Working with "living" models: Emergent methodological contributions from modeling for critical infrastructure protection

Abstract:

This talk is based upon a coauthored paper by the same title written for the ANZSYS 2007 Conference. The work results from a partnership involving three national labs chartered to provide fast, order-of-magnitude assessments of potential impacts of disruptions effecting critical infrastructures. Due to increasing automation and interdependency, the infrastructures are subject to possibly cascading vulnerabilities due to equipment failure, natural disasters, and terrorist attacks. The government seeks to ensure that disruptions are infrequent, brief, manageable, and cause the least harm possible. The system dynamics approach is particularly promising in understanding these complex systems, interactions, and issues. Problems in critical infrastructure protection are being investigated with a collection of models developed expressly for these concerns. In this presentation we emphasize two technical innovations related to this work: 1) the use of a standards-based modular approach to model development and use and 2) the model reassembling technology used to handle the development of these “living” models.