Abstract:
The UK Infrastructure Transitions Research Consortium (ITRC) have developed a new suite of infrastructure analysis and modelling tools required to provide a holistic system-of-systems understanding of critical infrastructure. Within such initiatives, and more generally, it has been recognised that the ability to collate, integrate and manage a wide range of diverse infrastructure data at a range of spatial scales and measurement granularity in a cohesive and logical manner is a key requirement. Nevertheless, to date relatively little attention has been given to the development of data management systems explicitly designed for and able to handle the wide range of disparate data and relationships required to support a system-of-systems approach to infrastructure analysis and modelling. In this chapter we consider the requirements of such a data management system, and in particular the database framework required to support a system-of-systems approach to infrastructure analysis, modelling and planning. Using this framework, we present a UK national scale spatial database framework for infrastructure systems analysis called NISMOD-DB and demonstrate how this is used to support the modelling of the long term capacity/demand requirements of interdependent infrastructure systems and also undertake interdependent infrastructure network risk and vulnerability analysis and modelling.
Citation:
Barr, S., Alderson, D., Robson, C. & Ives, M.C. (2016). 'Database, simulation modelling and visualisation for national infrastructure assessment'. In: Tran, M., Hall, J., Hickford, A. & Nicholls, R. (eds.). "Planning Infrastructure for the 21st Century: A Systems-of-Systems Methodology". Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.