‘Maintain, Upgrade, Refurbish’: Why Attitudes Towards the Built Environment Must Evolve as Climate Change Accelerates
Inspection
The recent report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) could not be clearer. With a key temperature threshold set to be exceeded in just over a decade, and extreme weather events now regularly dominating headlines, the Panel described the global situation as a “code red for humanity”¹.
This warning applies not only to the natural world but also to the built environment. Buildings and infrastructure are already under stress from climate change. Rising temperatures, more intense storms, flooding, and fires pose serious risks to both structural safety and asset value. In many parts of the Asia-Pacific region, from highly urbanized cities like Singapore and Hong Kong to fast-developing hubs in Southeast Asia, the risks are increasingly visible and complex.
In coastal cities like Jakarta and Manila, rising sea levels and land subsidence have made infrastructure vulnerability a daily concern. Elsewhere, land scarcity, ageing buildings, and extreme weather patterns are accelerating wear and shortening asset lifespans. Densely populated urban areas also face the urban heat island effect and drainage challenges caused by heavier rainfall.
Aging Infrastructure Meets a Changing Climate
A significant proportion of buildings across the world are ageing. In many countries, commercial, residential, and public structures are entering critical life cycle stages. Yet maintenance often remains reactive. Issues are often addressed only when they become visible or urgent, a fix-when-broken mindset that results in operational inefficiencies, reduced building performance, and elevated safety risks.
Climate change magnifies these vulnerabilities. Accelerated material degradation and increased stress on ageing assets demand a forward-looking maintenance strategy, especially in cities where infrastructure is densely concentrated and difficult to replace.
Sustainability Pressures and Embodied Carbon Realities
Across Asia-Pacific, governments are introducing national sustainability targets and green building initiatives to align with global net-zero ambitions. Yet while new construction increasingly prioritises energy efficiency and green certification, the carbon cost of demolition and redevelopment is often underestimated.
Embodied carbon, the CO₂ emitted during material production, construction, and demolition, accounts for a large share of emissions in the built environment. Redevelopment-first mindsets frequently overlook the environmental impact of discarding entire structures that could otherwise be maintained or upgraded.
The smarter solution? Extend asset lifespans through proactive maintenance, data-driven refurbishment, and operational efficiency. This is where Eagle INSPECT adds value.
Proactive Maintenance with Eagle INSPECT
Eagle INSPECT empowers building owners, engineers, and inspectors to safeguard structural health through digital visual inspection workflows and data-backed assessments. By detecting early-stage issues before they escalate, preventive maintenance becomes more achievable and cost-effective when insights are accurate, structured, and easily accessible.
This is especially valuable in urban centres where land is scarce and property values are high. In cities like Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, and Seoul, real-time insights enable confident decisions about refurbishments, upgrades, or continued operations.
It Takes Both Tools and a Mindset Shift
Even with powerful inspection tools, technology adoption alone isn't enough. Across Asia Pacific and beyond, responsibility for structural health is often unclear, maintenance schedules are irregular, and repair budgets are limited. While some countries have made regulatory progress with periodic inspections and building audits, private sector uptake remains inconsistent. Long-term maintenance is often deprioritized until problems surface.
What’s needed is a shift in mindset, from reactive fixes to proactive planning, from fragmented inspections to centralised data-driven strategies.
With solutions like Eagle INSPECT now accessible, this shift is both practical and impactful. Asset owners, engineers, and facility managers can now inspect smarter, maintain better, and extend asset value, all while aligning with broader sustainability goals.
See Eagle Inspect in Action
If you’re the asset owner or operator of a structural asset or a building and want to learn more about how Eagle INSPECT can add long-term value to your operations, we’d love to give you a no-obligation demo. Click here to contact us.
Adapted from the original article on Screening Eagle.
