Dealing with complexities in networked systems

Infrastructures are of vital importance for our society. They constitute the backbone of the economic and spatial structure, the nerve system that enables communication, and the arterial and digestive systems that supply and transform vital energy and material flows. It is not until recently that our trust in the adequacy and robustness of our infrastructures to meet present and future needs has started to crumble, as we have become more conscious of their critical role. Terrorist attacks; Internet viruses and large-scale power blackouts have contributed to a new awareness of the crucial need to ensure the well functioning of OUI infrastructures. However, various types of complexity found in infrastructure systems limit our understanding of infrastructures and their dynamic behaviour, and our options to control and steer that behaviour.