Call for Papers
Modelling interdependency between Technological and
Human Systems under Crisis Scenarios
to be held within the International Workshop
Coping with
Crises in Complex Socio-Economic Systems
ETH Zurich, June 8-13, 2009
COST
Action MP0801 Physics of Competition and Conflicts in the frame of its
activities, has proposed to dedicate a parallel session of the International
Workshop to the modelling of the interdependencies which link social systems to
large Critical Infrastructures (CI). CIs are systems from which societies
receive relevant and essential services. CIs are known to be strongly
interdepedent from each other; a failure (or a strong reduction in the quality
of functioning) in one of them might have strong (and even amplified)
repercussions on the others. Intra- and inter-dependent cascade effects
(progressive loss of functionalities) might be the cause of strong reduction,
or even the complete loss, of services which are essential to citizen's life.
Under
CI crises (blackouts, lack of connectivity for mobiles, internet, traffic jams
etc.) social systems do react to attempt to restore life quality, by attempting
to ensure, often in a disorganized way, the services they need. This might
produce conflicts (i.e. competitions for ensuring services, goods etc.) that,
quite often, produce negative feedbacks on the CIs which further reduce their
efficiency and the quality of their services (a typical case could be the onset
of tlc networks congestions caused by the asymmetric communications
establishing toward catastrophy areas or the road contentions of traffic in
diverted routes).
Present strategies are often based on analyses that lead to
Nash-type equilibria. These may lead to further degradation of services rather
than any improvement. In this respect, social behavior should be inserted into
the list of CI-interdependent factors.
Proposals covering both technological and social systems within
the same framework are welcome. Specific issues could be:
crisis in the telecommunications systems: traffic congestion, adaptive routing strategies
vehicular traffic under jamming conditions in disaster areas
crowds fluidodynamics at high Reynolds numbers
social behavior under CIs blackouts
modelling for the design of contingency plans
Papers
will be reviewed by a session committee, with the help of outside referees.
Papers will be accepted primarily for their likely interest to and impact on
the systems community. Novelty, clarity of explanation, thoroughness of
evaluation, and bridging gaps between different communities are additional
criteria. Acceptance may be provisional, subject to further shepherding by a
member of the programme committee before final acceptance.
Papers
should be submitted to the following e-mail address
rosato@casaccia.enea.it
and directly to the
International Conference website:
http://www.soms.ethz.ch/workshop2009/Registration
The
final acceptance of the contribution will be related to the Registration to the
Conference site at the web site. Authors will receive a notification of
acceptance upon presentation of the registration acknowledgment. COST Action
MP0801 participants should enter "Participant of COST satellite
workshop" into the "Comments and Special Wishes" field of the
registration form.
Presented
papers will offered the opportunity of being published with a special issue of
an international scientific
journal.
Invited
Speakers
Hanneke VREUGDENHIL, Stowa- Foundation for Applied Water Research, Utrecht (The Netherlands)
"FLIWAS, the right information at the right place at the right time for the right persons to take the right decision"
Armando Bazzani, Physics Dept., University of Bologna (Italy)
Important
dates
January 31, 2009: Deadline for abstract submission
March 15, 2009:
Notification to contributors
April 30, 2009: Deadline for payment of reduced registration fee
Programme
commitee