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Contents
Work already underway to support internet resilience
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The Internet Infrastructure Climate Resilience research project is taking place during the second half of 2025 and early 2026. The research project will involve a broad network of participants who bring a range of perspectives and expertise to the table. The project is based at the Brainbox Institute, and the lead researcher is Dr Ellen Strickland. The project is made possible with support from the Internet Society Foundation.
This backgrounder was produced by the research project team. It provides members of the broader research network with contextual and background information to build a shared understanding of key concepts, and act as a springboard for discussions. We also expect the backgrounder will be of interest to people in the wider internet resilience ecosystem in Aotearoa New Zealand and beyond.
The backgrounder is in four parts:
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You can download the backgrounder as a word document or a pdf below:
Backgrounder - Internet infrastructure and climate change.pdf
Backgrounder - Internet infrastructure and climate change.docx
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Backgrounder: Internet infrastructure and climate change © 2025 by The Internet Infrastructure Climate Resilience Research Project is licensed under CC BY 4.0
The internet has been built into our ways of doing things as a society – it is relied on by individuals, whānau and communities in day-to-day life, and for the production of goods and delivery of services. We rely on being connected to the internet to carry out many activities, including:
When internet access goes down for any length of time, people and organisations experience disruptions to their daily activities that range from minor to catastrophic.
We could not send our shipments because we have to upload documents before they are put onto the plane. […] We really need that connection. That was the scary part, and we didn't know how long it was going to be out. – Sam Vea, Tonga agent for DHL talking about an internet outage in 2019.
The stakes are particularly high when the internet is disrupted due to an emergency like a severe weather event, as emergency response systems often rely on the internet or other telecommunication technologies to support communication, logistics and coordination systems.
We had no power for a week and no internet or cell cover for almost two weeks[...] The loss of contact with no internet, cell cover, or landline meant we were quite isolated as we live in a rural community. It meant that if I had an emergency with my husband, there was no way for me to make contact with services[…] – Nolene, Northland resident on her Cyclone Gabrielle experience, Stories of Resilience Report (Northland Regional Council, 2023)
In the context of increased severe weather events and other longer-term climate change impacts, it is important that we have resilient internet infrastructure which can absorb shocks, adapt to new circumstances and bounce back from interruption. Having resilient internet infrastructure also supports community wellbeing and resilience.
Climate change is leading to an increase in the frequency and intensity of severe weather events including storms, heatwaves, droughts and heavy rainfall. Below, we provide examples of severe weather events in recent years which have impacted internet infrastructure and access both in Aotearoa New Zealand (where this project is based) and internationally.
These three severe weather events, which have had long-lasting impacts, were:
During these events, many regions in Aotearoa New Zealand lost internet and phone connections; this was found to be detrimental to the emergency response and caused panic and anxiety.[1] Power outages were a key reason for the internet outages (along with damage to fibre cables), demonstrating the interconnectedness of our critical infrastructure systems (see figure below). In particular, infrastructure outages that impacted internet connectivity (as per the Report of the Government Inquiry into the 2023 North Island Severe Weather Events page 89) included:
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Diagram 1: Fragility of an Interconnected System (Cyclone Gabrielle)
Image: reproduced from the Report of the Government Inquiry into the Response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. The original source of the information is the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC).
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We note there have been additional severe weather events in Aotearoa New Zealand since 2023, including Cyclone Tam in April 2025, where impacts included significant power outages in Northland, leaving over 24,000 houses without electricity (due to trees falling on power lines). Most recently, in early July 2025, the Nelson Tasman District has had an extreme weather event including flooding and slips, resulting in a state of emergency situation during which the Golden Bay area lost internet connectivity and telecommunications.
2017 was one of the most active hurricane seasons in the Caribbean with storms including Category 5 Irma and Maria causing devastation across many areas including Puerto Rico, St. Maarten and Dominica. Over 5 months after the storms, the Internet Society reported that some parts of the Caribbean were still without internet access – including due to lack of electricity in homes and damage to above-ground cables. This report provides an overview of the impacts of these events in regards to access to the internet.
In 2024, Cloudflare Radar, [which tracks Internet outages globally](https://radar.cloudflare.com/year-in-review/2024?_gl=1*1b9hljn*_gcl_au*ODM1Mjg4Mjg3LjE3NDUzNzgyNDc.*_ga*OTM2MTU3NjE0LjE2NjkyODcxMTM.*_ga_SQCRB0TXZW*MTc0NTM5NTEyMC40LjEuMTc0NTM5NTI0Ni4xOC4wLjA.), logged at least six national Internet outages in Caribbean countries attributed to extreme weather, three related to Hurricane Beryl and at least 3 million people were left with Internet or cell phone in Florida after Hurricane Milton in October 2024.
