Delivering a Climate Change Adaptation Knowledge Pipeline for Resilient Future Mobility

公共交通是现代社会的基石，使人们能够获得教育，就业，医疗保健，休闲活动等。然而，公共交通可能会受到极端天气事件的干扰，如暴雨或极端高温，这些事件在我们不断变化的气候下越来越频繁和强烈。从长期来看，交通运输系统可能会受到更为渐进的变化的影响，例如未来气候的变化对基础设施资产的运营门槛提出了不同的要求，或者海平面上升使沿海基础设施不再可行。因此，我们的基础设施必须能够抵御当前和未来的天气和气候灾害。获得弹性公共交通对整个社会至关重要，尤其是低收入、少数民族、老年人、妇女和其他边缘化社区。弹性公共交通可以促进平等的社会经济机会。令人担忧的是，尽管迫切需要工程师和其他交通从业人员了解和解决气候变化适应的需要，但这一主题并没有在高等教育课程中进行常规教学。虽然国家运输供应商，如网络铁路已经制定了世界领先的天气弹性和气候变化适应（WRCCA）计划，但知识在WRCCA团队中是孤立的，并没有在整个组织中广泛传播。除了伦敦的交通外，没有针对轻轨或城市地铁系统的区域一级的适应计划。为了让一段旅程具有气候适应性，每段旅程的起点和终点都必须具有适应性，而不仅仅是主干路线。英国最近的第三次气候变化风险评估报告（2021年）强调，自2017年第二次报告以来，由于不作为，适应差距有所扩大。因此，在所有职业阶段都迫切需要教育和技能培养，以使交通从业人员了解如何使其基础设施适应当前天气和未来气候变化。因此，该知识交流（KE）奖学金将在高等教育（HE）和专业培训之间提供气候变化适应（CCA）知识管道，以提高国家和区域能力，并确保未来的弹性流动性。

Public transport is the cornerstone of modern society, enabling people to access education, employment, healthcare, leisure activities, and more. However, public transport can be disrupted by extreme weather events such as heavy rainfall or extreme heat, which are increasing in frequency and intensity under our changing climate. Longer-term, transport systems may be impacted by more gradual changes such as a different future climate that requires different operating thresholds for infrastructure assets, or sea level rise that makes coastal infrastructure no longer viable. It is therefore essential that our infrastructure is resilient to current and future weather and climate hazards. Access to resilient public transport is crucial to all society, but in particular those with a low income, ethnic minorities, the elderly, women, and other marginalised communities. Equal socioeconomic opportunities can be facilitated by resilient public transport. Worryingly, despite the urgent need for engineers and other transport practitioners to understand and address the need for climate change adaptation, the topic is not routinely taught within Higher Education curricula. Although national transport providers such as Network Rail have produced world-leading Weather Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation (WRCCA) plans, the knowledge is siloed within the WRCCA team, and not widespread across the organisation. Excepting Transport for London, there are no regional-level adaptation plans for light rail or urban metro systems. For a journey to be climate resilient, the start and end of every journey must be resilient, not just the trunk route. The recent third Climate Change Risk Assessment report for the UK (2021) highlighted that the adaptation gap had increased since the 2017 second report, as a consequence of inaction. Adapting early reduced future costs.Education and skills building is therefore urgently required across all career stages to enable transport practitioners to understand how to adapt their infrastructure to current weather and future climate change. Consequently, this Knowledge Exchange (KE) Fellowship will deliver a Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) Knowledge Pipeline between Higher Education (HE) and professional training, to improve national and regional capability and ensure resilient future mobility.