Reliability and Detectability of Emergency Management Systems in Smart Cities under Common Cause Failures

Sensors (Basel). 2024 May 6;24(9):2955. doi: 10.3390/s24092955.

Abstract

Urban areas are undergoing significant changes with the rise of smart cities, with technology transforming how cities develop through enhanced connectivity and data-driven services. However, these advancements also bring new challenges, especially in dealing with urban emergencies that can disrupt city life and infrastructure. The emergency management systems have become crucial elements for enabling cities to better handle urban emergencies, although ensuring the reliability and detectability of such system remains critical. This article introduces a new method to perform reliability and detectability assessments. By using Fault Tree Markov chain models, this article evaluates their performance under extreme conditions, providing valuable insights for designing and operating urban emergency systems. These analyses fill a gap in the existing research, offering a comprehensive understanding of emergency management systems functionality in complex urban settings.

Keywords: disaster recovery; emergency detectability; emergency detection; emergency management system; urban emergencies; urban planning.

Grants and funding

This work was partially supported by national funds through the FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC), under the project EXPL/EEI-COM/1089/2021.