Recovery Resiliency Characteristics of Interdependent Critical Infrastructures in Disaster-Prone Areas
When Hurricane Maria struck the island of Puerto Rico in September, 2017, it devastated the island’s critical infrastructures, including the well-documented total loss of electric power systems. The strong interdependencies or associations among critical infrastructures in modern society meant that...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2024-11-01
|
| Series: | Infrastructures |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2412-3811/9/11/208 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1850266968414748672 |
|---|---|
| author | Partha Sarker Bhushan Lohar Sean Walker Stephanie Patch John T. Wade |
| author_facet | Partha Sarker Bhushan Lohar Sean Walker Stephanie Patch John T. Wade |
| author_sort | Partha Sarker |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | When Hurricane Maria struck the island of Puerto Rico in September, 2017, it devastated the island’s critical infrastructures, including the well-documented total loss of electric power systems. The strong interdependencies or associations among critical infrastructures in modern society meant that the failure of power systems propagated to and exacerbated the failure of other infrastructure systems. Moreover, these associations impact systems recovery just as they impact system failure. This study is a follow-up of previous research by the first author on Hurricane Maria. In this research authors extracted and quantified the recovery associations of Hurricane Fiona (September 2022) made landfall in Puerto Rico and inflicted considerable damage to its critical infrastructures. The recovery efforts following the disaster provided an opportunity to follow up on the previous research and examine the recovery associations. Significant money and efforts have gone into upgrading the infrastructures of Puerto Rico to make them more resilient to natural disasters such as hurricanes or tropical storms following Hurricane Maria. This paper explores the new recovery resiliency characteristics of Puerto Rico’s critical infrastructure systems (CISs) that the recovery efforts following Hurricane Fiona illustrate. This research shows that the power systems and other CISs of Puerto Rico are much more resilient when compared to their state of resiliency in 2017. Moreover, examining the recovery interdependencies reveals that some of the CISs are strongly dependent on power systems recovery. Outcomes of this study suggest that CIS relationships based on recovery data from Puerto Rico, are transferable to similar disaster-prone areas such as the Caribbean islands or other island nations, as they have similar characteristics and challenges. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-a6747e6b2b7e4ff6aa12bb7a84fe335a |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2412-3811 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Infrastructures |
| spelling | doaj-art-a6747e6b2b7e4ff6aa12bb7a84fe335a2025-08-20T01:54:01ZengMDPI AGInfrastructures2412-38112024-11-0191120810.3390/infrastructures9110208Recovery Resiliency Characteristics of Interdependent Critical Infrastructures in Disaster-Prone AreasPartha Sarker0Bhushan Lohar1Sean Walker2Stephanie Patch3John T. Wade4Department of Systems Engineering, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL 36688, USADepartment of Systems Engineering, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL 36688, USADepartment of Systems Engineering, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL 36688, USADepartment of Civil, Coastal, and Environmental Engineering, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL 36688, USAGulf States Engineering, Inc., Gulfport, MS 39501, USAWhen Hurricane Maria struck the island of Puerto Rico in September, 2017, it devastated the island’s critical infrastructures, including the well-documented total loss of electric power systems. The strong interdependencies or associations among critical infrastructures in modern society meant that the failure of power systems propagated to and exacerbated the failure of other infrastructure systems. Moreover, these associations impact systems recovery just as they impact system failure. This study is a follow-up of previous research by the first author on Hurricane Maria. In this research authors extracted and quantified the recovery associations of Hurricane Fiona (September 2022) made landfall in Puerto Rico and inflicted considerable damage to its critical infrastructures. The recovery efforts following the disaster provided an opportunity to follow up on the previous research and examine the recovery associations. Significant money and efforts have gone into upgrading the infrastructures of Puerto Rico to make them more resilient to natural disasters such as hurricanes or tropical storms following Hurricane Maria. This paper explores the new recovery resiliency characteristics of Puerto Rico’s critical infrastructure systems (CISs) that the recovery efforts following Hurricane Fiona illustrate. This research shows that the power systems and other CISs of Puerto Rico are much more resilient when compared to their state of resiliency in 2017. Moreover, examining the recovery interdependencies reveals that some of the CISs are strongly dependent on power systems recovery. Outcomes of this study suggest that CIS relationships based on recovery data from Puerto Rico, are transferable to similar disaster-prone areas such as the Caribbean islands or other island nations, as they have similar characteristics and challenges.https://www.mdpi.com/2412-3811/9/11/208critical infrastructure systemspower systemscritical infrastructure interdependenciespost-disaster recoveryHurricane FionaHurricane Maria |
| spellingShingle | Partha Sarker Bhushan Lohar Sean Walker Stephanie Patch John T. Wade Recovery Resiliency Characteristics of Interdependent Critical Infrastructures in Disaster-Prone Areas Infrastructures critical infrastructure systems power systems critical infrastructure interdependencies post-disaster recovery Hurricane Fiona Hurricane Maria |
| title | Recovery Resiliency Characteristics of Interdependent Critical Infrastructures in Disaster-Prone Areas |
| title_full | Recovery Resiliency Characteristics of Interdependent Critical Infrastructures in Disaster-Prone Areas |
| title_fullStr | Recovery Resiliency Characteristics of Interdependent Critical Infrastructures in Disaster-Prone Areas |
| title_full_unstemmed | Recovery Resiliency Characteristics of Interdependent Critical Infrastructures in Disaster-Prone Areas |
| title_short | Recovery Resiliency Characteristics of Interdependent Critical Infrastructures in Disaster-Prone Areas |
| title_sort | recovery resiliency characteristics of interdependent critical infrastructures in disaster prone areas |
| topic | critical infrastructure systems power systems critical infrastructure interdependencies post-disaster recovery Hurricane Fiona Hurricane Maria |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2412-3811/9/11/208 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT parthasarker recoveryresiliencycharacteristicsofinterdependentcriticalinfrastructuresindisasterproneareas AT bhushanlohar recoveryresiliencycharacteristicsofinterdependentcriticalinfrastructuresindisasterproneareas AT seanwalker recoveryresiliencycharacteristicsofinterdependentcriticalinfrastructuresindisasterproneareas AT stephaniepatch recoveryresiliencycharacteristicsofinterdependentcriticalinfrastructuresindisasterproneareas AT johntwade recoveryresiliencycharacteristicsofinterdependentcriticalinfrastructuresindisasterproneareas |