Learning to Adapt: A Climate Change Adaptation Competence Matrix

Extreme weather and other climate change impacts cause disruption and damage to transport infrastructure. Whilst there is an increasing awareness of the need to adapt to climate change, there is an adaptation knowledge and skills within the transport sector. This study describes the outputs of a detailed survey of the; (i) the existing breadth and depth of knowledge, and (ii) the types of skills and training needs that transport industry professionals require to adapt our transport infrastructure to the impacts of climate change. The survey was developed with Subject Matter Experts within the transport sector to ensure it elicited the information required to address both objectives and subsequently develop training materials for industry professionals. The results indicate that there is a pressing need for training for transport industry professionals, and that they understand climate change adaptation as a minimum level of proficiency. In addition, the study has enabled the development of a climate change adaptation competences matrix which can be utilised to develop training to increase the adaptive capacity of the transport industry at individual and organisational levels. This work provides significant insight into the needs of transport industry professionals to address skills deficits that are a barrier to transport resilience. Furthermore, the approach and learnings evidenced in this original research article have wide applicability across sectors, disciplines and countries.