1 INTRODUCTION Recent bridges collapses (Greece, UK, Italy) during adverse weather events raise many questions con- cerning the level of preparedness of cities and their hinterlands towards climate risks to infrastructure. In 2015, first Storm Eva and then Storm Frank caused flooding that led to the collapse of the 18th century Tadcaster Bridge, also in North Yorkshire, and badly damaged the medieval Eamont Bridge in nearby Cumbria. Floods in 2009 led to the collapse or se- verely damaged 29 bridges in Cumbria alone. Climate change is increasing the frequency of intense rainfall events, while cities are growing in size and complexity. Because of the high level of interconnec- tion and interdependency of different infrastructure, the failure of one link in the transport network (e.g. a bridge) may result in widespread negative effects, such impairing emergency operations or business in- terruption. Bridges are, by nature, crucial elements of the road network because they are highly redundancy-im- portant (Jenelius, 2010). Understanding their vulner- abilities is paramount for optimal and cost-effective resource allocation to prevent disasters. Literature shows that numerous bridges could have reached the end of their expected life spans (be- tween 50-100 years). However, most countries are unable to systematically identify the bridges that are most at risk at national level. This relates to two is- sues: (i) the lack of information on national bridge portfolios; (ii) the lack of a risk-based methodology to be systematically implemented. Bridges have dif- ferent designs, materials and age, thus they are sensi- tive to diverse kind of hazards in various ways and measures with consequently different resulting fail- ure mechanisms. This research aims to highlight the gaps in the knowledge concerning our bridges heritage, to stress the need of a better understanding of the state of the art and to advocate further research, funding and at- tention to this topic. Therefore, this paper’s primary objective is to fill the gap between current procedures of bridge management and data collection protocols of bridge data. It presents first an overarching risk- based framework and then a preliminary protocolled Towards an integrated Bridge Risk Management System (BRMS) M. Pregnolato, G. Gavriel Dep. of Civil Engineering, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom F. D. Lopane School of Engineering, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, United Kingdom ABSTRACT: Bridges are crucial points of connection in the transport system, underpinning economic vitality, social well-being and logistics of modern communities. Bridges have also strategic relevance, since they sup- port access to emergency services (e.g. hospitals) and utilities (e.g. water supply). Bridges are mostly exposed to natural hazards, in particular riverine bridges to flooding, and disruption could lead to widespread negative effects. Therefore, protecting bridges enhances the resilience of cities and communities. Currently, most of the countries are not able to identify bridges at higher risk of failure, due to the unavailability of high-quality data, the mixed ownership of the assets or the lack of risk-based assessment approaches. Moreover, current datasets are not accommodating new data deriving from monitoring systems and other technologies. This paper intro- duces a risk-based approach to bridge management, alongside a preliminary protocolled taxonomy for data collection of bridges.