Climate change on the Italian railway: adaptation options to weather extremes

Adaptation is required for enhancing railway resilience to face the consequences of weather-related events exacerbated by climate change. Railway owners need to identify, appraise, and prioritise the adaptation actions to undertake in a context of deep uncertainty. However, understanding what climate change adaptation (CCA) entails can be challenging. The Italian case is made even more complex by the lack of a consistent policy framework and of climate change scientific knowledge in a form useful for engineering purposes. This work aims to develop a framework, also based on institutional instruments, for the characterization and assessment of valuable CCA options for the railway transport sector in the Italian context.