RESILIENCE THROUGH INNOVATION: CRITICAL LOCAL TRANSPORT AND UTILITY INFRASTRUCTURE

促进人员、货物、废物和公用事业服务的运输，从而为文明生活提供必要支持的物质基础设施正受到多种来源的威胁：（通常是极端）老化、不利的地面化学物质、由于露天干预而造成的地表负荷或应力缓解；需求严重增加；不断变化的（不同的或改变的）要求；恐怖主义;气候变化的影响；资金紧张和严重的自然灾害（极端天气事件、地震、山体滑坡等）。这种脆弱性，以及在面对这种威胁时对弹性的需求，得到了广泛的认可——参见《建设英国的未来》和ICE的《国家状况报告：保卫关键基础设施》（均为2009年），以及新的英国基础设施交付机构的目标。这项可行性研究旨在探索概念化、设计、建造、维护、管理、适应和评估物理基础设施的根本不同方式，使其无论面临何种威胁或未来如何发展都具有弹性。在这种情况下，弹性指的是基础设施、管理系统和最终用户之间存在的共生关系。近年来，人们见证了一种更跨学科的弹性概念的转变，这种概念整合了弹性的物理（建筑和自然）和社会政治方面。这种变化是至关重要的，因为社会政治和管理方面可以说与物理方面一样重要，以实现弹性；弹性工程还需要一个更有弹性的基础设施环境，涉及到管理工程活动的专业、结构和过程。该提案探讨了弹性研究的工程和社会维度，这些研究需要在面对多重挑战时带来思想和实践的根本性改变，以确保未来。以下是工程、空间规划和社会科学交叉领域的两个核心弹性主题，将通过一系列研讨会开展可行性研究，以应对关键挑战。具体体现在地方协议中——一套由32个中央批准和地方实施的绩效指标，将工程解决方案、采用机制、行为适应和教育联系起来。为弹性社区定制当地公用设施2。交通在社会复原力中的作用研究小组从伯明翰大学的五个主要研究小组中吸取了经验，他们都在研究基础设施和复原力的核心主题。该团队由来自利益相关者社区（包括从业者和政策制定者）的创新思考者提供支持。研究的主要主题是建立当地公用设施基础设施和运输，以提供弹性，认识到英国向加强公共/私营部门创新和地方决策和交付的转变。我们的团队将通过开发针对当地问题的现实解决方案，克服工程解决方案与社会科学家关注问题之间存在的紧张关系，从而深化跨学科研究。这需要探索四个实践社区之间的接口：工程和物理科学、社会科学、私营企业和地方政府。目的是确定降低成本和提高交付的解决方案，但也要确定有潜力创造具有商业价值的创新产品的新项目。

The physical infrastructure that facilitates the transport of people, freight, waste and utility services, and thus provides the essential support to civilised life, is under threat from numerous sources: deterioration through (often extreme) ageing, adverse ground chemistry, surface loading or stress relief due to open-cut interventions; severely increased demand; ever changing (different, or altered) demands; terrorism; the effects of climate change; funding constraints and severe natural hazards (extreme weather events, earthquakes, landslides, etc.). Such vulnerability, and the need for resilience in the face of such threats, is recognised widely - see Building Britain's Future17 and the ICE's State of The Nation Report: Defending Critical Infrastructure18 (both 2009), and the aims of the new Infrastructure UK delivery body18. This feasibility study seeks to explore radically different ways of conceptualising, designing, constructing, maintaining, managing, adapting and valuing the physical infrastructure to make it resilient no matter which threats are manifested or how the future develops. In this context resilience refers to the symbiosis existing between infrastructure, management systems and end users.Recent years have witnessed a shift to a more transdisciplinary concept of resilience that integrates the physical (both built and natural) and socio-political aspects of resilience. This change has been crucial because the socio-political and managerial aspects are arguably as important to the attainment of resilience as the physical aspects; resilient engineering also demands a more resilient infrastructural context with regard to the professions and the structures and processes which govern engineering activity.This proposal explores the engineering and social dimensions of resilience research needed to bring about radical changes in thinking and practice for an assured future in the face of multiple challenges. The following represent two core resilience themes at the interface of engineering, spatial planning and social science, from which feasibility studies to address key challenges will emerge via a series of workshops. The tangible manifestation lies in Local Area Agreements - a set of 32 centrally-approved and locally-implemented performance indicators linking engineered solutions, mechanisms for adoption, behavioural adaptation and education.1. Bespoke local utility infrastructures for resilient communities2. The role of transport in societal resilienceThe research team draws from five major research groups at the University of Birmingham, all of whom are addressing core themes of infrastructure and resilience. The team is supported by innovative thinkers drawn from the stakeholder community, both practitioners and policy makers. The primary themes to be studied are the creation of local utility infrastructures and transport to deliver resilience, recognising the UK shift towards enhancing innovation in the public/private sectors and local decision-making and delivery. Our team will deepen trans-disciplinary research by overcoming the tension that exists between the engineering focus on solutions and the social scientists concern with problems by developing realistic solutions to local problems. This requires exploration of the interface between four communities of practice: engineering and physical sciences, social sciences, private firms and local government. The intention is to identify solutions that reduce costs and enhance delivery, but also to identify new projects that have the potential to create innovative products that have commercial value.