UK Infrastructure Transitions Research Consortium (ITRC): PROGRAMME GRANT: Long term dynamics of interdependent infrastructure systems

Lead Research Organisation: Newcastle University
Department Name: Civil Engineering and Geosciences

Abstract

National infrastructure (NI) systems (energy, transport, water, waste and ICT) in the UK and in advanced economies globally face serious challenges. The 2009 Council for Science and Technology (CST) report on NI in the UK identified significant vulnerabilities, capacity limitations and a number of NI components nearing the end of their useful life. It also highlighted serious fragmentation in the arrangements for infrastructure provision in the UK. There is an urgent need to reduce carbon emissions from infrastructure, to respond to future demographic, social and lifestyle changes and to build resilience to intensifying impacts of climate change. If this process of transforming NI is to take place efficiently, whilst also minimising the associated risks, it will need to be underpinned by a long-term, cross-sectoral approach to understanding NI performance under a range of possible futures. The 'systems of systems' analysis that must form the basis for such a strategic approach does not yet exist - this inter-disciplinary research programme will provide it.The aim of the UK Infrastructure Transitions Research Consortium is to develop and demonstrate a new generation of system simulation models and tools to inform analysis, planning and design of NI. The research will deal with energy, transport, water, waste and ICT systems at a national scale, developing new methods for analysing their performance, risks and interdependencies. It will provide a virtual environment in which we will test strategies for long term investment in NI and understand how alternative strategies perform with respect to policy constraints such as reliability and security of supply, cost, carbon emissions, and adaptability to demographic and climate change.The research programme is structured around four major challenges:1. How can infrastructure capacity and demand be balanced in an uncertain future? We will develop methods for modelling capacity, demand and interdependence in NI systems in a compatible way under a wide range of technological, socio-economic and climate futures. We will thereby provide the tools needed to identify robust strategies for sustainably balancing capacity and demand.2. What are the risks of infrastructure failure and how can we adapt NI to make it more resilient?We will analyse the risks of interdependent infrastructure failure by establishing network models of NI and analysing the consequences of failure for people and the economy. Information on key vulnerabilities and risks will be used to identify ways of adapting infrastructure systems to reduce risks in future.3. How do infrastructure systems evolve and interact with society and the economy? Starting with idealised simulations and working up to the national scale, we will develop new models of how infrastructure, society and the economy evolve in the long term. We will use the simulation models to demonstrate alternative long term futures for infrastructure provision and how they might be reached.4. What should the UK's strategy be for integrated provision of NI in the long term? Working with a remarkable group of project partners in government and industry, we will use our new methods to develop and test alternative strategies for Britain's NI, building an evidence-based case for a transition to sustainability. We will analyse the governance arrangements necessary to ensure that this transition is realisable in practice.A Programme Grant provides the opportunity to work flexibly with key partners in government and industry to address research challenges of national importance in a sustained way over five years. Our ambition is that through development of a new generation of tools, in concert with our government and industry partners, we will enable a revolution in the strategic analysis of NI provision in the UK, whilst at the same time becoming an international landmark programme recognised for novelty, research excellence and impact.

Planned Impact

HM Treasury estimates that approximately 150 billion has been invested in National Infrastructure (NI) in the UK over the last five years. Increased levels of investment will be required to renew and maintain existing infrastructure and meet the new challenge of setting the economy on a low-carbon trajectory. Similar challenges are faced worldwide, with the OECD estimating that infrastructure investments between 2000 and 2030 will be about US$71 trillion worldwide, or 3.5% of world GDP. The UK Infrastructure Transitions Research Consortium (ITRC) aims to deliver models and analysis methods that will help to ensure that this huge investment is allocated in a way that has the best prospects for improving infrastructure services, increasing economic competitiveness, reducing risk of failure and improving environmental standards (including carbon emissions reduction). To ensure that this impact is realised, the ITRC has been developed in close collaboration over a period of more than a year with high level stakeholders from government and industry. The main beneficiaries and benefits of the research will be: 1. Government departments and agencies (e.g. Infrastructure UK, DfT, DECC, DCLG, DEFRA, Environment Agency, Highways Agency) involved in infrastructure planning, regulation and provision, who will benefit from methods for strategic analysis that provide improved understanding of NI systems performance in the long term. 2. Infrastructure owners and utility companies (e.g. energy companies, National Grid, Network Rail, water and waste utilities, telecom providers), who will benefit from tools for analysis of capacity, demand and risk, which can be used to inform investment planning and asset management. 3. Engineering and multi-disciplinary consultants, who will benefit from improved models to inform their consultancy services, both in the UK and internationally. Ultimately, consumers of infrastructure services will benefit through more efficient NI that is designed to exploit synergies between infrastructure sectors, to minimise risks and to be adaptable to an uncertain future. Though the tools we develop will be the most advanced modelling and simulation of its kind in the world, it is essential that we find mechanisms for fast-tracking cutting edge research to practitioners in a form that is both accessible and applicable. Our Project Partners in industry and government are therefore deeply involved in the research programme, through a process of continuous and iterative testing of models and tools and co-production of strategies for NI provision. This will start with a fast track analysis in the first year of the research programme, working with Project Partners to scope possible futures and present an initial set of NI strategies. This first cycle of co-production will be followed by two subsequent cycles during the five year research programme, which will demonstrate the powerful new assessment models and tools developed in the research and transfer them our project partners. By the end of the five year Programme Grant we expect key end users to be exploiting the tools for NI systems analysis. Collaboration with the project partners will be managed to maximise impact by Roger Street (UK Climate Impacts Programme), who has 25 years of experience of linking climate research with practice in industry and government. An Expert Advisory Group with representatives from key end users will help to advise upon the research direction and enhance dissemination and uptake. Our Project Partners include representatives from the engineering institutions, who will be able to disseminate results to the professional groups that they represent. The Impact Plan has been developed by Roger Street in consultation with the project partners and includes a series of workshops, three dissemination conferences (at the end of years 1, 3 and 5 of the research programme) and knowledge transfer seminars.
 
Description The UK Infrastructure Transitions Research Consortium (ITRC) was launched in 2011 with the aim "develop and demonstrate a new generation of system simulation models and tools to inform analysis, planning and design of national infrastructure." The consortium was funded by a Programme Grant from EPSRC and substantial contributions from partners in industry and government. In five years the ITRC has developed and demonstrated a national system-of-systems infrastructure modelling capability that does not exist anywhere else in the world and has contributed to the reputation of the UK as a leading place for systems-of-systems infrastructure research and innovation.
Exploitation Route After five years of research the ITRC finds itself in a position of great potential in terms of global positioning, scientific significance and beneficial impact. Thanks to EPSRC investment, the UK is now becoming recognised as an international leader in infrastructure systems research. The ITRC has built capacity amongst academic staff at a range of career stages, post-doctoral researchers and doctoral students. That capacity includes conceptual understanding, methodologies/codes/tools, datasets and know-how.

