Risk and resilience of infrastructure systems

A NISMOD’s risk analysis framework uses the profiles to examine the robustness and vulnerability of existing and hypothetical configurations of national infrastructure networks, and allows assessment of different national strategies for infrastructure provision based on their risk-footprint under climate change.

The framework was used to inform the UK Department for Transport’s Review of the resilience of the transport network to extreme weather in July 2014; and, working with JBA Consulting and the Met Office, to develop a comprehensive methodology to assess the implications of climate change on interdependent infrastructures when designing the route of the High-Speed 2 railway, HS2.

Building on these tools and methodologies, ITRC has worked with the World Bank in Tanzania, Vietnam and Argentina to assess climate risks to multi-modal transport systems and the costs and benefits of adaptation options, taking into account not only direct risks to infrastructure, such as flood or landslide damage to roads or railways, but also indirect risks to society and the economy: decreased access to schools and hospitals, increase in cost of routes to market, and wider disruptions to input-output flows of goods between regions within countries and internationally.