Title: Engineering of societal systems

Authors: Karen S. Marsico

Addresses: The Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering, 88 South Springfield Drive, North East, MD 21901, USA

Abstract: This paper proposes a methodology for conducting societal system engineering (SSE), the purpose of which is to ensure that the overall system meets the needs of the larger society as part of that society|s infrastructure. Given the criticality of these systems, resiliency must be a major consideration in the design and operation of these systems. Resiliency in this context is not just the ability of the societal systems (SS) to recover after a crises, it is the broader capability of the system to handle surprises and disruptions as they arise. Resiliency must be designed into the system, and hence, this paper focuses on the design phase of SSE. This paper proposes an SSE model, and then applies the model to the US power delivery system as an example, with particular emphasis placed on describing how design impacts the SS|s resiliency.

Keywords: societal systems; critical infrastructures; resiliency; electricity grid; security; vulnerability; system engineering; electricity distribution; power transmission; system disruptions; system design; society infrastructures.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCIS.2011.038953

International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, 2011 Vol.7 No.1, pp.4 - 20

Published online: 21 Oct 2014 *

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