Environmental factors

With time the ground reaches a state of equilibrium with the external factors of climate and construction loads. A change in climate or a change in load changes the ground. Climate change will increase temperature, create more frequent and intense extreme weather events including droughts, floods, hurricanes and heatwaves, cause glacial melt and loss of permafrost in high latitudes and altitudes and produce sea level rises. This will increase the instability of natural slopes, embankment and cuttings; threaten coastal infrastructure; lead to loss of permafrost causing substantial damage to infrastructure; produce rising groundwater levels impacting on subsurface structures including foundations and tunnels; alter flow regimes affecting riverbank stability and bridges; and change the properties of the soils. It is difficult to predict the effects of climate change with any accuracy and it is probably impossible to predict the changes at site level. Climate change will destabilise the equilibrium environmental conditions that exist today impacting geotechnical infrastructure. Infrastructure is designed on historical evidence and future climate change means that the design criteria will change using both historical and predicted environmental factors.