We see the ITRC's systems-of-systems approach shaping thinking and decision making around infrastructure systems. Our findings have already being put to use by others as illustrated by the following collaborations:

Infrastructure UK - Critical infrastructure hotspot analysis. Working rapidly over the summer of 2013, the ITRC delivered a national infrastructure 'hotspots' analysis for Infrastructure UK, making use of its unique modelling capability. The hotspots analysis identified critical infrastructure locations, where criticality is measured in terms of the number of customers directly or indirectly dependent on an asset. An extensive infrastructure database comprising 200,000 assets forming interdependent national-scale networks was built to look at the nation-wide criticality of individual infrastructures. The final analysis involving national-scale networks for electricity transmission and distribution, gas, trunk road and rail demonstrated that interconnectivity between infrastructure networks could result in failure at a particular location having cascading effects and disproportionate consequences of customer disruptions. The work was well received and has set up a pathway for continued dialogue between ITRC and Infrastructure UK.

This successful collaboration has evolved into more extensive analysis of the IUK National Infrastructure Pipeline, which consists of around 550 infrastructure projects with a budget of £438 billion for the next decade. In 2015, we worked with IUK to apply the NISMOD-LP model to analyse the sensitivity of the proposed IUK National Infrastructure Pipeline to various future socio-economic and climate change scenarios. The model allows the assessment of national cross-sectoral strategies for infrastructure provision based upon a multi-dimensional performance metric, including cost of service, carbon intensity, supply security, etc. The primary aim of the collaboration is to analyse IUK's pipeline of infrastructure investments and explore alternative longer term strategies.

ITRC is now providing the analytics for the National Needs Assessment (NNA), a project facilitated by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) to provide a cross-sector assessment of the UK's national economic infrastructure - energy, transport, communications, water, waste and flooding - needs to 2050 and identify options for how they can be met.

The analysis will be based on work delivered by the Infrastructure Transitions Research Consortium (ITRC) and insight generated from a consultation process. The conclusions of the NNA will be captured in a report to be published by October 2016.

The report will seek to influence the work of the National Infrastructure Commission in preparing its National Infrastructure Assessment and support the ultimate objective of improving Britain's prosperity and quality of life through creating greater continuity and certainty for UK infrastructure development.

Network Rail - ITRC has assembled different datasets to build a representation of the interdependent railway infrastructure with input from Network Rail. Using such datasets the ITRC has done a vulnerability study on Great Britain's rail network. The focus of the analysis is to look at the failures in the railway network that are initiated due to supporting systems such as signalling and monitoring systems, electrification, heating, lighting, among others. The effect of such failures have been analysed in terms of the passenger trip disruptions across the entire networks. The ITRC is testing multiple failure scenarios due to random shock events and extreme flood events to provide am understanding of the risk and resilience of GB's railway network. In the near future different avenues of dissemination of this work are being explored. These include, among others, discussions with Network Rail, and presentations at the EPSRC Transport Systems Catapult seminar series.

JBA Trust - Bridge Scour Analysis collaboration. In this analysis JBA is looking at probabilistic failure scenarios for railway bridge failure due to extreme floods. The ITRC team is building demand loss estimates for these different failure scenarios. This will produce a flood risk analysis for the railway infrastructure. Since JBA has been directly contracted by Network Rail to assess the risks on their bridges, the ITRC involvement gives us this opportunity to engage strategically with Network Rail in order to provide advice on their network asset management plans.

National Grid - Spatial modelling for Future Energy Scenarios. ITRC is embarking upon a knowledge exchange secondment with National Grid to address their need for spatial modelling of renewable technologies, embedded generation capacities and the customer demand projections in the long-term. National Grid requires a spatial analysis tool capable of integrating different data sources, assigning transmission and distribution level assets to key renewable technologies (such as solar, wind and photovoltaic installations) and aggregating outputs from distribution regions to the grid. National Grid then aims to use the outputs to provide a demand allocation, by area, for different technologies and use these as inputs for their other models for forecasting spatial and temporal energy capacity/generation and demand changes for different forecasting scenarios. This helps National Grid's Future Energy Scenarios models by developing a better understanding of demands on the grid across different stakeholder regions, enhancing their investment efficiency and effectiveness of operations, and providing greater clarity around investment decisions. National Grid has identified the ITRC's in-house capabilities and expertise in spatial network analysis for satisfying their requirements for the spatial analysis tool. This work enables the ITRC to create a large impact on a national utility provider and expected to lead to further collaborations.

Institution of Civil Engineers, State of the Nation's Infrastructure Report (2014) and State of the Nation's Water (2012). ITRC has provided evidence to these two ICE studies, including evidence about strategic water infrastructure and key framing for the State of the Nation's Infrastructure report.

Adaptation Sub-Committee of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) - The ITRC has been supporting the CCC's analysis of infrastructure vulnerability as part of its analysis of adaptation of infrastructure to the impacts of climate change.
Science Advisory Group in an Emergency (SAGE) - During the winter 2013/14 floods ITRC provided evidence to the SAGE on the potential impacts of flooding on infrastructure in the Thames Valley.

National Adaptation Programme: ITRC have been identified as contributing to the 'Infrastructure interdependencies' objectives in the National Adaptation Programme, by "enhancing systems thinking around interdependencies and how associated climate change risks can be managed".

Worcestershire County Council - Case study being developed with Worcestershire County Council on geohazard assessment in relation to infrastructure and future planned development - investigate the development of a national framework document. Cranfield are currently producing a geohazard assessment of the county. The outputs of the probabilistic subsidence modelling will also help to aid future county-scale infrastructure planning. A conceptual landslide model for the county is being tested, currently undergoing validation. It is then likely that this could be expanded to the rest of the UK.
Lincolnshire County Council - A soil-related geohazard assessment of Lincolnshire was undertaken for Lincolnshire County Council's highways department, using Cranfield's geohazard datasets. These were intersected with the county's local road network and condition surveys using a GIS. Conclusions were that areas prone to clay-related subsidence, exacerbated in drought conditions, are detrimental to road surface quality. Lincolnshire Highways Alliance has since used Cranfield's research to aid allocation of £600k of road maintenance fund.

