Multilevel alignment of critical infrastructure protection and resilience (CIP-R) programmes : a systematic analysis of international good practices

Modern societies and their citizens’ normal life are highly dependent on the operations of critical infrastructures and essential services. Any disruptions to the normal performance of these critical nodes can have negative impacts on the economics of the society and welfare of the public. Considering the diverse sources of infrastructure vulnerability and growing range of natural and technological disasters, Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience (CIP-R) has become an emerging topic in the recent time, focusing on vulnerability, interdependency, service continuity and recovery of Critical Infrastructure through all phases of Emergency Management. In response to this challenge, national and regional CIP-R strategies and programmes have been, and are being developed. With the recent trend of establishing regional partnerships in the area of CIP-R, an evolving concern is how it is important and necessary to align these regional programmes with national strategies established for the protection and resilience of Critical Infrastructure. In this study, national CIP-R strategies of USA, Canada, the European Union, UK and the Netherlands, along with regional programmes in the Lombardy Region (Italy), Montreal City (Canada), Louisiana State (USA), Pacific NorthWest Region (USA-Canada), Kennemerland Safety Region (The Netherlands), Scotland (as a regional government within UK), and Copenhagen City (Denmark) have been studied and compared through cross-case analyses based on a framework developed for this purpose, looking for their main features, enablers and barriers to the alignment with their corresponding national/regional programmes. In order to build and promote such an alignment, first it is essential to defined what does it mean for a regional CIP-R programme to be aligned with national CIP-R strategies. Therefore, based on the findings from case studies and considering different aspects of activities and efforts in the area of protection and resilience of Critical Infrastructure, a six-dimensional framework is developed, operationalising the alignment of regional and national CIP-R programmes. Eventually, based on the results found from the case studies and the proposed alignment framework, a set of recommendations is provided in order to help regional and national CIP-R programmes to develop more aligned approaches.