Toward Secure and Resilient Interdependent Infrastructures

Abstract

A new megainfrastructure is emerging from the convergence of energy ~including the electric grid, water, oil and gas pipelines!, telecommunications, transportation, Internet and electronic commerce. Furthermore, in the electric power industry and other critical infrastructures, new ways are being sought to improve network efficiency and eliminate congestion problems without seriously diminishing reliability and security. Maintaining reliability, security, and robustness of critical national and international infrastructures is becoming increasingly challenging and a comprehensive strategy is needed to prepare for the diverse threats posed by the evolving spectrum of destabilizers. Such a strategy should both increase protection of vital industry assets and ensure the public that they are well protected. All the infrastructure industries in the United States, and to a significant extent in many other nations, have multiple ownership and management and they operate with only a minimum of regulation by the national government. The international infrastructure is operated by a combination of national governments, national corporate entities, and increasingly by multinational corporations. Only treaties whose enforcement depends heavily on the goodwill and cooperation of all parties, regulate the behavior of these heterogeneous organizations. There is also the effect of deregulation and economic factors and the impact of policies and human performance. As recent events in the United States, specifically California, have shown the network is becoming increasingly stressed. Whether the capacity or safety margin will exist to support anticipated demand is in question. The complex systems used to relieve bottlenecks and clear disturbances during periods of peak demand are at great risk of serious disruption, creating a critical need for technological improvements. Thus these infrastructures are increasingly vulnerable to failures cascading through and between them. A key concern is the avoidance of widespread network failure due to cascading and interactive effects. Management of disturbances in all infrastructures, along with prevention of cascading effects throughout and between networks, requires a basic understanding of true system dynamics, as well as effective distributed control so that to halt cascading effects proactively, or at least after a disturbance, enable parts of the networks to remain operational and even automatically reconfigure themselves. Given economic, societal, quality-of-life issues, and the everincreasing interactions among infrastructures, science and technology has a major role to play and create innovative solutions. Although the immediate and critical goal is to avoid widespread network failure, the longer-term vision is to enable adaptive and