Artificial Intelligence for Climate Adaptation: Reinforcement Learning for Climate Change-Resilient Transport

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Costa, Miguel, Vandervoort, Arthur, Schmidt, Carolin, Miranda, João, Petersen, Morten W., Drews, Martin, Morrisey, Karyn, Pereira, Francisco C.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866914375377354752
author Costa, Miguel
Vandervoort, Arthur
Schmidt, Carolin
Miranda, João
Petersen, Morten W.
Drews, Martin
Morrisey, Karyn
Pereira, Francisco C.
author_facet Costa, Miguel
Vandervoort, Arthur
Schmidt, Carolin
Miranda, João
Petersen, Morten W.
Drews, Martin
Morrisey, Karyn
Pereira, Francisco C.
contents Climate change is expected to intensify rainfall and, consequently, pluvial flooding, leading to increased disruptions in urban transportation systems over the coming decades. Designing effective adaptation strategies is challenging due to the long-term, sequential nature of infrastructure investments, deep climate uncertainty, and the complex interactions between flooding, infrastructure, and mobility impacts. In this work, we propose a novel decision-support framework using reinforcement learning (RL) for long-term flood adaptation planning. Formulated as an integrated assessment model (IAM), the framework combines rainfall projection and flood modeling, transport simulation, and quantification of direct and indirect impacts on infrastructure and mobility. Our RL-based approach learns adaptive strategies that balance investment and maintenance costs against avoided impacts. We evaluate the framework through a case study of Copenhagen's inner city over the 2024-2100 period, testing multiple adaptation options, and different belief and realized climate scenarios. Results show that the framework outperforms traditional optimization approaches by discovering coordinated spatial and temporal adaptation pathways and learning trade-offs between impact reduction and adaptation investment, yielding more resilient strategies. Overall, our results showcase the potential of reinforcement learning as a flexible decision-support tool for adaptive infrastructure planning under climate uncertainty.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_06278
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Artificial Intelligence for Climate Adaptation: Reinforcement Learning for Climate Change-Resilient Transport
Costa, Miguel
Vandervoort, Arthur
Schmidt, Carolin
Miranda, João
Petersen, Morten W.
Drews, Martin
Morrisey, Karyn
Pereira, Francisco C.
Artificial Intelligence
Climate change is expected to intensify rainfall and, consequently, pluvial flooding, leading to increased disruptions in urban transportation systems over the coming decades. Designing effective adaptation strategies is challenging due to the long-term, sequential nature of infrastructure investments, deep climate uncertainty, and the complex interactions between flooding, infrastructure, and mobility impacts. In this work, we propose a novel decision-support framework using reinforcement learning (RL) for long-term flood adaptation planning. Formulated as an integrated assessment model (IAM), the framework combines rainfall projection and flood modeling, transport simulation, and quantification of direct and indirect impacts on infrastructure and mobility. Our RL-based approach learns adaptive strategies that balance investment and maintenance costs against avoided impacts. We evaluate the framework through a case study of Copenhagen's inner city over the 2024-2100 period, testing multiple adaptation options, and different belief and realized climate scenarios. Results show that the framework outperforms traditional optimization approaches by discovering coordinated spatial and temporal adaptation pathways and learning trade-offs between impact reduction and adaptation investment, yielding more resilient strategies. Overall, our results showcase the potential of reinforcement learning as a flexible decision-support tool for adaptive infrastructure planning under climate uncertainty.
title Artificial Intelligence for Climate Adaptation: Reinforcement Learning for Climate Change-Resilient Transport
topic Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.06278