INTACT - Impact of extreme weather on critical infrastructure: the EU-INTACT risk framework | Umweltbundesamt

• INTACT-Wiki: shared online platform of accumulated knowledge, tools and methods
• Risk management decision framework: “usage of data in the Wiki to determine the future EWE risks to CI and guidance of user through large information source (depending on type of CI and EWE that are of interest to the user)  step-by-step method using the risk management process”
• INTACT Education and Training: “The role of the INTACT Educational Programme is to provide a viable mechanism to propagate the holistic vision of INTACT to its intended audience (and auxiliary multidisciplinary audience) and to continue to build usage of and confidence in the INTACT project concept and products beyond the lifecycle of the INTACT project. We provided a rationale and development path for the design and specification of the INTACT concept and key knowledge emanating from the deliverables which can be incorporated into a robust educational programme pertaining to the resilience of Critical Infrastructure as a consequence of climate change.”

„The INTACT consortium prepared and organised case studies and workshops with stakeholders and organisations in different regions throughout Europe that have a direct or indirect responsibility for CI in their region. To get an overview of the problem, first an inventory of relevant CI and relevant stakeholders was carried out. The overall aim of the test cases is twofold:

• To raise (collective) awareness and understanding of the (wider) risk that EW may pose to their CI, through CI-vulnerability and interdependencies with other CI and to assess contributions from technologies and other measures to reduce such risk; and
• To test the INTACT frameworks, tools, methods and to give feedback to other INTACT Work packages.

The regions selected for the INTACT case studies are spread throughout different regions of Europe, to incorporate different climate zones, landscape types and environmental zones, as well as for different CI categories.“

• Regions selected: Finland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain

“This forms the final step in the risk process, which in the current IEC 31010 formulation, corresponds to the ‘Monitoring and review’ step which circles back to the start of the process. So in reality, ‘risk reduction control’ is what the whole process is trying to achieve and represents the need to continually re-assess the risk at appropriate intervals, which is achieved by monitoring and review protocols. This is necessary as the external environment is ever-changing, such as extreme weather and the population demographics, so the requirements and impacts for a CI system are always in flux. The review period will be set to an appropriate interval, although in reality quality controls will be continuous for most CI systems. Separate to the risk process, CI systems require a monitoring and control protocol, which will be used on a regular basis to check that:

• Previous assumptions about risk are still valid (as determined in the scope definition and risk identification steps);
• Assumptions used in the risk assessment remain valid, including the external context (assumed weather hazards, CI demands etc.);
• Outputs from the CI system(s) are as required;
• Risk assessment methods are being correctly applied;
• Risk mitigation measures are achieving their required outcomes.

Alongside the monitoring and review process, it is important that effective communication and consultation is used at all stages of the risk assessment process. This ensures that everyone is informed of the risks and the measures taken to reduce them, and that expert and other views are utilised in the most effective ways in the management of the CI system.”