1.1 Research Context Awareness has grown during the last two decades of what is perceived as the increased vulnerability and interconnectedness of the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) to the risk of human malign threats, such as criminal activity and terrorism, and also to natural hazards, such as flooding and storm damage. Such events have the potential to have significant social, political and economic impacts on society if CNI is unable to or has to operate at a reduced capacity. As a consequence of this increased recognition of vulnerability and interdependencies, there is a significant body of research which has developed and examines the resilience of CNI to such risks. However, over a period of time and with its increased usage, the term resilience has become a buzz word being frequently used by politicians, the media and academia, yet the term is highly contested, ambiguous, conflicting and inconsistent in its application regarding CNI. Moreover, the shifting understanding of the term resilience is determined by a number of interconnected dynamics, for instance …show more content…
The railway station is recognised as a fundamental part of the railway network in any location. This research will focus on the unique case study of St Pancras International Railway Station (SPIRS) which is a major international multi modal transport hub and termini in London. The Government over the next three decades is investing heavily in a modernisation programme of the aging railway infrastructure in England. This has been established in the investment in prominent and high value developments such as the London and South East projects, Thameslink, Crossrail and the national High Speed Rail 2 (HS2)
This book is written by Peter Newman, while Timothy Beatley, and heather Boyer were the coauthors. Together they examined the idea of a resilient city in 2009. The book defined resilient as lasting, making it through a crisis, something that requires inner strength and resolve, and having strong physical infrastructure and built environment. The book later states that the main roadblock in the way of resilience is fear, and throughout the book they give many examples where fear lead to a cities downfall. They also suggest that because of our resources depleting rapidly we should really be acting now in order to make a change in order to save what is left of them.
A critical infrastructure is defined as any facility, system, or function which provides the foundation for national security, governance, economic vitality, reputation, and way of life. (http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/NIPP_InfoSharing.pdf)In short, critical infrastructure is by definition essential for the survival of the nation. The USA PATRIOT Act specifically defines critical infrastructure as "systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, (Jena Baker McNeill and Richard Weitz, 2010) so vital to the United States that the incapacity or destruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitating
The Department of Homeland Security supplies a national protection plan concerning critical infrastructure security. This plan targets a wide audience, including public and private critical infrastructure owners and administrators. Managing risks through identifying, deterring, and disrupting threats to critical infrastructure is the direct focus of this plan. The ability of an organization to reduce the impact of a threat that has occurred and reducing the impact of one that may occur is essential to an active security posture. Compromise of a critical infrastructure such as oil, airports, or traffic flow management could result in a major loss of life or resources (Department of Homeland Security, 2013).
One of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) most important missions is protecting critical infrastructure. Assessing CI vulnerabilities is critical to strengthening their capabilities and ensuring resiliency. Since most of them are privately owned, the Department partners with the private sector in conducting voluntary, non-regulatory vulnerability assessments (“Critical Infrastructure”, 2015). According to Homeland Security (2015), vulnerability assessments are the foundation National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) which outlines how the government and the private sector work together to manage risks to achieve security and resiliency goals (“Critical Infrastructure”, 2015). Protecting America’s electrical power grid is especially complicated because all of the other CIs depend on the energy sector’s
When it comes to the protection and mitigating of any structure or organization risk analysis and vulnerability assessments must be conducts so as to know what’s to be protected, the threats manmade or natural disaster, ranking the potential of threat as well as the probability. In terms of critical infrastructure the risk analysis and vulnerability assessment has guidelines from Homeland Security Presidential Directive Number 7(HSPD-7).
The tragic events of September 11, 2001 highlighted the vulnerability to terrorist attacks. The importance of critical infrastructures to the government, people, and organization can be dependent on the vulnerability towards a national disasters, manmade hazards, and terrorist attack. Contemporary standard of what constitutes critical infrastructures has evolved as a wide array of threats has increased in modern times. Critical infrastructures represent aspects of the economy that makes the nation function as a whole and protecting America’s critical infrastructures and key assets presents an enormous challenge to the Department of Homeland Security.
