Social Resilience and Critical Infrastructure Systems
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Linkov I
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7122633 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Both human and insect societies depend on complex and highly coordinated infrastructure systems, such as communication networks, supply chains and transportation networks. Like human-designed infrastructure systems, those of social insects are regularly subject to disruptions such as natural disasters, blockages or breaks in the transportation network, fluctuations in supply and/or demand, outbreaks of disease and loss of individuals. Unlike human-designed systems, there is no deliberate planning or centralized control system; rather, individual insects make simple decisions based on local information. How do these highly decentralized, leaderless systems deal with disruption? What factors make a social insect system resilient, and which factors lead to its collapse? In this review, we bring together literature on resilience in three key social insect infrastructure systems: transportation networks, supply chains and communication networks. We describe how systems differentially invest in three pathways to resilience: resistance, redirection or reconstruction. We suggest that investment in particular resistance pathways is related to the severity and frequency of disturbance. In the final section, we lay out a prospectus for future research. Human infrastructure networks are rapidly becoming decentralized and interconnected; indeed, more like social insect infrastructures. Human infrastructure management might therefore learn from social insect researchers, who can in turn make use of the mature analytical and simulation tools developed for the study of human infrastructure resilience.
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Project description:Water and wastewater network, electric power network, transportation network, communication network, and information technology network are among the critical infrastructure in our communities; their disruption during and after hazard events greatly affects communities' well-being, economic security, social welfare, and public health. In addition, a disruption in one network may cause disruption to other networks and lead to their reduced functionality. This paper presents a unified theoretical methodology for the modeling of dependent/interdependent infrastructure networks and incorporates it in a six-step probabilistic procedure to assess their resilience. Both the methodology and the procedure are general, can be applied to any infrastructure network and hazard, and can model different types of dependencies between networks. As an illustration, the paper models the direct effects of seismic events on the functionality of a potable water distribution network and the cascading effects of the damage of the electric power network (EPN) on the potable water distribution network (WN). The results quantify the loss of functionality and delay in the recovery process due to dependency of the WN on the EPN. The results show the importance of capturing the dependency between networks in modeling the resilience of critical infrastructure.
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Project description:Studies of small-scale, self-organized social-ecological systems have contributed to our understanding of successful governance of shared resources. However, the lack of formal analytically tractable models of such coupled infrastructure systems makes it difficult to connect this understanding to such concepts as stability, robustness, and resilience, which are increasingly important in considering such systems. In this paper, we mathematically operationalize a widely used conceptual framework via a stylized dynamical model. The model yields a wide range of system outcomes: sustainability or collapse, infrastructure at full or partial capacity, and social agents seeking outside opportunities or exclusively engaging in the system. The low dimensionality of the model enables us to derive these conditions in clear relationships of biophysical and social factors describing the coupled system. Analysis of the model further reveals regime shifts, trade-offs, and potential pitfalls that one may face in governing these self-organized systems. The intuition and insights derived from the model lay ground for more rigorous treatment of robustness and resilience of self-organized coupled infrastructure systems, which can lead to more effective governance.
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Project description:The objective of this paper is to empirically examine the impacts of infrastructure service disruptions on the well-being of vulnerable populations during disasters. There are limited studies that empirically evaluate the extent to which disruptions in infrastructure system services impact subpopulation groups differently and how these impacts relate to the wellbeing of households. Being able to systematically capture the differential experiences of sub-populations in a community due to infrastructure disruptions is necessary to highlight the differential needs and inequities that households have. In order to address this knowledge gap, this study derives an empirical relationship between sociodemographic factors of households and their subjective well-being impacts due to disruptions in various infrastructure services during and immediately after Hurricane Harvey. Statistical analysis driven by spearman-rank order correlations and fisher-z tests indicated significant disparities in well-being due to service disruptions among vulnerable population groups. The characterization of subjective well-being is used to explain to what extent infrastructure service disruptions influence different subpopulations. The results show that: (1) disruptions in transportation, solid waste, food, and water infrastructure services resulted in more significant well-being impact disparities as compared to electricity and communication services; (2) households identifying as Black and African American experienced well-being impact due to disruptions in food, transportation, and solid waste services; and (3) households were more likely to feel helpless, difficulty doing daily tasks and feeling distance from their community as a result of service disruptions. The findings present novel insights into understanding the role of infrastructure resilience in household well-being and highlights why it is so important to use approaches that consider various factors. Infrastructure resilience models tend to be monolithic. The results provide empirical and quantitative evidence of the inequalities in well-being impacts across various sub-populations. The research approach and findings enable a paradigm shift towards a more human-centric approach to infrastructure resilience.
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Project description:Resilient planning demands not only resilient actions, but also resilient implementation, which promotes adaptive capacity for the attainment of the planned objectives. This requires, in the case of multi-level infrastructure systems, the simultaneous pursuit of bottom-up infrastructure planning for the promotion of adaptive capacity, and of top-down approaches for the achievement of global objectives and the reduction of structural vulnerabilities and imbalances. Though several authors have pointed out the need to balance bottom-up flexibility with top-down hierarchical control for better plan implementation, very few methods have yet been developed with this aim, least of all with a multi-objective perspective. This work addressed this lack by including, for the first time, the mitigation of urban vulnerability, the improvement of road network condition, and the minimization of the economic cost as objectives in a resilient planning process in which both actions and their implementation are planned for a controlled, sustainable development. Building on Urban planning support system (UPSS), a previously developed planning tool, the improved planning support system affords a planning alternative over the Spanish road network, with the best multi-objective balance between optimization, risk, and opportunity. The planning process then formalizes local adaptive capacity as the capacity to vary the selected planning alternative within certain limits, and global risk control as the duties that should be achieved in exchange. Finally, by means of multi-objective optimization, the method reveals the multi-objective trade-offs between local opportunity, global risk, and rights and duties at local scale, thus providing deeper understanding for better informed decision-making.
