Most constructions were constructed for a different environment – here’s what will happen if global warming accelerates.

Climate change will have an impact on every area of our life, including the buildings in which we live and work. Most people in the United States, for example, spend roughly 90% of their time indoors. Climate change is profoundly affecting the environmental conditions under which these structures are built to operate.

Architects and engineers create buildings and other structures, such as bridges, to function within the constraints of the local climate. They are constructed with materials and design standards that can endure the projected range of temperatures, rainfall, snow, and wind, as well as any geological difficulties like as earthquakes, subsidence, and ground water levels.

When any of those parameters is surpassed, there is a good risk that some part of the building will fail. Some roof tiles may be pulled off in heavy winds. If the water table rises after many days of heavy rain, the basement may flood. This is normal, and these issues cannot be completely avoided. After the occurrence, the damage can be rectified, and additional precautions can be taken to limit the likelihood of it happening again.

However, climate change will create conditions in which these parameters are surpassed more frequently and to a greater extent. Some effects, such as increased average air temperatures and humidity, will be permanent. Floods that were previously thought to occur only once in a century may become a regular occurrence.

Some of these consequences are very evident. Houses will be more prone to overheating, putting people’ lives in danger, as happened during the recent “heat dome” over North America. Flooding will become more common, inundating larger areas to the point where some places may have to be abandoned. The Welsh village of Fairbourne has already been recognized as a possible candidate. A recent study by the Climate Change Committee highlighted the UK’s failure to act on both of these risks.

To some extent, these consequences will be localized and containable, with relatively straightforward solutions. Overheating, for example, can be mitigated by shading windows with awnings or blinds, as well as providing adequate insulation and ventilation. Perhaps more concerning are the insidious consequences of climate change, which progressively degrade a building’s essential functions in less evident ways.

Termites and melting asphalt

External cladding will decay faster and leak more frequently as the wind and rain intensify. Higher temperatures will broaden the range of insects that can live. This includes timber-eating termites, which can cause significant structural damage, as well as malaria-carrying mosquitoes, against which living spaces must be redesigned to protect us.

Materials, particularly metals, expand when they heat up, which can cause them to buckle once their designed tolerance is exceeded. High temperatures were largely responsible for causing a skyscraper in Shenzhen, China, to tremble, requiring its evacuation, as the steel frame strained in the heat. Extreme temperatures can also cause materials to melt, resulting in roads “bleeding” as the bitumen surface layer softens.

Subsidence, or when the ground beneath a structure gives way, causing it to fracture or fall, is also projected to become more common as the world warms. Buildings with clay soil foundations are especially vulnerable because the soils swell when they collect water, then harden and shrink as they dry out. Changes in rainfall patterns will exacerbate the problem. Over the next 50 years, for example, subsidence will harm more than 10% of houses in the United Kingdom.

Concrete cancer

The most serious fear, though, is how climate change may influence reinforced concrete, one of the most frequently used materials on the planet. Reinforced concrete is formed by inserting steel rods within a mould and pouring wet concrete into it. It is used in everything from skyscrapers and bridges to the lintels above windows in homes. When dry, this creates extremely sturdy structures.

A warmer, wetter climate, on the other hand, will have a negative impact on the material’s durability. When the steel within the concrete becomes moist, it rusts and swells, splitting the concrete and weakening the structure in a process known as “concrete cancer.”

The most serious fear, though, is how climate change may influence reinforced concrete, one of the most frequently used materials on the planet. Reinforced concrete is formed by inserting steel rods within a mould and pouring wet concrete into it. It is used in everything from skyscrapers and bridges to the lintels above windows in homes. When dry, this creates extremely sturdy structures.

A warmer, wetter climate, on the other hand, will have a negative impact on the material’s durability. When the steel within the concrete becomes moist, it rusts and swells, splitting the concrete and weakening the structure in a process known as “concrete cancer.”

The terrible recent collapse of an apartment building in Miami, Florida, may be an early warning sign that this process is accelerating. While the precise cause of the collapse is still being examined, some speculate that it may have been caused by climate change.

Whether or whether the relationship to climate change is proven, it is a wake-up call to the fragility of our buildings. It should also be interpreted as a clear indication of an important point: wealth does not guard against the effects of climate change. Rich countries have the financial clout to react more quickly and reduce these effects, but they can’t stop them at the border. Climate change is indiscriminate in its effects. Buildings are subject to these consequences regardless of where they are in the world, and modern buildings in industrialized countries have more things that can go wrong than simpler traditional structures.

Source: The Conversation