Optimal resilience planning for interconnected critical infrastructures - developments of the EU-CIRCLE project

EU-CIRCLE is a research project with an aim to assess the resilience of interconnected and interdependent critical infrastructures to climate change and especially to climate hazards. As infrastructures have lifetime that span several decades, it is imperative to generate scientifically truthful and validated knowledge on the potential impacts of climate, as a viable pathway for making them resilient to future climate regimes. EUCIRCLE's aim is to develop a) an innovative generic risk framework and b) the implementation of a Climate Infrastructure Resilience Platform(CIRP) that allows stakeholders to collaboratively 1) assess potential impacts due to climate hazards, 2) analyse and evaluate adaptation strategies and 3) provide monitoring capabilities. The generic risk framework presented in this paper implements a consequence-based approach. It is based on, and complies with several international standards and recommendations. The paper furthermore outlines the components of the GIS-based CIRP and explains the workflow to assess resilience of interconnected critical infrastructures and adaptation strategies.