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• 02 Jan 2024
• Research & Ideas

10 Trends to Watch in 2024

Employees may seek new approaches to balance, even as leaders consider whether to bring more teams back to offices or make hybrid work even more flexible. These are just a few trends that Harvard Business School faculty members will be following during a year when staffing, climate, and inclusion will likely remain top of mind.

• 21 Jan 2020
• Working Paper Summaries

The Impact of the General Data Protection Regulation on Internet Interconnection

While many countries consider implementing their own versions of privacy and data protection regulations, there are concerns about whether such regulations may negatively impact the growth of the internet and reduce technology firms’ incentives in operating and innovating. Results of this study suggest limited effects of such regulations on the internet layer.

• 07 Aug 2019

Big Infrastructure May Not Always Produce Big Benefits

Government spending on bridges, roads, and other infrastructure pieces does not always ignite economic good times, say William Kerr and Ramana Nanda. The key question: Are financiers nearby? Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 29 Jun 2019

Infrastructure and Finance: Evidence from India's GQ Highway Network

In India, the Golden Quadrilateral highway network connects four major cities. This study of the relationship between the infrastructure project and development of the local financial sector finds that, in districts along and near the GQ, initial levels of financial development shaped how, and where, infrastructure investment could jumpstart real economic activity.

• 02 Mar 2018

Evidence of Decreasing Internet Entropy: The Lack of Redundancy in DNS Resolution by Major Websites and Services

Stabilizing the domain name resolution (DNS) infrastructure is critical to the operation of the internet. Single points of failure become more consequential as a larger proportion of the internet's biggest sites are managed by a small number of externally hosted DNS providers. Providers could encourage diversification by requiring domain owners to select a secondary DNS provider.

• 03 Apr 2017
• What Do You Think?

How About Investing in Human Infrastructure?

As long as we’re talking about a trillion-dollar government-industry initiative on infrastructure, why not invest in humans as well as bridges? asks James Heskett. What do YOU think? Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 20 Jul 2015

Globalization Hasn’t Killed the Manufacturing Cluster

In today's global markets, companies have many choices to procure what they need to develop, build, and sell product. So who needs a manufacturing cluster, such as Detroit? Research by Gary Pisano and Giulio Buciuni shows that in some industries, location still matters. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 11 Sep 2014

Chief Sustainability Officers: Who Are They and What Do They Do?

A number of studies document how organizations go through numerous stages as they increase their commitment to sustainability over time. However, we still know little about the role of the Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) in this process. Using survey and interview data, the authors of this paper analyze how CSOs' authority and responsibilities differ across organizations that are in different stages of sustainability commitment. The study documents the increased authority that CSOs have in companies that are in more advanced stages of sustainability. But while CSOs assume more responsibilities initially as the organization's commitment to sustainability increases, CSOs decentralize decision rights and allocate responsibilities to the different functions and business units. Furthermore, the authors document that a firm's sustainability strategy becomes significantly more idiosyncratic in the later stages of sustainability, a factor that influences significantly where in the organization responsibility for sustainability issues is located. The study also reflects on the best avenues for future research about CSOs and transformation at the institutional, organizational, and individual levels. This article is a chapter of the forthcoming book Leading Sustainable Change (Oxford University Press). Key concepts include: As a CSO gains more authority, she becomes less central in in the organization by allocating decision rights and responsibilities to the functions and business units. While most companies have fairly generic sustainability strategies in the initial stages, it is in the latter Innovation stage that different organizations more closely customize their sustainability strategy to the needs of the organization. The sustainability strategy is driven by the demands of the markets where an organization has a presence or plans to expand in the future. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

• 03 Sep 2014

Supply Chain Screening Without Certification: The Critical Role of Stakeholder Pressure

Companies are increasingly being held accountable for their suppliers' labor and environmental performance. The reputation of Apple, for example, suffered after harsh working conditions were exposed at Foxconn, one of its key suppliers in China. Despite the possibility of major reputational risk when problems are revealed, however, companies face tough challenges managing this risk because obtaining information about suppliers' labor and environmental practices can be very costly. Furthermore, buyers can seldom discern whether the information suppliers provide a fair representation of their performance or whether it glosses over problem areas. The authors investigate whether and how "commit-and-report" voluntary programs, which require companies to make public commitments and to issue public progress reports (instead of requiring costly third-party audits), can serve as a reliable screening mechanism for buyers. Studying the decisions of 2,043 firms headquartered in 42 countries of whether to participate in the UN Global Compact, the authors find the risk of stakeholder scrutiny deters companies with misrepresentative disclosures from participating in the Global Compact. Moreover, this deterrence effect is especially strong 1) for smaller companies and 2) in countries with stronger activist pressures and stronger norms of corporate transparency. Overall, this research reveals the critical role for stakeholder scrutiny to enable buyers to use "commit-and-report" voluntary programs as a reliable mechanism for screening suppliers. Key concepts include: The potential for stakeholder scrutiny deters companies whose prior reports misrepresent their performance from joining a commit-and-report voluntary program. Smaller companies whose reports are misrepresentative are especially deterred from joining commit-and-report programs. Commit-and-report programs can serve as credible screening mechanisms, especially in countries with more activist pressure and stronger norms of corporate transparency. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

• 26 Mar 2014

How Electronic Patient Records Can Slow Doctor Productivity

Electronic health records are sweeping through the medical field, but some doctors report a disturbing side effect. Instead of becoming more efficient, some practices are becoming less so. Robert Huckman's research explains why. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 31 Jan 2014

The Diseconomies of Queue Pooling: An Empirical Investigation of Emergency Department Length of Stay

Improving efficiency and customer experience are key objectives for managers of service organizations including hospitals. In this paper, the authors investigate queue management, a key operational decision, in the setting of a hospital emergency department. Specifically, they explore the impact on throughput time depending on whether an emergency department uses a pooled queuing system (in which a physician is assigned to a patient once the patient is placed in an emergency department bed) or a dedicated queuing system (in which physicians are assigned to specific patients at the point of triage). The authors measured throughput time based on individual patients' length of stay in the emergency department, starting with arrival to the emergency department and ending with a bed request for admission to the hospital or the discharge of a patient to home or to an outside facility. The findings show that, on average, the use of a dedicated queuing system decreased patients' lengths of stay by 10 percent. This represented a 32-minute reduction in length of stay—a meaningful time-savings for the emergency department and patients alike. The authors argue that physicians in the dedicated queuing system had both the incentive and ability to make sure their patients' care progressed efficiently, so that patients in the waiting room could be treated sooner than they otherwise would have. Key concepts include: This study tests the impact of a queuing system structure on the throughput time of patients in an emergency department that had recently switched from a pooled queuing system to a dedicated queuing system. Patients experienced faster throughput times when physicians were working in a dedicated queuing system as opposed to a pooled queuing system. The benefits of a dedicated queuing system may be due to greater visibility into one's workload and the increased ability for physicians to manage patient flow. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

• 01 Oct 2013

Organizational Factors that Contribute to Operational Failures in Hospitals

Despite a pressing need to do so, hospitals are struggling to improve efficiency, quality of care, and patient experience. Operational failures—defined as instances where an employee does not have the supplies, equipment, information, or people needed to complete work tasks—contribute to hospitals' poor performance. Such failures waste at least 10 percent of caregivers' time, delay care, and contribute to safety lapses. This paper seeks to increase hospital productivity and quality of care by uncovering organizational factors associated with operational failures so that hospitals can reduce the frequency with which these failures occur. The authors, together with a team of 25 people, conducted direct observations of nurses on the medical/surgical wards of two hospitals, which surfaced 120 operational failures. The team also shadowed employees from the support departments that provided materials, medications, and equipment needed for patient care, tracing the flow of materials through the organizations' internal supply chains. This approach made it possible to discover organizational factors associated with the occurrence and persistence of operational failures. Overall, the study develops propositions that low levels of internal integration among upstream supply departments contributed to operational failures experienced by downstream frontline staff, thus negatively impacting performance outcomes, such as quality, timeliness, and efficiency. Key concepts include: To avoid workarounds or the need to keep large stocks of materials on the units, managers should create a method for customer-facing employees to request and receive patient-specific supplies in a timely fashion. Employees are unlikely to discern the role that their department's routines play in operational failures, which hinders solution efforts. Failures and causes may be dispersed over a wide range of factors. Thus, removing failures will require deliberate cross-functional efforts to redesign workspaces and processes so they are better integrated with patients' needs. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

• 27 Sep 2013

The Impact of Conformance and Experiential Quality on Healthcare Cost and Clinical Performance

This study examines the relationship between hospital's focus on both conformance and experiential dimensions of quality and their impact on financial and clinical outcomes. Conformance quality measures the level of adherence to evidence-based standards of care achieved by the hospitals. Experiential quality, on the other hand, measures the extent to which caregivers consider the specific needs of the patient in care and communication, as perceived by the patient. These are important dimensions to investigate because hospitals may face a tension between improving clinical outcomes and maintaining their financial bottom-line. However, little has been known on the joint impact of these dimensions on hospital performance in terms of cost and clinical quality. The authors' study, which examined data from multiple sources for the 3,458 U.S. acute care hospitals, is a first step towards understanding these relationships. Results show that hospitals with high levels of combined quality are typically associated with higher costs, but better clinical outcomes, as measured by length of stay and readmissions. These results suggest that hospitals face a tradeoff between cost performance and clinical outcomes. The study also finds that the effect of conformance quality on length of stay is dependent on the level of experiential quality. Taken together, these findings underline the important synergy that exists between conformance and experiential quality with regards to clinical outcomes, a topic that has been completely overlooked in the extant literature. Key concepts include: Hospitals with high levels of combined quality are typically associated with higher costs, but better clinical outcomes, as measured by length of stay and readmissions. Integrating experiential quality into the delivery of care requires caregivers to understand that conformance quality is important, but just one part of achieving excellent clinical outcomes. Experiential quality requires ensuring that patients have a voice in their own care. This might trigger cultural resistance given the inherent bias towards conformance quality. The need for hospitals to promote such radically new representation, despite its clear health benefits, implies an inevitable cost-quality tradeoff. However, this tradeoff might diminish over time, as the culture slowly shifts and caregivers learn to better integrate both process quality dimensions in a more supportive environment. This study addresses a missing gap on the benefit for a systemic approach to learning in care delivery.h Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

• 24 Jul 2013

Detroit Files for Bankruptcy: HBS Faculty Weigh In

After a long period of economic decline, the city of Detroit filed for bankruptcy protection last week. John Macomber, Robert Pozen, Eric Werker, and Benjamin Kennedy offer their views on some down-the-road scenarios. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

• 08 Jul 2013

Everything Must Go: A Strategy for Store Liquidation

Closing stores requires a deliberate, systematic approach to price markdowns and inventory transfers. The result, say Ananth Raman and Nathan Craig, is significant value for the retailer and new opportunities for others. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

• 18 Apr 2013

The Impact of Pooling on Throughput Time in Discretionary Work Settings: An Empirical Investigation of Emergency Department Length of Stay

Improving the productivity of their organizations' operating systems is an important objective for managers. Pooling—an operations management technique—has been proposed as a way to improve performance by reducing the negative impact of variability in demand for services. The idea is that pooling enables incoming work to be processed by any one of a bank of servers, which deceases the odds that an incoming unit of work will have to wait. Does pooling have a downside? The authors analyze data from a hospital's emergency department over four years. Findings show that, counter to what queuing theory would predict, pooling may actually increase procesdsing times in discretionary work settings. More specifically, patients have longer lengths of stay when emergency department physicians work in systems with pooled tasks and resources versus dedicated ones. Overall, the study suggests that managers of discretionary work systems should design control mechanisms to mitigate behaviors that benefit the employee to the detriment of customers or the organization. One mechanism is to make the workload constant regardless of work pace, which removes the benefit of slowing down. Key concepts include: This research offers practical insights for workplace managers and health care policymakers. In workplaces where workers have discretionary control, the potential negative effects of designing pooled systems must be carefully considered. This has implications for designing and managing staffing structures and workflows, particularly in the context of service delivery organizations. Managers should consider implementing group incentives rather than individual incentives to motivate workers. This may encourage fast workers to reduce their speed just enough so that they will not negatively affect the productivity of others by over-utilizing shared resources. While workplaces often seek to incentivize workers through pay-for-performance programs that focus on individual productivity, a group-level approach may help counteract the negative effects that fast workers exhibit on overall productivity levels. In health care, emergency departments may benefit from implementing non-pooled work systems in which patients are assigned to a doctor-nurse team immediately upon arrival. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

• 01 Mar 2013

Hurry Up and Wait: Differential Impacts of Congestion, Bottleneck Pressure, and Predictability on Patient Length of Stay

This paper quantifies and analyzes trends related to the effects of increased workload on processing time across more than 250 hospitals. Hospitals are useful settings because they have varying levels of workload. In addition, these settings have high worker autonomy, which enables workers to more easily adjust their processing times in response to workload. Findings show that heavy load plays a significant role in processing times. Congestion is associated with longer lengths of stay. More surprisingly, when there is a high load of incoming patients from a low pressure area (emergency medical patients), current hospital inpatients' stays are longer compared to when incoming patients are from a high pressure area (emergency surgical patients). Furthermore, high predictability of the incoming patients (e.g. scheduled surgical patients) is associated with shorter lengths of stays for the current inpatients than when the incoming patients are less predictable (emergency surgical patients). In this study, there was no decrease in quality of care for patients with shorter lengths of stay. Key concepts include: High congestion increases patients' length of stay by up to 0.81 days, which indicates inefficiency due to overloading of resources. Incoming inventory load with high predictability reduces patients' length of stay by up to 0.45 days, which is enabled by the ability of a worker to plan in advance for a new work assignment by discharging a patient to make room for the incoming one. With highly predictable incoming patients and no congestion on the day before expected discharge, there is a shift toward discharging patients currently in the hospital one day earlier than expected. A hospital would benefit from adding or allocating additional resources to the inpatient hospital units, and counter-intuitively, targeting a lower occupancy level to increase productivity. To further improve productivity, the allocated inpatient hospital resources could include adding a nurse on the hospital floors who is solely responsible for discharges and admissions. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

• 03 Oct 2012

Can We Bring Back the “Industrial Commons” for Manufacturing?

Summing Up: Does the US have the political will or educational ability to remake its manufacturing sector on the back of an 'industrial commons?' Professor Jim Heskett's readers are dubious.

• 07 Aug 2012

When Supply-Chain Disruptions Matter

Disruptions to a firm's operations and supply chain can be costly to the firm and its investors. Many companies have been subjected to such disruptions, and the impact on company value varies widely. Do disruption and firm characteristics systematically influence the impact? In this paper, the authors identify factors that cause some disruptions to be more damaging to firm value than others. Insight into this issue can help managers identify exposures and target risk-mitigation efforts. Such insights will also help investors determine whether a company is exposed to more damaging disruptions. Key concepts include: The type of disruption matters in identifying the magnitude of a disruption's impact on a firm's share price. Disruptions attributed to factors within the firm or its supply chain are far more damaging than disruptions attributed to external factors. A higher rate of improvement in operating performance aggravates the impact of internal disruptions but not external disruptions. Management should be prudent about decisions to streamline operations and to reduce buffers and excess capacity. Some efficiency improvements may be attractive during periods of relative operational stability, but firms with high rates of improvement in operational performance could face distressing reductions in market value if they subsequently experience an internal disruption. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

• 16 Apr 2012

The Inner Workings of Corporate Headquarters

Analyzing the e-mails of some 30,000 workers, Professor Toby E. Stuart and colleague Adam M. Kleinbaum dissected the communication networks of HQ staffers at a large, multidivisional company to get a better understanding of what a corporate headquarters does, and why it does it. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Case Studies: Lessons from Public-Private Partnerships

07 Apr Case Studies: Lessons from Public-Private Partnerships

America must address its infrastructure needs—transportation, water, power and energy, and civic structures—to meet the demands of the next generation.

The task is daunting, especially in an era of fiscal constraint, and to accomplish it public officials must think creatively about how to deliver infrastructure more efficiently and cost-effectively. One promising approach is to partner with the private sector in financing and delivering infrastructure projects.

In order to increase understanding and consideration of private-public partnerships (P3s) among public sector leaders, the Bipartisan Policy Center analyzed a number of P3 projects. We have laid out important lessons learned from these projects for public officials considering a P3 approach as well as a few core principles for success, drawing from the experiences of public and private partners across the country.

Explore the case studies below or download the full set of projects . To view the map legend, simply select the icon in the top-left corner.

Bridging the Gap Together: A New Model to Modernize U.S. Infrastructure

Virtual Private Server

With $3 trillion needed for this infrastructure over the next decade, states, cities, counties and other public and private providers of these critical services must continue their important role, and the federal commitment to infrastructure must be restored. Further, with respect to broadband, federal decision-makers should continue to work in partnership with the private sector and states to foster infrastructure deployment in remaining unserved areas.

Showcase Projects

Filter by clear, 6 results found.

Will infrastructure bend or break under climate stress?

When Hurricane Sandy struck the eastern seaboard of the United States in October 2012, subways, airports, and roads were flooded, causing transportation to grind to a halt. Millions lost power, some for days or weeks, shutting down businesses and creating public safety issues. In addition to winds knocking out one-fourth of cell phone towers in the Northeast, the loss of electricity forced many towers offline after depleting their emergency batteries. Eleven billion gallons of sewage flowed into rivers, bays, and coastal waters because severe inundation overwhelmed municipal wastewater systems. In total, the storm caused about $70 billion in damages . But despite being one of the costliest and most destructive storms on record, this event was not an aberration. Nine of the costliest mainland US hurricanes on record have occurred in the past 15 years. Going forward,  climate change is expected to further intensify these risks . 1 Of the nine costliest hurricanes that have struck the United States over the past 15 years, scientists have investigated the influence of climate change on three: Hurricane Katrina (2005), Hurricane Sandy (2012), and Hurricane Harvey (2017). For all three, climate change was found to have amplified impact severity, whether through high storm surges or increased precipitation.

