VATDIS Web Mapping - A Report on the Application of Open Standards and Open Architecture in Geospatial Interoperability for Emergency Management

This report provides an overview of the web mapping activities carried out in the VATDIS action in 2007. These web mapping activities aimed at integrating the work done for the Orchestra, Floodsite and Preview IP into one single demonstrator. In the main section of this report an outline is given of the reasons for integrating the projects and the contents of this integration. The report should be seen as a summary of the technical choices made in order to accomplish this integration. The annexes on this report help the more technical reader to understand the design of the demonstrator and to duplicate it for its own purposes.JRC.G.7-Traceability and vulnerability assessmen

Formal socio-technical barrier modelling for safety-critical interactive systems design

Edited by E. Fadier ; Paper selected from the 9th International Conference of French National Research and Safety Institute (INRS 2006), 1-3 March 2006, Nice, FranceInternational audienceThis paper presents a three step approach to improve safety in the field of interactive systems. The approach combines, within a single framework, previous work in the field of barrier analysis and modelling, with model based design of interactive systems. The approach first uses the Safety Modelling Language to specify safety barriers which could achieve risk reduction if implemented. The detailed mechanism by which these barriers behave is designed in the subsequent stage, using a Petri nets-based formal description technique called Interactive Cooperative Objects. One of the main characteristics of interactive systems is the fact that the user is deeply involved in the operation of such systems. This paper addresses this issue of user behaviour by modelling tasks and activities using the same notation as for the system side (both barriers and interactive system). The use of a formal modelling technique for the description of these three components makes it possible to compare, analyse and integrate them. The approach and the integration are presented on a mining case study. Two safety barriers are modelled as well as the relevant parts of the interactive system behaviour. Operators’ tasks are also modelled. The paper then shows how the integration of barriers within the system model can prevent previously identified hazardous sequences of events from occurring, thus increasing the entire system safety

A Barrier-Approach to Inform Model-Based Design of Safety-Critical Interactive Systems

International audienc

Assessing supply chain dependency on critical infrastructures using fuzzy cognitive maps

For identifying Critical Infrastructures the potential consequences of their loss to society must be estimated. This requires establishing consequence propagation through the complex network of CI and Supply Chains. This study investigates the viability of a novel method for this purpose, which exploits Fuzzy Cognitive Map (FCM) theory to evaluate the impact of service disruption of one infrastructure on other infrastructures and on supply chains. It integrates a knowledge elicitation technique to obtain data from domain experts. A pilot study of this method determining the impact of disruptions on the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) supply chain obtained directly usable results. These show the importance of workforce and the relative vulnerability of this supply chain. While further development is required, the method is now regarded as an important candidate approach for ex-ante loss estimation.JRC.DG.G.7-Traceability and vulnerability assessmen

How explicit are the barriers to failure in safety arguments?

Safety cases embody arguments that demonstrate how safety properties of a system are upheld. Such cases implicitly document the barriers that must exist between hazards and vulnerable components of a system. For safety certification, it is the analysis of these barriers that provide confidence in the safety of the system. The explicit representation of hazard barriers can provide additional insight for the design and evaluation of system safety. They can be identified in a hazard analysis to allow analysts to reflect on particular design choices. Barrier existence in a live system can be mapped to abstract barrier representations to provide both verification of barrier existence and a basis for quantitative measures between the predicted barrier behaviour and performance of the actual barrier. This paper explores the first stage of this process, the binding between explicit mitigation arguments in hazard analysis and the barrier concept. Examples from the domains of computer-assisted detection in mammography and free route airspace feasibility are examined and the implications for system certification are considered

Non-Binding Guidelines - For Application of the Council Directive on the Identification and Designation of European Critical Infrastructure and the Assessment of the Need to Improve Their Protection

In June 2004, the European Council asked the European Commission to prepare an overall strategy to protect European critical infrastructures. In December 2006 a European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection (EPCIP), was adopted by the Commission. A key element of EPCIP is the proposal of a new Directive on the 'identification and designation of European Critical Infrastructures and the assessment of the need to improve their protection'. Under this Directive, such European Critical Infrastructures should be identified and designated by means of a common procedure and the evaluation of security requirements for such infrastructures should be done under a common minimum approach. This document provides guidance to assist Member States with the application of the Directive on the identification and designation of European critical infrastructures and the assessment of the need to improve their protection.JRC.G.7-Traceability and vulnerability assessmen