Critical Infrastructures Overview: Past, Present and Future

Abstract

Industrialized societies depend on the proper functioning of a whole range of technological infrastructures, such as electricity, road and railway networks and telecommunications which, due to their importance, are generically referred to as critical infrastructures (CIs). Technical failures, natural disasters and malicious events, if not terrorist, could have devastating effects on these infrastructures. The events of the last few years have accelerated efforts to identify and designate CIs at national and European levels and have reinforced concerns about increasing their protection in sensitive sectors for the safety of the individual and the community. The aim of this research is to provide the basic elements to understand the issue along with the reasons for its importance both at national, European and international level. In particular, after analyzing the origin of the problem, a systematic literature review is carried out to study the current research around future perspectives relating to the management of Cis, with particular focus on three research questions: RQ1 “What types of risk assessment methods are used to manage CIs?”, RQ2 “What are the environmental risk mitigation strategies for CIs?” and RQ3 “What is the role of the human factor in the prevention of risks for CIs?”. The results aim to be guidelines for decision makers and researchers interested in this topic.

Infrastructure seismic risk assessment: an overview and integration to contemporary open tool towards global usage

“…Despite the importance of infrastructure risk assessment and some important progress already made, an efficient and well-accepted methodology and the tool is still missing as it is demonstrated in the first part of the paper, which offers an overview of the existing tools addressing the advantages and disadvantages of each one. Then in the second and third part of the paper, we address the most important challenges in terms of infrastructure risk: (i) the complexity it possesses behaving as the intricate networks with heterogenous typologies and structural/operational characteristics, (ii) the lack of clear and globally recognized methods, which are simple and easily applicable (De Felice et al 2022) and, (iii) the missing of a unified tool that enables an integrated approach, including the generation of the seismic event and the source characterization to the connectivity loss of infrastructure network at risk.…”

Sustainable Development Adoption in the High-Tech Sector: A Focus on Ecosystem Players and Their Influence

“…4 CA-competitive advantage. 5 IEG-innovation and efficiency gains. 6 LTVRM-long-term viability and risk mitigation.…”

“…Additional research is called for to devise solutions that enable global e-waste reduction and management. De Felice et al [5] also highlighted that most telecom companies lack a systematic approach to evaluate and minimize the environmental impacts of their extensive network infrastructure. More work is needed to develop sustainability best practices and frameworks suitable for the telecom sector.…”

Exploring the Interdependencies Between Transportation and Stormwater Networks: The Case of Norman, Oklahoma

“…Likewise, Zimmerman ( 5 ), Dudenhoeffer et al ( 20 ), Zhang and Peeta ( 6 ), and Sharkey et al ( 21 ) classify interdependency from different perspectives; some classifications are based on systems’ functionalities, reaction to natural hazards, restoration, or economic impacts. Some other studies ( 22 – 25 ) focus on the resilience of infrastructures against natural disasters and human threats and propose frameworks to show the response of connected systems to these situations when human, environmental, and system performance and adaptivity are combined. State-of-the-art literature suggests the significant importance of analyzing infrastructures as connected systems rather than an individual entity.…”