Climate change has the potential to create a cascade of impacts on interrelated and integrated systems. The capacity of natural systems and society to adapt to new extremes and vulnerabilities and to mitigate appropriately are being studied by scientists, policy makers, industry and others. With respect to highways or linear corridors, and more specifically, the geotechnical component of these structures there are expected and unexpected consequences to climate change. The geotechnical consequences are mostly related to changed conditions at known and potential geohazard locations and the mitigation of these geohazards where they intersect with existing highway corridors. This paper provides a brief overview of significant and likely consequences of climate change on geohazards that occur along Alberta highways. The major flood of June 2013 is used to support the assessment. The cause of climate change is not germane to this discussion; this paper accepts the notion that climate change is or will occur through natural cycles and anthropogenic inputs.
