Synopsis of NISAC Modeling Capabilities

NISAC designed advanced modeling and simulation capabilities to analyze critical infrastructure vulnerabilities, interdependencies, and complexities. These analyses are used to aid our nation’s decisionmakers in policy-making,

assessments, mitigation planning, education, training, and real-time assistance to crisis response organizations.

The domains in which we work are large, complex, dynamic, adaptive, nonlinear, and behavioral; they are too complex for mental models to be effective decision tools. Our capabilities can identify when/where things break, and any cascading effects. We can quantify consequences of disruptions in very complex systems, such as a loss of a single asset or node within a particular system due to a directed attack, or regional disruptions due to a natural disaster or large-scale attack. The rational choice is to experiment with models, not the system, thereby gaining expert operational insight through modeling.

Models used for any given analysis range from realistic to abstract, depending on the questions being posed.

Analysts study the details of individual infrastructures, from the asset to the system level, interactions between infrastructure, and how critical infrastructure respond.

Natural disasters or imposed threats require NISAC analysts to employ their knowledge of different infrastructures along with a variety of capabilities, including modeling and simulation, to provide real-time assistance to decision makers.

 

Chemical Sector Analysis Capability

This analysis capability leverages core NISAC data-management and modeling/simulation expertise to understand the complex infrastructure dependencies and interdependencies inherent in this sector, using perspectives ranging from the national scale down to the individual asset level.

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Network Optimization Models (RNAS and ATOM)

Representing infrastructures using network models comprised of interconnected nodes and links provides a means for estimating network capacities under normal and disrupted conditions. We can then apply mathematically sound, nonlinear optimization techniques to these networks to understand their behavior and the best-case operation levels under the specified system conditions.

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National Transportation Fuels Model

This model informs analyses of the availability of transportation fuel in the event the fuel supply chain is disrupted.

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Complex Adaptive Systems of Systems (CASoS)

Complex Adaptive Systems of Systems, or CASoS, are vastly complex physical-socio-technical systems which we must understand to design a secure future for the nation and the world.

View the CASoS website: http://www.sandia.gov/CasosEngineering/

Agent-Based Laboratory for Economics™ (N-ABLE™)

N-ABLE™ is a large-scale mircroeconomic simulation tool that models the complex supply-chain, spatial market dynamics, and critical infrastructure interdependencies of businesses in the U.S. economy.

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