- Who Should Use This Tool?
- What Does This Tool Do?
- When Should This Tool Be Used?
- What If Climate and Disasters Have Already Been Considered in Design?
Who Should Use This Tool?
Development practitioners and Task Team Leaders designing projects that involve urban and rural roads (primary, secondary, and tertiary), highways, bridges, and tunnels.
For projects involving other modes of transport, use the General tool.
What Does This Tool Do?
The tool serves as a self-paced guide for practicing due diligence during project design.
Specifically, it guides users through a high-level screening of projects for risks from climate and geophysical hazards. Using this tool will help ensure project teams that they have considered what effects climate change and natural disasters could have on a project.
The greatest value of the tool is that it provides a structured and systematic process for understanding climate and disaster risks. The actual risk ratings themselves, while instructive, should inform further consultations and dialogue, and help determine the appropriate level of effort for further studies during project design. The tool does not provide a detailed risk analysis, nor does it suggest specific options for making a project more resilient.
When Should This Tool Be Used?
The tool should be used at an early “concept” stage of project development.
Note that a good understanding of the project location and components is required. The tool can be revisited if a project is modified or additional information is acquired.
What If Climate and Disasters Have Already Been Considered in Design?
The impact ratings users make throughout the tool should reflect the measures they have already designed to reduce risks from climate and disasters. For example, if a project team is already planning to elevate a road to protect it from flooding, the rating of potential impact should be lower than if they did not have such plans.
When users choose to revise a potential impact rating downwards because climate and disasters have been incorporated into project design, they should include an explanatory note to clarify this for others reviewing the screening.
Note that this tool helps ensure that a broad range of hazards are considered, including hazards that project teams might not have identified previously.