3,960 research outputs found
Symposium on Disaster Resilience and Built Environment Education: Celebrating Project Successes: Book of Abstracts
Among many communities in the EU and beyond, disasters pose significant concerns and
challenges. With growing population and infrastructures, the worldâs exposure to disaster related
hazards is increasing. In addition to loss of life, disasters greatly hamper the social-economic
capacity of the member countries and also of the union as a whole. Swiss Reâs latest sigma report
(2014) highlights the 308 disaster events in 2013, of which 150 were natural catastrophes and 158
man-made. Almost 26,000 people lost their lives or went missing in the disasters. Europe suffered
the two most expensive natural disasters in insurance terms. The first was the massive flooding in
Central and Eastern Europe in May and June, after four days of heavy rain that caused large-scale
damage across Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. It led to 16.5 billion in economic losses. The second was the hailstorm that hit Germany and
France in late July, causing 4.8 billion in economic losses.
Most of those claims came from heavily populated areas of Germany. Altogether, Europe had
economic losses worth 15 billion in insurance payouts. For the first time in history
the world has experienced three consecutive years where annual economic losses have exceeded
$100 billio
Complexity aided design: The FuturICT technological innovation paradigm
"In the next century, planet earth will don an electronic skin. It will use the Internet as a scaffold to support and transmit its sensations. This skin is already being stitched together. It consists of millions of embedded electronic measuring devices: thermostats, pressure gauges, pollution detectors, cameras, microphones, glucose sensors, EKGs, electroencephalographs. These will probe and monitor cities and endangered species, the atmosphere, our ships, highways and fleets of trucks, our conversations, our bodies-even our dreams ....What will the earth's new skin permit us to feel? How will we use its surges of sensation? For several years-maybe for a decade-there will be no central nervous system to manage this vast signaling network. Certainly there will be no central intelligence...some qualities of self-awareness will emerge once the Net is sensually enhanced. Sensuality is only one force pushing the Net toward intelligenceâ. These statements are quoted by an interview by Cherry Murray, Dean of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Professor of Physics. It is interesting to outline the timeliness and highly predicting power of these statements. In particular, we would like to point to the relevance of the question "What will the earth's new skin permit us to feel?â to the work we are going to discuss in this paper. There are many additional compelling questions, as for example: "How can the electronic earth's skin be made more resilient?â; "How can the earth's electronic skin be improved to better satisfy the need of our society?â;"What can the science of complex systems contribute to this endeavour?â Graphical abstrac
Complexity Aided Design: the FuturICT Technological Innovation Paradigm
"In the next century, planet earth will don an electronic skin. It will use
the Internet as a scaffold to support and transmit its sensations. This skin is
already being stitched together. It consists of millions of embedded electronic
measuring devices: thermostats, pressure gauges, pollution detectors, cameras,
microphones, glucose sensors, EKGs, electroencephalographs. These will probe
and monitor cities and endangered species, the atmosphere, our ships, highways
and fleets of trucks, our conversations, our bodies--even our dreams ....What
will the earth's new skin permit us to feel? How will we use its surges of
sensation? For several years--maybe for a decade--there will be no central
nervous system to manage this vast signaling network. Certainly there will be
no central intelligence...some qualities of self-awareness will emerge once the
Net is sensually enhanced. Sensuality is only one force pushing the Net toward
intelligence". These statements are quoted by an interview by Cherry Murray,
Dean of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Professor of
Physics. It is interesting to outline the timeliness and highly predicting
power of these statements. In particular, we would like to point to the
relevance of the question "What will the earth's new skin permit us to feel?"
to the work we are going to discuss in this paper. There are many additional
compelling questions, as for example: "How can the electronic earth's skin be
made more resilient?"; "How can the earth's electronic skin be improved to
better satisfy the need of our society?";"What can the science of complex
systems contribute to this endeavour?
