Over the past few decades, environmental changes have led to more frequent occurrences and greater intensities of natural disasters worldwide. In terms of globally connected supply chains, this has resulted in an enormous economical loss for corporations. Therefore, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BC/DR) planning and management has become essential for businesses in order to protect their critical business flow. Yet there is a lack of systematic and transparent methodologies for companies to handle this problem. Hence, this thesis introduces a novel approach to combine consecutive steps of the Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP) process within one application. The multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) tool called the Analytic Network Process (ANP) is employed to identify critical products of a business and match them with optimal disruption mitigation strategies based on an evaluation of benefits, opportunities, costs, and risks (BOCR). To validate the method developed in this thesis, a case study using historical data of a U.S. company (Company XYZ) is introduced. The results of the ANP mathematical modeling demonstrate that the developed methodology provides a valuable approach to analyze and confirm BC/DR planning decisions. Moreover, an expert of Company XYZ confirmed that the suggested solution established through this case study is in agreement with the preferable choice based on his expertise and professional decision-making. Further research could extend the proposed methodology to other fields of BC/DR planning, such as IT Disaster Recovery Planning or Human Disaster Relief.

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<p dir="ltr">Restoration of civil infrastructure is <b>not</b> equivalent to the full recovery of a community from natural hazards. Considering the recovery of only civil infrastructure in quantifying the disaster recovery of a community does not allow for capturing the long-term socio-economic impacts of natural hazards (e.g., stress, anxiety, unemployment, etc.). The role of having a robust social infrastructure in facilitating disaster recovery and addressing both short-term and long-term impacts of natural hazards needs to be explored. Social infrastructure is defined as formal entities (e.g., governmental organizations, community centers, NGOs, religious centers, etc.) as well as informal social ties such as individuals and households that assist in post-disaster recovery and alleviate the distress caused by natural hazards. Social infrastructure not only addresses post-disaster tangible needs such as shelter, food, and water but also helps alleviate disaster-induced socio-economic distress in communities.</p><p dir="ltr">This research focuses on identifying the capacity needs of the social infrastructure to facilitate disaster recovery (measured using community well-being as the recovery metric), while integrating the cascading impacts from other affected inter-dependent infrastructure systems (i.e., civil, civic, cyber, financial, environmental, and educational). Using community well-being, which is defined as the state in which the needs of a community are fulfilled, allows for incorporating both short-term and long-term impacts of natural hazards.</p><p dir="ltr">The research starts with modeling post-disaster community well-being using the indicators selected from existing community well-being models. After the selection of indicators, several data sources such as phone call, survey, and FEMA support programs data were used to 1) verify the structure of the community well-being model, and 2) quantify post-disaster community well-being. Chapter 3 elaborates on this process and its outcome, which is a framework for quantifying post-disaster community well-being based on disaster helpline and survey data.</p><p dir="ltr">Chapter 4 introduces a Bayesian Network<b> </b>modeling framework for quantifying the role of social infrastructure services in the form tangible, emotional, and informational support in enhancing post-disaster community well-being. The Bayesian model was then used to propose capacity building strategies for increasing the robustness of social infrastructure and its supporting infrastructure to foster post-disaster community well-being in the face of future hurricanes.</p><p dir="ltr"><b>Intellectual Merit</b>: the proposed research is unique in its kind as it leverages social and psychological well-being models and theories to characterize the role of social infrastructure in the recovery of communities from natural disasters. The research contributes to infrastructure and urban resilience models by considering the role of social infrastructure services using community well-being as the recovery metric. It also contributes to social sciences by introducing 2-1-1 disaster helpline data as an inexpensive and timely replacement for multiple rounds of survey questionnaires for quantifying community well-being.</p><p dir="ltr"><b>Broader Impacts</b>: the proposed model and the obtained results can serve as an Ex-Ante Capacity building tool for decision-makers to predict the status of communities in the face of future natural hazards and propose capacity building strategies to have higher post-disaster support, and thereby, community well-being.<br></p><p dir="ltr"><br></p>

