Buildings risk assessment towards climate change impacts: A state-of-the-art review within EU CIRCLE

Critical infrastructure protection and management towards the devastating impacts of climate change hazards stands internationally an urgent priority. Climate change – related hazards are a threat multiplier for the urban environment and have the potential to substantially affect the safety, lifespan and the functionality of European buildings. Physical catastrophes to critical infrastructure appraise major social, economic and historical losses. Simultaneously, buildings represent a major part of the critical infrastructure and urban environment with several uses in the energy, transport, information and communication technology and public sector. There is a consistent effort by the European Union to contribute to the standardization process in the examined research field in order to lift the results, in the domain of climate impact assessment and resilience of buildings and defense the societies from natural threatens. In this context, EU-CIRCLE “A pan-European framework for strengthening Critical Infrastructure resilience to climate change” project established an innovative framework for supporting the interconnected European Infrastructure’s resilience to climate pressures. A review analysis has been conducted and a state of the art has been derived regarding buildings damage and risk assessment towards climate hazards within EU CIRCLE. The undertaken workings steps based on literature study of frameworks for risk assessment, mainly from existing standards, codes and research projects. Common climatic hazards are referred along with their critical parameters and thresholds. A generic methodology for the damage assessment of buildings is described. Buildings uses of critical sectors are referred along with natural hazards thresholds and impacts. Structural design principles for buildings according to Eurocodes and existing damage models are presented for specific climate-related hazards: flood, wind, snow, high temperature, drought and temperature difference.