Improving Infrastructure Resilience

As previously discussed, infrastructure resilience is the ability of infrastructure to deal with disaster. Now that we know what it is we should understand what our options are and how these options are beneficial.

What are the core strategies?

There are many different ways to improve the resilience of infrastructure. Generally in academia there are 5 main strategies to employ in order to increase infrastructure resilience, these are:

1. Multi-functionality

2. Modularisation & Redundancy

3. Diversity (bio and social)

4. Multi-scale Networks

5. Adaptive Planning & Design

So why do these 5 strategies improve resilience? Let's take a look!

Multi-functionality

Multifunctionality infers that each element or component in a system should be able to provide more than one function [1]. So how does this help with resilience? Well if the environment changes and the specific piece of infrastructure is not required anymore then its multi-functionality can be used to improve redundancies of other infrastructure sectors.

An example of multifunctionality would be street lights. They can be strategically used to encourage people to go outside at night, as well as reduce the risk of crime occurring [2].

Modularisation & Redundancy

Modularisation and redundancies are integral for resilience. The concept is simply where multiple elements provide similar functions. These elements would ideally be spread apart geographically. So why is this concept important for resilience? If a Critical Infrastructure System is damaged by an event, having more infrastructure providing the same services will mean that the downtime of critical infrastructure can be reduced to zero. This means that if one element fails then the entire system does not fail [3] due to the redundancies.

This is very important to keep the economy running, to continue the upkeep of healthcare services and to ensure the efficient running of society.

Redundancies work hand-in-hand with multi-functionality as a multi-functional system can act as a backup for other systems.

Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) beneath permeable pavements collect water. This means that if the gulleys and catchpits get blocked, stormwater can still be collected [1]. This is an example of redundant design.

Diversity (bio and social)

Diversity within resilience means not putting all your eggs in one basket (i.e. not relying on one animal to play a specific part in the food chain). Diversity could be looked at either through a social lens or an environmental lens.

Biodiversity refers to diversity of species that perform similar functions yet respond differently to changing environmental stresses.

If you have many different insects, animals and flora that operate essentially in the same or similar food chains whilst acting differently to external stimuli (luck, changing weather patterns or temperature) then the diversity of the ecology will increase. This means that if the changing external stimuli negatively affect one species then another species which provides the same function could take its place.

Social diversity often relates to the economic resilience of a population group. A diverse workforce for instance will be less likely to collectively be affected by the same economic changes resultant from external stimuli like climate change [1].

Now let's take a look a social diversity example. Imagine there is an urban centre where the populace predominantly works in the same field or sector. For the sake of this example let's imagine it was a coal mining town (as was common in the past in the United Kingdom [7]). This town would be full of coal mine labourers, their managers, the HR department and so on and so forth.

If the coal mining industry were to be upended overnight then the majority of the inhabitants of the town would be out of a job. This would have a grave consequences for the economy. As the society was largely dependent on one sector for economic stimulation, the other, supporting, sectors will also be damaged. Other than the fact that the coal workers won’t be able to afford basic necessities like food, water and shelter; the small business owners who are running the bakeries and the like will not generate enough income to pay their workers or to keep their shops and stalls open. There will be major propagation of damage which will seep into many different sectors.

Staying with the previous scenario, let’s imagine a town that has a very diversified workforce that operated in many different sectors (the opposite of the first scenario). A crash in one sector like the coal mining business would not have as big an impact on the wider society meaning that the economy is more resilient.

The example above can be re-appropriated to be in the terms of climate change. Instead of coal miners losing their jobs, perhaps the fish in the nearby sea migrate away or die off due to changing water temperature. This would cause the fishing industry to suffer tremendously. A diverse economy will be able to absorb the damage and reorganise its workforce so that there isn't a major loss in productivity. We would expect that a small drop in productivity would not negatively harm the infrastructure systems.

Now you may be thinking that this is only affecting the economy and not infrastructure but this is not the case. In the world we live in the economy is lifeblood of a population. A structural collapse in the economy will result in destructive positive feedback loop for infrastructure e.g. homeowners and tenants may not be able to afford their utility bills and so the power and water companies may not be able to function at their optimal capacities.

Multi-scale Networks

Multi-scale networks allow for a global sense of the required designs. This enables the planning process to achieve an outcome that has a more integrated approach as multi-scale networks operate both in a local and national scale [1].

Urban trails for instance can be designed to pass through parks [4]. This strategy improves the resilience of a system through redundant circuitry.

Another example would be energy distribution systems. The system can have its electricity generation in the countryside and then the electricity can be transported to the towns, cities and villages.

Once it gets to the towns for example, it might be connected to a local grid which receives multiple sources of electricity. In addition to this, The houses in this town might have solar panels generating excess electricity which would then be added to the grid to be sent to in demand areas. This is great for infrastructure resilience because if one energy source is out of commission, different sources can be utilised to make up for the lost generation.

Adaptive Planning & Design

Adaptive planning and design emphasises the empirical system of design [1][5] whereby the state learns from its previous policies and the policies of other states that have encountered similar situations [6]. We know that this is an effective method for progress as it is based around the scientific method. Essentially it is design based on learning from past mistakes.

So when planning infrastructure implementation and designing the infrastructure you should take a look at your own previous experiences within this urban centre as well as what other urban centres have faced, especially those which are similar to yours.

Overview

These 5 methods have been used extensively in urban and non-urban centres across the world and have proven to be successful in improving infrastructure resilience.

You might have noticed that these concepts are very interlinked which is a good thing as urban planners and designers can achieve all the concepts with minimal effort as long as the planning is sufficient.

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References:

[1] Ahern, J. (2011) ‘From fail-safe to safe-to-fail: Sustainability and resilience in the new urban world’, Landscape and Urban Planning. doi: 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2011.02.021.

[2] Manville, C. et al. (2014) Mapping smart cities in the EU., European Parliament: Policy Department, Economic and Scientific Policy. doi: 10.1007/s13398-014-0173-7.2.

[3] McClellan, S., Jimenez, J. A. and Koutitas, G. (2017) Smart cities: Applications, technologies, standards, and driving factors, Smart Cities: Applications, Technologies, Standards, and Driving Factors. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-59381-4.

[4] Novotny, V., Ahearn, J. and Brown, P. (2010) ‘PLANNING AND DESIGN FOR SUSTAINABLE AND RESILIENT CITIES: THEORIES, STRATEGIES, AND BEST PRACTICES FOR GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE’, in Water Centric Sustainable Communities, pp. 135–176.

[5] Little, R. G. (2003) ‘Toward more robust infrastructure: Observations on improving the resilience and reliability of critical systems’, in Proceedings of the 36th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 2003. doi: 10.1109/HICSS.2003.1173880.

[6] Amin, M. (2000) ‘National infrastructures as complex interactive networks’, Automation, Control, and Complexity: An Integrated Approach.

[7] BBC News. 2019. Former Mining Communities 'Still Scarred By Past'. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-50069336>.