Den 26-30 juni medverkade CenCIP-forskarna Jonas Johansson och Henrik Hassel i genomförandet av en sommarkurs inom Critical Infrastructure Resilience vid Venice International University (VIU). Totalt deltog 17 personer från flertalet olika discipliner (uttagna från totalt 30 sökande) i fem berikande dagar in en fantastiskt vacker och inspirerande inlärningsmiljö på en liten ö strax utanför Venedig. Kursen leddes av Erdem Ergin, University of Tor Vergata.

Inom kursen gick vi igenom olika aspekter av det omfattande kritsk infrastrukturområdet (6 moduler) som studenterna sedan applicerade i studier av kritiska infrastrukturer i Venedig (4 moduler). Nedan ges en kort sammanfattnig av det teoretiska innehållet i kursen.

Module 1 – Definition and role of critical infrastructure
Erdem Ergin, University of Tor Vergata & Jonas Johansson, Lund University

The first session will provide background information on critical infrastructure, the connection with globalization and drivers behind the development of the field. It will discuss the structural changes that affect our society as a whole and the drivers of risk. The session will use concrete examples of what governments do to protect their assets in an increasingly interdependent and complex environment.

Module 2 – Basics of risk assessment and developing scenarios
Henrik Hassel, Lund University
In the second session an overarching framework for risk management, the basics of how to conduct risk assessments, and ways of presenting risk will be given. This will include addressing main components of risk, how to develop and structure scenarios, how to assess likelihoods and consequences and how to present and evaluate risk. The session will give a general introduction to risk assessment with special emphasis on how to apply risk assessment principles & tools on critical infrastructure systems.

Module 3 – Cascading impacts and ranking criticality
Jonas Johansson, Lund University & Erdem Ergin, University of Tor Vergata

The third session will explore ways to understand the complexities involved with our society’s interconnected infrastructures, It will share concrete case studies from recent events such as the European power blackout in 2006, the Eyjafjallajökull Volcanic Eruption in 2010, and the Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Based on these case studies insights into the effect of interdependencies and cascading impacts are given, e.g. key characteristics to consider and geographical scale and temporal aspects of different types of critical infrastructures. It will further be explored on various parameters to scale up and rank the importance of assets and infrastructures based on the methodology used by the UK Government.

Module 5 – Infrastructure Resilience in coastal zone
Tomoya Shibayama, Waseda University

This session will discuss specific resilience applications such as structural design, business continuity planning and preparedness through a series of recent events from the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, such as the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and its impact on infrastructure lying on coastal zones. This session will discuss and compare European and Asian approaches, and provide a case study of storm counter-measures for Venice and Tokyo.

Module 7 – Overview of resilience management strategies
Erdem Ergin, University of Tor Vergata 

This session will discuss the concept of resilience and the differences between engineering and ecological resilience. The session will provide an overview on various risk management strategies, such as risk prevention & reduction, risk transfer and preparedness and share concrete examples from recent and on-going projects. Finally, the session will explain the connections with the risk matrix and the emerging approaches to decision-making under uncertainty.

Module 9 – Case study: strategic thinking within the EU
Gaetano Vivo, European Commission

This session will share the most recent development within the EU, discussing the evolution in the last decade and the current efforts under the current EU Presidency trio (Netherlands, Slovakia and Malta) to make it a priority area of intervention. The session will also discuss the concrete efforts from various governments to build resilience for critical infrastructure and the challenges they face.