Climate change
materials and materials use
Sébastien Dupray and Jonathan Simm from HR Wallingford look at how
climate change is affecting materials and their structures
Climate change is now a recognised
phenomenon that will significantly
affect the coastal environment. It is not
exactly clear, however, how this
phenomenon and materials in the
coastal environment relate to one
another, in particular the effects of sea
level rise, changing storm severity and
changes in water temperature on
materials. What is known is that
material properties and behaviours are
influenced strongly by the form of
structures in which they are embodied.
Structures
Structures taken in a broad sense, ie
artificial structures such as sea defences
or natural structures such as beaches,
may be looked at by the function for
which they are designed or they
naturally display. The primary functions
of sea defence, coast protection or
beach, for example, might include
limitation or control of overtopping,
protection from the aggressiveness of
the sea, along with environmental and
amenity functions. As a consequence,
their position, their geometry, their
components and their materials deserve
specific consideration since they control
the stability and the performance of the
existing or planned structure. The
anticipated material deterioration rates
are an important consideration,
especially in situations where normal
deterioration rates may be affected by
14 The edge Winter 2008
climate change. There will also be
impacts of climate change on the
structures themselves in terms of their
future stability and performance.
Selecting the most appropriate
maintenance strategy
The concept of performance-based asset
management (widely supported at HR
Wallingford) means that selecting the
most appropriate maintenance strategy
is strongly emphasised.
• The ‘do nothing’ option critically
relies on the hypothesis made
regarding long term material
properties and deterioration.
• The ‘repair’ option may be required
to ensure further deterioration
of the material does not occur,
but would generally require
detailed consideration of material
compatibilities especially when
older structures are repaired with
products of a newer generation. The
composition of cementitious product,
for example, has dramatically changed
over the centuries and the use of
recent repair products should be
considered with care.
• The ‘upgrade’ or ‘demolish and
build new’ option would in some
cases be an option to address sea
level rise in particular in low lying
coastal areas. Due to the, sometimes
intensive, use of space in coastal areas,
many works would be limited to the
footprint of the previous structure.
This may require the use of innovative
forms of construction, as well as
material types such as composites. In
addition, combination of soft and
hard types of approaches would
certainly be increasingly frequent to
limit the use of the scarcer materials to
places where it is the only alternative.
Materials in the coastal
environment
The relationship between structure
and material is complex and has
been attracting the attention of
coastal engineers and materials
specialists for years. The following
key considerations for materials
in the coastal environment with
regards to climate change might be
considered: availability, impacts of
transport, durability, buildability,
adaptability, environmental balance.
These considerations may apply both to
natural coastal material (such as
sand/pebble/cobbles on beaches or
from dredging), to raw conventional
construction materials (such as natural
quarried rock, timber, concrete, steel,
binders) as well as to recycled/
secondary materials.
The effect of climate change
on materials
Climate change will directly affect
materials. The increase in air and water
temperature will definitely modify
bacteriological and chemical reaction
processes leading to increased
deterioration of some rock minerals,
corrosion of steel, alteration of
concrete, for example. It would also
modify the biological environment of
these materials, allowing populations of
marine borers to develop in new areas
where previously they presented no
threat for timber structures. Although
these trends have been identified, the
challenge is now to assess their degree
and geographical extent.
The impact of materials on
climate change
As important as the impact of climate
change is on materials, materials
use during extraction, design and
construction also has an impact on
climate change.
For both artificial and natural structures,
there is concern about the availability of
suitable materials to allow structures
stability and performance. A large
number of glacial relic beaches around
the UK coasts, for example, are made of
stone sizes which are no longer available
from marine sources. The sustainability
of maintaining these beaches as
defences should be studied with
reference to various scenarios of
sourcing including the use of dredged
materials, raw or recycled/secondary
materials.
Shortages of beach sand/pebble can be
overcome by using local quarried stone
or even local stabilised wastes, such as
glass cullet or tyre balls, instead of
further exploiting marine sediments.
While carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions
are associated with materials
production, studies have shown that
the majority of emissions associated
with construction relate to the transport
of materials to the site. A hierarchy
of sourcing (available/reclaimed or
recycled/primary) and transport (on
site/locally sourced/transported from
further afield by train, ship or road)
options is generally used to compare
supply scenarios.
Dr Sébastien Dupray is senior civil
engineer of the French Institute for
Maritime and Fluvial Works (CETMEF),
currently seconded as a project
manager to HR Wallingford.
This may require designers to consider
supply-based design approaches rather
than more conventional demand-based
design approaches. Northern Europe has
shown that such approaches are
possible, but this may require innovative
design approaches for some coastal
structures.
A possible drawback is that local or
recycled materials may be of poorer
durability. Deterioration rates and
anticipated changes of properties with
time will therefore need to be considered
in the design as well as in the asset
management scheme to allow for regular
and easy repair.
Location, location, location
In many cases, poor durability of
structures is due, not to the material
quality itself, but to inadequate
consideration of the aggressive nature of
the dynamic coastal environment in
which structures are to be built and
maintained. Early consideration of
buildability during design is essential
to ensure that materials will be placed
and used in conditions that allow
them to perform at their best. The
risks of structure/material degradation
Jonathan Simm is Technical Director
for Engineering at HR Wallingford.
associated with climate change (or not)
would then be limited, also limiting the
amount of repairs.
The environmental balance of the
material in use, as well as its use in
construction, has now become an
indicator as part of the decision making
process, in particular with reference to
CO2 emissions. The awareness of the
industry as well as its efforts to reduce
the CO2 footprint of material production
and construction have been increasing
although better understanding of these
issues is still needed.
Conclusion
Climate change will affect structures and
materials. Some anticipated effects on
material deterioration have already been
identified although further research is
still required to define them in
engineering terms. More challenging is
without doubt the need to consider in
more depth, the material aspects of
construction during the design. In
particular, the holistic study of materials
should grow and take into account
availability, impacts of transport,
durability, buildability, adaptability and
environmental balance aspects.
HR Wallingford provides analysis,
advice and support in engineering and
environmental hydraulics and in the
management of water and the water
environment.
The edge Winter 2008 15