Adaptation Policy Framework for Climate Change Impacts on Transportation Sector in Developing Countries

Abstract

The global response to climate change threat has been through mitigation by reducing the GHG emissions; however, some of the climate change effects are inevitable and unavoidable. Adaptation is seen as a necessary means of addressing these inevitable climate change effects, some of which are projected to bring more frequent and severe precipitation resulting in floods. This threat of floods reinforced by rapid urbanization, resulting in urban flooding has become a looming threat to road transportation which disproportionally affects developing countries. There is an urgent need to adapt transport infrastructure to the anticipated climate change effects to minimize human as well as economic losses. In this paper, a consolidated review of literature on road transport-related climate change adaptation measures adopted across different countries around the world has been done, followed by the identification of barriers and adaptation challenges in developing countries such as India. Further, a novel methodological approach has been proposed for shaping adaptation policies in developing countries. It is aimed to enhance the resilience of transportation system specifically against urban flooding induced by climate change, reduce its impacts and strengthen the adaptive capacity of the system.