Infrastructure
Vulnerabilities due to Terrorism
Among
This Year’s $50K Semi-Finalists
The
extreme importance of critical infrastructures
to modern society is widely recognized.
These infrastructures are complex
and interdependent. Protecting the
critical infrastructures from terrorism
presents an enormous challenge. Recognizing
that society cannot afford the costs
associated with absolute protection,
it is necessary to identify and prioritize
the vulnerabilities in these infrastructures.
By
protecting the critical locations
society achieves the greatest benefit
for the protection investment. We
have been working on developing a
methodology for the identification
and prioritization of vulnerabilities
in infrastructures. We model the infrastructures
as interconnected digraphs and employ
graph theory to identify the candidate
vulnerable scenarios. These scenarios
are screened for their susceptibility
to a terrorist attack, and a prioritized
list of vulnerabilities is produced.
The prioritization methodology is
based on multi-attribute utility theory.
The methodology is illustrated through
the presentation of a portion on the
analysis conducted on the campus of
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
For
further information, contact Professor
George E. Apostolakis, Building
24-221, 617.252.1570, apostola
"at" mit.edu.
|
