Climate-Resilient Infrastructure Distinguished Lecture Series: Bouncing Back From Polycrisis: The Resilience of Global Infrastructure Systems to Climate and Other Shocks
Lecture/ Seminar
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Date
03 Jun 2026
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Organiser
Otto Poon Research Institute for Climate-Resilient Infrastructure (RICRI)
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Time
16:00 - 17:30
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Venue
Senate Room (M1603), 16/F, Block M, PolyU
Speaker
Prof. Jim HALL
Enquiry
RICRI ricri@polyu.edu.hk
Summary
Economies and societies around the world are increasingly dependent on infrastructure networks that span the globe. Recent events, from droughts impacting the Panama Canal, to maritime accidents in the port of Baltimore and the Suez Canal, and conflict in the Strait of Hormuz, have demonstrated the fragility of these networks. Yet newly available datasets, satellite observation and AI are enabling us to analyse these networks and predict their resilience in unprecedented ways. This is providing evidence to enhance the resilience of infrastructure systems and navigate an uncertain future.
Keynote Speaker
Prof. Jim HALL
Professor of Climate and Environmental Risks
Department of Engineering Science
Fellow at Linacre College Infrastructure Systems Programme
University of Oxford
Prof. Jim HALL FREng FRS is Professor of Climate and Environmental Risks in the University of Oxford. Prof. HALL is internationally recognised for his research on risk analysis and decision making under uncertainty for infrastructure systems, water resource systems, flood and coastal risk management and adaptation to climate change. Prof. HALL is a member of the UK Prime Minister's Council for Science and Technology. He was a Commissioner of the UK National Infrastructure Commission and was President of the Institution of Civil Engineers for the year 2024-25. Amongst various distinctions, Prof. HALL was awarded the George Stephenson Medal from the Institution of Civil Engineers in 2001 and the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water in 2018. Prof. HALL was a Contributing Author to the Nobel Prize-winning Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In 2010 Prof. HALL was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering “for his contribution to the development of methods for flood risk analysis, which underpin approaches for flood risk management in the UK and internationally” and in 2025 was made a Fellow of the Royal Society.
