A Simple Representation Scheme to Model Critical Infrastructure Interdependencies

Modern societies rely on systems and assets called "Critical Infrastructures" (CI) for performing essential activities in sectors such as energy, transport and ICT. Technically, any CI is a complex system of systems, interacting with its operators and users. Depending on different factors e.g. location, strategic importance, CIs can be threaten by various types of events e.g. natural hazards, technological risks, terrorist attacks. Examples of CI disruptions show how serious the consequences can be in terms of economic impacts, societal disturbance, fatalities... Some modeling & simulation (M&S) approaches exist to better understand the functioning and vulnerabilities of CIs. However, only few handle CI Interdependency (CII) issues at a high, abstract level. Yet, a generic formalism capturing the functioning of any CI in a simple way would be useful. This paper proposes a preliminary development answering questions such as: How can CI performance be characterized? How can one simulate a what-if scenario?

GRIOT Chloé;  NORDVIK Jean Pierre; 

2010-11-23

DIPTEM, University of Genoa

JRC61339

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC61339,