Defra - Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs - ITRC provided input in the Policy paper Climate resilient infrastructure: preparing for a changing climate. Progress report. Government, the research community and engineering institutions are working together to explore issues of interdependencies. ITRC is providing evidence-based tools to support this work. See pages 5-6 in the report.
Sectors Aerospace

Defence and Marine

Construction

Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)

Energy

Environment

Financial Services

and Management Consultancy

Government

Democracy and Justice

Transport

Other
URL http://www.itrc.org.uk/outputs/
 
Description Impact - uptake of methods and tools developed by the UK Infrastructure Transitions Research Consortium (ITRC) The aim of the UK Infrastructure Transitions Research Consortium (ITRC) is to develop and demonstrate a new generation of system simulation models and tools to inform analysis, planning and design of National Infrastructures (NI). The research is addressing energy, transport, water, waste and ICT systems at a national scale, developing new methods for analysing their performance, risks and interdependencies. It is providing a virtual environment in which we test strategies for long term investment in NI and understand how alternative strategies perform with respect to policy constraints such as reliability and security of supply, cost, carbon emissions, and adaptability to demographic and climate change. We are also developing risk analysis models for testing the capabilities of NI to withstand extreme weather shock events, in order to inform their long-term risk assessment and adaptation planning. Our ambition is for the models and methodologies developed by ITRC to provide the basis for cross-sectoral and long-term decision-making regarding infrastructure planning, design and operation. We would like to see the models and tools that have been developed by ITRC being taken up in the UK and adapted internationally. More broadly, we see the ITRC's systems-of-systems approach shaping thinking and decision making around infrastructure systems. The following collaborations show evidence of the uptake of ITRC models and tools: Infrastructure UK, HM Treasury (1) - The Infrastructure Transitions Research Consortium (ITRC), funded by EPSRC, has been working with Infrastructure UK (IUK), a unit within HM Treasury, to inform the work of the Major Infrastructure Tracking (MIT) team and the national infrastructure pipeline. The IUK infrastructure pipeline consists of circa 646 infrastructure projects with a budget of approximately £375 billion for the next decade for investment in energy, transport, water, waste water, and solid waste. The ITRC is an EPSRC funded Programme Grant led from the University of Oxford, which is developing a series of pioneering models with supporting database and visualisation tools, the National Infrastructure System Model (NISMOD) family. One of its key components, NISMOD-LP (LP for Long term Performance), integrates engineering-based models of demand and capacity for infrastructure services in the energy, transport, water, waste water, and solid waste sectors. This collaboration involves research staff working closely with IUK to apply the NISMOD-LP model to analyse the sensitivity of the proposed IUK investment pipeline to various future socio-economic and climate change scenarios. Alternative national infrastructure strategies that extend the pipeline further into the future will be analysed. Furthermore, by spending time working directly with IUK staff, this is expected to maximize the impact of the entire research program at the national level. Infrastructure UK, HM Treasury (2) - Critical infrastructure hotspot analysis. Working rapidly over the summer of 2013, the ITRC delivered a national infrastructure 'hotspots' analysis for Infrastructure UK, making use of its unique modelling capability. The hotspots analysis identified critical infrastructure locations, where criticality is measured in terms of the number of customers directly or indirectly dependent on an asset. An extensive infrastructure database comprising 200,000 assets forming interdependent national-scale networks was built to look at the nation-wide criticality of individual infrastructures. The final analysis involving national-scale networks for electricity transmission and distribution, gas, trunk road and rail demonstrated that interconnectivity between infrastructure networks could result in failure at a particular location having cascading effects and disproportionate consequences of customer disruptions. The work was well received and has set up a pathway for continued dialogue between ITRC and Infrastructure UK. Network Rail - ITRC has assembled different datasets to build a representation of the interdependent railway infrastructure with input from Network Rail. Using such datasets the ITRC has done a vulnerability study on Great Britain's rail network. The focus of the analysis is to look at the failures in the railway network that are initiated due to supporting systems such as signalling and monitoring systems, electrification, heating, lighting, among others. The effect of such failures have been analysed in terms of the passenger trip disruptions across the entire networks. The ITRC has and is testing multiple failure scenarios due to random shock events and extreme flood events to provide am understanding of the risk and resilience of GB's railway network. In the near future different avenues of dissemination of this work are being explored. These include, among others, discussions with Network Rail, and presentations at the EPSRC Transport Systems Catapult seminar series. JBA Trust - Bridge Scour Analysis collaboration. In this analysis JBA is looking at probabilistic failure scenarios for railway bridge failure due to extreme floods. The ITRC team is building demand loss estimates for these different failure scenarios. This will produce a flood risk analysis for the railway infrastructure. Since JBA has been directly contracted by Network Rail to assess the risks on their bridges, the ITRC involvement gives us this opportunity to engage strategically with Network Rail in order to provide advice on their network asset management plans. National Grid - Spatial modelling for Future Energy Scenarios. ITRC is embarking upon a knowledge exchange secondment with National Grid to address their need for spatial modelling of renewable technologies, embedded generation capacities and the customer demand projections in the long-term. National Grid requires a spatial analysis tool capable of integrating different data sources, assigning transmission and distribution level assets to key renewable technologies (such as solar, wind and photovoltaic installations) and aggregating outputs from distribution regions to the grid. National Grid then aims to use the outputs to provide a demand allocation, by area, for different technologies and use these as inputs for their other models for forecasting spatial and temporal energy capacity/generation and demand changes for different forecasting scenarios. This helps National Grid's Future Energy Scenarios models by developing a better understanding of demands on the grid across different stakeholder regions, enhancing their investment efficiency and effectiveness of operations, and providing greater clarity around investment decisions. National Grid has identified the ITRC's in-house capabilities and expertise in spatial network analysis for satisfying their requirements for the spatial analysis tool. This work enables the ITRC to create a large impact on a national utility provider and expected to lead to further collaborations. Institution of Civil Engineers, State of the Nation's Infrastructure Report (2014) and State of the Nation's Water (2012). ITRC has provided evidence to these two ICE studies, including evidence about strategic water infrastructure and key framing for the State of the Nation's Infrastructure report. Adaptation Sub-Committee of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) - The ITRC has been supporting the CCC's analysis of infrastructure vulnerability as part of its analysis of adaptation of infrastructure to the impacts of climate change. Science Advisory Group in an Emergency (SAGE) - During the winter 2013/14 floods ITRC provided evidence to the SAGE on the potential impacts of flooding on infrastructure in the Thames Valley. National Adaptation Programme: ITRC have been identified as contributing to the 'Infrastructure interdependencies' objectives in the National Adaptation Programme, by "enhancing systems thinking around interdependencies and how associated climate change risks can be managed". Worcestershire County Council - Case study being developed with Worcestershire County Council on geohazard assessment in relation to infrastructure and future planned development - investigate the development of a national framework document. Cranfield are currently producing a geohazard assessment of the county. The outputs of the probabilistic subsidence modelling will also help to aid future county-scale infrastructure planning. A conceptual landslide model for the county is being tested, currently undergoing validation. It is then likely that this could be expanded to the rest of the UK. Lincolnshire County Council - A soil-related geohazard assessment of Lincolnshire was undertaken for Lincolnshire County Council's highways department, using Cranfield's geohazard datasets. These were intersected with the county's local road network and condition surveys using a GIS. Conclusions were that areas prone to clay-related subsidence, exacerbated in drought conditions, are detrimental to road surface quality. Lincolnshire Highways Alliance has since used Cranfield's research to aid allocation of £600k of road maintenance fund. Defra - Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs - ITRC provided input in the Policy paper Climate resilient infrastructure: preparing for a changing climate. Progress report. Government, the research community and engineering institutions are working together to explore issues of interdependencies. ITRC is providing evidence-based tools to support this work. See pages 5-6 in the report. The United Nations Office for Project Services within the Infrastructure Practice and Assessment of Infrastructure in post disaster scenarios jointly with the Office of the Quartet Representative (Rt. Hon. Mr Tony Blair) - ITRC has been invited to contribute to the reconstruction of Gaza and Syria. ITRC PhD student Scott Thacker wins Young Scientist Award at ICVRAM Conference with paper Thacker, S., Hall, J. (2014) "Characterizing the vulnerability of future configurations of the UK electricity supply chain to climate-related hazards".ASCE-ICVRAM-ISUMA provides a multi-disciplinary forum for the exchange of knowledge and expertise, in the Quan¬tification, Mitigation and Management of Risk and Uncertainty, and in Decision Making. ITRC researcher Pranab Baruah was awarded the Best Presentation Prize at the 2014 Grand Renewable Energy International Conference in Tokyo with a paper on ITRC energy modelling work: "Deep decarbonization scenarios of the UK energy system with demand-side options and renewable energy". Authors: Pranab Baruah, Nick Eyre, Meysam Qadrdan, Modassar Chaudry, Jim Hall. The conference included a large number of industry exhibitions and government agency parallel events; there were more than 1000 paper presentations.
First Year Of Impact 2013
Sector Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Construction,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Energy,Environment,Financial Services, and Management Consultancy,Transport,Other
Impact Types Societal