Infrastructure usually involves large investments in assets that are designed to operate over the long term. Coal-fired plants are designed for 40 to 50 years, for example, and hydropower dams and large geotechnical structures for up to 100 years. To date, the design of these facilities typically has assumed a future climate that is much the same as today’s. However, a changing climate and the resulting more extreme weather events mean those climate bands are becoming outdated, leaving infrastructure operating outside of its tolerance levels. This can present direct threats to the assets as well as significant knock-on effects for those relying on the services those assets deliver.

In this case study, we examine four critical infrastructure systems—the electric power grid; water storage, treatment, and purification; transportation; and telecommunications—to determine how vulnerable global infrastructure is to a changing climate (see sidebar, “ An overview of the case study analysis ” ). In the four major infrastructure classes, we identify a total of 17 types of assets to evaluate against seven climate hazards: tidal flooding amplified by sea-level rise; riverine and pluvial flooding; hurricanes/typhoons and storms; tornadoes and other wind events; drought; heat (temperature increases in both air and water); and wildfires. Each type of infrastructure system has specific elements vulnerable to specific climate hazards; we map those hazard infrastructure intersections where risks will most be exacerbated by climate change.

The climate risk for infrastructure is both pervasive and diverse

An overview of the case study analysis.

In Climate risk and response: Physical hazards and socioeconomic impact , we measured the impact of climate change by the extent to which it could affect human beings, human-made physical assets, and the natural world. We explored risks today and over the next three decades and examined specific cases to understand the mechanisms through which climate change leads to increased socioeconomic risk.

In order to link physical climate risk to socioeconomic impact, we investigated cases that illustrated exposure to climate change extremes and proximity to physical thresholds. These cover a range of sectors and geographies and provide the basis of a “micro-to-macro” approach that is a characteristic of McKinsey Global Institute research. To inform our selection of cases, we considered over 30 potential combinations of climate hazards, sectors, and geographies based on a review of the literature and expert interviews on the potential direct impacts of physical climate hazards. We found these hazards affect five different key socioeconomic systems: livability and workability, food systems, physical assets, infrastructure services, and natural capital.

We ultimately chose nine cases to reflect these systems and to represent leading-edge examples of climate change risk. Each case is specific to a geography and an exposed system, and thus is not representative of an “average” environment or level of risk across the world. Our cases show that the direct risk from climate hazards is determined by the severity of the hazard and its likelihood, the exposure of various “stocks” of capital (people, physical capital, and natural capital) to these hazards, and the resilience of these stocks to the hazards (for example, the ability of physical assets to withstand flooding). We typically define the climate state today as the average conditions between 1998 and 2017, in 2030 as the average between 2021 and 2040, and in 2050 between 2041 and 2060. Through our case studies, we also assess the knock-on effects that could occur, for example to downstream sectors or consumers. We primarily rely on past examples and empirical estimates for this assessment of knock-on effects, which is likely not exhaustive given the complexities associated with socioeconomic systems. Through this “micro” approach, we offer decision makers a methodology by which to assess direct physical climate risk, its characteristics, and its potential knock-on impacts.

Climate science makes extensive use of scenarios ranging from lower (Representative Concentration Pathway 2.6) to higher (RCP 8.5) CO 2 concentrations. We have chosen to focus on RCP 8.5 because the higher-emission scenario it portrays enables us to assess physical risk in the absence of further decarbonization. (We also choose a sea level rise scenario for one of our cases that is consistent with the RCP 8.5 trajectory). Such an “ inherent risk ” assessment allows us to understand the magnitude of the challenge and highlight the case for action. For a detailed description of the reason for this choice, see the technical appendix of the full report.

Our case studies cover each of the five systems we assess to be directly affected by physical climate risk, across geographies and sectors. While climate change will have an economic impact across many sectors, our cases highlight the impact on construction, agriculture, finance, fishing, tourism, manufacturing, real estate, and a range of infrastructure-based sectors. The cases include the following:

• For livability and workability, we look at the risk of exposure to extreme heat and humidity in India and what that could mean for that country’s urban population and outdoor-based sectors, as well as at the changing Mediterranean climate and how that could affect sectors such as wine and tourism.
• For food systems, we focus on the likelihood of a multiple-breadbasket failure affecting wheat, corn, rice, and soy, as well as, specifically in Africa, the impact on wheat and coffee production in Ethiopia and cotton and corn production in Mozambique.
• For physical assets, we look at the potential impact of storm surge and tidal flooding on Florida real estate and the extent to which global supply chains, including for semiconductors and rare earths, could be vulnerable to the changing climate.
• For infrastructure services, we examine 17 types of infrastructure assets, including the potential impact on coastal cities such as Bristol in England and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.
• Finally, for natural capital, we examine the potential impacts of glacial melt and runoff in the Hindu Kush region of the Himalayas; what ocean warming and acidification could mean for global fishing and the people whose livelihoods depend on it; as well as potential disturbance to forests, which cover nearly one-third of the world’s land and are key to the way of life for 2.4 billion people.

Overall, we find that climate change could increasingly disrupt critical systems, increase operating costs, exacerbate the infrastructure funding gap, and create substantial spillover effects on societies and economies. We find that there is a range of unique vulnerabilities of different types of infrastructure assets to different categories of climate hazards. Few assets will be left completely untouched. In certain countries, heat-related power outages could increase in severity and may push the grid to cascading failure; aircraft could also be grounded more frequently as both planes and airports cross heat-related thresholds. Understanding these differences is crucial for successful planning. To that end, we have produced a heat map that explores the risk of potential future interruptions from typical exposure to climate hazards by 2030 (Exhibit 1).

Our analysis reveals two different sets of risks involving infrastructure: direct (for example, a power plant goes offline because it floods) and indirect (for example, a power plant cannot transmit power because the power transmission lines have gone down). A typical asset’s direct risk is estimated in our heat map analysis. But direct vulnerabilities are only half the story. Risk is further exacerbated by the vulnerabilities of a specific infrastructure asset to failures in the infrastructure systems within which that asset is embedded. These dependencies can spread risk. We find that each system (for example, energy, water) has at least one severely vulnerable element. Because of the interdependency of these infrastructure systems, the high-risk assets may represent critical points of failure for the entire system, causing operational losses for all other assets in the chain and knock-on effects for a broader set of institutions and individuals.

The power grid: The power grid is highly vulnerable to climate risk from both acute and chronic impacts, amplified by fragile components and relatively low redundancy. The effects of climate-related hazards on the power grid are already apparent. Higher temperatures lower generation efficiency, increase losses in transmission and distribution, decrease the lifetime of key equipment including power transformers, boost peak demand, and force certain thermoelectric plants offline. Day to day, these pressures cause rising operating costs and reduced asset life. In rare cases, these stressors can overwhelm the grid and lead to load shedding and blackouts. Instances and associated costs of disruptions to the power grid are likely to rise as temperatures increase. As average heat levels increase, so does the frequency of extreme heat events and the duration of less severe periods of higher than average heat that cause efficiency losses. Hot periods will be hotter than systems are used to, increasing the degree of failure and thus the associated recovery times, lost revenues, and repair costs. For example, California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment states that by 2060, 5 percent a year probability heat waves in Los Angeles County may reduce overall grid capacity by 2 to 20 percent.

Transportation: Transportation infrastructure is widely distributed, interconnected, and can be affected by relatively minimal climate hazards, resulting in significant societal impacts. For example, extreme heat is already disrupting global air travel. In July 2017, approximately 50 flights were grounded for physical and regulatory reasons when temperatures in Phoenix, Arizona, skyrocketed to 48 degrees Celsius. We analyzed the effect of extreme heat on global air travel. Assuming regional aircraft are largely similar to today’s and keeping the number of regional flights constant to isolate climate impact, if no adaptation measures are taken (for example, lengthening runways, improving aircraft technology), this translates into about 200 to 900 flights grounded per year by 2030 and about 500 to 2,200 flights by 2050 (Exhibit 2). This could directly affect about 16,000 to 75,000 passengers per year in 2030 and about 40,000 to 185,000 passengers per year in 2050, up from an estimated 4,000 to 8,000 today (these events are not systematically recorded today) from extreme heat. More or fewer passengers may be affected depending on whether heat waves strike on heavier travel days (when flights are fuller) and how long the heat conditions persist. Air transportation delays cost the US economy $4 billion in 2007, with most direct costs falling on passengers.

Water supply and wastewater systems: Water supply systems can also experience long-lasting outages from acute shocks like hurricanes and flooding. Two weeks after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, 70 percent of affected drinking water facilities were still offline . Flooding can also result in long recovery periods. Effects are more dramatic in the developing world, where contamination of drinking water is common, and cholera and E. coli frequently cause widespread diarrhea outbreaks in the aftermath of floods. Water treatment systems, however, such as desalination plants, could be increasingly used to limit the impacts of drought. Wastewater systems also suffer as a result of climate shocks. During drought, sewers can have inadequate flow, resulting in blockages and the inability to process human waste. Blockages lead to the possibility of sewage systems bursting in the middle of urban areas. But the biggest threat to wastewater systems is flooding, particularly during hurricanes. Similar but more gradual wastewater overflows are also happening because of chronic stresses. In 2018, rainfall in the city of Richmond, Virginia, was more than 50 percent above average, and as a result 15,500 cubic meters of untreated sewage spilled into the James River.

Climate risk and response

Telecommunications: A fast-growing sector, telecommunications infrastructure has more agility and redundancy, yet as the world’s dependence on the communications network increases, climate risks will also grow. High winds or trees can fell cell phone towers and telephone poles, blow down telephone lines and base stations, and knock microwave receivers out of alignment. Above-ground cabling is at more risk than buried lines of support and pole failures, damage from debris and falling objects (such as trees), and breakage from tension caused by extreme wind speeds. Flooding and hurricanes are the biggest threats. In 2015–16, floods in the United Kingdom inundated a number of key telecom assets, cutting off thousands of homes, businesses and critical public services such as the police. Hurricanes Irma and Maria caused devastation to telecom infrastructure in the Caribbean, with over 90 percent of mobile sites destroyed in Puerto Rico, St. Martin, Dominica, and Antigua and Barbuda . These threats interfere with the system just when it is needed most for disaster recovery.

What can be done to lessen the impact of climate change on global infrastructure?

Infrastructure is expected to bear the brunt of anticipated climate change adaptation costs, typically estimated to be between 60 and 80 percent of total climate change adaptation spending globally , which could average $150 billion to $450 billion per year on infrastructure in 2050. However, most estimates of the cost of adaptation relative to current assets are small compared with the scale of infrastructure investments. Estimates vary significantly, but consensus puts adaptation spending for new assets at about 1 to 2 percent of total infrastructure spending a year .

Adaptation should be tailored to the specific hazard and infrastructure risks. However, opportunities exist for adaptation that are relevant for all infrastructure sectors. Examples of ways to adapt current and future infrastructure to climate risks can be considered including by:

• reducing exposure through transparency
• accelerating investment in resilience
• mobilizing capital to fund adaptation

For additional details, download the case study, Will infrastructure bend or break under climate stress? (PDF–800KB).

How global infrastructure evolves over the next 50 years may be a major determinant of the impact of climate change on civilization. More money will need to be spent both on and in support of infrastructure, and in new ways. Building slightly higher walls, metaphorically or literally, may not be the best solution. And the risks extend beyond infrastructure. A failure to adapt by not taking climate change into account in the design, construction, and maintenance of infrastructure assets will not only cause costs to owners and operators but will leave entire communities exposed and vulnerable. Adaptation can deliver a strong return both by reducing costs from climate-related damage to infrastructure itself and by avoiding significant knock-on effects in wider society.

About this case study:

In January 2020, the McKinsey Global Institute published Climate risk and response: Physical hazards and socioeconomic impacts . In that report, we measured the impact of climate change by the extent to which it could affect human beings, human-made physical assets, and the natural world over the next three decades. In order to link physical climate risk to socioeconomic impact, we investigated nine specific cases that illustrated exposure to climate change extremes and proximity to physical thresholds.

Lola Woetzel is a director of the McKinsey Global Institute, where Mekala Krishnan is a senior fellow. Dickon Pinner is a senior partner in McKinsey’s San Francisco office. Hamid Samandari is a senior partner in the New York office. Hauke Engel is a partner in the Frankfurt office. Brodie Boland is an associate partner in the Washington office. Peter Cooper is a consultant in the London office. Byron Ruby is a consultant in the San Francisco office.

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Climate risk and response: Physical hazards and socioeconomic impacts

Originally published in the Policy Research Working Paper Series on March 2023. This version is updated on June 2024. To obtain the originally published version, please email [email protected] .

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• Published: 04 August 2024

Optimizing green and gray infrastructure planning for sustainable urban development

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Ecosystem services

• Environmental impact

The anticipated increase in urban population of 2.5 billion people by 2050 poses significant environmental challenges. While the various environmental impacts of urbanisation have been studied individually, integrated approaches are rare. This study introduces a spatially explicit model to assess urbanization’s effects on ecosystem services (green infrastructure availability, cooling, stormwater retention) and the environmental impact of building construction (material demand, greenhouse gas emissions, land use). Applied to the Netherlands from 2018 to 2050, our results show that integrating green infrastructure development with building construction could increase green areas by up to 5% and stabilize or increase ecosystem service provisioning. Dense building construction with green infrastructure development is generally more beneficial across the Netherlands, reducing resource use and enhancing ecosystem services. Conversely, sparse construction with green infrastructure is more advantageous for newly built areas. These findings offer insights into the environmental consequences of urbanization, guiding sustainable urban planning practices.

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Introduction.

The United Nations projects a growth of the urban population of 2.5 billion people between 2018 and 2050, which will concurrently result in a significant expansion in urban land cover 1 , 2 . The transformation of natural landscapes to urban land impacts both the local and the global environment. Understanding these effects is crucial for fostering sustainable urbanization strategies in the future. At the local level, urban development results in the replacement of green infrastructure (i.e., trees, shrubs and grasses), with gray infrastructure, (i.e., roads and buildings). Green infrastructure can be defined as “a strategically planned network of natural and semi-natural areas with other environmental features designed and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services” 3 . Ecosystem services are the direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems to human wellbeing 4 . These services encompass a wide array of benefits, including the provision of essential resources like food and freshwater, the regulation and preservation of the environment through functions such as managing stormwater, enhancing soil quality, reducing noise levels, and regulating air temperatures 5 , 6 , 7 . Additionally, green infrastructure provides cultural benefits, serving as spaces for recreational activities and leisure 8 . Transformation of green into gray surfaces increases urban vulnerability to health and climate-related threats such as flooding and urban heat 9 , 10 .

The increasing demand for new buildings and infrastructure, driven by urbanization, impacts the environment not just at the local level, but at the global level as well. In 2019, the manufacturing of building materials, such as steel and cement, accounted for 11% of energy and process-related CO 2 emissions 11 . Continuous growth of the building stock could result in an increase of building material related emissions from 3.5 to 4.6 Gt CO 2 eq yr −1 between 2020–2060 12 . Therefore, the consequences of urban transformation extend far beyond city boundaries, emphasizing the need for sustainable urban development practices.

A wide range of factors affect the local urban climate and resilience to climate change, with ecosystem services playing a crucial role 13 , 14 . The provisioning of ecosystem services depends on the type, size, and arrangement of green infrastructure, and is also influenced by the local climate, non-ecological elements, such as buildings and roads, and socioeconomic variables 6 , 15 , 16 . For instance, the services provided by the same configuration, size, and type of green infrastructure can differ when the climate and landscape changes 16 . Therefore, conducting location-specific assessments of ecosystem services in high spatial resolution is important to capture the factors that influence their provisioning within a given area.

A considerable amount of research has focused on understanding how urbanization impacts green infrastructure and the provision of ecosystem services. Some studies have explored the impact of urbanization on the expansion of urban land 2 , 17 or the availability of green infrastructure 18 , 19 . Studies have also shown the negative impact of urban growth and urban densification on biodiversity and the provisioning of ecosystem services 20 , 21 , 22 and trade-offs between spatial configuration of urbanization and ecosystem service supply 23 , 24 . Investigations into the implementation of green infrastructure strategies have revealed their potential to improve ecosystem service provisioning, while also highlighting the synergies and trade-offs among these services 9 , 25 . These studies highlight the complex interplay of factors shaping urban environments and the critical role of green infrastructure in fostering sustainable cities.

Urban planning choices also affect the impact related to building construction. Dense building construction reduces material use and greenhouse gas emissions compared to sparsely constructed areas 26 . Dense urban regions often prioritize multi-family housing, which typically consist of smaller dwelling units and are therefore more resource-efficient compared to single-family houses. Dense building construction is also associated with more efficient energy usage during building operation 27 . On the other hand, building densification often result in higher material turnover due to building replacements 26 and, in the case of high-rise construction, buildings also tend to be more material-intensive due to the need for additional structural components 28 . Therefore, the location and characteristics of buildings play a critical role in shaping the global environmental impacts.

In addition to spatial planning choices, circular economy strategies in the building sector are critical for reducing environmental impacts. These strategies encompass a variety of practices, including building lifetime extension, the use of alternative construction materials, such as biobased or lightweight material, alternative energy sources, increased material efficiency, designing for reusability and recyclability, minimizing dwelling floor space, and enhancing recycling processes 12 , 26 , 29 . Implementing these strategies can lead to a halving in the material related GHG-emissions compared to a Baseline 12 , 26 . However, some strategies show trade-offs, such the substantial land-use impact associated with the construction of wooden building 26 .

