Assessing Community Resilience Through Integrating and Modeling Human Geography

Abstract: This EArly-Concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) project will design an analytic model for assessing a community's resilience and analyzing the multi-dimensional effects of a crisis or disaster on the population. The research will provide new insights into network theory and how network characteristics affect transmission of hazard and risk warnings within communities. The outcomes of this effort will provide alternate approaches to planning and response, and develop the foundation for analyzing dynamic changes in social network structure that occur as crises unfold. Project findings will provide first responders, local, and state governments with the capacity to visualize and mobilize their communities and human capital in innovative and effective ways. The project also offers the potential to enhance public and private sector collaboration for disaster planning, build trusted communications networks, and improve coordination of resources across the private sector. The mobilization of human capital is the most challenging facet of any response to a disaster. This research adopts a novel approach for analyzing civil emergencies by addressing the core question of the cost - broadly defined in terms of the negative social, economic and psychological impacts - of a single civil disaster event on a community. The research will employ a mixed-methods, multi-disciplinary approach to conduct a full spectrum of impact analyses on the economic, social, psychological, and security costs of a civil disaster. The impact analyses will be followed by an assessment of the response, resiliency, and adaptability of the community through the integration of the human capital database. Findings from this research could potentially transform analytical approaches in evaluating the response and economic cost analyses of disasters.