How Data and Analytics Support Climate Resilience in Asia’s Construction Industry

   

Climate change is having significant impacts on the construction industry in Asia.² From typhoons and floods to extreme heat and drought, weather events are becoming more severe and more difficult to predict. Property investors, developers, contractors and operators are all facing the challenge of assessing these risks and developing new practices to manage them across the planning, building and operating stages of project life cycles.

“It is not just construction companies and building owners at risk,” says Cecilia Tse, Director, Risk, Climate and Sustainability Solutions for Aon in Asia Pacific (APAC). “Architects, engineers, asset operators, insurers, financiers, regulators and suppliers are all commercially exposed to the impacts of climate risk.”

A Region on the Frontline of Climate Risk

APAC has long been vulnerable to extreme weather events. Climate change is driving the intensity of these events in ways that challenge existing risk models and preparedness. Aon’s 2026 Climate and Catastrophe Insight Report highlights the ongoing volatility of weather events in the region.

Flooding in China and tropical storms in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand caused three of the top 10 global economic loss events of 2025. While wildfires and severe convective storms in the US saw the country experience the majority of global economic losses (55 percent), APAC experienced the second highest total loss of USD76 billion and insured losses of just USD7 billion. That means less than one in 10 dollars lost to disasters in APAC was insured last year.

Multiple studies suggest that urbanisation in hazardous areas is an underlying driver of this multi-decadal loss trend.³ High-value assets are now being built in exposed areas, from coastal resorts to dense metropolitan districts. “The sector faces both a heightening of risks we already know about, such as construction delays, and entirely new risks, such as the impact of extreme heat on workforce productivity,” says Tse.

 

The Role of Data, Modelling and Technology

Insights from climate science make it clear that past data can no longer be relied upon to predict future weather patterns and risks. Warmer global temperatures are triggering heavier rainfall, more intense storms and more frequent extreme heat.

This requires the construction sector to explore the use of forward-looking models that can provide a range of scenarios for climate futures. These climate models simulate possible outcomes from a 1.8°C to 4°C increase in average temperatures, and the consequences for flood levels, storm frequency and cyclone intensity. Developed with input and guidance from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, these global climate models provide the scientific basis for these scenarios⁴ and their impacts.

At the same time, new tools are providing practical support to decision-makers. Aon’s Climate Risk Monitor, for example, screens locations for current and future exposure to events such as flooding, cyclone, wildfire and coastal hazards to help identify risk hotspots and inform investment decisions. Heat stress and cooling demand are also identified as risks to these locations.

Transparency and validation are essential. “No two models are the same,” says Tse. “What matters is how transparent the methodology is, how granular the data and how accessible climate information is at a level that is appropriate for risk managers and decision-makers.”

Short-term and real-time forecasting is also playing a bigger role. There are several predictive analytics platforms⁵ that provide weather forecasting ranging from a few hours’ warning of heavy rainfall to medium-range forecasts with a ten-day horizon. These alerts enable construction firms to prepare worksites and safeguard materials. Combined with climate modelling, tools like these provide views of risk, for the near term, and for the multi-decade time horizons that apply to larger construction projects.

 

Practical Steps Towards Climate Resilience

Turning climate science insights and modelling outputs into resilience requires planning and action across three dimensions:

1. Positioning

Many losses from climate events in APAC are the result of building high-value assets in areas exposed to weather hazards. By incorporating climate models into site selection and due diligence, investors and developers can identify long-term vulnerabilities and take these into account for location planning. Even existing assets can benefit from this knowledge, informing decisions on divestment, repurposing or adaptation.

2. Design

Incorporating resilience features during construction delivers a significant return on investment. “Studies show savings ranging from four to sixteen times the initial cost of preventive measures⁶,” says Tse. “In one case, a logistics company used data and analysis from climate risk assessments to elevate storage facilities above projected flood levels. When a heavy rain event occurred, causing significant flooding, goods were undamaged thanks to these design interventions.”

3. Preparedness

From installing flood barriers and pumps to disaster recovery and business contingencies, preparation measures can help sites recover more quickly from disruption. Interventions extend beyond a company’s own operations to the broader ecosystem. If roads to a factory are flooded, for example, both materials and labour may be cut off, preventing progress regardless of conditions onsite. “An effective and well tested continuity plan, for example, can be expected to reduce delay occurrences by between 30 percent to 40 percent⁷,” says Tse.

Being prepared also means construction companies and building owners each understand their respective responsibilities in the event of delays caused by weather events. Familiarisation with the types of contracts used and the role of insurance is key in strengthening preparedness.

A Broader Transition Challenge

Beyond physical risks to buildings, the industry faces a parallel transition challenge. “The construction sector accounts for around 39 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, through embodied carbon in materials and energy use during operations,⁸” says Tse. “The sector must not only adapt to climate impacts but also contribute to reducing them, by shifting towards renewable energy and sustainable materials.”

This transition is increasingly tied to regulation, investor expectations and reputational risk. Using sustainable concrete, green steel and renewable energy sources is becoming part of resilience strategy, both for compliance and limiting the emissions fuelling climate change.

With forward-looking data and robust models to inform positioning, design and preparedness strategies, construction stakeholders can build resilience into their assets and operations. As the industry transitions to more sustainable practices, the opportunity is not only to weather the storms ahead, but to invest in a stronger, more resilient built environment for APAC’s future.

 

 

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¹ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2022, Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Chapter 10: Key risks across sectors and regions,, IPCC, Geneva, viewed 7 April 2026 https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/chapter/chapter-10/.
² International Labour Organization 2019, Increase in heat stress predicted to bring productivity loss equivalent to 80 million jobs, news release, 1 July, viewed 7 April 2026 https://www.ilo.org/resource/news/increase-heat-stress-predicted-bring-productivity-loss-equivalent-80.
³ Neumayer, E & Barthel, F 2011, ‘Normalizing economic loss from natural disasters: A global analysis’, Global Environmental Change, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 13–24, viewed 7 April 2026; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959378010001019.
⁴ WeCarbon 2025, Climate tech in focus 2025, WeCarbon, viewed 7 April 2026, https://cdn.we-carbon.com/ClimateTech-In-Focus-2025-en.pdf.
⁵ For example https://www.ecmwf.int/en/forecasts and Global Forecast System (GFS) | National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).
⁶ Neumayer, E. & Barthel, F. 2011, ‘Normalizing economic loss from natural disasters: A global analysis’, Global Environmental Change, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 13–24, viewed 7 April 2026; https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1446913/2/1-s2.0-S2212420914000661-main.pdf.
⁷ Patel, KD & Rajgor, MB 2024, ‘Mitigation strategies for overcoming delays in high-rise construction projects: A comprehensive literature review’, Tuijin Jishu/Journal of Propulsion Technology, vol. 45, no. 4, ISSN 1001-4055.
⁸ World Green Building Council 2019, Bringing embodied carbon upfront: Coordinated action for the building and construction sector to tackle embodied carbon, World Green Building Council, viewed 7 April 2026, https://worldgbc.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/22123951/WorldGBC_Bringing_Embodied_Carbon_Upfront.pdf.