Glob. Environ. Change http://doi.org/mgw (2013)

Road networks are essential to the functioning of modern economies. In the USA, federal and state transport agencies spend about US$134 billion on roads annually. Understanding the impacts of climate change on road infrastructure can help planners to better allocate funds.

Paul Chinowsky of the University of Colorado at Boulder, USA, and colleagues assessed the cost of adapting roads to precipitation- and temperature-related stresses associated with climate change in the USA. They compared a baseline scenario — in which annual mean global temperature increases by 1.5 °C in 2050 relative to the historical average — with a mitigation scenario, under which this increase in mean temperature is limited to 1.0 °C. Overall they found that, in absence of policy, climate change increases the annual costs of keeping paved and unpaved roads in service by US$785 million in present value terms by 2050. If mitigation policies are in place, these costs decrease by approximately US$280 million.