CONCEPTS: LINEAR INFRASTRUCTURE, RESILIENCE, AND INCLUSIVITY

For this study, linear infrastructure includes roads, railway lines, canals, power transmission and distribution lines, and pipelines. The study focuses on large-scale linear infrastructure that could have significant intrusions into key biodiversity areas (KBAs), have negative impacts on ecosystems, be vulnerable to natural disaster risks, and affect multiple communities.

Linear infrastructure is vulnerable to a range of natural hazards—including cyclones, floods, landslides, storm surges, earthquakes, and tsunamis—many of which are becoming more frequent and intense because of climate change. Because linear infrastructure is often critical infrastructure, defined by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) as “physical structures, facilities, networks and other assets which provide services that are essential to the social and economic functioning of a community or society,”4 small disruptions can have a significant impact. A recent World Bank assessment reviewed the cost of infrastructure disruptions in low- and middle-income countries 5 and found that power, water and sanitation, transport, and telecommunications systems “are particularly vulnerable to natural hazards because they are organized in complex networks through which even small local shocks can propagate quickly.” The assessment concluded that making these systems more resilient “is critical, not only to avoid costly damage but also to minimize the effects of natural disasters on the livelihoods and well-being of people.”6

Inclusivity in linear infrastructure development means that infrastructure is designed, constructed, and operated in ways that can meet the needs of communities affected by the infrastructure. This includes ensuring that potentially affected people can meaningfully participate in key decisions at all stages of linear infrastructure development. 4  UNDRR (n.d.) Terminology

5  Hallegatte, S. et al (2019) Lifelines: The Resilient Infrastructure Opportunity, Sustainable Infrastructure Series, World Bank, doi:10.1596/978-1-4648-1430-3, p. Xiii

6  Hallegatte, S. et al (2019), p. 2.