The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently published the report, Critical Infrastructure Protection : An Implementation Strategy Could Advance DHS's Coordination of Resilience Efforts across Port and Other Infrastructure. Although this report focuses primarily on ports, the concepts contained in it pertain to infrastructure in general, including water. The GAO examined the DHS's (Department of Homeland Security) definition of resilience, "the ability to resist, absorb, recover from, or successfully adapt to adversity or a change in conditions" (pp. 1-2). Each of the four infinitives in the definition "broadly corresponds to some resilience-enhancing measure . . . resilience involves preparation before, mitigation during, response immediately following, and recovery after an adverse event" (p. 2).
Understanding infrastructure as systems, the GAO included in the concept of resilience their interdependencies and geographic boundaries. Nationally, the DHS listed 18 infrastructure segments: Food and Agriculture, Banking and Finance, Chemical, Commercial Facilities, Communication, Critical Manufacturing, Dams, Defense Industrial Base, Emergency Service, Energy, Government Facilities, Healthcare and Public Health, Information Technology, National Monuments and Icons, Nuclear Reactors, Materials and Waste, Postal and Shipping, Transportation Systems, Water.
A previous report of the DHS, National Infrastructure Protection Plan, outlined DHS's strategy to educate asset owners on resilience--assessment criteria of resilience and vulnerability, identification of gaps, development of procedures, and establishing accountability.
http://www.gao.gov/assets/650/649705.pdf
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