Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure for the Next Generation

Dear Colleagues,

The International Symposia for Next-Generation Infrastructure (ISNGI) provide a platform for infrastructure systems’ research and practice, and especially for transdisciplinary research that seeks to conceptualise, enact and model an integrative and system-of-systems approach to infrastructure. This Special Issue draws together a selection of the contributions received for ISNGI 2022, held on the 7–9 September in Rotterdam.

The papers explore how infrastructure plays a dual role: the infrastructure system itself must be sustainable and resilient, but it must also support economic, environmental and societal sustainability and resilience. All aspects of a nation’s economy, environment and society are enabled, either directly or indirectly, by infrastructure. National infrastructure with low sustainability and resilience jeopardises the short-term realisation of all national strategic objectives and risks initiating a long-term downward spiral in which the cumulative impacts of repeat disruptions undermine the quality of life, reduce productivity and GDP, damage industry and investor confidence, impair tax revenues, undermine international competitiveness and channel national investment away from long-term priorities into short-term responsive expenditure. Infrastructure that is not sustainable and resilient is susceptible to disruption with greater frequency, on a larger scale, with higher intensity, for longer durations and at a greater cost than its more sustainable and resilient counterparts, yet not all strategic challenges and hazards are known (such as natural disasters) or are easily predictable (such as climate change), making preparedness of infrastructure systems a potentially uncertain and expensive undertaking.

National infrastructure is more than a mere collection of physical assets. It is a complex interdependent system of physical infrastructure, governance structures, regulatory frameworks, decision-making processes and interdependencies between assets, within networks, between sectors and with the dynamic external environment in which it operates. Quality of life, social cohesion, economic prosperity and productivity are all emergent outcomes enabled by national infrastructure. As such, infrastructure is, potentially, a powerful leverage point to support societal transformation.

Dr. Joanne Leach
Guest Editor