Resilience and essential public infrastructure

Abstract

This chapter begins with a commentary on resilience as the meta-concept for organizational preparedness for disruptive events, and the factors that influence the implementation of a resilience agenda. This is followed by an analysis of resilience in the special context of essential public infrastructure wherein priority is given to reliability and continuity of service, and interdependencies between infrastructures must be dealt with. The resilience agenda of a major public water supply system is then presented to illustrate the broad range of initiatives needed to ensure its resilience. Finally, policy issues are discussed regarding adaptations of resilience to meet concerns about security and sustainability.