Background 

SAFEWAY - GIS-Based Infrastructure Management System for Optimized Response to Extreme Events on Terrestrial Transport Networks - aims to address the ability of transport systems to function during adverse conditions and quickly recover to acceptable levels of service after extreme events. The main objective of the project is to design, validate and implement holistic methods, strategies, tools and technical interventions to significantly increase the resilience of inland transport infrastructure by reducing risk vulnerability and strengthening network systems to extreme events.

The University of Cambridge is one of 15 partners collaborating on the project, which is being coordinated by the University of Vigo, Spain.

Challenges addressed

SAFEWAY project tools and interventions will be deployed for critical hazards, both natural and man-made. Natural hazards SAFEWAY will address: wildfires in Portugal; floods, which currently account for half of climate hazard across Europe; land displacements in the UK, Spain, the Netherlands and Portugal; and seismic-related events in the Iberian Peninsula and Italy.  Resilience to man-made hazards such as terrorism, vandalism, accidents, and negligence, will be achieved by mitigating their impacts with real-time mobility advice (e.g. TomTom real-time traffic management). SAFEWAY employs innovative socio-technical components of psychology and risk tolerance at local, regional and European communities for both natural as well as man-made hazards.

Our role in SAFEWAY will include collaborative research to develop predictive models for critical infrastructure assets that consider measured structural performance and trends observed in large databases to estimate the risks of future infrastructure damage, shutdown and deterioration.  Projections of second, third-order, and long-term consequences will also be assessed.  Dr Parlikad and his team will also be involved in the development of a robust decision support framework for terrestrial transportation infrastructure management by considering diverse types of risks related to natural and man-made extreme events and then balancing stakeholders’ demands and optimising priorities over asset types. The objective is to find the optimum balance between long-term risk minimisation and available financial resources i.e. to find the optimum resilience.

SAFEWAY is funded by the EU Horizon 2020 ‘Smart, green and integrated transport’ work programme which  is aimed at achieving a European transport system that is resilient, resource-efficient, climate-and-environmentally-friendly, safe and seamless for the benefit of all citizens, the economy and society.

People

• Ajith Parlikad

Project Partners

• University of Vigo, Spain
• Network Rail
• StiftelsenNorgesGeotekniskeInstitutt
• InsituIngenieria, S.L.
• Demo Consultants BV
• Universidade do Minho
• Planetek
• Infrastructure Management Consultants Gmbh
• Ferrovial Agroman S.A.
• Infraestruturas de Portugal
• Ben Rutten Technology Research
• Innovactory (in association with TomTom)
• Institute of Transport Economics Norwegian Centre for Transport Research
• Texas A&M Transportation Institute