Resilience Planning Research Articles

Reporting and improved efficiency through artificial intelligence

This paper examines the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the reporting and administration efficiency of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP). Focused on a performance-based financing model, it shifts from tracking expenses to achieving tangible results. AI automates data collection and analysis, detects fraud and ensures regulatory compliance, thus improving transparency and effectiveness. It also addresses challenges like maintaining data quality and clear decision-making using AI, highlighting the need for appropriate regulatory frameworks. This study will deepen the understanding of technology adoption in the public sector and offer insights into using AI to modernize public administrations and optimize control processes.

Evaluating an equity-focused approach to assess climate resilience and disaster priorities through a community survey.

As the Duwamish Valley community in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. and other environmental justice communities nationally contend with growing risks from climate change, there have been calls for a more community-centered approach to understanding impacts and priorities to inform resilience planning. To engage community members and identify climate justice and resilience priorities, a partnership of community leaders, government-based practitioners, and academics co-produced a survey instrument and collected data from the community using the Seattle Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response (SASPER), an approach adapted from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPER). In addition, we conducted a process and outcome project evaluation using quantitative survey data collected from volunteers and qualitative semi-structured interviews with project team members. In October and November 2022, teams of volunteers from partner organizations collected 162 surveys from households in the Duwamish Valley. Poor air quality, extreme heat, and wildfires were among the highest reported hazards of concern. Most Duwamish Valley households agreed or strongly agreed that their neighborhood has a strong sense of community (64%) and that they have people nearby to call when they need help (69%). Forty-seven percent of households indicated willingness to get involved with resilience planning, and 62% of households said that they would use a Resilience Hub during an emergency. Survey volunteers evaluated their participation positively, with over 85% agreeing or strongly agreeing that they learned new skills, were prepared for the survey, and would participate in future assessments. The evaluation interviews underscored that while the SASPER may have demonstrated feasibility in a pre-disaster phase, CASPER may not meet all community/partner needs in the immediate disaster response phase because of its lack of focus on equity and logistical requirements. Future research should focus on identifying less resource intensive data collection approaches that maintain the rigor and reputation of CASPER while enabling a focus on equity.

Towards adaptive resilience for the future of integrated water systems planning

Abstract The integrated water systems (IWSs) concept involves managing water quantity and quality through dynamic interactions. This paper reviews the terrestrial water cycle, focusing on resilience and adaptive planning (AP) approaches within IWSs. We examine how integrating these approaches can improve IWS management and planning, addressing their inherent complexities. Using a performance-based resilience definition, we consider the system’s ability to absorb, recover from and adapt to adverse events. The AP focuses on flexible management pathways for uncertain future conditions. Although both resilience and AP aim to enhance water system performance and address uncertainties, they differ in their assessment and implementation approaches. We propose an Adaptive Resilience Planning (ARP) framework that merges both approaches. The ARP uses resilience metrics for performance assessment and incorporates AP’s methods for conceptualising uncertainties and optimising management portfolios. Implementing the ARP framework raises four research questions: (1) holistic characterisation of uncertainties and options in IWSs, (2) using resilience metrics for IWS adaptation, (3) balancing trade-offs among management goals through optimal portfolio selection and (4) monitoring portfolio performance and uncertainties for informed adaptation. The ARP framework offers a structured method for dynamic and adaptive resilience planning, enhancing IWS management’s responsiveness to evolving challenges.

Large implementation of SHM and control rooms for the remote control of bridges

Planning, maintaining and optimizing the resources in the field of infrastructural networks management entails complex decision management to be effective. The involved activities generally include compiling an inventory, carrying out monitoring and maintenance activities, and executing interventions to upgrade the safety levels to the increasing demands. From a structural and financial point of view, preventive monitoring help optimizing the asset maintenance. However, a major concern in this field is that the structural performance is usually described by visual inspection-based structure condition states only.To adequately consider the actual structure safety level and the eventual progressive deterioration of the bridge or viaduct performance, the use of structural health monitoring systems is of paramount importance. In this framework, the Italian Ministry of Infrastructures has launched a large-scale plan, funded by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, for implementing a dynamic monitoring system for the remote control of bridges, viaducts and tunnels of the main road system in Italy. This plan foresees the creation of an integrated inventory and risk management platform for 12.000 bridges/viaducts, the SHM equipment of 6.500 structures, and the information modelling of some of them. This paper, after introducing the main features of the national plan, reports and discusses some activities related to SHM of bridges and creation of a dedicated control room that Autostrada Brescia-Verona-Vicenza-Padova S.p.A., one of the leading motorway concessionaries in Italy and part of the Abertis Group, is carrying out.

