An Introduction to Resilience for Critical Infrastructures

Abstract

Wide ranging and uncertain threats to public health, energy networks, cybersecurity, and many other interconnected facets of infrastructure and human activity, are driving governments, including those of the United States, European Union and elsewhere to further efforts to bolster national resilience and security. Resilience offers the capability to better review how systems may continually adjust to changing information, relationships, goals, threats, and other factors in order to adapt in the face of change and uncertainty – particularly those potential changes that could yield negative outcomes. Specific to this need, fifty scholars and practitioners of risk and resilience analysis from some twenty countries met in Ponta Delgada in the Azores Islands from June 26 – 29, 2016 to discuss the challenges associated with the emerging science of resilience theory and applications. Sponsored and funded in part by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Science for Peace and Security Programme, the overall topic of this meeting was “Resilience-Based Approaches to Critical Infrastructure Safeguarding.” The workshop focused on ways in which military commanders and civilian decision makers alike could utilize resilience analysis in operations. More specifically, workshop discussion centered on both general resilience theory and analysis as well as various applications of resilience in topics ranging from cybersecurity to infrastructure resilience to ecosystem health. This chapter serves as a general introduction to the perspectives of various participants, as well as a reflection of discussion regarding how resilience thinking and analysis may be applied to critical infrastructure in various applications.