Infrastructure and Sustainable Development

This research cluster aims to bring together BSP and wider UCL staff to develop leading research in infrastructure planning.

time lapse photography of cars on road during night time

1 April 2024

Overview

This research cluster aims to better understand the role of infrastructure in developing sustainable and resilient transformations within multi-scale systems (urban, regional, national, and transnational).

The cluster draws upon expertise in public policy, engineering, planning, law and risk & disaster reduction and psychology.

Key themes include:

Understanding sustainable and resilient infrastructure planning and development practices across all sectors, including energy, community, green/ecological, water and wastewater, telecommunications, ports, transport, and major infrastructure projects.
Identifying dependence, interdependence, resource use and vulnerability of different infrastructure systems: energy, land, water, materials, capital (economic, social, environmental)
Measurement of project success: indicators, appraisal, monitoring & evaluation methodologies.
Legal regulation and scrutiny: promoting and enabling major infrastructure, the role of consenting regimes, public inquiries / examinations, regulation, enforcement, and judicial challenges
Institutions and governance: the practices and challenges of infrastructure governance considering increasing urgency of climate change imperatives

Objectives:

To develop an inter-disciplinary and inclusive approaches to understanding sustainable and resilient infrastructure systems, their complex relationships with each other plus the territories, societies, environments, and economies they traverse and serve.
To critically evaluate and advance the theories and methods in the field in the context of a highly uncertain and interdependent world.
Develop more effective ways of framing, developing, appraising and monitoring infrastructure’s role in sustainable transformations of multi-scale systems.
To inform policies, legislation and action to assist in this these transformation processes with the challenges of climate change and UN’s SDGs featuring significantly in our work

People

William Walton, The Bartlett School of Planning
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Dan Durrant, The Bartlett School of Planning
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Professor Robin Hickman, The Bartlett School of Planning
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Professor Harry Dimitriou, The Bartlett School of Planning
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Dr Lucy Natarajan, The Bartlett School of Planning
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Dr Tse-Hui Teh, The Bartlett School of Planning
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Dr John Ward, The Bartlett School of Planning
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Dr Marco Dean, The Bartlett School of Planning
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Professor Liz Varga, The Bartlett School of Planning
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Dr Gianluca Pescaroli, The Bartlett School of Planning
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Outputs

Collaborate on interdisciplinary research proposals
Encourage knowledge exchange via supporting seminars
Hold a two-yearly event bringing together UCL-wide research relevant to this field

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Photo by Maick Maciel on Unsplash