Critical infrastructure is foundational for the prosperity and quality of life in any society. By definition, its destruction or disruption would cause severe damage and possibly loss of life. Within this understanding, space systems are a new category of critical infrastructure, emerging as an enabler of new applications which are critical within the wider system-of-systems. This paper presents the results of a modeling exercise validating the proof of concept regarding the idea of the global, air-transport-critical infrastructure’s dependence on space systems. By using an open-source application, the authors constructed a complex system made up of 18 airports for which six scenarios were modeled that represent either the exposure to specific space phenomena or the effects of a partial or total critical space infrastructure disruption. Despite the limitations and assumptions made in the building of this model, its results suggest that a significant impact would result from disruptive events, with the potential for cascading disruptions within the system, beyond the system under analysis, and into the wider system-of-systems. Tools such as this model are useful to policy- and decision-makers, not only to protect existing, critical infrastructures, but also to adequately source future risks, vulnerabilities, and threats, and design and build new infrastructures.

The conventional approach to urban planning has predominantly focused on horizontal dimensions, disregarding the potential risks originating from outer space. This paper aims to initiate a discourse on the vertical dimension of cities, which is influenced by outer space, as an essential element of strategic urban planning. Through an examination of a highly disruptive incident in outer space involving a collision between the Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251 satellites, this article elucidates the intricate interdependencies between urban areas and outer space infrastructure and services. Leveraging the principles of critical infrastructure protection, which bridge the urban and outer space domains, and employing simulation methods and software, this study articulates the intricate governance complexities of urban security and presents viable solutions for its enhancement. Consequently, the study contributes to the ongoing deliberations regarding the spatial integration of security practices by providing scholarly discourse on urban governance with potential strategies for cultivating sustainable smart cities. In essence, the intrinsic resilience of urban areas heavily relies on the interconnections between cities and outer space, necessitating urban strategists to acknowledge and comprehend these intricate interdependencies. To ensure sustainable urban development, it is imperative to fortify smart cities’ resilience against space debris through the implementation of more stringent regulations.

Organizational resilience and long-term success have become essential capabilities in turbulent and uncertain environments. This study redefines these concepts by applying a natural language analysis to a corpus of 1597 peer-reviewed publications retrieved from Web of Science and Scopus. The methodology adopts a three-level framework: first, a thematic clustering of literature into strategic domains; second, a semantic comparison of classical and emerging terms; and third, the mapping of artificial intelligence (AI) opportunities. The results identify five overarching domains: Health and Wellbeing; Organizations, HR and Leadership; Strategy, Innovation, and Culture; Education, Knowledge and Communities; and Society, Environment and Development. These domains illustrate how resilience and success are addressed at micro, meso, and macro levels. Semantically, the discourse expands from traditional notions such as robustness, risk management, and performance towards more human-centered, systemic, and digitally enabled perspectives. The study further highlights how AI functions both as a methodological tool and as a strategic enabler, with applications ranging from predictive health analytics and leadership support systems to foresight tools and sustainability monitoring. The findings contribute to organizational resilience theory and offer practitioners actionable pathways to strengthen resilience and competitiveness in the face of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.

MATEC Web of Conferences, open access proceedings in Materials science, Engineering and Chemistry

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) represent a source of entrepreneurial skills, innovation, and new jobs creation. Despite the recognition of the importance of human factor in obtaining performances as the organizational level (especially during crises) relatively few managers from SMEs pay attention to implementation and utilization of a performance management system. This paper aims to evaluate the level the Romanian small and medium-sized enterprises use performance management tools and techniques in their activities