More Like this

1. A Resilience Assessment Approach for Power System from Perspectives of System and Component Levels

   Liu, Xiaonan; Hou, Kai; Jia, Hongjie; Zhao, Junbo; Mili, Lamine: Mu; Rim, Jusong; Lei, Yunkai (January 2020, International journal of electrical power energy systems)

   This paper proposes a novel resilience assessment approach for power system. Two resilience indices are developed from the perspectives of the system and individual component levels, respectively. The former one quantifies the resilience of a power system in a system-wide manner, while the latter is intended to assess the individual component through the pre-disruption and post-disruption indices. Specifically, the pre-disruption index is used to determine the weak points of the system before the occurrence of disruptions, while the post-disruption index is for designing the optimal restoration strategies. We advocate the use of impact-increment-based state enumeration method to calculate the presented indices in an efficient way without loss of accuracy. Numerical results carried out on the IEEE RTS-79 test system and the IEEE 118-bus system validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach and indices. 

   more » « less
2. Quantifying the economic impact of disasters on businesses using human mobility data: a Bayesian causal inference approach

   https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-020-00255-6  

   Yabe, Takahiro; Zhang, Yunchang; Ukkusuri, Satish V. (December 2020, EPJ Data Science)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract In recent years, extreme shocks, such as natural disasters, are increasing in both frequency and intensity, causing significant economic loss to many cities around the world. Quantifying the economic cost of local businesses after extreme shocks is important for post-disaster assessment and pre-disaster planning. Conventionally, surveys have been the primary source of data used to quantify damages inflicted on businesses by disasters. However, surveys often suffer from high cost and long time for implementation, spatio-temporal sparsity in observations, and limitations in scalability. Recently, large scale human mobility data (e.g. mobile phone GPS) have been used to observe and analyze human mobility patterns in an unprecedented spatio-temporal granularity and scale. In this work, we use location data collected from mobile phones to estimate and analyze the causal impact of hurricanes on business performance. To quantify the causal impact of the disaster, we use a Bayesian structural time series model to predict the counterfactual performances of affected businesses ( what if the disaster did not occur? ), which may use performances of other businesses outside the disaster areas as covariates. The method is tested to quantify the resilience of 635 businesses across 9 categories in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. Furthermore, hierarchical Bayesian models are used to reveal the effect of business characteristics such as location and category on the long-term resilience of businesses. The study presents a novel and more efficient method to quantify business resilience, which could assist policy makers in disaster preparation and relief processes. 

   more » « less
3. Revamping Sustainability Efforts Post-Disaster by Adopting Circular Economy Resilience Practices

   https://doi.org/10.3390/su152215870  

   Pradhananga, Piyush; ElZomor, Mohamed (November 2023, Sustainability)

   Post-disaster reconnaissance is vital for assessing the impact of a natural disaster on the built environment and informing improvements in design, construction, risk mitigation, and our understanding of extreme events. The data obtained from reconnaissance can also be utilized to improve disaster recovery planning by maximizing resource efficiency, minimizing waste, and promoting resilience in future disasters. This paper aims to investigate existing reconnaissance reports and datasets to identify the factors that impact the reusability of buildings post-disaster and to recommend strategies that align with circular economy goals. The study adopted a three-step research methodology to attain the proposed goals: (1) thematic analysis was used to evaluate types of damages reported in the reconnaissance reports; (2) a supervised machine-learning algorithm was employed to analyze reconnaissance datasets; and (3) a concept map was developed based on interviews of 109 stakeholders in disaster-prone communities to recommend strategies to adopt circular economy practices post-disaster. The study results highlight the recurring risks of damage to different parts of the building and how circular economy resilience practices like deconstruction can minimize waste and maximize resource efficiency during post-disaster recovery. The findings of the study promote a more regenerative economy to build resilience to the challenges of future extreme weather events. 

   more » « less
4. Towards a Geospatial Household Natural Hazard Resilience Model in Rwanda

   https://doi.org/10.1109/GHTC56179.2023.10354787  

   Tomaszewski, Brian; Scott, Timothy; Schneider, Jennifer; Walker, Rebekah; Rwanyiziri, Gaspard; Christian_Kwizera, Jean Francois; Vodacek, Anthony (October 2023, IEEE)

   Perkins, Edward (Ed.)

