Recent events such as the Canterbury earthquakes in New Zealand, Queensland floods in Australia and the Tohoku earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan, have highlighted the vulnerability of infrastructure and essential services to disruption from natural disasters. 

Prolonged natural disasters can impact surrounding areas weeks to months after the initial event; causing vast and on-going disruption to utility, transport and communication networks; infrastructure that is vitally important for everyday living, the economy and emergency response groups. The quake stricken Canterbury region of New Zealand endured thousands of disruptive aftershocks that continued for over two years following the initial earthquake in 2010. These aftershocks contributed to delays in repair, rebuilding activities, and caused significant additional damage.

Our growing reliance on infrastructure and technology, along with the strong interdependent nature of these critical services, can potentially turn one failure into a cascading disaster. Local impacts to critical infrastructure can also lead to the interruption of essential services in regions that were not directly impacted by the physical hazard event. It has never been more important to understand network vulnerabilities and to analyse the cost of long term disruption, both social and economic.

Whilst significant work has gone into understanding the direct impacts from natural hazards, less emphasis has been placed on understanding the vulnerability of critical infrastructure, including indirect and long-term disruption. This presentation attempts to bridge that gap by addressing some key research questions below: 

- What portion of contingent business interruption loss is caused by the disruption of critical infrastructure? 

- Can the interconnectedness of critical services lead to a cascade of failures?

- What influences network recovery and how long can it take to rebuild?

- How long can impacts of a natural hazard event last?

- What is the cost of long term network disruption?