STRATEGIC FOCUS
Critical Infrastructures and Key Resources (CIKR)
& Supply Chain Interdependencies
America's economic and national security, and freedoms afforded its citizens, are all dependent upon a vast network of highly complex, interdependent, aging and increasingly stressed CIKR. These physical and cyber infrastructures produce and distribute energy, enable communications, control transportation, ensure the availability of food and water, and service and support every activity that has come to define and empower the Nation.
The NIMSAT Institute seeks to advance the understanding of risk faced as a nation due to the intricate interdependencies between various CIKR assets, the dependency of various public and private sector supply chains on these assets, and the consequences of disruptions to our way of life regardless of the cause or location of disruption.
Funded Projects
The NIMSAT Institute is working with Louisiana Governor's Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) to conduct research and develop a series of tools that will enable GOHSEP and the NIMSAT Institute to analyze the potential economic impact when Louisiana’s CIKR assets are disrupted due to natural or man-made disaster. The research and tool development will result in a data model of the 209 CIKR assets with the following attributes: geospatial data display, economic impact variables, disruption calculation, periodic reassessment of the model for verification with adding and deleting assets, affected area mapping and economic impact.
Public-Private Partnerships
Information is available but rarely shared systematically between all actors in a disaster. The private sector holds 85% of the Nation's CIKR infrastructure and more than 90% of the Nation's supply chains, yet the public sector is responsible for national security and businesses have little voice in decisions made by the public sector in times of crisis. As collaboration between sectors remains limited, neither sector's emergency plans draw upon the strength and systems of the other.
The NIMSAT Institute aims to support and strengthen strategic partnerships between key public and private entities in emergency management at all levels, including non-profit organizations, leveraging national assets and partners for action and support throughout the country.
