Smart Villages/LCEDN webinar series For more information, please go to e4sv.org https://e4sv.org/events/webinar-energy-and-transport Transport is an often overlooked aspect of rural development and linkage to energy access and productive use of energy in the developing world, but it is of critical importance. Not only does transportation rely on a source of energy (and hence transport can itself become a productive use of energy), but an effective transport infrastructure is a critical part of allowing mobility, access to markets, establishment of distribution chains (both to access energy generating equipment as well as marketing services, goods and products). In this webinar, we were joined by experts presenting on diverse aspects of this complex challenge, including Prof Gina Porter and Dr Arash Azizi of the University of Durham, Dipak Gyawali, former Minister of Water Resources in Nepal and Chair of the Nepal Water Conservation Foundation, and Dr Ben Campbell from the UK Low Carbon Energy Development Network. As usual, we provided an opportunity for the participants joining the webinar to put questions to the speakers, for them to be answered during the session.

1. Sustainable
Transportation
Infrastructure
Arash Azizi
Department of Engineering

2. Transportation
infrastructure
Rail RoadsRoads and Bridges
Low volume Roads

3. • ISMART. Infrastructure Slopes: Sustainable Management and Resilience Assessment. (£1.67M)
[EPSRC EP/K027050/1]. David Toll, Paul Hughes and Charles Augarde (with Universities of Newcastle, Southampton, Queen’s
Belfast, Loughborough, British Geological Survey)
• EU COST 1202. Impacts of Climate Change on Engineered Slopes for Infrastructure, (€400k) [EU
Transport and Urban Development COST Action]. Paul Hughes (with partners from Croatia, Finland,
France, fYR Macedonia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal,
Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom)
• TRANSPORT AFRICA. Sustainability and Resilience of Transportation
Infrastructure in African Countries. (£1.35M) [GCRF - EPSRC EP/P029671/1]. David
Toll, Paul Hughes & Karen Johnson (with KNUST, (Ghana), University of Pretoria (South Africa),
Nyaoro & Associates (Tanzania)
• WIND AFRICA. Developing performance-based design for foundation systems of wind turbines in
Africa. (£1.11M) [GCRF – EPSRC EP/P029434/1]. Ashraf Osman, Charles Augarde and Will
Coombs (with University of Cambridge, University of Pretoria (South Africa), University of Khartoum
(Sudan), University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania)).
• CACTUS. Climate Adaptation Control Technologies for Urban Spaces (£1.76M) [EPSRC -
EP/R005834/1]. David Toll, Paul Hughes, Karen Johnson, Ashraf Osman (with Universities of Cardiff,
Queen’s Belfast, Dundee, Newcastle, Imperial College London)
Climate Resilient Infrastructure
Innovate UK Visit, February 2018

4. Importance of Infrastructure
• NEPAD identifies infrastructure as Africa’s top priority and
sets out an ambitious long-term plan for closing Africa’s
infrastructure gap
• Target: Develop quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient
infrastructure
• At a population growth rate of 2.7%, Ghana’s population of
24.7million in 2010 is projected to double in 2036 and
transport volumes are likely to increase considerably.
• The infrastructure may be vulnerable to changes in climatic
patterns
• Hence the need to find a sustainable way to develop African
transportation infrastructure

5. Transport Africa
Climate Zones in Ghana and Tanzania

6. Transport Africa
GCRF grant with Ghana, South Africa and Tanzania
Transport Africa is investigating
(i) the use of naturally materials (lateritic gravels) as road
construction materials in low volume rural roads (less than
300 vehicles per day)
(ii) the impacts of climate change on transportation
infrastructure
• Natural lateritic gravels are often classified as “sub-standard” as
construction materials, but actually perform well when used in
the right climatic conditions. Field studies will be carried out in
Ghana and Tanzania
• Climate effects will be studied on a railway embankment in
South Africa on the coal export railway line. Embankments on
the line were subjected to severe drought followed by extreme
rainfall during 1995/6, which resulted in numerous
embankment slope failures

7. Transport Africa