A resilience assessment framework for critical infrastructure networks' interdependencies

Abstract

Critical infrastructures (CIs) provide essential services to the society. As infrastructures are becoming more interdependent, there is an increasing need for better management of their interactions and interdependencies. Interdependencies among CI can cause cascading failures and, hence, amplify negative consequences due to these failures. This can also affect CIs' service restoration rate and consequently reduce their resilience in coping with these hazardous events. The common challenge currently faced by CI asset owners is the lack of robust resilience-informed business planning and management strategies in response to interdependent assets' failures due to low-probability/high-impact hazards. This is of particular importance as CI owners and managers are investing more on improving the resilience of their assets in response to extreme environmental hazards. This study has approached CI nexus from the interdependency management point of view. It has developed an integrated resilience assessment framework to identify and map interdependency-induced vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure networks. This framework can potentially support effective management of the interdependencies in CI networks. The findings have been reflected in mapping the connection between the changes in resilience due to interdependency-induced failures and the cost of intervention scenarios, providing means of exploring shared intervention strategies.