Sustainability 2015, 7, 5452-5470; doi:10.3390/su7055452 OPEN ACCESS sustainability ISSN 2071-1050 www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability Article Road Infrastructure and Climate Change in Vietnam Paul S. Chinowsky 1,*, Amy E. Schweikert 1, Niko Strzepek 1 and Kenneth Strzepek 2 1 Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, and Climate and Civil Systems Laboratory, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309-0428, USA; E-Mails:
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[email protected] (N.S.) 2 Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; E-Mail:
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[email protected]; Tel.: +1-303-735-1063; Fax: +1-888-875-2149. Academic Editor: Marc A. Rosen Received: 16 February 2015 / Accepted: 27 April 2015 / Published: 5 May 2015 Abstract: Climate change is a potential threat to Vietnam’s development as current and future infrastructure will be vulnerable to climate change impacts. This paper focuses on the physical asset of road infrastructure in Vietnam by evaluating the potential impact of changes from stressors, including: sea level rise, precipitation, temperature and flooding. Across 56 climate scenarios, the mean additional cost of maintaining the same road network through 2050 amount to US$10.5 billion. The potential scale of these impacts establishes climate change adaptation as an important component of planning and policy in the current and near future. Keywords: climate change; road infrastructure; stressor response functions; Vietnam JEL: O18, R42 Sustainability 2015, 7 5453 1.