Title: Disaster and degradation management: relevance of the concept of flexibility

Authors: Edward K. Morlok, David J. Chang

Addresses: University of Pennsylvania, 215 Cornell Ave, Swarthmore, PA 19081–1933, USA. ' Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, US Military Academy, West Point, NY 10996, USA

Abstract: This paper attempts to present the case that the concept of flexibility is very relevant to the subject of disaster and degradation management in transportation systems. Fundamentally flexibility concepts provide measures of the ability of a system to maintain satisfactory performance when uncontrollable and often unforeseen events (disasters) occur. Thus they provide a basis for planning, design and operation – management in a broad sense – of systems so that the impact of disasters is minimised. This is argued from a conceptual standpoint, addressing the kinds of issues that disasters create, and the scope of flexibility analysis. Finally, examples of such analyses are given, using the taxonomy of types of system degradation that results from a flexibility perspective.

Keywords: flexibility; disaster management; emergency management; degradation management; capacity; network performance; traffic patterns; redundancy; agility; bottlenecks; system design; operations planning; critical infrastructures; transportation systems; transport networks.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCIS.2007.014114

International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, 2007 Vol.3 No.3/4, pp.327 - 345

Published online: 21 Jun 2007 *

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