Special Issue "Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilient Built Environment"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Hazards and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2021.

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Mohammad Mojtahedi
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Built Environment, The University of New South Wale, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia
Interests: disaster risk reduction; resilient built environment; evacuation planning; operation research

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Disaster risk has increased significantly over the past few decades due to global warming, growing populations in flood or bushfire prone areas, increasing urbanisation, and variable community preparedness for natural hazards. The frequency, scale and intensity of extreme weather events are increasing, and the built environment is especially vulnerable. Disaster risk management authorities, particularly local governments, have tended to focus on disaster recovery rather than mitigation and risk reduction strategies for built infrastructure. There has been limited research into operational disaster risk management for the built environment, particularly in disaster preparedness, response, and building back better in recovery.

This Special Issue would explore cross-disciplinary approaches, methodologies, and applications of disaster risk reduction systems, tools, procedures, and models that can be incorporated into a resilient built environment. This Special Issue invites researchers in urban planning, civil engineering, construction management, sustainable development, public policy, and other disciplines and cross-disciplinary fields. Relevant topics include but are not limited to the following areas:

  • Disaster resilient built environment;
  • Disaster risk reduction knowledge-based systems;
  • Disaster risk reduction, sustainability and circular economy;
  • Technology and disaster risk reduction in the built environment;
  • Mathematical and simulation tools for reducing disaster risks;
  • Disaster resilience assessment tools for the built environment;
  • Mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery;
  • Sendai Framework for disaster risk reduction in the built environment;
  • Resilience and sustainability—design, procurement, construction and post-disaster reconstruction

Dr. Mohammad Mojtahedi
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • disaster risk reduction tools
  • resilience and sustainability
  • resilient built environment

