Resilience capacities assessment for critical infrastructures disruption: The READ framework (part 1)

We suggest an approach to assessing critical infrastructure resilience (CIR) as a step towards informed resource allocation and operation when planning to cope with CI disruptions in the context of emergency management or multi stakeholder planning. The approach is capabilities-based, where a capability is defined as a combination of assets, resources and routines specifically arranged to accomplish a critical task and assure a key objective.

The capabilities (intra- and inter-institutional) are grouped into clusters according to the resilience phase (preventive, absorptive, adaptive and restorative) where they are invoked; and according to the system type (technical, operational, social and economic) which they belong to. An overall resilience capability building cycle completes the framework, enabling a systematic implementation of relevant capabilities and making gap analysis with regard to resilience deficits.

A simplified test case exemplifying the use of the framework in the context of a regional public-private collaboration for CIR is provided.