Several studies on the impact of urbanization on building materials have been conducted. Historical assessments of the global level extraction of construction minerals as well as projections for the future have been published by the International Resource Panel, showing a threefold increase during 1970-2015, and an additional doubling until 2050 30 . Spatially explicit studies show more detail: high-resolution building maps enable the assessment of materials incorporated within them, offering insights into opportunities for sustainable resource use 26 , 31 . Historical building stock maps have been employed to scrutinize urban growth patterns and associated material stock dynamics over time 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 . Maps of the existing building stock also serve as a foundation for modeling future dynamics to identify more sustainable solutions for building construction 26 , 29 .

While existing studies provide valuable insights into specific sustainability aspects of urban development, an integrated approach that provides insights into both the local and the global impacts of urbanization is still lacking. This is crucial because urban development impacts both green and gray infrastructure; analyzing these impacts together provides an opportunity to reduce the impact related to construction of buildings, while simultaneously reducing losses or improving availability of ecosystem services. To bridge this gap, this paper aims to address the following question: How can green and gray infrastructure planning be optimized for sustainable urban development? We take the Netherlands as a case-study, a country notable for its high population density and unique environmental challenges. While focused on the Netherlands, we provide insights and approaches that are transferable to other urban environments to enhance their understanding and implementation of sustainable urban development approaches. Addressing this question is important in light of international urbanization trends anticipated towards 2050 1 , 36 , which have resulted in several initiatives and policies. These include the European Urban Initiative, which focuses on creating innovative solutions to urban sustainability 37 ; the European Nature Restoration Law, targeting no net loss of green spaces and aiming for their increase by 2050 38 ; and the ambition of the European Green Deal towards achieving net-zero emissions by the same year 39 . Our research also aligns global commitments, such as the United Nations’ goals for sustainable urban futures, highlighting the broader relevance of our work 1 . The Dutch commitment to achieving circularity and climate neutrality by 2050 exemplifies these broader efforts 40 .

Figure 1 presents the methodolgical framework. Our analysis begins with spatially explicit strategies for building construction and demolition from 2018 to 2050, as outlined by the Dutch Environmental Assessment Agency 41 . These strategies are based on regional population growth projections and preferred locations for building construction. We focus primarily on two contrasting approaches: the Dense strategy, which concentrates construction within present urban areas, and the Sparse strategy, which promotes development in low-density areas such as agricultural and industrial sites (Table 1 ). Our analysis examines the implications of these strategies on the building material impact, land-use change and ecosystem service provision. Firstly, we analyze the effects of urbanization on the non-local aspects: the demand for primary building materials, the greenhouse gas emissions, and the embodied land use associated with the extraction and production of construction materials (Fig. 1a ). Our approach incorporates three construction methods: conventional, circular, and biobased. These methods are applied within the frameworks of the Dense and Sparse urbanization strategies. Secondly, we assess how these urbanization strategies affect local land use change and its impacts on local ecosystem service supply (Fig. 1b ): local green infrastructure availability, air temperature regulation, and stormwater retention capacity (Table 2 ). These services are critical for enhancing urban quality of life and improving resilience against environmental and socio-economic challenges 42 . In our land-use and ecosystem service analysis, we integrate the Dense and Sparse strategies with two distinct land-use approaches: Green, emphasizing extensive greening around buildings, and Gray, characterized by minimal green infrastructure development. In the final step, we identify the most effective combination of building and land-use strategies for each sustainability indicator, highlighting key synergies and trade-offs (Fig. 1c ). Spanning the period from 2018 to 2050, and building upon the work of van Oorschot et al. (2023) 26 , our research integrates a diverse array of sustainability indicators in support of sustainable urban development. In the tables below (Tables 1 and 2 ), urbanization strategies, land-use approaches and construction material choices are summarized, as well as the sustainability indicators on which these are assessed.

a Presents the approach for resource use calculation, b Presents the approach for land use and land cover (LULC) change and ecosystem service calculation, c Presents a comparison of the sustainability indicators and urbanization strategies.

Building materials

In this section, we present the results of the use of construction materials over the period 2018-2050, related to the three non-local indicators: use of primary construction materials, cradle-to-gate CO 2 -emissions, and embodied land use. Figure 2 shows the results.

Impact of building construction in the Netherlands between 2018 and 2050 on primary material demand, global warming potential and embodied land use, broken down by material.

The global warming potential associated with building materials totals between 68 and 127 megaton (Mt) CO 2 -equivalent in the period 2018-2050, dependent on the urbanization strategy and choice of building materials. Annually, this can be translated into an average of 2-4 Mt/year, relatively low compared to the impact related to space heating, which encompassed 24.7 Mt CO 2 -equivalent in 2018 alone 43 . However, as buildings are expected to greatly reduce operational energy due to the energy transition, addressing emissions from materials becomes increasingly important. Biobased construction stands out with the lowest demand for primary materials and the lowest embodied greenhouse gas emissions, largely as a result of replacing concrete structures with wooden ones. However, biobased construction exhibits a notably high embodied land use impact related to wood production, reaching over 16000 km 2 for strategy Sparse and Biobased, equivalent to 40% of the Netherlands’ surface area. This embodied land use significantly exceeds that of conventional buildings and circular building strategies, which range between 4000 and 7000 km 2 . Overall, the circular construction appears to be the most favorable choice, resulting in lower primary material use as well as lower CO 2 -emissions, without the trade-off to embodied land use.

From a building material perspective, prioritizing denser building practices over sparse ones is the more sustainable choice (Fig. 2 ). While densification leads to increased building replacements, consequently raising the demand for materials, the structures created in denser environments are generally smaller, favoring multi-family dwellings over single-family houses. Together with the greater potential for secondary material use, this results in a reduced environmental impact compared to sparse building construction. The results do not change between strategy Green and Gray, because the surrounding area of the building has no effect on the material related impacts (Table 3 ).

Figure 3a shows that at the national level, the construction locations are not that different in strategies Dense and Sparse. In both strategies, building activities are concentrated within more urbanized municipalities in the central-western part of the Netherlands. This mirrors the demographic forecasts outlined by the Dutch Environmental Assessment Agency 44 . However, differences between the two maps are also apparent. A significant number of municipalities, particularly in the central part of the Netherlands, demonstrate a higher material demand under the Sparse strategy compared to the Dense strategy.

a Total material demand (kg/m 2 ) per municipality between 2018 and 2050 for strategy Dense and Sparse (Conventional building strategy). b Green infrastructure change (m 2 /km 2 ) per municipality between 2018 and 2050.

Land use & land cover (LULC) change

Our findings show that buildings present a relatively small portion of the total transformed land area and therefore highlight the potential for concurrent growth in green infrastructure alongside the expansion of building area for strategy Green (Fig. 4 ). Among the strategies considered, the Sparse-Green combination emerges as the most effective in expanding the area of green infrastructure, with an increase of 5% compared to 2018 (3% for Dense-Green). The higher value for Sparse stems from a lower building density, resulting in a larger area of transformed land (Fig. 3b ). In the absence of green infrastructure integration (strategy Gray), green infrastructure declines by 2% in strategy Dense and by almost 1% in strategy Sparse. However, the Sparse approach significantly reduces agricultural land, creating a trade-off between urban development and agricultural areas.

The values for 2018 present the original LULC composition of the transformed areas, and the values for 2050 present the new LULC composition of the transformed areas.

In both Dense and Sparse strategies construction predominantly occurs in the central-West of the Netherlands, which seems to correlate with the largest changes in green infrastructure area (Fig. 3b ). Nonetheless, variations in the spatial patterns of material demand and land use and land cover (LULC) change are visible as well. This is because changes in green infrastructure are influenced not only by the total area being transformed, but also by the original LULC. For example, municipalities where a relatively small area of largely gray infrastructure is transformed into a combination of gray and green infrastructure may show a larger increase in green infrastructure than municipalities where a large area of predominantly green areas are transformed into a mix of green and gray infrastructure. Similarly, while most municipalities experience a decline in green infrastructure in the Gray strategy, some municipalities still show an increase in green infrastructure due to the transformation of non-residential areas like agricultural or industrial land into built-up areas with a small amount of green infrastructure. The maps reveal a trade-off between material impacts and green infrastructure availability: while the Sparse-Green strategy leads to more substantial increases in green infrastructure, the Dense strategy is more advantageous in terms of building material requirements.

A lack of green infrastructure integration in building construction is associated with a reduction in ecosystem service supply. For Gray strategies, newly constructed areas experience more than a 5% decline in the availability of green infrastructure (within a 1 km 2 area around dwellings) and stormwater retention capacity, with air temperature increasing slightly over 1%, compared to the average of 2018. For green infrastructure availability, the impact is most pronounced in the Sparse building strategy, where the dominance of gray infrastructure and agricultural land leads to a substantial 42% decrease. Both Dense-Gray and Sparse-Gray show reductions in stormwater retention capacity of almost 50%. In contrast, when evaluating the total building stock (i.e., existing plus newly constructed buildings), the decreases are generally less severe, under 5% for most services except for green infrastructure availability, which show a 7% and 5% reduction in strategy Dense and Sparse, respectively. Conversely, the integration of green infrastructure with building construction leads to a net increase or stabilization of ecosystem service supply when compared to 2018 (Table 3 ). For the entire building stock, the changes are smaller than 5% for air temperature and stormwater retention, but exceed the 5% for green infrastructure availability, indicating a significant impact.

Compared to the average of 2018, strategy Sparse-Green leads to a significant almost 60% increase in green infrastructure availability, for newly constructed areas. Strategy Dense-Green shows a lower, yet substantial, improvement of nearly 40% compared to the 2018 average. When considering the entire building stock projected for 2050, the Sparse-Green approach still leads with a roughly 10% increase in green infrastructure, closely followed by the Dense-Green strategy at 8%. In absolute terms, the Green strategies reveal a rise from an average of 0.303 km 2 (within a 1 km 2 around dwellings) in 2018 to between 0.328 km 2 and 0.332 km2.

The choice of the most effective urbanization strategy for urban cooling varies depending on the scale of analysis. Focusing on newly constructed areas between 2018 and 2050, the Sparse-Green approach is the preferred strategy. This method slightly reduces air temperature by 0.4%, corresponding to 0.12  o C on hot summer days, while the Dense-Green strategy results in a small increase of 0.5%. The rise in temperature for Dense-Green can be attributed to the partial replacement of urban green infrastructure with gray infrastructure. In contrast, the Sparse-Green strategy converts a significant portion of agricultural land into green infrastructure, leading to an overall decrease in temperature. The results change when analyzing the entire building stock. In this broader context, the Dense strategy emerges as more effective, showing a marginal decrease in air temperature by 0.01%. This greater efficiency is because the Dense-Green strategy introduces green infrastructure in areas where temperatures are relatively high, thereby having a more substantial effect in cooling than the Sparse-Green strategy. It is important to highlight that these temperature changes are marginal, a point that will be expanded upon in the discussion section.

In the context of stormwater retention, our analysis reveals that dense urban construction, when integrated with green infrastructure, exhibits a slightly higher retention capacity compared to sparse building constructions. The Dense-Green strategy shows more than 20% increase in stormwater retention for new constructions, compared to an slightly less than 20% increase observed under the Sparse-Green strategy. When considering the entire building stock, the Dense-Green strategy yields a 2.1% increase in stormwater retention, slightly surpassing the 1.9% increase achieved by the Sparse-Green strategy. The slightly lower improvement rates associated with the Sparse strategy can be attributed to the transformation of a considerable portion of agricultural land. This land inherently possesses effective stormwater retention capabilities, which diminishes the relative impact of the strategy. Moreover, the Dense strategy is characterized by a higher proportion of apartment constructions compared to the Sparse strategy. These building types use space more efficiently than row- or detached houses, allowing for the creation of substantial areas for green infrastructure development.

In summary, trade-offs exist in spatial planning decisions for the studied ecosystem services, and these trade-offs can vary depending on the scope of analysis. Overall, strategy Dense-Green is potentially the best choice as it strategically integrates green infrastructure in high-demand areas, ultimately benefiting a larger population.

Local assessment of ecosystem services

Figure 5 shows how the change in LULC, green infrastructure availability, air temperature, and stormwater retention capacity between 2018 to 2050 work out at the local level, showing an example in the area of Leiden. The figure highlights differences between the strategies Dense-Green and Sparse-Green. In strategy Dense, the primary focus is on the conversion of built-up urban areas within the city of Leiden. In contrast, strategy Sparse primarily targets the transformation of agricultural land on the outskirts of Leiden.

a LULC composition in 2050 (see Supplementary Methods 2 for details on LULC classes), b change in green infrastructure availability (m 2 ) within 1 km 2 , c change in air temperature ( o C) and d change in stormwater retention capacity (%) for strategies Dense + Green and Sparse + Green, for the area of Leiden. Blue indicates an increase, yellow indicates no change, and orange indicates a decline in ecosystem service supply compared to 2018.

Both strategies demonstrate substantial increases in green infrastructure availability (Fig. 5b ), with a more pronounced increase in strategy Sparse, due to the conversion of mainly agricultural land into partially green infrastructure. Within the Dense strategy, some construction activities are undertaken in areas that already have a considerable share of green, resulting in a smaller increase in green infrastructure availability compared to Sparse. In strategy Sparse, a small part in the south-west of Leiden shows a reduction in green infrastructure availability due to the transformation of green space into a partially built-up area.

In strategy Dense, the change in air temperature shows a similar pattern to that of green infrastructure availability (Fig. 5c ), with the most pronounced reduction in the urbanized areas of Leiden. The largest reduction in air temperature within Leiden is observed under the Dense strategy, achieving a maximum decrease of 0.21°C. Conversely, the Sparse strategy leads to a temperature increase across a broad area, despite integrating green infrastructure into construction projects. This increase is primarily due to the conversion of cooler agricultural lands and green spaces into partial gray infrastructure. However, within the Sparse strategy, certain urbanized areas, especially those with transformed industrial zones in Leiden, do exhibit a cooling effects. These localized temperature contrast with the aggregated data for the entire Netherlands, highlighting the importance of multi-scale analysis in understanding the impacts of urban development strategies.

Furthermore, our study reveals significant variability in stormwater retention capacity across the area. To improve interpretation of the results, we aggregated the data to a resolution of 100 × 100 meters (Fig. 5d ). The aggregated findings align with the overall trends observed nationwide. Under the Dense strategy, there is a clear increase in stormwater retention capacity, reaching a maximum increase of 58% compared to 2018. In strategy Sparse, the transformation of largely agricultural land and green infrastructure into partially gray infrastructure results in a reduction in stormwater retention capacity, with a maximum decrease of 15.9%.

Exploring strategies for sustainable urban development is essential to develop an urban environment that is as sustainable as possible. This study examined the impact of urbanization, emphasizing the global environmental effects of the use of building materials, and the impact on land-use change and ecosystem services locally, to understand how to optimize urban development for sustainability.

Our findings suggest that dense urban development is preferred from a building material perspective due to the construction of smaller dwelling units and higher potential for reuse and recycling. Dense urban development is also likely to be more energy-efficient, as high population densities typically correlate with lower per capita energy consumption 27 . When coupled with green infrastructure development, dense urban development can also lead to an increase in ecosystem service supply in areas where demand is high. While these arguments favor dense urban developments, green infrastructure development in densely populated areas could pose challenges due to high demand for services associated with gray infrastructure, such as housing, commercial purposes and transportation, resulting in competition for land-use. Additionally, underground infrastructure, like pipes and cables, can complicate green infrastructure implementation, particularly for trees 45 . Therefore we recognize that, in addition to green infrastructure development at ground-level, alternative ways to implement green infrastructure in urban areas, such as green roofs and facades, need to be investigated as well.

Sparse building construction has faced criticism for promoting urban sprawl, thereby diminishing natural habitats and biodiversity, and increase greenhouse-gas emissions and costs related to transportation, water and energy infrastructure 46 , 47 . Our analysis indicated that sparse building construction primarily results in a trade-off between agricultural land and built-up areas, while protected nature was excluded from the analysis. It must be emphasized that these conclusions are valid for the Netherlands, where natural areas are scarce, small and well protected, and non-cultured land is absent. In such a situation, sparse urban development could positively impact ecosystem service provisioning and biodiversity, when coupled with the development of green infrastructure. However, to sustain food production (another crucial ecosystem service), sparse urban development could inadvertently lead to the transformation of other areas, which may be rich in biodiversity, into agricultural land. These arguments again promote dense urban development. Clearly, there are trade-offs between dense and sparse urban developments in terms of building materials, energy use, land-use, ecosystem services, and biodiversity. Considering these trade-offs is crucial for sustainable urban development.

We assessed green infrastructure availability as the total green infrastructure within a 1 km² area around dwellings. This method differs from the conventional per capita analysis of green space availability and serves as a broad indicator of ecosystem service provision, while the per capita indicator typically focuses on recreational services 21 . Our findings revealed a significant increase in total green infrastructure availability for strategies Green, suggesting enhanced ecosystem service supply. Through translating our findings into per capita terms, we can draw comparisons with existing literature for recreational service provisioning. By 2050, a decrease in green infrastructure availability from 34 m² per capita to 20 m² per capita was observed for the Green strategies, stemming from increased population densities. These values are within the wide spectrum of green space availability in European cities, ranging from 2.5 to 200 m² per capita 48 , 49 . In a recent study, Liu et al. 21 reported that in the Paris region, only 48% of the 10 m² per capita policy target within a 500-meter radius is achieved, highlighting disparities with insufficient green infrastructure in densely populated regions contrasted with excess in less populated ones 21 . Our results largely align with this pattern, demonstrating low green infrastructure availability in urban areas (frequently below 1 m² per capita within a 1 km 2 area around dwellings), in contrast to areas outside urban centers, where the availability often exceeds 10 m² per capita. In some rural areas however, our results show low per capita values because of the large share of agricultural land that is not considered to be accessible green space. The large variability in GI availability, and thus the availability of ecosystem services, underscores the need for a standardized metric for green infrastructure availability to support urban sustainability.