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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Article
Built Infrastructure Conditions Mediate the Relationship between Stakeholders Attributes and Flood Damage: An Empirical Case Study
Sustainability 2021, 13(17), 9739; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13179739 (registering DOI) - 30 Aug 2021
Viewed by 167
Abstract
Most of the previous research has tended to focus on the impact of flood characteristics on built infrastructure damage rather than to investigate the condition of the infrastructure and stakeholders’ capacity to manage flood risks. The role of stakeholder attributes, such as the [...] Read more.
Most of the previous research has tended to focus on the impact of flood characteristics on built infrastructure damage rather than to investigate the condition of the infrastructure and stakeholders’ capacity to manage flood risks. The role of stakeholder attributes, such as the power, legitimacy, and urgency of local governments, in reducing the impact of disasters on built infrastructure remains ambiguous. Stakeholders’ organizational attributes, together with socio-economic and built infrastructure conditions, need to be considered to provide a better understanding of how to reduce disaster risk. The main aim of this research was to empirically investigate the mediating role of socio-economic and infrastructure conditions in the direct relationship between stakeholders’ attributes and economic damage to road infrastructure from flooding. Survey data collected from local governments in New South Wales, Australia and historical data for over 20 years from archive databases were analyzed using structural equation modeling with the partial least squares estimation approach. The results showed that socio-economic and infrastructure conditions have significant mediating effects on the direct relationship between stakeholders’ attributes and flood damage. Engaging stakeholders proactively empowers legitimate stakeholders in urgent conditions, and this is essential to reduce the economic impact of flood disasters and to better manage road infrastructure. Finally, to better manage flood risks, local governments need to improve their capacity of power, legitimacy, and urgency; state and federal governments need to improve the socio-economic conditions of the communities; and the transport infrastructure authorities need to develop long-term solutions for resilient roads and bridges. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilient Built Environment)
Article
UAVs in Disaster Management: Application of Integrated Aerial Imagery and Convolutional Neural Network for Flood Detection
Sustainability 2021, 13(14), 7547; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147547 - 06 Jul 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 509
Abstract
Floods have been a major cause of destruction, instigating fatalities and massive damage to the infrastructure and overall economy of the affected country. Flood-related devastation results in the loss of homes, buildings, and critical infrastructure, leaving no means of communication or travel for [...] Read more.
Floods have been a major cause of destruction, instigating fatalities and massive damage to the infrastructure and overall economy of the affected country. Flood-related devastation results in the loss of homes, buildings, and critical infrastructure, leaving no means of communication or travel for the people stuck in such disasters. Thus, it is essential to develop systems that can detect floods in a region to provide timely aid and relief to stranded people, save their livelihoods, homes, and buildings, and protect key city infrastructure. Flood prediction and warning systems have been implemented in developed countries, but the manufacturing cost of such systems is too high for developing countries. Remote sensing, satellite imagery, global positioning system, and geographical information systems are currently used for flood detection to assess the flood-related damages. These techniques use neural networks, machine learning, or deep learning methods. However, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) coupled with convolution neural networks have not been explored in these contexts to instigate a swift disaster management response to minimize damage to infrastructure. Accordingly, this paper uses UAV-based aerial imagery as a flood detection method based on Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to extract flood-related features from the images of the disaster zone. This method is effective in assessing the damage to local infrastructures in the disaster zones. The study area is based on a flood-prone region of the Indus River in Pakistan, where both pre-and post-disaster images are collected through UAVs. For the training phase, 2150 image patches are created by resizing and cropping the source images. These patches in the training dataset train the CNN model to detect and extract the regions where a flood-related change has occurred. The model is tested against both pre-and post-disaster images to validate it, which has positive flood detection results with an accuracy of 91%. Disaster management organizations can use this model to assess the damages to critical city infrastructure and other assets worldwide to instigate proper disaster responses and minimize the damages. This can help with the smart governance of the cities where all emergent disasters are addressed promptly. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilient Built Environment)
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Article
Developing Hospital Emergency and Disaster Management Index Using TOPSIS Method
Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 5213; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13095213 - 07 May 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 647
Abstract
Indonesia is a country prone to experiencing natural hazards and disasters, which have frequently damaged public infrastructure, including hospitals. The role of hospitals is crucial to alleviate the impact of disasters. However, there is still a lack of study that analyzes the factors [...] Read more.
Indonesia is a country prone to experiencing natural hazards and disasters, which have frequently damaged public infrastructure, including hospitals. The role of hospitals is crucial to alleviate the impact of disasters. However, there is still a lack of study that analyzes the factors that influence the readiness of hospitals in emergency situations. Filling in this gap, the aim of this paper is to analyze and rank hospitals across West Java and Yogyakarta, Indonesia by the resilience of their emergency management approaches. This research seeks to measure hospital resiliency during emergencies and disasters. Results indicate that the emergency and disaster management coordination, response and disaster recovery planning, communication and information management, logistics and evacuation, human resources, finance, patient care and support services, decontamination and security are key attributes for the decision-making matrix. Based on the Hospital Safety Index tool, this research proposes the Hospital Emergency and Disaster Management (HEDM) index by combining the key attributes and sub-attributes using the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) as a multi-attribute decision-making technique. The paper concludes that the anticipated benefits of analyzing the resilience of hospitals by using HEDM is the identification of the most susceptible hospitals based on their levels of readiness and resiliency in areas which are prone to experiencing disasters. This prioritization is important for resource allocation and budget planning. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilient Built Environment)
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Article
Spatiotemporal Variations and Risk Analysis of Chinese Typhoon Disasters
Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 2278; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042278 - 20 Feb 2021
Viewed by 543
Abstract
Typhoons are a product of air-sea interaction, which are often accompanied by high winds, heavy rains, and storm surges. It is significant to master the characteristics and pattern of typhoon activity for typhoon warning and disaster prevention and mitigation. We used the Kernel [...] Read more.
Typhoons are a product of air-sea interaction, which are often accompanied by high winds, heavy rains, and storm surges. It is significant to master the characteristics and pattern of typhoon activity for typhoon warning and disaster prevention and mitigation. We used the Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) index as the hazard index; the probability of exceeding, or reaching, return period or exceeding a certain threshold was used to describe the probability of hazard occurrence. The results show that the overall spatial distribution of typhoon hazards conforms to a northeast-southwest zonal distribution, decreasing from the southeast coast to the northwest. Across the six typical provinces of China assessed here, data show that Hainan possesses the highest hazard risk. Hazard index is relatively high, mainly distributed between 0.005 and 0.015, while the probability of exceeding a hazard index greater than 0.015 is 0.15. In light of the four risk levels assessed here, the hazard index that accounts for the largest component of the study area is mainly distributed up to 0.0010, all mild hazard levels. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Fujian, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu as well as six other provinces and autonomous regions are all areas with high hazard risks. The research results can provide important scientific evidence for the sustainable development of China’s coastal provinces and cities. The outcomes of this study may also provide the scientific basis for the future prevention and mitigation of marine disasters as well as the rationalization of related insurance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilient Built Environment)
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Article
Planning of Safety of Cities and Territory from the Point of View of Population Protection in the Czech Republic
Sustainability 2020, 12(22), 9487; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12229487 - 14 Nov 2020
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 552
Abstract
Ensuring territorial safety is one of the state’s main tasks, and the public administration plays a primary role in fulfilling it. The safety and sustainability of a territory is ensured by, inter alia, safety planning, including spatial planning. Spatial planning contains safety requirements [...] Read more.
Ensuring territorial safety is one of the state’s main tasks, and the public administration plays a primary role in fulfilling it. The safety and sustainability of a territory is ensured by, inter alia, safety planning, including spatial planning. Spatial planning contains safety requirements for population protection. The requirements for ensuring the safety of the population included in the spatial plan vary significantly between countries. The existing population protection requirements contained in the spatial plan have been unsatisfactory for a long time. The main issue is that they are out of date and difficult to apply. The article presents a new proposed method for determining requirements for the protection of the population, which is based on evaluating the risks in the cities and territory. The specific population protection requirements are determined based on the resulting risks and their scaling. The requirements are classified as general when the territory is not faced with external risks or specific when there are such risks. The method is applied to the conditions of the Czech Republic. In terms of national standard specifics, there are requirements in areas of public infrastructure, public utility buildings, and public benefit measures. The method for determining population protection requirements can be considered applicable in a general form by various countries if the national standards specifics or other aspects are taken into account. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilient Built Environment)
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Review

