Other Infrastructure Study

366 items available

Permanent URI for this collection

Items in this collection

Now showing 1 - 10 of 12
  • Publication
    Climate Change Risk Analysis of Argentina’s Land Transport Network
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-09) Kesete, Yohannes Y.; Raffo, Veronica; Pant, Raghav; Koks, Elco E.; Paltan, Homero; Russell, Tom; Hall, Jim W.
    Argentina’s vast networks of national, provincial, and rural roads, spanning more than 240,000 kilometers, are critical for the country’s growth and development. However, climate change–induced hydrological extremes often disrupt road travel and raise logistics costs. The objective of this study is to quantify the impact of climate change induced flood risk on the transport network in Argentina. The study analyzes both current and future flooding scenarios, examines the resulting disruptions in the transport network, and estimates the direct and indirect macroeconomic losses. The study uses a system-of-systems approach, where network models are developed to suitably represent the transport system as nodes and links. For each node and link, the study analyzes criticality, vulnerability, and risk, and provides adaptation strategies. This paper is organized into four sections. Following the methodology and approach laid out in Section 2, the analysis and results are detailed in Section 3,Conclusions and policy recommendations are presented in Section 4.
  • Publication
    Steering Towards Cleaner Air: Measures to Mitigate Transport Air Pollution in Addis Ababa
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-09) Grutter, Jurg; Jia, Wenyu; Xie, Jian
    Air pollution, exacerbated by urbanization and motorization, is a growing concern in Addis Ababa and many other SSA cities. In Addis Ababa, air pollution from the urban transport sector is attributable to rapid motorization, an aging vehicle fleet, high sulfur fuels, lack of emission standards, and inadequate vehicle inspection and enforcement, calling for a shift towards integrated transport and air quality management. The report is one of the deliverables of the World Bank’s Advisory Services & Analytics program entitled “Ethiopia: Air Quality Management and Urban Mobility.” It aims to assess mitigation options for transport emissions for Addis Ababa (AA) in the Ethiopian context and recommend priority measures for short- and mid-term actions. The formulation of potential mitigation options builds upon a review of relevant development strategies and ongoing initiatives of the Federal and AA governments and development partners, the Ethiopian and international experiences, the results of Addis Ababa’s source apportionment study including vehicle emission inventory conducted for this ASA, and consultations with relevant stakeholders. A set of transport air pollution mitigation measures are assessed, prioritized and recommended for Addis Ababa.
  • Publication
    The Role of LNG in the Transition Toward Low- and Zero-Carbon Shipping
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-04-15) Englert, Dominik; Losos, Andrew; Raucci, Carlo; Fricaudet, Marie; Smith, Tristan
    Due to its much lower air pollution and potential greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions benefits, liquefied natural gas (LNG) is frequently discussed as a fuel pathway towards greener maritime transport. While LNG’s air quality improvements are undeniable, there is debate within the sector as to what extent LNG may be able to contribute to decarbonizing shipping. This report, “The Role of LNG in the Transition Toward Low- and Zero-Carbon Shipping,” considers the potential of LNG to play either a transitional role, in which existing LNG infrastructure and vessels could continue to be used with compatible zero-carbon bunker fuels after 2030, or a temporary one, in which LNG would be rapidly supplanted by zero-carbon alternatives from 2030. Over concerns about methane leakage, which could diminish or even offset any GHG benefits associated with LNG, and additional capital expenditures, the risk of stranded assets as well as a technology lock-in, the report concludes that LNG is unlikely to play a significant role in decarbonizing maritime transport. Instead, the research finds that LNG is likely to only be used in niche shipping applications or in its non-liquefied form as a feedstock to kickstart the production of zero-carbon bunker fuels when used in conjunction with carbon capture and storage technology. The research further suggests that new public policy in support of LNG as a bunker fuel should be avoided, existing policy support should be reconsidered, and methane emissions should be regulated.
  • Publication
    The Potential of Zero-Carbon Bunker Fuels in Developing Countries
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-04-15) Englert, Dominik; Losos, Andrew; Raucci, Carlo; Fricaudet, Marie; Smith, Tristan
    To meet the climate targets set forth in the International Maritime Organization’s Initial GHG Strategy, the maritime transport sector needs to abandon the use of fossil-based bunker fuels and turn toward zero-carbon alternatives which emit zero or at most very low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions throughout their lifecycles. This report, “The Potential of Zero-Carbon Bunker Fuels in Developing Countries”, examines a range of zero-carbon bunker fuel options that are considered to be major contributors to shipping’s decarbonized future: biofuels, hydrogen and ammonia, and synthetic carbon-based fuels. The comparison shows that green ammonia and green hydrogen strike the most advantageous balance of favorable features due to their lifecycle GHG emissions, broader environmental factors, scalability, economics, and technical and safety implications. Furthermore, the report finds that many countries, including developing countries, are very well positioned to become future suppliers of zero-carbon bunker fuels—namely ammonia and hydrogen. By embracing their potential, these countries would be able to tap into an estimated $1+ trillion future fuel market while modernizing their own domestic energy and industrial infrastructure. However, strategic policy interventions are needed to unlock these potentials.
