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

英国和欧洲大多数其他国家一样，正在经历一场范式转变，因为人们越来越希望通过合作伙伴主导的治理来管理基础设施的融资、管理和保护，以确保更明智、更可行的长期决策。这种重点从"自上而下"的直接管理转向"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的风险方面尤为明显。然而，目前的方法和工具，如旨在与利益相关者组织和公民进行磋商的调查和利益相关者焦点小组，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，这些规划过程是全面的、多方面的基础设施发展规划的基础，例如在泰晤士河口进行的规划。为了告知和协调规划方法，以应对环境风险保护、经济可行性（例如，泰晤士河口伙伴关系（TEP）及其合作伙伴在规划污染（下水道）、防洪和生态系统管理等领域的大型项目时，面临着利益相关者在规划即将到来的重大基础设施发展时整合的挑战。该项目旨在利用，应用和评估-在泰晤士河口基础设施的背景下，先进的方法和软件工具，以价值为基础，数据驱动的规划方法开发和测试的一部分，最近，跨学科的EPSRC资助的项目“走向数据驱动的环境政策设计”（TDDEPD）。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，利益相关者的意见及其与定量数据源的集成，例如传感器测量（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（西澳湿地）的背景下开发的，本项目将探讨其适应和应用的基础设施规划在泰晤士河口的背景下。为了建立他们的生存能力，该项目汇集了一个特殊的团队，由TEP领导，包括诺丁汉大学（地平线）的地平线数字经济研究所和计算机科学学院，并整合了规划方面的关键专业知识（作为实物捐助）由西澳大利亚州政府公园和野生动物部提供。这个雄心勃勃的项目将提供一个新的价值-基础设施规划的驱动方法，包括利益相关者参与的调整框架。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（例如，将开发一个新的管理工具（水位），并将提供基本的管理支助工具，如对潜在的基础设施变化进行敏感性分析。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解决具体用例（请清洁海洋）。TEP认为，以价值为基础的方法来管理基础设施、风险和栖息地的创造将是唯一有效的前进道路。他们认为，由一个具有良好业绩记录和丰富专门知识的团队在这项工作中采用所制定的方法，将改变他们与他们在政策制定和政策执行方面所负责的人互动的方式，并将使他们能够在未来全面规划和发展基础设施。

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.