Chapter 18
Bridging the Vulnerability Paradigm
to Critical Infrastructure Protection
for Improving Complex Systems
Resilience to Climate Change
Sarah Lindbergh and John Radke
Abstract Population growth and asset concentration have not been the only drivers
of society’s vulnerability to disasters. In the last two decades, research has been
more and more focused on demonstrating how increasing complexity of critical
infrastructure (CI) interconnectivity in the provision of vital services and goods has
also exacerbated society’s propensity to suffer damage from environmental change
and shock. This paper will discuss how the definition of CI is a key step to identify
risk, vulnerability, and resilience of these complex systems, and present paradigm
shifts in the methods of characterization of CI. Some of these shifts include the
assessment of indirect exposure to hazards as opposed to purely direct exposure
(topological versus geographical proximity to hazards) and the expansion from the
techno-centric definitions of CI (physical infrastructure) to organizational and environmental frameworks (CI as socio-technical and socio-ecological systems). These
paradigm shifts have helped uncover gaps in CI resilience to climate change in the
case of transportation energy system in California. Starting with an overview of
the emergence of CI protection in the twenty-first century, we will touch on the
challenges related to the historical legacy of governmental plans in the U.S. that
were formulated as a security and defense issue. Emblematic case studies of disasters will illustrate important theories and tendencies in literature that advocate for
CI resilience from socio-technical and socio-ecological systems perspectives. The
transportation energy system in California is used to discuss concepts of interdependence together with methodologies of representations of complex networks as
graphs. Networks or topological models allow for representation of connectivity and
have been used to abstract global behavior from systems, as opposed to the traditional
focus on individual components and placed-based exposure to hazards in planning
and policy. Fundamental to many network vulnerability approaches is the concept
of node or link criticality to the overall system. It is important, however, to realize
S. Lindbergh (B) · J. Radke
Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, University of California,
Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
e-mail: sarah_lindbergh@berkeley.edu; sarahlindber@gmail.com
J. Radke
e-mail: ratt@berkeley.edu
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
R. Djalante et al. (eds.), Integrated Research on Disaster Risks, Disaster Risk Reduction,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55563-4_18
329
Bridging the Vulnerability Paradigm
to Critical Infrastructure Protection
for Improving Complex Systems
Resilience to Climate Change
Sarah Lindbergh and John Radke
Abstract Population growth and asset concentration have not been the only drivers
of society’s vulnerability to disasters. In the last two decades, research has been
more and more focused on demonstrating how increasing complexity of critical
infrastructure (CI) interconnectivity in the provision of vital services and goods has
also exacerbated society’s propensity to suffer damage from environmental change
and shock. This paper will discuss how the definition of CI is a key step to identify
risk, vulnerability, and resilience of these complex systems, and present paradigm
shifts in the methods of characterization of CI. Some of these shifts include the
assessment of indirect exposure to hazards as opposed to purely direct exposure
(topological versus geographical proximity to hazards) and the expansion from the
techno-centric definitions of CI (physical infrastructure) to organizational and environmental frameworks (CI as socio-technical and socio-ecological systems). These
paradigm shifts have helped uncover gaps in CI resilience to climate change in the
case of transportation energy system in California. Starting with an overview of
the emergence of CI protection in the twenty-first century, we will touch on the
challenges related to the historical legacy of governmental plans in the U.S. that
were formulated as a security and defense issue. Emblematic case studies of disasters will illustrate important theories and tendencies in literature that advocate for
CI resilience from socio-technical and socio-ecological systems perspectives. The
transportation energy system in California is used to discuss concepts of interdependence together with methodologies of representations of complex networks as
graphs. Networks or topological models allow for representation of connectivity and
have been used to abstract global behavior from systems, as opposed to the traditional
focus on individual components and placed-based exposure to hazards in planning
and policy. Fundamental to many network vulnerability approaches is the concept
of node or link criticality to the overall system. It is important, however, to realize
S. Lindbergh (B) · J. Radke
Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, University of California,
Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
e-mail: sarah_lindbergh@berkeley.edu; sarahlindber@gmail.com
J. Radke
e-mail: ratt@berkeley.edu
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
R. Djalante et al. (eds.), Integrated Research on Disaster Risks, Disaster Risk Reduction,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55563-4_18
329