Extreme weather can lead to detrimental effects on our personal lives and the community around us. With severe thunderstorms, blizzards, and floods worldwide, many people focus on how it will affect their personal property, not the community’s infrastructure. Explore how extreme weather impacts infrastructure and your everyday life.
Roads and Transportation
Transportation systems are the backbone of any community. From highways and bridges to public transit, these networks keep us connected and support the smooth flow of goods and people. When severe weather hits, it can destroy the roads we need for help and assistance in the aftermath.
Extreme weather can negatively affect roads in many ways. Heat waves can melt the asphalt on roads, floods can erode the road surfacing, and ice can make potholes and cracks in the pavement grow.
Adjust Roadways
Roadway construction crews can prevent the bad effects of extreme weather by adjusting the materials they use. Polymer-modified asphalt can perform better than other options under extreme heat. Elevated roadways can reduce flooding during storms or improve drainage systems.
Utility Poles and Power Lines
Electrical grids are other vital components of modern infrastructure that face threats from severe weather. Extreme weather is a major cause of utility pole failure that can leave countless people without electricity. High winds from hurricanes, tornadoes, ice storms, and wildfires can down power lines.
Improve Power Lines
Electrical grids can improve existing systems to prevent downed lines that leave residents in the dark. Integrating smart technology into the system enables a faster recovery and response to storm impacts. Additionally, using stronger materials for utility poles makes them more resilient in extreme weather.
Water Infrastructure
Water infrastructure—dams, levees, water treatment plants, and pipelines—is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of extreme weather events, which can cause widespread disruptions and dangers if left unaddressed.
Heavy rainfall and severe flooding can overwhelm dams and levees, and if the structures fail, it can result in catastrophic flooding. This weather can also devastate water treatment facilities, introducing pollutants into the system through flooding.
Improving Water Infrastructure
It’s important to protect water infrastructure in extreme weather. Some solutions include upgrading outdated systems with modern materials, implementing real-time monitoring technology, and designing infrastructure to withstand local climate conditions.
Extreme weather is no longer a rare event. Unfortunately, it is normal nowadays, and everyone has to prepare for it. Exploring how extreme weather impacts infrastructure can help you determine the best ways to decrease the effects on everyday life.