Economic

Policy & public services
 
Description Citation in Defra's National Adaptation Programme
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Citation in other policy documents
Impact Informed policy guidelines
URL http://www.itrc.org.uk/collaborations/
 
Description Flood briefing with Chief Scientist Adviser at 10 Downing Street
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact Critical input on assessment of impact and on mitigation measures. Target Audience: Government Department
 
Description Flood vulnerability of infrastructure
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact In the context of the January 2014 floods, the ITRC was invited by the Adaptation Sub-Committee of the Committee on Climate Change to provide analysis of impact in infrastructure of floods in the Thames basin using its NISMOD methodology. The Adaptation Sub-Committee sets the direction for adaptation matters including independent advice on preparing for climate change. The Committee on Climate Change?s provides advice to legislation and the Government?s strategy on climate change .
 
Description Input to Science Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) in the January 14 UK floods
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact Provided critical analysis of impacts of floods and potential mitigation measures.
 
Description Meeting with Geoffrey Spence, CEO Infrastructure UK, HM Treasury
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
Impact Following up to Prof Jim Hall's briefing, Mr Spence gave a key note talk at the ITRC on "Infrastructure UK, the national infrastructure plan and the pipeline." In his talk he emphasized that his department is 'very interested in seeing what a National Infrastructure system would look like, that is why we are interested in what is going on in ITRC, as they are aiming to deliver that.? Target Audience: Government Department;General Public
 
Description Meeting with Liam Byrne MP, Shadow Minister for Science on UK innovation policy
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
Impact Meeting with Liam Byrne MP, Shadow Minister for Science on UK innovation policy Target Audience: Government Department
 
Description Member of the board of the Adaptation Sub-Committee of the Committee on Climate Change
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact The Adaptation Sub-Committee sets the direction for adaptation matters including independent advice on preparing for climate change. The ASC is made up of experts from the fields of climate change, science and economics and is chaired by Lord Krebs. The Committee on Climate Change's advice on carbon budgets and targets is directly reflected in legislation and the Government's carbon strategy. In advising on setting and meeting carbon budgets, the Committee undertakes detailed sectoral analysis, and as a result has made a number of key recommendations which are reflected in areas of energy and climate policy.. Awarding Body - Committee on Climate Change, Name of Scheme - Adaptation Sub-Committee
 
Description National Grid - Spatial modelling for Future Energy Scenarios.
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
Impact ITRC is embarking upon a knowledge exchange secondment with National Grid to address their need for spatial modelling of renewable technologies, embedded generation capacities and the customer demand projections in the long-term. National Grid requires a spatial analysis tool capable of integrating different data sources, assigning transmission and distribution level assets to key renewable technologies (such as solar, wind and photovoltaic installations) and aggregating outputs from distribution regions to the grid. National Grid then aims to use the outputs to provide a demand allocation, by area, for different technologies and use these as inputs for their other models for forecasting spatial and temporal energy capacity/generation and demand changes for different forecasting scenarios. This helps National Grid's Future Energy Scenarios models by developing a better understanding of demands on the grid across different stakeholder regions, enhancing their investment efficiency and effectiveness of operations, and providing greater clarity around investment decisions. National Grid has identified the ITRC's in-house capabilities and expertise in spatial network analysis for satisfying their requirements for the spatial analysis tool. This work enables the ITRC to create a large impact on a national utility provider and expected to lead to further collaborations.
 
Description Round table discussion of electricity capacity margins
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
Impact Invited participant in Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) round table discussion of electricity capacity margins, House of Commons Target Audience: Industrial / Commercial;Government Department;Local Government;Professional Institution;General Public;Other
 
Description Worcestershire County Council - case study on geohazard assessment
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
Impact Cranfield University are working on probabilistic subsidence modelling across Worcestershire to aid county-scale infrastructure planning. A model to examine possible landslides is also being tested and undergoing validation. The models could be expanded to cover the rest of the UK.
URL http://www.itrc.org.uk/collaborations/
 
Description Clean Water for All
Amount £40,000 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/I01344X/2 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2013 
End 09/2014
 
Description Enhancing the impact of the Infrastructure Transitions Research Consortium (ITRC)
Amount £10,000 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/I50107X/1 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 07/2012 
End 03/2013
 
Description HEIF+ Visualisation methods: National Infrastructure Modelling
Amount £21,775 (GBP)
Organisation Higher Education Funding Council for England 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 07/2012 
End 07/2013
 
Description Secondment IAA - infrastructure risk assessments
Amount £30,000 (GBP)
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 05/2014 
 