Proceedings of ARCOM Doctoral Workshop on 'Industry 4.0 and Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment': ARCOM Doctoral Workshop in association with CIB W120 - Disasters and the Built Environment
Disruptive innovations of the 4th industrial revolution are now starting to make an impact on construction. Although construction has lagged behind some of the other industries in embracing this revolution, recent years have seen a concentrated effort to drive change in construction processes and practices. The 4th industrial revolution is characterised by technologies such as digitisation, optimisation, and customisation of production, automation and adaptation; as well as processes such as human machine interaction; value-added services and businesses, and automatic data exchange and communication. In construction, the applications of Industry 4.0 include 3D printing of building components, autonomous construction vehicles, the use of drones for site and building surveying, advanced offsite manufacturing facilities etc. The application of technologies, processes associated with Industry 4.0 is seen to be already making an impact on construction, and reshaping the future of built environment. This new digital era of construction, fuelled by Industry 4.0, has significant potential to enhance disaster resilience practices in the built environment. Knowledge on resilience of the built environment including preparedness, response and recovery has advanced significantly over the recent years and we are now in an era where resilience is seen as a key constituent of the built environment. But the recurring and devastating impacts of disasters constantly challenge us to improve our practices and seek ways of achieving greater heights in our quest of achieving a resilient built environment. It is often proposed that the innovations associated with Industry 4.0 joined by IoTs and sensors can be exploited to enhance the ability of the built environment to prepare for and adapt to climate change and withstand and recover rapidly from the impacts of disasters. This integration of cyber physical systems through IoTs needs a holistic view of disaster resilience. Often, the focus is on benefits individual technologies can offer. However, the ability to integrate different aspects of disaster resilience using a range of new technologies promise to deliver wider benefits beyond and above what individual technologies can offer. For instance, an integrated digital twin allows to bring together advanced risk modelling, big data, cloud computing, internet of things, advanced off-site manufacturing, etc. together to deliver a resilient built environment. This requires careful planning and extensive research on the complexities surrounding disaster resilience related aspects and the use of related data. The ultimate objective of any new innovation, including Industry 4.0, should ideally be to benefit the society. The society that we live today is often disrupted by natural hazard induced disasters, whether it be floods, cyclones, earthquakes, landslides or tsunamis. The challenge that is in front of us is to effectively utilise new innovations driven by digital information to enhance disaster resilience in our buildings, communities, cities and regions. However, unlike earlier industrial revolutions, digital revolution is not easy to control. We must ensure that the fundamental values such as freedom, openness and pluralism are inbuilt in these new technologies. This is an uncharted territory for us. In addition to addressing complexities and challenges of using Industry 4.0 technologies, we also need to have policies and guidelines on the use of information. There should be a balance between innovation and regulation. We are confident that by bringing together researchers, practitioners and policy-makers alike from relevant disciplines we can deliver realistic benefits to transform our disaster resilience practices and policies, and make the built environment we live in more resilient
Key Priorities and University Roles to Address Coastal Resilience in Virginia: Findings from the Rotating Resilience Roundtables Workshop Fall 2018
From Part 1. Purpose and significance
The first Rotating Resilience Roundtables event took place on October 11 and 12, 2018 on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg and was co-organized between the Coastal@VT initiative at Virginia Tech and Old Dominion University/Virginia Sea Grant Climate Adaptation and Resilience Program. It was designed to respond to the need for a cohesive and policy-relevant science that will align and coordinate efforts between researchers and other stakeholders to benefit the Commonwealthâs resilience planning for changing conditions in coastal zone. The Rotating Roundtablesâ concept was selected to facilitate active engagement of audiences with different coastal themes, as well as to stimulate problem identification, critical thinking, and alignment between the real-time issues and research questions
Integration of Data Driven Technologies in Smart Grids for Resilient and Sustainable Smart Cities: A Comprehensive Review
A modern-day society demands resilient, reliable, and smart urban
infrastructure for effective and in telligent operations and deployment.
However, unexpected, high-impact, and low-probability events such as
earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, and hurricanes make the design of such robust
infrastructure more complex. As a result of such events, a power system
infrastructure can be severely affected, leading to unprecedented events, such
as blackouts. Nevertheless, the integration of smart grids into the existing
framework of smart cities adds to their resilience. Therefore, designing a
resilient and reliable power system network is an inevitable requirement of
modern smart city infras tructure. With the deployment of the Internet of
Things (IoT), smart cities infrastructures have taken a transformational turn
towards introducing technologies that do not only provide ease and comfort to
the citizens but are also feasible in terms of sustainability and
dependability. This paper presents a holistic view of a resilient and
sustainable smart city architecture that utilizes IoT, big data analytics,
unmanned aerial vehicles, and smart grids through intelligent integration of
renew able energy resources. In addition, the impact of disasters on the power
system infrastructure is investigated and different types of optimization
techniques that can be used to sustain the power flow in the network during
disturbances are compared and analyzed. Furthermore, a comparative review
analysis of different data-driven machine learning techniques for sustainable
smart cities is performed along with the discussion on open research issues and
challenges
Robustness and Extensibility in Infrastructure Systems
abstract: Resilient infrastructure research has produced a myriad of conflicting definitions and analytic frameworks, highlighting the difficulty of creating a foundational theory that informs disciplines as diverse as business, engineering, ecology, and disaster risk reduction. Nevertheless, there is growing agreement that resilience is a desirable property for infrastructure systems â i.e., that more resilience is always better. Unfortunately, this view ignore that the fact that a single concept of resilience is insufficient to ensure effective performance under diverse and volatile stresses. Scholarship in resilience engineering has identified at least four irreducible resilience concepts, including: rebound, robustness, graceful extensibility, and sustained adaptability. In this paper, we clarify the meaning of the word resilience and its use, explain the advantages of the pluralistic approach to advancing resilience theory, and clarify two of the four conceptual understandings: robustness and graceful extensibility. Furthermore, we draw upon examples in electric power, transportation, and water systems that illustrate positive and negative cases of resilience in infrastructure management and crisis response. The following conclusions result: 1) robustness and graceful extensibility are different strategies for resilience that draw upon different system characteristics, 2) neither robustness nor extensibility can prevent all hazards, and 3) while systems can perform both strategies simultaneously, their drawbacks are different. Robust infrastructure systems fail when policies and procedures become stale, or when faced with overwhelming surprise. Extensible systems fail when a lack of coordination or exhaustion of resources results from decompensation. Consequently, resilience is found neither only in robustness, nor only in extensibility, but in the capacity apply both and switch between them at will.Draft of manuscript under review at Reliability Engineering and System Safet
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