Smart and Resilient Interdependent Infrastructure System

Dear Colleagues,

Our infrastructure system is more than a collection of discrete components such as roads, water system, power grid, hospitals, cellular towers, and so on. Instead, it is a system that comprises a bewildering network of interdependent physical, social, and cyber components that provide essential goods and services. To ensure our economic and societal well-being, we need to better understand the design, operation, and control of the interdependent infrastructure system.

However, several challenges remain for furthering our understanding of the interdependent infrastructure system. First, the interdependency is growing. Smart devices (e.g., sensors, smartphones, vehicles, intelligent infrastructures, etc.) and sensors are becoming more connected to form an Internet-of-Things. The management of emerging interdependent infrastructure system requires advanced control solutions which adds complexity to the existing interdependency profile. Meanwhile, the creation of new functionality and opportunities also make existing systems more vulnerable to cascading failures. Second, the surrounding physical, social, and natural environment are changing. Existing infrastructures are aging while new infrastructures are being developed. The resilience of the physical system is also tied to the institutional connectedness between actors. Meanwhile, climate change alters the behavior of both physical and social systems in addressing pressing human needs. These changes make the already complex infrastructure interdependency even more difficult to model. Third, infrastructure systems are subject to disturbances from natural, technological, and malicious sources. Natural hazards (e.g., hurricane, flooding, snowstorm, tornado, etc.), service disruption (e.g., power outages, communication loss, etc.), and targeted attacks (e.g., terrorist attack, system security breach, disease outbreak, etc.) all threaten the well-being of the interdependent infrastructure system. Individual failure can cascade among interdependent systems and cause disastrous impacts on infrastructures and humans at different scales.

Addressing these challenges requires a holistic understanding of the interwoven interdependency between different components. Specifically, existing solutions needs to be revisited and adapted to meet the changing needs of the interdependent infrastructure system. New opportunities for characterizing system independency are also emerging with the availability of multi-source data and recent advances in machine learning, control, and visualization techniques. This Special Issue invites the submission of interdisciplinary research efforts on designing, modeling, analyzing, and managing of the interdependent infrastructure network, particularly those that integrate physical, technological, and social aspects of the infrastructures with consideration of system disturbances. Sample topics of interests include but not limited to:

1. Management of interdependent social-technical-ecological network.
2. Impact of social networks on the functionality of critical infrastructure systems.
3. Modeling and operation of smart interdependent transportation, power, and communication systems.
4. Assessment of emerging technologies in managing natural risks such as hurricanes, urban flooding, and tornadoes.

Dr. Shangjia Dong
Dr. Xinwu Qian
Dr. Ruimin Ke
Dr. Zhenning Li
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Keywords: interdependent infrastructure system
• smart city application
• urban resilience
• social-technical–ecological interactions
• network disruption
• risk assessment and management
• system engineering
• resilience operationalization
• urban planning
• community resilience
• decision-making processes
• big data
• modeling and simulation
• optimization
• artificial intelligence