Full Paper: Digital Resilience in Critical Infrastructures: A Systematic Literature Review

In times of disruptive events, effective response by organizations, critical systems, and society is paramount. The response process involves pre-event preparation, impact absorption, and system restoration, which together represent the concept of resilience. Critical infrastructures (CI) are essential to the functioning of society and require a high level of resilience to ensure that they can withstand and quickly recover from disruptive events. With the incorporation of Information Systems (IS) into CI, there is a need to study Digital Resilience to identify potential risks and develop strategies to mitigate them effectively. In this research, we conducted a Systematic Literature Review on Digital Resilience to understand its scope, and classified articles based on their scope, resilience dimensions, and phases they address, as well as interdependence between systems. We aim to contribute to the scientific understanding of Digital Resilience by analyzing existing gaps and proposing possible future research directions. This study provides an overview of the current state-of-the-art, the types of research conducted, and the resulting artifacts. Additionally, it introduces a new area of focus within the field of resilience: Digital Resilience

Technology-related disasters:a survey towards disaster-resilient software defined networks

Resilience against disaster scenarios is essential to network operators, not only because of the potential economic impact of a disaster but also because communication networks form the basis of crisis management. COST RECODIS aims at studying measures, rules, techniques and prediction mechanisms for different disaster scenarios. This paper gives an overview of different solutions in the context of technology-related disasters. After a general overview, the paper focuses on resilient Software Defined Networks

National Infrastructure Commission Digitally Connected Infrastructure System Resilience: Literature Review (UCL)

This literature review was produced by Dr Tom Dolan, Senior Research Associate ICIF and UKCRIC, UCL on behalf of UCL and Arup for the National Infrastructure Commission. The literature review presents and critiques key areas of academic literature relevant to four research questions on digitally connected infrastructure systems (DCIS) posed by the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC). The review provides additional context to support analysis, findings and recommendations presented in the main project report, and can be read as in conjunction with the report or as a standalone documen

Critical infrastructure, panarchies and the vulnerability paths of cascading disasters

Cascading effects and cascading disasters are emerging fields of scientific research. The widespread diffusion of functional networks increases the complexity of interdependent systems and their vulnerability to large-scale disruptions. Although in recent years studies of interconnections and chain effects have improved significantly, cascading phenomena are often associated with the ‘‘toppling domino metaphor’’, or with high-impact, low-probability events. This paper aimed to support a paradigm shift in the state of the art by proposing a new theoretical approach to cascading events in terms of their root causes and lack of predictability. By means of interdisciplinary theory building, we demonstrate how cascades reflect the ways in which panarchies collapse. We suggest that the vulnerability of critical infrastructure may orientate the progress of events in relation to society’s feedback loops, rather than merely being an effect of natural triggers. Our conclusions point to a paradigm shift in the preparedness phase that could include escalation points and social nodes, but that also reveals a brand new field of research for disaster scholars

ADDRESSING CASCADING CONSEQUENCES FOR CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE AND VITAL SOCIETAL FUNCTIONS IN FLOODING EVENTS

Although there have been significant advances in the research field of critical infrastructures and vital societal functions during the last decade, there still exist many challenges in implementing and carrying out studies in practice. One of these challenges is a feasible method for mapping, analysing and visualising the cascading consequences that arise for critical infrastructures and societal functions affected by large spatial hazards. The presented study is the result from commissioned work for the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB), aiming at contributing to improved risk, vulnerability and continuity management for regions in Sweden at risk of being affected by severe spatial hazards. The study takes it basis from, and connects to, ongoing work in Sweden relating to the risk of severe flooding events in accordance to the EU Floods Directive and work related to critical infrastructure protection in accordance to the EU Directive on European Critical Infrastructures. The results from the study where mainly derived through a literature review and workshops, utilising a flood prone region in Sweden as a case. The literature review focused on methods and approaches, both scientific and in grey literature, for estimation, visualisation and weighing of consequence arising for critical infrastructures and vital societal functions for large spatial hazards. Here a specific focus was on literature addressing the issue of interdependencies and the use of GIS. The workshops involved participants from critical infrastructure operators, municipalities, regional county boards, MSB, Statistics Sweden, among others, aiming at the practical needs and challenges for a method and for testing the developed method. From the literature review it was clear that most studies focus on analysing the direct consequences of large spatial hazards. Only few studies address the indirect consequences that arise due to interdependencies, revealing that indirect consequences can be as high or higher than the direct consequences. This necessitates the need for addressing indirect consequences systematically. The review also highlighted that the required underlying data is not easily attainable and comes with several challenges with respect to collection, analysis and visualization of the results for decision making. The developed method is concluded to both fulfil a need, as expressed by the participants in the workshops, and was considered as a feasible approach to start addressing the issue of cascading consequences during large spatial events. However, we also conclude that, based on the literature review and the practical challenges present in this area, ample research opportunities exist

Infastructure Interdependencies Modeling and Analysis - A Review and Synthesis

The events of 9/11 and the occurrence of major natural disasters in recent years has resulted in increased awareness and renewed desire to protect critical infrastructure that are the pillars to maintaining what has become normal life in our economy. The problem has been compounded because the increased connectedness between the various sectors of the economy has resulted in interdependencies that allow for problems and issues with one infrastructure to affect other infrastructures. This area is now being investigated extensively after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) prioritized this issue. There is now a vast extant of literature in the area of infrastructure interdependencies and the modeling of it. This paper presents a synthesis and survey of the literature in the area of infrastructure interdependency modeling methods and proposes a framework for classification of these studies. The framework classifies infrastructure interdependency modeling and analysis methods into four quadrants in terms of system complexities and risks. The directions of future research are also discussed in this paper