Protection Of Civilian Infrastructure From Acts Of Terrorism

Today, there is an urgent need to develop an understanding for the systems behaviors and vulnerabilities of interacting infrastructure networks in order to protect that infrastructure from naturally occurring hazards and man-made acts of terrorism. Infrastructure is the underlying foundation or basic facilities, services, and installations needed for the functioning of a community or society, such as transportation and communications systems, water and power lines, and public institutions. The NATO-Russia Workshop focuses on the creation of a risk-informed analysis capability for modeling and predicting the behavior of complex infrastructure networks; applying emerging technology to the problems of designing, constructing, monitoring, and operating critical infrastructure systems; and building an understanding of the social, economic, and environmental factors that affect, and are affected by, critical infrastructure. The problem posed by modern, complex infrastructure is that society has become completely dependent on the reliable functioning of these systems, yet, we do not fully understand their systems behavior, which is subject to perturbations by natural hazards and malicious threats. Further, the characteristics of these hazards and threats are changing, driven both by global change and land use, and by changing political conditions. The disruption of the smooth functioning of civil infrastructure has important engineering and public policy implications, as well as social and environmental impacts.