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Effective decision-making for the provision and maintenance of infrastructure systems requires strategic performance indicators aligned with a clear vision of the societal benefits that infrastructure will be expected to enable and systemic awareness of interdependencies between infrastructure sectors. This paper proposes a conceptual outcomeoriented approach to strategic infrastructure performance indicators as a systemic alternative to current approaches which predominantly focus on performance within individual sectors. The conceptual approach proposed aligns performance measures with stated priorities and future aspirations rather than past performance; provides a transparent framework for decision-making; can be applied at a range of scales; and creates an evidence base against which indicator design can be justified and reviewed. Additionally, the conceptual outcome-oriented approach proposed is adaptable for application in other areas of infrastructure decision-making, in particular the development of methodologies to assess what infrastructure will be needed in the future.

It is argued that organisational vulnerability tools should be developed to enable a systematic approach to 'diagnosing' incubating precursors. It is also argued that there is the potential for 2 further resilience to be achieved through the use of models of the complex dynamics of sociotechnical processes within organisations.

Existing and planned infrastructure can be interconnected in many different ways with each other and with the natural, political and socioeconomic systems in which they are located. Current planning, appraisal and design process for major infrastructure projects tend not to identify and capture all of the valuable or hazardous interdependencies that could be exploited or need to be managed. Many potential interdependencies which could deliver benefits or costs to the project and the wider natural/social/economic/political systems are identified too late into the process to take appropriate action. The approach to infrastructure both old and new is often fragmented, projects are treated as relatively closed systems and the boundaries around them are drawn too early and too narrow. This report applies elements of an Interdependency Planning and Management Framework (IP&MF) 3 to an important emerging infrastructure project, the proposed Lower Thames Crossing (LTC). The IP&MF, as applied here, aims to identify necessary and potential interdependencies between the LTC and other infrastructure in order to evaluate any prospective benefits or hazards they may present.

Current planning and appraisal processes treat infrastructure as discrete, sector-specific assets, and as a consequence can fail to identify and exploit potentially valuable interdependencies. Similarly, these silo-based approaches are unable to identify potentially hazardous and costly interdependencies in a systematic manner. A major challenge then for providers of modern infrastructure, is to realise the innovative opportunities in interdependencies, and so increase value-for-money, sustainability and resilience. To overcome this, it is necessary to recognise that real-world infrastructure 'systems' are highly interconnected, both with each other and with the socioeconomic and natural systems in which they are located. This paper presents a focused set of the findings from a research partnership between the University of Bristol and University College London, sponsored by HM Treasury in the UK. It proposes an 'open-systems', cross-sectoral approach to create and manage beneficial infrastructure interdependencies, and comprises a framework of principles: 'stewardship', 'shared-governance' and 'interdisciplinarity'; and associated systems-based tools. These have been applied to four case studies relating to the UK's National Infrastructure Programme, three of which are summarized in this paper.