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According to the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), “There are 16 critical infrastructure sectors whose assets, systems, and networks, whether physical or virtual, are considered so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination thereof.” Additional sectors have been added, including National Monuments and Icons and Postal and Shipping. Michigan was the first state to identify education as a critical infrastructure, resulting in a total of 19 sectors.

The Michigan Emergency Management Association represents all 19 sectors of critical infrastructure in support of Presidential Policy Directive 21 (PPD-21): Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience aims to advance the national policy by strengthening and maintaining secure, functioning, and resilient critical infrastructure and facilitating collaboration amongst these partners in Michigan.

Choose a sector below to learn more

The Chemical Sector is an integral component of the U.S. economy, relying on and supporting a wide range of other critical infrastructure sectors.

The sector can be divided into five main segments, based on the end product produced:

• Basic chemicals
• Specialty chemicals
• Agricultural chemicals
• Pharmaceuticals
• Consumer products

According to the Michigan Chemistry Council, “The chemical industry is Michigan’s third-largest manufacturing sector, and is an essential contributor to every facet of the state’s economy: over 96% of all manufactured goods are directly touched by the business of chemistry. In Michigan, the automotive, agricultural, and construction sectors – in particular – all depend heavily on the chemical industry’s products and innovations.”

Chemical companies interface with communities and partner organizations through Local Emergency Planning Committees as required by the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) to address the protection of employees, the facility, the community, and first responders.

Learn more about Chemical Sector Emergency Preparedness in Michigan

The Commercial Facilities Sector includes a diverse range of sites that draw large crowds of people for shopping, business, entertainment, or lodging. Facilities within the sector operate on the principle of open public access, meaning that the general public can move freely without the deterrent of highly visible security barriers. The majority of these facilities are privately owned and operated, with minimal interaction with the federal government and other regulatory entities.

The Commercial Facilities Sector consists of eight subsectors:

• Entertainment and Media (e.g., motion picture studios, broadcast media).
• Gaming (e.g., casinos).
• Lodging (e.g., hotels, motels, conference centers).
• Outdoor Events (e.g., theme and amusement parks, fairs, campgrounds, parades).
• Public Assembly (e.g., arenas, stadiums, aquariums, zoos, museums, convention centers).
• Real Estate (e.g., office and apartment buildings, condominiums, mixed use facilities, self-storage).
• Retail (e.g., retail centers and districts, shopping malls).
• Sports Leagues (e.g., professional sports leagues and federations).

The Communications Sector is an integral component of the U.S. economy, underlying the operations of all businesses, public safety organizations, and government.

The Communications Sector is closely linked to other sectors, including:

• The Energy Sector, which provides power to run cellular towers, central offices, and other critical communications facilities and also relies on communications to aid in monitoring and controlling the delivery of electricity.
• The Information Technology Sector, which provides critical control systems and services, physical architecture, and Internet infrastructure, and also relies on communications to deliver and distribute applications and services.
• The Financial Services Sector, which relies on communications for the transmission of transactions and operations of financial markets.
• The Emergency Services Sector, which depends on communications for directing resources, coordinating response, operating public alert and warning systems, and receiving emergency 9-1-1 calls.
• The Transportation Systems Sector, which provides the diesel fuel needed to power backup generators and relies on communications to monitor and control the flow of ground, sea, and air traffic.

The Critical Manufacturing Sector is crucial to the economic prosperity and continuity of the United States. A direct attack on or disruption of certain elements of the manufacturing industry could disrupt essential functions at the national level and across multiple critical infrastructure sectors.

The Critical Manufacturing Sector identified several industries to serve as the core of the sector:

• Primary Metals Manufacturing
  • Iron and Steel Mills and Ferro Alloy Manufacturing
  • Alumina and Aluminum Production and Processing
  • Nonferrous Metal Production and Processing
• Machinery Manufacturing
  • Engine and Turbine Manufacturing
  • Power Transmission Equipment Manufacturing
  • Earth Moving, Mining, Agricultural, and Construction Equipment Manufacturing
• Electrical Equipment, Appliance, and Component Manufacturing
  • Electric Motor Manufacturing
  • Transformer Manufacturing
  • Generator Manufacturing
• Transportation Equipment Manufacturing
  • Vehicles and Commercial Ships Manufacturing
  • Aerospace Products and Parts Manufacturing
  • Locomotives, Railroad and Transit Cars, and Rail Track Equipment Manufacturing

The Dams Sector delivers critical water retention and control services in the United States, including hydroelectric power generation, municipal and industrial water supplies, agricultural irrigation, sediment and flood control, river navigation for inland bulk shipping, industrial waste management, and recreation.

Its key services support multiple critical infrastructure sectors and industries. Dams Sector assets irrigate at least 10 percent of U.S. cropland, help protect more than 43 percent of the U.S. population from flooding, and generate about 60 percent of electricity in the Pacific Northwest.

