Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SARIL (Sustainability And Resilience for Infrastructure and Logistics networks)
Reporting period: 2023-06-01 to 2024-11-30
Due to globalized supply chains and the prevalence of just-in-time production, all economies of the industrialized world are reliant on the flawless operation of the logistical network. During the COVID-19 pandemic it became apparent that this network can be massively shattered and that a better understanding of its robustness, risks and vulnerabilities is of vital importance. Additionally, it is obvious that the accelerating climate change demands much greener freight transport.
SARIL aims to complement the classic definition of resilience, which focuses on threat prevention, robustness and system recovery, by green aspects. Extensive Stakeholder engagement is performed to tailor the project developments to practical needs. Key performance indicators are defined which quantify both, the system resistance against disruptions as well as the environmental burden of freight transport. Adopting three different scenarios on different geographical scales (regional, national and international/EU), models are developed which are able to capture the unperturbed system operation as well as the behaviour in case of disruptions. While the regional (Italy) and national (Spain/Portugal) scenarios focus on natural hazards which become more threatening due to climate change, the international scenario (Northern/Central Europe) considers the disruptions due to pandemics (like Cov19) or wars (like the Russian war against Ukraine). Although the three scenarios are modelled with varying levels of detail, SARIL aims at a universal understanding of green resilience by using a common framework.
The results for the three scenarios are used to assess similarities and differences between the three geographical scales. By exploiting the findings, recommendations to improve the classic resilience, such as synchro-modal approaches, are derived. Additionally, SARIL aims for recommendations to reach. The results will be widely disseminated to the scientific community and relevant stakeholders.
SARIL aims to complement the classic definition of resilience, which focuses on threat prevention, robustness and system recovery, by green aspects. Extensive Stakeholder engagement is performed to tailor the project developments to practical needs. Key performance indicators are defined which quantify both, the system resistance against disruptions as well as the environmental burden of freight transport. Adopting three different scenarios on different geographical scales (regional, national and international/EU), models are developed which are able to capture the unperturbed system operation as well as the behaviour in case of disruptions. While the regional (Italy) and national (Spain/Portugal) scenarios focus on natural hazards which become more threatening due to climate change, the international scenario (Northern/Central Europe) considers the disruptions due to pandemics (like Cov19) or wars (like the Russian war against Ukraine). Although the three scenarios are modelled with varying levels of detail, SARIL aims at a universal understanding of green resilience by using a common framework.
The results for the three scenarios are used to assess similarities and differences between the three geographical scales. By exploiting the findings, recommendations to improve the classic resilience, such as synchro-modal approaches, are derived. Additionally, SARIL aims for recommendations to reach. The results will be widely disseminated to the scientific community and relevant stakeholders.
The SARIL vision has been settled into the following: Improving decision-making in transport and logistics systems in the face of disruptions by combining resilience and sustainability. A system is resilient and sustainable if it uses minimal resources to withstand and recover from disruptions.
Four main stakeholder groups have been recognised: Infrastructure management, Traffic management, Strategic logistics management and Operational logistics management. These are categorised into three roles: R1: Infrastructure and traffic management, R2: Strategic logistics management, and R3: Operational logistics management.
The knowledge and tools developed in this project are tailored to the stakeholder groups. The three scenarios specified in the Grant Agreement are further developed via several rounds of interaction with end-users in the project and external stakeholders, i.e. interviews, surveys and workshops. The three scenarios considered are:
• Regional: A flooding event endangers bridges in Italy. Data availability is key to react in time which is hindered by cyber-attacks. The scenario and respective solutions are tailored towards infrastructure and traffic managers.
• National: A bushfire threatens traffic routes in Spain and Portugal. This hazardous event must be managed across borders, which also challenges data acquisition for our decision support solutions. This scenario is dedicated to infrastructure and traffic managers.
• European: This scenario is still under development. An incident that impacts logistics and transport operations all over Europe or even the globe will be managed. First, early warnings about the incident are detected, then the impacts on certain fields of logistics businesses are quantified and options to react to the disruption are analysed.
The SARIL General Methodology for Green Resilience Assessment is based on well-established risk and resilience management processes, which are adapted to the stakeholder roles, particularly in logistics management. The methodology is further enriched with sustainability measures. The tools we develop in the SARIL project address different phases of the resilience framework and can collaborate to provide a holistic decision support based on resilience and sustainability quantification. We aim to ensure the scalability of this methodology in all scenario scales. The SARIL tool architecture has been developed and the respective tool kit is under development.
Four main stakeholder groups have been recognised: Infrastructure management, Traffic management, Strategic logistics management and Operational logistics management. These are categorised into three roles: R1: Infrastructure and traffic management, R2: Strategic logistics management, and R3: Operational logistics management.
The knowledge and tools developed in this project are tailored to the stakeholder groups. The three scenarios specified in the Grant Agreement are further developed via several rounds of interaction with end-users in the project and external stakeholders, i.e. interviews, surveys and workshops. The three scenarios considered are:
• Regional: A flooding event endangers bridges in Italy. Data availability is key to react in time which is hindered by cyber-attacks. The scenario and respective solutions are tailored towards infrastructure and traffic managers.
• National: A bushfire threatens traffic routes in Spain and Portugal. This hazardous event must be managed across borders, which also challenges data acquisition for our decision support solutions. This scenario is dedicated to infrastructure and traffic managers.
• European: This scenario is still under development. An incident that impacts logistics and transport operations all over Europe or even the globe will be managed. First, early warnings about the incident are detected, then the impacts on certain fields of logistics businesses are quantified and options to react to the disruption are analysed.
The SARIL General Methodology for Green Resilience Assessment is based on well-established risk and resilience management processes, which are adapted to the stakeholder roles, particularly in logistics management. The methodology is further enriched with sustainability measures. The tools we develop in the SARIL project address different phases of the resilience framework and can collaborate to provide a holistic decision support based on resilience and sustainability quantification. We aim to ensure the scalability of this methodology in all scenario scales. The SARIL tool architecture has been developed and the respective tool kit is under development.
Especially in the tool development the project goes beyond the state of the art. We categorise the tools into
1) Tools that provide disruption data: These are tools that provide some kind of information on disruptions that could be used by other tools.
2) Tools collecting data: This refers to the “Disruption Information Interface”, whose aim is to collect information on disruptions from other project tools and external sources (websites).
3) Tools using data: Tools that use the disruption information to perform different analyses, depending on the purpose of the tool.
In all of these categories, we develop innovative approaches for disruption handling in transport and logistics.
1) Tools that provide disruption data: These are tools that provide some kind of information on disruptions that could be used by other tools.
2) Tools collecting data: This refers to the “Disruption Information Interface”, whose aim is to collect information on disruptions from other project tools and external sources (websites).
3) Tools using data: Tools that use the disruption information to perform different analyses, depending on the purpose of the tool.
In all of these categories, we develop innovative approaches for disruption handling in transport and logistics.