This index lists major global incidents between 2000 and 2010 that demonstrate cascading, multi-system systemic failure — where an initial failure triggered widespread impacts across multiple interconnected systems.
2000s Cascading Failure Incidents
| Year | Incident | Origin System | Cascading Systems Affected | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002–2004 | SARS Epidemic | Health / Epidemic outbreak | Global travel, trade, public health, governance, economy | Critical |
| 2003 | Northeast Blackout of 2003 | Energy / Power grid | Transport, communications, economy, emergency services | Critical |
| 2005 | Hurricane Katrina (USA, 2005) | Climate / extreme weather | Flood / levee systems, energy, housing, governance, economy | Critical |
| 2003 / 2005 | 2003 Italy Blackout | Energy / Power grid | Transport, communications, economy, interdependent networks | High |
| Other years | Additional systemic ripple-events (to be added) | Various | Multiple | — |
Themes & Lessons (2000–2010)
Recurring structural patterns
- Interdependency between energy, transport, communications → failure in one cascades across all.
- Globalisation and networked interconnectivity, especially in health (epidemics) and economy → failures spread internationally.
- Natural hazards interacting with aging or fragile infrastructure, amplifying impact in unexpected ways.
- Social, economic and governance systems under strain when infrastructure or environmental shocks hit — showing that resilience requires holistic design, not compartmentalisation.
What this dataset helps reveal
- Systemic fragility in interdependent networks (e.g. power + transport + communications + social services).
- How a “local” or “single-system” failure can cascade globally under modern interconnectivity.
- The need for redundancy, diversity, and “circuit-breakers” in complex systems to avoid cascade.
- The value of cross-sector analysis (health, climate, infrastructure, economy) when assessing systemic risk.
Next Steps
- Fill in missing incidents (e.g. major blackouts, epidemics, supply-chain collapses, infrastructure failures) for 2000–2010.
- Standardize frontmatter metadata (tags, severity, cascading systems).
- Render a “map of failures” page in Quartz, with filters by origin system, year, severity, affected systems.