An important climate adaptation goal is quantifying the costs and benefits of adaptation strategies (retrofitting, strengthening, enhanced designs) for built infrastructure - we define this as ‘climate adaptation engineering’. The paper will describe how risk-based approaches are well suited to optimising climate adaptation strategies related to the design and maintenance of new and existing infrastructure.

Risk-based decision support is described to assess the risks and economic viability of climate adaptation measures. An important aspect is assessing at what point in time climate adaptation becomes economically viable, and decision preferences for future costs and benefits (many of them intergenerational). Stochastic methods are used to model infrastructure performance, effectiveness of adaptation strategies, exposure, and costs. The concepts will be illustrated with current research of risk-based assessment of climate adaptation strategies including designing new houses in South-East Australia subject to extreme wind events. Increasing the design wind classifications in the AS4055-2012 for all new housing can lead to risk reductions of 50-70%, at a cost of little more than 2% of house replacement value. If risk reduction is over 70%, discount rate is 4%, and there is no change of climate, the break-even analysis shows that adaptation is cost-effective for Sydney if the adaptation cost is less than 3-5% of house replacement cost. This anticipatory adaptation measure will help pave the way for more efficient and resilient infrastructure, and help 'future proof' existing infrastructure to a changing climate.