The relationship between infrastructure, climate change and time is a crucial
but often misunderstood element of climate policy. This article argues
that climate adaptation infrastructures mediate between different temporal
regimes and can even be said to generate temporal regimes themselves.
By examining the development of the Dutch Delta Works, a set of
infrastructures initiated after the 1953 North Sea floods that killed more
than 1,800 people, the article reconceptualizes the development from the
response to the 1953 disaster to its current relationship with the consequences
of climate change, in particular rising sea levels, river water inflows
and weather fluctuations such as increased rainfall. By situating the development of the Delta Works in relation to Kairos, a period of transition and
transformation, rather than Krisis as a response to an immediate disaster,
the analysis presents a multifaceted perspective on the relationship between
infrastructures, time and temporality. Developing the notion of infrastructural
compromises to describe how infrastructures connect to and
mediate between different temporal regimes, the analysis examines four
episodes, each of which involves a different relationship to time and exemplifies
different compromises between temporal regimes. As infrastructure
development will be of paramount importance for the development and
implementation of climate adaptation policies, it is crucial to arrive at a refined
understanding of the relationship between infrastructure and time. A
heterogeneous conception of time and temporality is needed to do justice
to the mediating role of infrastructures in all these issues and the trade-offs
that result from this interaction.