A digital and interoperable support for the risk assessment of existing bridges

The topic of environmental, economic, and social sustainability is increasingly recurring in the development strategies of governments and international organizations. The Recovery Fund, part of the Next Generation EU, follows this direction, establishing itself as a new European tool for recovery. With specific reference to the sustainability of infrastructure, Italy has recently presented the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), which identifies the structural thematic areas of intervention through 6 missions. In particular, Mission 3, "Infrastructures for sustainable mobility," allocated approximately 32 billion euros, aims to introduce remote digital monitoring systems for the safety of road arteries and urgent works for the safety improvement of deteriorated roads, bridges, and viaducts. This mission is consistent with the Guidelines for the assignment of attention class and risk management, safety assessment, and monitoring of existing bridges, approved by the Superior Council of Public Works on May 6, 2020, and incorporated into Ministerial Decree no. 578 of December 17, 2020. The adoption of these guidelines by managers is also important in case of incidents to avoid potential legal issues. To ensure the development of this strategic approach and achieve the desired results within the established timeframe, it is necessary to equip oneself with suitable digital methods and tools, such as Building Information Modeling (BIM) and BIM-oriented software. Harpaceas, through a scientific research project with the Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering at the University of Pisa, has aimed to utilize standard software, included in the new solution "PontiSicuri" (Safe Bridges), in order to enable the digital management of the assignment of risk attention class and safety assessment of existing bridges in Italy in accordance with the new Guidelines. The Authors will describe this innovative approach in the present paper.

National Recovery and Resilience Plans

National Recovery and Resilience Plans

A Scalable Approach to Large Scale Risk-Averse Distribution Grid Expansion Planning

Distribution grid reliability and resilience has become a major topic of concern for utilities and their regulators. In particular, with the increase in severity of extreme events, utilities are considering major investments in distribution grid assets to mitigate the damage of highly impactful outages. Communicating the overall economic and risk-mitigation benefits of these investments to regulators is an important element of the approval process. Today, industry reliability and resilience planning practices are based largely on methods that do not take explicit account of risk. This paper proposes a practical method for identifying optimal combinations of investments in new line segments and storage devices while considering the balance between the risk associated with high impact low probability events and the reliability related to routine failures. We show that this method can be scaled to address large scale networks and demonstrate its benefits using a Target Feeder from the Commonwealth Edison Reliability Program.

Capability of LCZ scheme to differentiate urban thermal environments in five megacities of China: Implications for integrating LCZ system into heat–resilient planning and design

Capability of LCZ scheme to differentiate urban thermal environments in five megacities of China: Implications for integrating LCZ system into heat–resilient planning and design

Modelling the Transition to a Circular Agriculture - A Systems Dynamics Perspective

Designing efficient and sustainable pathways for ensuring the transition to a circular economy is one of the main challenges to which an answer must be found, regardless of the economic sector, activity field or geographic area of ​​interest. In order to improve the planet natural resource conservation systems, the main representative institutions and policy makers have implemented a series of strategies and directives, all over the world. From a simple crossing through relevant documents, assumed at global level such as: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, United Nations 2015, regional level: The New Circular Economy Action Plan, EC 2020 or national level: Recovery and Resilience Plan of Romania, 2023, the main common denominator it can be identified - focusing on finding the optimal balance between the environmental resources rational exploitation, protection and developing competitive economy systems. The bioeconomy involves the use of renewable biomass, including raw material obtained from different categories of secondary products, for the production of finished products in the economy. Interest in the bioeconomy has grown over the last decade, and this study analyses the potential of biomass and circular bioeconomy models in the agricultural sector, using systemic modelling approaches. In this sense, studies and models of bioeconomy and circular economy applied at the regional and European level are presented, specifically for dynamic system modelling methods. Finally, we propose studying a circular bioeconomy pilot model for sunflower production in Romania, highlighting the potential of biomass and secondary products from this crop. The use of sunflower by-products in various applications, such as animal feed, biofuels, functional food ingredients or bio-composite materials, underlines their importance in promoting circular economy practices.