Description Secondment Spatial demand modelling for national future energy scenarios IAA Secondment
Amount £15,749 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/K503769/1 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 04/2014 
End 03/2015
 
Description Support for Impact
Amount £62,000 (GBP)
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2012 
End 03/2013
 
Title NISMOD-DB: A national database of infrastructure networks, demand and performance. 
Description NISMOD-DB combines hundreds of data layers on Great Britain's infrastructure systems within a spatial database framework (using open source languages). It also acts as scenario and output repository for the NISMOD-LP and NISMOD-RV models. The development of innovative algorithms for the identification and synthesis of national scale infrastructure networks from incomplete and unstructured maps completes the foundational character of NISMOD-DB for the ITRC modelling suite. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2012 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The NISMOD-DB feeds and is fed by the output of the different groups working on the key infrastructure sectors: energy, transport, water, wastewater, solid waste and ICT. It had a pivotal in delivering the first comprehensive results of our modelling and appraisal activities that were launched on 14 January 2014, entitled Britain's infrastructure for the 21st century. This report has been very well received by academics and practitioners in government and industry as illustrated by the following quote by HM Treasury. " The ITRC interim report on future infrastructure provision is an authoritative source of information explaining future challenges and possible policy responses that we are consulting for the National Infrastructure Plan 2014." Dawn Cameron | Infrastructure policy and delivery branch head | Infrastructure UK | 
URL http://www.itrc.org.uk/research/
 
Title NISMOD-LP - A national model of the long term performance of interdependent infrastructure systems 
Description NISMOD-LP integrates engineering-based simulation models of demand and capacity for infrastructure services in the energy-, transport-, water-, waste water-, and solid waste sectors of Great Britain's National Infrastructure system. Linkages between the sectors are introduced via cross-sectoral demand for services (e.g. energy generation requires water, waste water treatment requires energy, etc.). The technical implementation of these five interconnected simulation models is based upon the NISMOD-DB facility that provides a unified scenario input framework for all the infrastructure sectors and acts as output repository, post-processing facility and allows to tackle feedbacks between the infrastructure sectors. NISMOD-LP allows the assessment of national cross-sectoral strategies for infrastructure provision based upon a multi-dimensional performance metric, including cost of service, carbon intensity, supply security, etc. NISMOD-RV NISMOD-RV A national model of risks and vulnerability in national infrastructure systems. NISMOD-RV is based on a detailed hierarchical representation of the real-world assets and networks of the energy-, transport-, and water infrastructure sectors. Stochastic climate projections and hydrological modeling is used to derive profiles of natural hazards like storms and floods that threaten the operation of infrastructure assets and systems. These profiles are applied in a risk analysis framework to derive robustness and vulnerability of existing and hypothetical configurations of national infrastructure networks. Therewith NISMOD-RV allows assessing different national strategies for infrastructure provision based on their risk-footprint under climate change. NISMOD-RD NISMOD-RD A model of regional development and how it adapts to infrastructure provision. NISMOD-RD combines three components: (I) A generic representation of national infrastructure systems as networks facilitating the transport of resources, goods, services, people, and, more generally, externalities of economic activity allows for a further integration of different infrastructure sectors. (II) This generic representation of infrastructure is integrated into a meso-scale model of economic growth and development to assess the role of infrastructure for growth. (III) A spatial interaction model is developed to assess the impact of infrastructure performance on local attractiveness for migration. Combining these three approaches NISMOD-RD can simulate the co-evolution of the socio-economic and the national infrastructure system. NISMOD-DB NISMOD-DB A national database of infrastructure networks, demand and performance. NISMOD-DB combines hundreds of data layers on Great Britain's infrastructure systems within a spatial database framework (using open source languages). It also acts as scenario and output repository for the NISMOD-LP and NISMOD-RV models. The development of innovative algorithms for the identification and synthesis of national scale infrastructure networks from incomplete and unstructured maps completes the foundational character of NISMOD-DB for the ITRC modelling suite. 
Type Of Material Computer model/algorithm 
Year Produced 2012 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The first comprehensive results of our modelling and appraisal activities were launched in January 2014 in a report called 'Britain's infrastructure for the 21st century'. The report aims to answer the questions: What are the options for national infrastructure provision? How might options be put together into a long term national infrastructure strategy? How will they perform in terms of reliability, security of supply and quality of service? How will they perform with respect to environmental impact, in particular greenhouse gas emissions? How much will they cost? The report was the second milestone in the project and describes the use of NISMOD-LP (supported by data held in NISMOD-DB) to analyse the performance of long term strategies for infrastructure provision. The framework incorporates the following steps: 1.Generation of ensembles of future scenarios (i.e. plausible situations) of socio- economic and environmental conditions; 2.Generation of a range of interesting, distinct and plausible strategies of future NI provision; 3.Simulation of future demand and capacity in a suite of soft-coupled single sector simulation models, linked to a central infrastructure database (NISMOD-DB); and 4.Evaluation of infrastructure service performance and the uncertainty analysis or robustness of performance of the varying NI strategies across the scenario space, including interdependencies between sectors. This report has been very well received by academics and practitioners in government and industry as illustrated by the following quote by HM Treasury. " The ITRC interim report on future infrastructure provision is an authoritative source of information explaining future challenges and possible policy responses that we are consulting for the National Infrastructure Plan 2014." Dawn Cameron | Infrastructure policy and delivery branch head | Infrastructure UK | 
URL http://www.itrc.org.uk/research/britains-infrastructure-for-the-21st-century/
 
Title NISMOD-RD A model of regional development and how it adapts to infrastructure provision. 
Description NISMOD-RD combines three components: (I) A generic representation of national infrastructure systems as networks facilitating the transport of resources, goods, services, people, and, more generally, externalities of economic activity allows for a further integration of different infrastructure sectors. (II) This generic representation of infrastructure is integrated into a meso-scale model of economic growth and development to assess the role of infrastructure for growth. (III) A spatial interaction model is developed to assess the impact of infrastructure performance on local attractiveness for migration. Combining these three approaches NISMOD-RD can simulate the co-evolution of the socio-economic and the national infrastructure system. 
Type Of Material Computer model/algorithm 
Year Produced 2012 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The final milestone of the ITRC programme of research will be developed in Years 4 and 5 will make use of methods, tools and databases being completed in NISMOD-LP, NISMOD-RV and NISMOD-DB with emerging insights from NISMOD-RD. It will be able to answer questions that were not tractable in the previous interim results report, representing a landmark in quantified assessment of national infrastructure systems. 
URL http://www.itrc.org.uk/nismod/
 
