Strategic Concept for the Protection of Regionally Interconnected Surface Transportation Networks

Abstract

Surface transportation systems crucially define the daily functionality and operations of modern societies: they are utilised by millions of commuters worldwide, on a daily basis. As such, they are open and freely accessible by design and in the past have been exploited for malicious purposes and have also been severely disrupted by natural phenomena. Like many modern critical infrastructures, multimodal and heterogeneous transportation networks are interconnected as integral part of larger synergistic systems forming a "network of networks".The present manuscript introduces a holistic concept for the protection of heterogeneous transportation networks that is applicable on a strategic level. The basis of the proposed model is the concept that security incidents may be propagated between assets of interconnected networks. The proposed methodology emphasizes the strategic level protection both from the perspective of the network operator and the emergency responder, linking all phases of the disaster cycle into a unique concept of operations.