Wiley Handbook of Science and Technology for Homeland Security, 4 Volume Set

NETWORK FLOW APPROACHES FOR ANALYZING AND MANAGING DISRUPTIONS TO INTERDEPENDENT INFRASTRUCTURE SYSTEMS

EARL E. LEE

University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware

JOHN E. MITCHELL AND WILLIAM A. WALLACE

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York

1 INTRODUCTION

The American way of life relies on the operations and interactions of a complex set of infrastructure networks. These networks include transportation, electric power, gas and liquid fuels, telecommunications, wastewater facilities, and water supplies. This set of civil infrastructures has also been included in the broader set of critical infrastructures defined by the USA Patriot Act of 2001 [1]. In the Patriot Act, critical infrastructures are those

“systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, so vital to the United States that the incapacity or destruction of such would have a debilitating impact on security, national economic security, national public health or safety or any combination of these matters [1].”

Each of these infrastructure systems evolved independently. However as technology advanced, the systems became interconnected. The reliance of any of these systems on electric power is obvious. Failures, by whatever cause, within the communications networks in one locale may have far-reaching effects across many systems.

Infrastructure management systems did not allow a manager of one system to “see” the operations and conditions of another system. Therefore, emergency managers would fail to recognize this ...