SCCIR: Smart Cities Critical Infrastructure Response Framework

Abstract

Critical infrastructures play important roles in ensuring the wellbeing of the populace. Protecting critical infrastructures and ensuring their continued operation will be an important part of future Smart City ecosystems. Minimising the destruction of failing critical infrastructure components or system components that are geographically close critical services is essential. Equally important are the system of systems relationships that a failing system has, as these could render a minor system critical under certain circumstances. Infrastructure failure is usually brought under control through system adaptation e.g. using sensor area networks to close valves or by emergency response e.g. extinguishing fires. Current response procedures rely on antiquated information sharing techniques and provide little or no opportunity to effect change within the failing infrastructures systems. There may also be minimal understanding of the important systems of systems role that is being provided by components of the failing system. This paper details our initial work on the Smart Cities Critical Infrastructure response framework. The goal of our framework is to provide a response strategy to first responders based on smart cities information flows. Where these information flows have been compromised we propose a robust infrastructure state preservation system as to provide an interface to a failing critical infrastructure.