalls," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(1), pages 83-93, March.
    12. Nan Wang & Daniel Satola & Aoife Houlihan Wiberg & Conghong Liu & Arild Gustavsen, 2020. "Reduction Strategies for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from High-Speed Railway Station Buildings in a Cold Climate Zone of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-22, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Iryna Bondarenko & Tiziana Campisi & Giovanni Tesoriere & Larysa Neduzha, 2022. "Using Detailing Concept to Assess Railway Functional Safety," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-15, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chinowsky, Paul & Helman, Jacob & Gulati, Sahil & Neumann, James & Martinich, Jeremy, 2019. "Impacts of climate change on operation of the US rail network," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 183-191.
    2. Hong, Wei-Ting & Clifton, Geoffrey & Nelson, John D., 2022. "Rail transport system vulnerability analysis and policy implementation: Past progress and future directions," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 299-308.
    3. Vivian Dépoues, 2017. "Organisational uptake of scientific information about climate change by infrastructure managers: the case of adaptation of the French railway company," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 143(3), pages 473-486, August.
    4. Xu, Xiangdong & Qu, Kai & Chen, Anthony & Yang, Chao, 2021. "A new day-to-day dynamic network vulnerability analysis approach with Weibit-based route adjustment process," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    5. Francesco Rotoli & Elena Navajas Cawood & Antonio Soria, 2016. "Capacity assessment of railway infrastructure: Tools, methodologies and policy relevance in the EU context," JRC Research Reports JRC100509, Joint Research Centre.
    6. Barati, Hojjat & Yazici, Anil & Almotahari, Amirmasoud, 2024. "A methodology for ranking of critical links in transportation networks based on criticality score distributions," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).
    7. Roland W. Scholz & Ralf Hansmann, 2007. "Combining Experts' Risk Judgments on Technology Performance of Phytoremediation: Self‐Confidence Ratings, Averaging Procedures, and Formative Consensus Building," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(1), pages 225-240, February.
    8. Wanbei Jiang & Weidong Liu, 2020. "Provincial-Level CO 2 Emissions Intensity Inequality in China: Regional Source and Explanatory Factors of Interregional and Intraregional Inequalities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-16, March.
    9. Kurmankhojayev, Daniyar & Li, Guoyuan & Chen, Anthony, 2024. "Link criticality index: Refinement, framework extension, and a case study," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    10. Liang Jia & Saini Yang & Weiping Wang & Xinlong Zhang, 2022. "Impact analysis of highways in China under future extreme precipitation," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 110(2), pages 1097-1113, January.
    11. Xinyuan Chen & Ruyang Yin & Qinhe An & Yuan Zhang, 2021. "Modeling a Distance-Based Preferential Fare Scheme for Park-and-Ride Services in a Multimodal Transport Network," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-14, March.
    12. Ali Nouri Qarahasanlou & Ali Zamani & Abbas Barabadi & Mahdi Mokhberdoran, 2021. "Resilience Assessment: A Performance-Based Importance Measure," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-16, November.
    13. Mylonas, Chrysostomos & Mitsakis, Evangelos & Kepaptsoglou, Konstantinos, 2023. "Criticality analysis in road networks with graph-theoretic measures, traffic assignment, and simulation," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 629(C).
    14. Lawson, Julie & Pawson, Hal & Troy, Laurence & van den Nouwelant, Ryan & Hamilton, Carrie & Hayward, Richard Donald, 2018. "Social housing as infrastructure: an investment pathway," SocArXiv e9hky, Center for Open Science.
    15. Ine H. J. Van Der Fels‐Klerx & Louis H. J. Goossens & Helmut W. Saatkamp & Suzan H. S. Horst, 2002. "Elicitation of Quantitative Data from a Heterogeneous Expert Panel: Formal Process and Application in Animal Health," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(1), pages 67-81, February.
    16. Ahmad Jrade & Farnaz Jalaei & Jieying Jane Zhang & Saeed Jalilzadeh Eirdmousa & Farzad Jalaei, 2023. "Potential Integration of Bridge Information Modeling and Life Cycle Assessment/Life Cycle Costing Tools for Infrastructure Projects within Construction 4.0: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-25, October.
    17. Sasai, Kotaro & Chouinard, Luc E. & Power, Gabriel J. & Conciatori, David & Zufferey, Nicolas, 2024. "Accounting for traffic disturbance in road infrastructure management: Optimal maintenance and rehabilitation planning for the society," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    18. Amoozad Mahdiraji, Hannan & Yaftiyan, Fatemeh & Abbasi-Kamardi, Aliasghar & Vrontis, Demetris & Gong, Yu, 2024. "Disentangling the resiliency of international transportation systems under uncertainty by a novel multi-layer spherical fuzzy decision-making framework: Evidence from an emerging economy," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    19. Wang, Shuliang & Chen, Chen & Zhang, Jianhua & Gu, Xifeng & Huang, Xiaodi, 2022. "Vulnerability assessment of urban road traffic systems based on traffic flow," International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    20. Liudan Jiao & Dongrong Li & Yu Zhang & Yinghan Zhu & Xiaosen Huo & Ya Wu, 2021. "Identification of the Key Influencing Factors of Urban Rail Transit Station Resilience against Disasters Caused by Rainstorms," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-21, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:24:p:13856-:d:702916. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.