  • Publication
    Charting a Course for Decarbonizing Maritime Transport: Summary for Policymakers and Industry
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-04-15) Englert, Dominik; Losos, Andrew
    As the backbone of global trade, international maritime transport connects the world and facilitates economic growth and development, especially in developing countries. However, producing around three percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and emitting around 15 percent of some of the world’s major air pollutants, shipping is a major contributor to climate change and air pollution. To mitigate its negative environmental impact, shipping needs to abandon fossil-based bunker fuels and turn to zero-carbon alternatives. This report, the “Summary for Policymakers and Industry,” summarizes recent World Bank research on decarbonizing the maritime sector. The analysis identifies green ammonia and hydrogen as the most promising zero-carbon bunker fuels within the maritime industry at present. These fuels strike the most advantageous balance of favorable features relating to their lifecycle GHG emissions, broader environmental factors, scalability, economics, and technical and safety implications. The analysis also identifies that LNG will likely only play a limited role in shipping’s energy transition due to concerns over methane slip and stranded assets. Crucially, the research reveals that decarbonizing maritime transport offers unique business and development opportunities for developing countries. Developing countries with large renewable energy resources could take advantage of the new and emerging future zero-carbon bunker fuel market, estimated at over $1 trillion, to establish new export markets while also modernizing their own domestic energy and industrial infrastructure. However, strategic policy interventions are needed to hasten the sector’s energy transition.
  • Publication
    Road Geohazard Risk Management Handbook
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-10) Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery
    This handbook outlines an approach to proactively manage the risks of geohazards on roads, road users, and the people living near and affected by road. This handbook is structured to support road geohazard risk management sequentially and systematically: Part I, Framework for Road Geohazard Risk Management, helps users understand the framework for road geohazard risk management, introduces some basic concepts, and provides context to the overall handbook; Part II, Institutional Capacity and Coordination, covers the institutional arrangements that are necessary for the successful implementation of geohazard management; Part III, Systems Planning, covers the systems planning aspects, pertaining to the identification, assessment, and evaluation of risks, along with raising awareness of disasters; Part IV, Engineering and Design, deals with the engineered solutions to address geohazard risks, giving examples of different solutions to particular risk types; Part V, Operations and Maintenance, focuses on the operations and maintenance aspects of geohazard management whether the maintenance of previously engineered solutions or the nonengineered solutions available to mitigate the impacts of geohazard risks; Part VI, Contingency Planning, addresses contingency programming issues, such as postdisaster response and recovery, and the important issue of funding arrangements; and Part VII, References and Resource Materials, contains the reference list and additional online resources. Additionally, this handbook includes standard templates for terms of reference (ToRs) that can be adapted for technical assistance projects for road geohazard risk management (see Appendix A) and an operation manual (OM) for the practitioners involved with road geohazard risk management (see Appendix B).
  • Publication
    Greener Transport Connectivity for Eastern Partnership Countries
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06) World Bank
    The Eastern Partnership (EaP) is a joint policy initiative, which aims to deepen and strengthen relations between the European Union (EU) and its six Eastern neighbours. One of its four priority areas is stronger connectivity which includes the extension of the Trans European Transport Network (TEN-T) to the EaP region. On the policy front, it aims at achieving regulatory convergence across transport modes between member countries and with the EU to heighten the focus on energy efficiency and combat climate change. The EaP countries experienced a large shock to their economies following the end of the Soviet Union in 1989. At the same time, EaP countries are acutely aware of the need to converge with the EU in terms of energy efficiency, environment and climate change goals. The EU is currently formalising its European Green Deal, which is a roadmap for making the EU's economy sustainable. The objective of this study is to assist decision-makers in prioritizing strategic transport policies and infrastructure investments. It develops the evidence base and prioritisation framework for improving the transport sector of the region including improved energy efficiency and sustainability so that it is not left behind by advances in the EU. The study has also developed an online visualization tool to help policy makers explore and use the results of the modelling exercise.
