PEOPLES: A Tool to Measure Community Resilience

This paper provides a novel method to quantitatively assess the resilience of communities at various scales. The proposed method is based on the PEOPLES framework and it takes an indicator-based approach as an engine for its algorithm. PEOPLES is a framework for identifying the different resilience aspects of a community and for providing new ways through which the decision makers can take actions. The framework comprises seven dimensions, each of which is the collection of more specific components and indicators. Each indicator is accompanied with a measure allowing the analytical computation of the indicator’s performance. The measures are presented in the form of continuous functions whose parameters can be analytically obtained. The output of the methodology is a performance function for each indicator and a resilience index for the whole community. A case study illustrating the application of the methodology is also provided in the paper

Quantitative Framework to Assess Resilience and Risk at the Country Level

This paper presents a quantitative method to assess the resilience and the resilience-based risk at the country level. The approach is inspired by the classical risk analysis, in which risk is a function of vulnerability, hazard, and exposure. In the proposed analysis, resilience based risk is a function of resilience, hazard, and exposure. In the new formula, the resilience parameter is evaluated using the data provided by the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA). HFA scores and ranks countries based on a number of equally weighted indicators. To use those indicators in the resilience assessment, the contribution of each indicator toward resilience must be determined. To do that, three methods to weight and combine the different HFA indicators are proposed. The first two methods are based on the dependence tree analysis (DTA), while the third method is based on a geometrical combination of the indicators using spider plots. The proposed methodology has been applied to a case study composed of 37 countries for which both the resilience (R) and the resilience-based risk (RBR) indexes have been determined

Application of Crescent-Shaped Brace passive resisting system in RC frame structures

The design of building structures that is capable of providing prescribed seismic performances is the fundamental objective of the Performance-Based Seismic Design (PBSD) approach. Matching a particular seismic response requires additional design freedom that the conventional structural elements (beam/column) fail to provide. Here, it is worth to highlight the role of innovative lateral resisting systems such as base isolation and dissipative systems, which can add flexibility to the design and help to achieve prefixed seismic performance objectives. Among different solutions, the seismic design of a two-storey reinforced concrete building equipped with a novel hysteretic device, namely Crescent-Shaped Brace (CSB), is presented. CSBs are characterised by a unique geometrical configuration, leading to an optimized nonlinear force-displacement behaviour that allows the structure to achieve prescribed multiple seismic performances. In this paper, we propose a procedure for the seismic design of the CSB devices within the framework of PBSD. The global behaviour of the devices is studied and verified for a multi-storey shear-type building structure by means of numerical analyses. The results obtained confirm the validity of the proposed design method and the effectiveness of the new hysteretic device. The force-displacement curve of the building matches the objectives curve (i.e. the one corresponding to the predefined performance objectives), thus ensuring the fulfilment of the prescribed multi-seismic performances

Resilience framework for seaport infrastructure: theory and application

The efficient movement of goods is crucial to the economic growth of communities. This makes the existence of seaports essential for the marine transportation system. Due to their natural location, ports are continuously threatened by natural hazards such as wind action, which necessitates a continuous monitoring and assessment for their performance. The work presented here aims at assessing the resilience of ports against natural disasters. This is done by identifying the performance and the recovery rate of such infrastructure during the period following the event. The research commenced with gathering information about the port’s main components that are influenced by natural hazards. The collected data has been compiled in the form of indicators, which have been filtered and grouped under four dimensions in the proposed “PORT framework”. Each of the indicator has been allocated a measure to enable its quantitative evaluation. The aggregation of the indicators’ values allows identifying the port resilience

Resilience Assessment of City-Scale Transportation Networks Using Monte Carlo Simulation

To improve the resilience of critical infrastructure systems, their intrinsic properties need to be understood and their resilience state needs be identified. In the literature, several methods to evaluate networks’ reliability and resilience can be found. However, the applicability of these methods is usually restricted to small-size net-works. In this paper, the transportation network of a large-scale virtual city is considered as a case study. A random removal of the roads is applied simulating the network’s failure. The network reliability is then calculated using the Destruction Spectrum (D-spectrum) method and a Monte Carlo approach has been developed to generate failure permutations that are necessary for the evaluation of the D-spectrum se. In addition, the Birnbaum Importance Measure (BIM) has been adopted in this study to determine the importance of the net-work’s components. The methodology adopted in this study can be also extended to all network-based systems. The paper also introduces resilience indicators as a soft tool to predict the performance and serviceability of transportation networks

