event
Friday 23 Mar 2018: Critical infrastructure resilience to climate change. The EU-CIRCLE approach.
Dr Athanasios Sfetsos - NCSRD, Greece
Harrison 170 14:30-15:30
Abstract: Climate related hazards (e.g. floods, storms, extreme precipitation, wildfires etc.) have the potential to destroy or substantially affect the lifespan and effective operation of European Critical Infrastructures (CI), such as energy, transportation, ICT and water infrastructures. When infrastructure systems are damaged or fail, the smooth functioning of society is disrupted. To further complicate matters, modern infrastructures operate as a ‘system of systems’ with many interactions and interdependencies among these systems. Damage in one infrastructure system (e.g. ICT) can cascade and result in failures and cascading effects onto all related and dependent infrastructures (e.g. energy and water infrastructures). The main strategic objective of EU-CIRCLE is to move towards an infrastructure network(s) that is resilient to today’s natural hazards and prepared for the future changing climate. It aims to contribute to the EU’s Adaptation Strategy through the promotion of better decision-making by addressing existing gaps in the knowledge on climate change impacts and adaptation in CIs. EU-CIRCLE aims to achieve this by defining a proper conceptual framework and development of tools for enhancing the resilience of critical infrastructures to climate stressors.
Biography: Dr. Athanasios Sfetsos, received a B.Sc. in Physics from University of Patras in 1995 and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Imperial College, University of London (1999). He is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Nuclear and Radiological Sciences, Technology Energy and Safety at NCSR Demokritos and research collaborator with the Centre for Security Studies. His research interests are related to the impacts of climate change and Critical Infrastructure protection. He has co-authored more than 150 papers in refereed journals and conference proceedings. He has participated in more than 20 EU and nationally funded projects and currently is the coordinator of EU-CIRCLE.