Critical infrastructure is actively what moves the United States forward as a world dominating force. Critical infrastructure is also the life-blood that maintains the nation’s way of life. Each one of these organizations gives strength to the country’s wealth, health and security. We use them every day in our lives, it is the bridges we cross when we go to work, and it is the planes, trains, and automobiles that move the citizens throughout the nation. It is these types of critical infrastructure that keep our homes lit at night, the water we bathe in and drink, and it provides a multitude of communication structures that help us stay in touch with our loved ones.
Below we outline the core elements of such a successful national strategy for infrastructure resilience.
Although the role of disasters such as the 2010 earthquake in Haiti did act as a catalyst for transformation, it was somewhat limited. To some extent, the question of scale comes in place when transformation at one particular level or a sector of operations support resilience at another scale (Pelling & Manuel-Navarrete 2011). Put it differently, the problems associated with being scale-dependent is the issue of linking the discrete levels down from formal institutional hierarchies to informal systems like community activism and contemporary social networks (Prager 2010). In some cases, resilience can also result to the desire of only reinforcing status quo by responding to disruptions outside of the social ladder (Cretney 2014). Similarly,
Vulnerability is a term that does not a single set definition but can be defined in many different ways. This essay aims to unpack vulnerability and what it is comprised of, namely exposure, sensitivity and resilience. This essay will briefly explain three approaches of vulnerability assessment, which are: risk/hazard, ecological resilience and political ecology/economy, and to go in depth into the political ecology/economy approach. The essay also aims to discuss a case study that uses one of these approaches and to explore how the case study uses this approach. The essay will then discuss other approaches that may have been used for the case study and will conclude with suggesting which approach is most appropriate for the case study and why.
They examine how infrastructure and responses are measured on fragility curves, which measure how fragile something is in terms of ability to handle strain before failure. They examine the operational limits of dealing with a crisis; capability, capacity and delivery. There is a depiction of a Tiered Response Pyramid where those at the top have higher capability than those at the bottom, but those at the bottom are more numerous with lesser skill. Next is a modified pyramid that sorts out each tier into more capable tiers within the tier. After this there is another altered pyramid that widens the tiers by using off duty personnel in varying shifts thereby increasing surge time. There is another pyramid that increases capacity but with delayed response time as the extra personnel come from organizations further from the jurisdiction of immediate incident. Pfeifer and Roman note that the benefits of this model would allow local jurisdictions to have access to people they wouldn’t normally have and everyone in the pyramid can better surge because of the increased capacity in all tiers. They end it by saying the pyramid would standardize a crisis managers resources while strengthening relationships between
To begin with this assignment I will have a look at and discuss an old railway station.
This study is designed to ascertain the perspective of the passengers regarding a number of issues including: how often passengers use the railway, how long it takes passengers to reach the stations, the types of tickets used, the reasons for the journeys, the passengers' views on the facilities at each station (Appleton, Newtown, Oldingham and Sheldon), and If there are particular problems at one or more of the stations.
Nearly every community has some sort of community risk, threat, and assessment plan that takes into account one of the six potential risks that are of concern to homeland security. Though each of these plans will likely differ from one another, many communities will have the same types of information in their plans. This essay will look at the Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment Guide (THIRA), the Community Risk Reduction Planning Guide, as well as FEMA’s National Preparedness plan. Any combination of these guides are a good starting point for every community in America. At top of every communities list as well as the nation is the protection of the critical infrastructure. Loss of infrastructure regardless of how big or small the community is could have very crippling effects on that community.
Trains are everywhere in our society, we have jokes, toys, movies, and children’s television shows, but did you know rail transport started in 6th century Greece? The city of San Antonio, Texas is a fast-growing metropolitan city that has a very tremendous amount of people. It has been estimated that the city will grow by another million people in the next ten to twenty years. San Antonio’s traffic is becoming a huge issue and is quickly approaching to be one of the most congested areas in the states. The public transport in San Antonio consists of a very complex bus system, taxicabs, Trolley’s downtown, and the growing market of ridesharing drivers. San Antonio has had many talks and negotiations throughout the last two decades on getting a Light Rail system constructed to help with public transportation. This proposal is for specific businesses, the city of San Antonio and Bexar County to come to a funding agreement.