Resilience Principles — Water Decisions

Each case study in Water Decisions is assessed against the UNDRR Principles for Resilient Infrastructure. These six principles provide a consistent lens for evaluating how infrastructure systems anticipate, absorb, adapt to, and recover from hazards and disruptions.

The principles are codified in ISO 22372:2025 — the first international standard for infrastructure resilience — developed by ISO/TC 292 with the contribution of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). They are aligned with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and UN Sustainable Development Goal 9.

The principles are not hierarchical — resilient infrastructure typically demonstrates strength across all six dimensions, though the balance varies by context, sector, and geography.

P1 — Clearly Defined Accountabilities and Shared Responsibilities

Sharing information and expertise for coordinated benefits through harmonised open standards, collaborative management, clear accountability, enhanced connectivity for information sharing, assured data safety to build trust, and transparent risk-and-return information.

Melbourne Water Conservation Murray–Darling Basin Plan Flood Early Warning System South–North Water Transfer National Desalination Programme Tokyo Flood Control System (G-Cans) Community Gravity Water Systems Netherlands Delta Programme Room for the River Programme Indus Basin Irrigation System Deep Tunnel Sewerage System (DTSS) Marina Barrage NEWater Cape Town Day Zero Crisis Orange River Transfer Scheme Barcelona Water Reuse Programme Beckton Desalination Plant Thames Flood Barrier Thames Tideway Tunnel California SGMA Implementation Flint Water Crisis

P2 — Proactively Protected

Proactively planning, designing, building and operating infrastructure prepared for current and future hazards, with raised safety requirements, consideration of complex interdependencies, embedded emergency management, and commitment to long-term maintenance and investment.

Melbourne Water Conservation Flood Early Warning System Dujiangyan Irrigation System South–North Water Transfer National Desalination Programme Tokyo Flood Control System (G-Cans) Community Gravity Water Systems Netherlands Delta Programme Room for the River Programme Indus Basin Irrigation System Deep Tunnel Sewerage System (DTSS) Marina Barrage NEWater Cape Town Day Zero Crisis Orange River Transfer Scheme Barcelona Water Reuse Programme Beckton Desalination Plant Thames Flood Barrier Thames Tideway Tunnel California SGMA Implementation Flint Water Crisis

P3 — Environmentally Integrated

Working in a positively integrated way with the natural environment by minimising environmental impact, using environmental solutions, integrating ecosystem information, maintaining natural systems, and using local sustainable resources.

Murray–Darling Basin Plan Dujiangyan Irrigation System South–North Water Transfer National Desalination Programme Community Gravity Water Systems Netherlands Delta Programme Room for the River Programme Indus Basin Irrigation System Deep Tunnel Sewerage System (DTSS) Marina Barrage NEWater Barcelona Water Reuse Programme Beckton Desalination Plant Thames Tideway Tunnel California SGMA Implementation

P4 — Socially Engaged

Developing active engagement, involvement and participation across all levels of society by informing people about disruptions, raising resilience literacy, incentivising demand behaviour, and encouraging community participation in decision-making.

Melbourne Water Conservation Murray–Darling Basin Plan Flood Early Warning System Dujiangyan Irrigation System South–North Water Transfer Tokyo Flood Control System (G-Cans) Community Gravity Water Systems Netherlands Delta Programme Room for the River Programme Marina Barrage NEWater Cape Town Day Zero Crisis Orange River Transfer Scheme Thames Tideway Tunnel California SGMA Implementation Flint Water Crisis

P5 — Adaptively Transforming

Adapting and transforming to changing needs through manageable solutions, adaptive capacity, flexible management, capacity for transformation, and allowing for human discretion in decision-making across the infrastructure lifecycle.

Melbourne Water Conservation Murray–Darling Basin Plan Flood Early Warning System National Desalination Programme Netherlands Delta Programme Room for the River Programme NEWater Cape Town Day Zero Crisis Barcelona Water Reuse Programme Thames Flood Barrier California SGMA Implementation Flint Water Crisis

P6 — Continually Learning and Improving

Developing and updating understanding and insight into infrastructure resilience by exposing and validating assumptions, monitoring and intervening appropriately, analysing and learning from events, and conducting rigorous stress tests.

Melbourne Water Conservation Murray–Darling Basin Plan Flood Early Warning System National Desalination Programme Tokyo Flood Control System (G-Cans) Netherlands Delta Programme Room for the River Programme NEWater Cape Town Day Zero Crisis Thames Flood Barrier California SGMA Implementation Flint Water Crisis

Principles of Resilient Infrastructure

Standards & References