Towards managing risk from climate change through comprehensive, inclusive and resilient UK infrastructure planning

与大多数欧洲国家一样，英国正面临着一种模式的转变，因为人们越来越期望通过伙伴关系主导的治理来管理基础设施的资金、管理和保护，以确保制定更明智、更可行的长期决策。这种强调从“自上而下”的直接政府到“自下而上”的利益相关者参与的转变在管理关键基础设施和环境风险方面尤为明显。然而，目前旨在与利益攸关方组织和公民协商的方法和工具，如调查和利益攸关方焦点小组，通常范围有限，不够开放或适应性。因此，它们不能有效地为复杂的规划过程提供信息，这些规划过程是综合的、多方面的基础设施发展规划的基础，例如在泰晤士河河口进行的规划。为了向环境风险保护、经济可行性（如渔业）和生态系统管理等异质性挑战提供信息和协调规划方法，迫切需要新的咨询方法和将多方利益相关者的观点与定量数据相结合的新方法。泰晤士河河口伙伴关系（TEP）及其合作伙伴正面临着在即将到来的规划中整合利益相关者的挑战，在污染（下水道）、洪水保护和生态系统管理领域的大型项目背景下进行重大基础设施发展。该项目旨在利用、应用和评估——在泰晤士河河口基础设施的背景下，基于价值的、数据驱动的规划方法的前沿方法和软件工具，作为最近EPSRC资助的跨学科项目“迈向数据驱动的环境政策设计”（TDDEPD）的一部分开发和测试。基于人类数据捕获和计算机科学的新发展，这些技术能够快速和全面地捕获定性数据；例如，干系人的意见及其与定量数据源的集成，如传感器测量（例如，降雨量）和过程输出。虽然这些规划方法是在一个非常不同的主题（即环境保护规划）和地理（西澳大利亚湿地）背景下发展起来的，但本项目将探索它们在泰晤士河口基础设施规划背景下的适应性和应用。为了确定其可行性，该项目汇集了一个由TEP领导的杰出团队，包括地平线数字经济研究所和诺丁汉大学计算机科学学院（地平线），并整合了西澳大利亚政府公园和野生动物部提供的规划方面的关键专业知识（作为实物贡献）。这个雄心勃勃的项目将为基础设施规划提供一种新的价值驱动的方法，包括一个适合利益相关者参与的框架。将开发一个数字平台，能够捕获和处理利益相关者的输入和（通常不确定的）定量数据（如水位），并将提供必要的管理支持工具，如对潜在基础设施变化的敏感性分析。后者还将直接支持对拟议方法的评估，并将能够在项目时间框架内处理具体用例（请清洁海洋）。TEP认为，以价值为基础的方法来管理基础设施、风险和栖息地创造将是唯一有效的前进道路。他们认为，在这项工作中，由一个具有良好记录和丰富专业知识的团队开发的方法将改变他们在政策制定和政策实施层面与他们负责的人互动的方式，并将使未来的基础设施全面规划和发展成为可能。

The UK, along with most other nations in Europe, is encountering a paradigm shift as the funding, management, and protection of infrastructure is increasingly expected to be managed through partnership-led governance ensuring better informed and more viable, long-term decision making. This shift in emphasis from 'top-down' direct government, to 'bottom-up' stakeholder engagement is particularly pronounced in managing risks to critical infrastructure and the environment.Current methodologies and tools, such as surveys and stakeholder focus groups, aimed at consultation with stakeholder organisations and citizens are however generally limited in scope and insufficiently open or adaptive. Thus, they do not effectively inform the complex planning processes underlying comprehensive, multi-faceted infrastructure development planning as undertaken for example in the Thames Estuary. In order to inform and reconcile planning approaches to heterogeneous challenges such as environmental risk protection, economic viability (e.g., fisheries) and ecosystem management, new consultation methods and novel ways of combining multi-stakeholder views with quantitative data are urgently needed.The Thames Estuary Partnership (TEP) and its partners are facing the challenge of stakeholder integration in the planning of imminent, major infrastructural development in the context of large scale projects in the areas of pollution (sewers), flood protection and ecosystem management. This project is designed to leverage, apply and evaluate - in the Thames Estuary Infrastructure context, cutting edge methodologies and software tools for value-based, data-driven planning methods developed and tested as part of the recent, interdisciplinary EPSRC funded project "Towards Data-Driven Environmental Policy Design" (TDDEPD). Building on novel developments in human data capture and computer science, these techniques enable the rapid and comprehensive capture of qualitative data; e.g., stakeholder opinion and their integration with quantitative data sources such as sensor measurements (e.g., rainfall levels) and process outputs. While these planning methodologies were developed in a very different topical (i.e. environmental protection planning) and geographic (Western Australian wetlands) context, this project will explore their adaptation and application to the context of infrastructural planning in the Thames Estuary. In order to establish their viability, the project brings together an exceptional team, led by the TEP and including the Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute and School of Computer Science from the University of Nottingham (Horizon) and integrating key expertise in planning contributed (as an in-kind contribution) by the Department for Parks and Wildlife by the Western Australian Government.The ambitious project will deliver a novel value-driven methodology for infrastructure planning, including an adapted framework for stakeholder engagement. A digital platform enabling the capture and processing of both stakeholder input and (often uncertain) quantitative data (e.g., water levels) will be developed and will provide essential management support tools such as sensitivity analyses for potential infrastructure changes. The latter will also directly support the evaluation of the proposed approach and will enable addressing a concrete use case within the project time frame (Clean Seas Please). TEP believe that a values-based approach to managing infrastructure, risk, and habitat creation will be the only effective way forward. They believe that using the methods to be developed in this work by a team with a strong track record and significant expertise will transform the way they interact with those to whom they are responsible at the levels of policy setting, and policy implementation and will enable the comprehensive planning and development of infrastructure in the future.