Facing accelerating climate change and new regulations, sustainability leaders are under pressure to strengthen climate risk management and infrastructure protection measures from both physical threats and policy mandates.
Extreme weather events are no longer distant threats, they’re a present reality.
In 2023 alone, climate-related disasters displaced 7.7 million people worldwide, and NASA reports that the frequency and intensity of extreme weather (floods, storms, heatwaves) have roughly doubled in the past five years compared to the early 2000s.
At the same time, governments are introducing nature-related regulations like the UK’s Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), which requires new developments to leave nature better than before (at least 10% net gain in habitat value).
Infrastructure asset owners now face a dual challenge: protecting assets and operations from climate impacts while also meeting environmental compliance.
In this blog, we’ll examine the current climate risks to critical infrastructure, and the financial and operational consequences for asset owners, before exploring how Gentian’s precision monitoring solutions can help mitigate these risks and ensure compliance with new nature-related regulations like BNG.
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The coastal railway tracks destroyed by a 2014 storm in Dawlish, UK, exemplify how climate‐induced flooding can wash out critical transport links. Climate change is no longer a theoretical concern for sustainability and risk professionals, it is unfolding now on the front lines of our infrastructure.
The roads, rails, bridges, airports, and utilities that underpin our economies and daily lives are increasingly strained by extreme weather and climate-driven disasters. The past decade has seen a sharp rise in costly infrastructure damages, with the United States now averaging around 20 billion-dollar disasters every year (versus only about 3 billion-dollar disasters per year before the 2000s).
Each event brings the risk of service outages, expensive repairs, and cascading failures across networks. Below are some of the most salient climate threats facing critical assets today, and the physical impacts they inflict:
High winds can topple trees and down power lines, cutting off electricity, and even disrupt airport operations by grounding flights. In fact, flooding impacts more people worldwide than any other natural hazard, and its economic toll is rising every year.
For example, during the 2015 floods in Tbilisi, Georgia, roughly 60% of the total disaster damage cost was from repairs to transport infrastructure alone, underscoring how vulnerable our built environment is to storm events.
Wildfires can sweep across transmission corridors and tear through power lines, triggering widespread blackouts. They also threaten pipelines, railways, and communications masts, and can force the prolonged closure of highways.
Wildfire smoke can also disrupt aviation and pose health hazards for outdoor workers. These aren’t isolated environmental issues; they translate directly into operational crises and financial losses for asset owners, from emergency repairs to lost revenue during outages.
Prolonged high temperatures soften and sag materials. For instance, rail tracks can expand and warp out of alignment, and overhead power cables can droop, increasing the risk of electrical faults.
© Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), implemented by ECMWF on behalf of the European Commission.
The left shows 2025 temperature extremes vs past years; the right shows June temperature trends in Western Europe from 1979–2025, compared to 1991–2020 norms.
Heat can degrade asphalt, causing road surfaces to rut or crack. At the same time, droughts lower water levels needed for cooling power plants and for waterway transportation, and they dry out soil, potentially destabilising building foundations.
On the hottest days, when infrastructure is under greatest stress, maintenance crews also face safety limits working in extreme heat, delaying repairs.
Storm surges and king tides can overwhelm sea walls and flood coastal highways, railways, ports, and airports. Erosion of coastlines and saltwater intrusion can undermine foundations.
Globally, sea levels are projected to rise over 4 feet (1.3 meters) by the end of this century if emissions continue unabated, which would put trillions of dollars’ worth of roads, railways, and industrial sites in flood zones.
Without intervention, some coastal assets may become inoperable or require wholesale relocation, representing a major financial risk.
These climate hazards are far more than environmental concerns, they are pressing operational and financial risks for asset owners and managers.
Every damaged bridge, washed-out road, or downed grid line can translate into significant downtime, safety liabilities, and multi-million-pound repair bills.
In an era of just-in-time logistics and lean operations, even a brief disruption can cascade through supply chains and communities.
The economic stakes are enormous: worldwide, climate-related disasters are already causing an estimated $143 billion in damage per year. Left unmanaged, these risks will continue to escalate, threatening asset valuations and the stability of portfolios. In short, climate risk is now business risk.
Forward-looking infrastructure managers must therefore treat resilience as a core aspect of asset management – investing in adaptation and monitoring today to avert heavier costs tomorrow.
It’s tempting to view biodiversity initiatives (like restoring habitats for Biodiversity Net Gain compliance) and climate risk management as separate challenges.
In reality, they are two sides of the same coin, and solving them together can create compounding benefits. A healthy, biodiverse environment is inherently a more resilient one. By strategically integrating nature into our infrastructure projects, we can harness natural systems as living protection for built assets.
For example, adding green infrastructure such as urban parks, wetlands, street trees, or green roofs isn’t just about hitting environmental targets, it creates a natural buffer against climate impacts.
© BREC – Recreation and Park Commission for the Parish of East Baton Rouge
Vegetation provides shade and cooling (helping to combat extreme heat in cities), and soils and wetlands absorb rainwater (reducing the severity of floods).
