On a summer vacation trip Benchley arrived in Venice and immediately wired a friend:
“STREETS FLOODED. PLEASE ADVISE.” (1968)
Venice is an exceptional city. An incredible feat of engineering, the city was constructed on 118 islands situated in a shallow lagoon and interconnected by a network of canals. But due to its geographical location, it is extremely susceptible to flooding risks. The floods are so frequent that they have a word for it - ‘acqua alta’.
Acqua alta is when the tide level rises above normal and floods the city. On an average, Venice experiences 60-80 acqua alta events in a year, but that has been growing steadily due to climate change and rising sea levels. With rising frequency, the severity of acqua alta events has been getting worse too. In 2019, Venice suffered through the worst floods in 50 years causing widespread loss and damage.
For centuries, Venetians have leveraged their engineering expertise to mitigate the risk of flooding, a persistent challenge. They have continually elevated pavements and reinforced embankments, as well as blocked rivers and fortified a series of barrier islands called 'barene' to prevent flooding.
Today the water was the height of a man above the streets. (1240 AD)
It is a city which has struggled, made mistakes, learnt and grown through time. Constructing anything in Venice is tricky. In 1960, when a canal was excavated to enable oil tankers to reach the mainland port, it compromised the centuries-old protections and caused erosion of the lagoon. As a result, Sirocco winds blowing from the southeast can now push water into the lagoon, which, when combined with high tides, has increased the likelihood of severe flooding since then.
Today, the city is held together with a delicate balance between man-made structures and natural forces. Any new construction of key infrastructure has to be thought through from the lens of climate risks and impact.
Climate risk and infrastructure
Climate change is having a profound impact on the world's infrastructure, from roads and bridges to water systems and power grids. These critical systems are designed to function under specific environmental conditions, and as climate change intensifies, they are facing more frequent and intense weather events, such as extreme heat, flooding, and storms. Therefore, it is essential to design and adapt our infrastructure to be climate resilient.
In February 2021, Texas experienced an extreme cold weather event that led to power outages for millions of residents. However, in June 2021, the state experienced an extreme heatwave that again caused energy grid problems, leading to a surge in demand for electricity that overwhelmed the power grid and caused rolling blackouts.
Incorporating extreme weather and climate risks while building key infrastructure has become essential for governments, investors and developers.
Built to adapt
Dams built in the 1950s are still active today. Tunnels built during world war 1 still serve as strategic gateways. Pipelines laid out 50 years back are still used to supply drinking water. We build for decades and centuries, not years. Thus, as climatic conditions become difficult to predict, it is essential to make infrastructural provisions to ‘adapt’.
All builds are predictions, and all predictions are wrong. Design so that it doesn't matter when they're wrong.
For example, New York City's "Green Infrastructure Plan" is a comprehensive approach to managing stormwater runoff that enters the city's sewer system, which is a major contributor to pollution in the city's waterways. By introducing green infrastructure such as street trees, rain gardens, and bioswales, natural systems can absorb 90% of all rainfall or the first inch of rain, which reduces rainfall runoff at the source. These measures have helped to absorb and filter stormwater, reducing the strain on the city's sewer system and mitigating the risk of flooding.
Similarly, an approximately $2 billion Coastal Road Project in Mumbai on reclaimed lands from the sea has modelled the risk of sea level rise into project design.
Environmental engineering projects aiming to mitigate the impact of climate change have also seen success. World’s largest hydraulic engineering project MOSE, aiming to protect Venice from floods, is one of them. Recently, it was able to protect Venice by raising all of its 78 floodgates against what has been recorded as the third highest water level rise in the past 100 years. Without MOSE, 82% of the city would have been flooded. Seawalls in Tokyo and Flood Walls in Rotterdam have also been effective against floods.
Scenario analysis has emerged as a powerful tool for infrastructure investors and developers to assess the resilience to climate risks. By simulating various scenarios, investors can identify vulnerabilities and planners/developers can design infrastructure that is better able to withstand and recover from events such as extreme weather, sandstorms, torrential rains, etc.
Investing in climate adaptation
Investing in infrastructure for climate adaptation can bring many benefits, both in the short and long term including mitigation of climate risk, enhanced durability, public safety, economic growth and reduction of insurance costs. Unfortunately, despite the benefits, the lack of investment in infrastructure for climate adaptation is a major concern, and governments around the world need to prioritize this issue.
There are several reasons why governments may not be investing enough in infrastructure for climate adaptation. One reason is that there may be other pressing priorities that are seen as more urgent, such as healthcare, education, and national security. Additionally, infrastructure projects can be costly and time-consuming, and there may be competing demands for limited resources.
However, the costs of not investing in climate adaptation infrastructure are likely to be much higher in the long run. Climate change can lead to more frequent and severe natural disasters, such as floods, droughts, and wildfires, which can cause significant damage to infrastructure and communities.
Governments can take several steps to address this issue:
Establishing climate resilience standards: Governments can set standards for infrastructure projects to ensure that they are designed and constructed with climate resilience in mind. This can include requirements for flood protection, sea level rise projections, and other climate risks.
Providing funding for adaptation projects: Governments can allocate funding for infrastructure projects that are designed to adapt to climate change risks. This can include grants, loans, or tax incentives for private investors to encourage investment in climate adaptation.
Mandating climate risk assessments: Governments can require climate risk assessments as part of the approval process for infrastructure projects. This can help ensure that potential climate risks are identified and addressed in the planning and design phase of projects.
Encouraging public-private partnerships: Governments can facilitate partnerships between public and private entities to fund and implement climate adaptation projects. This can leverage private sector expertise and resources to help address climate risks.
Providing education and training: Governments can provide education and training for engineers, architects, and other infrastructure professionals to help them better understand and incorporate climate resilience into their projects.
Promoting research and development: Governments can fund research and development to develop new technologies and strategies for adapting infrastructure to climate risks. This can help identify innovative solutions to address climate risks.
Overall, investing in adaptation of infrastructure to climate risk requires a collaborative effort between the government, private sector, and other stakeholders. Effective policies and government action can help create an enabling environment for such investments and ensure that infrastructure is designed and constructed to withstand the impacts of climate change.