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1. Informally-Constructed houses under Typhoon:Building Capacity for Safer Post-disaster Shelter: Leveraging Local Understanding and Advanced Engineering Assessments

   https://doi.org/10.17603/ds2-d9g9-2d62  

   Venable, Casie ; Liel, Abbie ; Kijewski-Correa, Tracy ; Javernick-Will, Amy ( January 2024 , Designsafe-CI)

   Although organizations build housing in resource-limited contexts after typhoons and other disasters that is intended to be safer than what existed previously, the performance of these houses in future typhoons—and the factors influencing performance—are unknown. This study develops a component-level, performance-based wind engineering assessment framework and evaluates the wind performance of twelve semi-engineered post-disaster housing designs, representing thousands of houses that were constructed in the Philippines after Typhoon Yolanda. We found that roof panel loss likely occurs first for most designs, at wind speeds equivalent to a category 2 hurricane/signal 3 typhoon. Roof shape determines whether this loss is caused by failure at the panel-fastener interface or purlin-to-truss connection. However, houses with wooden frames and woven bamboo walls may also experience catastrophic racking failures at wind speeds equivalent to signal 2 or 3 typhoons, a situation exacerbated by strengthening the roof. Results also show that wind performance varied with roof shape, component spacing, panel thickness, eave length and connection between purlin and truss. Organizations can use these results to improve housing performance, taking specific care to increase wall capacity. This framework can be expanded to assess housing performance in other resource-limited contexts.There is an urgent need to improve community capacity to recover more effectively after disasters through safer design and construction practices. To do this, training programs need to foster an improved understanding of shelter design and construction to withstand future wind and earthquake events. This project analyzed informal builders’ perceptions of housing safety in Puerto Rico (responding to 2017's Hurricane Maria and the 2019-2020 earthquake swarm) and homeowner’s perceptions of housing safety in Philippines (responding to 2013's Typhoon Haiyan and 2017's Ormoc earthquake) to: (1) assess local understanding of shelter safety in multiple hazards, including causal factors influencing this understanding, through a household survey in the Philippines and a survey to informal contractors in Puerto Rico; (2) assess the expected performance of various post-disaster shelter typologies to quantify safety during future earthquake and wind events using performance-based engineering methods, developing a rapid screening tool that can be used in design or evaluation; (3) identify conflicts between perceived and assessed safety of shelter, and why these conflicts exist, by comparing engineering assessments with local perceptions; and (4) create a communication design for organizations assisting with training for safer housing construction. 

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2. Informally-Constructed houses in Puerto Rico under Hurricane load:Building Capacity for Safer Post-disaster Shelter: Leveraging Local Understanding and Advanced Engineering Assessments

   https://doi.org/10.17603/ds2-2b49-dx51  

   Lochhead, Meredith ; Goldwyn, Briar ; Venable, Casie ; Liel, Abbie ; Javernick-Will, Amy ( January 2024 , Designsafe-CI)

   This study assesses the wind performance of various housing typologies representing informal construction practices in Puerto Rico to suggest modifications to enhance housing resilience in hurricanes. Based on fieldwork and interviews, the study defined four base housing typologies and possible variations in design and construction details. Each house was assessed using performance-based static wind analysis of potentially critical components. The results show that the initial governing failure mode in all base house typologies considered is roof panel loss due to tear-through at the fasteners, with subsequent governing failures being panel loss due to failures at the purlin-to-truss connections and failures of the truss-to-wall connections. In-plane wall failures and masonry uplift failures were both found to occur at much higher wind speeds than roof failures. To improve the hurricane performance, several feasible modifications are suggested, including installing hurricane straps at both the truss-to-wall and the purlin-to-truss connections, as well as improving the panel-fastener interface. In the construction of new roofs, this study found that using reduced spacing between roof members, hip roofs instead of gable roofs, and higher roof slopes leads to improved performance. These recommendations can make houses built through informal construction processes safer and more resilient to hurricanes as a form of climate adaptation.There is an urgent need to improve community capacity to recover more effectively after disasters through safer design and construction practices. To do this, training programs need to foster an improved understanding of shelter design and construction to withstand future wind and earthquake events. This project analyzed informal builders’ perceptions of housing safety in Puerto Rico (responding to 2017's Hurricane Maria and the 2019-2020 earthquake swarm) and homeowner’s perceptions of housing safety in Philippines (responding to 2013's Typhoon Haiyan and 2017's Ormoc earthquake) to: (1) assess local understanding of shelter safety in multiple hazards, including causal factors influencing this understanding, through a household survey in the Philippines and a survey to informal contractors in Puerto Rico; (2) assess the expected performance of various post-disaster shelter typologies to quantify safety during future earthquake and wind events using performance-based engineering methods, developing a rapid screening tool that can be used in design or evaluation; (3) identify conflicts between perceived and assessed safety of shelter, and why these conflicts exist, by comparing engineering assessments with local perceptions; and (4) create a communication design for organizations assisting with training for safer housing construction. 

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3. Analyzing Social Media Data to Understand How Disaster-Affected Individuals Adapt to Disaster-Related Telecommunications Disruptions.