Pathways for FEW nexus collaboration in U.S. city resilience planning

Pathways for FEW nexus collaboration in U.S. city resilience planning

Broadening resilience: An evaluation of policy and planning for drinking water resilience in 100 US cities

Around the world, drinking water systems provide safe, accessible drinking water to the communities they serve. While they are faced with a growing number of short and long-term challenges, assessing the resilience of drinking water systems—or their ability to cope with disturbances and surprise and continuously adapt to stress and change—is an ongoing challenge. Many drinking water resilience assessment methodologies focus narrowly on the technical dimensions of the resilience of infrastructure systems, ignoring the human or environmental dimensions, and consider resilience to the present, ignoring resilience to future change. To fill this gap, we developed a conceptual framework and scoring methodology for evaluating municipal-scale policy and planning for drinking water system resilience. Our approach considers social, technical, and environmental elements of resilience at broad spatial and temporal scales. We then used this methodology to assess policy and planning for drinking water resilience in 100 U.S. cities. We found that municipalities are at very different stages in their policy and planning for drinking water resilience, particularly in terms of the attention they give to climate change and their consideration of the broader social dimensions of resilience. Overall, larger cities and those with more liberal populations are likely to have higher policy and planning scores. The findings highlight the variation in municipal policy and planning for drinking water system resilience, and the importance of community characteristics as drivers of resilience planning. Our approach is transferable to assessing resilience for drinking water systems within and beyond the U.S.

Building competitiveness and business resilience in the environment of digital economy: A research in a chain of Serbian pharmacies

Background: Digital healthcare encompasses the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve processes related to health, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases. Aim: The goal of this research is to explore the transformation of conventional pharmaceutical profession into digital roles. Materials and Methods: The research was conducted in 2022 within a chain of five pharmacies named "Hygia Pharmacy" in Arandjelovac, Serbia, employing 23 individuals. The primary focus was to assess the impact of digitization on the company's performance, competitiveness, and business resilience. An internet-based survey was conducted among the employees at three different time points: initially, three months later, and six months later. Results: The business resilience plan of the company was confirmed by 91% of respondents. Most respondents stated that they attend professional webinars (81%) and Zoom meetings (57%) to improve their competitiveness. All respondents rated online sales as positively impacting consumers in terms of shopping convenience and mentioned that internal shipping and receiving documents facilitate work in the pharmacy. Most respondents (78%) gather professional information from digital sources (e-Pharmacy) compared to the paper form of the journal Pharmacy Practice. The survey revealed a downward trend in traditional working techniques compared to digital techniques, which showed an upward trend throughout all three testing cycles.

Pension reforms in the Spanish and French recovery and resilience plans

Pension reforms in the Spanish and French recovery and resilience plans

The National Recovery and Resilience Plans: Towards a Next Generation of Fiscal Coordination?

