The purpose for the Critical Infrastructure Protection and Recovery (CIPR) Working Group (WG) is to provide a forum for the application, development and dissemination of systems engineering principles, practices and solutions relating to critical infrastructure protection and recovery against manmade and natural events causing physical infrastructure system disruption for periods of a month or more.

Critical infrastructures provide essential services underpinning modern societies. These infrastructures are networks forming a tightly coupled complex system cutting across multiple domains. They affect one another even if not physically connected. They are vulnerable to manmade and natural events that can cause disruption for extended periods, resulting in societal disruptions and loss of life.

The inability of critical infrastructures to withstand and recover from catastrophic events is a well-documented global issue. This is a complex systems problem needing immediate coordinated attention across traditional domain and governmental boundaries.  For example, the US President issued Presidential Policy Directive PPD-21 that addresses “a national unity of effort to strengthen and maintain secure, functioning, and resilient critical infrastructure.” This includes an imperative to “implement an integration and analysis function to inform planning and operations decisions regarding critical infrastructure.” This working group will seek to support this and other policies with international reach.

INCOSE, as the premier professional society for systems engineering, can provide significant contributions toward critical infrastructure protection and recovery.