Our strategies showed a potential increase in the stormwater retaining capacity up to 2% compared to 2018. Locally, the increase in stormwater retention can be far larger than 2%, resulting in a strongly reduced portion of stormwater that runs off the surface, along with associated nutrients and pollutants. The average of 2% is significant, given that over 600 km² of land surface area is being transformed, offering a substantial potential to reduce stormwater treatment and drainage needs. For comparison, a study on green infrastructure strategies for Amsterdam demonstrated a potential annual reduction of 1.4 million cubic meters of stormwater treatment volume, decreasing treatment costs by 1.1 million euros per year 25 . In our strategies the total area of created green infrastructure could be up to 200 times higher than in aforementioned study.

Air temperature changes were small in our results, with an average decrease of 0.02 °C across the total building stock and a local maximum reduction of 0.42 °C. These results are consistent with similar studies on greening strategies 25 , 50 . The small temperature impact can be attributed to the relatively small land use and land cover changes in relation to the overall land area of the Netherlands, combined with a considerable air mixing distance of 500 meters. In absolute terms, densely built areas showed temperatures up to 2 °C higher than rural areas. Recent studies show that urban heat is strongly affected by building density 20 , 51 , indicating a preference for low-density urban development for better temperature regulation. Nonetheless, dense urban regions, which have a greater demand for cooling, could derive more benefit from green infrastructure implementation. Our findings reveal that integrating green infrastructure with new building construction is not enough to achieve substantial cooling, suggesting that additional greening measures are required, either through the integration of green infrastructure in buildings, or through reducing building densities.

Across the assessed building strategies, the biobased strategy showed the lowest greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, biobased constructions significantly impact embodied land use due to the requirements for wood cultivation. The Netherlands’ heavy reliance on wood imports raises concerns about the sustainability of biobased construction. Local upscaling of wood production is challenging as well, due to limited available land and competition with housing, agriculture, and nature conservation 52 . Mishra et al. 53 suggest that a worldwide increase in wooden buildings, up to 90% of new constructions from 2020 to 2100, is feasible if agricultural land productivity is doubled 53 . This intensification would allow more land for plantation forestry. However, achieving this requires strong global governance and careful planning. From an overall environmental impact perspective, opting for the circular building strategy results in the least trade-offs. This preference becomes more evident when extending the analysis beyond 2050, a period during which buildings constructed between 2018 and 2050 will be deconstructed. Circular designs facilitate material recycling and component reuse, making them an attractive option for the long-term sustainability of the built environment.

In the past, urbanization patterns have shown a great diversity across regions and cities 54 . With ongoing urbanization, we face an opportunity to steer urban development towards sustainability. We demonstrated how this process can be supported by quantifying the impact of urbanization strategies on various sustainability indicators. These indicators relate to decision making and planning at different levels. At the local scale, maps showing relative changes in ecosystem service supply can be used by urban planners to develop or evaluate their plans, identify trade-offs in ecosystem service provisioning, and prioritize sustainability aspects. On a larger scale, the aggregated impact results, as presented in Table 3 , facilitate comparison of decision making options on different sustainability aspects. Greening strategies and strategies for building construction are typically handled by different authorities 55 , 56 . Our study emphasizes the need for an integrated planning approach that combines these efforts. Planning strategies at the local level also need to align with higher-level policies, for instance related to areas restricted from urbanization 57 . Climate related policies, including the environmental performance of buildings, are typically addressed at the (inter)national level 58 . At the national level, the insights from our study provide guidance for policymakers to formulate strategies to enhance the sustainability of building practices, for instance related to building locations, material use and recycling practices.

This study investigated sustainable urbanization strategies within the context of the Netherlands, yet our findings hold a broader relevance. Our findings underscore the importance of an integrated approach to urban development that emphasizes sustainability in both green and gray infrastructure. This approach aligns with sustainability goals set by international entities like the European Union and the United Nations, underscoring its relevance across different countries and policy levels 1 , 38 , 39 . The feasibility of implementing our method in other areas, especially in rapidly urbanizing regions like the Global South, is contingent upon data availability. Although urban ecosystem services in these regions have been quantified using open-source data such as remote sensing data and models such as InVEST 59 , 60 , data on construction materials in these regions remain scarce 61 , 62 . Furthermore, the high-resolution spatial data required for modeling building construction and demolition activities used in this study is probably not universally accessible. A potential solution to this is remote sensing based land-cover data, which is increasingly available in high resolution (e.g. Sentinel-2 and Landsat). This kind of data can be implemented into open-source LULC change models, such as the wallpapering method used in this study 63 , to model the dynamics of urban infrastructure over time. Although these data sources do not offer the same level of detail as those used in this study, they provide a potential foundation for analyzing sustainable urbanization strategies across diverse global contexts.

Directions for future research

We included a wide spectrum of sustainability indicators. This scope can still be broadened to encompass additional indicators, related to building materials (e.g. eutrophication, particulate matter formation, etc.) and additional ecosystem services. For instance, soil-related services, carbon storage, noise reduction, air pollution removal, and positive health impacts present other important urban ecosystem services for which quantification approaches have been conceptualized or developed 7 , 64 , 65 , 66 . This would add to a more comprehensive overview of sustainability implications, but also adds to decision-making complexity. To support decision-making and address trade-offs inherent in considering a wide array of sustainability factors, multi-criteria analysis (MCA) can still be applied. MCA involves normalizing and assigning weight to various sustainability factors. These weights can be based on the perceived importance of each factor as determined by stakeholders 13 .

The interplay between building dimensioning and green infrastructure planning could be further investigated. For instance, building dimensioning has an effect on both land use composition and building materials. Several studies show higher GHG emissions associated with large and tall buildings compared to low-rise structures 28 , 67 , 68 . Building dimensioning also affects the local temperature, with taller buildings generally increasing urban heat 51 . Low-rise buildings leave less space for integration of green infrastructure in the building’s surroundings. Green infrastructure could also be integrated into the building through green roofs and facades. The interplay between building dimensioning, public and private greenery, and its relation to material consumption presents an interesting direction for future research.

To conclude, our study offers an in-depth analysis of the environmental impacts of urban development, emphasizing the integration of green and gray infrastructure and how they affect building construction related impacts and ecosystem services. Despite the projected growth of the Dutch building stock, our study illustrates the possibility of simultaneously expanding green infrastructure by up to 5%, and maintaining or improving the supply of ecosystem services compared to 2018 levels. Our findings also highlight the potential to reduce environmental impacts through the use of circular design practices. The analysis reveals trade-offs between dense and sparse urban development in terms of environmental impact and the provision of ecosystem services, underlining their importance in determining sustainable urban development strategies. We also recognize the different scales of impacts of ecosystem services and construction materials, underscoring the importance for a multi-scale analysis. Though focused on the Netherlands, our approach has broader applicability, offering a strategy to simultaneously reduce the environmental impact of urban development while improving ecosystem services provisioning.

Our study included several stages, each aimed at the optimization potential of sustainable urban development. Using a spatially explicit model, we combined scenarios for building construction and demolition with material intensities to derive material stock and flow dynamics. The model also combines the building construction and demolition data with land use and land cover (LULC) scenarios to assess changes in LULC, which formed the basis for ecosystem service analysis. With the insights gained from the model, we explored strategies to refine building construction practices, aiming to optimize material use and improve ecosystem services simultaneously. The method is explained in more detail below, and model details are available in Supplementary Methods 1 .

Building material impact

We combined spatial modeling with material flow analysis to assess the material stock dynamics in the Dutch building sector. Material flow analysis is a widely used method to quantify material stocks and flows, their dynamics over time, and their circularity 69 , 70 , 71 . We calculated material stock and flow dynamics through translating the building maps, provided in number of dwellings constructed or demolished and footprint (m 2 ) for non-residential buildings, to useful floor area (m 2 ), specific per building typology, and multiplying these values with their respective material intensity (kg/m 2 ). We assessed GHG emissions related to material production on the basis of the life cycle inventory database EcoInvent version 3.6 72 and supplemented the dataset where needed with values from scientific literature 26 . The starting point of our analysis was spatial data of the Dutch building stock in 2018 73 and spatially explicit strategies for building construction and demolition from 2018 to 2050 41 . The strategies were constructed based on regional population growth projections and preferred locations for building construction, with a focus on two distinct strategies: Dense and Sparse. In the Dense strategy, building construction prioritizes urban areas, while the Rural strategy emphasizes construction in areas with low population densities like agricultural and industrial sites. These strategies were presented at a 100 by 100-meter resolution, quantified in terms of dwelling units constructed or demolished and square meters of non-residential building footprint.

Three building material strategies were assessed (Table 2 ): Conventional, which uses traditional materials such as a concrete and steel structure; Circular, employing circular design principles, such as a detachable steel frame and mechanically detachable bricks; and Biobased, using timber frame constructions, wooden facades, cross-laminated timber floors and biobased insulation and roofing. We refer to Supplementary Methods 1 for the material intensities. For each strategy, we calculated the primary material demand and embodied greenhouse-gas emissions related to the construction materials and the embodied land use related to production of wood, using the model developed by van Oorschot et al. 26 . Because land occupation (m 2 year) was significantly higher for wood than for other materials (van Oorschot et al., 26 ), we calculated the total area of land (m 2 ) required for wood production. With the model we assessed primary and secondary material use through material flow analysis and life cycle impact assessment.

LULC change

Secondly, we analyzed how building construction impacts changes in LULC. We compiled a LULC map by combining a detailed land use map of the Netherlands, the Registration Large-Scale Topography 74 , with coverage maps (land cover) of trees, shrubs and grasses 75 , 76 , 77 . We did not consider agricultural land as green infrastructure due to its heterogeneous composition and, aside from food provision, limited capacity for providing ecosystem services. The resulting map presents detailed information on land use and green infrastructure coverage on a 10 by 10 m resolution. We made a distinction between 22 LULC classes (Supplementary Methods 2 ).

To analyze LULC changes between 2018 and 2050, we translated construction strategies into building footprints and linked them with LULC strategies using the “wallpapering model” (WP) developed by Lonsdorf and colleagues 63 . For the LULC strategies (see details below), we identified suitable compositions on the original LULC map, clipped the designated area to a rectangular “tile”, replicated the tile in a grid to create a “wallpaper” and switched the LULC within every cell that shows construction activities between 2018 and 2050. We classified building footprints into three groups based on their share within each 100 × 100 m gridcell: less than 10%, 10-40% and greater than 40%. This classification limited the number of tiles to three per LULC strategy.

Our analysis involved two LULC strategies: Green and Gray (Supplementary Methods 2 ). The Gray strategy is characterized by less than 5% low vegetation (grass and shrubs) per cell (100 × 100 meters) and Green, is characterized by more than 30% continuous green space consisting of grass, shrubs, and trees, of which at least 10% trees. The Green strategy is based upon the rule of thumb for having at least 30% urban forest in cities and the recommendation of the Nature Restoration Law to have at least 10% tree cover in urban environments 78 , 79 . We assumed that LULC transformation corresponds to the 100 × 100 m gridcell size used for building construction and demolition data. Given that building construction inherently involves alterations to the immediate surroundings, our findings provide reasonably accurate estimations. The modeling details are described in greater detail in the Supplementary Methods 2 .

The LULC maps served as the basis for analyzing LULC changes in the Netherlands and the capacity of green infrastructure to deliver ecosystem services. Modeling details can be found in Supplementary Methods 3 . We quantified the overall extent of green infrastructure across the Netherlands projected for 2050, along with its availability for residents. Furthermore, we evaluated the effectiveness of green infrastructure in mitigating urban heat and retaining stormwater. For the latter two, we employed the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model. InVEST is an open-source software developed by the Natural Capital Project and Stanford University for mapping and valuing ecosystem services 80 . InVEST combines LULC data with additional information to provide output values for ecosystem services in biophysical and/or economic units.

Green infrastructure plays a vital role in enhancing both physical and mental well-being 65 , 66 . The availability of green infrastructure refers to the measurement of green spaces within a specific distance, often within residential neighborhoods, primarily aimed at assessing the extent of accessible green areas 21 . Here, we calculated the total green infrastructure availability within 1 km 2 area surrounding dwellings as a broad indicator of ecosystem service provision.

Many cities experiencing heat waves are focusing on urban heat mitigation. Vegetation plays a crucial role in reducing the urban heat island (UHI) effect by offering shade, altering the city’s thermal properties, and providing cooling through evapotranspiration 81 . This has positive effects on citizens’ health, lowering mortality and morbidity rates, enhancing comfort and productivity, and reducing the need for air conditioning 82 . Here, we employed the InVEST model to calculate urban cooling. The urban cooling model calculates, among other indicators, changes in air temperature based on various factors, including shade, evapotranspiration, albedo, and proximity to cooling islands like parks. The changes in air temperature present an indication for the cooling provided by vegetation.

Climate change leads to more intense droughts and rain events 83 . Large impervious covers in urban areas increase the risks of flooding in these areas due to loss of infiltration capacity, and decrease interception and evaporation by green infrastructure 64 . The InVEST stormwater runoff retention model provides information on runoff retention. Runoff retention involves holding stormwater by permeable land to avoid polluting rivers and oceans. The model estimates surface runoff, the portion of stormwater not retained. The Stormwater Retention model focuses on services over an annual timeframe rather than individual storm events and flooding. We employed this model to calculate changes in stormwater retention capacity for the various urbanization strategies.

We assessed changes in ecosystem service capacity between 2018 and 2050 on two scale levels: firstly, for areas that are being transformed for building construction, and secondly, for the entire building stock and its surroundings (100 by 100 m grid cells). In addition to the national-scale analysis, we assessed ecosystem locally, which is crucial because the provision of the analyzed ecosystem services exhibits limited spatial reach. Locally, the impacts of LULC changes exhibit greater variability 9 . We take a 36 km 2 area in and around Leiden as a case-study area, encompassing both a densely built urban area and some of its surrounding area which is characterized largely by agricultural land.

Data availability

The data that supports the findings of this study are available in the supplementary information of this article, with exception of the spatial building and construction scenario data, which is only available from the authors upon request and with permission of the data owners (The Dutch Environmental Assessment Agency).

Code availability

The code used in this research is accessible and can be found on the provided GitHub repository: https://github.com/JannekevanOorschot/Optimization_sustainable_urbanization .

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), Leiden University. We would like to thank Chris Nootenboom for providing and assisting us with the Wallpapering method. Additionally, we thank the Dutch Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) for providing the essential scenario data for our research.

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Design of the research: J.v.O., R.R., M.S., E.v.d.V., B.S.; Performance of the research: J.v.O., M.S., R.R., E.v.d.V., B.S.; Data collection and analysis: J.v.O., M.S.; Writing of manuscript: J.v.O., R.R., E.v.d.V., B.S.; Supervision: E.v.d.V..

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van Oorschot, J., Slootweg, M., Remme, R.P. et al. Optimizing green and gray infrastructure planning for sustainable urban development. npj Urban Sustain 4 , 41 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-024-00178-5

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The upgrade revolutionized the institution's operations. It improved customer experience, enhanced data security, and gave the institution a competitive edge in the digital age. This case study underscores the critical role of IT infrastructure upgrades in the financial sector.

Lessons from Successful IT Infrastructure Upgrades

The case studies discussed above provide valuable insights into successful IT infrastructure upgrades. They underscore the importance of a well-planned and executed upgrade strategy. They also highlight the transformative power of IT infrastructure upgrades across different sectors.

From these case studies, we can glean several lessons. First, a successful IT infrastructure upgrade requires a clear understanding of the organization's needs and objectives. Second, collaboration with technology partners can provide valuable expertise and resources. Third, integrating different systems can enhance operational efficiency and customer experience. Lastly, leveraging the latest technologies, such as cloud technology, can provide a competitive edge.

The Road Ahead: Future of IT Infrastructure Upgrades

The future of IT infrastructure upgrades looks promising. With the advent of technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and blockchain, the scope of upgrades is expanding. Organizations can leverage these technologies to enhance their IT infrastructure and stay competitive in the digital age.

However, the road ahead is not without challenges. Organizations will need to navigate issues like data security, integration complexities, and resource constraints. But with strategic planning and execution, these challenges can be overcome.

Wrapping Up: The Power of Successful IT Infrastructure Upgrades

Successful IT infrastructure upgrades can transform an organization's operations, provide a competitive edge, and drive business growth. The case studies discussed in this blog post underscore this fact. They highlight the importance of strategic planning, collaboration with technology partners, and leveraging the latest technologies. As we move forward, IT infrastructure upgrades will continue to play a critical role in shaping the future of organizations in the digital age.

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Infrastructure Dependency Primer

An Educational Resource

Welcome to the Infrastructure Dependency Primer (IDP)! This educational supplement to the Infrastructure Resilience Planning Framework  is intended to help you better understand critical infrastructure, dependencies, the impact they have on communities, and how to improve resilience through planning.

The IDP is organized into three modules. These modules are meant to be explored in order or referenced individually based on your current knowledge, interests, and needs. 

This module gives an overview of some of the critical services provided to communities by infrastructure systems, as well as common dependencies these systems have. Learn about:

• Communities as Systems
• What are Dependencies?
• A Closer Look

This module shows how understanding critical infrastructure and dependencies can inform planning and increase community resilience. Learn about:

• Resilience through Planning
• Stakeholder Involvement
• Dependency Assessment
• Integration into Plans

This module identifies example mitigation measures, case studies, and best practices that can be used to help manage dependencies and increase community resilience. Learn about:

• Resilience Solutions
• Case Studies
• Best Practices

This collection of videos can be found throughout the IDP. They are provided here for easy access, as needed.

