Development of an integrated decision support system for large crisis events involving Critical Infrastructures (KRITIS)

Introduction

Critical Infrastructures (CI) such as electricity generation, water, food production and distribution, telecommunication, transport and distribution systems are essential for the functioning of modern societies. Due to their complexity and interdependencies, CI are extremely vulnerable when exposed to external factors such as natural disasters or terrorist attacks.

A first analysis of exiting methods and models revealed, that individual CI structures can be described by existing models; however, these models are not able to cover the complexity of the many interdependencies between the CI. In a strategic partnership CEDM and Fraunhofer IOSB will develop an integrative decision support system based on international IT Standards.

Aims/Objectives

The objectives of our activities in the frame of CEDIM is to combine forces and competences of GeoforschungsZentrum Potsdam and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in developing an integrated disaster management system applicable for all types of emergencies and at all levels of disaster management from the local to the Federal Government. It should be able to provide support for mitigating effects to humans, society, environment and economy. To realise such a system innovative methods and tools such as knowledge data bases, self learning systems, multi criteria decision support and key performance simulations have to be combined to one integrated system. A further key aspect of our work is the development of aggregated or optimised models that can on the one hand side describe the complex dependencies but on the other hand are still applicable for decision making in the crisis management centres in terms of transparency and aggregation. Once integrated into one computerised system, the structure and usability will be discussed with potential end users.