Summary
ROD began work on INFRALINC, a one-year project aimed at developing a design for a full-scale study to assess climate change risks for critical infrastructure (CI) in Ireland, in March 2022. Our consortium partners were Dublin City Council, Irish Rail and OpenEir.
The primary focus of the project was risk calculation. It examined different types of infrastructure and their interdependencies in terms of both the likelihood and potential consequences of one infrastructure failure on another. It also considered cascading hazards wherein extreme events increase significantly over time and generate unexpected, secondary events of strong impact.
Project aims
- Produce an inventory of critical infrastructure and associated climatic-related events
- Develop cross-sectoral, climate hazard vulnerability assessment recommendations within an Irish context
- Identify data currently available for use and the minimum data required to perform a climate impact assessment for critical infrastructure in Ireland
- Formulate a monitoring regime for Irish infrastructure owners to ensure sufficient data is available, allowing for future changes in the scientific environment and climate change
- Identify data sharing issues and propose a regime to appropriately consider security concerns of cross-sectoral data usage
Steering committee
The project steering committee members included:
- Lee Chapman, University of Birmingham
- Sean O’Leary, Environmental Protection Agency
- Mary Curley, Met Éireann
- Seosamh O’Laoi, Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications
- Maurice Harnett, Department of Transport
Funding
The project was funded under Ireland’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Research Programme 2021-2030, a government initiative funded by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications and administered by the EPA, which has the statutory function of coordinating and promoting environmental research.
Although every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the material contained in this document, complete accuracy cannot be guaranteed. The Environmental Protection Agency does not accept any responsibility whatsoever for loss or damage occasioned or damages claimed to have been occasioned, in part or in full, as a consequence of any person acting, or refraining from acting, as a result of a matter contained in this document.
