Towards a resilient and climate-adaptive infrastructure and built environment
Growing climate risks, ageing infrastructure and increasing maintenance demands are making transport networks and the built environment more vulnerable. TNO translates knowledge of climate, asset and system risks into actionable insights and decision support. This enables organisations to prioritise risks and make targeted choices for reliable infrastructure and climate-adaptive environments.
Climate change in cities
Climate change is increasing the vulnerability of cities. Heat, drought and extreme rainfall affect buildings, infrastructure, public spaces and essential societal functions. At the same time, climate measures must be integrated with housing, energy, mobility and nature objectives within limited space, budgets and implementation capacity. Governments, developers and asset owners often lack the integrated insights needed to prioritise risks and measures.
Infrastructure networks are also under pressure from ageing, maintenance, renovation, disruptions and asset failure. Roads, railways and waterways are interconnected and essential to accessibility, safety and economic continuity. However, decisions are often made for individual assets, networks or operators, leaving impacts on the overall system insufficiently understood. This results in delays, higher costs and wider societal vulnerability, aggravated by limited implementation capacity.
The central question is where areas, assets and networks are most vulnerable, and which measures contribute most effectively to a climate-adaptive built environment and reliable infrastructure networks.
From risk analysis to resilience-informed decision-making
Moving from an understanding of risks to transparent decisions for a resilient built environment requires an integrated approach. TNO combines expertise in climate, mobility, infrastructure, assets and the built environment with data, models and digital technology. This reveals where vulnerabilities arise, how disruptions propagate through networks and areas, and what this means for accessibility, liveability, safety and economic continuity.
Our approach enables risk- and resilience-informed decision-making. Climate risks, system dependencies and potential cascading effects are mapped using system analyses that show how disruptions propagate between assets, networks, areas and societal functions. Models, impact analyses and digital twin technology are then used to compare policy, management and investment choices.
In this way, complex data are translated into actionable perspectives for asset management, climate adaptation, infrastructure planning and spatial development. We also help organisations standardise climate risks and embed them structurally in policy, management and investment decisions.
This goes beyond conducting an isolated risk analysis. Domain expertise, system understanding, modelling and decision support are combined in an approach that enables public and private parties to prioritise measures based on their contribution to the resilience of the overall system. Organisations can therefore substantiate choices before investments, maintenance programmes or long-term area developments are finalised.
Our solutions
1. Continuity of transport and infrastructure networks
Roads, railways, waterways and other infrastructure networks are closely interconnected. Maintenance, renovation, disruptions or asset failure at one location can therefore affect accessibility, traffic flows and economic activity elsewhere in the network, including across the boundaries of individual operators.
By connecting asset information with mobility and network models, TNO quantifies the wider impacts of maintenance and network disruption. Infrastructure operators, transport authorities and governments can use these insights to plan maintenance and renewal programmes, compare alternatives and make risk-informed choices concerning availability, reliability and recovery capacity.
Knowledge of the quality and reliability of infrastructure and materials is combined with expertise in mobility systems. Linking asset information with traffic and network models reveals how asset vulnerabilities affect accessibility and network continuity, and where measures make the greatest contribution to robustness and recovery.
Through optimisation methods, TNO helps combine and phase work within budgetary, network and implementation constraints. This allows operators to compare different programmes and determine how availability and accessibility can best be maintained. Where multiple networks and operators affect one another, TNO facilitates the exploration of coordinated programming and the impacts of work across operational boundaries.
Models quantify how maintenance work, closures and partial network failure affect traffic flows, accessibility and other parts of the network. This allows operators to compare schedules, diversion strategies and alternative measures before plans are finalised.
2. Climate-adaptive transport networks
Stress tests and asset analyses show where climate hazards may occur, but provide insufficient insight into what they mean for transport network performance, mobility and accessibility. TNO connects climate information and asset vulnerability with network and mobility models. This helps operators prioritise vulnerabilities and adaptation measures and integrate climate adaptation into management and investment decisions.
Heat, drought and extreme rainfall are linked to the vulnerability of assets and networks. TNO connects this information with mobility models reveals where damage, flooding or disruption may occur and what this means for safety, accessibility and the performance of the wider transport network.
Adaptation measures are compared based on their contribution to risk reduction, availability, recovery capacity and feasibility. This enables operators to determine which measures should be prioritised, where they can be combined with maintenance or replacement, and where additional investment is required.
Climate information and resilience analyses are connected with operational and long-term management decisions. Climate adaptation thus becomes part of existing asset management, maintenance and investment processes rather than being treated as a separate challenge.
3. Climate-adaptive built environment
Governments, developers and asset owners often have access to climate stress tests and potential measures but lack a consistent basis for prioritising, spatially integrating and scaling interventions. TNO helps standardise the consideration of climate risks in policy, management and investment decisions by translating climate information into feasible spatial choices. Particular attention is given to nature-based solutions and the assessment of green, grey and hybrid measures.
Analyses show how heat, drought and extreme rainfall can affect buildings, infrastructure, public spaces and societal functions. Dependencies between systems and potential cascading effects are also mapped, revealing where risks may compound one another.
Climate risks and adaptation measures are linked to spatial characteristics, functions and policy objectives. Our assessment frameworks provide insight into the effectiveness, spatial applicability, feasibility and potential synergies of measures. Governments and developers can subsequently compare locations and development scenarios, prioritise measures and incorporate climate adaptation into area development and public-space investment at an early stage.
TNO examines the conditions under which nature-based solutions are effective, applicable and scalable. We help governments and businesses compare green, grey and hybrid solutions and translate individual applications into broader strategies for areas and cities.
TNO develops and scales innovations with public and private partners
Infrastructure operators, transport authorities, governments, area developers, asset owners, engineering firms and construction companies need reliable evidence when making decisions about network availability, climate risks and adaptation measures. TNO contributes through risk, impact and robustness analyses, as well as the development of decision-support tools, measure prioritisation, solution validation and integration into asset management and area development.
We work with public and private partners seeking to contribute to more resilient networks, areas and urban systems. These collaborations bring together knowledge, data, practical experience and innovation around concrete challenges.
Would you like to understand which disruptions or climate risks have the greatest impact on the performance of your network, infrastructure or area? Or determine which measures should be prioritised and how they can be integrated into existing management, investment or development processes? Contact us.
Contact us
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Justine Donia Nota
Functie:Business developer Liveable Cities & RegionsI work towards the development of liveable and resilient cities. At TNO, I focus on leveraging data, digital technologies and modelling to address climate adaptation, urban resilience and sustainable area development challenges.
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Standplaats:Delft - Molengraaffsingel
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Email:Email Justine
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