Critical infrastructure facilitates society’s everyday life


I


Integrated survei The foundation for


nfrastructure such as power networks, water treatment plants, transportation links and


hubs provides the backbone for our towns and cities to function. Protecting that backbone from potential threats is vital and, given rapidly rising global urbanisation rates, is an international priority. Global estimates suggest that 3.4 billion people now live in town and city environments.


In today’s fast-paced environment, there are so many elements of our daily lives which we simply take for granted. From the moment we wake up, until the time we fall asleep, we go through the day continually undertaking key actions without any real conscious thought process.


We flick a switch and expect lights to come on. We turn on a tap and expect water to flow. We leave the house and expect there to be a communications network to get us to where we need to go. We visit a cash machine and expect to withdraw money. We fall ill and expect to have access to local hospitals and medical facilities. And the list goes on – daily routine functions which are central to all our lives. But what if our expectations were not met? What if there was no electricity, water, transportation hubs, banks and hospitals?


Threats to Critical Infrastructure


In terms of the types of threats our urban centres face, these can generally be divided into three main categories:


• Natural threats – for example weather events, in hot and cold climates alike, and geological hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, land shifting and volcanic eruptions.


• Human caused threats – including cyber attacks, rioting, product tampering, explosions and bombing.


• Accidental or technical threats – including transportation accidents and failures and environmental incidents.


Making sure the right systems and safeguards are in place to identify potential threats before they even happen, and supporting rapid response to actual incidents in order to limit escalation, is essential to keeping infrastructure secure and people safe.


What is also important, however, is enabling this in an environment of collaboration. The


24 © CI TY S ECURI TY MAGAZ INE – SUMME R 2016


most effective threat prevention strategy is for those responsible for individual assets and services to work together.


The result of this is a checklist of requirements that intelligently integrated surveillance is ideally positioned to meet.


Technology that collates data and unifies action


Historically, systems used to protect critical infrastructure assets have been implemented and managed separately.


In recent times, in response to rising threats to critical infrastructure, this approach is changing. Responsible agencies and asset managers can now adopt an integrated approach to critical asset protection by using a surveillance ‘command and control’ platform to bring these vital, yet disparate, solutions together and manage them within a single, unified environment.


Site systems which can be integrated include: • Access control • Intruder detection • Communications • Virtual perimeter tripwires


• Cameras – fixed PTZ, analogue or IP, thermal and multi-spectral (colour, mono, thermal, explosion proof)


• Emergency incident alarms • Public help points • Building management systems • Microwave sensors


• Fire, smoke, temperature and hazardous fume alarms.


Intelligent integration takes this concept to another level by using ‘command and control’ software to not only collate the data, but comprehensively analyse it as well. Visual and audio data, alarms and any number of unrelated platforms and sub-systems, from multiple geographical locations, can be brought together into a single monitoring


www. c i t y s e cur i t yma ga z ine . com


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36