The document discusses bolstering critical infrastructure resilience in the face of climate change. It defines resilience as the ability to withstand, adapt to, and rapidly recover from disruptions. It examines past hurricanes like Irene and Sandy to show impacts on infrastructure like power grids and fuel distribution. Hypothetical modeling shows potential flooding of Boston's transportation and energy sectors from a major storm in 2050. The document advocates conducting research, adopting resilience best practices, and providing incentives to advance societal resilience.

1. Center for Resilience Studies

2. Center for Resilience Studies
Bolstering Critical Infrastructure Resilience in the
Face of Climate Change
A presentation to Wetskills International Student Workshop
50 Milk Street
Boston, MA
Jun 23, 2016
Stephen E. Flynn, Ph.D.
Professor of Political Science &
Director, Center for Resilience Studies
Northeastern University
s.flynn@neu.edu
617-470-7675

3. Center for Resilience Studies
The
Resilience
Impera0ve
“The abiding strategy of our parents’ generation was
‘containment’ of communism in order to be free. The
abiding strategy of our generation has to be
‘resilience.’ We will only be free to live the lives we
want if we make our cities, country and planet more
resilient.”
* Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times, May 24, 2014

4. Center for Resilience Studies
Resilience Defined
“The term resilience refers to the ability to prepare
for and adapt to changing conditions and withstand
and recover rapidly from disruptions. Resilience
includes the ability to withstand and recover from
deliberate attacks, accidents, or naturally occurring
threats or incidents.*
* Presidential Policy Directive 21 - Critical Infrastructure Security and
Resilience February 12, 2013

5. Center for Resilience Studies
Hurricane Track Map
passing within 65
nautical miles of Cape
Hatteras, NC: 1900-2010
Source: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/
images/cape_hatteras.jpg.

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7. Center for Resilience Studies7
Collapse of 70% of the power grid (765,000 outages) in
Connecticut Hurricane Irene, August 29, 2011

8. Center for Resilience Studies
Impact along the U.S. East Coast and Caribbean August 21-29, 2011:
• 40 people died
• $6.5 billion in damage
• Major flooding in NC, NJ, NY, CT, NH and VT
• Downed power lines and trees
• Road closures
• Evacuations
• 8 million people without power—some for as long as a week
• Closure of several major airports
• Suspension of Amtrak train service
• Closure of the New York City mass transit system.*
* http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/assessments/pdfs/Irene2012.pdf
Hurricane Irene

9. Center for Resilience Studies
Hurricane Sandy on October 29, 2012
Largest Atlantic hurricane on record
w/ winds spanning 1,100 miles

10. Center for Resilience Studies
(National Hurricane Center, Blake, 3/28/13)
FEMA Inundation Analysis for Sandy

11. Center for Resilience Studies
October 28, 2012
Goldman Sachs HQ, 200 West St. New
York, NY on Oct 28 & 29, 2012
October 29, 2012
HQ is dry and has electric power, but . . .
! No employees due to disruption of transportation system.
! Little ability to telecommute due to region wide power outages

12. Center for Resilience Studies
Verizon Headquarters & Switching Center, 140 West St.

13. Center for Resilience Studies
Verizon Headquarters & Switching Center, 140 West St.

14. Center for Resilience Studies
Cable Vault Room at Verizon Headquarters, 140 West St.

15. Center for Resilience Studies
Metro NY-NJ Liquid Fuels Distribution Case Study

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SUPPLY (42m gallons of petroleum products per day)
• Port closure during and following the storm halted all maritime shipments. (60+%)
• Bayway Refinery and Hess Port Reading Refinery disabled due to loss of commercial and
generator power, damage to marine terminal, and damage to electrical equipment. (20%)
• Colonial Pipeline stopped deliveries to northern NJ due to damage to receiving terminals
and power outages impacted its operations. This slowed product movement throughout
entire pipeline back to the Gulf Coast (15%)
DISTRIBUTION:
• Damage to dock facilities disrupted barge movements of gasoline
• Gas station closures: 60% of NJ; 70% of Long Island
• Gas rationing implemented in New Jersey (11 days) and New York (15 days)
Hurricane Sandy’s Impact on NY/NJ Liquid Fuels Distribution
System
http://www.eia.gov/special/disruptions/hurricane/sandy/petroleum_terminal_survey.cfm

