Risk management of interconnected infrastructures: An empirical study of joint stress conditions

Abstract

This chapter has been written for engineering practitioners, support staff and researchers interested in how to assess and manage risks that arise because critical infrastructures are interconnected, and increasingly so. Infrastructures are large technical systems for water, electricity, transportation, telecommunications and financial services, among others, whose assets and services are considered vital to society. These engineered systems operate under legal, regulatory and mission mandates to be highly reliable, that is, to ensure the safe and continuous provision of the critical service in question, even during (especially during) peak demand or turbulent times. Because they operate under high reliability mandates, their control operators and staff take risk assessment and management seriously. This chapter focuses on what we consider to be neglected but extremely important topics related to the assessment, management and tracking of risks at the interconnected critical infrastructure system (ICIS) level. Special features of infrastructure control rooms are discussed, and an empirical analysis demonstrates conditions under which interconnected infrastructures share risks for joint management purposes.