Title: Criticality of infrastructures for organisations

Authors: Sonia Giovinazzi; Charlotte Brown; Erica Seville; Joanne R. Stevenson; Tracy Hatton; John J. Vargo

Addresses: Department of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering, University of Canterbury, Private Bag, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand ' Resilient Organisations, University of Canterbury, Private Bag, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand ' Resilient Organisations, University of Canterbury, Private Bag, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand ' Resilient Organisations, University of Canterbury, Private Bag, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand ' Resilient Organisations, University of Canterbury, Private Bag, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand ' Resilient Organisations, University of Canterbury, Private Bag, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand

Abstract: Critical infrastructure systems provide for the circulation of people, goods, services and information upon which health, safety, comfort and economic activity of a society depend. In this study, we analyse data from 541 organisations affected by the 2010-2011 Canterbury, New Zealand, earthquake to understand how disruption of critical infrastructure services translates into disruption for businesses and other organisations affected by the loss of infrastructure services. The paper proposes metrics for assessing the relevance and criticality of infrastructures for organisations. In this context, relevance refers to organisations' perceived reliance on infrastructure services and criticality refers to the impact that infrastructure service outage might have on organisations, as a function of the infrastructure relevance for the same organisations and of the duration of infrastructure service outage. The metrics and procedures proposed in this paper provide a much-needed contribution towards enhancing understanding of the private sector's vulnerability to infrastructure disruption. The study findings can be used to qualitatively assess the vulnerability of industry sectors to infrastructure disruption, and can support the estimation of potential impacts induced by infrastructure service outages, at organisation and industry sector level. This can inform and foster public and private sector investments to enhance infrastructure resilience.

Keywords: critical infrastructure; loss of service; infrastructure services; organisational disruption; infrastructure relevance; infrastructure criticality; business disruption; Canterbury earthquake; New Zealand; earthquakes; private sector vulnerability; infrastructure resilience; seismic activity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCIS.2016.081303

International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, 2016 Vol.12 No.4, pp.331 - 363

Received: 26 Feb 2016
Accepted: 22 Jul 2016
Published online: 03 Jan 2017 *

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