MIRACA

Europe’s critical infrastructure (CI) is at risk of failure due to natural hazards and rapid climate change, which can lead to major physical and economic damages. Existing methods for climate risk analysis are not tailored to the complexities of CI: they do not properly account for systems interdependencies, while also still containing key data gaps. Public authorities urgently need tools to pinpoint the risk-prone areas and to develop affordable adaptation strategies to enhance CI resilience. The mission of the Multi-hazard Infrastructure Risk Assessment for Climate Adaptation (MIRACA) project is to catalyse and empower the implementation of adaptation measures for CI throughout Europe. The MIRACA Consortium will develop an evidence-based decision-support toolkit, consisting of (i) a guidance on technical and economic appraisal of adaptation strategies, (ii) a technical decision-support workbench and (iii) an online interactive viewer. These will be based on a multi-hazard climate risk assessment framework that employs advanced new methods of data acquisition, which will fill critical gaps in knowledge of the vulnerability and costs of CI. New model capabilities will be developed to fully appraise the benefits for people and businesses of climate-resilient infrastructure systems. We will demonstrate, validate, and promote the uptake of MIRACA’s research and innovation through five use cases. They cover a variety of locations, infrastructure types and natural hazards, and will allow public authorities and CI managers to test the effectiveness of adaptation solutions and to identify robust adaptation strategies. To propel transformative change, our methodologies will be made available through open-access datasets, model codes and online interactive visualisations. The toolkit will be implemented across Europe, most notably in regions and communities that are currently not well-prepared against future climate change and still confronted with data scarcity.