The Other Side of the Interdependency Coin: Identifying Coordination and Investment Opportunities for Infrastructure Systems
Publication: Journal of Infrastructure Systems
Volume 28, Issue 2
Abstract
A vast amount of investment in infrastructure is required to respond to short- and long-term social, technological, and environmental needs and developments. Because infrastructure systems are highly interconnected, much can be gained by considering these interdependencies when planning future investments. However, identifying opportunities that arise from these infrastructure interdependencies has mainly been neglected. So far, the risk perspective has dominated interdependency studies. Alternatively, this paper proposes an agent-based modeling approach supporting infrastructure decision makers (1) to reveal the effects of planned sector-specific investments on the performance of interdependent infrastructures; and (2) to identify situations around which cross-sectoral coordination and collaboration can be shaped. The selected modeling approach treats infrastructure as sociotechnical systems, incorporating sector-driven operational decisions and infrastructure demand changes. They included operational decisions that respond to temporary or longer-term demand-capacity mismatch to account for the flexibility in exploiting available systemwide capacities. This modeling approach results in a more realistic estimation of infrastructure performance and beneficial co-investment opportunities. A regional transportation infrastructure system in the Netherlands is used as a case to demonstrate the approach.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
Acknowledgments
The project is part of the research program Responsive Innovations funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and Next Generation Infrastructures (NGInfra). The authors would like to thank the experts of the infrastructure agencies involved in the knowledge institute NGInfra for their contributions to the research.
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Published In
Journal of Infrastructure Systems
Volume 28 • Issue 2 • June 2022
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© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 23, 2020
Accepted: Dec 14, 2021
Published online: Mar 16, 2022
Published in print: Jun 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Aug 16, 2022
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