Motivation: Transport, communication, energy, and emergency services are critical infrastructures (CIs) to the function of society in any urban setting. Gaps in current scientific knowledge exist in our capacity to identify, model and simulate critical interdependencies across heterogeneous systems under incomplete knowledge and uncertainty. 

CIs are ageing and exposed to increased frequency and severity of natural hazards, and we have learnt from recent disaster-like events (COVID pandemic and the war in Ukraine) that unexpected events can quickly change the way infrastructures are used and designed for, and showing the complexity, interconnectivity and dependencies between CIs. We cannot design or even maintain infrastructures that are able to sustain any possible threats. But we can add flexibility and adaptability to respond, adapt and mitigate the consequences of such events and recover quickly. A transformative shift in thinking is needed if we are to shift from maintaining and maximising individual functionalities of individual CI to understanding joint vulnerabilities and mutual interdependences and sharing the “excess of robustness and capacity” for the good of all. Resilience is the science of planning for the unknown. Unknowns are the domain of uncertainty management and quantification. Resilience thinking is required to address the modern unknown threats, interdependencies, and poor knowledge of systems.

Enablers for CI resilience and sustainability are: 1) engineering modelling capability and mathematical approaches for assessing and understanding the impact of disruptions and cascading effects under deep uncertainty to facilitate the system of systems integration; 2) development of verified digital twins with an incredible level of details coupled with trustworthy AI solutions and simulations to make accountable and secure decisions; 3) Data (with different level of confidence and precision) that might come from embedded distributed sensors or smart highly mobile devices and real-time data analytics able to provide vital information. Those components will make CIs self-aware by providing damage assessment, self-repairing actions and adaptation. Such highly intelligent and automatised CI also needs to interface with humans raising several criticalities including reliability, robustness and trust that need to be addressed. This allows transforming current CIs into smart and intelligent infrastructure.

Needs: 

There is a clear need fof expertise in resilience engineering in our society. For instance, the National Infrastructure Commission examining the resilience of the UK’s infrastructure recommended to “introduce obligations by 2023 on infrastructure operators to require them to develop and maintain long term resilience strategies”