Background

Introduction

Employed as a research associate since January 2015 within the Geomatics department of the School of Engineering, Newcastle University. I was awarded a PhD in 2017 from Newcastle University entitled 'Robustness of Hierarchical Spatial Critical Infrastructure Networks' which was focused on the resilience of critical spatial infrastructures to geographic hazards. This proceeded graduating from the GIS (Geographic Information Science) degree within the geomatics department at Newcastle University in 2011.

My current work is funded by ITRC-MISTRAL where I am developing the underpinning tools for a household scale infrastructure analysis platform, and am solely responsible for the database architecture which will facilitate this. Prior to this, I was employed on the associated ITRC project where I was involved in the development of a set of dissemination tools, and continue to maintain these, for the first national systems-of-systems infrastructure analysis framework, now employed by the national infrastructure commission.

Links

Git Hub

Google scholar

Areas of expertise

• Geospatial data management
• Infrastructure network analysis
• Data visualisation

Qualifications

• PhD. Robustness of Hierarchical Spatial Critical Infrastructure Networks, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne (2017)
• BSc Hons Geographic Information Science - 1st class with Hons. - University of Newcastle Upon Tyne (2011)

Awards

GISRUK 2015 best paper - Robson C, Barr SL, James P, Ford A. “Spatially modelling dependent infrastructure networks”. In: GISRUK. 2015, Leeds, UK.

Research

Current

ITRC-MISTRAL

My current research focuses on the development of a national infrastructure database to support system-of-systems analysis for critical infrastructure. Using new technologies such as federated databases and graph databases, this will provided the platform for household level analysis of the demand on current and future infrastructure networks.

ITRC

Development of visualisation tools and under pinning database for a national scale infrastructure systems-of-systems framework and analysis tool for the ITRC project. Work continues to maintain this supporting its continued use both within and outside of academia, including by the National Infrastructure Commission for informing government level decisions on infrastructure investment.

Other

Network visualisation methods for displaying the effects of hazards on spatial networks in real-time.

Previous

PhD

Title: The robustness of hierarchical critical spatial infrastructure networks. (Awarded 2017)

Publications

• Robson C, Barr SL, James P, Ford A. A framework for modelling the impact of spatial hazards on critical infrastructure networks. In: GISRUK. 2017, Manchester, UK.
• Ives MC, Silberman A, Letti B, Large J, Blainey S, Choundry M, Baruah P, Robson C, Usher W, Hall JW. Modelling future scenarios of infrastructure demand for the UK’s National Infrastructure Assessment. In: International Symposia for Next Generation Infrastructure. 2017, London, UK.
• Barr SL, Robson C, Pregnolato M, Ji Q. NISMOD-DB++: A next generation spatiotemporal database framework for infrastructure systems analytics and modelling. In: ISNGI. 2017. In Preparation.
• Pregnolato M, Ford A, Robson C, Glenis V, Barr S, Dawson RJ. Assessing urban strategies for reducing the impacts of extreme weather on infrastructure networks. Royal Society Open Science 2016, 3(5), 160023.
• Barr S, Alderson D, Ives MC, Robson C. Database, simulaation modelling and visualisation for national infrastructure. In: Hall, Jim W.; Tran, Martino; Hickford, Adrian J.; Nicholls, Robert J, ed. The Future of National Infrastructure: A System-of-Systems Approach. Cambridge University Press, 2016.
• Alderson D, Barr SL, Holderness T, Robson C, Ford A, Kennedy-Walker R. A geospatial relational database schema for interdependent network analysis and modelling. In: 23rd GIS Research UK (GISRUK). 2015, Leeds, UK.
• Harris N, Robson C, Barr SL, James P. Real time coupled network failure modelling and visualisation. In: GISRUK. 2015, Leeds, UK.
• Robson C, Barr S, James P, Ford A. Spatially modelling dependent infrastructure networks. In: GISRUK. 2015.
• Robson C, Barr S, James P, Ford A. Resilience of hierarchical critical infrastructure networks. In: International Symposium for Next Generation Infrastructure. 2014, Vienna, Austria.
• Barr SL, Alderson D, Robson C, Otto A, Hall J, Thacker S, Pant R. A National Scale Infrastructure Database and Modelling Environment for the UK. In: International Symposium for Next Generation Infrastructure. 2013, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.
• Barr SL, Holderness T, Alderson D, Robson C, Ford A. An open source relational database schema and system for the analysis of large scale spatially interdependent infrastructure networks. In: 4th Open Source GIS Conference - OSGIS 2012. 2012, Nottingham: Nottingham Geospatial Institute, University of Nottingham.
• Alderson D, Robson C, Holderness T, Barr SL, Ford A. An open source spatial database schema and interface for the storage, representation and analysis of interdependent infrastructure networks. In: ITRC Early Career Researchers Conference: Infrastructure Delivery in an Uncertain Future. 2012, Clare College, Cambridge, UK: Infrastructure Transitions Research Consortium UK (ITRC).