06/09/2020

What COVID-19 Has Taught Us About Our Infrastructure

We require greater agility and flexibility for adaptation

The rapid progression of COVID-19 (coronavirus) is revealing challenges for infrastructure as the institutions that manage and deliver critical and basic services are having to respond to changes in demand and new operating conditions.

Unlike other hazards (such as climate change extreme events, terrorist attacks and deterioration due to neglected maintenance), the assets themselves are (so far) OK. What has been compromised are assumptions about the efficiency of meeting service demands given a set of stable and rigid operating boundaries.

COVID-19 has revealed the trade-offs between designing systems for efficiency under assumptions of stability, and resiliency. Spotlights have been shone on infrastructure and this dynamic.

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