UNDERSTANDING INTERDEPENDENCIES AMONG CRITICAL

The system of critical infrastructures, such as power grid, water network, health system, etc., constitutes the backbone of modern societies. During large disasters (e.g., earthquakes, hurricanes, terrorist attacks, etc.) the situation is very different from normal life because multiple infrastructures are affected simultaneously, and unless they coordinate each other’s actions, the overall response process may suffer serious stalls. Several countries have recognized that there is an urgent need to develop knowledge, tools, and recommendations to support coordinated decision making among interdependent infrastructures, particularly during emergency situations. This paper discusses the importance taking into account the interdependencies of critical infrastructures during large disasters, presents a brief review of current research being done in this field, and presents a methodology to address interdependencies recently developed at The University of British Columbia in response to this need