Defence Matters in Battling the Climate
Defence Matters in Battling the Climate
Help for UK military bases adapting to climate change
Now home to the 47th and 12th Regiments Royal Artillery, Thorney Island in Sussex has been a military base for over 70 years. But could rising sea levels and increasingly extreme weather undermine its ability to function effectively?
A Climate Impact Risk Assessment Methodology (CIRAM) has been developed as part of the LWEC-accredited, Impacts of Climate Change in the UK and Adaptation Options. This innovative process developed by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO)– the Ministry of Defence’s land and property arm is helping ensure that key UK military infrastructure can combat the challenge of climate change.
“CIRAM enables individual bases to understand the potential vulnerabilities they are likely to face over the next 40 years, and to identify potential adaptation measures,” says Guy Hills Spedding, Sustainable Policy Adviser for the DIO. “With the ultimate aim of safeguarding defence capabilities, it’s being rolled out across Ministry of Defence sites in the UK and overseas.”
The key elements in CIRAM are a Risk Assessment Workshop and the production of a site-specific Climate Resilience Risk Register. At Thorney Island, the process has highlighted a range of potential measures, such as addressing coastal flooding, the prevention of flooding to the road connecting the site to the mainland, and the use of solar shading, for instance, to provide protection against rising temperatures for staff working inside buildings and for IT server rooms.
“DIO’s top priority is to support our Armed Forces as they prepare for operations,” says Ally McCaffrey, Site Estate Team Leader at Thorney Island. “But it’s essential to UK defence that sites like this are resilient to the varied impacts of climate change. CIRAM has given us the means to understand the nature and scale of the challenge and to plan effectively for the future.”