HARCI-EU, a harmonized gridded dataset of critical infrastructures in Europe for large-scale risk assessments

Critical infrastructures (CIs) are assets, systems, or parts thereof that are essential for the maintenance of socioeconomic functions, health, safety and well-being of people. The exposure of CIs to natural and man-made hazards poses a risk to the economy and society. The spatial distribution of CIs and their economic value are a prerequisite for quantifying risk and planning suitable protection and adaptation measures. However, the incompleteness and inconsistency of existing information on CIs hamper their integration into large-scale risk frameworks. We present here the ‘HARmonized grids of Critical Infrastructures in EUrope’ (HARCI-EU) dataset. It represents major CIs in the transport, energy, industry and social sectors at 1 km2 expressed in sector-specific, economically-relevant units. The HARCI-EU grids were produced by integrating geospatial and statistical data from multiple sources. Correlation analysis performed against independent metrics corroborates the approach showing average Pearson coefficients ranging between 0.61 and 0.95 across the sectors. HARCI-EU provides a consistent mapping of CIs in key sectors that can serve as exposure information for large-scale risk assessments in Europe.