Editor’s choice
Editor’s choice
This study presents a novel network-based approach to assess the resilience of interconnected critical infrastructures (CIs) to hydrometeorological hazards, using Halmstad Municipality, Sweden, as a case study. By integrating geospatial data, risk mapping, and stakeholder participation, the model identifies key vulnerabilities and cascading failure risks across power, water, telecommunications, emergency, and transport systems under flood exposure.
Undertaking systemic risk assessments of critical infrastructures (CIs) is necessary to improve understanding, mitigate impacts, and increase resilience to cascading effects of intensifying hydrometeorological hazards. This paper presents a novel quantitative approach with stakeholder participation for simulating local physical interdependencies between multiple infrastructure sectors that may be disrupted by floods. The model comprised power, water, telecommunications, emergency, and transport systems. Local (node-edge) resilience metrics were computed to identify critical, vulnerable, and non-redundant CIs in the network. For infrastructures located in areas under risk of floods, global resilience metrics (for whole-network degradation) evaluated failure propagation. The approach was tested in a case study of Halmstad Municipality, Sweden, with a history of extreme hydrometeorological events. Results identified key power, water, and communication infrastructures with high disruption potential under flood exposure, as well as specific residential and industrial areas near hazard zones being the most vulnerable due to their extensive dependencies.
Project / The project examines how exposure and vulnerability to water hazards impact infrastructures and populations in Sweden.
Project / CrisAct aims to provide a comprehensive science-based framework to monitor and manage hydroclimatically driven natural hazard crisis and disaster responses.
Project / Projektet stärker förmågan att hantera komplexa risker kopplade till klimatkrisen och olika samhällsförändringar.
SEI report / How do adaptation policies and governance acknowledge and respond to the systemic nature of climate change?
Past event / A webinar about land claims, land use conflicts, the state of Sámi rights and rule of law in the Nordic countries.
