RV-DSS: An industry-friendly resilience-based interdependency assessment tool - case study North Argyll

Lead Research Organisation: Anglia Ruskin University
Department Name: Fac of Science and Technology

Abstract

Project partners: Transport Scotland, Scottish Water, SSE, Atkins and ARU
Partners' Challenge: The increased frequency and magnitude of environmental hazards in Scotland, in the last decade, has resulted in widespread failures in CI networks and their interdependent systems (e.g., devastating impacts of 2002 Glasgow flooding and 2013 storm on Carradale and Kintyre). The challenge currently faced by our industry partners are the lack of shared understanding of interdependencies and interoperability and a robust resilience-informed DSS. To tackle this challenge, this project will adopt recently developed Resilience and Vulnerability-based DSS (RV-DSS) to map interdependent network critical components for a real case study in Scotland.
Aims and Objectives: This project aims to adopt a newly developed DSS to model infrastructure interdependencies of three CI networks (Water, Transport, Energy) providing a measure of network resilience in response to hazardous events, in addition to measure of vulnerability.
Broken down our objectives are to: 1. Apply the RV-DSS to a real case study, North Argyll, providing resilience and vulnerability-informed management strategies and a comparative CBA of pre/post-utilisation of RV-DSS 2. Refine the RV-DSS based on lessons learnt on case study and stakeholders comments. 3. Provide a guideline on building a case study for RV-DSS and engaging stakeholders in utilisation of RV-DSS
Project Plan: The proposed project consists of three Work Packages (WP), three Deliverables (D), two Reports (R), two Workshops (WS) and six Consortium Meetings (M) details of which are summarised below.
WP1 will cover the overall management and progress of the project. This includes organising six consortium meetings and monthly summary-reports, providing project partners with progress being made. This WP will produce two technical reports: R1. Interim report containing project progress, due on Month 3 and R2. Final innovation report: a comprehensive report on project findings and a comparative CBA of pre and post RV-DSS analyses, due on Month 6.
The overall objective of WP2 is to adopt RV-DSS to North Argyll case study, assessing the resilience of transport, water and energy network in response to failure propagation induced by infrastructure interdependencies. This WP will produce two deliverables: D1. Delivering interdependent asset register map for North Argyll, a central data repository for all assets and their functional and physical links in energy, transport and water networks located in North Argyll, in a form of a GIS map (Due on Month 4). D2. Delivering resilience and vulnerability assessment report of North Argyll interdependent infrastructure system, an exemplar of RV-DSS application (Due on Month 6).
WP3 directs lessons learnt from WP2 and stakeholders comments during planned workshops and consortium meetings to refine the RV-DSS to better suit project partners' needs. As part of this WP, a manual for RV-DSS and a guideline on building a case study for RV-DSS will be delivered (D3, Due on Month 6)
Benefits for Project partners: The refined RV-DSS alongside with its manual produced as part of this project can in general help all industry partners to manage future uncertainties in their long-term infrastructure investment decisions. D1 and D2 will provide means of updating current integrated infrastructure design, maintenance and operation methods in North Argyll. D3 will extend the application of these findings to a general case study. The industry-tuned RV-DSS can support project partners in developing an understanding of risk propagation through their systems and also prioritisation of asset management strategies at an organisational level. Additionally, it will play a crucial role in the promotion of road & rail, water and energy industries' services, management and maintenance strategies.
Duration and Total Cost: The project is a 6-month project with the total estimated 80% FEC of £62,339.

Planned Impact

Expected benefits: Unlike the available DSSs (e.g., iRoad, Neptune, etc.), RV-DSS provides a measure of network resilience in response to hazardous events, in addition to vulnerability measure. This measure provides a quantitative metric of the robustness, recoverability, rapidity and resourcefulness of the infrastructure network in response to environmental hazards. RV-DSS provides asset owners and managers with resilience and vulnerability-informed (RV-informed) investment choices. By generating a quantitative measure of network vulnerability and resilience, considering infrastructure interdependencies, the most severe failure scenarios and their spatial impacts will be identified. These results could be used to prioritise future business planning strategies (e.g., increasing resources or redundancy levels).

