Systems Based Approaches for Climate Resilient Infrastructure

The built environment and the natural ecosystem are a complex system. It has many influences and vulnerabilities. Even within simple systems, individual components can interact in unpredictable ways.

In more complex systems, linking hazards to corresponding effects, identifying interdependencies, and recognizing the compounding effects of climate change can be challenging to find or understand.

The Systems-Based Approaches to Climate Resilient Infrastructure guidebook provides theory, tools, and methods to help users identify interconnections within and between individual system components. Understanding how a system operates can lead to identifying how components within the system respond to various types of feedback. Recognizing feedback helps practitioners make better decisions which can increase the resilience of the whole system. 

A systems-based approach is collaborative. It recognizes the multi-level, multi-component dynamics that are present within infrastructure that we all use.

Benefits of Using a Systems-Based Approach

• Fosters collaboration.
• Promotes visualization of complexities.
• Increases understanding of interdependencies.
• Identifies different types of feedback loops within your system.
• Helps uncover unintended consequences, risks, and solutions.
• Encourages problem solving, long-term planning and resilience.

The Systems-Based Approaches to Climate Resilient Infrastructure guidebook is a collaborative effort between the BC Ministry of Transportation & Infrastructure (MOTI), Infrastructure Canada, and drafted by Arcadis Canada.

This guidebook outlines methodologies for integrating systems-based approaches into existing infrastructure development processes. It is scalable, suitable for both small and large projects, and applicable across various types of infrastructure, including transportation.

Get the Guidebook and supporting documentation below:

• Systems-Based Approaches for Climate-Resilient Infrastructure – Literature Review (PDF, 4.2MB)
• A Guide to Implementing Systems-Based Approaches to Climate-Resilient Infrastructure (PDF, 2.9MB)
• Worksheets (PDF, 1.1MB)

See the Guidebook in action:

The Hot Reality: Cooling as Critical Infrastructure to Survive and Thrive (PDF, 3.4MB) (P. 77-82)

The report used aspects of the guidebook to demonstrate the application of systems-based approaches to identifying and quantify the effect of system dependences on a hypothetical climate risk profile.