Critical infrastructure resilience can achieve the necessary degree of competency and awareness through the active participation of the local and central authorities, but mostly through the involvement of the economic operators and local partners that manage critical infrastructures and services, the companies that specialize in safety technology and private security, the non-governmental organisations, academic representatives and media.
The study on critical infrastructure resilience should include the following chapters and basic elements:
1. Critical infrastructure analysis, which has as main objectives:
a) to establish the methodology for data collection, specific surveys, information circuit and the format of the final report;
b) the technical characteristics of the interdependent critical infrastructure and services (power supply, oil products, water, transport, emergency services, medical services, processing and food supply, communications etc.);
c) to identify the vulnerability of the elements which constitute the critical infrastructures and services mentioned above;
d) to establish the necessary amount of information for future activities;
e) to evaluate the possible threats on the “community”, including extreme natural phenomena, technological incidents and terrorist acts.
2. Critical infrastructure interdependency analysis, which has as main objectives:
a) to identify the interdependencies between the vital critical infrastructures and services;
b) to examine the impact of a mass collapse of the vital critical infrastructures and services;
c) to identify the best ways to isolate or limit a possible mass collapse of the infrastructures and services that are vital for the citizen and the community at national level.
This analysis should consider the following elements:
a) Energy networks and installations (especially power, oil and gas supply installations, installations for storing oil products, power supply and distribution, oil supply and distribution, power conversion stations, heat carrier supply networks);
b) Information and communication infrastructure (telecommunications, TV and radio systems, information program and material, metropolitan Internet and data access networks);
c) Local and national banking sector;
d) First aid sector (public and private hospitals and clinics, blood banks, laboratories, pharmacies and pharmaceutical warehouses etc.), emergency services, search & rescue (firehouses, rescue and extrication, S.M.U.R.D.);
e) Food sector (production, processing, storage, distribution);
f) Water supply (protection of water sources; storage reservoirs, treatment facilities and distribution networks);
g) Used water treatment and evacuation;
h) Local, regional and national transport networks (urban transport, airports, ports, intermodal facilities, railway networks and hubs, transit networks, land, air and maritime traffic control systems etc.);
i) Manufacture, storage and transport of dangerous goods (materials) – chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear waste;
j) Local, regional and national coordination at government level (local administration, police department, special services, communitarian services);
k) Security policy regarding the protection of critical objectives and how to operate in critical situations, mass information, media, security systems, local surveillance and panic control etc.
The case study should evaluate and highlight possible consequences of a mass collapse. Aside from the physical, cybernetic, institutional, geographical and functional interdependencies, this analysis should consider the necessary means to ensure inter-sectoral cooperation and communication in order to anticipate and reduce possible malfunctions.
3. Analysis on the interaction between the civil society, local authorities and central representatives, which has as main objectives:
a) to identify the real intervention potential in case of disaster, based on the existing civil and special resources;
b) to establish regulations and alternatives on how to operate in case of disaster of other regional emergencies;
c) to establish transparent procedures and protocols for a viable public-private partnership and to include qualified personnel and specific intervention measures;
d) to establish, in accordance with the existing procedures, the maximum value for every operation, service and material resource used, in order to recover the cost of the intervention measures.
4. Develop an application that simulates the way in which the interdependencies between critical infrastructures and other regional, national or European critical infrastructures operate, which has as main objectives:
a) to simulate the optimum operation
of the infrastructure systems that serve the communities in the respective area;
b) to validate the simulation in accordance with the target;
c) to run the simulation in order to obtain the magnitude of the impact on the rail transport infrastructure compared to the selection of a possible event or threat, based on a previously prepared scenario;
d) to develop and visualize the effects obtained following a scenario of probable events, which include mass collapse of interdependent infrastructures, indicating the most likely affected area, the material damage and the failure of rail traffic safety for the citizen;
e) to use the exit data and conclusions in order to plan the necessary measures for prevention, protection, resilience, intervention with special means and forces, as well as to introduce training exercises for an emergency intervention.
5. Analysis on the economic and social consequences after interrupting the services supplied by the critical infrastructure and the impact of the damages caused, which has as main objectives:
a) to define and estimate, if possible, the primary, secondary and third level of consequences of the elaborated scenario;
b) to define and estimate the possible social consequences at local, regional or national level;
c) to define and estimate the effects of the elaborated scenarios on the local and regional budgets;
d) to estimate the costs, benefits and risks of the protection, intervention and rehabilitation activities performed by the local public administration, private critical infrastructure and service operators and other public institutions.
6. Analysis on the policies and strategies for the improvement of critical infrastructure resilience, which has as main objectives:
a) to evaluate the risks, costs, benefits and changes associated with the development of new strategies and of a more robust security plan in order to improve critical infrastructure resilience;
b) to elaborate and present a resilience strategy at national and regional level, with a minimum budget based on the necessary investments for the protection of the vital infrastructures and services in the rail transport sub-sector;
c) to identify the “bottlenecks” and the discontinuities in the elaboration and decision-making process, at the level of the company and that of the private subcontracting companies;
d) to propose decision-making mechanisms for the elaboration of proper “resilience” measures, which are considered a priority at regional and national level;
e) to establish the needs, competencies and procedures for cooperation at European, national and regional level between public and private operators who manage interdependent critical infrastructures and services, in order to achieve the targets set through specific resilience plans;
Conclusions
The general objective of the critical infrastructure resilience analysis is to provide support for the management team by providing a set of flexible, dynamic and complex conclusions and guidelines, which are meant to act as a real basis for the application of the Business Continuity Plan, as a main attribute of the General Manager (General Director) and the elaboration – performed by experts coordinated by the Security Liaison Office appointed at the level of the Company and its subordinate regionals – of the Operator Security Plan, in conformity with art. 5, art. 6 and appendix II of “Directive 2008/114 of December 8, 2008 concerning the identification and selection of the European critical infrastructure and the evaluation of the need to improve their protection”, a European legal document set to be implemented on January 12, 2011.
The provisions of this European document will be implemented and completed with the proper annotations, including sectoral responsibilities, coordinatio structures and point of contact at national level through the Emergency Government Ordinance for the identification, selection and protection of critical infrastructures in Romania, elaborated by an inter-ministry workgroup. Currently, this document is gathering the necessary authorizations from the respective ministries and public institutions.
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