Use Case

Bavaria, Germany

Resilient Traffic Management

Climate change introduces new challenges for Autobahn, with heatwaves increasingly inflicting damage on road surfaces, prompting research into novel material applications.

The unpredictability of local and regional weather events—storms, hail, or torrential rains leading to motorway inundation—not only strains infrastructure, but also complicates traffic management and jeopardizes road safety.

In addition, supply chain disruptions, including energy fuel disruptions and disruptions in the availability of raw materials, play a very important part in the operations and maintenance of Autobahn’s network.

In detail, the main challenges of Autobahn are due to the following disruption scenarios:
• Extreme Weather Conditions/Climate Change
• Energy and Fuel Disruptions
• Raw materials.

To navigate these disruptive shifts, Autobahn GmbH collaborates with the Technical University of Munich as a knowledge partner in the SCUDO project.

Innovative solutions will be used to develop

AI and simulation-based optimization framework will be developed to integrate various components, including motorway traffic state monitoring, disruption event forecasting, emergency response measure optimization, recovery strategy optimization, and transportation resilience enhancement. This comprehensive framework aims to provide a complete solution for the development of climate-resilient motorway systems.

For those purposes, the project will also

  • Identify scenarios of disruptive changes
  • Analyse how different socio-economic groups are affected by the disruptions
  • Evaluate the effect of decision support algorithms for resilient traffic management.

Key Performance Indicators

Reduction of

  • Fatal accidents
  • Severe accidents
  • Supply chain disruptions due to network closures
  • Travel times during extreme events, considering different socio-economic groups
  • Costs for infrastructure repairment
  • Recover to system status before the event
  • Isolated population with poor accessibility

Facts and figures

How extensive is Germany’s motorway network?

Germany’s motorways stretch across 13,000 kilometres.

Who is responsible for managing Germany’s motorways?

They’re managed by Autobahn GmbH des Bundes.