Potential impact on partners: Our project will enable infrastructure operators to streamline strategic planning (e.g., winter preparedness in road and rail networks; use of smart technologies in water networks in response to heat waves) by focusing on risk zones of infrastructure networks (e.g., road and rail infrastructure for Transport Scotland), and improve the resilience of infrastructure systems in response to low probability/high impact environmental events (e.g., interruptions to submarine electricity cables). This tool can provide infrastructure performance patterns in response to hazardous events (e.g., determining whether traffic and congestion patterns in urban areas are a function of rate of precipitation, water networks response to temperature extreme or lightning strikes). Additionally, it can provide an efficiency metric for mitigation and adaptation measures (e.g., SUDS system for road infrastructure). It also provides the means of updating current methods of designs, maintenance and operation in critical conditions (e.g. disastrous events, extensive interdependency-induced asset failures, etc.). For Transport Scotland this provides a means of examining how passengers' access to transport facilities can be managed to cope with more severe weather events. It will also help in examining how road infrastructure design and procurement contracts mitigate environmental risk.
Using resilience-driven decisions will provide key hazard scenarios for use in resilience planning for Scottish Water. This tool can address concerns on managing future uncertainties in long-term infrastructure investment decisions. It will also provide means of understanding how integrated infrastructure design can deliver local and regional economic resilience and recovery in response to extreme environmental hazards and extra value for money where shared interdependencies can be co-managed between sectors.
 
Description This is the very first time that three infrastructure networks' (Transport, Water and Energy) interdependencies are quantitatively modelled, evaluated and mapped to identify the capabilities and limitations of the interdependent CI systems in withstanding systemic and unpredicted failures. Although, given the data security challenges, these interdependencies are somewhat different to the actual condition, the project has used the opportunity to conduct a feasibility study to showcase the importance of the infrastructure interdependencies quantitatively with reflecting on its impact on network resilience.
The project has also demonstrated that using resilience in combination with risk assessment could lead to significant savings through risk reduction and expeditious recovery in particular for low-probability high-impact hazards.
The primary output of the project is RV-DSS web-application, which has been made available to project partners for comments on potential areas for further improvements. The project also produced a document containing: D1. Interdependent asset register map for North Argyll; D2: Resilience and vulnerability assessment report of North Argyll interdependent infrastructure system; D3: RV-DSS manual and a guideline on building a case study for RV-DSS.
RV-DSS provides a measure of network resilience in response to hazardous events, in addition to vulnerability measure (i.e., resilience and vulnerability-informed investment choices). This measure provides a quantitative metric of the robustness, recoverability, rapidity and resourcefulness of the infrastructure network in response to low probability/high impact hazards. By generating a quantitative measure of network vulnerability and resilience, considering infrastructure interdependencies, the most severe failure scenarios and their spatial impacts can be identified.
These results can be used to prioritise and streamline future business planning strategies planning by focusing on risk zones of infrastructure networks and improve the resilience of infrastructure systems in response to low probability/high impact environmental events (e.g., increasing resources or redundancy levels).
RV-DSS can also provide an efficiency metric for mitigation and adaptation measures. Making resilience-driven decisions will provide key hazard scenarios for use in resilience planning. This tool provides means of understanding how integrated infrastructure design can deliver local and regional economic resilience and recovery in response to low probability/high impact hazards.
Exploitation Route The RV-DSS can be applied to any case study, regardless of location and size. In this project, RV-DSS is adopted for North Argyll which is then led to produce a manual/guideline for building a case study input for RV-DSS to guide any RV-DSS user on utilising the software for another project or another case study. The North Argyll case study can also be made available as an exemplar of the application of the guideline while keeping the sensitive data confidential.
There is a plan to extend this tool to a GIS plug-in which can widen the application of the produced tool. The produced tool can also be extended to involve interdependencies of other networks such as the Telecommunication network.
Sectors Construction

Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)

Environment

Transport

Other

URL http://RV-Dss.anglia.ac.uk
 
Description Given the nature of the project (i.e., feasibility study), the impact of the study has been focused on initiating the conversation in discussing the importance of shared intervention measures and interdependency management among critical infrastructure asset owners and managers. This project also provided industry partners with potentials for a resilience-vulnerability-informed decision support system and its applicability in identifying the low-medium resilience zones. Each industry partner currently have a well-established decision support system which has been performing well to the standards required for each network however the impact of failure propagation from one network to the other networks has been less-explored in each network. Furthermore, although the resilience concept has been extensively used in policy formation, RV-DSS contribution in resilience application in decision making in a quantitative manner can be considered as another influential elements of this project. Given the challenges with sensitive data and associated security concerns, the direct saving reported as part of the RV-DSS output for the case study is fictional. Therefore, the project team has used this opportunity to illustrate RV-DSS potential in providing means of understanding how integrated infrastructure design can deliver local and regional economic resilience and recovery in response to low-probability/high impact event. Furthermore, it has highlighted the extra value for money where shared interdependencies can be co-managed between sectors. It must be noted given the feasibility nature of the project, deeper impact could be achieved in a longer preiod.
First Year Of Impact 2018
Sector Transport
 
Description Joint PhD Supervision on a assessing interdependencies between green and gray drainage infrastructure 
Organisation Anglia Ruskin University
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution This is joint supervision of a PhD studentship hosted at Anglia Ruskin University. As an external adviser, I draw upon the experience and the work conducted in the RV-DSS project to support the aim of the project in capturing interdependencies for green and grey drainage systems.
Collaborator Contribution The PhD project is hosted and funded by the Anglia Ruskin University. The PhD student is co-supervised by two academic colleagues at the School of Engineering and Built Environment, Dr Maryam Imani and Prof. maria Vogiatzaki.
Impact The PhD project is only in its early stages hence it is yet to produce any output however, at this stage the conceptual infrastructure interdependency has been structured and formulated.
Start Year 2022
 
Description Potential Collaboration with DAFNI 
Organisation Data & Analytics Facility for National Infrastructure (DAFNI)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution We have established connections with DAFNI team to host the RV-DSS tool on DAFNI platform. the webtool will be modified to be suitable for this platform.
Collaborator Contribution To allow hosting the RV-DSS webtool on the DAFNI server and providing the technical supports
Impact This will lead to improved visibility of the developed webtool and further collaboration on expanding the application of the tool
Start Year 2021
 
Description RV-DSS Industrial collaboration 
Organisation Scottish Water
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Given the nature of the project (i.e., feasibility study), the impact of the study has been focused on initiating the conversation in discussing the importance of shared intervention measures and interdependency management among critical infrastructure asset owners and managers. This project also provided industry partners with potentials for a resilience-vulnerability-informed decision support system and its applicability in identifying the low-medium resilience zones. Each industry partner currently has a well-established decision support system that has been performing well to the standards required for each network however the impact of failure propagation from one network to the other networks has been less-explored in each network. Furthermore, although the resilience concept has been extensively used in policy formation, RV-DSS contribution in resilience application in decision making in a quantitative manner can be considered as other influential elements of this project.
Collaborator Contribution The predominant contribution from industry partners in this project was in data provision and advise on the applicability of the tool in practice. During the 6-month project, the consortium has met 7 times to discuss the project progress and gear the outcomes towards more meaningful results for practice. Over each consortium meeting, the different capabilities of the tool and the assumptions made has been extensively discussed and recorded in detail minutes documents. Furthermore, the partners have also been given access to the web-application, deliverables and outputs produced, over the entire period of the project.
Impact This project was a multi-disciplinary collaboration with three main sectors of Transport, Water and Energy. The primary output of the project is RV-DSS web-application, which has been made available to project partners for comments on potential areas for further improvements.
Start Year 2017
 
