Reduction techniques in modelling critical infrastructures under the infrastructure interdependencies simulator framework

Modern, urban population centres are comprised of highly interdependent networks of infrastructures. In normal operating conditions, these interdependencies can be neglected without much trouble, however, in times of emergency, these same interdependencies, often hidden, can debilitate relief efforts. The effects are often noted in disaster response post-mortems as poor distribution of resources and previously unseen vulnerabilities in the system. The infrastructure interdependencies simulator (I2Sim) was developed for the purpose of aiding decision makers in taking these interdependencies into account both in pre-planning and real time decision coordination. However, the number of infrastructures that require modelling can make simulations unwieldy. This paper presents methods for reducing the complexity of simulation by infrastructure aggregation. Statistical methods are outlined for defining the parameters of aggregated blocks and major issues encountered in the process of model reduction are outlined.