Business community views

Three tasks must be included when considering the broad topic of urban security. The first is to define the term “critical infrastructure.” Second, security must be viewed from a systems perspective when looking at cities and the infrastructure that serves them. Third, careful scrutiny must be given to heretofore not-considered vulnerabilities that exist in every major city.In the hours and days immediately following the attacks on September 11, everything from foot bridges to tall buildings were considered to be critical infrastructure. But, clearly, not everything in such a broad definition can be defended. So then, what is today’s definition of critical infrastructure? One might be a new version of the “3 R’s”—resist, respond, recover. In those terms, “critical infrastructure” could be defined as: (a) systems whose rapid failure would lead to a catastrophic loss of life; (b) systems whose failure or significant degradation would lead to unacceptable economic consequences; (c) systems whose rapid failure would significantly impact rescue and response efforts; and (d) systems whose significant degradation severely impact recovery efforts.Resist? It would be impossible for a city to resist everything, everywhere. The ability to respond to some events would require efforts that are above and beyond the realistic capability of any city. That moves the scenario to recovery and rebuilding.