Analyzing Infrastructure Interdependencies Using Network-Of-Networks Modeling

Conference · Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 EDT 2025

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3764926.3771946· OSTI ID:3013464

Scherrer, Evan ^[1]; Dumas, Melissa ^[2]; Sharma, Bharat ^[2]

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1. Drake University, Iowa
2. ORNL

Infrastructure networks play a crucial role in our day-to-day lives, and modeling these infrastructure networks can help decisionmakers prepare for and respond to disruptions such as natural disasters or cyberattacks. Because these infrastructure networks depend on each other, it is not sufficient to model a single network in isolation. We build on previous single-network-modeling techniques to develop a methodology for modeling infrastructure interdependencies as a Network-of-Networks. Using distributionlevel data from a real U.S. city on the power grid, road geometry, and hospital locations, we show how to apply this methodology to modeling three of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Critical Infrastructure Sectors: Healthcare, Transportation, and Energy. We also analyze three primary metrics before and after a simulated disaster: 1) impact on hospital access; 2) road network impact with the change in betweenness centrality; 3) electric customer outage. We simulate three different disruptions: 1) road flooding from nearby rivers; 2) a malicious actor targeting the road networks; 3) a malicious actor targeting the electric grid. Finally, we discuss how our methodology can be applied to additional infrastructure networks and types of disruption, and how Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques may be incorporated into this methodology for further research.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 3013464
• Resource Type: Conference paper/presentation
• Conference Information: 33rd International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems (ACM SIGSPATIAL 2025) - Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States of America - 11/3/2025-11/6/2025
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English