EU-CIRCLE: A pan-European framework for strengthening critical infrastructure resilience to climate change - Final report

This is the final report from EU-CIRCLE, a multidimensional project focusing on how to enhance resilience of critical infrastructures (CI) from climate change induced risks. The report presents an overview of the main outcomes of the research, an overview of case studies and the main conclusions reached and presents useful recommendations to the community. 

The key conclusion of the project is that resilience enhancement can be achieved through the interdisciplinary co-operation of involved stakeholders: CI operators and national and local authorities, academia and the innovation producing private sector. The project successfully managed to increase the awareness of CI operators to the benefits of enhancing their resilience to more efficiently adapt to climate change.

EU-CIRCLE effectively engaged the CI community in the different case studies. The case studies were implemented in a participatory approach, where CI operators, national / regional and local authorities and emergency responders were engaged in designing the specific scenarios, providing accurate data, assessing the potential impacts and generating damage assessments due to climate change, proposing and contributing to adaptation options customised to their needs, and then discussing results and participating in project events. The involvement made CI stakeholders more conscious about the potential impacts of climate change on CI and thus many of them were willing to use the project’s results and methodology to manage their exposure to hazards.