A transportation system is a critical infrastructure that is key for mobility in any community. Natural hazards can cause failure in transportation infrastructure and impede its routine performance. Ecological systems are resilient systems that are very similar to transportation systems. Diversity is a fundamental factor in ecological resilience, and it is recognized as an important property of transportation resilience. However, quantifying transportation diversity remains challenging, which makes it difficult to understand the influence of diversity on transportation performance and resilience. Consequently, three studies are undertaken to remedy this circumstance. The first study develops a novel approach – inspired by biodiversity in ecological stability theory – to characterize and measure transportation diversity by its richness (availability) and evenness (distribution). This transportation diversity approach is then applied to New York City (NYC) at the zip code level using the GIS data of transportation modes. The results demonstrate the variation of transportation diversity across the city. The characterized inherent and augmented complementarities start to uncover the dynamics of modal compensation and to demonstrate how transportation diversity contributes to this phenomenon. Moreover, the NYC zip codes with low transportation diversity are mainly in hurricane evacuation zones that are more vulnerable. Consequently, low transportation diversity in these areas could affect their post-disaster mobility. In the second study, the influence of transportation diversity on post-disaster mobility is examined by investigating the patterns of mobility in New York City one month before and after Hurricane Sandy using Twitter data. To characterize pre- and post-Sandy mobility patterns, the locations that individuals visited frequently were identified and travel distance, the radius of gyration, and mobility entropy were measured. Individuals were grouped according to the transportation diversity of their frequently visited locations. The findings reveal that individuals that lived in or visited zip codes with higher transportation diversity mostly experienced less disturbance in their mobility patterns after Sandy and the recovery of their mobility patterns was faster. The results confirm that transportation diversity affects the resilience of individual post-disaster mobility. The approach used in this study is one of the first to examine the root causes of changes in mobility patterns after extreme events by linking transportation infrastructure diversity to post-disaster mobility. Finally, the third study employs the transportation diversity approach to investigate modal accessibility and social exclusion. Transportation infrastructure is a sociotechnical system and transport equity is crucial for access to opportunities and services such as jobs and infrastructure. The social exclusion caused by transport inequity could be intensified after natural disasters that can cause failure in a transportation system. One approach to determine transport equity is access to transportation modes. Common catchment area approaches to assess the equity of access to transportation modes cannot differentiate between the equity of access to modes in sub-regions of an area. The transportation diversity approach overcomes this shortcoming, and it is applied to all transportation modes in NYC zip codes to measure the equity of access. Zip codes were grouped in quartiles based on their transportation diversity. Using the American Community Survey data, a set of important socioeconomic and transport usage factors were compared in the quartile groups. The results indicated the relationship between transportation diversity and income, vehicle ownership, commute time, and commute mode. This relationship highlighted that social exclusion is linked with transport inequity. The results also revealed that the inequity of the transport system in zip codes with low transportation diversity affects poor individuals more than non-poor and the zip codes with a majority of black and Hispanic populations are impacted more. Further consideration of the impacts of Hurricanes Irene and Sandy in NYC shows that people in areas with a lower transportation diversity were affected more and the transport inequity in these areas made it difficult to cope with these disasters and caused post-disaster social exclusion. Therefore, enhancing transportation diversity should support transport equity and reduce social exclusion under normal situations and during extreme events. Together, these three studies illustrate the influence of transportation diversity on the resilience of this infrastructure. They highlight the importance of the provision and distribution of all transportation modes, their influence on mobility during normal situations and extreme events and their contribution toward mitigating social exclusion. Finally, these studies suggest that transportation diversity can contribute to more targeted and equitable transportation and community resilience planning, which should help decision-makers allocate scarce resources more effectively. / Doctor of Philosophy / Transportation systems are very important in every city. Natural disasters like hurricanes and floods can destroy roads and inundate metro tunnels that can cause problems for mobility. Ecological systems like forests are very resilient because they have experienced disturbances like natural disasters for millions of years. Ecological systems and transportation systems are very similar; for example, both have different components (different species in an ecological system and different modes in a transportation system). Because of such similarities, we can learn from ecological resilience to improve transportation resilience. Having a variety of species in an ecological system makes it diverse. Diversity is the most important factor in ecological resilience, and it is also recognized as an important factor in transportation resilience. Current methods cannot effectively quantify transportation diversity – the variety of modes in a system – so determining its impact on transportation resilience remains a challenge. In this dissertation, principles of ecological diversity are adapted to characterize transportation infrastructure to develop a new approach to measure transportation diversity; metrics include the availability of transportation modes and their distribution in a community. The developed approach was applied in New York City (NYC) at the zip code level. Locations with low transportation diversity (fewer modes and/or unequal distribution) were identified, and most of these zip codes are located in hurricane evacuation zones. Consequently, these zip codes with the least diverse transportation systems are the most vulnerable, which can cause serious issues during emergency evacuations and the ability of people to access work or essential services. Therefore, in a city hit by a natural disaster, understanding the relationship between people's mobility and a transportation system's diversity is important. Twitter data was used to find the places that people in NYC visited regularly for one month before and one month after Hurricane Sandy. Subsequently, using different methods, the pre- and post-disaster mobility patterns of these individuals were characterized. The results show that after the disaster, individuals had a higher chance of maintaining their pre-disaster mobility patterns if they were living in and/or visiting areas with high transportation diversity. Based on these findings, we confirmed the influence of transportation diversity on post-disaster mobility. In addition, the transportation infrastructure should provide equitable service to all individuals, during normal operations and extreme events. One of the ways to determine this equality is equity of access to transportation modes. Hence, transportation diversity was used as an indicator for equity of access to transportation modes to overcome the limitations of current methods like catchment area approaches. NYC zip codes were grouped based on their transportation diversity and a set of important socioeconomic and transport related factors were compared among these groups. The comparison of socioeconomic and transport related factors in zip codes showed that the zip codes with lower transportation diversity are also more socioeconomically deprived. This highlights the likely influence of transportation diversity on social exclusion. Further consideration of the impacts of Hurricanes Irene and Sandy in NYC shows that people in areas with a lower transportation diversity were affected more and the transport inequity in these areas made it difficult to cope with these disasters and caused post-disaster social exclusion. Therefore, enhancing transportation diversity should support transport equity and reduce social exclusion under normal situations and during extreme events. The investigations conducted highlight the importance of the provision and distribution of all transportation modes, their influence on mobility during normal situations and extreme events and their contribution toward mitigating social exclusion. Finally, the collective results suggest that transportation diversity can contribute to more targeted and equitable transportation and community resilience planning, which should help decision-makers allocate scarce resources more effectively.

