Sectoral Brief: Addressing multi-hazard risk in the transport and infrastructure sector - learnings from the MYRIAD-EU project. MYRIAD-EU Sectoral Brief

Transport infrastructure is the lifeblood of modern society but often struggles to meet demands and expectations on reliability, availability, maintainability, safety, environment, health and cost. It is increasingly vulnerable to a range of natural hazards, including floods, earthquakes, storms, etc which have the potential to disrupt transport systems, damage infrastructure, and cause significant economic losses.

While the focus in the transport sector has been on climate change adaptation for transportation infrastructure, it is essential to adopt a more comprehensive and systemic approach to risk management.

MYRIAD-EU’s vision is to catalyse the paradigm shift required to move towards a multi-risk, multi-sector, systemic approach to risk assessment and management.To achieve this vision, our overall aim is that by the end of MYRIAD-EU policy-makers, decision-makers, and practitioners will be able to develop forward-looking disaster risk management pathways that assess trade-offs and synergies across sectors, hazards, and scales.

Recommendations:

• Implement Integrated Risk Assessment Models: The multi-hazard risk assessment tools developed by MYRIAD-EU should be adopted. This will help to better understand vulnerabilities and inform investment decisions.

• Develop Cross-Sectoral Collaboration: Cooperation between sectors (e.g. transport, energy etc) should be encouraged to ensure a more coordinated response to extreme weather and other multi-hazard events.

• Establish Real-Time Data Sharing Mechanisms: Roll out integrated decisionsupport systems like the one developed by MYRIAD-EU to improve real-time coordination during multi-hazard events, enhancing the efficiency and speed of response.

• Prioritise Infrastructure Resilience: Critical infrastructure that are at high risk can be identified through MYRIAD-EU’s risk assessment models. This will help in their upgrade and reinforcement (e.g. bridges, tunnels, and rail lines) to withstand extreme weather and other hazards.