Title: Research agenda for an integrated approach to infrastructure planning, design and management

Authors: R. John Hansman, Christopher Magee, Richard De Neufville, Renee Robins, Daniel Roos

Addresses: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA. ' Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA. ' Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA. ' Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA. ' Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA

Abstract: Building on broad discussions between many universities, this paper presents a research agenda based on a holistic, comprehensive view of the issues. It proposes that our infrastructure is a system of systems involving different technical manifestations and social organisations. The implication is that we need a fundamental reconsideration of how we look at system design, away from traditional disciplinary considerations and toward a multi-domain, multi-disciplinary effort. To this end, it proposes an agenda of: comparative analyses across infrastructures and political structures, that would identify commonalities and larger lessons; creation of integrated socio-technical models that usefully describe the interactions between the technical infrastructure and its social context; methodological efforts, aimed largely at capturing the network characteristics, both technical and social, of the infrastructure system of systems; explicit testing and evaluation of the research through programs of collaboration with practitioners and governmental organisations.

Keywords: research agenda; critical infrastructures; engineering systems; system design; planning; management; next generation infrastructures; integration.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCIS.2006.009434

International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, 2006 Vol.2 No.2/3, pp.146 - 159

Published online: 31 Mar 2006 *

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