Road owners and operators are increasingly required to manage many threats, including climate change and extreme weather, natural disasters, and man-made events. These have significant impacts on the availability and functionality of roads, the safety of its users, and communities. Consequently, owners and operators must address these challenges and provide accessibility and mobility of goods, services and people, whilst minimizing these impacts in the most efficient way possible.
In September 2024, the Department of Highways (DOH), Ministry of Transport, the Kingdom of Thailand, in collaboration with the Roads Association of Thailand (RATh) hosted the 5th International Conference on Highway Engineering 2024 (iCHE204): Future-Proofing Roads for Asia and Beyond. As part of this event, the Road Engineering Association of Asia and Australasia (REAAA) was invited to organize a session hosted by the REAAA Climate Change, Resilience and Disaster Management (CCRDM) Working Committee.
The REAAA session at iCHE2024 focused on increasing the resilience of roads and recovering from disasters. The session provided an overview of the key actions being undertaken by the REAAA CCRDM Working Committee, and collaborative activities with other road associations such as PIARC. The session highlighted activities in REAAA member countries being used to improve the resilience of roads through adaptation solutions, best-practice learnings to recover from earthquakes and effective ways to manage disasters.
This report outlines four presentations delivered at the REAAA session and documents the key issues and discussions in support of this initiative.