Applying chaos engineering principles to community resilience

Chaos engineering doesn’t just look at the software, it considers the entire system: software, hardware and people. This may involve multiple programs, run on many different servers, with input from people or from other programs. Periodically, user demand leads to addition of new features but with the expectation that the system will remain reliable. And yet, even if each individual program is operating “correctly” sometimes the system produces unreliable output. In general, faulty communications among the different parts of the distributed system most often are the root cause of these problems.

As global shipping explodes, it presents a logistical and security challenge | PRI’s The World

“It was in 1992 when 100 million containers moved through all the world’s ports, then in 1998, we went to 200 million,” said Stephen Flynn, founding director of the Global Resilience Institute. “Roughly we’re at a little over 600 million today. So just between the events of 9/11 and the events of today, you almost have a three-fold [increase] of volume moving through the world’s ports.”

As reservoirs run dry, Cape Town races to improve its climate resilience

Cape Town, South Africa is currently facing a looming water crisis that has potential to make it the first major city to shut off its municipal water supply. According to Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille, taps across the city are expected to run dry on April 22 – less than 90 days away. This date has come to be known as “Day Zero”. The factor determining when exactly Day Zero occurs is the combined capacity of the dams servicing the Western Cape Province. Once the capacity has fallen below 13.5%, “…municipal water supply will be turned off for all but essential services, like hospitals,” Time Magazine reports. Even though 13.5% of the dams’ water capacity may remain, the last 10% of water in a dam is “unusable” due to silt and debris; therefore, essential services would be relying on what amounts to just 3.5% of combined dam capacity.

At least 98 dead after quake slams Indonesian island

A powerful earthquake flattened houses and toppled bridges on the Indonesian tourist island of Lombok, killing at least 98 people and shaking neighboring Bali, as authorities said Monday that rescuers still hadn't reached some devastated areas and the death toll would climb. It was the second deadly quake in a week to hit Lombok. A July 29 quake killed 16 people and damaged hundreds of houses, some of which collapsed in Sunday evening's magnitude 7.0 temblor, killing those inside. National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told a news conference that damage was "massive" in northern Lombok. In several districts, more than half the homes were destroyed or severely damaged. The ruins of a mosque that collapsed in Lading-Lading village while people prayed inside was being pulled apart by a backhoe in search of victims.