Climate Risk Assessment for Infrastructure: An application for Cai Lon – Cai Be Sluice Gates in the Mekong Delta

Summary

This resource was submitted by the Climate Risk Institute for use by the CanAdapt Climate Change Adaptation Community of Practice.

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In recent decades, Vietnam has invested millions of dollars into long-lived infrastructures, especially in the Mekong Delta. However, the risk to lose investments due to extreme weather events and slow-onset disasters like sea level rise requires decision-makers to ensure the resilience of both existing but also new investments. In this context, climate risk assessments for infrastructure are recognized as an effective tool to identify and prioritise adaptation needs, and at the same time, serve as technical basis for developing appropriate climate change adaptation strategies. Such assessments are expected to support the development of solutions for climate-resilient infrastructure investment, especially as many new infrastructures are implemented without knowledge of the vulnerability of the planned infrastructure. In this study, a step-by-step methodology of climate risk assessment for infrastructure, namely the PIEVC Engineering Protocol (the “Protocol”), was used to assess the climate risk of the Cai Lon – Cai Be sluice gates. The project is in the basic design stage. The Protocol has been developed by Engineers Canada and is in use since 2008. The risk matrices obtained from this assessment provided a picture of the potential risks for the Cai Lon – Cai Be sluice gates under the impacts of climate and hydrological factors for both historical conditions and future projections. Some major recommendations were identified to support the decision-makers in the stages of the detailed design, construction drawing design, and operation and maintenance of the Cai Lon – Cai Be sluice gates. The study also revealed a high potential for the application of the Protocol for further climate risk assessment for both planned and existing infrastructures in Vietnam in the future, particularly in the Mekong Delta which is especially affected by sea level rise and more frequent and intense extreme weather events due to climate change.