Infrastructure as a Complex Adaptive System

Figure 1

A dependency shown between just two infrastructure sectors contained in the ITRC’s National Infrastructure System Model. The cylinders labelled and represent the stock of available technologies for the transport and energy sectors. Narratives hold the collection of assumptions exogenous to the modelled system about long-term technological changes and modify the attributes of available technologies. Scenarios capture changes in socioeconomic drivers of infrastructure service demands. The network structure that underpins the hourly operation of the sector is altered over annual planning timescales as technology changes, and long-term planning investments result in the turnover of the infrastructure stock. Performance metrics produced from the operation of the system simulation feed back into the planning strategies governing future investments and provide the results of a model run.