HUNTSVILLE — Improving overall hurricane and severe weather resilience of coastal communities is the goal of a researcher at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. For his project, Dr. Abdullahi Salman was awarded a five-year, $505,000 National Science Foundation grant.
“The emphasis of the research within the five years is on the impact of coastal hazards, particularly hurricanes, on electric power systems, water networks and road networks,” said said Salman, an assistant professor of civil engineering at UAH. “These infrastructure systems are interdependent, so the functionality of one system is affected by the functionality of the others, and failure in one system can affect the performance of the others.
“For example, water-treatment plants, pumping stations and storage tanks require electricity to function. So, it is crucial to consider the interdependency and cascading failures in modeling system performance and resilience.”
As part of the project, a new method for modeling the interdependency between the infrastructure systems will be developed.
“The project goes beyond modeling civil infrastructure as a system to consider the interactions between humans and infrastructure, and how decisions made by communities can alter their vulnerability to natural hazards,” he said.
Better responses to storm preparedness and resilience are a $1.775 trillion need – the total cost of damages from weather and climate disasters in the United States from 1980 to 2019.
“These losses have been increasing over the years, partly due to increasing urbanization and population growth, especially in coastal areas, which has led to increased exposure and vulnerability of infrastructure and communities,” said Salman. “There is a need for models and metrics to assess and improve the resilience of our infrastructure.”
The research will begin with an examination of how socioeconomic factors such as income, age and health status influence outcomes after damage to infrastructure systems following severe weather events.
“Resilience here is defined as the ability of infrastructure systems to withstand and recover rapidly from disruptions,” Salman said. “Current infrastructure resilience models focus on the physical damage to infrastructure and the resulting impact on system performance. However, the impact of damage to civil infrastructure varies for different populations within communities.”
The goal is to develop a multi-objective resilience-driven optimization model for infrastructure post-disaster recovery planning.
As part of the project, courses on infrastructure and community resilience will be offered to college students through the University of Alabama System’s Intercampus Interactive Telepresence System.
Also, a computer-based exhibit on the risk posed by hurricanes will be developed for coastal communities and K-12 students. It will emphasize the need for action to improve the resilience of coastal infrastructure and communities.
“The aim is to motivate the public to support risk mitigation and resilience improvement policies and educate and entice K-12 students to pursue careers in civil engineering,” Salman said.
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