Download: Connected - Interdependencies Analysis in Complex Systems

Dr Tom Dolan, C-DICE Postdoctoral Research Fellow, discusses national infrastructure as a complex system enabled by interdependencies, its vulnerability to interdependence related disruptions and how these potential disruptions can be analysed.

Introduction

National infrastructure underpins all supply chains, and provides the foundations for all other social and economic activity. Infrastructure systems also make possible societal and economic outcomes simply not possible in its absence, or when infrastructure is disrupted. National infrastructure is a complex system enabled by interdependencies, and comprised of physical infrastructure; governance structures; and regulatory frameworks. These interdependencies occur within sectors, between sectors and with the external environment; and include interdependencies with the natural world.