National Infrastructure Protection Plan Free Essay Example, 2250 words

Most small and rural airports fail to undertake regular drills, have limited stakeholder collaboration, limited participation and community involvement, inadequate resources such as medical aid and marine rescue, and much insufficiencies and inadequacies on regulation adherence. Even though small and private airports are normally prepared for some emergencies in various aspects, they still need to do much. Subsequently, in order to enhance risk resilience and disaster preparedness and recovery, the airports need to allocate more resources, conduct continuous public and staff awareness trainings, undertake regular drills, address staff welfare concerns, strengthen interagency coordination, ensure adherence to set standards and regulations, decentralize decision making, improve navigation, and establish aerodrome owned marine unit (Scalingi, 2007). The primary goal of emergency response efforts in airports is to promote and foster the establishment and development of efficient, safe, environmentally compatible, and dependable air transportation system. However, the multimodal and interconnected systems including aviation are still vulnerable to various natural risks and disasters. For example, it is estimated that there is a 99 percent chance of earthquake experience in California within the next 30 years. It is therefore expected that the airports of such like states play a critical role in disaster recovery and response efforts. We will write a custom essay sample on National Infrastructure Protection Plan or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now Today, the majority of transportation disaster planning focus on restoration of surface transport systems, however, the relationship between surface transport and airports is very crucial during the disaster recovery phase, this is due the alternate usage by passengers, for example, destinations that can be reached via surface transport and air transport, passengers can choose to go by planes or vehicle, hence both systems need adequate disaster recovery systems (U. Department of Homeland Security, 2009).