Insufficient Situational Awareness about Critical Infrastructures by Emergency Management.
conference paper
This paper discusses critical infrastructures (CI) and their dependencies, with as central theme the
hypothesis that a lack of CI situational awareness and protection in emergency management operations
results in unnecessary amplification of the consequences. This paper discusses the hypothesis and findings
along some well-known international emergencies analysed from the perspective of the hypothesis.
Societies are increasingly dependent on a set of products and services which comprise the Critical
Infrastructures (CI). CI are those assets and parts thereof which are essential for the well-functioning of
critical societal functions, including the supply chain, health, safety, security, economy or social wellbeing
of people (European Commission, 2008). Failing CI may have serious consequences to citizens and
society as a whole. One would expect that emergency management functions have full situational
awareness of the state of CI during a major incident and of the responsibilities to protect them. CI (public
and private) are important to emergency management and disaster response in three ways: for one’s own
operations inside the incident area including one’s own C3I structure as well as for one’s static command
infrastructure, for the population in the incident area, and for critical infrastructure services to the area
around the incident area.
Empirical evidence from reports about emergencies and disasters in various regions in the world shows
that situational awareness and caretaking for CI is a weak spot in emergency management unless the
disruption of a CI is the emergency itself. This causes unwanted extensions of the duration and size of
emergencies with more casualties, more suffering, and more damage than needed. If, however, emergency
management has a proper situational awareness and takes proper care of the protection of CI, it may even
help to decrease the consequences and speed up recovery. Apart from awareness-building, this paper
presents several recommendations for Emergency Management.
hypothesis that a lack of CI situational awareness and protection in emergency management operations
results in unnecessary amplification of the consequences. This paper discusses the hypothesis and findings
along some well-known international emergencies analysed from the perspective of the hypothesis.
Societies are increasingly dependent on a set of products and services which comprise the Critical
Infrastructures (CI). CI are those assets and parts thereof which are essential for the well-functioning of
critical societal functions, including the supply chain, health, safety, security, economy or social wellbeing
of people (European Commission, 2008). Failing CI may have serious consequences to citizens and
society as a whole. One would expect that emergency management functions have full situational
awareness of the state of CI during a major incident and of the responsibilities to protect them. CI (public
and private) are important to emergency management and disaster response in three ways: for one’s own
operations inside the incident area including one’s own C3I structure as well as for one’s static command
infrastructure, for the population in the incident area, and for critical infrastructure services to the area
around the incident area.
Empirical evidence from reports about emergencies and disasters in various regions in the world shows
that situational awareness and caretaking for CI is a weak spot in emergency management unless the
disruption of a CI is the emergency itself. This causes unwanted extensions of the duration and size of
emergencies with more casualties, more suffering, and more damage than needed. If, however, emergency
management has a proper situational awareness and takes proper care of the protection of CI, it may even
help to decrease the consequences and speed up recovery. Apart from awareness-building, this paper
presents several recommendations for Emergency Management.
Topics
TNO Identifier
28797
Source title
Papers presented at the NATO-RTO Information Systems Technology (IST) Panel Symposium on "C3I for crisis, emergency and consequence management" held in Bucharest, Romania, on 11-12 May 2009
Place of publication
Neuilly-sur-Seine
Pages
10/1-10/10
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