Panel:
Resiliency and Response to Disasters Impacting U.S. Critical Infrastructure
(National Security and Homeland Security)
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
This session will focus on critical infrastructure resiliency to major incidents, particularly natural disasters, that impact the infrastructure sectors in the United States, and provide insights into how policymakers respond and implement best practices in response to disruptions. While literature studying critical infrastructure resiliency continues to grow, the papers in this panel session are unique to the field in that they all include a focus on the interdependencies between critical infrastructure and those who are impacted (individuals and firms) when the infrastructure sectors faces disruption.
The paper presented by Lamadrid focuses on the relationship between individuals and the critical infrastructure, particularly the decision to evacuate or not. Lamadrid uses unique datasets relevant to Hurricane Irma’s impact on Florida, and how infrastructure sectors impacted by the impending disaster (electricity, fuel supply, health care sectors) may have influenced the evacuation choice of individuals. McGrath and Thomas’ paper uses a novel dataset to explore how public and private monetary response to disasters varies depending on the human health impact of an incident versus the cost impact of an incident, across all sixteen Department of Homeland Security-defined critical infrastructure sectors. In the analysis by Dormady, Rose, and Roa-Henriquez, the focus is on the impact individual firms experience due to a major disaster, rather than individuals. Using survey data from Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Harvey, the authors use information about property damages or business interruptions experienced by firms to provide measurements relating to economic resilient tactics.
Lamadrid’s analysis provides valuable insights for policymakers regarding an individual’s perception of risk in terms of evacuation, especially given the evacuee’s perception of the recovery response process. McGrath and Thomas’ analysis concludes that while the public sector response to disasters is roughly proportional to the human health impact of an event, the public sector responds less to high-cost impact disasters, and thus the private sector (insurance) response tends to come into play. Lastly, the marginal cost curves measured by Dormady, Rose, and Roa-Henriquez provide important information as to how firms recover after a disaster and offer insights as to the most cost-effective practices firms can implement to mitigate damages and disruptions.
This is an interdisciplinary panel, with participants bringing expertise from different academic and private institutions, as well as utilizing novel datasets and various quantitative and qualitative methods. The grouping of this research and allows for different perspectives on an important emerging field of study; how policymakers perceive the risk of major incidents to critical infrastructure and what methods can be taken to improve public and private response.