The Recovery and Resilience Facility reflects unprecedented solidarity through common financing paired with an innovative governance framework. Member states can access grants and loans through the formulation of National Recovery and Resilience Plans, under a set of conditions that include minimum allocation targets and addressing country-specific recommendations. The analysis evaluates whether the governance of the Recovery and Resilience Facility mitigates one of the longstanding weaknesses of the Economic and Monetary Union architecture: fiscal coordination. Assessing the prevalence of green, digital, and social priorities in the (a) National Recovery and Resilience Plans, (b) the country-specific recommendations, and (c) party manifestos through a quantitative and qualitative text analysis shows some convergence toward supranational preferences, albeit only in the green domain. I provide preliminary evidence at the stage of the formulation of the plans of the effectiveness of the Recovery and Resilience Facility fiscal policy coordination by testing whether recovery agendas in the National Recovery and Resilience Plans reflect EU or national priorities. Deviating from the limited implementation of country-specific recommendations within the European Semester, the analysis indicates the governance of the Recovery and Resilience Facility orients the National Recovery and Resilience Plans toward fostering a green recovery. Findings contribute to the assessment of how pandemic recovery instruments innovate EU fiscal governance and longstanding discussions on the ineffectiveness of fiscal coordination within the Economic and Monetary Union, informing the ongoing debate on the reform of the Stability and Growth Pact and a permanent successor to the Recovery and Resilience Facility.

NextGenerationEU and the European Semester: Comparing National Plans and Country‐Specific Recommendations

This article examines the main features of the Recovery and Resilience Plans (RRPs) that member states have presented to access NextGenerationEU (NGEU) funds, and it explores the relationship between NGEU and the European Semester. Relying on a dataset collected for this purpose, which coded all RRPs and all recommendations received by the member states in the years preceding NGEU, we explore quantitatively the variation in the countries’ resource allocation and reform agendas and the congruence between RRPs and the recommendations issued in the European Semester. Our analysis reveals three key findings. First, substantial variation exists across member states, reflecting the diverse economic and political contexts shaped by a decade of crises. Second, by disaggregating RRPs into the six policy pillars indicated by the Commission, we show differences in the member states’ patterns of intervention. Third, we offer insights into the extent to which member states address the Semester recommendations. The data we present is a relevant tool for understanding NGEU and generating research questions aimed at exploring its nature and its implementation in the years to come.

What’s next in the healthcare system? The contribution of digital innovation in achieving patient-centricity

The pressure on the healthcare system due to the pandemic situation has exacerbated its main criticalities in terms of fragmentation, data management and lack of interconnections. There is a need to rethink the health system’s management and monitoring in a patient-centric view, in order to meet the growing demand due to extension of life expectancy and increase in chronic diseases. Innovation in technology enables patient-centricity by tying together the future healthcare system. This research aims at detecting and defining the main typologies and characteristics of innovative business models that are going to emerge in the healthcare context in the next years. Different data sources have been integrated to depict the future scenario of healthcare. At first, information available in reports, archives/documents has been analysed, in addition to conferences and 35 experts interviews available online. Thereafter, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) - launched to solve issues after pandemic crisis - has been examined. The data analysis allows outlining the business model typologies that will emerge in the sector, their characteristics and the gaps they are going to solve with specific technologies. This research depicts the healthcare framework for pursuing patient-centricity, providing also managerial implications and future researches directions.

Still waiting for the “liberal revolution”? The Italian pro-competition law and the cases of taxi licences and beach concessions

ABSTRACT One of the main enabling reforms included in the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan is that of competition. In this regard, past pro-competitive attempts have usually disappointed expectations, above all due to the counter-mobilization of very powerful interest groups, able to act as veto-players in the policy process. This article seeks to contribute to the literature on the influence of Italian interest groups by focusing precisely on the pro-competition reforms in two highly politically salient policy sectors: unscheduled public transport services and beach concessions. Specifically, we want to make a triple comparison: between policy sectors, between subsequent stages of the policy cycle and between governments, focusing on the lobbying strategies deployed by the interests affected by the measures being considered. We interpret empirical findings on the basis of a detailed reconstruction of the policy processes, drawing on several interviews with privileged observers.