Dependencies in action

Incorporating Dependencies into Planning

Water and Wastewater Sector Dependencies

Transportation Sector Dependencies

Energy Sector Dependencies

Communication Sector Dependencies

Idp resources.

These resources are referenced throughout the Infrastructure Dependency Primer and are useful to further your understanding of infrastructure dependencies or enhance plans for greater resilience.

CISA Infrastructure Resilience Planning Framework

This planning framework provides a process and series of resources for incorporating critical infrastructure resilience considerations into planning activities.

Download file (PDF, 7.39 MB)

CISA Methodology for Assessing Regional Infrastructure Resilience

This document outlines a repeatable method for conducting voluntary regional infrastructure resilience assessments that both public and private stakeholders can tailor and apply to their own needs.

Download File (PDF, 23.21 MB)

CISA Regional Resilience Assessment Program Dependency Analysis Framework

This framework outlines a consistent analytic approach used by CISA for evaluating critical infrastructure dependencies.

Download file   (PDF, 2.75 MB)

CISA Communications and Cyber Resiliency Toolkit

This CISA public safety communications toolkit provides an interactive graphic with links to resources for evaluating communication network resiliency capabilities.

View the Toolkit

NIST Community Resilience Planning Guide

This is a two-volume guide for buildings and infrastructure systems outlines societal functions and social and economic dimension to help communities improve resilience by setting priorities and allocating resources to manage risks.

NIST Cybersecurity Framework

This framework provides a list of standards, guidelines, and practices that can help an entity align its cybersecurity activities with its mission requirements, risk tolerances, and available resources.

FEMA Benefit-Cost Analysis

This is a method that determines the future risk reduction benefits of a hazard mitigation project and compares those benefits to its costs.

FEMA Mitigation Best Practices

This webpage contains stories, articles, or case studies about individuals, businesses or communities that undertook successful efforts to reduce or eliminate disaster risks.

FEMA Mitigation Planning Activities Implementation

This FEMA webpage contains publications that can help communities implement, integrate, and maintain mitigation planning activities to create resilience.

EPA Water Resilience Information

This drinking water and wastewater resilience webpage provides information and resources for improving water sector resilience through various activities.

EPA Regional Resilience Toolkit

This toolkit allows multiple jurisdictions to work together for regional-scale resilience with non-governmental groups/organizations by conducting a vulnerability assessment and selecting hazard mitigation actions.

FHWA Transportation Resilience Information

This Federal Highway Administration webpage provides guidance, frameworks, research, and other information for increasing the health and longevity of the Nation's Highways.

DOE Electric Grid Resilience Ideas

This Department of Energy, Office of Electricity site provides responses from industry and associations on cost-effective ways to enhance the resilience of electric infrastructure systems against severe weather events.

U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit

This toolkit provides guidance, tools, and resources for planners and the general public to help understand impacts of climate change for their communities.

ASCE Infrastructure Resilience Division

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Infrastructure Resilience Division provides resources for engineering approaches to enhancing resilience, including reports and published standards for enhancing the resilience of infrastructure systems.

APA Climate Change and Infrastructure Resources

The American Planning Association (APA) maintains a knowledge center of resources for planners on various topics, including infrastructure and climate change.

Case Study: GRADD Hazard Mitigation Planning

A summary of northwest Kentucky's Green River Area Development District's efforts to update their FEMA-approved Hazard Mitigation Plan by focusing on infrastructure and resilience.

Case Study: Ft. Collins Regional Resilience Assessment

Lessons learned from Fort Collins, Colorado, and Larimer County's efforts to implement the NIST Community Resilience Planning Guide to enhance regional resilience and leverage comprehensive planning previously completed within the region.

Case Study: San Francisco Lifelines Council Infrastructure Resilience Study

A review of San Francisco's effort to improve the city's resilience to natural disasters through the formation of a council to study potential resilience measures. The results of the study showed the interconnected nature of the city's critical infra

Related CISA Resources

CISA offers a variety of services that may be of particular interest to our IDP users.

Infrastructure Security Division

ISD provides information on emerging threats/hazards; offers resources, training, and exercises; and conducts vulnerability and consequence assessments to help partners understand and address risks to critical infrastructure.

Critical Infrastructure Vulnerability Assessments

CISA Resilience Services  conducts a number of assessments for state, local, and private sector partners including the Infrastructure Survey Tool, Infrastructure Visualization Platform, and Regional Resiliency Assessment Program.

CISA Regions

CISA personnel in 10 regional offices across the nation work with partners at the state, territorial, tribal, regional, and local levels offering a range of cyber and physical infrastructures support services.

Protective Security Advisors

PSAs are trained critical infrastructure protection and vulnerability mitigation SMEs who facilitate local field activities in coordination with other DHS offices. They also advise and assist state, local, and private sector officials and owners.

Protected Critical Infrastructure Information

The PCII program can be used to protect sensitive information about infrastructure assets and systems and enhance data sharing between public and private sector partners.

Stakeholder Engagement Division

To help further support dependencies studies, CISA's Stakeholder Engagement Division (SED) helps SLTTGs develop partnerships, facilitate dialogue, convene stakeholders, and promote awareness to achieve secure and resilient infrastructure.

Have questions?

If you have questions or would like to provide feedback, please email us at [email protected] .

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Interviewing For Infrastructure Investment Roles

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There seems to be a growing interest in infrastructure on WSO and I've seen a number of posts inquiring about the recruitment / interview process for infrastructure specific funds. I've had a number of people help me out in this area so I thought I'd summarize what I've learned with the hope that someone finds it useful. For those who are thinking about recruiting for a buyside seat in the infrastructure space, you've probably realized that there aren't a lot of infra specific prep resources out there. I'm going to try and cover the broad strokes and hit on things that I think are particularly important, but happy to address more specific questions to the extent that I can. Most of what I will focus on is specific to 'why infra' and the case study as I believe these aspects are really what separate an infrastructure process from a more traditional PE interview .

The intention of this thread is not to provide an overview of infrastructure, but I would encourage anyone who hasn't already to take a look these threads:

https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/overview-of-infrastructure-private-equity

https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/renewable-energy-pe-overview

https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/qa-infrastructure-pe-ibd

Know What You're Looking For

The great thing about infrastructure is that its definition has become so broad. Power & renewables, utilities, airports, toll roads, hospitals, data centres. All infrastructure. As a junior you can get a breadth of industry experience without siloing yourself. However, this can be a bit overwhelming especially if you've never worked your analyst years in infra. My advice for anyone looking to jump into the recruitment process is to have conviction in your story and what strategy you're targeting. There are a ton of large cap players who have generalist programs, but there are also a lot of MM /UMM shops who are refining their strategy into more specific segments of the infrastructure space. As you can imagine, if a shop is running lean it can be fairly challenging to be effective in all areas of the infrastructure spectrum and so these places are choosing to get really smart on 2-3 subsectors. The reason I bring this up is because a lot of the household name megafund infrastructure programs still put a big emphasis on pedigree. There are quite a few MM shops that I've seen hire individuals from less traditional backgrounds and if you can demonstrate your interest in a particular industry / strategy, you can probably position yourself favorably in a process where you're not competing against the BB / EB analyst who went to H/S/W. Of course landing a role at Blackstone Infrastructure would be phenomenal, but there is only a small subset of us here who would get their foot in the door. That being said, the learning opportunities at some of the smaller funds is just as good and these should not be overlooked.

Show Interest

If you're interviewing for an investment role, your interviewer is going to want to see that you can put your investor cap on and speaking intelligently about infrastructure. For those who spent their analyst years in infrastructure, expect to get grilled on the specifics of your deals. This is no different than the expectations that would be set in a more traditional buyout shop interview. If you've spent time in the infra already, you also know the lingo. This is where I think people who haven't worked in the space are behind the 8-ball. If you are really interested in infrastructure but haven't worked in the space before, the bar is naturally going to be set lower heading into a conversation. If you spend the time getting to understand the industry and demonstrate genuine interest in a subset of the space you will stand out. I can't tell you how many people I've seen stumble through a response to 'Why are you interested in infrastructure?' or 'Can you tell me what trends you're following in the infrastructure space?'. You'd think this would be a no brainer, but apparently not. If you haven't worked in infra and can't demonstrate that you've spent any time reading up on the industries that interest you, what reason do I have to push you forward over someone else who can probably hit the ground running? If I see an analyst from a non-related industry group who can talk passionately about infrastructure I'll generally walk away feeling good about that interaction. It's no secret that ambition and curiosity go a long way.

Modelling Test / Case Study

This is where I think the interview process really starts to diverge from your traditional buyout process and where I see most candidates struggle. There are a few different mutations of these case studies, but they generally aim to test the same skills. Before I jump into the specifics, I want to highlight that some infrastructure funds will administer a case study that is akin to what you'd receive at a buyout shop (i.e. your LBO modelling test). The purpose for doing this is that they can assess one's excel capabilities / financing knowledge and not handicap anyone for not having worked in infrastructure before. For those of you who spent your analyst years grinding through project finance and tax equity models, it is worth mentioning that you may want to practice a few of the more traditional LBO-style case studies. While the modelling isn't hard, it is a bit different than what you're used to doing, and under a time crunch you want to be sure that you aren't putting yourself at a disadvantage.

Case Study Type 1: Traditional LBO

As mentioned above, some of the bigger funds have been known to administer the LBO style modelling test. Typically you are provided with 3-4 hours to complete this test where you would be asked to build a 3 statement LBO model accompanied by a powerpoint deck. There are a ton of guides out there on how to complete these and numerous threads with individuals trading old cases.

If you've never built an infrastructure model a lot of what I'm about to say isn't going to make any sense. Totally normal, but you have some work to do. Ed Bodmer has a video for basically everything project finance / infrastructure modelling related. You can find his resources here: https://edbodmer.com/project-finance-exercises/

Case Study Type 2A: Short Form Construction Stage Infrastructure Model

This is a fairly common infrastructure modelling test where you will also be provided 3-4 hours to complete a model and presentation. Within this type of case, there are three mutations of a case study that I've seen. The first mutation, what I'll call "Type 2A" is a construction stage, fully/partially contracted infrastructure asset. In this type of case study you will be given some or all of the following assumptions and be asked to model out returns. This is an example of an actual prompt I received for an infrastructure test (I can't remember the exact numbers so I'm using dummy figures to get my point across)

• Assume you are a developer who is constructing a solar asset with a 1 year construction timeline and an asset that will have a 30 year useful life
• The cost to construct this solar asset is $500mm spread evenly over a 12 month period
• The project has a nameplate capacity of 200MW and the asset will expect to produce power at a gross capacity factor of 30%. Assume degradation of 0.25% per year.
• The asset has arranged a 15-year power purchase agreement at $100/MWh without any escalation. Assume the post-contracted pricing for the power produced after the expiry of the PPA is $85 in real 2022 dollars escalated at inflation.
• Opex for the project is contracted under a full wrap EPC at $25mm per year escalated at inflation.
• Assume a tax rate of 25%
• Assume the asset is depreciated on a straight line basis over the useful life
• Assume that you procure a construction facility at 70% gearing, which will be refinanced by a long-term debt facility sculpted to contracted cash flows at 1.30x DSCR (interest rates for the facilities will typically be provided)

Based on this information, you would be asked to build out the construction spend profile, the construction debt draw downs, an operating model consisting of the generation profile, tax & depreciation, sculpt the long term debt that is used to refinance the construction loan, and calculate returns / sensitivities . The amount of time you are allotted will vary based on the complexity of the prompt. This type of test can also be based on a concession based asset with an availability payment (e.g. a toll road concession P3 with a government).  

Case Study Type 2B: Short Form Operating Stage Infrastructure Model

This version of the case study is a bit easier. Generally the assumptions are very similar to what you'd get provided above, except you are modelling out the acquisition of an operating asset. In prompts like this that I've seen, you'll typically be given the assumptions required to build out the operating model, and then will get asked to sculpt a back leverage financing to get to some form of a post-tax levered return. Based on the assumptions provided you'll get asked to back into what you would pay to acquire the equity in the project given a return requirement of xyz%.

Case Study 2C: Long Form Infrastructure Model

This version of the case study will typically span over a weekend where you'll have 48 hours to build a model and prepare a more fulsome set of presentation materials. Basically a mock IC presentation. In instances where these prompts have been issued, it's typically the build of a financial model to value a publicly traded name. In order to occupy two days of someone's time, you generally need quite a bit of information and so going with a public name is easier. In this instance you generally won't have to build an infrastructure-like model described in 2A/2B above, and can focus on a more traditional DCF / public comps analysis . Generally the infrastructure names that you'd be given are operating platforms so you are valuing a broader company as opposed to a specific asset. I've actually seen a fund prompt candidates with a 1 week timeline to complete a case with materials comprising of 20+ slides. This is rather excessive and definitely not the norm.

Career Longevity

Not specific to the interview process, but I thought I'd provide some additional color on why I think this space is great to be in from a career longevity perspective. Infrastructure is seeing significant growth right now, and there are various pockets that can expect to benefit from decade long tailwinds, particularly in light of medium-long term carbon reduction targets. From a macro lens, the broader sector that underpins your job is incredibly stable, which is great to hear for us risk-averse PE lemmings. From a micro/job specific lens, because the technical skillset you develop in infrastructure is a bit more niche, it becomes less common for these platforms to develop a two-and-out program. It's a lot more efficient to train up an associate and promote them. You'll also find that a lot of infrastructure funds don't often hire MBA grads for this reason and typically promote from within. I've seen a lot of mid-to-senior level lifers who never pursued the MBA because they were just promoted directly. This is a trend that I think is becoming more common in buyout funds as well, so maybe not an infrastructure thing.

I'll pause here for now, but hopefully some of you who are interested in pursuing an investing career in infrastructure find this useful. Happy to answer any questions or expand on areas which I may have glossed over.

Thank you so much for this write up, very helpful. 

This is incredibly helpful thanks for writing. Wondering if there is some overlap between industrial and infrastructure funds and can industrial bankers recruit for infra funds?

Happy it helped. Yes there are certainly some overlaps especially given the broadening of what we define as infrastructure. Funds who invest in core plus opportunities will also get looks at infrastructure-linked businesses which might see overlap in industrials. 

Do you think it's possible for someone who works in secondary/co-investing space in infrastructure to go to a more direct role if they have some modeling experience or banking is basically required?

Fantastic writeup, I always try to read everything infra related on WSO .

One question I had, and this is going to be somewhat difficult to answer since infra overall is so broad, but what are some ways to better follow trends about what's going on in the space? Obviously each subsector (healthcare, telecoms, power/utilities, transportation, etc.) is going to be drastically different, but what are some news sources or anything of that nature that you follow to learn more about the way things are going? It's a niche enough space still that articles in WSJ and whatnot are pretty rare.

Thanks, I really appreciate that. I've been spoiled if I'm being honest - I had access to Infrastructure Investor and InframationNews since my analyst days which is where you get a lot of information on deals being closed and funds being raised. I also had access to a lot of proprietary thought leadership through my previous role, and in my current role banks are always pitching ideas and sending industry reports to us. I empathize with the fact that there isn't a lot out there that is free... if I had to try and find trends or something along those lines without my fund's resources at my disposal, I think the first place I would look to are investor presentations from one of the larger funds that are publicly traded (i.e. Brookfield, Macquarie , etc.). Typically these larger funds are first movers and trend setters so they'd be a good starting point outside of scrubbing the generic news outlets as you've mentioned.   

Thanks for the write up.

Any thoughts on the challenges and best approach to moving into an Infrastructure Equity Fund from a large international Sponsor/government procurer? Particularly at Director/Senior level?

Not particular to infrastructure, but I think the general rule of thumb is that as you become more senior it becomes increasingly challenging to move roles especially if you are looking transition into something different. It's somewhat difficult for me to opine on your situation because there are a number of different roles within government functions that facilitate the procurement process on infrastructure assets. Without any context I would say that you have to play to your strengths. I've seen a number of individuals at a more senior level move from transaction finance-type roles at advisory firms or government entities to LMM infrastructure funds , albeit taking a haircut on title. Depending on the role I think there is some overlap in skillset when it comes to managing workstreams, marking up legal documents, reviewing P3 financial models , etc. To make a direct lateral move at a director level, I think you'd have to demonstrate your ability to source and lead transactions, which is not realistic coming from, what is my interpretation of, your background.

Great thread and a great space to be in. 

You are a king and a beast bro, started process a few days ago and needed EXACTLY this :)

Hi, really appreciate you making this, I have a bit of a unique situation in that I'm not coming from an industrials or infrastructure coverage group, however, from a LatAm group at a BB , I work frequently with infra since this is the main line of business in the region so I understand PPPs and all the related infra jargon and regulations, I also speak the relevant languages for the region, I'm a non-target though, so what do you think would be the best form of entry for someone like me? Thanks again for making this post.

I think you're in a good spot - being in a generalist group isn't a bad thing, especially if you're interested in pursuing infrastructure and have gotten infrastructure experience. You've got a BB brand name on your CV and it sounds like you speak Spanish, which definitely works in your favor. I wouldn't worry about being a "non-target". Sure it might be harder to get an interview at some top MF's, but it isn't impossible and there are a ton of funds who would give you a look based on what you've described. 

Hey, thanks for making this! I'm starting a process soon and in one of my initial interviews, was told to prepare paper/pen/calculator. Do you have any idea what kind of math questions might be asked in an infra fund interview as opposed to corporate PE?

