Resilience Concepts for Water Resource Systems
01 Nov 2009-Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management (American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE))-Vol. 135, Iss: 6, pp 528-536
TL;DR: In this article, the adaptive capacity of the system is better treated as an input variable of the other two aspects of resilience, and that response/recovery may be considered only when the performance threshold is not crossed.
Abstract: This paper reviews existing approaches to system resilience, and proposes a scheme to quantify the resilience of water resource systems. In general, three aspects of resilience are considered in water resource systems: (1) that against crossing a performance threshold; (2) that for response and recovery after disturbances; and (3) that of adaptive capacity. Conventionally these aspects are treated separately without considering possible functional relationships or interdependencies. We argue that the adaptive capacity of the system is better treated as an input variable of the other two aspects of resilience, and that response/recovery may be considered only when the performance threshold is not crossed. Because of the dynamic and evolving nature of water resource systems, proper consideration of uncertainty and associated information, whether obtained from well-defined numerical data or vague linguistic articulation, is essential for better understanding and proper management of their resilience. Constan...
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed a theory on "urban resilience to floods" as an alternative framework for urban flood hazard management, defined as a city's capacity to tolerate flooding and to reorganize should physical damage and socioeconomic disruption occur, so as to prevent deaths and injuries and maintain current socioeconomic identity.
Abstract: River cities require a management approach based on resilience to floods rather than on resistance. Resisting floods by means of levees, dams, and channelization neglects inherent uncertainties arising from human-nature couplings and fails to address the extreme events that are expected to increase with climate change, and is thereby not a reliable approach to long-term flood safety. By applying resilience theory to address system persistence through changes, I develop a theory on "urban resilience to floods" as an alternative framework for urban flood hazard management. Urban resilience to floods is defined as a city's capacity to tolerate flooding and to reorganize should physical damage and socioeconomic disruption occur, so as to prevent deaths and injuries and maintain current socioeconomic identity. It derives from living with periodic floods as learning opportunities to prepare the city for extreme ones. The theory of urban resilience to floods challenges the conventional wisdom that cities cannot live without flood control, which in effect erodes resilience. To operationalize the theory for planning practice, a surrogate measure—the percent floodable area—is developed for assessing urban resilience to floods. To enable natural floodplain functions to build urban resilience to floods, flood adaptation is advocated in order to replace flood control for mitigating flood hazards.
348 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyse the emergence of the concept of urban resilience and assess its potentials and limitations as an element of policy planning using a systematic literature review covering the period 2003-2013 and a combination of techniques derived from narrative analysis.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to analyse the emergence of the concept of ‘urban resilience’ in the literature and to assess its potentials and limitations as an element of policy planning. Using a systematic literature review covering the period 2003–2013 and a combination of techniques derived from narrative analysis, we show that diverse views of what urban resilience means and how it is best used (as a goal or as a conceptual/analytical framework) compete in the literature. Underlying these views are various (and sometimes diverging) interpretations of what the main issues are and what forms of policies or interventions are needed to address these issues. Urban planners need to be better aware of these different interpretations if they want to be in a position to use resilience appropriately and spell out what resilience can bring to their work. The review also highlights that the notion of urban resilience often lacks adequate acknowledgement of the political economy of urbanization and consequently does n...
137 citations
Cites background from "Resilience Concepts for Water Resou..."
...While ‘returning to the initial state’ implies some degree of dynamic response (e.g. Kreimer, Arnold, & Carlin, 2003; Wang & Blackmore, 2009), some argue that this focus on persistence or stability also prevents or hinders the system from embracing a fully adaptive or even transformative approach…...
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TL;DR: A critical review of quantitative approaches to measure the resilience of water infrastructure systems, with a focus on water resources and distribution systems shows that resilience measures have generally paid less attention to cascading damage to interrelated systems, rapid identification of failure, physical damage of system components, and time variation of resilience.
Abstract: Over the past few decades, the concept of resilience has emerged as an important consideration in the planning and management of water infrastructure systems. Accordingly, various resilience measures have been developed for the quantitative evaluation and decision-making of systems. There are, however, numerous considerations and no clear choice of which measure, if any, provides the most appropriate representation of resilience for a given application. This study provides a critical review of quantitative approaches to measure the resilience of water infrastructure systems, with a focus on water resources and distribution systems. A compilation of 11 criteria evaluating 21 selected resilience measures addressing major features of resilience is developed using the Axiomatic Design process. Existing gaps of resilience measures are identified based on the review criteria. The results show that resilience measures have generally paid less attention to cascading damage to interrelated systems, rapid identification of failure, physical damage of system components, and time variation of resilience. Concluding the paper, improvements to resilience measures are recommended. The findings contribute to our understanding of gaps and provide information to help further improve resilience measures of water infrastructure systems.
126 citations
Cites background from "Resilience Concepts for Water Resou..."
...[23], Wang and Blackmore [24], and Butler et al....
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...Previous researchers, e.g., Moy et al. [23], Wang and Blackmore [24], and Butler et al. [14,25] have discussed the general concepts and definitions of resilience for water infrastructure systems....
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TL;DR: The RRV approach highlights the benefits of comprehensive system performance metrics that are easy to understand by decision makers and stake holders and demonstrates the implementation of seemingly intractable ensemble size and simulation length in a distributed computing environment.
117 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a review of literature and the current state of practice for assessment, design and mitigation of the impact of multiple hazards on structural infrastructure is presented, as well as an overview of future research needs related to multiple-hazard performance of constructed facilities.
