ENHANCING POST DISASTER RECOVERY BY OPTIMAL INFRASTRUCTURE CAPACITY BUILDING

Abhijeet Deshmukh, Makarand Hastak

Abstract: When the services of infrastructure systems necessary for the operation of other infrastructure are compromised due disaster impacts, the recovery is hampered. For example, the delivery of basic aid and relief in Haiti and Philippines was hampered as vital infrastructure such as transportation network, communications, electricity, water supply and sanitation failed to provide required services. Additionally, a gap is created between the demands arising in post disaster recovery and the services available. As a result, the response and recovery activities are not able to meet the community demands that delay the overall recovery. Strategic capacity building of infrastructure is needed that will allow decision makers to fill the gap created in a timely manner. This research will enable the decision makers to take into account the availability of auxiliary capacities that will be able to complement the reduced services of supporting infrastructure. This paper presents an optimization model to assure the delivery of desired services in post disaster recovery through optimal infrastructure capacity building. The model uses genetic algorithm for optimal capacity selection. It has a single objective function that minimizes cost of using capacities to meet the demand on a daily basis.

Keywords: resilience, capacity building, infrastructure serviceability, hospitals, water supply

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2014.0328002