Frontiers of Engineering Reports on Leading-Edge Engineering from the 2009 Symposium (2010) / Chapter Skim
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Infrastructure Resilience to Disasters--Stephanie E. Chang
Infrastructure Resilience to Disasters--Stephanie E. Chang
Pages 125-134
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From page 125... ...
The societal disruption caused by infrastructure failures is therefore disproportionately high in relation to actual physical damage. Engineers have long tried to design infrastructure to withstand extreme forces, but recently they have begun to address the need for urban infrastructure systems that are resilient to disasters (e.g., NIST, 2008)
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From page 126... ...
Because infrastructure failures are clearly a primary cause of disruptions in disasters, strategies for improving the disaster resilience of communities must focus on improving infrastructure resilience. Yet few standards or guidelines have been developed for this, partly because of the complexity of the problem (American Lifelines Alliance, 2006)
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From page 127... ...
Water supply, telecommunications, transportation, hospitals, and other dependent infrastructures were disrupted. 2004 Hurricanes Central Port closures disrupted delivery American Lifelines Charley, Florida of fuel and emergency materials.
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From page 128... ...
CHALLENGES OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH Interdisciplinary inquiry is inherently difficult for many reasons, ranging from intellectual issues, such as differences in communication and attitudes, to organizational issues, such as funding mechanisms and academic structures. Interdisciplinary research at the intersection of engineering and the social sciences is especially challenging (NRC, 2006)
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From page 129... ...
The results showed substantial variations in how restoration might proceed, and LADWP concluded the restoration model would be helpful in planning for resource allocations following a disaster. Modeling the Effects of Water Outages on Businesses Urban planners used the models described above and other MCEER engineering studies to investigate the consequences of water outages, including impacts on the economy (Chang et al., 2008)
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From page 130... ...
Based on the experience of developing GIRAFFE, the restoration model, and other models, we have identified factors that promote interdisciplinary research in this area: • GIS technology helps bridge disparate datasets and models by providing a common platform for information sharing and data integration. • The concept of infrastructure "services" is critical for linking physical damage to societal impacts.
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From page 131... ...
On one level, designing and building infrastructure that is able to withstand disasters will reduce their negative environmental impact, such as debris from damaged structures, spills of hazardous materials and other contaminants, and the carbon footprint of recon struction activities. Infrastructure designers should, therefore, include such lifecycle environmental impacts in their decision-making (Guikema, 2009)
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From page 132... ...
Addressing them will require interdisciplinary research that spans the distances between engineering fields and between engineering and the social sciences. REFERENCES American Lifelines Alliance.
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From page 133... ...
2008. Linking Lifeline Infrastructure Performance and Community Disaster Resilience: Models and Multi-Stakeholder Processes.
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From page 134... ...
Natural Hazards Review 1(2)
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