Title: Risk assessment and management for interconnected critical infrastructure systems at the site and regional levels in California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta

Authors: Emery Roe; Robert G. Bea; Sebastiaan N. Jonkman; H. Faucher De Corn; Howard Foster; John Radke; Paul Schulman; Rune Storesund

Addresses: Resilient and Sustainable Infrastructure Networks Project (RESIN), University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA; Center for Catastrophic Risk Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA ' Resilient and Sustainable Infrastructure Networks Project (RESIN), University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA; Center for Catastrophic Risk Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA ' Resilient and Sustainable Infrastructure Networks Project (RESIN), University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA; Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands ' Resilient and Sustainable Infrastructure Networks Project (RESIN), University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA ' Resilient and Sustainable Infrastructure Networks Project (RESIN), University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA; Center for Catastrophic Risk Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA ' Resilient and Sustainable Infrastructure Networks Project (RESIN), University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA; Center for Catastrophic Risk Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA ' Resilient and Sustainable Infrastructure Networks Project (RESIN), University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA; Mills College, Oakland CA, USA ' Resilient and Sustainable Infrastructure Networks Project (RESIN), University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA; Storesund Consulting, Kensington, CA, USA

Abstract: This article summarises research-in-progress for improved risk assessment and management (RAM) of critical infrastructures that interconnect across California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The need for improved RAM is patent in the Delta as elsewhere: a 'patch and pray' stalemate has developed which focuses on short-term reactive marginal maintenance and emergency response and recovery systems, all pushing infrastructures - and their engineers, designers and operators - increasingly to their performance edges and beyond. The research focuses on water supply, transportation, energy and flood protection systems, all of which are embedded in a dynamic ecosystem and showing clear signs of deterioration. Provisional findings of research activities are discussed. This article addresses critical infrastructure modelling uncertainties and ways to better understand, reduce or otherwise accommodate human/organisational and informational uncertainties in any RAM focused at the interconnected critical infrastructure system level.

Keywords: critical infrastructures; risk assessment; risk management; RAM; flood risk; uncertainty modelling; vulnerabilities; resilience; Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta; USA; United States; site level; regional level; reactive maintenance; emergency response; emergency recovery; water supply; transport; energy protection; flood protection; interconnected infrastructures; emergency management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCIS.2016.075867

International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, 2016 Vol.12 No.1/2, pp.143 - 174

Received: 11 Mar 2014
Accepted: 18 Mar 2014
Published online: 10 Apr 2016 *

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