Climate Resilient Road Design & Maintenance 

Operational Tools, Diagnostics & Investment Decisions

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  • Course code : AM-A1 
  • Delivery: Online/Live
  • Language: English 
  • Starting Date:
    TBC
  • Registration Deadline:
    TBC
  • Total Duration:
    12 Hours (4x3 classes) 
  • Price :
    IRF Members : 850 CHF
    Others : 1100 CHF


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This advanced course equips road engineers and infrastructure professionals with practical methodologies and decision frameworks to design, maintain, and rehabilitate roads that are both climate-resilient and low-carbon, while meeting the expectations of public authorities and international financiers.


Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, participants will be able to :

Assess climate vulnerability at asset and network level

Integrate resilience and mitigation into project design and maintenance strategies

Select and prioritise adaptation measures

Prepare road projects for climate finance and Paris Agreement alignment

Quantify carbon emissions across the road life cycleTranslate traffic and mobility data into real-time operational decisions

Target Audience

Road and pavement engineers
 Asset managers and maintenance planners
Transport infrastructure designers and consultants
Multilateral development bank (MDB) project teams

Course Structure

Class 1 - Vulnerability of Roads to Climate Change

Understanding climate stressors and infrastructure risk

Key topics:

  • Climate change as a road engineering and asset management challenge
  • Overview of pavement and asset stressors
  • Acute climate shocks vs chronic climate stress
  • Climate data and scenario analysis 
  • Climate screening methodologies for road projects
  • Infrastructure vulnerability analysis: exposure, sensitivity, and consequences

Class 2 – Adaptation Measures & Resilient Design

From vulnerability assessment to engineering action

Key topics:

  • Typology of adaptation measures:
    • Structural vs non-structural
    • Design-phase vs operation-phase measures
  • Avoiding maladaptation in road projects
  • Matching adaptation measures to identified vulnerabilities
  • Prioritisation frameworks and cost-effectiveness screening
  • Resilient pavement design principles:
    • Heat-resilient materials
    • Drainage-oriented design
    • Subgrade stabilisation
  • Nature-based solutions and hybrid approaches
  • Integration of adaptation into maintenance and rehabilitation strategies 

Class 3 – Carbon Measurement & Life-Cycle Assessment

Managing mitigation alongside resilience

Key topics:

  • Introduction to carbon accounting for road infrastructure
  • Embodied vs operational emissions in road projects
  • Life-cycle assessment (LCA) methodology:
    • Construction phase emissions
    • Traffic and operational emissions
    • Maintenance and rehabilitation impacts
  • Identifying carbon hotspots in road projects
  • Carbon reduction strategies:
    • Avoid / Reduce / Compensate logic
    • Circular economy principles in pavement design
    • Low-carbon materials and construction techniques
  • Managing trade-offs between carbon reduction and resilience

Class 4 – Paris Agreement Alignment & Climate Finance Readiness

From sound engineering to bankable projects

Key topics:

  • Paris Agreement Alignment (PAA) for transport infrastructure
  • Mitigation and adaptation alignment requirements
  • Climate finance expectations for road projects
  • Common gaps and red flags in project preparation
  • Documentation and evidence required by financiers
  • Integrating climate risk, adaptation, and carbon into project narratives
  • Capstone case study:
    • Climate risk screening
    • Adaptation prioritisation
    • Carbon assessment
    • Paris alignment positioning

Course Instructors

Florian Ott

Head of Offering Department, ORIS Materials Intelligence

Florian specialises in digital innovation for sustainable infrastructure and currently leads the development of solutions that integrate climate resilience and carbon efficiency into road design. Florian bridges the gap between high-level climate commitments, such as the Paris Agreement and practical, data-driven engineering decisions.

Danilo Ebbinghaus Carrari

Climate Resilience Technical Lead, ORIS Materials Intelligence

Danilo is a leading expert in geospatial analytics and climate resilience, specialising in the technical execution of Climate Risk and Vulnerability Assessments (CRVA). Danilo bridges the gap between raw data and engineering, transforming geo-referenced risk identification into specific “grey,” “blue” or Nature-based Solution adaptation measures. 

Léa Fischer

Project Manager LCA, ORIS Materials Intelligence

Léa is a Life Cycle Assessment Project Manager at ORIS Materials Intelligence. She holds a dual background as both a Materials Engineer and a Master’s graduate in Innovation and Sustainable Development. Today, she leads LCA initiatives at ORIS, specifically overseeing databases, calculation methodologies and product development aimed at streamlining environmental assessments for infrastructure projects.

Hugo Pley-Leclercq

Project Director, ORIS Materials Intelligence

Hugo Pley-Leclercq is a resilience engineering and climate change adaptation expert with 13 years of experience in sustainable infrastructure development. As a Project Director at ORIS, he specialises in integrating climate risk assessments, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions modelling and life-cycle analysis (LCA) into large-scale transport projects. His work has been instrumental in modernizing road networks and enhancing infrastructure resilience across diverse and challenging environments, including Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Nepal, Cote d’Ivoire, Uganda and France.
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