Comparing Emergency Response Infrastructure to Other Critical Infrastructures in the California Bay‐Delta of the United States: A Research Note on Inter‐Infrastructural Differences in Reliability Management

Abstract

This research note summarizes observed similarities, differences, and mixed similarities and differences between emergency responders in California's emergency response infrastructure and control room operators in some other critical infrastructures there. The dissimilarities are all the more striking given the many similarities. The chief difference, we speculate, lies in the conditions on and skills of control room operators to ensure the continuous and safe provision of the critical service in question, even during (especially during) turbulent times – what we have called ‘high reliability management’. This management differs considerably from the active crisis management of many emergency responders, although both groups seek to manage ‘reliably’.