SAVE THE DATE: FORESEE FINAL CONFERENCE - 22ND FEBRUARY 2022
The final conference for the FORESEE project will be hosted online on 22th February 2022 at 9:30-13:30 (CET). Registration link and agenda available: https://foreseeproject.eu/towards-a-more-resilient-transport-infrastructure-the-foresee-eu-project-final-conference/
The final conference will unveil results of the project by experts from private sector, research, standardization, transport operators, digital services providers and academia.
To set the scene, an initial panel with representatives from UNECE, European Commission (DG MOVE and DG CLIMA), World Road Association and the Railways sector will present the policy and regulatory framework in climate change and cybersecurity.
Governmental Prioritisation and Initiatives Relating to Critical Infrastructure Resilience
EUROPEAN UNION
On December 20th, 2021, the EU Council approved a general approach on the draft directive on the resilience of critical infrastructure. The draft instrument seeks to mitigate the vulnerabilities and improve the resilience of critical infrastructures which are essential in supporting the livelihoods of EU citizens and the effective functioning of the internal market.
Member states will be required to establish a strategy to improve the resilience of critical entities, conduct risk assessments at least every 4 years and identify the infrastructures that facilitate essential services. CI managers will need to identify the risks that could significantly disrupt the free flow of essential services, take appropriate measures to ensure their resilience and inform the competent authorities about disruptive incidents.
In addition to the directive on the resilience of critical infrastructure, the Commission also presented a proposal for a directive on measures for a high common level of cybersecurity across the EU (NIS2), which aims to respond to the same concerns from the perspective of cyber-attacks/security breaches. EU member states expressed the need for greater alignment between the two.
For further reading: Strengthening EU resilience: Council adopts negotiating mandate on the resilience of critical entities - Consilium (europa.eu)
GOVERNMENTAL PRIORITISATION AND INITIATIVES RELATING TO CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE RESILIENCE
UNITED KINGDOM
This shift in focus for government to adopt policies which respond to the newly emerging cyber threat within the domain of CI resilience has also recently been echoed in the United Kingdom. Julia Lopez MP, (Minister of State for Media, Data, and Digital Infrastructure) recently held an open consultation for a proposal for legislation to improve the UK’s cyber resilience.
MP Lopez acknowledged that on one hand, technological developments have radically improved efficiencies and enhanced the industrial landscape. On the other hand, these developments have inadvertently produced vulnerabilities which have been overlooked by policymakers. MP Lopez has expressed her support for stricter legislation that addresses cyber-risks (when clients include government departments and critical infrastructure) but does not interfere with the development of the digital economy.
For further reading: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/proposal-for-legislation-to-improve-the-uks-cyber-resilience/proposal-for-legislation-to-improve-the-uks-cyber-resilience
GOVERNMENTAL PRIORITISATION AND INITIATIVES RELATING TO CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE RESILIENCE
UNITED STATES
On October 29, 2021, the White House issued a Presidential Proclamation declaring November as Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month (For further reading: https://www.cisa.gov/infrastructure-security-month)
In the Proclamation, President Joe Biden states: “Threats to the critical infrastructure that we all depend on, which underpins our economic and national security, are among the most significant and growing concerns for our Nation, including cyber threats, physical threats, and climate threats…We must do everything we can to safeguard and strengthen the systems that protect us; provide energy to power our homes, schools, hospitals, businesses, and vehicles; maintain our ability to connect; and ensure that we have reliable access to safe drinking water.”
In line with Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month, CISA (Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, USA) published an article highlighting some of the key challenges facing critical infrastructure today
CISA highlighted the fact that many of the current challenges build on issues that emerged in 2020. For example, the massive shift to virtual and hybrid environments that started in response to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions have become more prevalent, opening additional vulnerabilities in our online environment. Significant cyber intrusions, beginning with the supply chain compromise discovered at the end of 2020 and continuing with Kaseya and ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure like oil and agriculture, have highlighted the very real physical impacts that cyber intrusions can have on interconnected and interdependent critical infrastructure.
Similarly, climate change has become increasingly prominent in the headlines within the domain of CI. For example, Critical infrastructure like dams and water were impacted by extreme drought, and communities (and their infrastructure) have been impacted by massive and prolonged wildfires and increased flooding.
Environmental Impacts on CRitical Infrastructure
TONGA
The increasing prevalence of climate change impact on critical infrastructures was recently played out in horrific scenes in Tonga. Earlier this month, a volcanic eruption occurred in Tonga that triggered a tsunami that was hundreds of times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War Two. According to BBC, the eruption obliterated a volcanic island north of the Tongan capital Nuku’alofa. Tongan officials have said that more than four-fifths of the population has been affected by the tsunami and falling ash.
Tonga is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change with most of its population and critical infrastructure located on atoll islands – including the very low-lying Tongatapu atoll. Moreover, Tonga is susceptible to a range of climate change challenges, such as stronger tropical cyclones, flooding, drought and heat waves, coastal erosion, increase acidity of ocean waters and sea level rise. The Australian government have been supporting Tonga in critical infrastructure resilience recognising that disasters are more likely to escalate with climate change.
Hence, increasing support for disaster risk reduction and preparedness is essential in helping communities build resilience in the face of extreme weather events. Australia has pledged to not only help Tonga builders attain the skilled needed to construct resilient infrastructures but also to support the transition to solar power which will increase the resilience of the Tongan energy system so communities can recover more quickly after disasters.
