Infrastructure Resilience could easily mean different things to different people. To some ‘Infrastructure’ is all about the Internet, to others it simply means the roads and pipes underground, and to others it includes the entire Built Environment. In my mind, ‘Infrastructure’ is best described by the built environment, for if vertical structures (buildings etc) were not made, there would be no need for horizontal structures (roads, utilities, etc). All this infrastructure is created to support community and commercial endeavour.
There is also a close alignment between Infrastructure Resilience and the work of Lifelines committees. ‘The objectives of Lifelines are to reduce infrastructure outage risks and minimise restoration time when outages occur’. New Zealand Lifelines Committee.
Therefore, those things which should be considered as part of any evaluation of infrastructure resilience, are as follows:
- Buildings (safety focus)
- Telecommunications Network (Radio, TV, Telephone, etc)
- Electricity Network (including generation & distribution)
- Water Network (including treatment, storage & distribution)
- Wastewater Network (including collection, treatment & disposal)
- Petroleum Fuel & Lubricant Network
- Natural Gas Network
- Stormwater / Land Drainage Network
- Road Network
- Rail Network
- Ports (Airport, Shipping Port, Inland Freight Ports)
- Fast Moving Consumer Goods (Food, etc)
- Banking (Access to Cash)
Some items which are towards the bottom of the list are often overlooked, but are of critical importance to support community resilience. It’s much easier for a community to bounce back from a disaster if they have access to food, cash, and transportation (many people may need to leave for a while).
Please note that the above list does not focus on emergency response, although certainly does apply.