Title NISMOD-RV- A national model of risks and vulnerability in national infrastructure systems. 
Description NISMOD-RV is based on a detailed hierarchical representation of the real-world assets and networks of the energy-, transport-, and water infrastructure sectors. Stochastic climate projections and hydrological modeling is used to derive profiles of natural hazards like storms and floods that threaten the operation of infrastructure assets and systems. These profiles are applied in a risk analysis framework to derive robustness and vulnerability of existing and hypothetical configurations of national infrastructure networks. There with NISMOD-RV allows assessing different national strategies for infrastructure provision based on their risk-footprint under climate change. 
Type Of Material Computer model/algorithm 
Year Produced 2013 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact NISMOD-RV has probably produced the highest number of immediate impacts for ITRC. Network Rail - ITRC has assembled different datasets to build a representation of the interdependent railway infrastructure with input from Network Rail. Using such datasets the ITRC has done a vulnerability study on Great Britain's rail network. The focus of the analysis is to look at the failures in the railway network that are initiated due to supporting systems such as signalling and monitoring systems, electrification, heating, lighting, among others. The effect of such failures have been analysed in terms of the passenger trip disruptions across the entire networks. The ITRC has and is testing multiple failure scenarios due to random shock events and extreme flood events to provide am understanding of the risk and resilience of GB's railway network. In the near future different avenues of dissemination of this work are being explored. These include, among others, discussions with Network Rail, and presentations at the EPSRC Transport Systems Catapult seminar series. JBA Trust - Bridge Scour Analysis collaboration. In this analysis JBA is looking at probabilistic failure scenarios for railway bridge failure due to extreme floods. The ITRC team is building demand loss estimates for these different failure scenarios. This will produce a flood risk analysis for the railway infrastructure. Since JBA has been directly contracted by Network Rail to assess the risks on their bridges, the ITRC involvement gives us this opportunity to engage strategically with Network Rail in order to provide advice on their network asset management plans. National Grid - Spatial modelling for Future Energy Scenarios. ITRC is embarking upon a knowledge exchange secondment with National Grid to address their need for spatial modelling of renewable technologies, embedded generation capacities and the customer demand projections in the long-term. National Grid requires a spatial analysis tool capable of integrating different data sources, assigning transmission and distribution level assets to key renewable technologies (such as solar, wind and photovoltaic installations) and aggregating outputs from distribution regions to the grid. National Grid then aims to use the outputs to provide a demand allocation, by area, for different technologies and use these as inputs for their other models for forecasting spatial and temporal energy capacity/generation and demand changes for different forecasting scenarios. This helps National Grid's Future Energy Scenarios models by developing a better understanding of demands on the grid across different stakeholder regions, enhancing their investment efficiency and effectiveness of operations, and providing greater clarity around investment decisions. National Grid has identified the ITRC's in-house capabilities and expertise in spatial network analysis for satisfying their requirements for the spatial analysis tool. This work enables the ITRC to create a large impact on a national utility provider and expected to lead to further collaborations. Adaptation Sub-Committee of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) - The ITRC has been supporting the CCC's analysis of infrastructure vulnerability as part of its analysis of adaptation of infrastructure to the impacts of climate change. Science Advisory Group in an Emergency (SAGE) - During the winter 2013/14 floods ITRC provided evidence to the SAGE on the potential impacts of flooding on infrastructure in the Thames Valley. National Adaptation Programme: ITRC have been identified as contributing to the 'Infrastructure interdependencies' objectives in the National Adaptation Programme, by "enhancing systems thinking around interdependencies and how associated climate change risks can be managed". Worcestershire County Council - Case study being developed with Worcestershire County Council on geohazard assessment in relation to infrastructure and future planned development - investigate the development of a national framework document. Cranfield are currently producing a geohazard assessment of the county. The outputs of the probabilistic subsidence modelling will also help to aid future county-scale infrastructure planning. A conceptual landslide model for the county is being tested, currently undergoing validation. It is then likely that this could be expanded to the rest of the UK. Lincolnshire County Council - A soil-related geohazard assessment of Lincolnshire was undertaken for Lincolnshire County Council's highways department, using Cranfield's geohazard datasets. These were intersected with the county's local road network and condition surveys using a GIS. Conclusions were that areas prone to clay-related subsidence, exacerbated in drought conditions, are detrimental to road surface quality. Lincolnshire Highways Alliance has since used Cranfield's research to aid allocation of £600k of road maintenance fund. 
 
Description Arup Group Ltd 
Organisation Arup Group
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
Start Year 2004
 
Description Bridge scour analysis with JBA Trust 
Organisation JBA Trust
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution The ITRC is part of a study on the analysis of railway bridge failures due to scouring. JBA Trust has been contracted by Network Rail to undertake this work and are leading on it. In this analysis JBA is looking at probabilistic failure scenarios for railway bridge failure due to extreme floods. The ITRC team is building demand loss estimates for these different failure scenarios. This will produce a flood risk analysis for the railway infrastructure.
Start Year 2014
 
Description Collaboration with ARUP 
Organisation Arup Group
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution Collaboration to raise awareness of ITRC models and tools in Arup, and developing joint ideas for how to exploit the ITRC research in Arup's business.
Collaborator Contribution Discussions on how to support ITRC future research stages
Impact ARUP is interested in supporting future ITRC research
Start Year 2012
 
Description Collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories, Alburquerque, USA 
Organisation Sandia Laboratories
Country United States 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution On going collaboration with Sandia National Labs as part of the Clean Water for All intiative to start developing process-based models for interdependent network risk analysis. Dr Raghav Pant and Scott Thacker spent a week in training at their labs.
Start Year 2013
 
Description Department for Transport 
Organisation Department of Transport
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Members of the ITRC Transport sector regularly meet with senior staff of the Department for Transport to discuss the intersections between ITRC models and analytic tools with the work done by the department. Potential for informing HS2 modelling and input in some of the strategies being developed within ITRC to take into consideration regulatory issues suchs as. e. g. EU emissions legislation. We are working towards organising an ITRC secondment of a researcher from the Transport Sector in WS1 at the DfT .
Collaborator Contribution Members from all different transport modalities ( air, freight, rail, motoraways, cycling, etc) within the DfT participtae in this series of meeting to evaluate and validate ITRC models. They are very interested in pursuing a secondment with ITRC.
Impact The DfT provided key input to the modellers in the ITRC Transport Sector for the National infrastructure assessment: Analysis of options for infrastructure provision in Great Britain - Interim results, January 2014. The report has been very well received globally. According to a senior HM Treasury official, " The ITRC interim report on future infrastructure provision is an authoritative source of information explaining future challenges and possible policy responses that we are consulting for the National Infrastructure Plan 2014." Dawn Cameron | Infrastructure policy and delivery branch head | Infrastructure UK |
Start Year 2012
 
Description Environment Agency 
Organisation Environment Agency
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
Start Year 2004
 
