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The report presents the work of the Joint Research Centre’s scientific network on adaptation of structural design to climate change focusing on the thermal design of buildings and infrastructure considering the changing climate. It presents scientific and technical background intended to stimulate debate and serve as a basis for further work to study the implications of climate change on the thermal design of structures. The report first outlines recent EU policies in support of sustainability and climate resilience of infrastructure and buildings. It highlights how the construction sector is encouraged to adopt more sustainable and circular economy practices, extend the lifetime of buildings and strive for better performance of buildings and infrastructure throughout their life cycle. It further emphasises the ongoing action plan to adapt the European standards to a changing climate. Following, the report explains the concept of the definition of thermal actions for the design of buildings and infrastructure using the European standards for structural design, i.e. the Eurocodes. It is showed that the adaptation of structural design to the implications of climate change is strongly linked with the assessment of changing characteristics of climatic actions (including thermal ones) in terms of the Eurocodes concept for the variable climatic actions. Variations in temperature that would directly affect the design values for thermal actions in the European standards are studied in depth for the case study of Italy. It is concluded that an increase in the maximum and minimum temperature used for structural design is expected all over Italy. It is discussed that structures, as bridges for example, are expected to be influenced by stresses from extreme temperatures and thus, should be designed for temperature amplitudes justified from climate projections for the actual region. However, the current European maps for thermal design are based on climatic data which, with some exceptions, are mostly 10 to 15 years old and ignore the potential effects of climate change. Thus, new European maps for the thermal design of structures should be developed using data that project more realistically the future climate. To this end, the authors present a methodology for developing thermal maps for structural design taking into account the influence of the changing climate and present an implementation of the methodology using the example of Italy., JRC.E.4-Safety and Security of Buildings

The objective of the present report is to evaluate the state of harmonised use of the Eurocodes in the EU and EFTA Member States. Besides that, the report is deemed to assess the potential for further harmonisation and the associated needs to support the on-going activities of CEN/TC250 "Structural Eurocodes" in the development of the second generation of the Eurocodes. The report analyses the national choices of the 28 EU Member States and two EFTA Member States (Norway and Switzerland). The European Commission Nationally Determined Parameters Database (NDPs Database) was used as a source of information on the countries' choices regarding the values adopted in the Eurocodes National Annexes. The data available was subject of extensive analyses, comprising (i) assessment of the representativeness of the data set to draw conclusions on the country choices, (ii) examination of harmonised patterns of the NDPs, per country, Eurocode and for specific Eurocodes parts, (iii) study of cross-border convergence of the maps for climatic and seismic actions, (iv) identification of specific NDPs that achieved a high or a low consensus in the national choices, and (v) analysis of parameters with the largest divergence from the recommended values. The analysis of the reliability levels of structural members designed with the Eurocodes using the NDPs chosen by the Member States, complemented the statistical analysis of the NDPs, providing a more global assessment of the combined impact of the national choices on the levels of safety achieved. The results demonstrate that the Eurocodes have achieved a high level of harmonisation in the EU and EFTA Member States, since most countries accepted the parameters recommended in the Standards. In fact, the analysis performed with a data availability of 71%, shows a mean acceptance rate of 73% for all NDPs with recommended values. The high rate of acceptance of the NDPs does not automatically imply that these NDPs shall be eliminated in the second generation of the Eurocodes, since many of them are directly related to the safety which is under national responsibility, or account for local geographical, geological and climatic conditions. Nevertheless, it is of primary interest for the achievement of a deeper internal market for construction products and engineering services that further harmonisation in the use of the Eurocodes is attained, as foreseen in the second generation of the Eurocodes. There are still a number of NDPs in the standards that have a good potential to be considered in the works on the second generation of the Eurocodes, as these NDPs are accounting for different design cultures and procedures for structural analysis. The cross-border convergence of the national maps for climatic and seismic actions shall be considered as an indicator for the harmonised use of data and methods for derivation of these maps. Harmonising the use of the Eurocodes in the EU and EFTA Member States, by reducing the number of Nationally Determined Parameters in the standards, will reduce the obstacles arising from different national practices and will boost the free circulation of products and services within the European Economic Area., JRC.E.4-Safety and Security of Buildings

The on-going work to prepare a new European standard for ice loads on structures is described.

The report provides general information on the concept of the Eurocodes implementation in the regulatory system and discusses case studies of EU Member States that have successfully implemented the Eurocodes in the national regulatory system. It also highlights the experience of designers on using the Eurocodes by presenting simple application examples. Moreover, the state of the Eurocodes implementation in the non-EU Balkan countries is presented, based on the information exchanged and collected during the workshop “The way forward for the Eurocodes implementation in the Balkans” (10-11 October 2018 in Tirana, Albania), along with the activities of the Engineering Chambers in support of the Eurocodes implementation. The way towards the publication of the Second Generation of the Eurocodes, expected after 2021, is also discussed., JRC.E.4-Safety and Security of Buildings