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Project description:Life in the modern world depends on multiple critical services provided by infrastructure systems which are interdependent at multiple levels. To effectively respond to infrastructure failures, this paper proposes a model for developing optimal joint restoration strategy for interdependent infrastructure systems following a disruptive event. First, models for (i) describing structure of interdependent infrastructure system and (ii) their interaction process, are presented. Both models are considering the failure types, infrastructure operating rules and interdependencies among systems. Second, an optimization model for determining an optimal joint restoration strategy at infrastructure component level by minimizing the economic loss from the infrastructure failures, is proposed. The utility of the model is illustrated using a case study of electric-water systems. Results show that a small number of failed infrastructure components can trigger high level failures in interdependent systems; the optimal joint restoration strategy varies with failure occurrence time. The proposed models can help decision makers to understand the mechanisms of infrastructure interactions and search for optimal joint restoration strategy, which can significantly enhance safety of infrastructure systems.
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Project description:Climate change and increasing natural disasters coupled with years of deferred maintenance have added pressure to infrastructure in urban areas. Thus, monitoring for failure of these systems is crucial to prevent future impacts to life and property. Participatory assessment technique for infrastructure provides a community-based approach to assess the capacity and physical condition of infrastructure. Furthermore, a participatory assessment technique for infrastructure can encourage grassroots activism that engages residents, researchers, and planners in the identification of sustainable development concerns and solutions. As climate change impacts disproportionately affect historically disenfranchised communities, assessment data can further inform planning, aiming to balance the distribution of public resources towards sustainability and justice. This paper explains the development of the participatory assessment technique for infrastructure that can provide empirical data about the condition of infrastructure at the neighborhood-level, using stormwater systems in a vulnerable neighborhood in Houston, Texas as a case study. This paper argues for the opportunity of participatory methods to address needs in infrastructure assessment and describes the ongoing project testing the best use of these methods.
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Project description:BackgroundSocial prescribing (SP) allows health professionals to refer primary care patients toward health and wellbeing interventions and activities in the local community. Now widely implemented across the UK and adopted in other nations, questions arise concerning the modelling of present and future schemes, including challenges to full engagement encountered by stakeholders, which lie beyond the scope of traditional evaluations. Critical Systems Thinking (CST) allows for holistic analysis of fields where multiple stakeholders hold diverse interests and unequal power.MethodsWe use CST to (a) critically examine a developing rural social prescribing scheme from multiple stakeholder perspectives and (b) present a relational model for local social prescribing schemes. Our fieldwork included 24 in-depth interviews, regular planning meetings with key stakeholders, and discussions with those involved with national and international SP landscaping. A modified grounded theory approach was used for the analysis, and to consider the core elements of social prescribing sustainability.ResultsOur study confirms that local social prescribing schemes must operate with numerous stakeholder interests in mind, seeking to address real life social complexity and offer integrated solutions to multifaceted issues. Three main areas are discussed: holistic vision and boundary judgments; barriers and facilitators; relational issues and "emotional buy in". Problems for staff include selecting suitable clients, feedback and technological issues and funding and evaluation pressures. Barriers for clients include health, transport and expense issues, also lack of prior information and GP involvement. Emotional "buy-in" emerged as essential for all stakeholders, but hard to sustain. Based on our findings we propose a positive relational model comprising shared vision, confidence and commitment; motivation and encouragement, support and wellbeing focus, collaborative relationships, communication and feedback, access to information /resources, learning in and from action, with emotional "buy-in" at its heart.ConclusionThose implementing social prescribing in different localities inevitably face hard choices about what and whom to include. Research on the sustainability of social prescribing remains limited, studies are required to ascertain which "holistic" models of social prescribing work best for which communities, who are the main beneficiaries of these approaches and how "buy-in" is best sustained.
| S-EPMC7312116 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThis study examines research knowledge infrastructures (RKIs) found in health systems. An RKI is defined as any instrument (i.e., programs, interventions, tools) implemented in order to facilitate access, dissemination, exchange, and/or use of evidence in healthcare organisations. Based on an environmental scan (17 key informant interviews) and scoping review (26 studies), we found support for a framework that we developed that outlines components that a health system can have in its RKI. The broad domains are climate for research use, research production, activities used to link research to action, and evaluation.The objective of the current study is to profile the RKI of three types of health system organisations--regional health authorities, primary care practices, and hospitals--in two Canadian provinces to determine the current mix of components these organisations have in their RKI, their experience with these components, and their views about future RKI initiatives.MethodsThis study will include semistructured telephone interviews with a purposive sample region of a senior management team member, library/resource centre manager, and a 'knowledge broker' in three regional health authorities, five or six purposively sampled hospitals, and five or six primary care practices in Ontario and Quebec, for a maximum of 71 interviewees. The interviews will explore (a) which RKI components have proven helpful, (b) barriers and facilitators in implementing RKI components, and (c) views about next steps in further development of RKIs.DiscussionThis is the first qualitative examination of potential RKI efforts that can increase the use of research evidence in health system decision making. We anticipate being able to identify broadly applicable insights about important next steps in building effective RKIs. Some of the identified RKI components may increase the use of research evidence by decision makers, which may then lead to more informed decisions.
| S-EPMC3123231 | biostudies-literature