Seismic resilience of road bridges: lessons learned from the 14 November 2016 Kaikoura Earthquake

ABSTRACT: The 14th of November 2016 Kaikōura Earthquake sequence has highly affected the transport infrastructure in New Zealand. From the perspective of life-safety, the overall bridge performance was satisfactory; however, based on the observed undesirable sub-system performance of the damaged bridges, further investigation into possible improvements of the current design philosophy was warranted. This paper describes the structural performance of the most severely damaged bridges during the Kaikōura Earthquake. The study is based on observations made during site inspections, on subsequent computational analyses performed and on a functionality database collected during the period following the event. The paper also introduces resilience indicators as a tool to predict the lifecycle performance and functionality of bridges. Finally, conclusions on the resilience and functionality of the bridges in the aftermath of the earthquake are raised, highlighting the main performance issues and suggesting strategies and technologies to enhance their seismic resilience during future events

Smart cities to improve resilience of communities

This paper presents a new approach to predict the potential damage and physical impacts of an earthquake on the built environment. A new methodology to the urbanized systems and large-scale simulations within a seismic scenario is explored, by evaluating multipurpose codes for numerical simulation. A 3-D building shape of a standard virtual city is developed for evaluat-ing the seismic effects at increasing intensities. Four different building sectors that provide essential functions to a community, including housing, education, business, and public ser-vices are considered. Once the buildings are integrated into the city, parallel simulations are applied to compute the system functionality following a disruptive scenario. Tri-linear elasto-plastic backbone curve representative of global shear behavior of each building is estimated considering the dominant modal shapes and building irregularities. Monte Carlo Simulations (MCS) are applied to take into account the epistemic uncertainties associated with geometry and mechanical properties within the range of observations. For each set of buildings’ data, the nonlinear dynamic analysis is performed through SAP2000 Application Programming In-terface (API) in order to assess the dynamic response of the buildings in an organized and au-tomatic fashion. Accordingly, the city is mapped into different zones representative to the possibility of having different levels of damage (complete, extensive, moderate, and slight). This methodology supports decision-makers to explore how their community will respond to a disruptive event, to develop different strategies for monitoring and control the emergency in urbanized areas, and to plan better resilience-building and evacuation strategies

A new tool to assess the resilience of an urban environment under an earthquake scenario

This paper presents a new methodology to predict the potential damage and physical impacts of an earthquake on the built environment. A new methodology to the urbanized systems and large-scale simulations within a seismic scenario are explored, by evaluating multipurpose codes for numerical simulation. A 3-D building shape of a standard virtual city is developed for evaluating the seismic effects at increasing intensities. Once the buildings are integrated into the city, parallel simulations are applied to compute the global behavior of buildings after a disruptive scenario. Monte Carlo Simulations (MCS) are applied to take into account the epistemic uncertainties associated with geometry and mechanical properties within the range of observations. For each set of buildings’ data, the nonlinear dynamic analysis is performed through SAP2000 Application Programming Interface (API) in order to assess the dynamic response of the buildings in an organized and automatic fashion. Accordingly, the city is mapped into different zones representative to the possibility of having different levels of damage (complete, extensive, moderate, and slight). This tool supports decision-makers to explore how their community will respond to a disruptive event, to develop different strategies for monitoring and control the emergency in urbanized areas

Integrated platform to assess seismic resilience at the community level

Due to the increasing frequency of disastrous events, the challenge of creating large-scale simulation models has become of major significance. Indeed, several simulation strategies and methodologies have been recently developed to explore the response of communities to natural disasters. Such models can support decision-makers during emergency operations allowing to create a global view of the emergency identifying consequences. An integrated platform that implements a community hybrid model with real-time simulation capabilities is presented in this paper. The platform's goal is to assess seismic resilience and vulnerability of critical infrastructures (e.g., built environment, power grid, socio-technical network) at the urban level, taking into account their interdependencies. Finally, different seismic scenarios have been applied to a large-scale virtual city model. The platform proved to be effective to analyze the emergency and could be used to implement countermeasures that improve community response and overall resilience