This index lists major global incidents between 2010 and 2020 that demonstrate cascading systemic failure — where a disturbance in one system propagated into multiple interconnected infrastructure, social, economic or governance domains.
2010s Cascading Failure Incidents
| Year | Incident | Origin System | Cascading Systems Affected | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster | Energy / Nuclear | Power grid, emergency response, housing, environment, national policy, global energy markets | Critical |
| 2010 | Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill | Industrial / energy | Ecosystems, fishing, tourism, supply chains, governance, policy & litigation | Critical |
| 2012 | Hurricane Sandy | Climate / infrastructure | Energy, transport, telecoms, fuel distribution, emergency services | High |
| 2014–2016 | West African Ebola Epidemic | Health | Governance, healthcare, transport, trade, international intervention, social systems | Critical |
| 2016 | Dyn DNS Cyberattack | Cyber & DNS infrastructure | Major websites, online commerce, cloud dependencies | High |
| 2018 | Caribbean Hurricanes Irma & Maria | Climate | Power, telecoms, health, logistics, economic collapse | High |
| 2018 | Cambridge Analytica | Data & governance | Politics, elections, public trust, regulation | High |
| 2020 | COVID-19 Global Pandemic | Health / zoonotic | Global economy, supply chains, travel, governance, healthcare, manufacturing, social systems | Critical |
Themes Emerging in the 2010s
- Cross-sector interdependency more visible and more fragile than in any previous decade
- Climate-driven disasters repeatedly revealed infrastructure fragility and social vulnerability
- Cyber-physical and digital dependence emerged as a new systemic-risk arena
- Globalisation created rapid propagation channels across health, economic and technological systems
- Long-tail failures and recovery struggles show that cascading collapses do not end when the initial trigger stops
Next Decade
→ 2020–present period will include supply-chain failures, energy grid stress, cyber-physical disruptions, pandemic aftershocks, and climate-infrastructure interactions.