Citation

Marsico KS. Int. J. Crit. Infrastruct. 2011; 7(1): 4-20.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Inderscience Publishers)

DOI

10.1504/IJCIS.2011.038953

PMID

unavailable

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.