The Geospatial Dimensions Of Critical Infrastructure And Emergency Response

The 2009 edition of “The Report Card for America’s Infrastructure” was published by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in late January, its release date accelerated in an effort to influence the debate over the enormous economic stimulus bill then being negotiated by the Obama administration and Congress. It should be no surprise to anyone that the major infrastructure assets in the 15 categories examined fared no better than they did in the 2005 Report Card.

As in previous versions, the report included the critical infrastructure areas of energy, bridges, dams, drinking water, roads and transit, wastewater and several other areas. For the first time, levees were considered as a separate infrastructure category. Security, which had been treated separately in the 2005 report, is now being viewed in the context of resilience – the ability to withstand and recover from natural and man-made hazards. As such, resilience has been integrated into the grading within each category.

Since the last report, while some categories showed improvement, the overall status of the nation’s major infrastructure assets was again rated a “D.” The bill for remediation of this problem, however, grew from $1.6 trillion to $2.2 trillion.

The Geospatial Information & Technology Association (GITA) is extremely concerned about the current status of the nation’s infrastructure and ways to begin to address this increasingly serious problem. There are serious social, political and economic development considerations that impact our ability to make progress in this area — and severe ramifications of our failure to do so. GITA defines infrastructure as “all fundamental services, activities, and operations that sustain our communities and way of life.”

GITA is fully committed to advancing the use of geospatial technology to address our infrastructure problems. GITA’s members and constituents — professionals in the gas, electric, water/wastewater, pipeline, telecommunications and local, state and federal government sectors — are using geospatial solutions on a daily basis to do just that.

In late 2008, the GITA Research Committee undertook an effort to address “Geospatial Dimensions of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Response.” The first step was to promote better understanding and communication about how a failure or an event in one infrastructure sector may affect assets in others – how all infrastructure is ultimately connected. A seminal White Paper on “Interdependencies of Infrastructure” was developed to form the basis for further exploration of this concept.

The next phase of this project is to delve into each of the major vertical industry areas represented by GITA’s members and constituents in order to define and discuss these important connections, how these interdependencies might influence the ways in which we respond to our infrastructure crisis, and the emerging key role of geospatial technology in protecting our critical infrastructure and improving emergency response.

This White Paper on “Oil and Gas Pipeline Infrastructure Interdependencies,” is one of several sector-specific views of the importance of understanding how our infrastructure is connected.