A global multi-hazard risk analysis of road and railway infrastructure assets

Transport infrastructure is exposed to natural hazards all around the world. Here we present the first global estimates of multi-hazard exposure and risk to road and rail infrastructure. Results reveal that similar to 27% of all global road and railway assets are exposed to at least one hazard and similar to 7.5% of all assets are exposed to a 1/100 year flood event. Global Expected Annual Damages (EAD) due to direct damage to road and railway assets range from 3.1 to 22 billion US dollars, of which similar to 73% is caused by surface and river flooding. Global EAD are small relative to global GDP (similar to 0.02%). However, in some countries EAD reach 0.5 to 1% of GDP annually, which is the same order of magnitude as national transport infrastructure budgets. A cost-benefit analysis suggests that increasing flood protection would have positive returns on similar to 60% of roads exposed to a 1/100 year flood event.