Report on the risk analysis of the Hessian state road infrastructure in climate change completed

Climate change affects us all, including in Hesse. With the Integrated Climate Protection Plan Hessen 2025, the federal state wants to achieve its climate goals and implement adaptation measures for the consequences of climate change. The transport sector is one of the relevant fields of action in which there is an increased need for climate protection and adaptation; this includes the road infrastructure of Hesse.

In the summer of 2021, the Department of Spatial and Infrastructure Planning was commissioned by Hessen Mobil to create a basis for measure V 22 “Hesse-wide risk analysis for transport infrastructure in relation to climate impacts” with an expert opinion. A working group of the department, consisting of Professor Dr. Hans-Joachim Linke, the research assistants Audrey Bourgoin, Benjamin Kraff and Luisa Ritter, and the student assistant Fabian Salemons, met weekly from this point on to develop the report in close cooperation with Hessen Mobil. After completing a preliminary draft in mid-December, the report was finally handed over to Hessen Mobil on January 31, 2022.

In the report, the expected effects of climate change on the traffic infrastructure managed by Hessen Mobil – including more than 7,200 km of state roads and other traffic-related structures – were systematically processed. For this purpose, the changes in the climate variables temperature, precipitation and wind were presented in general and for the different climate regions of Hesse. The influence of the most important spatial conditions (topography, soil types and types as well as land use) was also taken into account.

The hazards resulting from climate change were worked out for the events of flood, mass movement, storm, drought and low water, heat and cold with regard to the origin, the role of climatic influences and the relevance of spatial conditions. Building on this, the structures relevant to Hessen Mobil's state road network were compiled and the effects of climatic influences on them analyzed.

The hazard analysis has shown that uniform measures to minimize hazards on state roads are not possible either at state level or at climatic region level. Instead, each building must be checked for its individual hazard and suitable measures to minimize it must be determined.

The effects of climate change pose major risks for the functionality of critical infrastructure in the transport sector. The expert report therefore makes an important contribution by providing the responsible actors with instruments at an early stage to increase the resilience of the Hessian state roads to climate-related effects.