The frequency of extreme weather events worldwide is increasing. Rainfall, sea level and storms are also expected to become more extreme in the Netherlands and to affect operations in the Port of Rotterdam. In addition to the port facilities themselves, the connecting transport infrastructure (road, rail, shipping, pipelines) are vital direct factors in maintaining freight transportation through the port. The whole system depends indirectly on other Critical Infrastructures (CI) such as the power supply and communication networks. If extreme weather causes these networks to fail, port operations may be disrupted by cascade effects, with one failure leading to another.
The EU project INTACT was launched in 2014 to improve the resilience and responsiveness of critical infrastructure to extreme weather across Europe and therefore to make it less vulnerable. The ultimate objective is to create a set of guidelines and best practices to help policy-makers, decision-makers and other stakeholders. The INTACT project is looking at five case studies, each based in a different European country, to learn about different regional settings and extreme weather conditions. One of these cases is the Port of Rotterdam and its transport connections to the hinterland. The R&D focus in this case is the long-term planning of adaptation strategies based on an integral risk assessment of the system, including cascade effects.
The main stakeholders (owners and users) in the Port of Rotterdam case were invited to a CIrcle workshop at which they discussed together for the first time the vulnerability of critical infrastructure and interdependencies.
Past studies were used as references, one example being the Blue Spot studies which investigated the vulnerability of the road and railway network to flooding. Although many owners had already made similar assessments of their infrastructure, the analyses of interdependencies and cascade effects was new to them. The involvement of infrastructure users (such as freight transport organisations) also gave them a different perspective.
The CIrcle tool was used to support the discussion of risk assessment and to visualise cascade effects. CIrcle is an interactive touch-table application which combines expert knowledge with the prediction of the interdependency effects of the different critical infrastructure networks. The largest effects of extreme weather events seen by stakeholders are the disruption of the port’s market position, the degradation of safety and increased costs. For example, the interruption of essential functions such as the power supply can lead to dangerous situations on bridges and in tunnels, and to the shutdown of road links. The recurrence of situations such as this could result in a loss of income, legal claims and damage to the competitive position of the Dutch port.
Contact
Deltares | R&D Highlights 2015 Delta Infrastructure
ton.peters@deltares.nl T +31(0)6 2244 6762
Further reading:
http://www.intact-project.eu/