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Examples of Interdependency Challenges
• Refineries and pipelines need electricity to operate.
• Vehicles for repairing electrical distribution lines need a
reliable supply of gasoline or diesel fuels.
• Transportation conveyances are required to move fuel
to commercial and residential users
• Transportation conveyances require fuel to operate
• Gas stations require electricity to operate pumps and
telecommunications to support credit/debit card
purchases

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Hypothetical Case study: Category 1 hurricane in Boston
CAT 1 hurricane, 60mph wind, heading
west by northwest causes 6.5ft of
surge above ground level at
Aquarium T-Station

19. Center for Resilience Studies
Oak Grove
Malden Center
Wellington
Assembly
Sullivan Square
Community College
North Station
Haymarket
State
Downtown Crossing
Chinatown
Tufts Medical Center
Back Bay
Massachusetts Avenue
Ruggles
Roxbury Crossing
Jackson Square
Stony Brook
Green Street
Forest Hills
Lechmere
Science Park
Government Center
Park Street
Boylston
Arlington
Copley
Prudential
Symphony
Northeastern University
Museum of Fine arts
Longwood Medical Area
Brigham Circle
Fenwood Road
Mission Park
Riverway
Back of the Hill
Heath Street
Hynes Convention Ctr
Kenmore
Fenway
Longwood
Brookline Village
Brookline Hills
Beaconsfield
Reservoir
Chestnut hill
Newton Centre
Newton Highlands
Eliot
Waban
Woodland
Riverside
St. Mary's Street
Hawes Street
Kent Street
St. Paul Street C
Coolidge Corner
Summit Avenue
Brandon HallFairbanks StWashington Square
Tappan StDean RdEnglewood AveCleveland Circle
Blandford Street
Boston University East
Boston University Central
Boston University West
St. Paul Street B
Pleasant Street
Babcock Street
Packards Corner
Harvard Avenue
Griggs Street
Allston Street
Warren Street
Washington Street
Sutherland Road
Chiswick Road
Chestnut hill Avenue
South Street
Boston College
Wonderland
Revere Beach
Beachmont
Suffolk Downs
Orient Heights
Wood Island
Airport
Maverick
Aquarium
Bowdoin
Alewife
Davis
Porter
Harvard
Central
Kendall MIT
Charles MGH
South Station
Broadway
Andrew
UMASS
North Quincy
Wollaston
Quincy Center
Quincy Adams
Braintree
Savin Hill
Fields Corner
Shawmut
Ashmont
Cedar Grove
ButlerMiltonCentral AveValley RdCapen StMattapan
Route map: MBTA
Network representation
121 Nodes and 124 links
Stations with same color are strongly connected.
Node size represents topological importance of the station
Complex Network Representation of MBTA
Stations with highest “Betweenness”
holding network together

20. Center for Resilience Studies
Simulating Hazards: Storm Surge and Sea Level Rise
SOURCE: http://seachange.sasaki.com/
Potential flooding of energy sector from a major storm in 2050
(2 feet of sea level rise + 5 feet of storm surge = 7 feet of flooding)

21. Center for Resilience Studies
Potential flooding of transportation sector from a major storm in 2050
(2 feet of sea level rise + 5 feet of storm surge at high tide = 7 feet of flooding)
Simulating Hazards: Storm Surge and Sea Level Rise
SOURCE: http://seachange.sasaki.com/

22. Center for Resilience Studies
The
stepping
off
point
for
establishing
resilience
priori3es
is
to
iden3fy
the
elemental
capacity,
essen.al
func.on
and
full/
normal
func.on
for
infrastructure,
systems,
and
networks
There are five resilience attributes:
! Cushionability
! Resistance
! Robustness
! Redundancy
! Graceful extensibility
Collectively these attributes contribute to mitigating the risk of disruption, support rapid
response and recovery, and advance adaptation in the face of naturally-occurring and
human-made disasters.
Attributes for Bolstering Infrastructure Resilience

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How to Advance Societal Resilience?
It will require accomplishing 3 things concurrently:
1. Conducting research that informs infrastructure resilience and
community resilience
2. Supporting early and widespread adoption of resilience
applications, tools, and protocols by establishing best practices,
and where appropriate - standards, codes
3. Identifying and deploying public policy and market-based
incentives for adopting infrastructure and community resilience
best practices