Maintenance in Critical Infrastructures: The Need for Public-Private Partnerships

Abstract

The increase in the frequency of disastrous events and society's dependence on Critical Infrastructures (CIs) has led to greater concern about the need to increase resilience in order to improve Critical Infrastructure Protection. CIs are basic service providers for society and they need to be effectively protected against hazards. Nowadays, CIs can be owned by private entities. However, although they can be privately owned or managed, they provide a public service that directly affects the whole society. Consequently, those activities that increase the overall resilience level of CIs need to be under the supervision of public entities. Increasing resilience requires special attention be paid to correct infrastructure and crisis response equipment maintenance. This chapter explains why effective Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) are valuable for correctly maintaining CIs and illustrates examples of real situations that demonstrate the need for effective PPPs in maintenance activities.