Prior to beginning work on this assignment please read Chapters 2 and 4 in the Sylves (2014) textbook and Chapters 4 and 7 in the Radvanovsky (2013) textbook, and refer to the DHS website outlining the critical infrastructure sectors (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. you received in the Week One discussion forum. Read the Rinaldi, Peerenboom, and Kelly (2001) (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. article. You will also need to research at least two additional scholarly, peer-reviewed, and/or professional sources (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. to include in your written report.

Choose one of the following cities for this assignment:

• Atlanta, GA
• Chicago, IL
• Dallas, TX
• Houston, TX
• Los Angeles, CA
• New York, NY
• Philadelphia, PA
• Phoenix, AZ
• San Antonio, TX
• San Diego, CA
• San Jose, CA
• St. Louis, MO
• Washington DC
• Seattle, WA

You will analyze three of the critical infrastructure sectors (electrical substations, rail lines, and highway transportation) in your chosen city and allow you to see how these sectors fit together after consulting a critical infrastructure sector map. Should there be a terrorist attack or natural disaster in one of these highly populated cities in the United States, you will create a report that examines the real and perceived threats as well as the actual and suspected threats of these critical infrastructure sectors in your chosen city to determine possible vulnerabilities for management of potential risks.

Include the following elements in your paper.
Map

• Access the U.S. Energy Information Administration (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. website. On the map, select the state of your chosen city. Use the zoom feature to see the electrical sectors, rail lines, and freeways in your city. Once you get the view you seek, take a screen capture. (For assistance in screen capturing, you may wish to access the take-a-screenshot (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. webpage.) Save your screen capture image and insert it into the “Appendix” section of your report. While you are still on the map page, select the “Layers/Legend” button to ensure the “Energy Infrastructure” view is activated. Once you see all of the icons, take a screen capture of the layers/legend window. Insert that image into the Appendix below the map image. You may wish to access the provided Appendix sample for guidance.
• You must save the image of the map and the legend as you will need it for the Interactive Assignment in Week Four.

Report

• Create a report that shows the relationships between the infrastructure sectors in your chosen city and include all of the following elements.
  • Using your map as a guide, identify the single point failures and the implications of these failures for CIP in your chosen city. Determine the impact when we remove one of these and explain how you would reroute traffic. Assess the impact on travel time in such scenario. Discuss the cascading effects of losing the infrastructure on other infrastructures.
  • Analyze the recognition of real and perceived threats and the management of risk of the critical infrastructure sectors in your chosen city. Identify any vulnerabilities for management of potential risks.
  • Assess the impact to human life should these single point failures be unavailable due to a terrorist attack or natural disaster in such a densely populated city. Determine the implications for dense populations under such circumstances.
  • Examine the impacts of actual and suspected threats of the critical infrastructure sectors in your chosen city. Identify any vulnerabilities for management of potential risks.
  • Analyze the first, second, and potentially third order interdependencies of the critical infrastructures.
  • Propose the negative opportunities that technology such Google Maps and shared information provide to terrorist organizations.
  • Insert a picture of your map and of the legend into an “Appendix” section at the end of your report. Label the map with the name of your chosen city, and label the Layers/Legend image with “Legend.”

CIP in the Most Populated Cities Report

• Must be three to five double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages or the Appendix) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..
• Must include a separate title page with the following:
  • Title of paper
  • Student’s name
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name
  • Date submitted
• Must use at least two scholarly, peer reviewed, and/or professional sources in addition to the course text.
  • The Scholarly, Peer Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
• Must document all sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
• Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

Carefully review the Grading Rubric (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.