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Review
The Integration of Lean and Resilience Paradigms: A Systematic Review Identifying Current and Future Research Directions
Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 8893; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13168893 - 09 Aug 2021
Viewed by 353
Abstract
Integration of the lean and resilience paradigms has attracted increasing attention among scientists and practitioners. In an interconnected world, the need to be resilient involves increased readiness to deal with risks from both outside and inside an enterprise, and to be lean involves [...] Read more.
Integration of the lean and resilience paradigms has attracted increasing attention among scientists and practitioners. In an interconnected world, the need to be resilient involves increased readiness to deal with risks from both outside and inside an enterprise, and to be lean involves maximizing value while minimizing waste. The combination of these requirements has been the catalyst for a move towards lean–resilience operations. To better understand this trend, which seeks to help firms retain a competitive position and survive disruptions, this paper provides a systematic literature review of 53 articles identified through the C-I-M-O (context-intervention-mechanism-outcome) framework and examines them using descriptive and content analysis. The results trace the growth of lean–resilience research from its infancy to its current advanced state. This paper also identifies for the first time the lack of structured research on the number and categories of implemented practices and their associated benefits. To address this deficiency, a concept map is developed to provide guidance on the topic, identify gaps and inconsistencies in the literature, understand the state of development and suggest future research directions. The results are used to identify four dominant streams: application, compatibility, integration, and impact assessment in the context of the supply chain, conceptual development and operational research of various organizational and industry sectors. Further topics for investigation are recommended in the form of research questions. The proposed concept map is intended to assist researchers and practitioners to develop knowledge about the integration of lean and resilience paradigms in new contexts and formulate more effective deployment strategies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilient Built Environment)
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Review
Seismic Vulnerability Assessment Methodologies for Roadway Assets and Networks: A State-of-the-Art Review
Sustainability 2021, 13(1), 61; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13010061 - 23 Dec 2020
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 893
Abstract
Road networks are considered as one of the most important transport infrastructure systems, since they attain the economic and social prosperity of modern societies. For this reason, it is vital to improve the resiliency of road networks in order to function normally under [...] Read more.
Road networks are considered as one of the most important transport infrastructure systems, since they attain the economic and social prosperity of modern societies. For this reason, it is vital to improve the resiliency of road networks in order to function normally under daily stressors and recover quickly after natural disasters such as an earthquake event. In the last decades, vulnerability assessment studies for road networks and their assets gained great attention among the research community. This literature review includes a brief introduction about seismic vulnerability assessment, followed by the roadway assets damage and their damage states, and then the main typologies for the vulnerability assessment of roadway assets. Moreover, it focuses on available assessment methods, which were proposed to quantify the vulnerability of road networks and its assets. These methods are divided into two main categories, physical and traffic-based approaches. Methods based on fragility functions and vulnerability indexes were investigated in physical approach for roadways and its assets. On the other hand, accessibility and link importance index were explored in traffic-based approach for road networks. This paper reviews and comments the most common vulnerability assessment methods for road networks and its assets and points out their advantages and disadvantages. The main gaps and needs are identified and recommendations for future studies are provided. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilient Built Environment)
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