In fact, studies show that green urban spaces like parks or green roofs can significantly alleviate climate stress: they cool the air during heatwaves and store water during storms, much like sponges and natural air conditioners in the city.
Likewise, conserving ecosystems such as forests and mangroves can protect infrastructure by stabilising soils and dissipating storm energy. A striking example of nature’s protective value: coastal wetlands have been found to reduce storm surge flood damages by up to 30% in some areas during hurricanes.
Even a narrow band of marsh can absorb a huge amount of wave energy – just 15 feet (~4.5 m) of salt marsh can absorb about 50% of incoming wave energy. In urban areas, trees and green roofs also mitigate the “urban heat island” effect, lowering ambient temperatures and shielding infrastructure from heat stress.
The takeaway is clear: investing in nature-based solutions not only meets biodiversity and regulatory goals, but also directly protects physical assets. Every pound spent on restoring natural habitats or incorporating green design can pay double dividends, achieving environmental compliance and enhancing infrastructure resilience.
This integrated approach ensures that each biodiversity project (such as those undertaken for BNG commitments) also strengthens long-term operational stability. Rather than treating climate adaptation and biodiversity net gain as competing priorities, forward-thinking organisations are designing projects where every investment in nature is also an investment in resilience.
Gentian’s technology is uniquely positioned to help deliver this unified strategy by providing a single source of truth for both regulatory compliance and risk management. Our precision monitoring platform offers the robust data needed to satisfy environmental regulators and the forward-looking insights to pre-empt climate risks on the ground. In practice, that means Gentian can support you in two critical ways:
Navigating new regulations like Biodiversity Net Gain can be complex and time-consuming, but Gentian’s platform is designed to demystify and streamline this process. We employ AI-powered precision monitoring to generate accurate habitat baselines for your sites, and then automatically calculate BNG metrics in line with the UK’s statutory biodiversity metric.
This gives you a clear, quantified picture of your project’s biodiversity value before and after development. By having reliable baseline habitat maps and calculated biodiversity units at your fingertips, you can ensure your project plans meet the 10% net gain requirement and other legal obligations with confidence.
Visual timeline illustrating biodiversity recovery and land use changes from 2016 to 2023, with a focus on BNG (Biodiversity Net Gain) Units as a measure of ecological value over time.
Gentian essentially handles the heavy lifting of data collection and analysis - our satellite-enabled surveys can cover large or remote sites in days (or even minutes), eliminating the costly delays associated with traditional ecological surveys.
The result is a single, authoritative source of truth for your BNG assessments. All the metrics and evidence needed for planning consent are generated in a clear report, simplifying the administrative burden on your team.
This frees you to focus on strategic project design and implementation, rather than wrangling with spreadsheets and surveying logistics.
Gentian’s digital platform can also support the long-term reporting and monitoring required to demonstrate that biodiversity gains are being maintained, giving planning authorities and investors added assurance. In short, we make BNG compliance faster and simpler, turning what could be a regulatory hurdle into a smooth, data-driven workflow.
Beyond compliance, Gentian’s True Oracle can provide a powerful early-warning system for environmental change – enabling truly proactive climate risk management for your assets.
We continuously analyse high-resolution satellite imagery and other data feeds to track changes in landscapes and habitats around your infrastructure.
For instance, our AI can detect subtle signs of vegetation stress or encroachment (which might signal increased wildfire fuel loads near power lines or facilities), changes in land cover that indicate drainage issues or floodplain alterations, or the spread of invasive plant species that could undermine embankments.
This kind of insight allows asset managers to take preventative action (like clearing vegetation, enhancing drainage, or reinforcing structures) on their own schedule, rather than reacting in emergency mode after the fact.
The value of such foresight is significant: research shows that implementing proactive resilience measures in infrastructure can reduce damage costs by up to 60%.
Gentian’s real-time monitoring thus not only safeguards your operations but also delivers financial value by avoiding costly downtime and repairs.
The intertwined challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss may seem immense, but they are not insurmountable.
At Gentian, we firmly believe that by empowering leaders like you with the truth about nature, we can build a more resilient and sustainable world.
Gentian’s mission is to give every organisation that impacts nature the tools to see, value, and protect the habitats they touch in unprecedented ways.
By using transparent, high-quality data to assess habitat conditions, you ensure strong protection and restoration outcomes, preserving ecological integrity, directing finance effectively into restoration, and maximising the value and impact of your offset project.
To restore trust in the protection and restoration of habitats for both biodiversity and wider ecosystem services, we need consistent, high-quality data. The full potential of nature projects (ecological, social, and financial) depends on it. Only when projects deliver that full potential can we unlock true value: for investors through credible offsets, and for the planet through a genuine transition toward a greener, more resilient future.
Ready to get started? Discover how Gentian can help you navigate climate resilience infrastructure and lead with confidence. Get in touch with a member of our team via the form below to explore how our services can help you today.