Purdue University recently released the results of a study examining the recovery of communities after natural disasters. Focusing on the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy over a four-year period, the report seeks to identify why some communities are quicker to recover than others, and whether these differences can be explained by the robustness of their social and physical networks.
Said the principal investigator of the study Satish Ukkusuri, a professor at Purdue’s Lyles School of Civil Engineering, “The goal of the project is to understand why some communities recover faster than others after a natural disaster and develop transferable tools to model the recovery of communities by considering interdependencies across multi-layered networks. We typically think the government should be the one to provide these things, but what we found is the people rely more on each other. When a disaster hits, the communities that recovered faster were the ones that already had strong societal connections and better financial resources before the disaster.”
Incorporating advanced simulations and algorithms, the study incorporated large volumes of posts from social media, including geolocation data, as well as cell phone data, survey data, and information from focus groups. Details were also gathered as to the type of information shared in social media posts.
Said co-principal investigator Seungyoon Lee, associate professor in Purdue’s Brian Lamb School of Communication, “Preliminary insights show that the support people received from their neighborhood groups, faith-based organizations and local agencies in the early hours and days during and after Sandy hit moved them toward recovery. These were the people and organizations that provided shelter, food, and clothing and even helped each other with filling out insurance claims and other documents. These community interactions seem to be the glue that binds a community together in the face of crisis. Some of these ties existed before the disaster, but some were quickly assembled ad hoc to meet the needs of people.”
Source:
https://phys.org/news/2018-10-friends-key-natural-disaster-recovery.html