As well as widespread network impacts in the aftermath of Ex-Cyclone Alfred in March 2025 which tested network resilience and response, there were internet information issues when searches on social media weren’t providing the information needed by those impacted.
The Internet Society published a report that provides some analysis of the impacts of the 2025 Spain and Portugal power disruptions in relation to Internet infrastructure. The report highlights vulnerabilities for urban environments and how “electricity resilience and reliability is critical when measuring and developing Internet resilience”.
The concept of ‘internet infrastructure resilience’ is a starting point for this research, and having a shared understanding of what this means is important. In 2020, the Internet Society undertook research to determine metrics and criteria for internet resilience. They define a resilient internet connection as “one that maintains an acceptable level of service in the face of faults and challenges to normal operation”.
As part of this research, we will be exploring what internet infrastructure resilience means for Aotearoa New Zealand specifically, particularly in the context of extreme weather and climate change.
In this section, we introduce a range of key concepts that are useful to build a broad common understanding of as we embark on this research project together. The section aims to set out high-level definitions and framings of key concepts and point readers to further information. In particular, we discuss:
These concepts are interconnected, and we have structured this section in a way that the concepts can build upon each other.
Resilience is context-specific and can be conceptualised in a few different ways, but a key part of it is being able to absorb and bounce back from shocks. Some resilience scholars also think resilience is about adapting to long-term trends like climate change, although this interpretation is not agreed by everyone.[2]
Scholarship about resilience often looks at a specific system, structure, or group. For example, there are large bodies of research on community resilience, infrastructure resilience, organizational resilience, ecological resilience.
Below are a few definitions of resilience:
The ability to anticipate and resist the effects of a disruptive event, minimise adverse impacts, respond effectively post-event, maintain or recover functionality, and adapt in a way that allows for learning and thriving. – Definition developed for the National Disaster Resilience Strategy (NEMA, 2022)
The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. Ability to withstand and rebound from crisis or adversity. Endurance. – He Arotakenga Manawaroa: A kaupapa Māori framework for assessing resilience (Manaaki Whenua Landcare, 2019).
The ability of a system, community or society exposed to hazards to resist, absorb, accommodate, adapt to, transform and recover from the effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner, including through the preservation and restoration of its essential basic structures and functions through risk management. – The Sendai Framework Terminology on Disaster Risk Reduction (United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, 2017)
Māori perspectives on resilience are useful and important, offering valuable ways of approaching this work. We intend to gather further insights from participants throughout the process. As a starting point, here are some extracts about Māori perspectives on resilience:
For indigenous Māori in Aotearoa-New Zealand, resilience means many things. Within its many definitions are central notions of building a strong and vibrant social, cultural, environmental, and economic capital base or fabric (tūāpapa, whāriki) on which to grow resilient and sustainable communities and environments[...] – He Arotakenga Manawaroa: A kaupapa Māori framework for assessing resilience (Manaaki Whenua Landcare, 2019).
Kaupapa Māori offers unique insights into resilience. Māori hold wide-ranging perspectives on the topic of resilience, often motivated by a wider agenda to advance social justice for Māori. One study about Māori conceptions of resilience during the Christchurch earthquakes found that Māori risk management initiatives were collaborative and shaped by kaupapa (cultural values), specifically the value ‘aroha nui ki te tangata’ (extend love to all people). These community-based approaches tended to be seen as more effective in enhancing resilience than individually-focused mainstream ones[…] – Resilience – definitions, concepts and measurement (MBIE Office of the Chief Economist, 2023)
Frameworks can be useful tools for thinking clearly about complex topics. One framework that has been widely used to describe different properties of resilience was developed by Bruneau et al (2003) in the context of seismic (earthquake) risk. The four properties of resilience as described in the framework are:
Robustness: strength, or the ability of elements, systems, and other units of analysis to withstand a given level of stress or demand without suffering degradation or loss of function
Redundancy: the extent to which elements, systems, or other units of analysis exist that are substitutable, i.e., capable of satisfying functional requirements in the event of disruption, degradation, or loss of functionality
Resourcefulness: the capacity to identify problems, establish priorities, and mobilize resources when conditions exist that threaten to disrupt some element, system, or other unit of analysis; resourcefulness can be further conceptualized as consisting of the ability to apply material (i.e., monetary, physical, technological, and informational) and human resources to meet established priorities and achieve goals
Rapidity: the capacity to meet priorities and achieve goals in a timely manner in order to contain losses and avoid future disruption.[3]