Unraveling the complexity of human behavior and urbanization on community vulnerability to floods.

Floods are among the costliest natural hazards and their consequences are expected to increase further in the future due to urbanization in flood-prone areas. It is essential that policymakers understand the factors governing the dynamics of urbanization to adopt proper disaster risk reduction techniques. Peoples' relocation preferences and their perception of flood risk (collectively called human behavior) are among the most important factors that influence urbanization in flood-prone areas.

Impact of multiple waves of COVID-19 on healthcare networks in the United States.

The risk of overwhelming hospitals from multiple waves of COVID-19 is yet to be quantified. Here, we investigate the impact of different scenarios of releasing strong measures implemented around the U.S.

Orchestrating performance of healthcare networks subjected to the compound events of natural disasters and pandemic.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the vulnerability of healthcare systems worldwide. When combined with natural disasters, pandemics can further strain an already exhausted healthcare system. To date, frameworks for quantifying the collective effect of the two events on hospitals are nonexistent.

Interpreting the socio-technical interactions within a wind damage-artificial neural network model for community resilience.

The use of machine learning has grown in popularity in various disciplines. Despite the popularity, the apparent 'black box' nature of such tools continues to be an area of concern. In this article, we attempt to unravel the complexity of this black box by exploring the use of artificial neural networks (ANNs), coupled with graph theory, to model and interpret the spatial distribution of building damage from extreme wind events at a community level.

Resilience of School Systems Following Severe Earthquakes.

Natural disasters may have catastrophic and long-lasting impacts on communities' physical, economic, and social infrastructure. Slow recovery of educational services following such events is likely to cause traumatic stress in children, lead families to out-migrate, and affect the community's overall social stability. Methods for quantifying and assessing the restoration process of educational systems and their dependencies on other supporting infrastructure have not received adequate attention.

The Role of Urban Growth in Resilience of Communities Under Flood Risk.

Flood risk to urban communities is increasing significantly as a result of the integrated effects of climate change and socioeconomic development. The latter effect is one of the main drivers of rising flood risk has received less attention in comparison to climate change. Economic development and population growth are major causes of urban expansion in flood-prone areas, and a comprehensive understanding of the impact of urban growth on flood risk is an essential ingredient of effective flood risk management.