Adaptation to climate change

The effects of climate change are expected to bring about more extreme and unpredictable weather with some places becoming hotter, some places becoming wetter, and some places becoming drier. It is therefore important to mitigate the impact of these events on the built environment by ensuring that schemes are resilient to hazards posed by extreme weather, whilst, at the same time, avoiding over specification and unnecessary resource depletion.

Rising temperature, sea level, and mean precipitation rates in the UK are expected to increase the recurrence of flooding and climate-related damage to buildings and infrastructure. These changing climatic patterns means current infrastructure has to be adapted to the complications of climate change. New constructions have the advantage of being designed in response to the predicted future climatic modes, which will minimise the impact that climate change will have on the new scheme’s performance, material durability, health and safety, and business activities.

ADW offers a systematic risk assessment for current and new schemes that involves a detailed study of local climatic patterns (of the scheme’s general geographical zone) to identify and quantify potential climatic hazards to the scheme’s structure, fabric, building services, and renewable installations. We will share a risk management plan and evidence-based recommendations that will help the scheme demonstrate resilience to predicted climate change scenarios.