Abstract: Large parts of the world are subjected to one or more natural hazards, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, tropical storms (hurricanes, cyclones, and typhoons), coastal inundation, and flooding; although, many regions are also susceptible to artificial hazards. In recent decades, rapid population growth and economic development in hazard-prone areas have greatly increased the potential of multiple hazards to cause damage and destruction of buildings, bridges, power plants, and other infrastructure; thus, grave danger is posed to the community and economic and societal activities are disrupted. Although an individual hazard is significant in many parts of the United States, in certain areas more than one hazard may pose a threat to the constructed environment. In such areas, structural design and construction practices should address multiple hazards in an integrated manner to achieve structural performance that is consistent with owner expectations and general societal objectives. The growing interest and importance of multiple-hazard engineering has been recognized recently. This has spurred the evolution of multiple-hazard risk-assessment frameworks and development of design approaches, which have paved way for future research towards sustainable construction of new and improved structures and retrofitting of the existing structures. This paper provides a review of literature and the current state of practice for assessment, design and mitigation of the impact of multiple hazards on structural infrastructure. It also presents an overview of future research needs related to multiple-hazard performance of constructed facilities.
79 citations
Additional excerpts
...Wen and Kang (2001a) developed a mathematical model to calculate the expected total cost of a new or retrofitted structure over its lifetime for a single or multiple hazards by using an optimum design method....
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References
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TL;DR: The traditional view of natural systems, therefore, might well be less a meaningful reality than a perceptual convenience.
Abstract: Individuals die, populations disappear, and species become extinct. That is one view of the world. But another view of the world concentrates not so much on presence or absence as upon the numbers of organisms and the degree of constancy of their numbers. These are two very different ways of viewing the behavior of systems and the usefulness of the view depends very much on the properties of the system concerned. If we are examining a particular device designed by the engineer to perform specific tasks under a rather narrow range of predictable external conditions, we are likely to be more concerned with consistent nonvariable performance in which slight departures from the performance goal are immediately counteracted. A quantitative view of the behavior of the system is, therefore, essential. With attention focused upon achieving constancy, the critical events seem to be the amplitude and frequency of oscillations. But if we are dealing with a system profoundly affected by changes external to it, and continually confronted by the unexpected, the constancy of its behavior becomes less important than the persistence of the relationships. Attention shifts, therefore, to the qualitative and to questions of existence or not. Our traditions of analysis in theoretical and empirical ecology have been largely inherited from developments in classical physics and its applied variants. Inevitably, there has been a tendency to emphasize the quantitative rather than the qualitative, for it is important in this tradition to know not just that a quantity is larger than another quantity, but precisely how much larger. It is similarly important, if a quantity fluctuates, to know its amplitude and period of fluctuation. But this orientation may simply reflect an analytic approach developed in one area because it was useful and then transferred to another where it may not be. Our traditional view of natural systems, therefore, might well be less a meaningful reality than a perceptual convenience. There can in some years be more owls and fewer mice and in others, the reverse. Fish populations wax and wane as a natural condition, and insect populations can range over extremes that only logarithmic
13,447 citations
Book•
15 Jan 2007TL;DR: The Stern Review as discussed by the authors is an independent, rigourous and comprehensive analysis of the economic aspects of this crucial issue, conducted by Sir Nicholas Stern, Head of the UK Government Economic Service, and a former Chief Economist of the World Bank.
Abstract: There is now clear scientific evidence that emissions from economic activity, particularly the burning of fossil fuels for energy, are causing changes to the Earth´s climate. A sound understanding of the economics of climate change is needed in order to underpin an effective global response to this challenge. The Stern Review is an independent, rigourous and comprehensive analysis of the economic aspects of this crucial issue. It has been conducted by Sir Nicholas Stern, Head of the UK Government Economic Service, and a former Chief Economist of the World Bank. The Economics of Climate Change will be invaluable for all students of the economics and policy implications of climate change, and economists, scientists and policy makers involved in all aspects of climate change.
10,097 citations
"Resilience Concepts for Water Resou..." refers background in this paper
...With the looming threat of climate change asserted by the Stern Report (Stern 2007) and the IPCC reports (IPCC 2007), as well as the increasing demands by a still-expanding global population, the current consumption pattern of freshwater is beyond levels that can be sustained by future supply....
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Book•
14 Sep 1984
TL;DR: In this article, the distribution of the Mean Vector and the Covariance Matrix and the Generalized T2-Statistic is analyzed. But the distribution is not shown to be independent of sets of Variates.
Abstract: Preface to the Third Edition.Preface to the Second Edition.Preface to the First Edition.1. Introduction.2. The Multivariate Normal Distribution.3. Estimation of the Mean Vector and the Covariance Matrix.4. The Distributions and Uses of Sample Correlation Coefficients.5. The Generalized T2-Statistic.6. Classification of Observations.7. The Distribution of the Sample Covariance Matrix and the Sample Generalized Variance.8. Testing the General Linear Hypothesis: Multivariate Analysis of Variance9. Testing Independence of Sets of Variates.10. Testing Hypotheses of Equality of Covariance Matrices and Equality of Mean Vectors and Covariance Matrices.11. Principal Components.12. Cononical Correlations and Cononical Variables.13. The Distributions of Characteristic Roots and Vectors.14. Factor Analysis.15. Pattern of Dependence Graphical Models.Appendix A: Matrix Theory.Appendix B: Tables.References.Index.
9,693 citations
7,408 citations