About ICIS

A Brief Overview

The Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems (ICIS) at New York University’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service was established with funding from the National Science Foundation in 1998.

ICIS research focuses on a policy context to security and natural hazard threats to critical infrastructures. This research includes relationships among infrastructures, such as energy, transportation, telecommunications, water supply, and environmental protection infrastructure, and how these interdependencies affect their viability. Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, ICIS homeland security and natural hazards research has primarily focused on critical infrastructure protection and has had funding from U.S. DHS through three university centers:

the Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE) at the University of Southern California

the Center for Catastrophe Preparedness and Response (CCPR) at New York University

the Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection (I3P) at Dartmouth College

In addition, ICIS receives funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for policy studies connected with air quality, transportation, waste disposal, and health. The main project in this area is the South Bronx Environmental Health and Policy Study, conducted in collaboration with local community groups.