Session 2015-16 - Closing Date Extended to 15 May 2015 (23:59 pm)

Further information on the application procedure can be found at: www.leeds.ac.uk/rsa/postgraduate_scholarships/esrc-info

Project Partner: BT

ICT and telecommunications networks form a key part of today's critical national infrastructure, essential to proper functioning of society as well as facilitating rapid response to emergencies such as natural disasters.  Climate change is causing, as a long term trend, an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events in the UK.  This includes, for example, flooding from surface water runoff in built environments, from rivers and from coastal surges.  Technology infrastructure providers need to maintain service against this increasing risk to infrastructure and, equally importantly, to field-force personnel safety and ability to respond.

This research will look holistically at steps already taken towards climate change adaptation to support service continuity and flood resilience as well as how the use of ICT can facilitate greater resilience, both in operations and for societal benefit.  Work undertaken by Allen and colleagues contributes to a growing body of research which posit that greater resilience and a more effective response to climate change related events should include decentralised models of decision making, allow improvisation and include citizens. The emerging model advocated at Leeds and elsewhere also points to the use of emerging radical new IT infrastructures (such as mobile ad-hoc networks) to allow new ways of working rather than reinforcing existing models of infrastructure provision and information flow.  The work will explore the link between these emerging models and technology design for resilience in terms of assets and processes, the role of ICT in environmental sensing solutions and services, as well as the role of mobile devices and solutions (e.g. LTE or 5G based) and their adaptability to enable efficient end-to-end effective response. 

BT will be a project partner for this research. In the UK, BT is the leading communications services provider, selling products and services to consumers, small and medium sized enterprises and the public sector. Additionally, BT sells wholesale products and services to communications providers in the UK and around the world. 

For more information contact Professor David Allen (d.allen<στο>lubs.leeds.ac.uk)