Improving the resilience of social infrastructure systems to an extreme event

Abstract

This thesis presents research conducted in the recovery of social infrastructure systems following an extreme event. A social infrastructure is a system that is primarily operated by people and which uses physical components only for support. Examples of social infrastructure systems include healthcare, emergency response, education, fuel distribution, etc. Individuals and organizations rely on the critical services that these social systems provide both during normal and disaster conditions. One important consideration in these social infrastructure systems are the relationships or interdependencies that exist among these systems as well as with and among the civil infrastructure systems such as power and communications.