Urban Infrastructures: Criticality, Vulnerability and Protection | International Conference of the Research Training Group KRITIS at Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany

Nadja Thiessen Announcement
Location
Germany
Subject Fields
Government and Public Service, Philosophy, Political Science, Sociology, Urban History / Studies

Cities are the major sites and physical nodes in the infrastructurally mediated flows of water, energy, waste, communication, people, goods and services. Networked infrastructures have become increasingly critical for urban life. Their smooth operation is a prerequisite for social well-being, economic prosperity and political stability in our cities.

However, their smooth functioning is not a given. Due to their complexity, interconnectedness and strong interdependency, these systems are highly vulnerable. The failure of a subsystem or system components can cause serious cascading malfunctions within and across the system boundaries. Obviously, there is a need for protecting critical infrastructures, considering their specific characteristics as socio-technical systems and their embeddedness in urban space. Besides engineering, the social sciences and the humanities provide important perspectives in assessing the challenges and requirements of critical infrastructure protection. Such protection strategies have to take into account the criticality, vulnerability, and resilience of critical infrastructures in their interrelatedness with, and embeddedness in urban space.

The Research Training Group KRITIS at the Technische Universität Darmstadt will bring together civil engineers, computer scientists, urban and spatial planners, architects, sociologists, political scientists, historians and philosophers as well as practitioners from public administration and operators of critical infrastructures to elucidate multidisciplinary perspectives on the protection of urban critical infrastructures.

Program

Thursday, 7 February 2019

08:45 – 09:15 | Registration

09:15 – 09:30 | Welcoming Remark

09:30 – 10:15 | Keynote
Per Högselius (KTH Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm): The Dialectics of Complexification

10:15 – 10:45 | Coffee Break

10:45 – 12:15 | Panel “Governance” - Chair: Jochen Monstadt (Utrecht University)
Alice Knauf and Andreas Huck (TU Darmstadt): Governing Urban Infrastructure Resilience: Institutional Barriers and Opportunities
Inke Schauser (Umweltbundesamt, Dessau): Assessing Climate Change Impacts on Infrastructures
Eva Stock (Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK), Bonn): Critical Infrastructure Protection: Integrated Risk Management as an Approach to Address Governance Complexities and Cooperation in Civil Protection in Germany

12:15 – 13:15 | Lunch Break

13:15 – 14:45 | Panel “Spatiality” - Chair: Sybille Frank (TU Darmstadt)
Ivonne Elsner and Marcel Müller (TU Darmstadt): The Impact of Infrastructure Disruptions on Our Everyday Perception of Space
Pranjali Deshpande (Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, Pune): Towards a Sustainable City: Case of Pune
Timothy Moss (Humboldt University Berlin): Vulnerable City, Resilient Infrastructures? Re-appraising Sociotechnical Continuity and Change Through Berlin’s Turbulent Modern History

14:45 – 15:15 | Coffee Break

15:15 – 16:45 | Panel “Temporality” - Chair: Jens Ivo Engels (TU Darmstadt)
Uwe Lübken (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München): When Rivers Don't Behave: Natural Rhythms and Infrastructural Failure(s)
Stephanie Eifert, Nadja Thiessen and Benedikt Vianden (TU Darmstadt): Time to Be in Time
Susanne Krings (Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK), Bonn): Legislating Contingency and Managing Criticality

16:45 – 17:15 | Break

17:15 – 18:00 | Keynote
Jon Coaffee (University of Warwick, Coventry; New York University): Futureproofing City Infrastructures: Transitioning from Risk Towards Resilience

18:00 – 19:00 | Postersession

19:30 | Conference Dinner

 

Friday, 8 February 2019

09:15 – 09:45 | Keynote
Christoph Lamers (State Fire Service Institute North Rhine Westphalia, Münster): Fire Service and Technical Relief – a Structure in Space and Time

09:45 – 10:15 | Coffee Break

10:15 – 11:45 | Panel “Safety & Security” - Chair: Uwe Rüppel (TU Darmstadt)
Thomas Köstler (Fire Department Lübeck): Power Failure in Lübeck Including Failure of the TETRA Digital Radio - Measures for Police and Non-police Emergency Response
Arturo Crespo and Marcus Dombois (TU Darmstadt): User-based Contingency Planning for Railway Disruptions Using Network Analysis
Sylvia Bach (Universität Wuppertal): Towards a Smart Critical Infrastructure! – Big Data Offers New Chances for Resilience

11:45 – 12:15 | Coffee Break

12:15 – 13:45 | Panel “ICT Solutions” - Chair: Matthias Hollick (TU Darmstadt)
Florian Steinke (TU Darmstadt): Are Resilience Requirements Driving Decentral Solutions in Energy?
Antonio Jorba (COUNT+CARE/Digitalstadt Darmstadt): LoRaWAN: The Wireless 'Nervous System' for Digital Cities
Jiska Classen and Lars Almon (TU Darmstadt): Bricked or Useful Tool: The Role of Everyday Electronic Devices in Crises

14:30 | City Tour: Darmstadt at a Glance

 

Contact & Registration

Venue
Technische Universität Darmstadt
Hochschulstraße 1, Building S1|03
Wilhelm-Köhler-Saal (Rooms 283-284)
64289 Darmstadt, Germany

Conference Fee
Early Bird (until 31 December 2018): 100 EUR
From 1 January 2019: 160 EUR
Members of TU Darmstadt: free
Registration Deadline is 31 January 2019

Contact Information

 

Anita Schilz
Research Training Group KRITIS
Technische Universität Darmstadt
Dolivostraße 15
D-64293 Darmstadt

Contact Email
conference@kritis.tu-darmstadt.de