Enhancing Sustainability and Resilience through Multi-Level Infrastructure Planning

Abstract

Resilient planning demands not only resilient actions, but also resilient implementation, which promotes adaptive capacity for the attainment of the planned objectives. This requires, in the case of multi-level infrastructure systems, the simultaneous pursuit of bottom-up infrastructure planning for the promotion of adaptive capacity, and of top-down approaches for the achievement of global objectives and the reduction of structural vulnerabilities and imbalances. Though several authors have pointed out the need to balance bottom-up flexibility with top-down hierarchical control for better plan implementation, very few methods have yet been developed with this aim, least of all with a multi-objective perspective. This work addressed this lack by including, for the first time, the mitigation of urban vulnerability, the improvement of road network condition, and the minimization of the economic cost as objectives in a resilient planning process in which both actions and their implementation are planned for a controlled, sustainable development. Building on Urban planning support system (UPSS), a previously developed planning tool, the improved planning support system affords a planning alternative over the Spanish road network, with the best multi-objective balance between optimization, risk, and opportunity. The planning process then formalizes local adaptive capacity as the capacity to vary the selected planning alternative within certain limits, and global risk control as the duties that should be achieved in exchange. Finally, by means of multi-objective optimization, the method reveals the multi-objective trade-offs between local opportunity, global risk, and rights and duties at local scale, thus providing deeper understanding for better informed decision-making.

A Methodology of Workshops to Explore Mutual Assistance Activities for Earthquake Disaster Mitigation

“…Finally, in regards to the MAS sub-tool, the need to address issues pertaining to relational uncertainty and probabilistic relational modeling, such as in [ 29 ], is pointed out.…”

Utilizing Population Distribution Patterns for Disaster Vulnerability Assessment: Case of Foreign Residents in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area of Japan

“…Therefore, further studies may be useful to broadening the scope and the understanding of the challenges of foreign residents in coping with disasters in Japan. As evidenced in other studies, it is important to identify and highlight elements whose interest would be paramount to collective resilience [44]. This study aims to contribute towards closing this gap.…”

Multi-Level Planning for Enhancing Critical Infrastructure Resilience against Power Shortages—An Analysis of the Swedish System of Styrel

“…Additionally, a better alignment of the objectives within the multi-level planning system of CIP is required to address processes and structures at several levels of concern in society and mediate among them [68]. However, this requires both a well thought-out and values-based overall vision in multi-level planning and an appropriate balance among the long-term and short-term goals at the strategic, tactic and operational levels [69,70]. Thus, the challenge is still to establish the balance between control and flexibility, complexity and capability to act, dispute and dialogue, participation and self-indulgent publics, common structure and local variety, and systematic and ad hoc proceedings.…”