Assessing resilience at different scales: from single assets to complex systems

Abstract

AbstractNowadays, critical infrastructure and systems are getting more and more interconnected, while facing increasing and more intensive hazards: from man-made to natural ones, including those exacerbated by effects of the climate change. The demand for their robustness and resiliency against all these threats is finding ground to organizations or states’ ambitions, implementations, and policies. Moreover, their distributed network spanning from local areas to cities, from regions to cross-country extension, make them a target for malicious actions aimed to damage or even disrupt their critical supplied and therefore the availability of the service they deliver. The paper focuses on a review from an engineering perspective of past efforts (namely those related to the H2020 Secure Gas project) and provides evidence of application cases where the network/system dimension of the critical infrastructure is a key point to be taken into account and to be safeguarded. Finally, an outlook on future perspectives and potentials in the application of resilience at local, urban and territorial/national level is described, with incoming and emerging threats at local and global level.