Cash assistance has emerged as a vital tool for supporting household recovery in Nepal after multiple disasters, including the 2015 earthquake, 2018 drought, and COVID-19 pandemic. This research engages with organizational learning theory to explore how cash programs evolved overtime and identify the challenges and opportunities encountered in program implementation. Using semi-structured interviews, I recorded the experiences of individuals from NGOs, INGOs, and donor agencies involved in managing these programs in Nepal. While initial skepticism from the government, limited resources, and beneficiaries' lack of access to financial institutions presented obstacles, cash programs empowered individuals to meet their needs and revitalized local economies. The research identifies that technological integration, use of market analysis, and collaboration with financial institutions as evidence of learning from past programs to inform new programs; however, government resistance remained a barrier. Interview participants emphasized the importance of collaboration, innovation, and adaptation to improve future cash programs and, build a more resilient Nepal that is better prepared for future disasters.

Depending on their nature and severity, disasters can create large volumes of debris and waste. Waste volumes from a single event can be the equivalent of many times the annual waste generation rate of the affected community. These volumes can overwhelm existing solid waste management facilities and personnel. Mismanagement of disaster waste can affect both the response and long term recovery of a disaster affected area. Previous research into disaster waste management has been either context specific or event specific, making it difficult to transfer lessons from one disaster event to another. The aim of this research is to develop a systems understanding of disaster waste management and in turn develop context- and disaster-transferrable decision-making guidance for emergency and waste managers. To research this complex and multi-disciplinary problem, a multi-hazard, multi-context, multi-case study approach was adopted. The research focussed on five major disaster events: 2011 Christchurch earthquake, 2009 Victorian Bushfires, 2009 Samoan tsunami, 2009 L’Aquila earthquake and 2005 Hurricane Katrina. The first stage of the analysis involved the development of a set of ‘disaster & disaster waste’ impact indicators. The indicators demonstrate a method by which disaster managers, planners and researchers can simplify the very large spectra of possible disaster impacts, into some key decision-drivers which will likely influence post-disaster management requirements. The second stage of the research was to develop a set of criteria to represent the desirable environmental, economic, social and recovery effects of a successful disaster waste management system. These criteria were used to assess the effectiveness of the disaster waste management approaches for the case studies. The third stage of the research was the cross-case analysis. Six main elements of disaster waste management systems were identified and analysed. These were: strategic management, funding mechanisms, operational management, environmental and human health risk management, and legislation and regulation. Within each of these system elements, key decision-making guidance (linked to the ‘disaster & disaster waste’ indicators) and management principles were developed. The ‘disaster & disaster waste’ impact indicators, the effects assessment criteria and management principles have all been developed so that they can be practically applied to disaster waste management planning and response in the future.

