The hidden dangers of critical infrastructure failures
Published on: September 12, 2024
The hidden dangers of critical infrastructure failures extend far beyond power outages and broken roads—they can unleash devastating ripple effects across entire cities. Power and water shortages stranded thousands of people during a flooding in the United Kingdom in 2007, revealing just how fragile these interconnected systems are. Cities like Glasgow are now mapping these cascading risks, aiming to prevent future disasters.
But there’s another toll that often goes unnoticed: the psychological impact. Extreme weather events can leave people grappling with prolonged anxiety and fear. Addressing both physical and emotional resilience is key to safeguarding cities in an increasingly unpredictable world.
Extreme rainfall exemplifies a risk that can occur anywhere at any time, highlighting the need for preparedness even in the face of unforeseen threats.
A study of climate adaptation policies and water management plans from 26 European cities conducted by Sweco offers a foundation for understanding the current approaches to managing climate risks. This policy analysis was enriched through interviews with city representatives, providing deeper insights into how municipalities are addressing the growing challenges posed by climate change.
Learn more about the study’s findings and the long-term impact of extreme weather events on citizens and communities across Europe.
Understanding cascade effects in critical infrastructure
An important reason why the impact and resulting risks are higher with regards to critical infrastructure is because of cascade effects. Infrastructure systems are interdependent. Failure of one system can cause other systems to fail, like dominoes falling one after the other.
One of these events causing cascade effects occurred in the summer of 2007 in the UK. Tens of thousands of people endured extended power outages, with an additional 350,000 people being deprived of access to potable water for up to 17 days. As a result, a considerable number of people also became stranded due to the disruptions in transportation networks. Therefore, understanding the resilience of one system is not enough. Interdependencies should be set out clearly to truly understand the impact of a failure of a system.
According to the respondents, the sectors that are most vulnerable to cascade effects are:
- Transportation
- Water chain
- Electricity
- Health care
- Groups of people who are not self-reliant
But what can happen if one of these sectors fails due to extreme rainfall? The possible resulting cascade effects are illustrated in the figure below.
In our policy analysis, we came across the example of the city of Glasgow, which has extensively researched cascade effects and interdependencies among networks. This was first mapped at the national level. The city region is now collaborating with the University of Edinburgh, Scottish Water, the Scottish Power Energy Network, BT (telecommunications), SGN (gas) and SEPA (Scottish Environment Protection Agency), among others, to understand these interdependencies. The project has highlighted a range of dependencies among road, rail, water, gas, electricity and telecommunications infrastructure. As a result, officials started a conversation on how to address these issues.
As illustrated in figure above, failure of infrastructure systems results in impacts on people, the economy and the environment. For economic loss this could unfold as follows: As a result of power cuts, or direct inundation of subway stations as seen in New York, transportation in the city comes to a standstill, preventing a significant number of residents from being able to commute to work. This means that employees do not reach their workplace resulting in economic losses.
Hidden psychological effects on citizens
During rainfall-induced floods, people can be affected by failing infrastructure in a wide range of ways. The damage to infrastructure or, for example, buildings like schools or the disruption of a subway line is clearly visible and often quickly quantifiable in terms of financial losses.
However, psychological damage is less conspicuous. The city representatives interviewed, who had experienced such disasters, indicated that this aspect is often overlooked.
A respondent in Maastricht confirmed that emotional damage can occur and that people are aware that their homes, properties and immediate surroundings are vulnerable.
“The impact on people’s psyche is underestimated. Some people check the weather radar every hour because they fear that they are vulnerable.”
The hidden effect is that many people experience prolonged stress with every new rainfall. In summary, extreme rainfall and subsequent flooding can impact individuals on multiple levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. These natural disasters endanger basic needs and feelings of safety, stability and well-being. When social infrastructure is affected, the consequences can be grave since people’s physiological and safety needs can be put at risk. This is especially true for facilities like schools, hospitals, elderly care homes and prisons, where people who are not self-reliant are being cared for. When these facilities are affected, emergency services have to scale up significantly. And resources for large-scale evacuations might not be at hand on time.
Also, longer-term effects should be taken into account. After a flood, people worry about the likelihood of a recurrence and the safety of their community. This can lead to ongoing fear and stress, even during normal rainfall.
What stands out is that the human impact of any failure of critical infrastructure, including emotional damage, is often not given enough attention in policy documents and is sometimes completely overlooked. In addition to rebuilding homes and infrastructure, attention to mental resilience is essential for the proper functioning of a city.
