Capturing Societal Interdependencies from a Flow Perspective – Part I: Method and Model

A method and a model are presented aiming at enabling collection, structuring and analyzes of data concerning interdependencies between critical infrastructures and societal functions. A key distinction of the approach is the separation of actors and flows, where dependencies between actors, ranging from small municipal authorities to international private companies, are mediated through flows. Flows is a collective term for goods and services, essential for a functioning society, that different actors either depend upon or influence, e.g. electricity, money, or information. The approach enables capturing dependencies that might otherwise easily be overlooked or difficult to capture with other means and enables aggregation and analyses of data from a wide spectrum of societal actors. In a conference sister paper, application of the approach is presented. It is concluded that the approach fills a research gap and is applicable for the study of interdependencies from a more holistic cross-societal viewpoint.