Building Opportunity centers on disaster response and recovery after a 7.5-magnitude earthquake destroyed the city of Antigua Guatemala, the capital of colonial Guatemala, on July 29, 1773. It also concentrates on the colonial government’s decision to relocate Antigua Guatemala and establish a new capital, New Guatemala. This dissertation examines how the cultural, economic, political, and social views of inhabitants -- bureaucrats, clerics, Indians, architects, and the poor -- shaped their reactions to the tremor. Furthermore, it contends that the migration from Antigua Guatemala to New Guatemala created socioeconomic opportunities through which individuals made strong efforts to rebuild their lives. Debates on natural catastrophe in colonial Latin America have emphasized the ability of calamity to ignite power struggles over competing ideas about emergency management. However, in addition to an analysis of such disputes, this dissertation advances new understandings of the ways in which the earthquake gave victims chances to reshape their world. How did individuals' beliefs influence their attitudes toward the cataclysm? How did the effort to create a new city forge openings for survivors to refashion their identities? This study shows that individual groups' notions of fear, hazard mitigation, history, and socioeconomics defined arguments about whether or not to move. It also demonstrates that the tragedy produced spaces in which officials, ecclesiastics, indigenous peoples, and the impoverished worked to improve their lives. In various ways, administrators and victims turned adversity into an opportunity to become disaster managers and survivors, respectively. / text

Text in Afrikaans / In hierdie studie is die noodsaaklike bestuursrol van die rampverpleegster tydens rampoptrede en direk daarna verken, nagevors en beskryf. Haar bevoegdheid om die verskillende rampbestuurstake effektief te kan verrig voor, tydens en na rampe wat buite 'n hospitaal plaasvind, is oak nagegaan. Bestuurstake is geidentifiseer waarmee verpleegsters tydens rampsituasies buite hospitale vertroud behoort te wees. Die navorsingsprojek het deur middel van vraelyste biografiese data ingesamel met betrekking tot die persone wat as rampverpleegsters by Burgerlike Beskerming in Pretoria geregistreer is, met die doel om 'n kursus aan te beveel wat pertinent op hul behoeftes gerig is. Die rampverpleegster se behoefte aan toepaslike verdere opleiding, inoefening of leiding betreffende die ge1dentifiseerde bestuurstake, is bepaal. Dit het geblyk dat opleiding in die meeste take nodig is, en 'n kursus in rampbestuur vir verpleegkundiges is ontwerp / In this study the essential management role of the disaster nurse during disaster action was outlined, researched and described. Her competency to effectively execute disaster relief tasks before, during and after a disaster occurring outside a hospital, was studied. Management tasks were identified which nurses should have mastered regarding disaster situations occurring outside hospital boundaries. Research data were gathered by means of a questiorinaire on the biographic detail of disaster nurses registered with · Civil Defence in Pretoria, in order to recommend a course specifically aimed at fulfilling their requirements. The research project identified requirements of the disaster nurse for appropriate further training, practise and guidance regarding the identified-management tasks. It became evident that training is required in most of the tasks, and a training course for nurses in disaster management was designed / Health Studies / M.A. (Verpleegkunde)

The aim of this thesis is to explore how livelihoods are recovering in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka through the lens of the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework and the social networks approach—methods of inquiry that have gained considerable impetus in livelihoods research. The study is conducted with reference to two tsunami-affected fisher villages in the Hambantota District, Southern Province. It employs a qualitative ethnographic methodology that examines narratives emerging from households, local officials of government and non-government organizations, office bearers of community-based organizations, local politicians, village leaders, and key informants. Focus is on evaluating how particular roles, activities, and behaviour are given importance by these groups in specific post-tsunami contexts and how these aspects relate to broader conceptualizations of social networks, informal politics, social inequality, and ethnographic research in South Asia. The findings support four major contributions to the literature. First, social networks are significant as an object of study and a method of inquiry in understanding livelihoods post-disaster. Second, paying heed to varied forms of informal politics is critical in post-disaster analyses. Third, the concept of intersectionality can extend and improve upon prevailing approaches to social inequality in disaster recovery. Fourth, ethnographic research is valuable for understanding everyday networks, informal politics, and change in South Asia. Collectively, these findings present a human geography of post-tsunami livelihoods in Sri Lanka, where networks, politics, and inequalities, which form an essential part of everyday livelihoods, have been reproduced in disaster recovery. The thesis constitutes a means of offering expertise in the sphere of development practice, highlighting internal differentiation in access to aid as a key issue that needs to be identified and systematically addressed by policymakers and practitioners.

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the experiences of St. Bernard Parish, La., residents as they coped with the impact of the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005. An estimated 50,000 St. Bernard Parish residents relocated to a new home one year after Katina in 2006, and many of those residents moved again. This study examines the effects of the decisions of St. Bernard residents to relocate or to return on their social connections. The utility, adaptability and durability of social networks of these residents will be explored to enrich our knowledge about the social effects of recovery and the role that distance plays in the way residents connect to each other six years after Hurricane Katrina. It also examines the applicability of disaster theory as it relates to this case and develops a methodology for examining the impact of geographic dispersal on social networks.