A new paper published in the Journal of Earth-Science Reviews, discusses the potential impacts of climate change on subsea telecommunications cables and their shore-based infrastructure. The paper identifies climate change ‘hotspots’ (regions and locations likely to experience the greatest impacts) and concludes that cable routes should carefully consider locally-variable drivers of hazard frequency and magnitude. This information is important for stakeholders in the UK to consider when planning for future risks and improving resilience to potential impacts of climate change on critical infrastructure such as subsea telecommunications cables.
Highlights
- Subsea cables are globally important communications links.
- The global network is vulnerable to impacts by a range of natural hazards.
- Natural hazards will change in their frequency, magnitude and location due to climate change.
- The risk posed to subsea cables will change, creating localised hotspots of elevated risk.
- Climate change hotspots are identified to improve future cable resilience.