From May 2005, IRGC’s focus broadened and we began an examination of five critical infrastructures : electric power supply, gas supply, urban water supply and waste water treatment, rail transport and systems for general information and communication services (ICT). These share a number of similarities : all involve distributed complex physical networks ; they are organised along similar value chains with elements embedded within the socio-political-economic framework ; and, their operating strategies and end-user behaviours are subject to significant and evolving contextual changes and risk-shaping factors.
Our work focused both on the risks associated with individual infrastructures and the risks associated with the increasing interdependence between them – as in the use of ICT to monitor and control almost all other critical infrastructures. We examined each system and their operational and socio-economic environments separately, but which also viewed the interdependent infrastructures as, collectively, a highly complex “system of systems”. We also explored four issues :
What are the factors which have promoted and caused tighter integration and greater interdependency among critical infrastructures ?
What are the vulnerabilities and main drivers behind this tighter integration ? What are the political and institutional short-comings ?
What technical, management and organisational strategies are needed to reduce social vulnerabilities to disruption of these systems ?
What policy options could be used to promote the adoption of such socially desirable technical, management and organisational strategies ?
| Our report of this study was published in 2006 as an IRGC White Paper, ‘Managing and Reducing Social Vulnerabilities from Coupled Critical Infrastructures’. |
In the White Paper we outline a number of technical, management and organisational strategies and policy options that may help to reduce the probability of disruption to these systems and consequent interruptions to the vital services they supply. We also look at the individual infrastructures by assessing their characteristics (including their levels of interdependence with other infrastructures), their criticality and the adequacy of their risk governance. Finally, we offer a number of potential options for policy-makers and suggest areas in which further study may be needed before definitive policy recommendations can be made.
| In 2007 we published a summary of the White Paper as an IRGC Policy Brief. |