  • Publication
    Concrete Pavements for Climate Resilient Low-Volume Roads in Pacific Island Countries
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-09-01) Johnson, Sam; Faiz, Asif; Visser, Alex
    In pursuit of economic and social development objectives, governments of Pacific Island Countries (PICs) desire to upgrade unpaved low-volume roads (LVRs) for the improvement in connectivity and quality of life associated with all weather-access. Whilst the benefits are clear, the capital cost of conventional pavement technology and the recurrent cost of maintenance make it hard to justify the required investment in upgrading LVRs. Typical LVRs are surfaced with a bituminous chip seal or a thin asphalt concrete (AC) layer on processed aggregate base and subbase courses. Constructing such pavements in PICs is expensive, given the scarcity of aggregate of requisite quality, relatively limited domestic road construction capacity, and scale diseconomies in the use of equipment, plant and materials. Moreover, vulnerability to natural disasters and climate change necessitates consideration of more resilient paving alternatives. The findings of the study suggest that there is substantial promise for concrete pavements to be used for low-volume (<400 vehicles a day) roads. Four different types of concrete pavement were assessed including the strengths, weaknesses and operations and maintenance (O and M) implications of each pavement type. Although prepared primarily for the PICs, the study provides valuable insights and technical guidance on the application of concrete pavements for LVRs in other regions outside of the Pacific Islands.
  • Publication
    Transportation and Supply Chain Resilience in the United Republic of Tanzania: Assessing the Supply-Chain Impacts of Disaster-Induced Transportation Disruptions
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-06) Colon, Celian; Hallegatte, Stephane; Rozenberg, Julie
    The economy of the United Republic of Tanzania is growing fast but remains vulnerable to disasters, which are likely to worsen with climate change. Its transportation system, which mainly consist of roads, often get disrupted by floods. How could the resilience of the transportation infrastructures be improved? We formulate a new type of model, called DisruptSCT, which brings together the strength of two different approaches: network criticality analyses and input–output models. Using a variety of data, we spatially disaggregate production, consumption, and input–output relationships. Plugged into a dynamic agent-based model, these downscaled data allow us to simulate the disruption of transportation infrastructures, their direct impacts on firms, and how these impacts propagate along supply chains and lead to losses to households. These indirect losses generally affect people that are not directly hit by disasters. Their intensity nonlinearly increases with the duration of the initial disruption. Supply chains generate interdependencies that amplify disruptions for nonprimary products, such as processed food and manufacturing products. We identify bottlenecks in the network. But their criticality depends on the supply chain we are looking at. For instance, some infrastructures are critical to some agents, say international buyers, but of little use to others. Investment priorities vary with policy objectives, e.g., support health services, improve food security, promote trade competitiveness. Resilience-enhancing strategies can act on the supply side of transportation, by improving the quality of targeted infrastructure, developing alternative corridors, building capacity to accelerate post-disaster recovery. On the other hand, policies could also support coping mechanisms within supply chains, such as sourcing and inventory strategies. Our results help articulate these different policies and adapt them to specific contexts.
  • Publication
    From A Rocky Road to Smooth Sailing: Building Transport Resilience to Natural Disasters
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-06) Espinet Alegre, Xavier; Rozenberg, Julie; Avner, Paolo; Fox, Charles; Koks, Elco; Hallegatte, Stephane; Tariverdi, Mersedeh; Rentschler, Jun; Avner, Paolo
    Reliable transport infrastructure is one of the backbones of a prosperous economy, providingaccess to markets, jobs and social services. Sustainable Development Goal 9 (SDG9) calls forincreased access to sustainable transport infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries.Collectively, these countries will need to spend between 0.5 percent and 3.3 percent of their GDPannually (157 billion to 1 trillion US Dollars) in new transport infrastructure by 2030 – plus an additional 1 percent to 2 percent of GDP to maintain their network – depending on their ambition and their efficiency in service delivery (Rozenberg and Fay, 2019). Because of the wide spatial distribution of transport infrastructure, many transport assets are exposed and vulnerable to natural hazards, increasing costs for national transport agencies and operators. During the 2015 floods in Tbilisi, Georgia, the repair of transport assets contributed approximately 60 percent of the total damage cost (GFDRR, 2015). In the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan, accessibility as measured by the length of open networks directly after the shock dropped by 86 percent for highways and by 71 percent for railways (Kazama and Noda, 2012b). Such transport disruptions necessarily have direct impacts on the local economy. Employees face difficulties commuting, access to firms is disrupted for clients, interruptions in the supply chain inhibit production, and finished products cannot be easily shipped (Kajitani and Tatano, 2014). The paper, prepared as background material for the Lifelines report on infrastructure resilience, summarizes the main findings on the risk faced by transport networks and users as a result of natural disasters and climate change, and the main recommendations for building more resilient transport networks. It starts by describing how transport disruptions affect firms and households either directly and through supply chains. It then proposes a range of approaches and solutions for building more resilient transport networks, showing that the additional cost of resilience is not high if resources are well spent. Finally, it provides a set of practical recommendations.