Mitigating infrastructure risk: reducing uncertainty in resilience modeling.

• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20290595

The National Airspace System (NAS) is a complex system of systems which plays a vital role in sustaining economic and personal growth in America. As part of the transportation critical infrastructure the NAS like other lifeline substructures is impacted by shocks caused by both man-made and natural phenomenon. The U.S. airport network (USAN) continues to show signs it is operating at capacity, and its supporting facility infrastructure is aging and is some cases operating in poor conditions. Recently critical infrastructure resilience has emerged as an essential research topic for academia, public and private industries. This is in reaction and perception of the range of shocks and stresses correlated with natural and man-made pressures on transportation infrastructure which are compounded by the uncertainty of climate variability and resource constraints. Measuring critical infrastructure resilience is challenging and requires an approach which focuses on the robustness of infrastructure. Here we develop and demonstrate a framework which utilizes the integration of network science based analysis, and system dynamics analysis to quantitatively characterize the airport network and supporting infrastructure resilience. This research was structured in three parts. The first focused on a developing metrics to measure the robustness and to analysis recovery strategies of the USAN. The second focused on a specific policy concerning sustainment of the USAN supporting infrastructure. The third part focused on one specific airport and its recovery from two extreme weather events.