This Week in Critical Infrastructure we look at state and local government resilience efforts, starting with a story on recent declines in municipal infrastructure investment. We then follow with a release from NARUC describing the group’s new repository for critical infrastructure resources. Finally, we conclude with two stories on municipal planning for extreme weather events.
Investment in American Infrastructure is Falling
From The Economist, latest reports on government infrastructure investment show that total investment in the second quarter of 2017 was the lowest on record. This news comes as President’s Trump infrastructure investment plans, which focus on private investment, appear to be stalling.
NARUC Critical Infrastructure Committee Launches Online Resource Repository
From a press release by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, NARUC’s Critical Infrastructure Committee has launched a resource repository for public- and private-sector infrastructure operators to access resources on topics like reliability, security, and resilience. The tool is accessible to all NARUC members.
Analyzing Winter Storm Risk and Resilience in a Changing Climate
From Phys.org, Adrienne Kenyon reports on a recent paper by Cari Shimkus and James Booth that analyzes major winter storm events that struck the shores of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut from 2001 to 2014. Using these analyses, the authors correlate storm data with financial loss in an effort to provide communities with more information to evaluate risks and enhances resiliency to similar storm events.
City Planning for Natural Disasters Pivots from ‘Recovery to Resilience’
Olivia Miltner of AccuWeather writes on current trends in city planning that show an increasing focus on resilience planning. As cities prepare for more frequent hazards and disruptions, planners are looking to develop systems and relationships that prioritize resilience, minimizing damage and enhancing recovery to continuous and recurrent threats like rising sea-levels and extreme weather events.