EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Following three major landslides in August 2004, the then Minister for Transport commissioned a study into the potential trends in climate change in Scotland and how these might affect the road network. The Scottish Road Network Climate Change Study was subsequently published in June 2005 and presented a series of 28 recommendations for the design and operation of the road network.

This report has been prepared to detail how the recommendations made in the Climate Change Study have progressed in the intervening period.

It has always been the intention that the recommendations of the Climate Change Study should be re-evaluated in light of updated climate change predictions, emerging technical knowledge and any changes in desired levels of service or road safety. This report does not attempt to address any of these issues and is solely a progress report on the recommendations identified in the original study.

This report follows the same structure as the original study report and details the progress in implementing each of the recommendations in terms of their relative urgency, sub-divided by weather type and means of implementation. A selection of case studies is also presented which highlight how issues are being, or may be, addressed.

There are 28 recommendations presented in the report, of which six are priority recommendations, 10 are recommendations for the short-term and a further 12 are long-term recommendations. The implementation status of each of the recommendations is identified as being complete, progressing or pending.¹

Of the 28 total recommendations nine are complete, 10 are progressing and nine are pending. Of the six priority recommendations, five are either complete or progressing, and one is pending. Of the 10 short-term recommendations, eight are complete or progressing and two are pending. Of the longer-term recommendations, six are complete or progressing and six are pending. Where action in support of the recommendation is identified as ‘pending’ this is mainly due to the availability of further data. In the main, the publication of the next issue of the UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP) full datasets, expected later this year, is awaited to take forward actions currently shown as pending.

Overall, considerable progress has been made in addressing the impacts associated with the predicted effects of climate change on the Scottish road network. The actions show that opportunities have been taken to embed responses, developed with climate change effects in mind, into the normal practice of roads authorities and those engaged in delivering services relating to the road network. It is considered that this will improve the level of service experienced by road users and, critically, will enhance road safety.