NISMOD

Infrastructure for sustainable development

INTRODUCTION

We have been working with the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) since 2016 on projects in Palestine, Curaçao, St Lucia and Ghana to rapidly assess infrastructure needs and support the formulation of plans.

Building on the techniques which we developed to simulate interdependent infrastructure systems in the UK, we have developed a process and models which can adapt to inform infrastructure planning and decision-making in the different contexts of Small Island Developing States and Low-to-Middle Income Countries.

These models integrate across long-term planning and risk and vulnerability assessment. They are designed to:

  1. assess a country’s current and future infrastructure needs and to provide recommendations on how those needs can best be met in alignment with global goals.
  2. assess the exposure of national infrastructures to a range of climate hazards in order to underpin climate-compatible development decisions

integration

NISMOD integrates a complex range of data, including future population, economic, and climatic scenarios, to provide state-of-the-art analysis to underpin infrastructure investment decisions and policies. In doing so, NISMOD enables evidence to be incorporated at the heart of long-term infrastructure planning with the aim of delivering on the global agendas, including the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Each step of the process underpins a key component of evidence-based infrastructure development:

  • Accumulation of comprehensive datasets on existing infrastructure and demand drivers.
  • Modelling and analysis to assess the performance of the infrastructure system in relation to pre-defined performance targets set in alignment with global agendas such as the Sustainable Development Goals and national contributions under the Paris Agreement.
  • Results and outputs of the modelling process to provide the basis for investment and policy recommendations that can align system performance with these targets. This process incorporates explicit interdependencies between sectors.

 

The risk and vulnerability tool integrates a range of spatial data to identify, quantify, and visualize the impact of climate hazards on built and natural assets and to explore interventions intended to reduce hazard exposure while contributing to the global agendas. In doing so, it can provide the evidence to prioritise investments identified within National Adaptation Plans based on their risk-footprint under climate change.

APPLICATIONS

 Each step of the process underpins a key component of evidence-based infrastructure development:

Spatial location

Information on the spatial location of infrastructure and environment assets as well as climate hazards.

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Sustainable Development Goals

Characterising the exposure of assets to hazards using a geospatial model and analysing alternative sectoral and cross-sectoral adaptation options for their contribution to reducing exposure and delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Adaptation planning

Geospatial data and outputs of the modelling to provide the basis for adaptation planning that align with the global goals and the National Adaptation Plan.

RESOURCES

People

Scott Thacker

Dan Adshead

Lena Fuldauer

Tom Russell

Matt Ives

Adrian Hickford

Institutions

University of Oxford

UNOPS

University of Southampton

Related collaborations

UNOPS – Palestine, Curaçao, St. Lucia

UNOPS/UNEP/GCA – Ghana

RELATED MODELS & DATASETS

NISMOD for Sustainable Development (Excel model)

RESEARCH THEMES

ENERGY
TRANSPORT
WATER
DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS
DEMOGRAPHICS
URBAN DEVELOPMENT
ECONOMICS
INFRASTRUCTURE
GOVERNANCE
NISMOD
RISK AND
RESILIENCE
RESEARCH SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
DATABASES