For further reading: https://www.dfat.gov.au/about-us/publications/tonga-australias-commitment-to-strengthening-climate-and-disaster-resilience-in-the-pacific
Emerging Trends in Infrastructure
Over the past 10 years KPMG have published “Emerging trends in infrastructure” reports which explore the trend insights relevant to the infrastructure sector. In the newly published 2022 edition, four pillars have been proposed which will inform effective decision making. Namely, insight, agility, collaboration and bravery.
“The insight tells us what we should expect in the future. The agility is there when our insight is wrong. Collaboration allows us to change things at speed. Bravery is the spark that lets leaders act.”
Insights (such as those gathered through data & analytics and publications like this one) will need to flow from a wide range of sources, leveraging multiple inputs, for infrastructure decision-makers to get a more holistic
Agility will be needed at every level of the infrastructure ecosystem — from individual assets right up to the system. It will be required by every actor (regulators, owners, management and workers, suppliers, technology providers and others). But if we try to operate in silos we will fail.
Collaboration must be embraced, including cross-sectoral approaches to understanding and addressing infrastructure needs.
And bravery is needed, because time is running out to tackle challenges like climate change; infrastructure decisions will need to be made in years not decades.
In addition, seven trends have been proposed which will underpin the recovery and development of the CI sector.
7 cRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE TRENDS EMERGING IN 2022
Trend 1: Moving from talk to action
Infrastructure is central to addressing the climate crisis, with around 70 percent of the world’s carbon emissions the result of infrastructure construction and use. Happily, organizations in the industry are beginning to shoulder responsibility and move from words to deeds. In 2022, expect to see the private sector redouble its investment and activity on the climate agenda. Infrastructure players with a clear path to net zero will thrive and the climate laggards will fail
Trend 2: Building long–term in a short–term world
Populism is raging. Work models are being disrupted. Shopping patterns are evolving. Technology companies are replacing traditional institutions. And massive debates that pit the right of the individual as opposed to the common good are exploding everywhere. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to know what society will want in the next few days or years, let alone what it will need in the coming decades.
Over the coming year, expect infrastructure planners to become much more focused on stakeholder engagement, data and analytics, and new technologies. And expect this to lead to greater certainty, flexibility and collaboration in future planning and investment.
Trend 3: Maintaining control while encouraging agility
Infrastructure requires governance, regulation and control. After all, these are big investments, with big impacts, made for the very long term. Consumers must remain protected; users must be served and kept safe; investors must be kept informed and there are already growing signals that the public is keen to see greater privacy protection in every sphere of their lives. This does not mean that regulation will start to recede or control will be loosened. Quite the opposite.
In the coming year, expect regulators and governance bodies to take a much more central role — with a view towards encouraging value (both in the way infrastructure is delivered and in the way it is governed). The speed of this could determine our future more than anything else.
7 CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE TRENDS EMERGING IN 2022
Trend 4: Making digital real
If the pandemic had lasted months (not years), perhaps many of the digital habits it spawned would have washed away as life quickly returned to normal. But the pandemic is not receding (setbacks and recoveries — and recoveries and setbacks). And the shift to digitization is only picking up speed. Simply put, COVID-19 has made digital real for the infrastructure sector.
Trend 5: Supply infrastructure, supply the world
For years, businesses competed to reduce supply chain capital employed, while supply chain managers focused on saving cycle times (just-in-time). Now businesses are competing to improve resilience to COVID, extreme weather events, political gamesmanship, whatever. Indeed, the economic gyrations of the past 2 years have demonstrated to the world that modern supply chains are fragile, overstretched and vulnerable to a wide range of external and internal shocks.
In the year ahead, we hope to see some of the supply constraints currently plaguing the world economy to ease. One of the silver linings is that it may drive infrastructure players place increased focus on encouraging diversity in their organizations, both as a way to reduce talent supply constraints and as an opportunity to bring new perspectives into the sector.
Trend 6: Towards a new ‘livable’
As governments and infrastructure planners are struggling to identify which pandemic-catalyzed trends are permanent and which are transient, one of the most important questions is where people will want to live, work and play both tomorrow and in 10 years’ time. The answer will have significant impact on how cities evolve over the next 100 years. Over the coming year, expect to see city planners and policy makers start to place bigger bets on how their populations will want to live, work and play. Don’t expect any radical changes in investment priorities for the time being. But do expect to see increased prioritization on those assets that support a range of different lifestyles. Many of the short term changes will remain on paper until it becomes clearer how/if these issues will sort themselves out.
Trend 7: Paying for it all
Governments everywhere are under pressure to pass more of the cost of infrastructure to users, but they are worried about the political backlash. In the UK, for example, the energy regulator has been supported by the Government in its refusal to lift the energy price cap even in the face of dozens of energy firms collapsing.
No one wants to pay more for something they regard as essential, like power, water or the drive to work. But greater alignment between users and payers will need to be found if governments are to deliver on their infrastructure agendas and in particular their net zero commitments. This year, expect to hear governments having more articulate and persuasive conversations about how they will fund their infrastructure plans over the long-term. Taxation will likely rise and expand. And serious conversations about user fees will come to the front page.
For further reading: https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home/insights/2022/01/emerging-trends-in-infrastructure.html
Follow us on social media and visit our website to keep up to date with case studies' progress and initiatives.
FORESEE Project Partners
Stay Connected with us
Credits:
Created with images by csliaw - "streets night lights" • algrin25 - "busan night scene bridge busan" • Catkin - "calendar entry ring binder" • clareich - "bundestag government politics" • joffi - "hacking hacker computer" • oohhsnapp - "flag america usa" • Hans - "wave sea swell" • Didgeman - "professional transport cars bridge" • PhotoMIX-Company - "digital marketing seo google" • Tumisu - "logistics truck container"