Uppetid

Uppetid is a theoretical metric used in systems resilience and risk assessment to quantify how quickly and completely a system recovers from a disruptive event. It is intended to reflect both the duration of impairment and the extent of restoration, helping compare different designs or responses.

The term is a neologism formed from 'up' and 'time' and has appeared primarily in discussions about resilience metrics rather than formal standards. As a non-standard concept, it is most often explored in theoretical or practitioner-focused writings rather than peer-reviewed consensus documents.

A typical definition of uppetid is the time elapsed from disturbance onset to the point where performance returns to an acceptable threshold relative to baseline. Some formulations also consider the cumulative deficit during the recovery period, effectively integrating the shortfall over time. Measurements depend on the chosen baseline, threshold, and the time window of interest, which means two assessments can yield different uppetid values for the same event.

Uppetid is used to compare resilience across systems, guide improvement priorities, and convey recovery expectations to stakeholders. However, the lack of standardization means thresholds, baselines, and aggregation methods vary, limiting cross-study comparability. It remains a conceptual tool rather than an established industry metric.

Related concepts include uptime, mean time to recovery, and resilience engineering.