Description Halcrow Group Ltd (Birmingham) 
Organisation Halcrow Group
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
Start Year 2004
 
Description ITRC and the University of Oxford Mathematics Institute Network Group 
Organisation University of Oxford
Department Mathematical Institute Oxford
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We are developing a closer collaboration between the ITRC and the University of Oxford Mathematics Institute Network Group. The ITRC should benefit from mathematical/theoretical exploration of infrastructure network data and the Network Group should benefit from access to ITRC's new/novel data sets.. We have started a collaboration by allowing them access to railway network data - this will be used for a Masters Thesis student , commencing beginning of May 2014.We expect the collaboration to grow by utilizing other network datasets; electricity/ liquid fuels/ road etc. They have postoc time available: 1.5 years, who, potentially can dedicate a large amount of time to ITRC/infrastructure data. We (ITRC) can expect interaction and feedback from their group - steering their research towards questions that interest us; network centrality, communities etc. We can expect citations/ co-production.
Start Year 2014
 
Description Infrastructure UK , HM Treasury- Critical infrastructure hotspot analysis. 
Organisation HM Treasury
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Working rapidly over the summer of 2013, the ITRC delivered a national infrastructure 'hotspots' analysis for Infrastructure UK, making use of its unique modelling capability. The hotspots analysis identified critical infrastructure locations, where criticality is measured in terms of the number of customers directly or indirectly dependent on an asset. An extensive infrastructure database comprising 200,000 assets forming interdependent national-scale networks was built to look at the nation-wide criticality of individual infrastructures. The final analysis involving national-scale networks for electricity transmission and distribution, gas, trunk road and rail demonstrated that interconnectivity between infrastructure networks could result in failure at a particular location having cascading effects and disproportionate consequences of customer disruptions. The work was well received and has set up a pathway for continued dialogue between ITRC and Infrastructure UK.
Collaborator Contribution Provided the ideal setting to test and validate the ITRC methods, tools and datasets. It was also fundamental to establish the project's reputation with policy-makers and practitioners
Impact - A report - Further engagement to establish a secondment program between treasury and 3 universities within ITRC - Access to other Treasury and Cabinet departments
Start Year 2013
 
Description Input in Reconstruction of Gaza and Syria 
Organisation Office of the Quartet
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Discussion and input on planning and designing reconstruction of infrastructure in Gaza, Syria and other disaster zones
Collaborator Contribution This is a very prestigious and honourable invitation for collaboration and will contribute to further consolidate the ITRC reputation globally
Impact Ongoing
Start Year 2014
 
Description Input in Reconstruction of Gaza and Syria 
Organisation United Nations (UN)
Country United States 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Discussion and input on planning and designing reconstruction of infrastructure in Gaza, Syria and other disaster zones
Collaborator Contribution This is a very prestigious and honourable invitation for collaboration and will contribute to further consolidate the ITRC reputation globally
Impact Ongoing
Start Year 2014
 
Description Lincolnshire County Council soil-related geohazard assessment 
Organisation Lincolnshire County Council
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution A soil-related geohazard assessment of Lincolnshire was undertaken for Lincolnshire County Council's highways department, using Cranfield's geohazard datasets. These were intersected with the county's local road network and condition surveys using a GIS. Conclusions were that areas prone to clay-related subsidence, exacerbated in drought conditions, are detrimental to road surface quality. Lincolnshire Highways Alliance has since used Cranfield's research to aid allocation of £600k of road maintenance fund.
Collaborator Contribution They provided a setting and data to validate the research
Impact Lincolnshire Highways Alliance has since used Cranfield's research to aid allocation of £600k of road maintenance fund. It has also produced a paper
Start Year 2013
 
Description Met Office 
Organisation Meteorological Office UK
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
Start Year 2004
 
Description National Grid - Spatial demand modelling for national future energy scenarios 
Organisation National Grid UK
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The project aims to provide a spatial assessment tool for National Grid, which is an international Gas and Electricity Company and one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the world. It will have substantial impact on the work that is performed by the National Grid power demand management team to evaluate their customer demands for England and Wales. The software tool technology being developed by the ITRC will be applied by National Grid at the national scale.
Collaborator Contribution They have provided datasets and validation of ITRC models. They are also interested in a long term relationship with the ITRC researchers
Impact The ITRC models and software capabilities will be disseminated at the company's national level at a national meeting in December 2014. They intend to continue the relationship with the ITRC reseachers. The National Grid work will be presented at a conference being jointly organised by the Energy Research Partnership (ERP) and the UK Water Research and Innovation Partnership (UKWRIP) and ITRC on 'Energy & Water Infrastructure Interdependencies Governance - Planning and Preparing for the Future' on 02 December, London. The ITRC models are also bringing greater accuracy to the current National Grid models for their management of energy demand and supply in the UK, this is expected to improve efficiency and probably reduce costs.
Start Year 2013
 
Description Network Rail Ltd 
Organisation Network Rail Ltd
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
Start Year 2004
 
Description Ordnance Survey 
Organisation Ordnance Survey
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
Start Year 2007
 
Description Railway network development and vulnerability analysis 
Organisation Network Rail Ltd
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution In this work the ITRC has assembled different datasets to build a representation of the interdependent railway infrastructure. These datasets include the OS Meridian data (provided by David Alderson) and other publicly available datasets that provide information on the usage of the railway network. Following a meeting with Network Rail officials data of some of the railway assets was provided to the ITRC, using with we have now built a mapping of different assets and infrastructures that show interdependency characteristics for the railways. Following the buildup of the railway infrastructure we have done a vulnerability study on network. This work is currently being documented into a research paper.
Start Year 2014
 
Description Scottish and Southern Energy SSE plc 
Organisation Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
Start Year 2004
 
Description Supporting the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) analysis of infrastructure vulnerability 
Organisation Committee on Climate Change (CCC)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution The ITRC has been supporting the CCC's analysis of infrastructure vulnerability as part of its analysis of adaptation of infrastructure to the impacts of climate change.
Collaborator Contribution The CCC provided a setting for the ITRC to test and validate its research
Impact A report
Start Year 2013
 
Description Worcestershire County Council - case study on geohazard assessment 
Organisation Worcestershire County Council
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Cranfield University are working on probabilistic subsidence modelling across Worcestershire to aid county-scale infrastructure planning. A model to examine possible landslides is also being tested and undergoing validation. The models re being considered to be expanded to cover the rest of the UK.
Collaborator Contribution Cranfield University are working on probabilistic subsidence modelling across Worcestershire to aid county-scale infrastructure planning.
Impact The models re being considered to be expanded to cover the rest of the UK.
Start Year 2013
 
