In the United States, Critical Infrastructure is defined and regulated by the federal government [1, 2]. Yet in an emergency (such as storm-related flooding or other climate-induced emergencies) federal, state, and municipal management or aid is often not available to the individual household for hours to days [3–5] even when major Critical Infrastructure has been affected. From a climate emergency survival perspective, Critical Infrastructure needs to be redefined from a community-based point of view so that individual households can identify home-level Critical Infrastructure vulnerabilities and plan adaptations for increased climate emergency resilience at the household level.

Current efforts to enhance societal and community resilience are generally top-down, usually organized or funded by the federal or state governments and focused on enlisting municipalities to impose resilience solutions from the (local) top down [6]. However, when major storms or other acute extreme weather-related events occur, individuals and families (i.e. community members) are typically left on their own to cope with the short term, acute damage-causing agents, like flooding or severe wind [7–10]. To facilitate more effective and efficient community level adaptation to the changing climate, resilience-focused adaptations need to be (re-)framed for the community member. From a community climate resilience perspective, for both the emergency survival and response perspectives, communities consider what is available to them during the emergency, not how the different industrial sectors are managed. What is considered "Critical Infrastructure" from a personal, household, or neighborhood perspective is function-based: what are the fundamental infrastructures needed to support daily life. This will be different for different families or households. Children, the elderly, and community members with disabilities require additional considerations that must be taken into account in definitions of Critical Infrastructure.

The sixteen 2022 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Critical Infrastructure sectors include: Chemical; Commercial Facilities; Communications; Critical Manufacturing; Dams; Defense Industrial Base; Emergency Services; Energy; Financial; Food and Agriculture; Government Facilities; Healthcare and Public Health; Information Technology; Nuclear; Transportation; and Water and Wastewater [11]. Two main factors make these federal Critical Infrastructure groupings inappropriate for community-based considerations and for use in community-based planning of adaptations for enhancing household and neighborhood level resilience.

1. The sixteen national groupings don’t match community needs as perceived at the community level. For example, a home needs power. The home dweller isn’t as concerned about the source of the power, the home dweller just cares that the power is being delivered to the home. From this point of view, power is a single sector. By contrast, the National Critical Infrastructure groupings have three sectors that directly generate power: Dams; Energy; and Nuclear Reactors, Materials and Waste [11].
2. The sixteen national groupings do not consider two major types of community infrastructure that are critical to communities: housing and childcare/education. Housing is an individual market that is overseen by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development supported variably by municipalities who provide low-income housing, homeless shelters, and community-based emergency shelters for emergencies. Education and childcare (the nurturing and preparation of our future leaders and citizenry) is primarily regulated at the state level, although Congress has passed some relevant laws influencing educational policy [12, 13]. Education and childcare, as a grouped sector, trains our future workforce, and helps instill civil, social, and ethical understanding. Education of our youth (K-12) is funded by the state but supported (through the state) by the federal government. Childcare allows parents with young children to be part of the workforce. Childcare is ultimately regulated locally and there is little to no federal or state funding to support the creation and maintenance of quality childcare beyond a childcare tax credit and funding for early childhood learning services for children in low-income families [14, 15]. Yet parents must know that their children are safe, being taken care of, fed, and educated if they are to feel free to work. Childcare and education ensure the next generation of our society will be ready to effectively enter the workforce when they reach maturity.

Society needs to reconsider the Critical Infrastructure groupings to address the perspective of communities before using Critical Infrastructure to plan adaptation strategies for climate change-induced future stressors. Using this perspective, the DHS Critical Infrastructure sectors can be grouped into super-categories, each serving specific societal and survival functions: Combined Energy sectors; Communication (combining traditional and internet); Commercial Job Sources; Financial Access; Transportation access and function; and the Military.

From a community resilience perspective, life is broader than the main categories considered in the DHS CISA Critical Infrastructure sectors or even super-categories. We have considered what would be considered Critical Infrastructure from a personal/home-dweller perspective but is not included in the National Critical Infrastructure sectors. These community-centric Critical Infrastructure categories include housing, education, and childcare/dependent care. During any weather-related emergency, housing and shelter is typically a central focus of both preparation and action. People determine whether they can shelter in place during a weather emergency or have to seek shelter elsewhere. Alternative shelter may be in the home of an unaffected (or less seriously affected) family member, friend or neighbor, or may be in a municipality, state or federally provided facility. If one has children or disabled dependents, a main concern for both emergency planning and action (e.g. evacuation) would need to consider how are the children and/or dependents being taken care of while you either work or otherwise take care of the home? Where are they at the time of the weather emergency? Where is a safe location for them, and how would they get to a safe location? Will they need to be picked up before a possible evacuation?

Fig 1 shows our suggested Community-Based Critical Infrastructure Categories matched to the original National Critical Infrastructure sectors. The Community-Based Critical Infrastructure categories translate the concept of Critical Infrastructure to the community, family and individual level. When a storm hits, people pay attention to whether or not they have power, they do not care as much about the original power source. When people plan adaptations to increase resilience to the possible loss of power, they think about their options to replace power as individuals or a household; what is practical, safe enough, and within their financial capability. Similarly, when a parent realizes a flood may hit their home while their child is at school or childcare, the parent will be thinking about whether they have to get the child before evacuating, or if the child will be safer (and taken care of) where they are.

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Fig 1. Matching National Critical Infrastructure sectors to Community-Based Critical Infrastructure categories.

A visualization of the matching of National Critical Infrastructure sectors to potential Community-Based Critical Infrastructure categories. Unmatched categories (such as housing, education and childcare) are not generally included in the DHS CISA Critical Infrastructure sectors.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000178.g001

Communities and neighborhoods are often the next level up for resilience planning. When a flood affects a part of a neighborhood, it is local people who have the best chance to help save lives and get people and pets to safety. It is the neighbors who are most likely to realize that there still could be people in a house at risk. It is the neighbors, or the next neighborhood over, who can help provide emergency shelter and food and loan out replacement clothes. Community-based Critical Infrastructure-based planning can also help neighborhoods plan redundancies together, plan emergency escape routes, set up communication trees.

Having the Critical Infrastructure redefined to the community level allows individuals and families to plan their personal vulnerabilities based on their personal circumstances and helps individuals, families, and neighborhoods organize such planning holistically across the infrastructure of their lives. While it is helpful for municipalities to plan redundancy for the Critical Infrastructure the municipality can influence, it is still essential for individuals, families and communities to plan and set in place adaptations for their Community-Based Critical Infrastructure based on their personal, localized vulnerabilities and circumstances.