Description RV-DSS Industrial collaboration 
Organisation Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE)
Department Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution Limited
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution Given the nature of the project (i.e., feasibility study), the impact of the study has been focused on initiating the conversation in discussing the importance of shared intervention measures and interdependency management among critical infrastructure asset owners and managers. This project also provided industry partners with potentials for a resilience-vulnerability-informed decision support system and its applicability in identifying the low-medium resilience zones. Each industry partner currently has a well-established decision support system that has been performing well to the standards required for each network however the impact of failure propagation from one network to the other networks has been less-explored in each network. Furthermore, although the resilience concept has been extensively used in policy formation, RV-DSS contribution in resilience application in decision making in a quantitative manner can be considered as other influential elements of this project.
Collaborator Contribution The predominant contribution from industry partners in this project was in data provision and advise on the applicability of the tool in practice. During the 6-month project, the consortium has met 7 times to discuss the project progress and gear the outcomes towards more meaningful results for practice. Over each consortium meeting, the different capabilities of the tool and the assumptions made has been extensively discussed and recorded in detail minutes documents. Furthermore, the partners have also been given access to the web-application, deliverables and outputs produced, over the entire period of the project.
Impact This project was a multi-disciplinary collaboration with three main sectors of Transport, Water and Energy. The primary output of the project is RV-DSS web-application, which has been made available to project partners for comments on potential areas for further improvements.
Start Year 2017
 
Description RV-DSS Industrial collaboration 
Organisation Transport Scotland
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Given the nature of the project (i.e., feasibility study), the impact of the study has been focused on initiating the conversation in discussing the importance of shared intervention measures and interdependency management among critical infrastructure asset owners and managers. This project also provided industry partners with potentials for a resilience-vulnerability-informed decision support system and its applicability in identifying the low-medium resilience zones. Each industry partner currently has a well-established decision support system that has been performing well to the standards required for each network however the impact of failure propagation from one network to the other networks has been less-explored in each network. Furthermore, although the resilience concept has been extensively used in policy formation, RV-DSS contribution in resilience application in decision making in a quantitative manner can be considered as other influential elements of this project.
Collaborator Contribution The predominant contribution from industry partners in this project was in data provision and advise on the applicability of the tool in practice. During the 6-month project, the consortium has met 7 times to discuss the project progress and gear the outcomes towards more meaningful results for practice. Over each consortium meeting, the different capabilities of the tool and the assumptions made has been extensively discussed and recorded in detail minutes documents. Furthermore, the partners have also been given access to the web-application, deliverables and outputs produced, over the entire period of the project.
Impact This project was a multi-disciplinary collaboration with three main sectors of Transport, Water and Energy. The primary output of the project is RV-DSS web-application, which has been made available to project partners for comments on potential areas for further improvements.
Start Year 2017
 
Description RV-DSS Industrial collaboration 
Organisation WS Atkins
Department Atkins Asset Management
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution Given the nature of the project (i.e., feasibility study), the impact of the study has been focused on initiating the conversation in discussing the importance of shared intervention measures and interdependency management among critical infrastructure asset owners and managers. This project also provided industry partners with potentials for a resilience-vulnerability-informed decision support system and its applicability in identifying the low-medium resilience zones. Each industry partner currently has a well-established decision support system that has been performing well to the standards required for each network however the impact of failure propagation from one network to the other networks has been less-explored in each network. Furthermore, although the resilience concept has been extensively used in policy formation, RV-DSS contribution in resilience application in decision making in a quantitative manner can be considered as other influential elements of this project.
Collaborator Contribution The predominant contribution from industry partners in this project was in data provision and advise on the applicability of the tool in practice. During the 6-month project, the consortium has met 7 times to discuss the project progress and gear the outcomes towards more meaningful results for practice. Over each consortium meeting, the different capabilities of the tool and the assumptions made has been extensively discussed and recorded in detail minutes documents. Furthermore, the partners have also been given access to the web-application, deliverables and outputs produced, over the entire period of the project.
Impact This project was a multi-disciplinary collaboration with three main sectors of Transport, Water and Energy. The primary output of the project is RV-DSS web-application, which has been made available to project partners for comments on potential areas for further improvements.
Start Year 2017
 
