Systematic Review of Calibration Technologies and their Impact on Safety in Global Critical Infrastructure

Abstract

Calibration technologies play a critical yet often understated role in maintaining safety across global critical infrastructure systems that depend on accurate, stable, and trustworthy measurements for monitoring, control, and protection. This systematic review examines how calibration technologies influence safety performance across multiple infrastructure domains, including industrial and process facilities, energy and utility systems, nuclear infrastructure, transportation networks, and other safety-critical socio-technical systems. Guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework, an initial pool of 1,247 records was identified through structured database searches and supplementary manual screening. After removing 386 duplicate records and excluding 727 articles during title and abstract screening, 134 peer-reviewed and technical papers were retained for full analysis. These studies span more than 25 years of publication, represent research conducted in over 30 countries, and collectively account for approximately 19,800 scholarly citations, indicating a robust and mature evidence base.Numerical synthesis of the findings shows that 109 of the 134 reviewed studies (81.3%) explicitly identify calibration as a prerequisite for the reliable functioning of safety-critical instrumentation, alarms, and control systems. Instrument degradation and drift are addressed in 97 studies (72.4%), with 63 studies (47.0%) documenting that drift-related measurement errors can remain latent for extended operational periods before detection. Calibration interval determination is discussed in 88 studies (65.7%), of which 54 studies (61.4%) report limitations of fixed time-based scheduling in adequately controlling safety risk. Advanced calibration approaches, including online monitoring, analytical redundancy, and model-based drift detection, are examined in 61 studies (45.5%); however, 44 of these studies (72.1%) emphasize that such approaches are most effective when used in combination with direct, traceable calibration rather than as standalone solutions. Safety incident analyses are included in 67 studies (50.0%), with 49 studies (73.1%) identifying measurement or calibration-related failures as contributing factors to unsafe conditions, near-miss events, or incident escalation. Additionally, 85 studies (63.4%) highlight deficiencies in calibration documentation, traceability, or governance as recurring precursors to measurement failure. Overall, the numerical findings confirm that calibration technologies function as foundational socio-technical safety enablers, with measurable influence on safety margins, barrier integrity, and decision reliability across interconnected global critical infrastructure systems.