The railway system is a critical infrastructure in our country. It is characterized by high sunk costs and less flexibility in adjusting routes after completion. Thus, it requires comprehensive planning, operation, and maintenance from a long-term and sustainable perspective. Under the pressure of climate change, the challenges of the railway system are not only to maintain operation under normal conditions, but also to increase its resilience while facing extreme weather conditions so that it can recover as soon as possible to provide safe, reliable, and efficient services.
This year’s (2024) research mainly reviews the international literature on climate change and adaptation for railway systems, including the development trends, the approaches to enhance adaptation capabilities, new technology applications, and related practical cases. It also reviews the current adaptation measures through which the railway systems in our country respond to climate change and investigates in-depth the factors affecting the resilience strength of railway systems. Finally, this research will propose the mechanism and methods to enhance the adaptation capability of railway systems in response to climate change.