The European Union has launched a new research project called EWENT to study the impacts of weather conditions on the safety and reliability of traffic systems as well as cost effects of such disruptions.

The EWENT (Extreme weather impacts on European networks of transport) will try to study measures for predicting and minimising weather-related damage on passenger and freight traffic, including cost related to human casualties, material damages and discontinued supply chains.

The €2m ($2.86m) project will be carried out between 2010 and 2012 and involves identifying dangerous extreme weather events and estimating their probability and effects.

The project is motivated by the concern over the rising extreme weather events caused by climate change and aims to adapt the traffic systems to the change.

Coordinated by Finland’s VTT Technical Research Centre, the project is being carried out by eight other organisations from Germany, Austria, Finland and Norway.