Improving resilience of European Transport Network to natural disasters and extreme weather: Crossmodal perspective

Natural disasters and their impact on transport networks in Europe have gained increasing attention in Europe in the recent years, following the impacts of heavy snowfall in the UK and Central Europe and the volcanic ash cloud of Iceland in 2010. So far research addressing the interaction between nature and transport networks has been limited, thus providing very limited insights to the magnitude of such impacts or how to mitigate them in the future. This paper presents one approach to address these issues, utilizing data and findings from the recent European Union FP7 projects EWENT and WEATHER.
In addition to provision of monetary valuation of costs, the data available allows to consider both cross-modal improvements in resilience and well as measures within a specific transport mode. All modes of transport were assessed (road, rail, aviation and waterborne transport) for both freight and passenger transport. Methods to better use weather data in decision-making and traffic management were also investigated. Findings show that improved resilience can save billions of euros annually at the European
level for society and transport operators. At the same, improving passengers access to information and increased cooperation between operators of various mode-specific transport networks could result in major gains in avoiding the negative impacts of natural disasters and extreme weather.