Biological metaphors and crisis: building self-healing, emergence and resilience into critical infrastructures

现代社会的速度和运作已经造成了对一些“关键基础设施”的依赖。这些包括运输、电信、输电、废物管理以及水资源的供应和处理等各个组成部分。随着社会越来越依赖这些基础设施，它也变得更容易受到这些“服务”的损失，无论是意外故障还是故意攻击。这项研究认为，固有的脆弱性，是嵌入在关键基础设施，由于注重效率，而不是有效性的系统内的影响。基础设施的低成本供应使它们在一系列过程中容易出现故障，包括外部代理人的攻击，石油或水等基本资源的短缺，关键节点的故障或网络的灾难性激增，这削弱了其吸收额外需求的能力。此外，网络的固定性质产生了与切换和重新路由相关的问题，这加剧了节点周围的问题和浪涌吸收。这项研究旨在通过汇集跨越科学-社会科学界限的多个学科的发现来解决这些问题。特别是，在关键基础设施的理想属性和生物网络的涌现行为之间有许多相似之处。这些网络已经发展到能够抵御干扰，能够在严重破坏的情况下恢复功能，并能够在外部压力下进行适应。该研究旨在从这些网络中紧急行为起源的最新研究中汲取灵感，并研究其对我们理解一些工业和服务部门关键基础设施的保护和可持续性的影响。

The speed and operation of modern societies has created a dependence on a number of 'critical infrastructures'. These include the various components of transport, telecommunications, power transmission, waste management and the supply and treatment of water resources. As society becomes more dependent upon such infrastructures, it also becomes potentially more vulnerable to the loss of those 'services', either to accidental failures or deliberate attacks. This research considers the implications of the inherent vulnerability that is embedded within critical infrastructures due to the focus on efficiency rather than effectiveness within the system. Low cost provision of infrastructures leaves them open to failure through a range of processes including, attack by external agents, shortages of essential resources such as oil or water, breakdowns at key nodal points or through catastrophic surges into the network that overwhelms its abilities to absorb the additional demand. In addition, the fixed nature of the networks creates problems associated with switching and re-routing which exacerbates problems around nodal points and surge absorption. This research seeks to address solutions to these problems by drawing together findings from a number of disciplines that span the science-social science boundaries. In particular, there are many parallels between the desired properties of critical infrastructures and the emergent behaviour of biological networks. These networks have evolved to be resilient to perturbation, can restore functionality under conditions of profound disruption and are capable of adaptation under external forcing. The research aims to draw inspiration from the latest research on the origin of emergent behaviour in these networks and examine the implications for our understanding of the protection and sustainability of critical infrastructures in a number of industrial and service sectors.