Annual Lecture: Increasing infrastructure resilience
CIRIA’s 3rd Annual Lecture took place on 17 April, kindly hosted by Arcadis in London. With a full house, delegates at this CIRIA Member exclusive event heard from guest speakers Prof Jim Hall, University of Oxford and Julie Foley OBE, Environment Agency as they shared their thoughts on the topic of Increasing Infrastructure Resilience. Dr Andy Moores, Research Director at CIRIA, summarises the key outcomes from the lecture
here.
Pictured: Prof Jim Hall, Julie Foley OBE, and Dr Andy Moores
The resilience of the built, social and natural environment is key to a sustainable future. Although the UK’s infrastructure has proved fairly resilient historically, it is increasingly vulnerable to environmental and socio-economic pressures – both acute (immediate shock) and chronic (progressive change).
The National Infrastructure Commission's Report
Anticipate, react, recover – Resilient infrastructure systems (2020) outlined a framework for evaluating resilience based on understanding of risk, ability to withstand and adaptation.
The Second National Infrastructure Assessment (2023) builds on the first Assessment and the Commission’s wider body of work and focuses on key challenges not covered in the first Assessment.
Better maintenance and renewal of the existing asset base will be essential, as will building new infrastructure to protect households and businesses from flooding and drought. Investment, removing barriers to progress, increasing productivity, adaptive planning will be key to achieving resilience.