ABSTRACT
Introduction A changing climate, as represented by a projected increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme events and longer-term changes to climatic variables, will act to amplify the challenges facing societies in the twenty-fi rst century (IPCC, 2014). One of the key societal challenges will be to ensure the ongoing resilience of critical infrastructure assets that provide the essential services that support the modern functioning of communities; ensuring a continuance of economic wellbeing, social fabric and security (see, for example, O’Rourke, 2007). However, although there has been longstanding attention paid to the importance of infrastructure in contributing to social and economic prosperity, consideration of the resilience of critical infrastructure to future climate risks is an altogether much more recent endeavour (US Department of Energy, 2013; Cox et al., 2012; CSIRO, 2006). One such critical system with potential vulnerability to climate change is that of transport. As noted by Ng et al. (2013), there has been very little attention paid to climate risks and adaptation strategies for the transport sector (focusing on Australia in their study), and even less paid to ports, shipping and supply chains. There are however signs that the impacts of the changing climate on seaports are beginning to be considered, particularly in places where ports have been impacted by recent extreme events such as heavy rainfall, storms and storm surge (UK Department of Transport, 2014; Smythe, 2013).