There are more than 87,000 dams in the United States—approximately 65 percent are privately owned and approximately 77 percent are regulated by state dams safety offices. The Dams Sector has interdependencies with a wide range of other sectors, including:

• Communications - Communications networks enable remote Dams Sector operations and control.
• Energy - Hydropower dams provide critical electricity resources and blackstart capabilities.
• Food and Agriculture - Dams Sector assets provide water for irrigation and protect farmland from flooding.
• Transportation Systems - Navigation lock systems in the Dams Sector enable all inland and intracoastal waterway freight movements. Major roads may traverse dams.
• Water - Dams Sector assets provide drinking water supplies and pumping capabilities.

The Defense Industrial Base Sector is the worldwide industrial complex that enables research and development, as well as design, production, delivery, and maintenance of military weapons systems, subsystems, and components or parts, to meet U.S. military requirements.

The Defense Industrial Base partnership consists of Department of Defense components, more than 100,000 Defense Industrial Base companies and their subcontractors who perform under contract to the Department of Defense, companies providing incidental materials and services to the Department of Defense, and government-owned/contractor-operated and government-owned/government-operated facilities.

A system of prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery elements, the Emergency Services Sector (ESS) represents the nation's first line of defense in the prevention and mitigation of risk from both intentional and unintentional manmade incidents, as well as from natural disasters. The ESS also serves as the primary protector for the other 15 critical infrastructure sectors.

Encompassing a wide range of emergency response functions, the primary mission of the ESS is to:

• Save lives
• Protect property and the environment
• Assist communities impacted by disasters
• Aid in recovery from emergencies

These functions, the majority of which are performed at the state, local, tribal, and territorial levels, are defined by five disciplines:

• Law Enforcement
• Fire and Emergency Services
• Emergency Management
• Emergency Medical Services
• Public Works

Additionally, there are several specialized capabilities identified within the ESS, such as:

• Hazardous Materials
• Search and Rescue
• Hazardous Devices Team/Public Safety Bomb Disposal
• Tactical Teams (i.e., SWAT)
• Aviation Units (i.e., police and medevac helicopters)
• Public Safety Answering Points (i.e., 9-1-1 call centers)

The U.S. energy infrastructure fuels the economy of the 21st century. Without a stable energy supply, health and welfare are threatened, and the U.S. economy cannot function. Presidential Policy Directive 21 identifies the Energy Sector as uniquely critical because it provides an “enabling function” across all critical infrastructure sectors. More than 80 percent of the country's energy infrastructure is owned by the private sector, supplying fuels to the transportation industry, electricity to households and businesses, and other sources of energy that are integral to growth and production across the nation.

The Financial Services Sector represents a vital component of our nation's critical infrastructure. Large-scale power outages, recent natural disasters, and an increase in the number and sophistication of cyberattacks demonstrate the wide range of potential risks facing the sector.

The Financial Services Sector includes thousands of depository institutions, providers of investment products, insurance companies, other credit and financing organizations, and the providers of the critical financial utilities and services that support these functions. Financial institutions vary widely in size and presence, ranging from some of the world’s largest global companies with thousands of employees and many billions of dollars in assets, to community banks and credit unions with a small number of employees serving individual communities.

Whether an individual savings account, financial derivatives, credit extended to a large organization, or investments made to a foreign country, these products allow customers to:

• Deposit funds and make payments to other parties
• Provide credit and liquidity to customers
• Invest funds for both long and short periods
• Transfer financial risks between customers

The Food and Agriculture Sector is almost entirely under private ownership and is composed of an estimated 2.1 million farms, 935,000 restaurants, and more than 200,000 registered food manufacturing, processing, and storage facilities. This sector accounts for roughly one-fifth of the nation's economic activity.

The Food and Agriculture Sector has critical dependencies with many sectors, but particularly with the following:

• Water and Wastewater Systems, for clean irrigation and processed water
• Transportation Systems, for movement of products and livestock
• Energy, to power the equipment needed for agriculture production and food processing
• Chemical, for fertilizers and pesticides used in the production of crops

The Government Facilities Sector includes a wide variety of buildings, located in the United States and overseas, that are owned or leased by federal, state, local, and tribal governments. Many government facilities are open to the public for business activities, commercial transactions, or recreational activities while others that are not open to the public contain highly sensitive information, materials, processes, and equipment. These facilities include general-use office buildings and special-use military installations, embassies, courthouses, national laboratories, and structures that may house critical equipment, systems, networks, and functions.

In addition to physical structures, the sector includes cyber elements that contribute to the protection of sector assets (e.g., access control systems and closed-circuit television systems) as well as individuals who perform essential functions or possess tactical, operational, or strategic knowledge.