Description Worcestershire case study 
Organisation Worcestershire County Council
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Case study being developed with Worcestershire County Council on geohazard assessment in relation to infrastructure and future planned development ? investigate the development of a national framework document.
Start Year 2013
 
Description 'The Role of Research in Meeting our Energy Challenges', 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Primary Audience
Results and Impact • Jim Watson, Panel member, Carbon Connect event: 'The Role of Research in Meeting our Energy Challenges', 20th Feb 2014.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description BP-Oxford Steering Committee meeting 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Primary Audience
Results and Impact Prof Jim Hall presented to the BP-Oxford Steering committee on ITRC.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description Can UK transport networks cope with floods? 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Primary Audience
Results and Impact Radio 4 series 'Files on 4' interviews key people in the context of the UK January 2014 floods including Prof Jim Hall as a leading expert.The storms that cut off rail links to Cornwall and much of Devon from the rest of the country have raised some fundamental questions about the resilience of our transport systems in bad weather.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description Carbon Connect advisory board member 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Primary Audience Participants in your research or patient groups
Results and Impact Prof Jim Watson was invited to be a Member of the Carbon Connect advisory board (2014-).

Carbon Connect is the independent forum that facilitates discussion and debate between business, government and parliament to bring about a low carbon transformation underpinned by sustainable energy.
. Awarding Body - Carbon Connect, Name of Scheme - Steering Board
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description Climate change: UK faces 'more extreme events and floods' 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Primary Audience
Results and Impact Professor Jim Hall is interviewed by The Telegraph in the context of the UK January 2014 floods: "A top climate change professor says the UK will see an increase in temperatures, extreme events and floods as a result of global warming".
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description Climate change: UK faces more extreme events and floods 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Professor Jim Hall was interviewed by The Guardian as a climate change leading expert.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description Future Growth Scenarios for Rail 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Primary Audience
Results and Impact Prof John Preston gave a presentation on Future Growth Scenarios for Rail to "The Future of Rail Operations FuTRO " Stakeholder Engagement Event at Arup, Friday 29 November.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013
 
Description ITRC Risk Analysis 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Primary Audience
Results and Impact Presentation of poster on ITRC risk analysis at Met Office event in Exeter.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description ITRC Website 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience
Results and Impact http://www.itrc.org.uk/about-itrc/consortium/

A comprehensive website describing the details of the projects and a focal point for stakeholders engagement.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013
URL http://www.itrc.org.uk/about-itrc/consortium/
 
Description ITRC presentation at the Dialogue on infrastructure dependencies and interdependencies meeting 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Primary Audience
Results and Impact A joint activity with the EA's Infrastructure Operators Adaptation Forum, and hosted by IET:



To explore what is work is happening in infrastructure interdependencies in practice, policy and academia (understanding of the landscape);

To better understand the challenges of understanding and addressing interdependencies from the participants' perspectives; and

To identify next steps for the dialogue.
.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description Infrastructure UK Meeting 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Meeting with several members of UK Treasury to discuss their involvement and input in the project's cross-sectoral infrastructure modelling.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2011
 
Description Member of Queen's Awards Judging Panel for Sustainable Development 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Primary Audience Participants in your research or patient groups
Results and Impact Prof Jim Watson, Sussex University, and ITRC CO-I has been appointed a Member of the Queen's Awards Judging Panel for Sustainable Development. . Awarding Body - UK Governemnt, Name of Scheme - Queen's Awards Judging Panel
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description Member of Steering Group - State of Nation Infrastructure - Institution of Civil Engineers ICE 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Primary Audience Participants in your research or patient groups
Results and Impact Member of Steering Group - State of Nation Infrastructure - Institution of Civil Engineers ICE . Awarding Body - Institution of Civil Engineers, Name of Scheme - SoN Infrastructure
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2009
 
Description National scale analysis of vulnerability and risk of interdependent spatial infrastructure networks 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Primary Audience
Results and Impact Stuart Barr presented a seminar to St Andrews University Centre for Geoinformatics on "National scale analysis of vulnerability and risk of interdependent spatial infrastructure networks" 13/3/14.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description Power hungry: how can we sustain our energy needs? 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Primary Audience
Results and Impact Talk given at the Royal Institution London.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description Press Briefing Panel Speaker on engineering and flood prevention 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Talk to national media about what engineering has done, can and could do to alleviate and prevent flooding.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description Safe enough? Proportionate adaptation in water resources systems 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Primary Audience
Results and Impact Water resources planners are confronted by severe uncertainties in the projections of water availability that are derived from climate models. The advent of probabilistic scenarios on the one hand provides the prospect of more rational incorporation of uncertainty into engineering decision making, but on the other hand challenges existing methods and raises expectations for the validity of probabilistic projections, which may not be realistic. This talk will describe methodology for incorporating probabilistic climate scenarios into water resources planning, and will scrutinise the robustness of that methodology to residual uncertainties. The prospects for adapting water resources systems in England to a changing climate will be addressed.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description Understanding Interdependent Infrastructure Network Systems 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Primary Audience
Results and Impact Infrastructure networks play a crucial role in modern societies by facilitating the distribution of goods and services across spatial extents at a range of scales. Understanding the spatial characteristics and interactions of these infrastructures is crucial for building long-term growth strategies and for appropriate risk and resilience planning. While individual infrastructure systems are suitably modeled and managed by operators there are very few efforts on building interdependence among different infrastructures. This research presents key methods for building interdependent infrastructure network models for national-scale energy, transport, water, waste and ICT systems and for exploring the demand placed on these networks by customers from multiple sectors.

Infrastructure networks play a crucial role in modern societies by facilitating the distribution of goods and services across spatial extents at a range of scales. The ITRC developed key methods for building interdependent infrastructure network models for national-scale energy, transport, water, waste and ICT systems and for exploring the demand placed on these networks by customers from multiple sectors.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description Westminster Energy, Environment and Transport Forum conference on carbon capture and storage, 27th Feb 2014 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Primary Audience
Results and Impact • Jim Watson, Panel member, Westminster Energy, Environment and Transport Forum conference on carbon capture and storage, 27th Feb 2014. The Westminster Energy, Environment & Transport Forum aims to provide the premier environment for policymakers in Parliament, Whitehall and government agencies to engage with key stakeholders in timely discussion on public policy relating to energy and transport policy, and the environment. These include businesses operating in the energy, environment and transport sectors, their suppliers and advisors; and representatives of local authorities and interest groups; along with academics, commentators, and members of the reporting press.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description WholeSEM Energy Systems Modelling consortium advisory board 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Jim Watson was invited as a member of the WholeSEM Energy Systems Modelling consortium advisory board . Awarding Body - Whole Systems Energy Modelling Consortium (WholeSEM), Name of Scheme - EPSRC funded Research Consortium
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014