Risk-informed assessment of regional preparedness

Risk-informed and sustainable preparedness of our nation's regions and localities is central to the safety and security of the United States. The first step to technology development for preparedness is clear requirements and correct methodologies. This paper presents methods for creating regional homeland security plans to ensure continuity of regional operations. First, regional preparedness strategy should focus on a region's vital socioeconomic interests. These industries can be identified through the application of key sector analysis methods that exploit large-scale and open-source databases reporting economic sector production and interdependence. Second, planning for regional preparedness should follow two complementary approaches focusing on catastrophic scenario-driven planning as well as all-hazards capabilities. Third, regional preparedness strategy should exploit existing organizations and preparedness governance structure. Most existing regional preparedness institutions organize around the concept of emergency support functions (ESFs). Defining the relationships between ESFs and critical infrastructure sectors will enable these existing organizations to broaden their mission to adopt more holistic preparedness planning and homeland security practices, and provide a foundation technology. This paper provides preliminary results from case studies in Virginia to illustrate each of these methods.