Research Statement

The performance of civil infrastructure systems supports community resilience but has been primarily controlled by probability-based limit states design over the last several decades. Advancements in multi-disciplinary and multi-dimensional community resilience modeling can help accelerate the development of building codes and standards to meet the requirements of community-wide resilience goals of the broader built environment at a higher level, consistent with performance objectives of individual buildings throughout their service lives. My research endeavors over the past few years have focused on resilience studies of communities impacted by tornadoes. The work will be able to provide community decision-making support for stakeholders and planners, further contributing over the decades of research in this recently emerged area. 

Research Thrust 1: Multi-Disciplinary Community Resilience Assessment

Over the last several decades, many researchers have focused on physical infrastructure systems and their networks to assess community resilience. Studies addressing the integration of physical infrastructure and socioeconomic systems throughout a community are limited but critically needed. I have so far collaborated with economists and social scientists to integrate physical engineering models with socioeconomic models, and to calculate community stability metrics immediately following hazard events such as the loss of domestic supply, employment, and household income from the perspective of economic stability and household dislocation and K12 children educational continuity from the perspective of population stability.

Research Thrust 2: Mitigation Strategies and Policy Changes

Retrofit strategies/improved design of buildings can mitigate the effect of hazard events damaging physical infrastructure (buildings and lifeline systems) and the effects on the population and the local economy for a real community and enhance community resilience. Thus far, extensive retrofit strategies and improved designs of wood-frame residential buildings and unreinforced masonry school buildings for tornadoes was proposed and applied in community resilience studies. In addition, the disaster recovery of residential and commercial buildings impacted by pre- and post-event policies can be quantified, such as relaxing residential building permits, providing financing support, etc.

Research Thrust 3: Community Resilience Model Validation and Improvement

Community resilience studies are increasingly prevalent for decision-making, mainly through simulation models. In order to provide accurate and effective decision support to government leaders and stakeholders, various community resilience models need to be validated consistent with the intended applications. The involvement of the 2-year Longitudinal Quad-state Tornado Field Study (still ongoing) starting in December 2021 provides with abundant field study experience for data collection, which can be further used for the validation and improvement of the proposed community resilience models. 

Acknowledgment