Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium · Infrastructure, Energy and Industry

Critical infrastructure and lifelines

Critical infrastructure and lifelines covers the systems whose failure cascades across society: electricity, water and wastewater, transport, telecommunications, and health and emergency services.

Map critical infrastructure and lifelines on a real place

01Model

The model, step by step

The model

From a lost feeder to a resilience loss: the functionality curve and the cascade behind it

DataModelGateDecisionStandard it teachesStandard it relies onNeighbouring discipline

7 steps
Resilience loss across the cascade (percentage-days)
731
Hours to 90 percent of service
60 h
Resilience loss (percentage-days)
90.0
Assets reached within three steps
8.1
/

The model From a lost feeder to a resilience loss: the functionality curve and the cascade behind it

02Scope

What the discipline covers

The subtopics its courses and labs teach.

Critical infrastructure and lifelines: 0 primary courses open, 1 in preparation and 6 also taught here, across 8 subtopics and 2 connected disciplines. Courses: RAN-318 L2 in preparation, RAF-113 L1 also taught here, RAN-306 L2 also taught here, RAN-311 L2 also taught here, RAS-401 L2 also taught here, RAS-405 L2 also taught here, RAS-407 L3 also taught here.
Critical infrastructure and lifelines at a glance
  • Open, 0
  • In preparation, 1
  • Also taught here, 6
  • Subtopics, 8
Course codes from the curriculum; study levels L1 to L4.
Courses
In development
Levels
L2 Intermediate
Labs
Network lab, Map lab, Exposure lab, Geo quiz
  • Criticality assessment
  • Interdependency and cascading failure
  • Resilience engineering
  • Telecommunications and subsea cables
  • Lifeline restoration
  • Asset management and standards
  • Infrastructure governance and regulation
  • Infrastructure investment and resilience
03The discipline

The field and its scope

For engineers, utility planners, regulators and emergency managers who need to rank lifeline assets, trace how a failure in one system propagates into others, and set restoration priorities before an event.

04Measures

Quantities and units

05Methods

Methods and their limits

Each method is listed with what it assumes and where it fails.

06Debates

What the field debates

07Bodies and data

Bodies that set practice, and the data they publish

Bodies and standards are named so learners can find and apply their published work; the Academy teaches their use and links to the publisher, and no affiliation is implied.

08Simulator

Run the discipline's simulator

Critical infrastructure and lifelines's own model runs in the scene at the top of this page: set its parameters there and play the steps. The separate chart simulator is left off this page so that it stays within its size budget.

09Maps

Build a twin of any place

Search any place or open the world; the layers and generators follow critical infrastructure and lifelines on the planet map, the globe and in 3D.

Wellington and its harbour: a flat plan of the faculty twin. Terrain 0 to 523 m; 83,815 buildings in the box; 5,085 footprints in the core, 2,796 with an estimated height; Roads 176 km; Rail 99 km; 57 substations; 4 port; 2 airport; 5 hospitals; 8 railway stations; 4 water works; 2 power plants, 202 MW. Contours every 100 metres from the elevation grid; buildings as counts per cell; roads and rail by class; lifeline assets as marks; power plants as marks.
Wellington and its harbour, New Zealand. Flat plan of the same data. The 3D twin opens on devices with WebGL once its data and library have been checked; the numbers are the same either way.
  • Terrain 0 to 523 m
  • 83,815 buildings in the box
  • 5,085 footprints in the core, 2,796 with an estimated height
  • Roads 176 km
  • Rail 99 km
  • 57 substations
  • 4 port
  • 2 airport
  • 5 hospitals
  • 8 railway stations
  • 4 water works
  • 2 power plants, 202 MW
Credits and dates per layer are listed under the stage. Relief in the twin is exaggerated ×1.5 for legibility.

Drag to move, right drag or Shift with a drag to turn and tilt, Ctrl with the wheel to zoom. Keyboard: arrows move, Shift with arrows turn and tilt, + and - zoom, 0 resets, V steps through the views, Escape clears.

Flat plan of the same data. The 3D twin opens on devices with WebGL once its data and library have been checked; the numbers are the same either way.

The boundaries, names and designations shown do not imply any judgement on the legal status of any territory, or any endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Countries: Natural Earth (public domain).

10Nexus Standards

Nexus Standards it teaches and relies on

The Nexus Standards the discipline teaches toward, grouped by master standard, with the disciplines that teach each.

11Hub

Research and tools

Research and preprints as they are published, by discipline, with the faculty's other tools.

The hub lists the newest research and preprints for Critical infrastructure and lifelines, each with its source and date. Open the research hub

12Methods and standards

Hazard families it covers

From the Academy's risk taxonomy: the discipline's own entries and those of its primary courses, with how many courses teach each.

Hazard families

  1. Critical infrastructure outage1 course
  2. Space weather and near-Earth objects1 course
  3. Technology and cloud outage1 course
13Courses

Courses in this discipline

Courses for this discipline are in development; until they open, study it through the connected courses and open lessons below.

Courses with this primary disciplineIn development

  1. RAN-318Telecommunications ResilienceIn developmentNexus, L2 Intermediate, 8 hours (estimate)
14Also taught here

Courses from connected disciplines that also teach this field

Each course has its primary discipline elsewhere and teaches this field as part of its scope.

15Technology in this area

How technology helps and what risk it brings

AspectIn this area
Technology that helpsDigital twins, sensors and robotics for inspection.
Risk technology createsCascading cyber-physical failure and vendor lock-in.
  • RAT-263 Digital Twins for Risk: Design, Validation and Limits In development
  • RAT-261 OT/ICS and Critical Infrastructure Cyber Resilience In development
  • RAS-407 Critical Infrastructure Interdependency and Resilience Engineering In development
16Where this is practised

Where the subject is practised

17Across the ecosystem

Across the ecosystem

19References

Core references and where to begin

Start with Rinaldi, then Hallegatte, then Hosseini.

NRNexus Reports gateway · GW-ACADEMY

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Nexus Reports is the Consortium's quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.

Risk Academy
Critical infrastructure and lifelines

Start with an open course

The catalogue lists each course with its outcomes, labs, hours and level.

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