The project 'Climate resilient seaports' produced five reports that collectively generate technical, policy and operational recommendations for enhancing the resilience of Australian seaports to a changing climate. 

• Research synthesis: provides a synthesis of the entire research project, including policy and related recommendations for adaptation;
• Adaptation guidelines: identifies priorities for operational decision-making about climate change adaptation for seaports;
• Understanding future risks: provides a technical analysis about future climate and non-climate risks likely to affect port operations;
• Functional resilience: provides a technical analysis about logistic and related factors that may affect the resilience of seaports in a changing climate, and
• Structural resilience: provides a technical analysis about structural factors that may affect the resilience of seaports in a changing climate

Structural resilience of core port infrastructure in a changing climate

This document identifies key port infrastructure elements affected by climate change, investigates the deterioration mechanisms relevant to these structural components, and forecasts the rate of deterioration of structures over a period for which climate scientists could provide the necessary projections. The output is presented in the form of a software tool which addresses a number of deterioration mechanisms which affect port structures, according to six different climate futures. This will allow a port engineer to ascertain the changes needed in maintenance of port infrastructure over a 70-year time horizon. A methodology for calculating the changes to the life cycle cost of port structures is also presented with demonstration of the application of the method using three case study examples.

Please cite as: 
Kong, D, Setunge, S, Molyneaux, T, Zhang, G & Law, D 2013, Structural resilience of core port infrastructure in a changing climate. Work Package 3 of Enhancing the resilience of seaports to a changing climate report series, National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, Gold Coast, 172 pp.

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