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Critical infrastructure and public utility systems are often severely damaged by natural disasters like hurricanes. Based on a framework of household disaster resilience, this paper focuses on the role of utility disruption on household-level recovery in the context of Hurricane Sandy. Using data collected through a two-stage household survey, it first confirms that the sample selection bias is not present, thus the responses can be estimated sequentially. Second, it quantitatively examines factors contributing to hurricane-induced property damages and household-level recovery. The finding suggests that respondents who suffered from a longer period of utility disruptions (e.g., electricity, water, gas, phone/cell phone, public transportation) are more likely to incur monetary losses and have more difficulty in recovering. Effective preparedness activities (e.g., installing window protections, having an electric generator) can have positive results in reducing adverse shocks. Respondents with past hurricane experiences and higher educational attainments are found to be more resilient compared to others. Finally, the paper discusses the implications of the findings on effective preparation and mitigation strategies for future disasters.
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Imaging-to-Simulation Framework for Improving Disaster Preparedness of Construction Projects and Neighboring Communities
Unstructured construction sites including incomplete structures and unsecured resources (e.g., materials, equipment, and temporary facilities) are among the most vulnerable environments to windstorms such as hurricanes. Wind-induced cascading damages cause substantial losses, disruption, and considerable schedule delays in construction projects. Moreover, this would negatively affect neighboring buildings and interdependent infrastructures (e.g., electric power transmission or transportation systems), which triggers serious economic losses in our community. Nonetheless, prior works on disaster management mainly focused on post-disaster assessment and reconstruction process of built environments, and thus predicting potential risks associated with expected disasters for proactive preparedness remain largely unknown. This paper presents a new Imaging-to-Simulation framework that can uncover potential risks of wind-induced cascading damages to construction projects and their negative impacts on neighboring communities. The outcomes are expected to benefit our society as it will enhance current windstorm preparedness and mitigation plans, which ultimately promote public safety, property loss reduction, insurance cost reduction, and raise awareness of ‘Culture of Preparedness’ for disasters.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1635378
- PAR ID:
- 10047748
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- ASCE International Workshop on Computing in Civil Engineering 2017
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 230 to 237
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784480830.029