Only thing I can think of is a paper LBO , but usually you're asked to do mental math here. Not sure, sorry!

Really appreciate the write-up! It was very insightful. I’m curious if it’s common/ difficult for energy/ Houston IB analysts from top BBs / EBs to pursue an exit into the broader Infra funds that you mentioned. I am interested in the feasibility of transitioning into Infrastructure on the buy-side.

Can't speak to the feasibility or the difficulty of making that move because I haven't gone through it, but I have seen this done on multiple occasions. Anecdotally it's been analysts from top banks in Houston joining large cap infrastructure platforms. There are two factors that come to mind when I think about why this is: 1) there is likely a smaller pool of energy bankers interested in infrastructure and so naturally the pool of energy bankers represented in infrastructure is going to be lower and 2) large cap platforms that recruit on cycle are generally more open to bankers from different industries so long as they check a number of the boxes (top school, grades, brand name bank, etc.). Off the top of my head I can't think of anyone in my circle who has made that move to a MM fund, but nothing is impossible.

Thank you for the response and information! Looking forward to starting off my career in HOU IB and exploring from there.

Have seen this move multiple times (from MM-ish banks so assuming BB / EB move would be simpler). Echoing OP's comments, having that energy (not renewable) skillset is not that common at top infra shops but still there (look at Brookfield/GIP associate classes). Also, funds are still looking at midstream opps given potential dislocation due to ESG -related outflows from the sector and the need to ensure energy resilience in the U.S.

Do infra funds hire MBB if you can model LBOs+demonstrated interest?

This definitely isn't common and I personally only know one person who has moved over from MBB to a mid-market infra shop. I think infrastructure investing generally places less focus on operational strategy, which is where an MBB consultant can probably provide more value. I also just did a quick Linkedin search for anyone living in NYC who currently works at the usual large cap suspects, who has identified that they work on the infra platform, and who was previously employed at McK, BCG and Bain and didn't see anyone who went Consultant/BA > ASO1. Would defer to anyone else who has made different observations. All that to say though I don't think it's an impossible move to make - infrastructure isn't rocket science and with adequate preparation and networking I don't see any reason why you wouldn't be qualified to do the job.

FWIW, I've met several people who are coming from renewable energy consultancies, who dealt directly with buy-side infrastructure shops make the jump. Maybe a case to be made if you worked on that specific niche within MBB /leveraged a client relationship to make that jump

Thanks for the write up. Have you seen people make the jump to infra funds from Public Finance ? My team focuses on P3 projects in the transportation space mostly. 

Love seeing infrastructure get some love on this forum. Especially a high-quality and accurate write-up. I work in renewables infra and it's a super cool space.

Good write up. Not to hijack but am joining an MF's infra fund this summer and happy to answer any questions as well. Currently AN2 at a BB in NY in a non-infra coverage group.

Hey, do you mind if I PM you a few questions? 

let's keep it public (and my account private), happy to help in this thread!

How do you transfer from a non-infra coverage group to an infra fund? I would think they'd only hire from P&U/Transpo groups. How did you sell them?

many of the MFs hire from all coverage groups since their mandate is so broad, especially with the explosion of digital infra. for example, if you look at team pages you'll see a lot of people with TMT / tech investing ( warburg , silver lake , etc.) backgrounds. i imagine those with narrower mandates (e.g. pension funds) are more focused on traditional infra backgrounds.

in terms of selling them, i think if you show an interest in the macro space, as well as an understanding of what infra is (and isn't) you should be good to go. at the end of the day, a platform is a platform, whether in infra, consumer, healthcare, or any other space. 

Thanks for keeping this public. The big question a lot of us will have is what is the general comp structure for infra at the MFs (assuming you interviewed at more than one and can provide some comparisons)?

same as PE at the associate level for MFs (~350k AS1). i don't know how carry compares as im not senior enough, but there are two offsetting factors:

a) returns are structurally lower, which lowers the carry pool

b) AUM per IP tends to be higher (my fund has close to $1bn), which increases your carry allocation

so could go either way.

What have you seen in terms of people transitioning from project finance to infrastructure PE? Are there a lot of people with that background?

I most likely have an interview for a 2022 FT role with for an Infrastructure group coming up. I am currently an undergraduate student with very little/no experience in infrastructure. I was told to be prepared for technicals and a possible case study.

The case prep seems like it is targetted towards experienced hires. Any changes to your advice for an undergrad?

I just went thru an infra PE process (got offer) and can help you out with a mock interview + some general advice. 

PM me if you're interested, no pressure.

Hello Lamron,

Will be you able to extend this offer to me. I am in the infra recruiting process

I would say that it would probably be pretty difficult. Typically most post-MBA associate / senior associate roles are given to candidates who have previous infrastructure, PE or relevant M&A experience. Typically on any given mandate, the extent to which we would interact with a group like yours is to lock in a rate hedge on a financing or hedge fx on something cross-border. Someone reviewing your profile at an infrastructure fund is likely going to come to the conclusion that there isn't much overlap between your role and what you would do at an infra fund. Never say never though!

I have a first round with a secondary infra group and this helps out a lot. Even if I don't get the role this definitely helped me get a better idea of what infra is like so thank you, cheers.

Thanks for the insightful discussion! Do you have any recommendation on good source to learn on infrastructure modelling?

There are quite a few resources out there offered by the training platforms, but they're kind of expensive. F1F9 and Corality are popular ones and I think offer individual seats for in-person group lessons where they'd tour major cities and run 3-4 day programs. This was pre-pandemic though so I'm not sure if they still run these.

Separately, the Ed-Bodmer resource which I've linked in my original post is about as good as it gets when it comes to free modelling resources. Ed covers basically every topic under the sun and is a great place to start.

Ed Bodmer is good with some neat Excel tricks (ALT + EIS being one) but a bit disorganized. When I really wanted to get good at modelling, I remember I just went through a ton of his videos and took notes - treated it like a course (in my first year of banking). 

No better practice than actually being in the model with a MD coaxing you on the phone though

Good thread. Biased because I wrote out most of the answers here but would add this as a link in regards to some hopefully helpful discourse on framing valuation with an infra asset:  https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/private-equity/exit-multiple-term…

Thanks for the very insightful post! What do you think are the most critical skillsets to develop/have for someone who wants to break into infrastructure?

Also, do you mind to share how's the day to day like for infrastructure investment professional? E.g. what do you don daily basis besides working on financial model?

I would love to know about the WLB across the different types of infra funds.

infra IB tends to be quite sweaty due to the heavy modelling and legal and technical processes involved. Likewise I’ve seen top fund such as KKR /stonepeak to top pension funds just as OTPP and omers working insane hours constantly which is probably not something I find personally sustainable.

however I’ve seen people at lesser known pension funds, smaller PE shops , infrastructure arms of insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds have great hours with less pay. Also potentially in the infrastructure private debt space (although know less about this area)

would love to hear your thoughts 

Good question - I would say that some of the reasons you've listed that cause infra IB to be sweaty are also applicable to the buyside. The WLB at any given fund is going to almost always correlated directly to strategy / appetite to deploy capital and there are pros and cons to this. If you work at a fund that is trying to aggressively deploy capital are you going to get a great experience? Yes, mostly likely. Will you get paid a lot? Probably otherwise how will these places attract talent. Are you going to work a lot? You bet. Is it sustainable? Depends, but I would agree with you and say probably not...

Some of the lesser known pension funds likely don't have the capacity to do direct investing and do mostly co-invest/fund investing which is less demanding in comparison to diligencing an actual business. Smaller PE shops tend to look at things with a bit more hair on them and don't necessarily do as many deals which could result in better hours. SWF - depends on the fund, I've heard some groups are sweatier than others. All else equal credit in general tends to have better hours based on my understanding. 

Everyone is going to have different career and life objectives - the fact of the matter is if you want a good experience in the infra space you're probably going to have to grind for a few years. My personal view on this is if you want a long term career in infra, I think you should put in 4-6 years and get a solid experience and brand. If you really like what you're doing you can stick it out and make great coin, but if you decide you want more WLB you can take a step back and find another role in the space with a strategy that isn't as demanding on resources.

Thanks for the write-up. Can you speak about exits from MF /UMM infra funds? If the associates find out later they want to do generalist PE or HF instead, how difficult would the transition be?  

It really depends on the platform you work in. As an extreme example, if you're working in a sector specific platform that only invests in renewables you may have a hard time moving to a corporate PE / HF role because the way you would evaluate those types of investments is different. If you worked in a generalist role where the definition of infrastructure and private equity are blurred, you likely won't encounter any issues trying to make the switch (I've seen it happen many times).   

Any chance you could shed some light on OMERS / OTPP Infra teams / anything you know about them? Would greatly appreciate it.

Happy to provide some high level thoughts based on what I've heard. Anyone with better information please feel free to correct me, and don't quote me on any of this as it could be outdated.

OTPP's infrastructure team is primarily based out of Toronto and London, UK. I would say they are probably the most active out of all of the Canadian pension funds on the direct side, and if I was juggling offers between the Canadians, I'd take it over OMERS or CPPIB. I say this because OTPP are generalists on the infra side whereas CPPIB bifurcated its renewables/energy transition investments and their core infra group, so your sector experience may be handicapped; the latter group also has major toll road concentration which could dictate sector focus in the near-medium term if you joined them. I still think OTPP buckets infra and NR into the same team, but I don't have any purview into the nuances of their team structure to be able to comment on what kind of exposure you'd get. If you plan on being in Toronto they are also moving from North York to downtown if you ascribe any value to that. Based on my understanding, I think OTPP is also more advanced in its approach to managing its portfolio with the advancements they've made in building their value creation team. 

OMERS also does a lot of direct investing in the infra space, but their platform isn't as robust as OTPP. They have also had quite a bit of turnover in recent time which probably isn't a good thing. They have a strong presence in NYC as well. I don't believe they have the equivalent of a value creation team and IP's are responsible for asset management to my knowledge. Apparently OMERS also used to offer carried interest on the funds they managed but I've heard through the grapevine that this structure may be changing.

If you have any specific questions I can try to be more direct, but hopefully this gives you something to chew on for now.

Thanks so much - just sent you a DM!

On the topic of the Canadians, do you happen to know anything about PSP's infra practice?

Anyone interested in sharing costs on WSP project finance course? Heard it’s pretty good

Would you be willing to share you answer to the sample model test you outlined above?

Hey, do you have an opinion on infrastructure debt investing at a place like Allianz GI?

Awesome post! Infrastructure PE has always been a dream of mine but for now I’ve been working in DCM commercial real estate. Do you think I could transition to infra PE after completing my MBA ? I’ve heard that real estate modeling is similar to infrastructure modeling. My firm specializes in industrial, large retail, and multi family properties. Would appreciate any advice! Thank u.

Thanks - yes there are similarities to real estate modelling. You don't really see a lot of post- MBA hiring at the low to mid market funds because these places don't have the capacity to train you. Some of the larger mega funds and institutional infrastructure investors have grad programs which would be worth applying to. 

losing interest Some of the larger mega funds and institutional infrastructure investors have grad programs which would be worth applying to. 

are you referring to post- MBA type roles (i.e., Aso)?

Which valuation method can be used to best value infrastruction assets and how does that method differ from PE

Hi, does anyone have a viewpoint on asset management roles in these infrastructure funds?

This is a solid post for anyone that has an interest in infrastructure and needs a quick 101 on the industry.

One thing I would add in the "Know What You're Looking For" section is knowing the differences between the different infrastructure strategies, namely Core / Core+ / Value-add / Opportunistic, and how investing in those strategies look and change between the mega-funds, UMMs and true MMs . 

On top of that, do you want to solely focus on a specific region? Working at a North American-only firm will provide a vastly different experience than a firm that targets investments globally. 

Why I like infrastructure:

• Tangible assets that create tangible effects on a population / society (i.e. a waste collection business).
• Potentially complex regulatory factors (i.e. local/state permits, sector-specific permits, government agencies as counterparty)
• Modeling generally makes intuitive sense (i.e. # of unit measurement, $/unit, annual contract escalations, capex , additional project economics )
• Ability to look at "next-gen" companies that are at the intersection of traditional infra and technology

- VP at MM infra PE firm

How would you view someone with infrastructure co-investments experience when they recruit for your fund? I know it will be difficult but wondering if it is possible to go from co-investments to a more a direct role.

Assuming this would be an associate position? I think the background and industry knowledge would be a big positive. It would also depend on the co-investment style of your current firm. Are you guys pretty hands-on during diligence? More passive? What type of independent analysis do you run? Do you consult with outside consultants? Do you just regurgitate the PE firm's IC memos? 

If you can prove that you've had solid investment and diligence experience and are hungry to join a direct investing firm (and know how much work that entails), I think you'd be a pretty good candidate.

How open are US PE firms to international hires with relevant experience?

any chance u can name some funds thats focus on power/utilities/pipelines and anything of that nature

Blackrock 's global energy & power infrastructure strategy 

Energy Capital Partners

Brookfield Infrastructure 

I believe KKR does some them too but not sure if its their energy team or infra (likely the former) 

GIP (not sure how their recent foray into digital will chance their focus since historically they focused primarily on power, utilities, midstream and transport) 

Stonepeak (did a lot of midstream in earlier funds but now doing more telecom, value-add deals) 

I'm sure I'm missing some of the MMs in the space (Alinda maybe but dont think they do midstream anymore) 

Great write up! Would you be able to please provide some names of renewable-focussed funds, or point in the direction of where to find this information (such as Inframation)?

Incredibly helpful post! I would only add that many large cap funds (Stonepeak, GIP) are now starting to get divided into industry verticals with limited cross-pollination between teams. What would you recommend to someone in Infra PE focusing on one vertical (e.g., power) and trying to lateral into a generalist role or another vertical (e.g. digital, transpo, energy transition) at the SA /VP level?

  PE PE 1st Year Associate in Private Equity - LBOs "> Associate 1  in  PE - LBOs 1y [Comment removed by mod team]

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Home / Resources / ISACA Journal / Issues / 2021 / Volume 5 / Technology Modernization Digital Transformation Readiness and IT Cost Savings

Case study: technology modernization, digital transformation readiness and it cost savings.

“Digital Distinction” is a major trend for growing, medium-sized organizations, with growth requiring a well-executed digital platform enabled by foresight, leadership and accountability that helps ensure that societal needs are addressed with limited input resources. 1

This digital distinction story was performed with limited resources in a multiservice urban Aboriginal agency (the Agency) providing holistic, culture-based programs and services for Aboriginal children and families. The Agency strives to provide a life of quality, well-being, healing, and self-determination for children and families in the Toronto, Ontario, Canada, urban Aboriginal community by implementing a service model that is culture based and respects the values of Aboriginal people, the extended family and the right to self-determination.

The Agency faced considerable technology challenges at the start of the pandemic-induced lockdowns. The mandatory move to a remote service model stressed the existing IT infrastructure to such an extent that it exposed issues such as network bottlenecks, Wi-Fi interruptions and landline unreliability, all of which compromised the ability of social workers to perform their duties. It had become evident to management that the Agency needed significant digital transformation as part of the journey toward the increasing virtualization of social services and a much-needed modernization of its base IT infrastructure.

To be effective, however, digital transformation must build on an IT foundation that ensures reliable and sustainable outcomes. While IT modernization is a necessary condition for digital transformation readiness, 2 it is not a sufficient condition. Readiness must identify and address all IT operating model gaps 3 before innovation; unfortunately, many organizations undertaking transformation are not ready for innovation. 4

An unprepared organization is likely to see its digital transformations flounder;

…barely one in eight are successful. Even worse, only 3 percent of … 1,733 business executives … report any success at sustaining the change required for successful digital transformation…. 5

Thus, the Agency needed improved digital capabilities to support its growth and to increase its agility in response to the pandemic, so it engaged an experienced digital transformation consultancy with one executive from the group serving in the role of interim chief information officer (CIO).

The CIO title of the 1980s 6 has evolved to become one of vision as part of enterprise strategy, of managing risk as part of enterprise risk and of managing a governed high-performance team to sustain today’s ever more complex IT ecosystems. The modern CIO creates new operating models and helps the organization become data-driven. 7 The CIO takes the organization forward “… in ways that extract the maximum value from the information on hand…to make better decisions, faster” 8 as articulated in the new data strategy.

This case study articulates all the listed requirements of the modern CIO from vision to risk management to creating high performance teams as part of IT operating model modernization. Furthermore, down the road, there will be sufficient material for a future case study to document the path of the organization to achieving fit-for-purpose data for data-driven decision-making and improved reporting efficiency.

THE AGENCY’S INTERIM CIO’S FIRST STEP WAS…TO ESTABLISH THE ORGANIZATION’S CURRENT STATE TO DETERMINE ITS STATE OF READINESS FOR THE REQUIRED DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION.

The challenge: assessing the current state.

One cannot create a strategy without knowing the current state. The Agency’s interim CIO’s first step was, therefore, to establish the organization’s current state to determine its state of readiness for the required digital transformation. While tools facilitating readiness include staff surveys, 9 benchmarking and determining the business case for IT change, a survey was selected as the right tool to learn about the organization’s IT challenges (what the users experience), its IT priorities (what the users want fixed first) and its IT value chain performance (how IT creates value for the organization) through the lens of four different levels of stakeholders. The survey was distributed to staff at all levels; the output presented an end-user view of the organization’s current state.

The four key findings from the survey across these categories were:

• The organization’s executives had different perceptions of the frequency of the top IT challenges compared to the rest of the staff complement ( figure 1 ). This could be given that they were more aware of the negative impact of various IT failures on their mandate.
• The frontline staff were the most supportive of prioritizing all of the top items compared to management, who saw the priorities differently ( figure 2 ). This highlights the importance of engaging with people most actively using technology and not to depend only on management feedback for insights in this respect.
• The supervisor level experienced the severity of most of the shortcomings along the IT value chain ( figure 3 ).
• One of the major challenges experienced by end users was that it took too long for IT to fix IT issues, with users perceiving that it was getting worse. The same held for the network; network reliability was decreasing ( figure 4 ).

