skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


Title: Operationalizing resilience: A deductive fault-driven resilience index for enabling adaptation
The impact of climate change and the dynamic nature of environmental conditions underscore the critical need to enhance resilience of systems and process safety considerations. The efficacy of such efforts primarily depends on how resilience is measured. Among the myriad efforts to quantify resilience, composite indicators have emerged as promising tools. However, these indicators typically employ statistical methods to derive weights for aggregation and rely on statistical homogeneity among indicators which can limit their scope and fidelity. In this study, we propose an alternative novel resilience index derived from a system’s structure and the essential conditions for safe operation during and after disruptions. The proposed measure reflects the systems’ ability to resist and respond to failures by addressing possibilities of impact propagation to other infrastructure systems. Moreover, it eliminates the need for weights and allows for compensability among its leading indicators. Using a case study based on the on-site wastewater treatment and disposal systems (OSTDS) in South Florida that faces increasing risks due to rising sea levels, we investigate the validity of the proposed index and perform a comparative analysis with statistically-driven measures. Furthermore, we demonstrate the adaptation of the proposed index for decision making within a generalized optimization framework.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2115275
PAR ID:
10477528
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Elsevier
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Process Safety and Environmental Protection
Volume:
177
Issue:
C
ISSN:
0957-5820
Page Range / eLocation ID:
1085 to 1102
Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
Resilience metric Composite index Leading indicators Sea-level rise Adaptation Decentralized wastewater treatment systems
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; ; ; ; ; (, Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment)
    Recent disruptions in transportation systems resulting from natural disasters, cyber accidents, and other factors clearly show the fragility of the airports and underscore the need for building resilience. This study introduces a comprehensive framework for evaluating the resilience of airport infrastructure, integrating critical functions and performance indicators in the context of specific missions that the airport needs to achieve. By focusing on the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) as a case study, the paper outlines a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methodology for identifying and assessing the critical functions of airports as well as their ability to recover and adapt under different threat scenarios including threat-agnostic situation. The methodology and its application to the DFW case study offer insights into the resilience of airport operations, highlighting key areas for improvement and the potential for policy intervention. This study provides a robust tool for airport administrators and policymakers to enhance infrastructure resilience through a detailed analysis and visualization of airport performance indicators, thereby contributing to the broader discourse on transportation system sustainability and disaster preparedness. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; ; ; ; (, Journal of Marine Science and Engineering)
    There has been a growing interest in research on how to define and build indicators of resilience to address challenges associated with sea-level rise. Most of the proposed methods rely on lagging indicators constructed based on the historical performance of an infrastructure sub-system. These indicators are traditionally utilized to build curves that describe the past response of the sub-system to stressors; these curves are then used to predict the future resilience of the sub-system to hypothesized events. However, there is now a growing concern that this approach cannot provide the best insights for adaptive decision-making across the broader context of multiple sub-systems and stakeholders. As an alternative, leading indicators that are built on the structural characteristics that embody system resilience have been gaining in popularity. This structure-based approach can reveal problems and gaps in resilience planning and shed light on the effectiveness of potential adaptation activities. Here, we survey the relevant literature for these leading indicators within the context of sea-level rise and then synthesize the gained insights into a broader examination of the current research challenges. We propose research directions on leveraging leading indicators as effective instruments for incorporating resilience into integrated decision-making on the adaptation of infrastructure systems. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; ; ; ; (, Future Energy)
    This study explores the understanding and practice of resilience among electrical utilities in the United States, focusing on how practitioners in the utility sector conceptualize and apply resilience in their work. As electricity becomes increasingly central to modern life, powering critical infrastructure and essential services, the resilience of power systems has gained prominence in energy policy and planning. However, there is a lack of standardized definitions and approaches to resilience in both academia and practice, particularly from an energy service perspective. The research employs a qualitative approach, utilizing semi-structured interviews with experts (practitioners) from transmission and distribution utilities in the United States to examine their definitions, understanding, and applications of resilience. By adopting a grounded approach, the study aims to identify key themes and concepts that practitioners associate with power system resilience. The findings outline that there is no clear definition of resilience amongst utility practitioners, and resilience and reliability are often used interchangeably/synonymously as there are no fixed indicators for resilience amongst practitioners. At present, unlike reliability, utilities are not including resilience as a term in their long-term resource planning, and neither are reporting resilience-based indicators to any of the government agencies. The findings contribute to the ongoing dialogue on energy resilience and offer a foundation for developing more comprehensive and context-specific approaches to building resilient energy systems that prioritize critical services and vulnerable populations. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; ; (, Journal of hydrology)
    The atmospheric water supply and demand dynamics determine a region’s potential water resources. The hydrologic ratios, such as, aridity index, evaporation ratio and runoff coefficients are useful indicators to quantify the atmospheric water dynamics at watershed to regional scales. In this study, we developed a modeling framework using a machine learning approach to predict hydrologic ratios for watersheds located in contiguous United States (CONUS) by utilizing a set of climate, soil, vegetation, and topographic variables. Overall, the proposed modeling framework is able to simulate the hydrologic ratios at watershed scale with a considerable accuracy. The concept of non-parametric elasticity was applied to study the potential influence of the estimated hydrologic ratios on various drought characteristics (resilience, vulnerability, and exposure) for river basins located in CONUS. Spatial sensitivity of drought indicators to hydrologic ratios suggests that an increase in hydrologic ratios may result in augmentation of magnitude of drought indicators in majority of the river basins. Aridity index seems to have higher influence on drought characteristics in comparison to other hydrologic ratios. It was observed that the machine learning approach based on random forests algorithm can efficiently estimate the spatial distribution of hydrologic ratios provided sufficient data is available. In addition to that, the non-parametric based elasticity approach can identify the potential influence of hydrologic ratios on spatial drought characteristics. 
    more » « less
  5. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; et al (, Frontiers in Environmental Science)
    null (Ed.)
    Interconnected food, energy, and water (FEW) nexus systems face many challenges to support human well-being (HWB) and maintain resilience, especially in arid and semiarid regions like New Mexico (NM), United States (US). Insufficient FEW resources, unstable economic growth due to fluctuations in prices of crude oil and natural gas, inequitable education and employment, and climate change are some of these challenges. Enhancing the resilience of such coupled socio-environmental systems depends on the efficient use of resources, improved understanding of the interlinkages across FEW system components, and adopting adaptable alternative management strategies. The goal of this study was to develop a framework that can be used to enhance the resilience of these systems. An integrated food, energy, water, well-being, and resilience (FEW-WISE) framework was developed and introduced in this study. This framework consists mainly of five steps to qualitatively and quantitatively assess FEW system relationships, identify important external drivers, integrate FEW systems using system dynamics models, develop FEW and HWB performance indices, and develop a resilience monitoring criterion using a threshold-based approach that integrates these indices. The FEW-WISE framework can be used to evaluate and predict the dynamic behavior of FEW systems in response to environmental and socioeconomic changes using resilience indicators. In conclusion, the derived resilience index can be used to inform the decision-making processes to guide the development of alternative scenario-based management strategies to enhance the resilience of ecological and socioeconomic well-being of vulnerable regions like NM. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email