Critical infrastructure
Critical infrastructure risk is about interdependence: power, water, transport, telecommunications and finance rely on each other, so the failure that matters is rarely the one in the asset that was assessed.
- Institution
- The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)
- Service level
- R0: information and enquiries
The short answer.
Critical infrastructure as a field of risk covers the lifeline systems, such as power, water, transport, telecommunications and health facilities, whose failure cascades across society and the economy. In the Nexus Consortium it is studied as science at GCRI by Water Nexus and Energy Nexus, governed at GRF by Disaster and Crisis Governance, and understood financially at GRA by Development Finance Nexus as well as Financial Cyber and Operational Resilience; this gateway links those platforms and the methods they share.
The field, seen three ways.
Science and evidence
Water Nexus, Energy Nexus, Critical Infrastructure, Cities and Built Environment, Cybersecurity and Digital Resilience
Interdependencies the asset owner cannot see.
Classic interdependency analysis distinguishes physical, cyber, geographic and logical dependence. A substation flood takes out water pumping and telecom towers on battery backup; a timing-signal failure affects payments and grids at once. Owners assess their own assets well and their dependencies poorly, because the dependency sits in someone else's system.
| Dependency type | Example | Assessment method |
|---|---|---|
| Physical | Water treatment needs grid power | Input-output and network models |
| Cyber | SCADA relies on telecoms | Architecture review, attack-path analysis |
| Geographic | Co-located assets in one floodplain | Spatial overlay of hazard and assets |
| Logical | Market rules that link operator decisions | Agent-based and game-theoretic models |
Resilience obligations and standards.
| Framework or body | What it governs or supplies |
|---|---|
| EU Critical Entities Resilience Directive and NIS2 | Resilience and cybersecurity duties for operators in designated sectors |
| ISO 22301 | Business continuity management systems |
| Sendai Framework target D | Reduce damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services |
| ISA/IEC 62443 | Security for industrial automation and control systems |
Infrastructure as the transmission belt.
- Energy: the dependency of every other network.
- Cyber: operational technology as an attack surface.
- Cities: density multiplies consequence.
- Disaster: restoration sequencing after events.
The science sits on Critical Infrastructure; methods start from resilience engineering.
The methods behind the field.
- Hydrology and water science
- Water and environmental engineering
- Geospatial information systems
- Earth observation and remote sensing
- Sensors, IoT and observation networks
- Forecasting and time-series analysis
- Extreme value theory and tail risk
- Spatial statistics and geostatistics
- Uncertainty quantification and model validation
- Energy generation, storage and grid technology
- Power systems engineering
- Reliability and resilience engineering
- Optimization and operations research
- Network science and contagion
- Materials science and chemistry
- Process and industrial safety engineering
- Systems engineering
- Communications and network technology
- Space systems and satellite services
- Structural and earthquake engineering
- Urban and transport engineering
- Social and behavioural science
- Earth and geophysical science
- Cybersecurity and cryptography
- Software and safety-critical systems engineering
- Quantum computing, sensing and communication
- Decision analysis under uncertainty
- Policy, institutional and decision science
- Economics and development economics
- Causal inference and impact evaluation
- Agricultural, soil and food science
Terms used on this page.
Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Critical infrastructure | The physical structures, facilities, networks and assets that provide services essential to the functioning of society and the economy. |
| Lifeline | An infrastructure system, such as power, water or telecommunications, whose service other systems and people need continuously. |
| Interdependency | A relationship in which the state of one infrastructure affects another, through physical, cyber, geographic or logical links. |
| Asset management | The coordinated activity of an organization to realise value from its assets over their life cycle. |
Where this page's references lead.
The bodies and documents this page is read against. Status and editions change; each link goes to the issuing body.
Questions and answers.
Why does GCRI host field gateways?
Around GCRI.
Start with an enquiry.
The current service level is R0: information and enquiries. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.