In the course of emerging threats of the 21st century, this paper aims at supporting the further development of the European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection (EPCIP), in particular the directive 2008/114/EC on designation and protection of European Critical Infrastructures. It provides a comprehensive review of this legal framework by compiling experiences of practitioners collected during the European Surface Transport Operator (EUSTO) forum and a series of semi-structured expert interviews. The answers of the EUSTO participants assess how the single elements and approaches of the EPCIP have affected their work. Furthermore, the review identifies the challenges that need to be addressed in the future. The third part of this paper provides a guideline on setting up an Operator Security Plan, which is specifically required by the directive. The template could initiate European harmonisation of security plans, contributing to the improvement of EPCIP.
Safety in touristic destinations is of utmost importance since tourists’ preferences change frequently in response to emerging threats. Natural hazards are a significant risk and, as such, they need to be considered in the effort for safe tourism. Services and systems monitoring and predicting extreme natural phenomena and disasters in sites of special tourist and cultural interest can lead to more effective risk management and incident response. This paper presents Xenios, a system under development in Greece that provides early warning and risk communication services via web-based and mobile phone applications. We present the user requirements analysis contacted, which led to the design of a modular system architecture through a formal Business Process Model procedure. Currently, early warning systems for wildfire, floods, and extreme weather events are offered, based on a fusion of information from satellite imagery, meteorological forecasts, and risk estimation models. Moreover, visitors’ dispersion monitoring via unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and Wi-Fi connection signals is also offered, along with emergency response planning and ticketing system’s interfacing. The system is built around a modular architecture that permits the easy integration of new subsystems or other danger forecasting modules, depending on the site’s actual needs and limitations. Xenios also provides a mobile app for site visitors, which establishes a communication link for sending alarms, but also serves them with useful tourist information, so that they are encouraged to download and use the app. Finally, the opportunities for supporting a viable business model are also discussed. The results of this study could prove useful in designing other natural risk management systems for sites of cultural and natural interest.
The present work introduces a case study on the climate resilience of interconnected critical infrastructures to forest fires, that was performed within the framework on H2020 EU-CIRCLE project (GA 653824). It was conducted in South France, one of the most touristic European regions, and also one of the regions at the highest forest fire risk that is projected to be amplified under future climate conditions. The case study has been implemented through a co-creation framework with local stakeholders, which is critical in moving beyond physical damages to the infrastructures, introducing the elements of infrastructure business continuity and societal resilience. Future forest fires extremes are anticipated to impact the interconnections of electricity and transportation networks that could further cascade to communities throughout South France. The work highlighted the benefits of enhancing co-operation between academia, emergency responders, and infrastructure operators as a critical element in enhancing resilience through increased awareness of climate impacts, new generated knowledge on fire extremes and better cooperation between involved agencies.
This paper introduces a methodological approach for identifying the resilience of interconnected EU critical infrastructures to climate change. The proposed approach tries to establish a consequence-based modelling framework for assessing climate-dependent causal relationships between CI operation and response to climate impacts with an aim to minimise disruptions to service flows under diverse conditions. The proposed study provides a description of the virtual city's forest fire and smoke reference scenario with their optional damages to the electricity transmission and distribution network.
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