KCI Program Requirements
The Kentucky Critical Infrastructure (KCI) Program is carried out through the Kentucky Homeland Security University Consortium and managed by the National Institute for Hometown Security (NIHS). From its inception, this program has been focused on the research and development required to provide the tools and technologies needed to address Community Based Critical Infrastructure Protection needs.
As the program moves into the next, more advanced phase, NIHS and DHS have developed an integrating framework for the program around the topic of resiliency. We define resiliency as the ability to detect, avoid, deter, protect against, respond to, and recover from infrastructure disruptions. DHS and NIHS will use this framework to direct the program toward efforts that will improve the resiliency of communities, groups of communities, and regions in dealing with infrastructure disruptions.
As part of our program improvement strategy with DHS, we will be requesting that the responders to this solicitation present a business case for their projects. This involves a statement of the problem to be solved, its importance to hometown security from a systems perspective, an identification of potential customers for the solution, an estimate of cost and market size for any developed products, and discussions of competing technologies. The responders may want to initiate discussions with other entities, e.g., business schools, within the Kentucky university system for help in meeting this requirement. Alternatively, outside entities, e.g., the Council on Competitiveness in Washington, DC, has expressed interest in providing support.
The research agenda supporting this new direction includes the following topics:
I. Detection
A. Develop tools to detect and mitigate animal and crop disease outbreaks. Tools should be scalable for use by small farmers. Suggest countermeasures.
B. Develop new, less expensive, interoperable sensors to guide and protect first responders when entering an unsafe area. This could include sensors that report structural conditions, stability of damaged infrastructure, or presence of hazardous gases.
C. Develop advanced surveillance and detection methods for intruders/malicious activities in cluttered urban areas. Examples include wide area surveillance at airports and underwater monitoring. This could include real-time verification of individual identities using multiple biometric methods.
D. Develop inexpensive methods for detecting waterborne or underwater threats approaching waterfront facilities (ports, dams, locks, ports, refineries, LNG/LPG etc.)
E. Develop non-destructive methods to assess conditions of critical infrastructures, for example, geophysical methods used in a tunnel to determine the material properties of the surrounding soils as well as properties and integrity of the tunnel.
II. Prevention
A. Provide methods and models for conducting risk assessments that can be used by communities, groups of communities and regions. This activity should use modeling and simulation tools to analyze vulnerabilities and consequences and to map interdependencies. The interest is in identifying critical nodes at the state and local level, attaining a better understanding of cascading impacts caused by a disruption within defined areas of interest, and developing mitigation plans to minimize the impacts of such events. Use of case studies is encouraged. This activity should, as appropriate, build on, and coordinate with, existing work by DHS, specifically, the National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC) and the Center of Excellence for Risk and Economics at the University of Southern California.
B. Simplify and validate models for vulnerability assessments of selected critical infrastructures to blast and projectiles, including underlying mechanics.
C. Identify and/or develop physical testing methods and capabilities for blast model validation, including underwater blasting and centrifuge testing.
D. On a regional basis, analyze the risk associated with disruption of key nodes, including communications capabilities, that could impact the resiliency of the national transportation infrastructure.
III. Protection, Response, and Recovery
A. Develop concepts, principles, and approaches for restarting infrastructure services in a community that has experienced a wide-spread disruptive event.
B. Develop rapid automated response and fast recovery technologies to minimize disruption of critical infrastructure services.
C. Explore the concept of self-healing infrastructures for one of DHS’s defined infrastructure sectors. The energy infrastructure is excluded.
D. Develop improved systems for communications across multiple jurisdictions, including multi-band radio capabilities with a goal of achieving interoperability among first responder agencies and other Federal agencies.
E. Develop methods for interdicting waterborne or underwater threats approaching waterfront facilities (ports, dams, locks, ports, refineries, LNG/LPG etc.).
F. Develop concepts for creating facilities that are inherently resilient by using careful site selection, blast resistant materials, etc.
G. Design and develop protective measures for selected critical infrastructure against blast and projectiles. Identify and test advanced materials for protection against blast and projectiles.
H. Design or develop effective, low cost protective measures for commercial and government facilities. Include schools/campuses. Develop concepts for how these measures could be used to provide intrinsic (built-in) security.
I. Develop concepts and preliminary designs for adaptable, low cost replacements for critical infrastructure components that have long replacement times, e.g., bridges, dams, locks. These replacements could be temporary or permanent depending on the need.
J. Develop special, rapidly deployable, low cost structural support that can be engineered into a facility or deployed by first responders to prevent catastrophic structural failure.
IV. Preparedness
A. Identify and/or develop tools that may assist communities in their efforts to build resiliency on a community, state and regional basis.
B. Using modeling and simulation tools and other analytical approaches where appropriate, evaluate plans and tools in the areas listed below. Conducting gap analyses, identify weaknesses, and develop improved plans and/or tools to address the gaps.
1. Risk assessment methods for food and agriculture sectors. Tools must be capable of addressing risk in these disaggregated and diverse sectors.
2. Tools that may assist communities in their efforts to build resiliency on a community, state and regional basis. Include analysis of economic viability.
3. Technologies or best practices that can minimize the impact or mitigate the effects of a cascading failure. This will involve understanding dependencies and interdependencies. It will also be necessary to investigate human relationship issues, such as forming partnerships and developing trust.
4. Existing continuity of business and continuity of operations plans and/or tools for communities and among communities.
5. Models that capture best practices for acquisition of needed technology and for planning and operational responses to disruptive events. Identify those that could be further modified to evaluate potential new solutions.
6. Information technology tools that can assist communities in obtaining information in a timely fashion to monitor critical infrastructures and respond to disruptive events.
7. Modeling and simulation capabilities that evaluate the efficacy of, and recommend improvements to, existing community plans for dealing with serious disasters or business continuity, including the ability to test multi-jurisdictional coordination.
8. Surge capacity and scalable evacuation models that include interdependencies among communities on a state or regional basis. This will require awareness of, and coordination with, FEMA’s community evacuation model development.
9. Best practices and tools for sheltering a large number of people, to include associated logistical support that addresses needs of special populations, e.g., elderly. Best practices that foster a culture of self-sufficiency for residents, businesses, and communities without federal assistance for the first two weeks after a serious event. Emphasize community interdependencies and/or specific, large facilities or events involving large numbers of people.
C. Design and populate a system to identify and quickly communicate situational awareness among supply chain providers of essential services or commodities in communities and/or regions.
D. Develop a community operational plan for dealing with pandemics. Identify how and who enforces a shelter-in-place policy. Identify what infrastructure needs to be added to provide for mitigation. Identify how communities prepare and train to operate under severe and long term shelter- in-place requirements. Address impacts of pandemics on schools. Working with public health preparedness agencies, identify and improve existing plans for dealing with the surge in demand for hospitals. Identify and improve plans to ensure that power and water/wastewater and trash collection services continue uninterrupted during this time span. Provide a plan for utilizing help from volunteers during the emergency. Translate findings from a national plan (DHS/NISAC) into use by local, state, and regional planners.
E. Develop and implement a program for raising the awareness and engagement of high school students in homeland security issues and problem solutions.
V. Other
A. Address other analysis or tool development needs for improving the resiliency of regional or national critical infrastructures.
B. Working with DHS/NISAC, develop seminars for discussing community responses to pandemics and identify needs and requirements of state and local responders.