EU-INTACT-case studies: Impact of extreme weather on critical Infrastructure

Abstract

Abstract. The resilience of critical infrastructures (CI) to Extreme Weather Events (EWE) is one of the most salient and demanding challenges facing society. Growing scientific evidence suggests that more frequent and severe weather extremes such as heat waves, hurricanes and droughts and their effects such as flooding are having an ever increasing impact, with the range and effects on society exacerbated when CI is disrupted or destroyed. Disruptions of CI systems frequently cause major social and economic losses, both directly and through failures in one system leading to disruptions in another (cascading effects). The ability to ensure continuity in services provided by CI directly relates to the resilience of communities to withstand and recover from disasters. The approach adopted by the INTACT-project recognizes that a European-wide coordinated and cooperative effort is required because of cross border CI-activities and impacts as well as an integrated EU-policy.The INTACT-case studies and their expected outcomes are designed to bring added value for the concerned stakeholders locally and demonstrate the validity and applicability of the INTACT approach at the broader (European) scale. To achieve this, the selected case studies are geographically spread across Europe encompassing different climate, landscape and environmental zones, as to provide coverage of a representative range of CI types and also including different levels of governance.One of the case studies is located in the Netherlands and deals with the port of Rotterdam. The situation in Rotterdam is representative for many other main ports in Europe. These ports are all situated in a delta area, near the sea and rivers or canals. Also, these ports are close to urban areas and industrial complexes. Finally, these ports have a multimodal transport infrastructure to and from its hinterland, which is also vulnerable for extreme weather events. The case study is not only significant for the development of methods and tools, but also of direct interest for the region itself. The combination of the National Water safety policy and the best practices from the INTACT cases offer challenges to create better adaptation options and coping capacity to these relatively unforeseen and unexpected impacts based on climate cKDQJH VFHQDULR ¶V DQG VRFLR-economic megatrends.

Proposed methodology for risk analysis of interdependent critical infrastructures to extreme weather events

“…According to [48] "theory developed from case study research is likely to have important strengths like novelty, testability and empirical validity, which arise from the intimate linkage with empirical evidence". The INTACT-case studies and their outcomes are designed to bring added value for the concerned stakeholders locally and to demonstrate the validity and applicability of the INTACT approach at the broader (European) scale [16]. To understand the system of CIs within the port of Rotterdam and be able to analyse the risks and impacts due to EWEs on it, various data were required.…”

“…The work described in this paper is part of the EU-FP7 project with the acronym INTACT; the project addresses the resilience of CIs to EWEs and aims at bringing together innovative and cutting edge knowledge and experience to support stakeholders throughout Europe (and beyond) in their decision making to assess and mitigate risks of EWEs to their CIs [3]. In order to do so, case studies were selected across Europe that include different climate, landscape and environmental zones to provide coverage of a representative range of CI types and different levels of governance [16]. For this purpose the Port of Rotterdam area in the Netherlands was selected as one of the appropriate case studies, since it includes multiple CIs that belong to different sectors and are exposed to different types of extreme weather.…”

Assessing variations of extreme indices inducing weather-hazards on critical infrastructures over Europe—the INTACT framework

“…The Netherlands case study deals with the effects of EWEs on the Rotterdam port (van Ruiten et al 2016). The port is located in a delta area close to urban and industrial complexes.…”

Impact of extreme weather on critical infrastructure: the EU-INTACT risk framework

“…Overview of INTACT work packages Using the consistent framework and taxonomy developed in WP1, there is a logical sequence from the investigation of extreme weather in WP2, the important EWE-CI interactions and vulnerabilities from WP3, which are then used in the central risk analysis and management work package. These three technical work areas feed information and outputs into the wiki, which in turn is tested in the case studies [13]. This paper concentrates on the risk management activities and provides a case study example from Finland.…”