CHAPTER 2 Essential 4: Infrastructure Protection, Upgrading and Resilience
Critical infrastructure includes transport (roads, bridges, airports, railway stations and bus terminals), vital facilities (including hospitals and schools that may also double as refugee shelters), the power grid, telecommunications, security and emergency services, and water supply and sanitation, all key assets for a wellfunctioning and healthy city and critical for effective disaster response and quick recovery.
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Protect critical infrastructure • Assess the vulnerability of existing infrastructure to natural hazards, undertake measures to prevent damage and develop long-term capital investments to retrofit and/or replace the most critical emergency lifelines. • Plan for business continuity to ensure that lifelines and services are quickly restored. • Develop special programmes to protect historic buildings and the city’s cultural heritage.
Develop resilient new infrastructure • Establish minimum criteria and standards of resilience and safety, as part of urban design (see Essential 6). • Invest, design and construct new sustainable infrastructure in appropriate locations and to a higher standard of hazard and climate resilience so they withstand destructive events and function effectively during an emergency. • Conduct an assessment to prioritize maintenance improvements and repair programmes and, if required, the retrofitting, capacity redesign, demolition or replacement of damaged or obsolete structures. • Take preventive measures in buildings that are damaged, not being used, in a state of disrepair or obsolete. Discourage occupation of these buildings to avoid jeopardizing human safety. • If possible, consider demolishing at-risk infrastructure if the building has no cultural or historic value or cannot be repaired.
Figure 4: Three modes of operation of the SMART Tunnel
HOLDING BASIN STORAGE RESERVOIR
HOLDING BASIN
NO STORM STORAGE RESERVOIR
HOLDING BASIN
YEARLY STORM STORAGE RESERVOIR
MAJOR STORM
Kuala Lumpur: Dual-use Drain and Car Tunnel. Source: Mott MacDonald Group 2009.