ISO 4931-1:2024

International
Standard
ISO 4931-1
First edition
Buildings and civil engineering
2024-09
works — Principles, framework and
guidance for resilience design —
Part 1:
Adaptation to climate change
Bâtiments et ouvrages de génie civil — Principes, cadre et
recommandations pour la conception de la résilience —
Partie 1: Adaptation au changement climatique
Reference number
© ISO 2024
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ii
Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
4 Principles . 4
4.1 Change-oriented perspective .4
4.2 Preparing for uncertainty with certainty .4
4.3 Synergy between adaptation to and mitigation of climate change .4
4.4 Synergy with community and urban resilience .4
4.5 Equity .4
4.6 Sustainability .4
5 Framework . 5
6 Identifying changes in climatic impact-drivers . 5
6.1 General .5
6.2 Climatic impact-driver .6
6.3 Projected climatic design parameter .6
7 Identifying resilience limits and decision making on strategies . 7
7.1 General .7
7.2 Identifying gap between existing and required resilience .7
7.3 Designing adaptation strategies .9
7.4 Identifying resilience limit .9
7.5 Decision making on strategies .10
8 Monitoring and optimization .10
9 Decommissioning . 10
Annex A (informative) Global Building Resilience Guidelines .12
Annex B (informative) GWLs that assets with different service lives may experience .16
Annex C (informative) Examples of PCDPs of some typical CIDs for building design . 17
Annex D (informative) Thames Estuary 2100 Plan . 19
Annex E (informative) Typical types of adaptation strategies .22
Annex F (informative) Resilience design of Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital .23
Annex G (informative) Design of Qinghai-Tibet Railway embankment adapting to permafrost
thawing .24
Annex H (informative) Decommissioning .25
Bibliography .26

iii
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
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The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described
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This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 59, Buildings and civil engineering works.
Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A
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iv
Introduction
Adaptation to climate change has become an urgent need globally. According to the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP)'s Adaptation Gap Report 2022, "we must also urgently increase efforts to
adapt to the impacts of climate change that are already here and to those that are to come".
In the context of global climate change, buildings and civil engineering works with service lives of decades
or even centuries will face new climate challenges. These challenges include the increase of frequency and
intensity in extreme weather events such as heatwaves, wildfires and floods, as well as chronic changes such
as sea level rise. This can result in increase of vulnerability in built assets designed based on the climate
of the past decades, risking human health and well-being, and causing economic loss and social impacts.
Therefore, adaptation to climate change in buildings and civil engineering works should be considered in a
timely manner.
This document provides a design approach called the resilience design adaptive to climate change (RDACC),
which offers specific guidance on how to produce buildings and civil engineering works with climate change
resilience. It is a method for adaptation to climate change at the engineering level.
The typical actions of RDACC include:
— identifying changes in climatic impact-drivers;
— identifying resilience limits and decision making on strategies;
— monitoring and optimization;
— decommissioning.
This document is useful to stakeholders including asset owners and users, investors, authorities, standards
developers, meteorologists, engineers, architects, manufacturers, builders, and other parties involved in
the RDACC.
v
International Standard ISO 4931-1:2024(en)
Buildings and civil engineering works — Principles,
framework and guidance for resilience design —
Part 1:
Adaptation to climate change
1 Scope
The document provides principles, framework, and guidance for resilience design adaptive to climate
change (RDACC) in buildings and civil engineering works. RDACC is applicable to both new construction and
retrofits.
RDACC does not address:
— adaptation to climate change in the production and procurement of building materials, components and
devices;
— adaptation to climate change in construction processes;
— climate change mitigation in buildings and civil engineering works;
— emergency management related to climate change in buildings and civil engineering works.
2 Normative references
There are no normative references in this document.
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https:// www .iso .org/ obp
— IEC Electropedia: available at https:// www .electropedia .org/
3.1
adaptation to climate change
climate change adaptation
process of adjustment to actual or expected climate (3.3) and its effects
Note 1 to entry: In human systems, adaptation seeks to moderate or avoid harm or exploit beneficial opportunities.
Note 2 to entry: In some natural systems, human intervention can facilitate adjustment to expected climate and its
effects.
[SOURCE: ISO 14090:2019, 3.1]
3.2
asset
whole building or structure or unit of construction works, or a system or a component or part thereof
[SOURCE: ISO 15686-5:2017, 3.4.1]
3.3
climate
statistical description of the weather in terms of the mean and variability of relevant quantities over a period
of time ranging from months to thousands or millions of years
[SOURCE: ISO 14050:2020, 3.8.1]
3.4
climate change
change in climate (3.3) that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer
[SOURCE: ISO 14050:2020, 3.8.3]
3.5
climate change mitigation
human intervention to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or enhance greenhouse gas removals
[SOURCE: ISO 14050:2020, 3.8.6]
3.6
climate projection
simulated response of the climate (3.3) system to a scenario of future emissions or con
...