Chris Medland
Academic and research departments
Centre for Environment and Sustainability, School of Sustainability, Civil and Environmental Engineering.About
My research project
Climate change resilience of an English coastal town - the sustainability of critical infrastructureThe focus of study is the resilience of the infrastructure that underpins a specific community on England’s south coast and the robustness of planned interventions, i.e., sea wall maintenance and sewerage replacement programmes etc. An audit will evaluate the infrastructure to assess the sustainability of society between 2022 and 2100.
The study will investigate if measures are in place to ensure resilience to climate change in such coastal communities and, if so, to test the robustness of these measures. Through the results of the sustainability audits’ analysis an area of particular concern is identified, and a further detailed study undertaken.
The in-depth study results in a series of proposed interventions in the process and execution of infrastructure renewal with a view to ascertaining a way to mitigate the negative impacts of this effect on community infrastructure and on society. A further audit will be undertaken where these proposals feed this back into the audit and a potential more sustainable alternative future is modelled.
Supervisors
The focus of study is the resilience of the infrastructure that underpins a specific community on England’s south coast and the robustness of planned interventions, i.e., sea wall maintenance and sewerage replacement programmes etc. An audit will evaluate the infrastructure to assess the sustainability of society between 2022 and 2100.
The study will investigate if measures are in place to ensure resilience to climate change in such coastal communities and, if so, to test the robustness of these measures. Through the results of the sustainability audits’ analysis an area of particular concern is identified, and a further detailed study undertaken.
The in-depth study results in a series of proposed interventions in the process and execution of infrastructure renewal with a view to ascertaining a way to mitigate the negative impacts of this effect on community infrastructure and on society. A further audit will be undertaken where these proposals feed this back into the audit and a potential more sustainable alternative future is modelled.
Publications
The National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) has called for a framework that “better anticipates future shocks and stresses. . ., values resilience properly, drives adaptation before it is too late”. This call is echoed within academic literature and by the Ministry of Defence (MOD). Furthermore, the National Resilience Strategy (NRS) sets out the need for an evaluation of socio-economic resilience to inform decision-making around societal stability. A resilience assessment framework (RAF) or tool that holistically addresses the vulnerabilities of infrastructure to the hazards of climate change is called for. This scoping review builds upon existing research through comparing and tabulating 110 resilience tools. The aim is to determine if any existing framework, or elements of any framework, could be used as components of an RAF formulated to address the calls of the NIC, MOD, NRS, and wider literature. The wider objective is to contribute to literature around infrastructure resilience and the early-stage development of a practically applicable holistic framework that enables resilience forecasting to inform infrastructure design and adaptation, increasing resilience while preventing infrastructure overcapitalization, resource overconsumption, or maladaptation.