The UNESCO Chair on Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience Engineering welcomes you to the webinar, “From component failure to systemic resilience: designing infrastructure for a disrupted world” by Prof. Stergios Mitoulis. Please find below the relevant information.
Description: This talk challenges traditional, component-based approaches to infrastructure design by demonstrating why modern infrastructure must be understood and engineered as an interconnected socio-technical system. It presents new results from recent publications in Nature portfolio journals, revealing how localised failures—triggered by climate extremes, accidents, or resource constraints—can cascade across transport networks, supply chains, and regional economies, producing long-lasting societal impacts.
Drawing on state-of-the-art modelling of climate-resilient railway networks and systemic infrastructure failures, the presentation shows how conventional risk- and load-based design frameworks systematically underestimate disruption, recovery time, and economic loss. The results highlight the decisive role of recovery resources, allocation strategies, and interdependencies in shaping resilience outcomes, often outweighing the effects of the initial damage itself.
Using real-world case studies, including compound bridge–port disruptions with measurable impacts on GDP, employment, and labour markets, the talk introduces a resilience-based framework that integrates engineering performance, recovery dynamics, and geo-economic consequences. This approach enables the identification of assets that are “vital to resilience” and supports risk-informed, equitable decision-making.
The talk concludes by outlining how these insights can inform disaster risk reduction, climate adaptation, and sustainable infrastructure policy, aligning directly with UNESCO priorities on resilience, sustainability, and global societal well-being.
Date & Time: 21 January 2026, 2:00 – 4:00 pm (UK time)
Please find more information and register here. You may also register directly on Zoom.
We look forward to seeing you online in this webinar. Feel free to share the invitation with interested parties. Also, check the Chair website and follow the LinkedIn and X pages for updates on our upcoming events.
