A Conceptual Modeling Method for Critical Infrastructure Modeling

Conceptual Modeling often is perceived as a way of introducing the process of modeling a system, by concentrating on a reduced appreciation of that system, with a necessary reduction in the number of affecting variables and relations making up the model. As an alternative to this approach, rather than reduce the number of variables and relations, it has been found to be useful to include as many as possible variables and relations (resulting from a functional decomposition of a class of like systems) in a Potential Model (which represents the potential of all specific instances of the class of like systems), and then to move towards a Specific Model by applying contextual and situational values to the appropriate variables and relations that apply to the actual case. In so doing, the necessary reduction in variables and relations in moving from Potential Model to Specific Model allows the conceptual model to lead to further steps in the modeling process, ensuring that all relevance to the class of system is retained. This technique has been applied to a critical infrastructure modeling project, with both the method and results being presented here.