Strategic planning to protect critical infrastructure systems

This paper examines the protection of Critical Infrastructure (CI) within transport networks from vulnerabilities by investigating the impact of disasters such as bushfires, hurricanes and earthquakes. Damage to transport infrastructure creates a cascading effect on other critical infrastructure systems such as telecommunication, energy, material supply, emergency services and health and utilities. Thus, transport networks are one of the main CI systems that need to be protected. This research paper has reviewed typical strategic planning issues associated with failure of transport infrastructure and presents the common approach adopted in developed countries. A detailed analysis of three case studies have been conducted to identify the gaps in strategic transport planning and decision making processes required to mitigate the impacts of disasters. A framework has been developed to quantify the gaps in strategic planning to address both existing and future scenarios.