14,217 research outputs found

    STOP-IT: strategic, tactical, operational protection of water infrastructure against cyberphysical threats

    Get PDF
    Water supply and sanitation infrastructures are essential for our welfare, but vulnerable to several attack types facilitated by the ever-changing landscapes of the digital world. A cyber-attack on critical infrastructures could for example evolve along these threat vectors: chemical/biological contamination, physical or communications disruption between the network and the supervisory SCADA. Although conceptual and technological solutions to security and resilience are available, further work is required to bring them together in a risk management framework, strengthen the capacities of water utilities to systematically protect their systems, determine gaps in security technologies and improve risk management approaches. In particular, robust adaptable/flexible solutions for prevention, detection and mitigation of consequences in case of failure due to physical and cyber threats, their combination and cascading effects (from attacks to other critical infrastructure, i.e. energy) are still missing. There is (i) an urgent need to efficiently tackle cyber-physical security threats, (ii) an existing risk management gap in utilities’ practices and (iii) an un-tapped technology market potential for strategic, tactical and operational protection solutions for water infrastructure: how the H2020 STOP-IT project aims to bridge these gaps is presented in this paper.Postprint (published version

    Game Changer: Investing in Digital Play to Advance Children's Learning and Health

    Get PDF
    Based on a literature review and interviews with digital learning experts, explores how digital games can foster skills and knowledge for better academic performance and health. Makes recommendations for government research, partnerships, and media

    From Social Simulation to Integrative System Design

    Full text link
    As the recent financial crisis showed, today there is a strong need to gain "ecological perspective" of all relevant interactions in socio-economic-techno-environmental systems. For this, we suggested to set-up a network of Centers for integrative systems design, which shall be able to run all potentially relevant scenarios, identify causality chains, explore feedback and cascading effects for a number of model variants, and determine the reliability of their implications (given the validity of the underlying models). They will be able to detect possible negative side effect of policy decisions, before they occur. The Centers belonging to this network of Integrative Systems Design Centers would be focused on a particular field, but they would be part of an attempt to eventually cover all relevant areas of society and economy and integrate them within a "Living Earth Simulator". The results of all research activities of such Centers would be turned into informative input for political Decision Arenas. For example, Crisis Observatories (for financial instabilities, shortages of resources, environmental change, conflict, spreading of diseases, etc.) would be connected with such Decision Arenas for the purpose of visualization, in order to make complex interdependencies understandable to scientists, decision-makers, and the general public.Comment: 34 pages, Visioneer White Paper, see http://www.visioneer.ethz.c

    MANAGING THE INCONCEIVABLE: PARTICIPATORY ASSESSMENTS OF IMPACTS AND RESPONSES TO EXTREME CLIMATE CHANGE

    Get PDF
    A comprehensive understanding of the implications of extreme climate change requires an in-depth exploration of the perceptions and reactions of the affected stakeholder groups and the lay public. The project on “Atlantic sea level rise: Adaptation to imaginable worst-case climate change” (Atlantis) has studied one such case, the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and a subsequent 5-6 meter sea-level rise. Possible methods are presented for assessing the societal consequences of impacts and adaptation options in selected European regions by involving representatives of pertinent stakeholders. Results of a comprehensive review of participatory integrated assessment methods with a view to their applicability in climate impact studies are summarized including Simulation-Gaming techniques, the Policy Exercise method, and the Focus Group technique. Succinct presentations of these three methods are provided together with short summaries of relevant earlier applications to gain insights into the possible design options. Building on these insights, four basic versions of design procedures suitable for use in the Atlantis project are presented. They draw on design elements of several methods and combine them to fit the characteristics and fulfill the needs of addressing the problem of extreme sea-level rise. The selected participatory techniques and the procedure designs might well be useful in other studies assessing climate change impacts and exploring adaptation options.sea level rise, West Antarctic ice sheet, climate change

    Spatial Dynamic Modeling and Urban Land Use Transformation:

    Get PDF
    Assessing the economic impacts of urban land use transformation has become complex and acrimonious. Although community planners are beginning to comprehend the economic trade-offs inherent in transforming the urban fringe, they find it increasingly difficult to analyze and assess the trade-offs expediently and in ways that can influence local decisionmaking. New and sophisticated spatial modeling techniques are now being applied to urban systems that can quickly assess the probable spatial outcomes of given communal policies. Applying an economic impact assessment to the probable spatial patterns can provide to planners the tools needed to quickly assess scenarios for policy formation that will ultimately help inform decision makers. This paper focuses on the theoretical underpinnings and practical application of an economic impact analysis submodel developed within the Land use Evolution and Impact Assessment Modeling (LEAM) environment. The conceptual framework of LEAM is described, followed by an application of the model to the assessment of the cost of urban sprawl in Kane County, Illinois. The results show the effectiveness of spatially explicit modeling from a theoretical and a practical point of view. The agent-based approach of spatial dynamic modeling with a high spatial resolution allows for discerning the macro-level implications of micro-level behaviors. These phenomena are highlighted in the economic submodel in the discussion of the implications of land use change decisions on individual and communal costs; low-density development patterns favoring individual behaviors at the expense of the broader community.

    ERNCIP training for professionals in Critical Infrastructure Protection: from risk management to resilience

    Get PDF
    This report, about the ERNCIP Pilot “Training for professionals in Critical Infrastructure Protection: from risk management to resilience”, contains an analysis of the roadmap followed by the JRC in establishing, in cooperation with DG Home, a first-of-its-kind training event strongly based on the European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection (EPCIP). This deliverable contains references to all the steps that this project implied; from its embryonic conceptualisation, passing through the validation of its functional requirements and modules, to its final execution in Brussels from the 21st to the 23rd of June 2016. The aim of this document is to disseminate the methodologies and material collected during the execution of the project and provide useful references, topics and suggestions to educators and trainers - and their organisations - that are willing to organise or fine-tune courses on Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience with a focus on European policies and strategies. The ERNCIP Office's goal, following the publication of this report, is to receive feedback from institutions and experts that have made use of the Course’s material in view to integrate them in the execution of new iterations of training events. The Course’s material could also be used by DG HOME as one of the actions put in place to foster the improvement of the “external domain” of the European programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection (EPCIP). The fact that the EPCIP also aims at reaching out to neighbouring countries of the Union, in view to establish CIP-related form of cooperation, puts the “training” among the most useful and direct tools to be exploited to achieve such objective.JRC.E.2-Technology Innovation in Securit

    A Review of the Open Educational Resources (OER) Movement: Achievements, Challenges, and New Opportunities

    Get PDF
    Examines the state of the foundation's efforts to improve educational opportunities worldwide through universal access to and use of high-quality academic content
    • …
    corecore