UC3: Adapting Electricity and Telecommunications Infrastructure to Flood Risks in the Netherlands  

This use case aims to better understand the risks and impacts of flooding caused by extreme precipitation or fluvial flooding in the Netherlands, a low-lying and densely populated country. These hazards pose a risk to the assets and consequently the network performance. 

The electricity and telecommunications sectors are highly dynamic and must consider other challenges in a rapidly changing climate. Furthermore, the electricity sector faces pressures from the energy transition, striving for carbon neutrality while integrating networks across Europe. Meanwhile, the telecommunications sector is expanding its optical fiber network to meet the growing demand driven by an increasing number of connected devices and data-intensive technologies, such as artificial intelligence. This use case will explore how to adapt to climate change while achieving sector-specific goals for a climate-resilient future. 

The research will focus on quantifying the impacts of flooding due to the failure of assets in electricity and telecommunications infrastructure. These assets are crucial for everyday life, the operation of emergency services, and the recovery phase after a disaster. The assets are interconnected via a network. 

The research brings together researchers and specialist practitioners from both infrastructure sectors. During the research, we will together with these stakeholders identify the main interdependencies and critical pathways that arise in the electricity and telecommunications systems during flooding, while also considering other dependent functions, such as accessibility. A key challenge is navigating the interdependence of several systems, where outages in one system can propagate and disrupt others, causing cascading failures. 

Some challenges have already been identified based on stakeholder consultations. For example, current modeling practices give little attention to the possibility of preemptively cutting electricity supply to reduce electrical risk in flooded areas. Providers also highlighted the importance of accessibility to their assets during flooding to enable adequate response. 

In this use case we will furthermore explore adaptation options that can help reduce damage to infrastructure and service disruptions resulting from such events, leading to better response and smoother recovery processes. Some existing measures include deploying temporary equipment to supplement service while permanent repairs are carried out. 

Proposed or sample interventions: