Enhanced crisis-preparation of Critical Infrastructures through a participatory qualitative-quantitative interdependency analysis approach

Critical Infrastructure (CI) failures are aggravated by cascading effects due to interdependencies between different infrastructure systems and with emergency management. Findings of the German, BMBF-funded research project “CIRMin” highlight needs for concrete assessments of such interdependencies. Driven by challenges of limited data and knowledge accessibility, the developed approach integrates qualitative information from expert interviews and discussions with quantitative, place-based analyses in three selected German cities and an adjacent county. This paper particularly discusses how the mixed methods approach has been operationalized. Based on anonymized findings, it provides a comprehensive guidance to interdependency analysis, from survey and categorization of system elements and interrelations, their possible mutual impacts, to zooming into selected dependencies through GIS mapping. This facilitates reliably assessing the need for maintenance of critical functionalities in crisis situations, available resources, auxiliary powers, and optimization of response time.