Climate change is increasing thermal demands on bridge infrastructure, but assessing thousands of bridges individually is impractical. Our team and students have developed CLIMABRISK, a first-level screening toolbox that combines climate projections with simplified structural models to identify concrete bridges that may become vulnerable to rising temperatures.
Using open-access climate data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service and a bridge-specific analytical model, CLIMABRISK estimates future thermal actions, predicts stresses and displacements, and classifies vulnerability through an intuitive traffic-light system. The objective is not to replace detailed assessments, but to help bridge owners and infrastructure managers prioritize adaptation efforts across large bridge inventories.
The toolbox was validated using the Angueira Bridge (Portugal), showing good agreement with detailed numerical studies while requiring only a fraction of the modeling effort. Results indicate that thermally induced tensile stresses may become a governing concern under future climate scenarios, highlighting the importance of proactive adaptation planning.
By translating climate projections into actionable engineering information, CLIMABRISK aims to bridge the gap between climate science and infrastructure decision-making, supporting more resilient bridge networks for the decades ahead.
The CLIMABRISK was presented for the first time at the 7th fib Congress Lisbon 2026: "Toolbox for vulnerability assessment of concrete bridges to the rising temperatures caused by climate change", Ionut Dragos Moldovan, Daniela Ferreira, Júlia Neto, Vassim Jandi, Hilda de Pablo, Elói Figueiredo.
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