“Critical infrastructure.” It’s a phrase you might find in many grant guidelines and requests for proposal. But what is it? Where is it? How much does your area have? The answers might surprise you.
What is critical infrastructure?
According to DHS, critical infrastructure comprises physical and virtual systems “so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination thereof.”
There are 16 sectors:
- Chemical
- Commercial Facilities
- Communications
- Critical Manufacturing
- Dams
- Defense Industrial
- Emergency Services
- Energy
- Financial Services
- Food and Agriculture
- Government Facilities
- Healthcare and Public Health
- Information Technology
- Nuclear Reactors, Materials, and Waste Sector
- Transportation Systems
- Water and Wastewater
Where is critical infrastructure?
Critical infrastructure can be anywhere.
How much critical infrastructure does your area have?
And that, folks, can be the big hairy unknown. Critical infrastructure can be in or around your area, and you might not know it.
What to do about it?
We are working on some new resources to help agencies like yours plan around critical infrastructure and how to include details about critical infrastructure in grant applications.
What questions do you have about critical infrastructure? Please email Kurt Bradley and let us know!