Identifying, Weighting and Causality Modeling of Social and Economic Barriers to Rapid Infrastructure Recovery from Natural Disasters: A Study of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria

Natural disasters occur frequently in the U.S. and yield significant damages to critical infrastructures and communities. Many studies have focused on identifying disaster recovery indicators and reconstructing resilient communities. Although achieving communities resilient to natural disasters has been an ultimate goal for the decision-makers, it takes various timeframes for communities to recover from similar disasters, due to their different pre-disaster and post-disaster conditions. In this regard, many social, economic, environmental, etc. conditions, and their dynamic relationships and interaction should be considered to understand how they cause delays. Different aspects of disaster recovery have been studied within recent years, through which a variety of barriers relative to different perspectives were determined; however, barriers to effective and timely post-disaster recovery have not been studied in detail. This research aims to identify timely post-disaster recovery factors, investigate how the barriers to disaster recovery affect the recovery processes, and determine the relationships among the identified factors. To achieve these objectives, a comprehensive review of more than 300 scholarly papers in this area was performed, and potential post-disaster recovery barriers (PDRBs) were identified. Then, based on the potential PDRBs, a survey was developed and distributed to the experts and the public. The survey results were then analyzed, and the list of significant PDRBs was finalized, categorized, and prioritized. The results were used to develop a model to determine the relationships and interdependencies among preventive rapid post-disaster recovery variables. The 85 identified barriers were presented in economic, social, environmental, policy and legal, and infrastructure and transportation categories. Policy and legal barriers were recognized as fundamental causes of delays in timely post-disaster recovery; thus, these barriers were comprehensively investigated and their subcategories were presented. This research contributes to understanding how the PDRBs delay the post-disaster recovery processes. In addition, as this study has identified the relationships and interdependencies among various PDRBs, decision-makers can use the results to establish effective post-disaster recovery practices and to achieve more resilient communities.

• Record URL:
  https://ctedd.uta.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/CTEDD-018-05-SG-Final-Report.pdf
• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/66181
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This research was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program.
• Corporate Authors:

  University of Texas, Arlington

  Department of Civil Engineering, P.O. Box 19308
  Arlington, TX  United States  76019-0308

  Center for Transportation, Equity, Decisions & Dollars (CTEDD)

  University of Texas at Arlington
  Arlington, TX  United States  76019

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Kermanshachi, Sharareh
  • Bergstrand, Kelly
  • Rouhanizadeh, Behzad
• Publication Date: 2019-1-31

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 101p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Delays; Disaster resilience; Disasters; Infrastructure; Literature reviews; Reconstruction; Surveys
• Uncontrolled Terms: Disaster recovery; Post-disaster recovery barriers
• Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Security and Emergencies; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01713571
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: CTEDD: 018-05 SG
• Contract Numbers: CTEDD 018-05 SG
• Files: UTC, NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: Aug 7 2019 5:47PM