Dynamic control of infrastructural networks

Abstract

Infrastructural networks have a large impact on social, economic, and ecological values for people. The providers of infrastructural networks are confronted with a rapidly changing world on and around these networks. In this paper, a simple model of dynamic control is presented, which is a combination of a dynamic control model and a dynamic process model. The dynamic control model defines the relationships between the changing network and the changing environment (De Ridder, 2011; De Ridder and Vrijhoef, 2007). The dynamic process model describes the transient stochastic dynamic behaviour of the network with a throughput relation between the inputs of money and events on one side and the outputs of capacity on the other side. The coupling between the two dynamic models is made with the actual state of each part of the network which is determined by control. This paper proposes a model for studying the effects of the various control mechanisms and how they interrelate.