Resilience of the U.S. National Airspace System Airport Network

Abstract

Natural hazards, such as hurricanes and winter storms, computer glitches and technical flaws, and man-made terror or cyber-physical attacks, can lead to localized perturbations of the U.S. national airspace system airport network (NASAN), which can in turn percolate across the interconnected system. Here we develop and demonstrate an approach to quantitatively characterize the robustness of NASAN, defined as loss of critical functions owing to perturbations, and a quantitative framework to select the most efficient and effective post-hazard recovery strategies. The system-level robustness and recovery strategies rely on network science methods and associated attributes. New insights include the central role of network attributes to robustness and optimal recovery sequences. Characterizations of robustness and fragility can inform what-if plans and proactive design, while recovery strategies developed in advance can support systematic, reliable, and timely bounce-back from hazard-related perturbations. The framework can serve as a baseline over which local information or cost optimization can be superposed.