Climate adaptation

[edit] Introduction

Climate adaptation is a term often used in tandem with climate mitigation to describe the process of adjustment to new climates, both current and future climates.

In terms of building design, the term resilience may often be used to describe how well a building might withstand these changes. This often means adjusting allowances for average and peak external temperatures, particularly in hotter months, but also means considering higher wind speed, driving rain and higher rainfalls and should be considered in tandem with potential knock-on effects such as increased cooling loads. Some example studies from the UK government funded competition Design for Future Climate (D4FC) are useful as reference points, as well as BREEAM Adaptation to climate change and BRE Design for Future Climate - Developing an Adaptation Strategy.

[edit] UK climate projections

Globally the climate is changing. In the UK these changes have been recorded by the Met Office Hadley Centre since the 1990’s. This work has led to projections being issued at various times, such as UK climate projections in 2009 (UKCP09), which can be considered as a key resource informing regulations and policy-making in the UK. Although projections are limited in their robustness they represent one of the best sources of knowledge for future UK climate. The Special Report on Emission Scenarios (SRES) that was used in these projections did not consider the potential impact of mitigation measures, and so to incorporate this a set of pathways projections were developed.

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/approach/collaboration/ukcp/index

[edit] Representative concentration pathways

Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) are used as a method to project within a certain set of scenarios used for modelling. The emission scenarios are based on the difference between incoming and outgoing radiation (caused by emissions), these have been set at 2.6, 4.5, 6.0 and 8.5 watts per square metre (Wm-2). The names of the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) reflect these with RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP6.0. and RCP8.5. Each pathway results in a different change in global mean temperature; 1.6 (0.9-2.3), 2.4 (1.7-3.2), 2.8 (2.0-3.7), 4.4 (3.2-5.4) degrees C respectively for the years between 2081-2100.

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/binaries/content/assets/metofficegovuk/pdf/research/ukcp/ukcp18-guidance---representative-concentration-pathways.pdf

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings

• Adaptability.
• Resilience.
• BREEAM Adaptation to climate change.
• BREEAM Designing for durability and resilience.
• Building back better with BREEAM.
• Building Back Better: Resilience
• Building flood resilience.
• Business resilience.
• Climate resilient places.
• Designing resilient cities: a guide to good practice (EP 103).
• Design summer year (DSY)
• Engineering in the 21st century.
• Engineering resilience to human threats.
• Environmental plan for building design and construction.
• Flood resilience.
• Future proofing construction.
• Hurricane design considerations.
• Managing and responding to disaster.
• Pressing pause to avoid errors.
• Property flood resilience.
• Re-evaluating the design life of buildings.
• Resilient infrastructure diversity and equity scorecard.
• Risk assessment.
• Shelter.
• Sustainability in building design and construction.
• Test reference year (TRY)
• Two steps towards a more resilient world.