London, 27 – 28 April 2017 hosted by RSSB – Save the Date
Climate is changing and railroads are vulnerable to these changes. Climate change will have a wide range of threads for railroads such as rising sea levels, increase risk of flood, and heat waves. Railway stakeholders need to plan for the impact and challenges that our changing climate will bring, and having the appropriate tools and data to make evidence-based decisions is essential.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) provides information to help society and business sectors improve decision-making and planning regarding climate mitigation and adaptation. C3S is based on a combination of science and data and an advanced understanding of the market needs. The entry point to this European Project will be the Climate Data Store, whose first version will be accessible in the middle of the year 2017.
The SECTEUR project (Sector Engagement for Copernicus Climate Change Service; Translating European User Requirements) works with businesses and other organisations to understand their requirements, in terms of weather and climate data to support decision-making. This project is funded by the Reading-based European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) on behalf of Copernicus, the European Commission’s Earth observation and monitoring programme. Working with users in each sector will place the focus on technical feasibility, market needs and gaps that could be filled with additional research. The ultimate aim of this project is to translate these user requirements into services for the C3S Sectoral Information System (SIS) and the Climate Data Store.
SECTEUR is engaging and interacting with a wide number of stakeholders across six sectors (including transport infrastructure) through surveys, workshops and interviews to establish an inventory of existing policy needs and user requirements in terms of climate data and climate impact indicators.
This projects is aligned with RailAdapt, a UIC initiative aimed at keeping UIC Members informed and prepared, in support of national Adaptation Plans, UN agreements (COP21 and Sustainable Development Goals), and EU encouragement to reduce risks and costs whilst improving railways’ resilience in the face of Climate Change. Building resilience in transport has been given a boost since the United Nations climate negotiations in Paris (COP 21 2015) and Marrakech (COP 22 2016), where the world governments agreed to develop adaptation plans. Railways will play no small part in this.
UIC is supporting its members by arranging a series of fact-finding and briefing RailAdapt workshops during 2017. The first workshop will be hosted by RSSB in London on 27 and 28 April (A second will be organised in Beijing in June, but the exact date and location have to be confirmed). On the afternoon of the 28th RailAdapt will partner with SECTEUR to develop a workshop in which it will be possible to obtain in-depth knowledge of what climate information will be released through Climate Data Store and how this information can be acquired and processed to assist decision making processed in the railway sector.
UIC is inviting members and other key stakeholders to share experience and outline what data are needed to help make the case and secure funding for improving the resilience of rail services. The findings of the London workshop will provide inputs for the final design of the C3S and CDS. So participating in this workshop will enable these tools to be better tailored to the needs of each organisation.
UIC therefore invites the people in your organisation who understand disruption and how to cope with it, and those who can make a difference. They could be regional asset engineers, local operations managers or very senior national directors, or those responsible for long term planning, economics and finance or those that are interested in corporate risks, like risk to reputation. It’s more than having emergency plans, it’s about willingness to take responsibility: for preparedness, investment, building awareness and capacity.
These key personnel could help us by showing willingness to work at different levels and sharing their experiences and advice at our London workshop and engaging with us as things develop further.
For more detail about RailAdapt, see the flyer:
http://www.uic.org/IMG/pdf/railadapt.pdf
For more detail about Secteur, visit the webpage: http://www.the-iea.org/projects/secteur/