International tax competition as an element of the country’s marketing strategy

In the conditions of permanent capital outflow and business registration by residents in other jurisdictions, the issue of developing a country’s marketing strategies for doing business and identifying the most effective mechanisms for increasing international tax attractiveness is urgent. The prerequisite of these processes should be the determination of the level of international tax competitiveness followed by identifying the most significant factors of its growth. The purpose of the study is to assess the level of international tax competitiveness as an element of marketing strategies of Ukraine and some EU countries during 2011–2021. The methodological tools are correlation-regression analysis, the Fisher method, and the multiplicative convolution method. The paper assessed the level of international tax competitiveness as a comprehensive indicator that considers procedural, institutional, moral-ethical, and economic components. The calculations showed that the most competitive are the tax systems of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Croatia, Finland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. Based on hierarchical and non-hierarchical (k-means method) clustering, 3 clusters of regions were identified. For each of them, based on an analysis of the features of the tax system construction and the comparison of marginal and average values, the criteria for the identification of competing countries and those with common development trends were formed. This makes it possible to determine the most effective mechanisms for the implementation of marketing strategies reforming tax policy from the point of view of increasing its international tax attractiveness. AcknowledgmentThe study is funded by the EU NextGenerationEU through the Recovery and Resilience Plan for Slovakia under the project No. 09I03-03-V01-00042.The authors are grateful to the participants of projects “National security of Ukraine through the prevention of financial fraud and money laundering: war and post-war challenges” (2023–2025, state registration number: 0123U101945) and “De-shadowing and regulatory efficiency of environmental taxation: optimization modelling to ensure national security and rational use of nature” (2022–2024, registration number 0122U000777) for numerous discussions and comments.

Shadow tax evasion and its impact on the competitiveness of the country’s tax system

Tax competitiveness of the country characterizes the ability of the tax system to obtain permanent competitive advantages in attracting external and mobilizing internal financial resources due to the establishment of the optimal level of tax burden and differentiation of fiscal instruments. The complexity of this indicator determines the presence of a number of drivers of its formation. Shadow tax evasion is one of them. The purpose of the study is to assess the impact of the shadow tax evasion of taxpayers on the level of competitiveness of the tax system on the example of 11 European countries from 2011 to 2021. The methodological tools are regression analysis methods, Shapiro-Wilk tests, and Spearman’s rank correlation. It was determined that informal employment, informal production, and unregistered or informal entrepreneurship are the most common methods of tax evasion. Based on the results of the calculations, regression equations of the influence of shadow tax evasion on the level of competitiveness of the country’s tax system were constructed. It has been proven that shadow tax evasion exerts the greatest influence on the level of tax competitiveness of Slovenia (0.32), Romania (0.34), and Croatia (0.26). The least sensitive to shadow tax evasion is the competitiveness of the Czech Republic’s tax system (0.096). For most analyzed countries, this influence is carried out with a time lag of 2 years. Only in Croatia, this influence is the most substantial with a one-year lag. AcknowledgmentThe study is funded by the EU NextGenerationEU through the Recovery and Resilience Plan for Slovakia under the project No. 09I03-03-V01-00042.The authors are grateful to the participants of projects “National security of Ukraine through the prevention of financial fraud and money laundering: war and post-war challenges” (2023–2025, state registration number: 0123U101945) and “De-shadowing and regulatory efficiency of environmental taxation: optimization modelling to ensure national security and rational use of nature” (2022–2024, registration number 0122U000777) for numerous discussions and comments.

(Electrodeposition Division Research Award) New Frontiers of Electrodeposition for Metallic Finishes

The interest in scientific research within the metal finishing sector is growing. The demand for durable metals and adaptable manufacturing processes is increasing across a wide range of applications, from aerospace and automotive to machinery and jewelry. In that respect, alloy plating offers better answers in terms of economic growth and environmental sustainability due to fine-tuning composition, morphology, and crystallinity [1]. Here, current trends in alloy electrodeposition research are reviewed highlighting open challenges and process innovations from an industrial perspective. Combining basic electrochemical techniques with spectroscopic, microscopic, and structural techniques is crucial for characterizing the structure-activity relationship for many different technological devices. Particular attention is devoted to advances in industrial quality control and viable solutions for the reduction of precious metal content in electroplated accessories as well as the replacement of cyanide and nickel baths with non-toxic compounds. Project funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.3 - Call for tender No. 341 of 15 March 2023 of Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR) funded by the European Union - NextGenerationEU - Project code PE_00000004, CUP B83C22004890007, Project title "3A-ITALY - Made-in-Italy circolare e sostenibile".