Next generation analytics from OPSIS at Oxford University identifies financial risks for critical infrastructure in Southeast Asia

Modelling and analytics from Oxford University’s ‘Oxford Programme for Sustainable Infrastructure Systems (OPSIS)’, developed as part of the World Bank’s Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Program (DRFIP) are driving essential infrastructure developments in Southeast Asia.

Developed by Oxford Infrastructure Analytics, a spin-out company from OPSIS, the tools will:

  • Support governments to identify critical vulnerabilities in infrastructure systems
  • Quantify financial risks related to critical infrastructure including direct damage estimation and an indirect economic loss estimation of GDP disruptions due to asset failures and service disruption
  • Explore financial solutions to access immediate funding to speed up the reinstatement of critical services post-disaster.

The pilot phase has just completed in Southeast Asia, with financial and technical support from the Japan-World Bank Program for Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Management in Developing Countries.

The pilot study focuses on specific sectors including electricity and transport (road, rail) networks throughout seven Southeast Asia countries (Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos PDR, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand), and on fluvial and coastal flooding and wind hazard (tropical cyclone). The resulting data can be interrogated at sub-national, national or super-national scale.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimates that Developing Asia1 will need to invest US$26 trillion over the 15-year period from 2016 to 2030, or US$1.7 trillion per year, on infrastructure to maintain current growth rates, including the cost of climate mitigation and adaptation2 (as referenced in PwC’s Understanding infrastructure opportunities in ASEAN report).

Read more in a blog from World Bank’s Olivier Mahul, with co-authors Professor Jim Hall of OPSIS, Shoko Takemoto of the World Bank, Dr Nicola Ranger of the UK Centre for Greening Finance and Investment, and Lit Ping Low of the World Bank.

Find out more about the OIA’s Southeast Asia Infrastructure Risk Prototype at: https://seasia.infrastructureresilience.org


  1. Developing Asia refers to the 45 Developing Member Countries (DMCs) in the 2017 report by ADB, Meeting Asia’s Infrastructure Needs
  2. Meeting Asia’s Infrastructure Needs, ADB, February 2017