CHALLENGES FOR RESILIENCE AND INCLUSIVITY

CONCEPTS: LINEAR INFRASTRUCTURE, RESILIENCE, AND INCLUSIVITY

Infrastructure can either be linear—that is, following a pathway from one location to another—or non-linear (i.e., site-specific). Often, linear and non-linear infrastructure are co-dependent and developed together (e.g., transmission lines from a solar power farm). 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, have other negative impacts on ecosystems, be vulnerable to natural disaster risks, and affect multiple communities. The study is not concerned with small-scale or temporary linear infrastructure such as fences or fence lines, irrigation channels, or firebreaks.

The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) defines critical infrastructure 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 Much of the time, linear infrastructure is considered critical infrastructure, whether to support transportation (including emergency services) or energy supply. The resilience of linear infrastructure to disaster risks is therefore of particular importance.

UNDRR further defines resilience as “the ability of a system, community, or society exposed to hazards to resist, absorb, accommodate, adapt to, transform and recover from the effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner, including through the preservation and restoration of its essential basic structures and functions through risk management.”5 Linear infrastructure can be particularly 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 as a result of climate change. Vulnerability refers to “the conditions determined by physical, social, economic and environmental factors or processes which increase the susceptibility of an individual, a community, assets, or systems to the impacts of hazards.”6

A recent World Bank assessment of “the cost of infrastructure disruptions to low- and middle-income countries and the economic benefits of investing in resilient infrastructure”7 recognized 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. Making them more resilient—that is, better able to deliver the services people and firms need during and after natural shocks—is critical, not only to avoid costly damage but also to minimize the wide-ranging consequences of natural disasters for the livelihoods and well-being of people.”8

The World Bank assessment conceives the resilience of infrastructure at three overlapping levels: 9

1. Resilience of infrastructure assets—reducing the cost of infrastructure maintenance and repair

2. Resilience of infrastructure services—providing more reliable services through a systematic, networked approach

3. Resilience of infrastructure users—enabling people and supply chains to cope with infrastructure disruptions, reducing the impact of natural hazards on people and economies

4  UNDRR (n.d.) Terminology—Critical infrastructure, https://www.undrr.org/terminology/critical-infrastructure (last accessed 17 February 2022).

5  UNDRR (n.d.) Terminology—Resilience, https://www.undrr.org/terminology/resilience (last accessed 17 February 2022).

6  UNDRR (n.d.) Terminology—Vulnerability, https://www.undrr.org/terminology/vulnerability (last accessed 17 February 2022).

7  Hallegatte, S. et al (2019) Lifelines: The Resilient Infrastructure Opportunity, Sustainable Infrastructure Series, World Bank, doi:10.1596/978-1-4648-14303, pxiii.

8  Hallegatte, S. et al (2019), p2.

9  Hallegatte, S. et al (2019), pp10-11.

Resilience includes how biodiversity and climate change are considered in assessing the vulnerability of linear infrastructure to natural hazards. At the same time, linear infrastructure development should be inclusive of the needs and interests of potentially affected communities. The link between resilience and inclusivity can be summarized by the assertion that “resilient infrastructure is about people.”10

Inclusivity in linear infrastructure development means that infrastructure is designed, constructed, and operated in ways that can meet the needs of diverse communities served and potentially affected by the infrastructure. This includes ensuring potentially affected people can meaningfully participate in key decisions at all stages of linear infrastructure development and that they benefit from such development.