   Van Wyk, Hannah ; Starbird, Kate ( January 2020 , International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM 2020))

   Hughes, Amanda ; McNeill, Fiona ; Zobel, Christopher W. (Ed.)

   Information is a critical need during disasters such as hurricanes. Increasingly, people are relying upon cellular and internet-based technology to communicate that information--modalities that are acutely vulnerable to the disruptions to telecommunication infrastructure that are common during disasters. Focusing on Hurricane Maria (2017) and its long-term impacts on Puerto Rico, this research examines how people affected by severe and sustained disruptions to telecommunications services adapt to those disruptions. Leveraging social media trace data as a window into the real-time activities of people who were actively adapting, we use a primarily qualitative approach to identify and characterize how people changed their telecommunications practices and routines--and especially how they changed their locations--to access Wi-Fi and cellular service in the weeks and months after the hurricane. These findings have implications for researchers seeking to better understand human responses to disasters and responders seeking to identify strategies to support affected populations. 

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4. Analyzing Social Media Data to Understand How Disaster-Affected Individuals Adapt to Disaster-Related Telecommunications Disruptions

   Van Wyk, Hannah ; Starbird, Kate ( May 2020 , CoRe Paper – Social Media for Disaster Response and Resilience Proceedings of the 17th ISCRAM Conference)

   McNeill, Fiona ; Zobel, Christopher (Ed.)

   Information is a critical need during disasters such as hurricanes. Increasingly, people are relying upon cellular and internet-based technology to communicate that information—modalities that are acutely vulnerable to the disruptions to telecommunication infrastructure that are common during disasters. Focusing on Hurricane Maria (2017) and its long-term impacts on Puerto Rico, this research examines how people affected by severe and sustained disruptions to telecommunications services adapt to those disruptions. Leveraging social media trace data as a window into the real-time activities of people who were actively adapting, we use a primarily qualitative approach to identify and characterize how people changed their telecommunications practices and routines—and especially how they changed their locations—to access Wi-Fi and cellular service in the weeks and months after the hurricane. These findings have implications for researchers seeking to better understand human responses to disasters and responders seeking to identify strategies to support affected populations. 

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5. Informally-Constructed houses in Puerto Rico under Earthquake load:Building Capacity for Safer Post-disaster Shelter: Leveraging Local Understanding and Advanced Engineering Assessments

   https://doi.org/10.17603/ds2-gyhe-jk11  

   Murray, Polly ; Feliciano, Dirsa ; Goldwyn, Briar ; Liel, Abbie ; Arroyo, Orlando ; Javernick-Will, Amy ( January 2024 , Designsafe-CI)

   More than 1.6 billion people worldwide live in informally constructed houses, many of which are reinforced with concrete. Patterns of past earthquake damage suggest that these homes have significant seismic vulnerabilities, endangering their occupants. The characteristics of these houses vary widely with local building practices. In addition, these vulnerabilities are potentially exacerbated by incremental construction practices and building practices that address wind/flood risk in multi-hazard environments. Yet, despite the ubiquity of this type of construction, there have not been efforts to systematically assess the seismic risks to support risk-reducing design and construction strategies. In this study, we developed a method to assess the seismic collapse capacity of informally constructed housing that accounts for local building practices and materials, quantifying the effect of building characteristics on collapse risk. We exercise the method to assess seismic performance of housing in the US. Caribbean Island of Puerto Rico, which has high seismic hazard and experiences frequent hurricanes. This analysis showed that heavy construction, often due to the addition of a second story, and the presence of an open ground story leads to a high collapse risk. Severely corroded steel bars could also worsen performance. Although houses with infill performed better than those with an open ground story, confined masonry construction techniques produced a major reduction in collapse risk when compared to infilled or open-frame construction. Infill construction with partial height walls performed very poorly. Well-built reinforced concrete column jackets and the addition of infill in open first-story bays can reduce the greater risks of openground- story houses. These findings, which are quantified in the results portion of this article, are intended to support the development of design and construction recommendations for safer housing.There is an urgent need to improve community capacity to recover more effectively after disasters through safer design and construction practices. To do this, training programs need to foster an improved understanding of shelter design and construction to withstand future wind and earthquake events. This project analyzed informal builders’ perceptions of housing safety in Puerto Rico (responding to 2017's Hurricane Maria and the 2019-2020 earthquake swarm) and homeowner’s perceptions of housing safety in Philippines (responding to 2013's Typhoon Haiyan and 2017's Ormoc earthquake) to: (1) assess local understanding of shelter safety in multiple hazards, including causal factors influencing this understanding, through a household survey in the Philippines and a survey to informal contractors in Puerto Rico; (2) assess the expected performance of various post-disaster shelter typologies to quantify safety during future earthquake and wind events using performance-based engineering methods, developing a rapid screening tool that can be used in design or evaluation; (3) identify conflicts between perceived and assessed safety of shelter, and why these conflicts exist, by comparing engineering assessments with local perceptions; and (4) create a communication design for organizations assisting with training for safer housing construction. 

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