Projects
Protecting Open, Freely Accessible, Complex Environments
The initiative to Protect Open, Freely Accessible, Complex Environments was started to address the role of security at sites that are readily accessible to dynamic and largely uncontrollable resident and visitor populations. Such sites include universities and colleges, secondary schools, shopping malls, public arenas, and recreational facilities. The project seeks to study the characteristics, dynamics, and uncertainties of such sites and to make policy recommendations that promote public safety while preserving open access and the free flow of people, ideas, and commodities.
Critical Infrastructure Resilience for the Hampton Roads Region
The Critical Infrastructure Resilience Project examines factors affecting reliability of regional infrastructure systems in the energy, transportation, communications and water sectors. Consequences of service loss are analyzed in light of system interdependencies. In parallel, critical community facilities that support disaster response and recovery in the sixteen jurisdictions of the HRPDC are being analyzed in terms of their dependence on critical infrastructure services. The project will provide the basis for an integrated model of the functioning of regional infrastructure service systems and provide a decision support tool to prioritize investments in regional resilience for Hampton Roads.
The integrated regional model will provide the basis for regional disaster mitigation, response and recovery planning. Social and economic impacts of selected scenario events – hurricane and pandemic flu – are being evaluated to establishing risk management goals. Policy guidance for regional investment in risk reduction will be developed for key public and private stakeholders.