November 6, 2023

A new model of collaboration for the resilience of territories and the security of critical infrastructures

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Email

Recent events, even all along the 2023, have shown the importance of the safety of critical infrastructures and the collaboration among the different territorial, national and international stakeholders, when it comes to facing devastating natural events. 

The security and resilience of society, its infrastructures and territories is today a scientific, technical, social and economic issue of considerable importance and relevance. Resilience is strongly related to sustainability, making it a central issue for the Mediterranean and the capacity of our societies to respond to changes, such as those linked to climate modification, and to destructive events. These are central issues for the Mediterranean, which can only be addressed and resolved with a dialogue between the various communities and the various countries. The “structural fragility” of the territory of the Mediterranean countries represents a decisive issue on which to reflect in order to define new methodologies for an integrated approach to the project and care of the territories.

Last October 2023 the project BINAYAT kicked-off. BINAYAT stands for “Towards the adoption of new models and approaches of collaboration between institutions and stakeholders, for the resilience of territories and the security of critical infrastructures, as a further element of the Euro-Mediterranean regional dialogue” and is an initiative financed by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs which sees the involvement of UNIMED as project coordinator and the University of Salento as scientific coordinator. 

The project intends to represent the state of critical infrastructures, the main socio-political, climatic and structural factors, which can put safety of critical infrastructures at risk, in order to highlight priority areas of intervention both for their protection and for resilient management of a possible emergency. Concerning the geographical area of the research, it starts from the open data relating to critical infrastructures available in Italy and Europe, to include perspectives from the whole Mediterranean region.

In fact, UNIMED is running a SubNetwork on Safety and Security of Critical Infrastructures to initiate long-standing activities of analysis of the critical infrastructures in the Mediterranean area. The SubNetwork has a multi-disciplinary approach, involving several scientific fields, and has the overall scope of collecting diversified information and gathering the key players in the arena. The contributions of the SubNetwork members will, for sure, provide the research with enriching inputs coming from the whole region and broadening the research scope and impact. 


This project is realized with the support of the Unit for Analysis, Policy Planning, Statistics and Historical Documentation – Directorate General for Public and Cultural Diplomacy of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, in accordance with Article 23 ‒ bis of the Decree of the President of the Italian Republic 18/1967. The views expressed in this news are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.