The main aim of the EU-CIRCLE research project is to provide scientific research, analyses and tools to support the development of an infrastructure network(s) that is resilient to today’s natural hazards as well as to future climate change. It addresses existing gaps in the knowledge on climate change impacts and adaptation in Critical Infrastructure (CIs) with the aim of promoting better decision-making by CI stakeholders.

EU-CIRCLE is comprised of nine distinct but linked work packages, which address various themes including climate data; risk modelling; and CI resilience and climate change adaptation. These research themes are directly tied to the development of the Climate Infrastructure Resilience Platform (CIRP), a standalone and comprehensive software toolbox that is able to accommodate different types of datasets (e.g. hazard, assets, interconnections, fragilities), file formats, and risk analysis algorithms. The CIRP is open, modular and extensible in order to support various risk and resilience assessment analysis tools and will provide users with access to diverse simulation, modelling and risk assessment solutions.

EU-CIRCLE will explore the impacts of projected climate change on CI and how various adaptation options can influence the resilience of CI networks, taking into account the various interdependencies present in modern CI networks. This will be achieved through implementation of the risk model and the resilience and adaptation frameworks through CIRP in six case studies involving: extreme dryness and forest fires on electricity and transport networks in France; storm and sea surge at a Baltic Sea Port, Gdynia, Poland; coastal flooding across Torbay, UK; cyclonic pressures and flooding, Bangladesh and rapid winter flooding Dresden, Germany.

EU-CIRCLE Methodological Framework

The EU-CIRCLE methodological framework sets out the project’s approach on how to assess possible climate change impacts to the operation and capacity of a country’s critical infrastructure and to identify and develop appropriate adaptation measures to strengthen the operational resilience of the respective CI. (read more)

EU-CIRCLE Resilience Framework

The EU-CIRCLE resilience framework sets out what constitutes critical infrastructure resilience and its key components. (read more)

 

EU-CIRCLE Risk Assessment Framework

The first step to improving resilience of CI to climate change impacts is the identification of the risks of several climate hazards to interconnected and interdependent critical infrastructures i.e. risk assessment. (read more)

EU-CIRCLE Climate Date Processing

Through WP2 EU-CIRCLE has identified all climate-related parameters required for characterising climate hazards in order to assess their impact on critical infrastructures. This was achieved through the collation of a wide variety of sources and their associated tools. (read more)