Description Supervision of a taught post graduate dissertation on quantitative and qualitative assessment of interdependencies between water and transport system using Thames Water data 
Organisation Thames Water Utilities Limited
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution As a principal supervisor, I directed a PGT dissertation with a focus on resilience, vulnerability and interdependence within the water and road infrastructure systems. The main focus of the project was on the quantification of the disruptions due to the main water burst and the propagated impacts and interruptions on the water and road network in the southeast of England.
Collaborator Contribution Providing Data and expert advice via an anonymous survey
Impact A PGT Dissertation report
Start Year 2022
 
Title RV-DSS web application 
Description This is a first of kind web application, quantifying failure propagation due to inherent interdependencies in infrastructure systems providing a measure of network resilience in response to hazardous events, in addition to the measure of vulnerability. 
Type Of Technology Webtool/Application 
Year Produced 2018 
Impact Unlike the available DSSs (e.g., iRoad, Neptune, etc.), RV-DSS provides a measure of network resilience in response to hazardous events, in addition to vulnerability measure. This measure provides a quantitative metric of the robustness, recoverability, rapidity and resourcefulness of the infrastructure network in response to environmental hazards. RV-DSS provides asset owners and managers with resilience and vulnerability-informed (RV-informed) investment choices. By generating a quantitative measure of network vulnerability and resilience, considering infrastructure interdependencies, the most severe failure scenarios and their spatial impacts will be identified. These results could be used to prioritise future business planning strategies (e.g., increasing resources or redundancy levels). 
URL https://rv-dss.anglia.ac.uk/
 
Description A Workshop at Institution of Civil Engineers 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This seminar was focused on the application of the Resilience and Vulnerability-based Decision Support System (RV-DSS) on a case study in North Argyll, Scotland. At this seminar, we aimed to bring together academics and industry practitioners with extensive experience from three key sectors of water, energy and transport to discuss the application of the RV-DSS, in providing a measure of network resilience in response to hazardous events. the seminar consisted of a series of presentations and demos. we had 30 attendees from industry, academia and government representative.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/resilience-and-vulnerability-based-decision-support-system-rv-dss-sem...
 
Description An article at IWA Journal 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact to further reflect on lessons learnt in the project we have written and published an article at IWA Source Magazine.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.thesourcemagazine.org/learning-lessons-on-resilient-infrastructure-interdependencies/
 
Description Presentation at the Cyber Security & Resilience Conference 2019 in London 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Utility Week's Cyber Security & Resilience Conference is the only UK event bringing together resilience, risk, cyber & IT security executives from the utility sector to mitigate risk in the supply chain, safeguard customers' data and ensure that cybersecurity and resilience are prioritised from board level throughout the organisation.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://event.utilityweek.co.uk/cyber/wp-content/uploads/sites/64/2019/01/UW-CyberSecurity19-brochur...
 
Description Presenting at Multi-hazards ERIIP webinar 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The webinar provided an overview to the relevance of multi-hazards within the infrastructure industry, whilst covering past and ongoing research that identifies multi-hazard risks, assesses their impacts and develops solutions. This event also showcased recent NERC ERIIP-funded projects that tackle multi-hazards and their effects on infrastructure. The event resulted in further discussion on potential collaboration with a research and development institution who reached out to explore avenues for further development of the tool.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://www.ciria.org/CIRIA/Navigation/Events/Event_Display.aspx?EventKey=E19715