04Resilient infrastructure systems
UKWIR will enable research that prepares critical operations, systems and assets to be resilient to future challenges and unknowns.
Resilience is ‘the ability to cope with, and recover from, disruption and anticipate trends and variability in order to maintain services for people and protect the natural environment now and in the future’ (Ofwat, 2017). Our infrastructure and operations need to be resilient to short term shocks such as flooding and long-term stresses like ageing infrastructure, so that we can continue to provide services to customers who need them. We are currently working to better understand baseline resilience, while also incorporating systems thinking into service delivery.
UKWIR plan to support research to increase knowledge and improve practices so that by 2050 the water sector will have:
- No service or supply interruptions
- Use of adaptive models to copy with future changing trends in population or climate change
- Understanding of asset health and lifecycle, including long-term costs and operation
- Long-term strategic decisions are made with consideration for social and natural capital
- Data-sharing to help everyone in the water industry build and manage resilient infrastructure
- Strategic decisions making appropriately manages risk so that decisions can be made with confidence
How UKWIR themes relate to UN Sustainable Development Goals
Examples of our research publications
Climate change adaptation - a common framework
READ REPORT
Future Asset Planning – Scenarios, frameworks and measures: Final report
READ REPORT
For each of our themes we have developed a mission and aims, which we have aligned to the UKWIR Big Questions and linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals to reflect their global applicability.
Helping to address the big questions
BQ4 - How do we achieve 100% compliance with drinking water standards (at point of use) by 2050?
BQ8 - How to continue creating positive value through Asset Management decision making?