Tag Archives: critical infrastructure

Infrastructure – essential for competitiveness?

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Revised on: 2015-09-26

Regular readers of this blog may have noticed my regular rants about the state of the Norwegian infrastructure, and roads in particular. Now, aftenposten.no reports that there is some support from the Global Competitiveness Report by the World Economic Forum. In overall infrastructure quality, Norway ranks 28/134, behind many other European countries, which is not too bad, but when it comes to road quality, Norway ranks 48/134, even behind countries such as Namibia (23/134), Tunisia (39/134) and Botswana (44/134).  This is not good news.

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7 out of 10 businesses without a continuity plan

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Revised on: 2015-09-10

An article today in the paper issue of Dagens Næringsliv, the Norwegian equivalent of the Financial Times or Wall Street Journal,  presents a survey among businesses considered to be part of the country’s critical infrastructure, saying that 7 out of 10 businesses do not have a contingency plan in case of ICT failure (Information and Communication Technology). This was a hot issue 10 years ago, when everybody was fearing the transition to Y2K, but since then complacency seems to have taken over. Maybe we take our computers and mobile phones so much for granted that we forget that they could fail?

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Global Risks 2009 – Countries at risk?

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Revised on: 2015-09-02

How will the current financial downturn affect supply chains? That’s what we all wonder about, isn’t it? I was hoping that the annual Global Risks report, published by the World Economic Forum would shed some light on that, picking up on their 2008 subject, Hyper-optimization and supply chain vulnerability: an invisible global risk?. But, the 2009 report did not follow up that particular subject, it went in a different direction, taking a broader look, not a certain industries or sectors or parts of the economy, but looking at whole countries and their risk preparedness. What the financial crisis has shown, is that the globalized world is interconnected.

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When disaster strikes…

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Revised on: 2011-03-10

…how does the transportation network recover? And why are transportation networks so essential to disaster recovery?  Ho do effective transportation networks contribute to the recovery effort? Is recovery even possible without a functioning transportation network? This was the topic of a session I attended at TRB 2009 this week. Although this session was mainly aimed at US transportation agencies, the introduction to the panel discussion had some key points I would like to reiterate here.

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Sparse transportation networks – a nightmare

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Revised on: 2015-09-09

Now it has happened again. Hardly a week goes by in Norway without a major supply chain disruption. Now the main (and practically only) highway beween the Northern and Southern part of Norway has been interrupted, prompting long detours on smaller roads. Not only that, the in fact only rail line between Trondheim and Bodø has been interrupted as well, a rail line that transports much of the goods between North and South Norway and is a major freight corridor. Normally, eight large freight trains pass every day. The irony is that this happened during construction work aimed at improving said road. In fact, this is the second time this year; in June the road and rail were closed for 12 days. This time, it’s looking like a couple of WEEKS!

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America’s Crumbling Infrastructure

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Revised on: 2015-11-17

My daily morning routine includes a cup of coffee while watching the World Business Report on BBC World News. Today they had a special report on America’s crumbling and failing infrastructure. The 2005 Report Card for America’s infrastructure issued by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) leaves no doubt: It’s a D. Is America’s critical infrastructure in critical condition?

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Norwegian roads are dangerous!

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Revised on: 2015-09-10

I just learned from the news this evening, while writing on a rather dull post for this blog, that a rockfall has hit one of major roads in this region, Rv 70 in Sunndal. Rockfall is not an unknown event in Norway, especially not in this region, where roads undulate precariously along high mountains, and where the only “escape” is a dive into freezing cold waters. The road in question has a long history of rockfalls and the incident has cut off the most direct route between the coastal city of Kristiansund and Eastern Norway, but fortunately a detour route is available. In Norway’s sparse transportation network that is not always the case, and closed roads mean additional travel costs not only to the ordinary traveller (i.e. tourist), but most importantly to businesses, who then have no alternative for shipping their goods to their customers, or receiving their goods from their suppliers.

