Impacts of the 2001 World Trade Center Attack on New York City Critical Infrastructures
Publication: Journal of Infrastructure Systems
Volume 12, Issue 4
Abstract
This study investigates impacts of the 2001 World Trade Center attack on critical infrastructure systems in the New York City metropolitan area. Of particular interest are the physical or logical connections—also known as interdependencies—among these systems, and the impacts of the attack on them. This study extends knowledge about the behavior of complex and interdependent infrastructures systems following a significant disruption. The results depict impact to all infrastructure systems as a result of the attack, with disruptions reported throughout the study period. Approximately 20% of these disruptions involved interdependencies, and a majority of infrastructure systems were involved in at least one interdependency. The results therefore suggest that interdependence is a pervasive condition of New York City’s critical infrastructures. Accordingly, approaches to planning for and managing infrastructure-related disruptions, particularly those involving interdependency, are discussed.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by National Science Foundation Grant No. NSF0139306. The writers thank Louis Calabrese for his valuable research assistance on this project, and also thank three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Infrastructure Systems
Volume 12 • Issue 4 • December 2006
Pages: 260 - 270
Copyright
© 2006 ASCE.
History
Received: Feb 11, 2005
Accepted: Mar 13, 2006
Published online: Dec 1, 2006
Published in print: Dec 2006
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