Symposium seeks optimal planning for resilient infrastructure

MUSCAT: The symposium 'Optimal Planning Towards a Resilient Infrastructure', organised by Oman Water Society in coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources, concluded with a list of recommendations that included protection of wadi beds, updating of emergency plans, early warnings of weather systems in the Arabian Sea and the Indian Sea, amongst other suggestions, including further government and private partnerships. The symposium was held under the auspices of Dr Yahya bin Badr al Maawali, Governor of Al Sharqiyah South.
A number of researchers, specialists, experts, and representatives from various governmental and private entities in Oman participated. The symposium reviewed several research papers, studies, and experiences of researchers and specialists through 25 scientific papers addressing issues related to the impact of planning on the resilience of infrastructure through several scientific themes.
The themes included climate change and its impacts on infrastructure; urban planning and sustainable infrastructure; the impact of planning on the resilience of infrastructure projects; and lessons learned from emergencies.
The symposium recommended that operators of vital assets prepare and update emergency and business continuity plans and conduct periodic joint exercises, especially for the water, sanitation, roads, and vital facilities sectors.
Establishing a joint national platform for infrastructure risk data and decision support is another recommendation that would also work to link the relevant entities to a unified platform that collects climatic, hydrological, geophysical, urban mapping, asset, and incident data, allowing for the identification of assets and areas most at risk and prioritising investment, protection, and rehabilitation based on the level of risk. The symposium recommended making the data available free of charge to researchers and specialists.
The recommendation also stated enhancing institutional and societal integration, adopting green and blue solutions, and working on the principle of partnership between government entities, the private sector, academic institutions, professional associations, and the local community, while expanding the use of green and blue infrastructure, building dams and rainwater harvesting systems, reusing water, and implementing the circular economy as part of urban planning, flood protection projects, and climate adaptation, and linking initiatives to the targets of Oman Vision 2040 and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Utilising artificial intelligence enablers has also been recommended, alongside continued updates to early warning tools and methods for cyclones originating in the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.
Recommendations also included the hydrometric and marine environments, and activating mechanisms for linking and integrating monitoring tools within the framework of the early warning system, and benefiting from the accumulated lessons and the experiences of other countries in this field.
It has also sought coordination between the relevant ministries and the National Survey Authority at the Ministry of Defence to ensure adherence to the use of reference survey points, as well as conducting surveying work on wadi and ravine paths and plotting them on detailed maps and urban master plans, as determined by flood studies, to help increase the accuracy of hydrological studies and use this data in designing infrastructure projects and developing cyclone drainage systems and reducing their risks.