ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with resilience and concentrates on how system dynamics models can be used to design. It analyses resilience, to evaluate the effect of potential policy changes on risk, and to create metrics and other performance measures to identify when risk is increasing to unacceptable levels. The chapter draws on modeling and analysis of the safety culture of the NASA Space Shuttle program and its impact on risk. System behavior in system dynamics is modeled by using feedback loops, stock and flows, and the non-linearities created by interactions among system components. In this view of the world, behavior over time can be explained by the interaction of positive and negative feedback loops. A balancing loop is a structure that changes the current value of a system variable or a desired or reference variable through some action. It corresponds to a negative feedback loop in control theory.
