Infrastructure Resiliency and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: An Integrative Approach to Mitigating the Impact of Disasters

Abstract Extreme weather events and climate action failure have been listed by the World Economic Forum as the most likely global risks for 2025. These risks historically have had significant effects on the petroleum industry. To safeguard infrastructure assets, mitigate disasters, and achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (SDGS.UN.org), it is critical that the energy industry address resiliency and sustainability. This paper identifies best practices for resiliency and disaster mitigation efforts for the petroleum industry. This analysis was completed through a global assessment of disasters and their cascading effects on petroleum infrastructure systems and markets. Several events were chosen as case studies to exemplify the detrimental economic, environmental, and social impact of disasters. Best practices, mitigation and resiliency approaches, and subsequent links to sustainability were examined. Best practices were identified through a vulnerability, impact, and mitigation assessment. This was executed by characterizing various hazards, determining the cause and severity of damage, identifying the infrastructure sector(s) affected, and conducting a "What-If-Analysis" to evaluate response, recovery, and disaster prevention options. A comprehensive review of relevant literature was conducted to determine the relationship between disasters, petroleum infrastructure, resiliency, and sustainable development, specifically the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this fashion, resiliency was linked explicitly to SDGs 7, 9, 11, and 17 and implicitly to the other SDGs. Many disasters cause significant damage to petroleum infrastructure, which has cascading impacts on other systems and devastating economic consequences, underscoring the critical need for resiliency and sustainable infrastructure. Experts have stated that every dollar spent on disaster-mitigation saves on average $6 on recovery efforts. Therefore, the petroleum industry must plan and prepare for disasters to facilitate response and recovery efforts and mitigate the economic, environmental, and social impact of disasters. This paper identifies approaches to addressing resiliency through the application of best practices and the 4 R's of resiliency: Robustness, Redundancy, Resourcefulness, and Rapidity, specific to disasters, geographic regions, and infrastructure sectors. The SDGs provide practitioners and students with a framework to explore risk in project planning and disaster recovery, and in particular, to analyze resiliency and infrastructure. The increase in resiliency supports the achievement of SDGs 7, 9, 11, 17 and indirectly to the realization of the other SDGs. Best practices and approaches were identified that support these goals which include achieving access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services, resilience to disasters, disaster risk management, and development of quality, reliable, sustainable, and resilient infrastructure. The paper provides a thorough analysis of the relationship between disasters, oil and gas infrastructure systems, resiliency and mitigation, and sustainable development. It catalogues the economic and social impact of disasters and the link between resiliency and the achievement of the SDGs. This paper also outlines a risk assessment and mitigation framework and describes the best practices for achieving resiliency in order to meet the SDGs.