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Accessibility Index – Transport Network Vulnerability

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Revised on: 2015-09-08

I had the pleasure of meeting M.A.P. Taylor at the 3rd International Symposium on Transport Network Vulnerability (INSTR 2007). His research has many bearings towards my own research in that it is concerned with transport network vulnerability in sparse rural and remote networks. In his 2006 paper, Application of Accessibility Based Methods for Vulnerability Analysis of Strategic Road Networks, Taylor and his fellow contributors develop a methodology for assessing the socio-economic impacts of transport network degradation by using the change in accessibility prior to and after degradation of the road network as a measure for the importance or criticality of the road link.

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Will Climate Change have an impact on transportation?

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Revised on: 2011-05-30

Many studies have already examined the potential impacts of climate change on broad sectors of the economy, such as agriculture and forestry, but only a handful have studied the impacts on transportation. Transportation professionals should look into the challenges posed by climate change and incorporate current scientific knowledge into the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of transportation systems. Obviously, the primary focus of this study is on the consequences of climate change for U.S. transportation infrastructure and operations, but many – if not most – of the conclusion are just as applicable anywhere else in the world
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How New Zealand develops resilient organisations

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Revised on: 2015-09-09

Is New Zealand better prepared for a disaster than other countries? As our infrastructure and organizations become ever more networked and interdependent there is a growing need to focus on managing overall system risk. In particular, there is a need to focus not only on the vulnerability of our systems to failure, but also on our ability to manage and minimize the impact of any failures. New Zealand has realized this and is currently halfway through a six year research project designed to assist organizations in recovering their economic competitiveness after hazard events.

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Reliability and vulnerability in road development projects

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Revised on: 2011-03-17

Few will question that the sender, the recipient, the freight hauler or society in general, experience additional costs when goods or persons cannot reach their destinations in time or space. Consequently, it should be obvious that a reliable transportation network represents a benefit to society. Equally, a vulnerable network would represent a net cost to society. Why then, is the reliability, or conversely, the vulnerability, of the transportation network not a matter of evaluation in traditional cost-benefit analyses?

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Pålitelighet og sårbarhet av transportsystemer

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Revised on: 2011-05-18

Transportsystemer som veg og jernbane danner ryggraden i et moderne samfunn. Påliteligheten og sårbarheten i et transportsystem blir dermed avgjørende faktorer ikke bare i  konkurranse- og markedsøyemed, men også i beredskapssammenheng, for å kunne opprettholde normal samfunnsdrift. Dette er den norske oversettelsen/tilpasningen av The reliability and vulnerability of transportation lifelines, skrevet av Jan Husdal ved University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA, i 2002. Videreutviklet i 2008: Er rassikring lønnsomt?

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The reliability and vulnerability of transportation lifelines

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Revised on: 2015-11-17

How can we assess how reliable or vulnerable the transportation is, and which parameters can we apply  in measuring reliability and vulnerability? Transportation networks like freeways and interstate highways are the main backbone of modern society. Consequently, the reliability or vulnerability of any transportation network is thus a decisive factor not only in terms of market outreach and competition, but also in terms of continuity, to ensure a 24/7 operation of the community we live in. This research essay takes a closer look at vulnerability and reliability issues in transportation networks.

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Issues in visualization of risk and vulnerability

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Revised on: 2011-08-04

Risk analysis tends to be a highly mathematically, statistically, and let alone probabilistically oriented science. Risk maps derived from risk analysis often portray only one possible scenario and do not leave much room for personal interpretation. Data on risks and hazards often tend to be heterogeneous, complex, inter-dependent, not directly comparable, and correlated in ways that are not immediately apparent. Visualization technology has emerged as a form of exploratory cartography, which can help explain, analyze and communicate risk. Because the risk analyst and the public in general may differ on what constitutes a risk or what not, visualization techniques can help the risk assessor better understand underlying factors and generate better risk maps, thus communicating a clearer message to the public. Examples of how risk should be communicated are presented and discussed along with current visualizations.

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