Critical Infrastructure Resilience

Critical infrastructure is composed of assets necessary to the U.S. government, military, individuals, and private industry. The 16 U.S. critical infrastructure sectors are chemical; commercial facilities; communications; critical manufacturing; dams; defense industrial base; emergency services; energy; financial services; food and agriculture; government facilities; healthcare and public health; information technology; nuclear reactors, materials, and waste; transportation systems; and water and wastewater systems. Disturbances to critical infrastructure through events such as natural disasters and terrorist actions threaten the U.S. economy, national security, and citizens’ quality of life.

This State of the Art Report (SOAR) focuses on the concept of critical infrastructure resilience. In 2013, the White House issued Presidential Policy Directive 21 for Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience to strengthen critical infrastructure. Resilience provides critical infrastructure an enhanced ability to mitigate the detrimental effects of adverse events. Resilience can be achieved through many avenues. This report highlights research, technology, and concepts that can be applied to support critical infrastructure resilience.

Report contributors are Homeland Defense & Security Information Analysis Center (HDIAC) subject matter experts with training and experience from a wide array of fields, including chemical, civil, computer and electrical engineering; geography; urban and community planning; disaster relief; emergency management; public health; and alternative energy. The topics discussed in this report include investment planning, computational models, smart grid, electricity pricing, natural nanomaterials, and community resilience. These concepts can be applied to improve critical infrastructure resilience across several HDIAC focus areas, including Alternative Energy, CBRN Defense, Critical Infrastructure Protection, Homeland Defense and Security, and Weapons of Mass Destruction.