Advantage of Distributed Capacity in Service Continuity Planning: The Case of Air Traffic Control Facility Consolidation

Maintaining service continuity from critical infrastructures is an increasingly important task for governments. The economic and national security consequences of disruption or catastrophic failures of critical systems dictate increased emphasis on service continuity. This study considers the value of a fundamental rethinking of how a service can be structured to reduce reliance on traditional models to protect, recover and restore services after a disruption. Rather it seeks to consider a distributed capacity model to reduce the consequences of disruption in the first place. By accepting the premise that disruptions will occur and creating infrastructures that are better able to absorb them, governments can reduce both the cost of service disruption and the costs associated with prevention and restoration.