   Household resilience to natural hazards is a critical issue facing society with the advent of climate change. In this work, we developed one of the first household natural hazard resilience geospatial models for Rwanda designed to understand household resilience at detailed spatial resolutions. We evaluated indicators within the model through empirical fieldwork using an easy-to-deploy survey on Android tablets. To the best of our knowledge, the work presented here is innovative as it is some of the first to use geospatial technology-based surveys to conduct household-level natural disaster resilience surveys in Rwanda. Select results presented in this paper indicated that household vulnerabilities and subsequent resilience generally matched existing district-level risk mapping of Rwanda. However, our work went beyond existing risk mapping to understand individual household perceptions of resilience. Respondents generally reported a mix of positive and negative drivers of household resilience. Security vis-à-vis natural disasters and economic situation was perceived as very insecure, healthcare and education were very secure, and utilities, food and water, and housing were generally perceived as insecure but not as insecure as economic situation and security to future disasters. There is much more that can be understood in terms of household resilience as it relates to many factors of household resiliency in our model including physical vulnerabilities, financial capacity, information access, technological capacity, and most importantly, resilience perceptions. 

   more » « less
5. Rural Resiliency Hubs: An Integrated, Community-Centered Approach to Addressing the Resiliency Divide through Rural Public Libraries

   Mardis, M.A. (January 2022, New Librarianship Symposium)

   Lankes, R. David (Ed.)

   Resilience is often treated as a single-dimension system attribute, or various dimensions of resilience are studied separately without considering multi-dimensionality. The increasing frequency of catastrophic natural or man-made disasters affecting rural areas demands holistic assessments of community vulnerability and assessment. Disproportionate effects of disasters on minorities, low-income, hard-to-reach, and vulnerable populations demand a community-oriented planning approach to address the “resilience divide.” Rural areas have many advantages, but low population density, coupled with dispersed infrastructures and community support networks, make these areas more affected by natural disasters. This paper will catalyze three key learnings from our current work in public librarians’ roles in disaster resiliency: rural communities are composed of diverse sub-communities, each which experiences and responds to traumatic events differently, depending on micro-geographic and demographic drivers. Rural citizens tend to be very self-reliant and are committed to strengthening and sustaining community resiliency with local human capital and resources. Public libraries are central to rural life, providing a range of informational, educational, social, and personal services, especially in remote areas that lack reliable access to community resources during disasters. Public libraries and their librarian leaders are often a “crown jewel” of rural areas’ community infrastructure and this paper will present a community-based design and assessment process for resiliency hubs located in and operated through rural public libraries. The core technical and social science research questions explored in the proposed paper are: 1) Who were the key beneficiaries and what did they need? 2) What was the process of designing a resiliency hub? 3) What did library resiliency hubs provide and how can they be sustained? This resiliency hub study will detail co-production of solutions and involves an inclusive collaboration among researchers, librarians, and community members to address the effects of cascading impacts of natural disasters. The novel co-design process detailed in the paper reflects an in-depth understanding of the complex interactions among libraries, residents, governments, and other agencies by collecting sociotechnical hurricane-related data for Calhoun County, Florida, USA, a region devastated by Hurricane Michael (2018) and hard-hit by Covid-19. We analyzed data from newly developed fusing algorithms and incorporating multiple communities and developed a framework and process to co-design resiliency hubs sited in public libraries. This research leverages a unique opportunity to library-centered policies and technologies to establish a new paradigm for developing disaster resiliency in rural settings. Public libraries serve a diverse population who will directly benefit from practical support tailored to their needs. The project will inform efficient plans to ensure that high-need groups are not isolated in disasters. The knowledge and insight gained from the resiliency hub design process will not only improve our understanding of emergency response operations, but also will contribute to the development of new disaster related policies and plans for public libraries, with a broader application to rural communities in many settings. 

   more » « less