Flexible and Reflexive Standards: Uncertainty in Decision-Making on Resilient Infrastructure
Professor Laura Bear & Dr Ben Bowles, LSE
Our project with Cabinet Office is evaluating the regulations used by government agencies to supervise private sector infrastructure projects. At present these regulations are based on the guidelines of the Treasury Green Book. They aim to mitigate two kinds of uncertainty: unforeseen financial outcomes; and project completion times. There is no explicit or centralized framework for considering other kinds of uncertainty such as environmental resilience or network risks. We will use our findings, along with anthropological approaches to decision making in uncertainty, to:
- Propose flexible and reflexive regulatory regimes for resilient infrastructure
- Explore how the Infrastructure Projects Authority could ensure resilience standards
- Examine how systemic risks across interlinked infrastructure projects could be regulated