Critical Infrastructure Failure Interdependencies in the 2008 Chinese Winter Storms

Modern societies are increasingly dependent on a set of critical products and services which comprise the Critical Infrastructures (CIs), such as transportation, energy, telecommunications and water. These systems have become so interconnected that disruption of one may lead to disruptions in all. This paper develops an analytical framework with empirical applications to address infrastructure failure interdependencies (IFIs). It uses major electrical power outages as the context for understanding how extreme events lead to failures of other infrastructure systems. The paper examines the patterns of IFIs which occurred in the 2008 Chinese Winter Storms, affecting large portions of China. The analysis identifies IFIs due to power outages caused by the storms that are of greatest societal concern. We developed scales to characterize the consequences of IFIs in terms of impact and extent indices as a basis for effective, targeted pre-disaster mitigation and preparedness efforts. The most significant IFIs in all events included effects on business, finance, transportation and telecommunication systems.