The fact that the survey highlighted IT challenges such as poor service request and incident management (the service desk item in figure 1 ) is more important than it may seem at first glance. As part of the journey to making IT more approachable and customer-centric, it is important that the service desk works flawlessly, as it is a major driver of staff (customer) satisfaction, which, incidentally, should be a key IT metric for any CIO.

A comparison of the actual ratio with the benchmark ratios above confirmed a historical underinvestment in IT. Reducing underinvestment in IT and addressing the associated risk areas while building future IT capabilities should be high, not only on the CIO’s agenda via IT governance, but on the board’s agenda, given the implications for enterprise governance.

The Solution: Addressing the Priority Current State Shortcomings

As a result of the current state findings, the CIO reconsidered improvements and developments that may impact the entire IT operating model. A restitution strategy was developed to address as many of the identified priority shortcomings as possible in the shortest possible time.

ADDRESSING THE NETWORK SHORTCOMINGS REQUIRED SIGNIFICANT PLANNING AND ACTIVITY, GIVEN THAT THE NETWORK WOULD NEED TO BE MODERNIZED WHILE THE AGENCY WAS STILL PERFORMING ITS MANDATE.

Restitution is about partnerships, though, another modern CIO imperative. Non-IT senior leaders are just as accountable for decisions and the delivery of ongoing IT services. 12 In other words, restitution is an organizational challenge rather than only an IT challenge, a fact that impacted the nature of the stakeholders identified to oversee the initiative. The more a CIO engages in stakeholder relationships with the goal of forging partnerships, the more effective the broad diversity of IT initiatives within the CIO’s portfolio must almost automatically become.

In this case, restitution was performed in 1) a technology stream and 2) an IT governance stream. (A data governance stream was also recently introduced but will not be explored further here.) The relationship between the CIO and IT governance took a major leap forward a decade ago when it was explicitly considered in South Africa’s King III code for corporate governance. 13 However, more than five years later, the focus still tended to be on the use of IT in regulation and compliance, 14 rather than being about the organizational performance and value creation mechanism it is meant to be.

Aligned with digital transformation principles, specifically around the operating model readiness, 15 restitution was not only about technology, but also about other important components of the organization’s operating model, such as people, process and governance.

Technology Stream

From the current state analysis, the Agency’s legacy technology landscape suffered extended maintenance, support, integration, security, and agility risk and constraints. Technology modernization projects ( figure 5 ) were identified for the Agency to address these issues while also addressing most of the user-defined IT priorities identified in the survey.

One of the CIO’s primary objectives was to measure the benefits of each IT intervention, whether they be through enhanced activity, cost savings, risk mitigation or potentially even revenue generation. Cost and activity benefits, where the interventions are complete, are highlighted for the various interventions the Agency undertook.

Network Remediation The annual operating cost of the Agency’s new network is 48 percent of the cost of the old network—savings driven largely by deploying a modern network technology with standardizing network devices using a modern network protocol.

The old network had nonstandard devices that were unmaintained, outdated with no active support, not configured according to industry best practices and had no redundancy. Furthermore, it suffered bottlenecks, single points of failure and cybersecurity vulnerabilities, with costly management implications.

Addressing the network shortcomings required significant planning and activity, given that the network would need to be modernized while the Agency was still performing its mandate. It involved an initial network discovery process that, for example, identified Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, the devices linked to the IP addresses, the functions and roles of various servers, the portfolio of critical applications, and network-based processes that needed to be mapped out and well understood. Backout plans and vendor escalation processes were created. Replacing more than 50 switches and several firewalls within a 36-hour window was challenging, especially for a new network topology in an overall process that took up to a year when including the planning and vendor identification/selection processes.

Network remediation addressed technical cybersecurity vulnerabilities, fault tolerance and failover readiness with redundancy. It also provided greater bandwidth, scalability and manageability, with Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) technology proving to be more secure and providing higher performance compared to the Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) technology it replaced. While bandwidth demand tripled during the pandemic, it was all reliably and seamlessly accommodated within the new network architecture.

Strategically, the organization seeks to share its IT environment with smaller social services agencies that might be insufficiently funded to develop appropriately functional IT platforms. The Platform as a Service (PaaS) aspiration required a network architecture designed to handle traffic at scale and the recognition that an additional network engineer would be needed to bring this aspiration to life.

Human Productivity Tools The annual operating cost of the Agency’s new human productivity tools (HPTs) is 39 percent of the cost of the old HPTs.

The old portfolio of HPTs was a disparate set of vendor solutions that were difficult to support, offered relatively little functionality, challenged the implementation of integrated security, and were costly to manage.

A key consideration was to ensure that all data stayed within Canada. A hybrid approach was followed leveraging Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) with Azure that allowed for failover from on-premises to the cloud, while moving all users’ mailboxes and enabling the additional functionality into production. This parallel process took six months from planning and vendor identification to deployment.

The Agency’s new Software as a Service (SaaS) HPT offered vast improvements in functionality across multiple end-user devices, such as facilitating engagement and teamwork; application interoperability; and facilitating a single approach to cybersecurity by means of integrated identity and access management. This deployment is a critical lever for successful digital transformation given benefits such as performance, scalability, security, and reliable and integrated support from the vendor. 16

Case Management A single case management system to integrate the agency’s two case management systems was identified ( figure 5 ). Two systems were deployed as a means to address the data collection shortcomings in each. To address this, a thorough business requirements document (BRD) will be created to facilitate a request for proposal (RFP) process to identify whether an integrated case management tool is available. (This will not be discussed further as it is a separate, significantly larger project that has only recently been instantiated.)

Document Management A document and content management system— coupled with appropriate workflows and governance—was needed to manage the intranet; perform as a repository for digitized, historical paper-based case files; perform document management; and provide a basis for operational metadata management and the organization’s data dictionary. A feasible tool and functionality was included in the software package provided for the HPT stream, coming in as a cost saving relative to the next best alternative. A decision was taken to use this tool given this cost benefit. A configuration and deployment plan was not yet in place at the time of writing.

Incident Management An incident management tool had been deployed at the Agency but without supporting processes or governance. There was no ticket escalation process, no ticket auto-allocation process and no feedback loop to the requester that a ticket had been received. The following were established as part of the Agency’s IT department’s emerging ITIL- alignment aspirations to improve incident management performance:

• Defined incident management processes
• Defined incident management responsibilities
• Feedback loops with workflows
• Service-level agreement (SLA)-driven ticket auto-escalation

The operational impact of these changes is evident in figure 6 . Within seven months after implementation and as the subject of continuous improvement during that time and beyond, the average ticket closing time had decreased from 34 days to three days according to the system logs, and the average ticket assignment time had decreased from 140 minutes to nine minutes according to the same logs. There are further initiatives to use more of the functionality of the selected tool in the future.

Additional service desk functionality deployed at the Agency includes IT asset management and a configuration management database.

THE ANNUAL OPERATING COST OF THE AGENCY’S NEW MONITORING AND PATCHING SYSTEM IS 30 PERCENT OF THE COST OF THE OLD VENDOR SOLUTION.

Monitoring and Patching System The annual operating cost of the Agency’s new monitoring and patching system is 30 percent of the cost of the old vendor solution.

Driven by continuity risk factors such as poor outage monitoring and alerting, poor device monitoring, and poor vendor responsiveness, as well as cybersecurity risk factors such as poor patching, the Agency sought and deployed a tool to fulfill these requirements with remote management capability.

The technology was selected based on a review of this specific technology landscape according to various IT research organizations. Then, deploying the monitoring tool required making changes to the firewall to allow agents to communicate. Furthermore, a cache server was set up to reduce the bandwidth implications of all the computers in the Agency requiring similar updates, thereby reducing the possibility of network congestion. Planning, vendor identification and deployment took less than three months.

Cloud The annual operating cost of the Agency’s new cloud data center is 45 percent of the cost of the on-premises data center, driven by the higher support and equipment costs of maintaining an on-premises environment.

THE ANNUAL OPERATING COST OF THE AGENCY’S NEW CLOUD DATA CENTER IS 45 PERCENT OF THE COST OF THE ON-PREMISES DATA CENTER.

The Agency had historically entered into a five-year contract for its data center, with further expenditure required for power to eight servers, hosting facilities and equipment, an uninterruptible power supply, and management time for maintenance and management. The risk of the data center being an operational bottleneck was considerable. The real push for a work-in-progress cloud migration was driven by the pandemic.

The selection of the cloud vendor was based on a review of the findings by various IT research organizations and the need to ensure interoperability between the various tools that were about to be deployed in the cloud. For the software tools, a primary driver was the effectiveness of the solution to serve well in a Software as a Service (SaaS) paradigm, which will be the foundation for the type of incremental transformational functionality envisaged as a strategic driver of future IT at the Agency.

Configuring a cloud infrastructure requires configuration activities such as subscribing to the services, creating virtual machine(s), the virtual private network (VPN) and the VPN gateway. Additional services that were migrated to the cloud or deployed to the cloud include the HPTs, the monitoring and patching services, and the mail system. The planning, vendor identification and deployment was performed within four months.

The operational, scale and cost advantages of the cloud at a stated availability of 99.999 percent were implemented as a desirable alternative to on-premises services, given that the modern CIO’s role is to create an environment that facilitates on-demand technology and related services. 17 The potential of this migration for future Platform as a Service (PaaS) services, virtual computing, storage and on-demand functionality positions the organization well for an enhanced digital future.

Telephony Telephony depends on a stable network, and the organization is now ready to address its telephony shortcomings. An architecture and plan to migrate between the current state and the proposed state for telephony is being developed, with the major goals being scalability as part of the PaaS vision for the organization and redundancy, given, the always- on requirement of child welfare services.

Financial Summary IT underinvestment introduces significant risk and inefficiencies into an organization. The technology modernization stream not only addressed technology risk at the Agency, it also eliminated architectural inefficiencies and high-cost structures, as demonstrated by the annual cost savings achieved ( figure 7 ).

While cost savings of up to 13 percent are expected in technology modernization, 18 savings of 18 percent were realized.

IT Governance Stream

IT governance ensures that IT produces the value expected of it. While IT governance was introduced as a mechanism for CIO oversight of the technology deployments, less tangible activities were also established by means of the IT governance stream to help establish a vision for IT, to reduce IT risk and to extend the people capabilities of the IT department.

The following sections detail the measures taken to help ensure reduced-risk value delivery from IT.

Policies and Processes Procedural and cybersecurity-related updates were made to the Agency’s IT policy. Processes were also co-created with human resources (HR) (e.g., onboarding, offboarding) and with operations (e.g., IT-facilitated process design for the handling of all possibilities of incoming telephone calls) to ensure that handovers to IT and back to HR and operations were clear, and that people had been identified in the process to accept handovers.

If an operational process needs engagement with IT, operations must co-design the process with IT to manage expectations and to reduce operational risk. Failing to do this will result in failed processes, given no awareness or clarity of IT’s role in the process.

AS A RISK CONTROL, A PASSWORD VAULT WAS CREATED FOR ALL APPLICATION AND SYSTEM PASSWORDS, SUPPORTED BY A PROCESS THAT COULD BE ACCESSED BY THE EXECUTIVE TEAM IN AN EMERGENCY.

Risk Management Risk management is a key pillar of effective IT governance. Together with policies and procedures as a critical part of effective risk management, 19 IT implemented a risk management process—Identify, Assess, Respond, Control, Monitor—with a living risk register as a monitoring and communication tool as a means to help minimize potentially negative differences between expected IT outcomes and the actual IT outcomes. The process emphasized assigning responsibility for a risk control at the point where risk is realized. Periodic IT governance meetings were established as a means to monitor changes in IT environment risk and to monitor the effectiveness of the risk controls.

Key administrator passwords held in people’s heads was a major operational and sustainability risk. As a risk control, a password vault was created for all application and system passwords, supported by a process that could be accessed by the executive team in an emergency.

Structure and People People are the most critical part of IT because they determine whether something is done well. To effect and to sustain digital transformation, IT staff must have digital mindsets; 20 be inclined to testing and learning, innovation, and agility; 21 have diverse technology knowledge, deep data skills, rich process skills, and end-to-end mindsets that includes teamwork, courage, and change management. 22

Sustainable digital transformation, thus, requires “t- shaped” people—staff with deep knowledge of their areas of expertise and broad knowledge that they can apply to solve the types of new problems that emerge under transformation. 23 T-shaped people are especially important in small IT teams, where broad knowledge overlap mitigates the continuity risk of a small staff complement.

Digital transformation demands agility—people fluidly structuring around problems or challenges in cross-functional teams 24, 25 rather than constrained within traditional organizational structures. Compromising on IT competence has been described as a subtle and even a dangerous issue in digital transformation. 26

“Build the organization,” “run the organization” and “transform the organization” 27 was adopted as the IT structure paradigm. Bespoke definitions for “run the organization” and “build the organization” were developed to define their purpose and scope for the organization ( figure 8 ).

While the Agency’s IT organization managed day-to-day operations (run) and performed technology modernization projects (build) like those in figure 8 , it had unsustainable transformation. Given the organization’s growth and expansion aspirations, “transform the organization” was established as a full-time role, and an experienced leader was recruited to focus on strategy and architecture to help define the organization’s broader digital capabilities.

Strategy and Architecture The current state of the Agency was such that it had no clear IT strategy and no clear IT architecture. Many different applications had been acquired from a wide variety of vendors over time to serve specific point purposes but with no consideration for aspects such as architectural fit, integrated cybersecurity management and interoperability. The historical approach to IT tended to be tactical, with no consideration of how the tactical deployments would impact the Agency’s overall IT risk profile.

While this worked reasonably well in a low-stress IT environment, the diverse flaws in the approach quickly became apparent at the start of the pandemic—especially to end users who suffered service interruptions—when network volumes escalated significantly under work-from-home orders.

All interventions documented in the Technology Stream section were part of a significantly more architected approach—specifically around cybersecurity and interoperability—that included business cases as part of the supporting documentation and a comparison with next-best technology alternatives.

THE HISTORICAL APPROACH TO IT TENDED TO BE TACTICAL, WITH NO CONSIDERATION OF HOW THE TACTICAL DEPLOYMENTS WOULD IMPACT THE AGENCY’S OVERALL IT RISK PROFILE.

It is useful to note that unarchitected IT is a primary driver of technology debt; 28 an unwelcome gift to current IT management from former IT management as experienced in the Agency’s current IT state. While appropriate IT vendor diversity should be supported in the interest of good IT risk management, this should occur within a strategically architected framework. IT strategy and IT architecture can sustainably reduce IT risk and improve business continuity.

Data Governance Stream Digital transformation consumes data and produces more data that not only serves general reporting and decision-making, but also potentially serves government policy direction. While data were not initially identified as a problem at the Agency, a data strategy has been developed in response to some data issues identified ( figure 9 ), and in line with a vision for data for the organization. (The data strategy will not be covered further in this case study beyond the limited discussion that follows.)

CIOs strive for data consistency, data availability, information resource control and information flow visibility. 29 Not addressing data challenges results in delayed and/or incorrect data-driven decision- making and productivity compromises, and incurs unnecessary IT effort to resolve issues arising from bad data.

As a first step toward addressing data challenges, the Agency articulated its unique perspective of the drivers of a data culture as an output of a facilitated workshop series. Some of the behavioral considerations include:

• Mistrust about what data could communicate; could they show performance levels that are lower than perceived?
• That data have not been seen as something that can add value
• That data are removed from the people whose lives they represent
• That data capture is only seen as a necessary part of getting the job done, rather than as a vital part of the data value chain
• That data are not seen as distinct from IT, with operational and strategic best practices distinct from those applicable to data

It is important that ways to address these behavioral considerations are included in the organization’s data strategy. The implementation of the cultural aspect is an overarching workstream for the data work that needs to be performed over the upcoming years to create an environment rich in fit- for-purpose data. Overall, IT culture is the single greatest risk—and, therefore, critical success factor (CSF)—not only for IT governance, 30 but possibly for data governance, too.

Key Results and Benefits

As outlined, successful digital transformation requires the barriers to an effective digital strategy—processes, technology, people and governance, in that order 31 —to be addressed. Without a sound IT operating model foundation, digital transformation will exacerbate IT operating model shortcomings with predictable consequences. Figure 10 summarizes the major IT outcomes achieved. Note that the column “Technology and/or Governance Intervention” in the figure refers to the relevant item in the Technology Stream section or the Governance Stream section.

Figure 10 item 10 refers to technical cybersecurity vulnerabilities. However, the Desjardins breach in Canada 32, 33 is a shocking reminder of the scale of breach possible in the presence of even the best technological responses. People vulnerabilities are, thus, addressed through the newly established SOC at the Agency, mandated to address people matters such as cybersecurity training and to perform vendor due diligence. This closes the loop on the cybersecurity vulnerabilities identified as part of the network remediation workstream.

Other noteworthy outcomes include digital forms with workflows for efficient forms processing compared to paper forms, and improved secure video conferencing.

What Is Next?

With many of the primary activities in figure 10 having been achieved in six months across nearly 20 regional sites, there is still more work to do, with some of the major considerations being:

• Telephony, as discussed
• Case management, as discussed
• Laptop standardization, all staff
• Addressing stable and reliable power
• Modernizing the data infrastructure as the foundation required for the implementation of an organizationwide data strategy

DIGITAL DISTINCTION’ AND COST SAVINGS WERE ACHIEVED WITH LIMITED RESOURCES IN A LIMITED TIMEFRAME, AN UNUSUAL ACHIEVEMENT IRRESPECTIVE OF ORGANIZATION SIZE OR RESOURCES.

