Creating a Cross-Domain Simulation Framework for Risk Analyses of Cities

Abstract

Cities and their agglomerations are home to a large number of critical infrastructures that provide essential services in a geographically narrow space and are thus physically and logically dependent on one another. This results in a sensitive network of organizations and connections in which incidents within one infrastructure can have an impact on the entire system. Thus, a detailed risk analysis with a strong focus on the interaction of these networks and on potential cascading effects for the population represents a central aspect for the protection of these critical supply infrastructures. In this article, we want to show a general approach on how to create a cross-domain simulation model, which can describe the major critical infrastructure networks within a large city up to a certain level of abstraction. In contrast to existing solutions, this approach focuses mainly on the dynamic relationships between networks and integrates mathematical models from stochastics for a realistic representation. The central output is a framework that supports a detailed assessment of the effects of threats both on individual critical infrastructures and on possible cascading effects within the entire network of critical supply infrastructures.