Safety of critical infrastructure

As of 2020, the total sum of manufactured materials and structures on the planet now outweighs the world’s natural biomass. A large portion of this is critical infrastructure – energy, roads, communication, ports.

Much of the critical infrastructure that exists today will exist way beyond its original design life. This poses a serious risk to the safety of people and property.

How can we maintain existing critical infrastructures and facilitate the construction of new infrastructures in a way that is resilient, sustainable and safe?

Our Foresight Review of Structural Integrity and Systems Performance highlighted that the Foundation’s efforts should focus on:

• Additive manufacturing: the safety of systems containing 3D and 4D additive manufactured parts
• Engineering science challenges: advancing the state-of-the-art of engineering science to maximise safety
• Whole systems thinking: development of an economic whole-system approach to demonstrate safety and integrity
• Data centric engineering: champion the emerging field of data-centric engineering
• Maintenance and inspection: minimising the risks associated with maintenance and inspection of critical infrastructure.