Of these, the data infrastructure will likely be the highest cost future intervention. This will require not only technology, but a full data operating model to support the growing day-to-day requirements for data and reporting in the organization. From a CIO perspective, formally aligned organizational strategy and IT strategy interventions ultimately help minimize digital strategy execution gaps, 34 the difference between what an organization aspires to achieve strategically, and what it actually achieves.

Organizations trust the CIO to ensure that the technology ecosystem is a functional and reliable enabler of the organization’s operations. 35 This means that the role has significant fiduciary responsibilities requiring high performing, t-shaped people. Digital transformation needs executive support and visibility, and credit is due to the head of the organization, the head of finance and administration, and the head of human resources (HR) for their encouragement during some of the darkest hours of this process. Thanks are due also to the extraordinary performance of a small, but mighty and highly motivated IT team willing to go so significantly beyond the extra mile for months on end.

This case study details the types of CIO leadership needed for digital transformation readiness and technology modernization, aligned with an approach published in ISACA ® Journal . 36 “Digital distinction” and cost savings were achieved with limited resources in a limited timeframe, an unusual achievement irrespective of organization size or resources. The organization is now positioned to increasingly redirect IT spend from operations to digital innovation 37 as reward for its courageous efforts.

1 El Tarabishy, A.; “The Top 10 Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Trends for 2021,” International Council for Small Business, 6 July 2020, https://icsb.org/toptrends2021 2 Avanade, “IT Modernization: Critical to Digital Transformation,” March 2017, https://www.avanade.com/-/media/asset/white-paper/avanade-it-modernization-whitepaper.pdf 3 Pearce, G.; “Digital Transformation Governance: What Boards Must Know,” Governance Institute of Australia, vol. 72, no. 5, 2020, https://www.governanceinstitute.com.au/resources/governance-directions/volume-72-number-5/digital-transformation-governance-what-boards-must-know/ 4 Bendor-Samuel, P.; “Four Guidelines for Success in Innovation in Digital Transformation,” Forbes , 23 July 2019, https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterbendorsamuel/2019/07/23/four-guidelines-for-success-in-innovation-in-digital-transformation/#61401a511aa9 5 Pearce, G.; “Attaining Digital Transformation Readiness,” ISACA ® Journal , vol. 1, 2020, https://www.isaca.org/archives 6 Rivier University Nashua, New Hampshire, USA, “The Growing Importance of a CIO in Today’s Evolving Business World,” Boston Business Journal , 16 March 2020, https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2020/03/16/the-growing-importance-of-a-cio-in-today-s.html 7 Op cit McLaughlin 8 Op cit Rivier University 9 Ibid. 10 Morley, L.; “How Much Should a Company Spend on IT?,” Techvera, https://blog.techvera.com/company-it-spend 11 Avasant Research; “IT Spending as a Percentage of Revenue by Industry, Company Size, and Region,” Computer Economics , https://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=2626 12 CIO Journal , “The Role of Senior Leaders in IT Governance,” The Wall Street Journal , 22 June 2015, https://deloitte.wsj.com/articles/the-role-of-senior-leaders-in-it-governance-1434945783?tesla=y 13 IT Governance Network; “The CIO and IT Governance,” https://www.itgovernance.co.za/3/index.php/general-articles/176-the-cio-and-it-governance 14 De Haes, S.; A. Joshi; T. Huygh; S. Jansen; Board Level IT Governance Research Project , Antwerp Management School, Belgium, September 2016, https://assets.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/be/pdf/2018/05/Corporate_Governance_Codes_and_Digital_leadership.pdf 15 Op cit Pearce, “Attaining Digital Transformation Readiness” 16 Sharma, A.; “Application Modernization: One of the Critical Levers of Digital Transformation,” CIO , 30 July 2020, https://cio.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/strategy-and-management/application-modernization-one-of-the-critical-levers-of-digital-transformation/77253867 17 Dogan, C.; From the Basement to the Cloud: The Role of the CIO Over Four Decades , Deloitte Consulting, USA, 2018, https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/ar/Documents/technology/THE-ROLE-OF-THE-CIO-OVERF-OUR-DECADES.pdf 18 Op cit Avanade 19 Amadei, L.; “Why Policies and Procedures Matter,” Risk Management , 1 November 2016, http://www.rmmagazine.com/2016/11/01/why-policies-and-procedures-matter/ 20 Op cit Dogan 21 Annacone, A.; “The Four Types of Digital Transformation,” TechNexus on Linkedin, 19 June 2019, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/4-types-digital-transformation-andrew-annacone/ 22 Davenport, T. H.; T. C. Redman; “Digital Transformation Comes Down to Talent in Four Key Areas,” Harvard Business Review , 21 May 2020, https://hbr.org/2020/05/digital-transformation-comes-down-to-talent-in-4-key-areas 23 Rowles, D.; T. Brown; Building Digital Culture , Kogan Page, United Kingdom, 2017 24 Ghosh, A.; “Digital Transformation of the Workplace,” India Inc., 19 November 2020, https://indiaincgroup.com/digital-transformation-of-the-workplace/ 25 Penfold, P.; “HR Strategies That Help Digital Transformation Succeed,” People Matters, 22 November 2019, https://www.peoplemattersglobal.com/article/hr-technology/hr-strategies-that-help-digital-transformation-succeed-23829 26 Op cit Rowles and Brown 27 Apptio, IT Financial Metrics Primer , USA, https://dsimg.ubm-us.net/envelope/151893/296392/1390318118_WP_-_Apptio_IT_Financial_Metrics_Primer.pdf 28 Dalal, V.; R. Patenge; K. Krishnakanthan; “Tech Debt: Reclaiming Tech Equity,” McKinsey Digital, 6 October 2020, https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/tech-debt-reclaiming-tech-equity# 29 Op cit Dogan 30 Pearce, G.; “The Sheer Gravity of Underestimating Culture as an IT Governance Risk,” ISACA Journal , vol. 3, 2019, https://www.isaca.org/archives 31 Op cit Pearce, “Attaining Digital Transformation Readiness” 32 The Canadian Press, “Desjardins Says Employee Who Stole Personal Data Also Accessed Credit Card Info,” BNN Bloomberg, 10 December 2019, https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/desjardins-says-employee-who-stole-personal-data-also-accessed-credit-card-info-1.1360652 33 The Canadian Press, “Series of Gaps Allowed Massive Desjardins Data Breach, Privacy Watchdog Says,” CTV News, 14 December 2020, https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/series-of-gaps-allowed-massive-desjardins-data-breach-privacy-watchdog-says-1.5230179 34 Pearce, G.; “Digital Governance: Closing the Digital Strategy Execution Gap,” ISACA Journal , vol. 2, 2020, https://www.isaca.org/archives 35 Edelman, D. J.; “CIO in Focus: A Global Study,” USA, 2020, https://www.edelman.com/expertise/technology/cio-in-focus 36 Op cit Pearce, “Attaining Digital Transformation Readiness” 37 Halfteck, D.; “Six Steps to Ensure IT Readiness to Drive Digital Transformation,” Access IT Automation, 16 May 2019

Guy Pearce, CGEIT, CDPSE

Has served on governance boards in banking, financial services and a not-for-profit, and as chief executive officer (CEO) of a financial services organization. He has taken an active role in digital transformation since 1999, experiences that led him to create a digital transformation course for the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies (Ontario, Canada) in 2019. Consulting in digital transformation and governance, Pearce shares more than a decade of experience in data governance and IT governance as an author and as a speaker. He was awarded the ISACA® 2019 Michael Cangemi Best Author award for contributions to IT governance, and he is chief digital officer and chief data officer at Convergence.Tech.

Richard Fullerton, AWS CSA, ITIL, MCAAA, VCP-DCV

Is the IT manager at Native Child and Family Services of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is a solutions-oriented IT professional with more than 20 years of experience in the organization and delivery of end-to-end IT projects involving data migrations, server upgrades and configurations, and enterprise-scale software and hardware installations. His areas of expertise include cloud (AWS, Azure, Office 365), virtualization (VMware, Hyper-V, Citrix), and identity and access management. Fullerton is an experienced technical team leader in matrix organizations. He is the recipient of multiple Distinguished Service and Project Leadership awards, and the recipient of a Service Excellence award.

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Case Studies

Real-time it infrastructure information system.

Our client is a comprehensive IT management company specializing in documenting and visually managing all enterprise assets, critical infrastructure and interconnectivity between systems, networks, users, locations and services. Their comprehensive Configuration Management System consolidates an organization’s IT/Telecom network assets and connectivity in one repository. Their services provide the insights necessary to maintain critical operations and create a more complete visual picture of an enterprise IT network environment.

The client had an existing application for organizing the site and infrastructure architectural design along with related information for their client companies. However, they required several improvements in order to maintain a quality service for their growing number of clients. One issue they faced was that their application was not accessible on all mobile devices. The interface was cumbersome and not user-friendly, which created several system hiccups and delays. The collected information needed to be stored back to the database in the form of a PDF for further action. In addition, they needed new administrative features to manage data and user profile information.

AllianceTek was great -- I'm not a software developer, so a lot of times they had to translate our desired functionality into SF-speak, but they did it quite well. The support was extraordinary, and they took pains to make sure that our product worked well. Very thankful to them and our client representative.

The client sought the assistance of AllianceTek, a software and IT solutions company that specializes in developing custom solutions that meet the unique needs of a business. AllianceTek carefully studied the challenges of the company and listened to their issues and requirements. One requirement was for AllianceTek to redesign the application without altering the existing code or logic. AllianceTek transformed the existing web-based application into a responsive design application and implemented a new design without changing the existing logic or code. The redesigned application has a number of new features that increase control, usability, scalability and business intelligence. It enables users to generate mapping, flooring and architectural layout design, along with related information, in a PDF format that the system automatically archives after a period of time. Users can also share this information through social networks. In addition, a new customized dashboard allows much easier use of the application on all devices, anywhere and anytime, while a scheduler form and internal scheduler feature help manage jobs and historical data related to the jobs with the facility to look up relevant information.

Implementation

AllianceTek’s offshore and onshore teams collaborated to develop the redesign using HTML5 and jQuery, giving users the ability to view and access the application on Windows, Blackberry, Android and tablets. The custom designed dashboard and interface was placed in both tabular and grid view with an expandable and collapsible function that can feature all the desired information on a single page. This provided a new, customized user-friendly interface that facilitates users with ease to upload archived data information. The administrative functions allow users to view, delete, schedule, regenerate and share all generated PDFs, edit and update profile information related to the user and manage a specific job’s schedule.

AllianceTek’s custom solution allowed the client to achieve their vision and reach their objectives by leveraging technology that fit their business structure and improved processes. We delivered a real-time information system that generates various layout designs in PDF. The system is easy to use and can be accessed from any location. As a result, the client’s Business Intelligence became more flexible and scalable, allowing them to make better, more informed decisions with reliable information. AllianceTek met the requirement of evolving the previous system’s design using the client’s existing logic to provide a full, user-friendly interface with an intuitive layout and modules that are easy to navigate.

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As an IT partner and solutions provider, AllianceTek will help you follow your objective and implement strategies that are unique to your business to see it through to completion – we don’t just follow instructions, we unleash the full potential of your vision. AllianceTek employs a global team of more than 100 skilled developers and consultants who approach every project holistically, giving full around-the-clock attention to understanding our clients’ needs and providing comprehensive, scalable and extensible development roadmaps.

City of Philadelphia

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City’s Bridge Project Serves as Successful Case Story for Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Strategy

Recently, the City of Philadelphia was featured as the subject of a case story by Accelerator for America in partnership with Drexel University Nowak Metro Finance Lab . The case story was published on the Local Infrastructure Hub as a resource to help other municipalities and communities to make the most of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) .

Specifically, the City’s Bridge Sustainability in Northwest Philadelphia project was featured as an example of “Resilient Infrastructure” – these are projects that use BIL grants to mitigate, adapt, or positively respond to chronic issues, transforming things like bridges in ways that restore, maintain, and even improve their essential functions.  

Back in May, the City in partnership with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy held a press conference near the Valley Green Road Bridge to announce a large BIL grant to fund the Bridge Sustainability in Northwest Philadelphia project. Through the BIL’s Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-saving Transportation (PROTECT) Discretionary Grant Program, the City received $14.2 million to repair and upgrade two bridges over the Wissahickon Creek – the Bells Mill Road and Valley Green Road bridges.

We are proud to see the City and its Infrastructure Solutions Team (IST) get recognized as a shining example of how intergovernmental collaboration can ensure a cleaner, greener, and safer future for all Philadelphians. This case story will serve as a vital resource for other cities and towns that are looking to emulate a proven process.

Link to Bridge Sustainability in NW Philadelphia Case Story

About the Local Infrastructure Hub

The Local Infrastructure Hub is a national program designed to connect cities and towns with the resources and expert advice they need to access federal infrastructure funding in order to drive local progress, improve communities, and deliver results for residents.

About Accelerator for America

Accelerator for America finds and develops solutions to economic insecurity and shares them with local, state and federal leaders to increase economic mobility, attract and leverage public and private investment, fund infrastructure, and deliver a more inclusive recovery. Our work is uniquely driven by our network of Mayors and other leaders from the public, private, philanthropic, labor, non-profit, and academic sectors.

Related posts

What You Need to Know About the White House Workforce Hub Program

The Infrastructure Solutions Team (IST) Celebrates the 12th Annual Infrastructure Week

The City and its Partners, Called to Serve and PhilaWorks, to Receive Technical Assistance from the U.S. DOT’s Thriving Communities Program

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Aerodynamic behavior of hump slab track in desert railways: a case study in shuregaz, iran.

1. Introduction

2. the study region, 2.1. the shurgaz location, 2.2. key specifications, 3. modeling procedure, 3.1. governing equations, 3.1.1. air phase, 3.1.2. sand phase, 3.2. hump slab geometry, 3.3. flow type and meshing, 3.4. model settings, 4. validation of the numerical model, 4.1. wind tunnel test.

• The preparation of the laboratory and wind tunnel conditions for testing.
• The calibration of the wind tunnel velocity using equipment such as Pitot tubes, hot wires, etc.
• The placement of roughness elements inside the tunnel to create a logarithmic wind flow profile.
• The installation of an injection system at the top of the tunnel for introducing particles into the wind tunnel test chamber.
• The placement of the hump slab track at a specified distance inside the wind tunnel test chamber and, additionally, the preparation of the sample collector for gathering samples at various heights within the wind tunnel and deployment of the collector at a predetermined distance of 2 m from the obstacle ( Figure 13 ).
• The installation of a hump slab track 1.6 m away from the sand injection point ( Figure 12 a).
• The arrangement, to enhance the accuracy of the sand flux curve at different heights in the wind tunnel, of the containers in parallel rows with a 3.5 cm gap between each row. This setup creates 21 data collection points along the height of the wind tunnel, reducing potential errors ( Figure 12 c).
• The continuous feeding of sand particles by a particle injection system into a 100 cm wide section of the wind tunnel ( Figure 12 d).

4.2. Numerical Simulation

5. results and discussion, 5.1. the performance of different humps, 5.2. effect of particle diameter, 5.3. effects of mass flow rate, 5.4. effects of sandstorm speed, 6. conclusions.

• Increasing the height of the humps up to 0.25 m decreases the risk of sand accumulation in the inlet channels, given the characteristics of sandstorms in the Shuregaz region. A higher hump height has a direct relationship with the improvement of the performance of the hump slab track system.
• Sand accumulation is minimal in sand inlet and outlet channels for particles with a diameter of 150 µm while sand discharge velocity is maximal. Therefore, the probability of particle sedimentation with this diameter in the inlet and outlet channels is lower compared to those with other particle diameters.
• Increasing the sand flow rate has a nonlinear and increasing impact on sand accumulation in the inlet and outlet channels. However, at a sand flow rate of 0.0066 kg/s, the effective discharge of the channels occurs more efficiently.
• Sand accumulation in the inlet and outlet channels significantly decreases with an increase in sandstorm speed from 10 to 30 m/s (on average 80% in CR25-15 models). However, the DPM values stabilize relatively at sandstorm speeds of more than 25 m/s. Moreover, the SMV values in the inlet and outlet channels noticeably increase with an increase in wind speed from 10 to 30 m/s.
• The consolidated results indicate that the implementation of hump slab track with a hump height of 25 cm can be considered a practical solution for critical desert rail areas. The application of this innovative slab track system in the Shuregaz region has demonstrated effective and sustainable performance against sandstorm passage through the superstructure section. Naturally, the use of this type of superstructure in other regions should be carefully examined and evaluated based on the prevailing conditions of the respective desert area.

7. Future Work

Author contributions, data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

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Share and Cite

Fathali, M.; Nasrabad, M.M.K.; Moghadas Nejad, F.; Chalabii, J.; Movahedi Rad, M. Aerodynamic Behavior of Hump Slab Track in Desert Railways: A Case Study in Shuregaz, Iran. Buildings 2024 , 14 , 2473. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14082473

Fathali M, Nasrabad MMK, Moghadas Nejad F, Chalabii J, Movahedi Rad M. Aerodynamic Behavior of Hump Slab Track in Desert Railways: A Case Study in Shuregaz, Iran. Buildings . 2024; 14(8):2473. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14082473

Fathali, Masoud, Mohammad Mohsen Kabiri Nasrabad, Fereidoon Moghadas Nejad, Jafar Chalabii, and Majid Movahedi Rad. 2024. "Aerodynamic Behavior of Hump Slab Track in Desert Railways: A Case Study in Shuregaz, Iran" Buildings 14, no. 8: 2473. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14082473

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