The long-term effects of this project will be the risk reduction of extreme natural hazards on transportation infrastructure, mainly floods and fire, and to make such assets and population more prepare for such hazards.
The developed framework will be tested and used by two public operators that will also disseminate it through other public and private operators in and outside the Atlantic Area. These entities, together with supporting partners (e.g. government, municipalities, etc.) will guarantee such effects. The scientific outputs from this project will be also integrated in Universities, being some of the results incorporated in existing or new lectures (e.g. asset management, risk analysis, etc.).
In 5 years it is expected that, for the selected test beds, the developed and implemented risk mitigation measures will reduce the consequences of extreme natural hazards, such as flood and fire, for people and on the local and national economy. In 10 years it is expected that such framework is generalized and implemented in other countries (inside and outside the Atlantic Area) and extended to other stretches of rail and road infrastructure in Ireland/UK and Portugal.
The developed framework aims to support more sustainable decisions concerning the resilience improvement and risk mitigation on transportation infrastructures at Atlantic Area. In order to achieve that, it is planned to undertake a set of optimal risk mitigation measures. Through this, it will be diminished the risks to society and environment. There are direct risks, such as consequences for people (injuries and deaths), and indirect consequences, such as the unavailability of transportation infrastructure, that put in risk the sustainable development of the Atlantic Area, and that will be mitigated through the application of this framework. When selecting the most suitable risk mitigation measures, it will be also included their effects, and, consequently, such effects include the effects to the surrounding environment. Therefore, the consequences to the environment, resulting from the application of such measures, will be also addressed. At the end, users (people and goods) will be able to use the transportation infrastructure in the Atlantic Area in a more efficient and safe way, being such infrastructure also more prepared to face climate change effects.
The transnational cooperation becomes mandatory to reach the desired target of this project, in terms of state of knowledge and applied practice. As natural hazards do not recognize boundaries, risk-based management based on geographical information and experience cannot be done without transnational cooperation, as they require a common working framework for intervention and decision making. So, transnational cooperation should bring new and complementary knowledge for each partner. At the end, the transnational tasks in SIRMA, will improve the cross-coordination, information exchanges and risk mitigation procedures.