High Speed and Intercity Natural Risks

At least twenty countries in the world have or plan to build high speed railways lines.
However, the transport by rail is still vulnerable in front of natural disasters, extreme climate conditions or particular geographic situations. Advanced technologies allow to anticipate some situations and to propose some tools to eliminate or just limit the risks generated by the environment.
As a matter of fact, the capacity of the railway community and its research units to build, develop and expend some efficient measures of protection, is a major issue for the future and the credibility of high speed railway.
Aware of this impact, the International Union of Railways (UIC) wants to study and identify risky situations, to measure their potential impact on high speed and intercity lines exploitation, and to list the state of the art on the measures permitting to limit their negative consequences.