Infrastructure climate change resilience: a review of resilience assessment frameworks

Abstract

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 socioeconomic 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 whilst preventing infrastructure overcapitalization, resource overconsumption, or maladaptation