Simulation of heterogeneous and interdependent critical infrastructures

Abstract

In this paper, a simulation tool specifically designed for the analysis of heterogeneous and (inter)dependent infrastructures is proposed. The simulator, named Critical Infrastructure Simulation by Interdependent Agents (CISIA), adopts a modular and sufficiently abstract representation of the different infrastructures' components to allow consistent descriptions, starting from the incomplete and generic data acquirable from stakeholders. An important part of the modelling effort was reserved for the representation of the dependencies and interdependencies, these being the cause of the complex behaviours we are interested in. Each component interacts with the others via a multitude of mechanisms that codify different concepts of proximity. The simulator has been used to analyse, in a simplified scenario, crisis evolution in the urban area of Rome, in the presence of a failure in the electric power system.