Analyzing Interdependent National Infrastructure Provisions Under Extreme Climate Risk

Abstract: To create sustainable, adaptive and resilient societies we need to develop a proper understanding of infrastructure risk. This research improves such understanding by examining widespread failures of interdependent infrastructure networks from extreme climate events. By subjecting infrastructure networks to extreme climate loading, we construct ensembles of direct failure sets that lead to cascading indirect failures across topological infrastructure networks. Such analysis produces two results: (1) Estimations of the topological fragility of infrastructure networks, and (2) Infrastructure vulnerability quantification in terms of spatial affects on service provision and customers using networked infrastructures. Producing multiple failure sets provides a wide range of possible outcomes, helping to build infrastructure failure profiles. Insights from risk analysis strengthen our understanding of infrastructure failures and are used to inform resilience-building activities for effective infrastructure provision. Citation: Pant, R., Thacker, C., Hall, J.W., Barr, S. & Alderson, D. (2014). Analyzing Interdependent National Infrastructure Provisions Under Extreme Climate Risk. In: Campbell P. and Perez P. (Eds), Proceedings of the International Symposium of Next Generation Infrastructure, 1-4 October 2013, SMART Infrastructure Facility, University of Wollongong, Australia.