The Role of Futureproofing in the Management of Infrastructural Assets

Ensuring long-term value from infrastructure is essential for a sustainable economy. In this context, futureproofing involves addressing two broad issues: i. Ensuring the ability of infrastructure to be resilient to unexpected or uncontrollable events e.g. extreme weather events; and ii. Ensuring the ability to adapt to required changes in structure and / or operations of the infrastructure in the future e.g. expansion of capacity, change in usage mode or volumes. Increasingly, in their respective roles, infrastructure designers/builders and owners/operators are being required to develop strategies for futureproofing as part of the life cycle planning for key assets and systems that make up infrastructure. In this paper, we report on a preliminary set of studies aimed at exploring the following issues related to infrastructure / infrastructure systems: • What is intended by the futureproofing of infrastructural assets? • Why and when to futureproof critical infrastructure? • How can infrastructure assets and systems be prepared for uncertain futures? • How can futureproofing be incorporated into asset management practice? In order to seek answers to the above questions, the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC) has conducted two industrial workshops bringing together leading practitioners in the UK infrastructure and construction sectors, along with government policy makers. This paper provides an initial summary of the findings from the workshops (part presentation, part working sessions), and proposes a simple framework for linking futureproofing into broader asset management considerations. To begin, an overview of futureproofing and motivate the need for futureproofing infrastructure assets is provided. Following this, an approach to futureproofing infrastructure portfolios is presented that organisations in the infrastructure sector can use. Key barriers to futureproofing are also presented before examining the ISO 55001 asset management standard to highlight the interplay between futureproofing and infrastructural asset management. Finally, different ways by which an effective futureproofing strategy can enhance the value of infrastructure are examined

Water erosion on potato land during the 1983 growing season Donnybrook

Soil losses over a three month period varied from 10 to 49 mm.. Soil loss was most highly correlated with length of slope of the plots. Other important factors appeared to be slope angle and soil textures. Grade furrows appear to be the best method of breaking-up long slope lengths. The low capacity of the furrows requires them to be on grades of about 4 to 4 per cent to prevent siltation and overtopping during high density storms

Assessment of waterlogged sites

Soil is said to be waterlogged if any part of the plant root zone is saturated with water. In severe cases soil is saturated to the surface and waterlogging is obvious. Waterlogging is distinguished from flooding in which surface runoff brings down water from higher up in a catchment. However, flooding may result in waterlogged sites

Public Health Informatics in Local and State Health Agencies: An Update From the Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey

OBJECTIVE: To characterize public health informatics (PHI) specialists and identify the informatics needs of the public health workforce. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: US local and state health agencies. PARTICIPANTS: Employees from state health agencies central office (SHA-COs) and local health departments (LHDs) participating in the 2017 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS). We characterized and compared the job roles for self-reported PHI, "information technology specialist or information system manager" (IT/IS), "public health science" (PHS), and "clinical and laboratory" workers. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Descriptive statistics for demographics, income, education, public health experience, program area, job satisfaction, and workplace environment, as well as data and informatics skills and needs. RESULTS: A total of 17 136 SHA-CO and 26 533 LHD employees participated in the survey. PHI specialist was self-reported as a job role among 1.1% and 0.3% of SHA-CO and LHD employees. The PHI segment most closely resembled PHS employees but had less public health experience and had lower salaries. Overall, fewer than one-third of PHI specialists reported working in an informatics program area, often supporting epidemiology and surveillance, vital records, and communicable disease. Compared with PH WINS 2014, current PHI respondents' satisfaction with their job and workplace environment moved toward more neutral and negative responses, while the IT/IS, PHS, and clinical and laboratory subgroups shifted toward more positive responses. The PHI specialists were less likely than those in IT/IS, PHS, or clinical and laboratory roles to report gaps in needed data and informatics skills. CONCLUSIONS: The informatics specialists' role continues to be rare in public health agencies, and those filling that role tend to have less public health experience and be less well compensated than staff in other technically focused positions. Significant data and informatics skills gaps persist among the broader public health workforce

Assessing the potential economic benefits to farmers from various GM crops becoming available in the European Union by 2025: results from an expert survey

This paper reports on a study that identified a range of crop-trait combinations that are: agronomically suited to the EU; provide advantages to arable farmers and consumers; and are either already available in international markets, or advancing along the development pipeline and likely to become available by 2025. An expert stakeholder panel was recruited and asked for their views, using the Delphi approach, on the impact of these crop-traits on enterprise competitiveness, through changes to yields, production costs and product prices. In terms of input traits, there was consensus that traits such as herbicide tolerant/insect resistant (HT/IR) maize, HT sugar beet and HT soya bean would provide positive benefits for farmers. Output-side traits such as winter-sown rape with reduced saturated fats, were seen as offering benefits to consumers, but were either likely to be restricted to niche markets, or offer relatively modest price premia to farmers growing them. Our analysis of the financial impact of the adoption of GM crops more widely in the EU, showed that the competitiveness of the agricultural sector could well be improved by this. However, such improvements would be relatively small-scale in that large-scale national natural advantages from either economic or environmental conditions is unlikely to be overturned

Estimation of runoff volumes for ungauged catchments in the agricultural areas of Western Australia

Describes an analysis of flood runoff volumes from 16 small, gauged catchments in the agricultural areas of south western Australia. It also describes methods for estimating flood runoff volumes from ungauged catchments. The independent variables found to be statistically significant in explaining the variability in flood runoff volumes from the gauged catchments were catchment area, mean annual rainfall and the percentage of the catchment that was cleared. No soil factor was found to be significant

Soil factors affecting flood runoff on agricultural catchments in Western Australia

Reviews methods of including soil properties in flood runoff-predicting equations. Concentrates on practical methods that can be routinely used by soil conservation technicians for flood prediction rather than complex research models. A case is made for collecting soil data from the gauged catchments which are relevant to a perceived runoff mechanism and are capable of being routinely applied in simple flood prediction methodologies

A description of the soils and geology of the Berkshire Valley experimental catchment

Basic land resource data are provided in this report to assist an investigation of the effect of contour banking on surface runoff in the Berkshire Valley experimental catchement. Brief descriptions of the catchment\u27s geology, soils and their inferred hydrological significance are provided and a 1:2000 scale map produced. Of major significance to the hydrologic study is the fact that soil depth and internal drainage conditions were found to be not related to landscape positions

Towards the deployment of customer orientation: A case study in third-party logistics

Customer orientation concerns the degree to which an organisation focuses on customers, recognises their desires and places meeting their needs as a first priority. As managing the needs of individual customers in supply chains become increasingly important, logistics companies have been recognising customer orientation as a critical aspect of their success. This study explores some of the challenges in the deployment of customer oriented logistics systems and argues that the so-called product intelligence model can provide an approach for developing such systems. Using an industrial case study, in this paper we examine customer orientation for a third-party logistics provider by examining both the development of information systems that enable the offering of exible logistics offerings to the end customer and the impact of providing these offerings on a company's performance. We conclude with a set of functionalities required by information systems of logistics providers that wish to enhance customer orientation in their offering