The Healthcare and Public Health Sector protects all sectors of the economy from hazards such as terrorism, infectious disease outbreaks, and natural disasters. Because the vast majority of the sector's assets are privately owned and operated, collaboration and information sharing between the public and private sectors is essential to increasing resilience of the nation's Healthcare and Public Health critical infrastructure.

Operating in all U.S. states, territories, and tribal areas, the sector plays a significant role in response and recovery across all other sectors in the event of a natural or manmade disaster. While healthcare tends to be delivered and managed locally, the public health component of the sector, focused primarily on population health, is managed across all levels of government: national, state, regional, local, tribal, and territorial.

The Information Technology Sector is central to the nation's security, economy, and public health and safety as businesses, governments, academia, and private citizens are increasingly dependent upon Information Technology Sector functions. These virtual and distributed functions produce and provide hardware, software, and information technology systems and services, and—in collaboration with the Communications Sector—the Internet. The sector's complex and dynamic environment makes identifying threats and assessing vulnerabilities difficult and requires that these tasks be addressed in a collaborative and creative fashion.

Information Technology Sector functions are operated by a combination of entities—often owners and operators and their respective associations—that maintain and reconstitute the network, including the Internet. Although information technology infrastructure has a certain level of inherent resilience, its interdependent and interconnected structure presents challenges as well as opportunities for coordinating public and private sector preparedness and protection activities.

The National Monuments and Icons Sector is committed to ensuring that the symbols of our Nation remain protected and intact for future generations.  In the course of protecting our landmarks, the sector will ensure that staff and visitors are protected for harm.

Nuclear power accounts for approximately 20 percent of our nation's electrical generation, provided by 99 commercial nuclear plants.

The sector includes:

• Nuclear power plants.
• Non-power nuclear reactors used for research, testing, and training.
• Manufacturers of nuclear reactors or components.
• Radioactive materials used primarily in medical, industrial, and academic settings.
• Nuclear fuel cycle facilities.
• Decommissioned nuclear power reactors.
• Transportation, storage, and disposal of nuclear and radioactive waste.

The Postal and Shipping Sector contains multi-layered networks of collection, transportation, and distribution assets.  This sector’s continuity of business plans envisions a resilient infrastructure in which threats can be quickly detected, consequences localized, and operational disruptions minimized.

The Transportation Systems Sector consists of seven key subsectors, or modes:

• Aviation includes aircraft, air traffic control systems, and about 19,700 airports, heliports, and landing strips. Approximately 500 provide commercial aviation services at civil and joint-use military airports, heliports, and sea plane bases. In addition, the aviation mode includes commercial and recreational aircraft (manned and unmanned) and a wide-variety of support services, such as aircraft repair stations, fueling facilities, navigation aids, and flight schools.

• Highway and Motor Carrier encompasses more than 4 million miles of roadway, more than 600,000 bridges, and more than 350 tunnels. Vehicles include trucks, including those carrying hazardous materials; other commercial vehicles, including commercial motorcoaches and school buses; vehicle and driver licensing systems; traffic management systems; and cyber systems used for operational management.

• Maritime Transportation System consists of about 95,000 miles of coastline, 361 ports, more than 25,000 miles of waterways, and intermodal landside connections that allow the various modes of transportation to move people and goods to, from, and on the water.

• Mass Transit and Passenger Rail includes terminals, operational systems, and supporting infrastructure for passenger services by transit buses, trolleybuses, monorail, heavy rail—also known as subways or metros—light rail, passenger rail, and vanpool/rideshare. Public transportation and passenger rail operations provided an estimated 10.8 billion passenger trips in 2014.

• Pipeline Systems consist of more than 2.5 million miles of pipelines spanning the country and carrying nearly all of the nation's natural gas and about 65 percent of hazardous liquids, as well as various chemicals. Above-ground assets, such as compressor stations and pumping stations, are also included.

• Freight Rail consists of seven major carriers, hundreds of smaller railroads, over 138,000 miles of active railroad, over 1.33 million freight cars, and approximately 20,000 locomotives. An estimated 12,000 trains operate daily. The Department of Defense has designated 30,000 miles of track and structure as critical to mobilization and resupply of U.S. forces.

• Postal and Shipping moves about 720 million letters and packages each day and includes large integrated carriers, regional and local courier services, mail services, mail management firms, and chartered and delivery services.

Safe drinking water is a prerequisite for protecting public health and all human activity. Properly treated wastewater is vital for preventing disease and protecting the environment. Thus, ensuring the supply of drinking water and wastewater treatment and service is essential to modern life and the Nation’s economy.

There are approximately 153,000 public drinking water systems and more than 16,000 publicly owned wastewater treatment systems in the United States. More than 80 percent of the U.S. population receives their potable water from these drinking water systems, and about 75 percent of the U.S. population has its sanitary sewerage treated by these wastewater systems.