Unraveling the Dynamics of Coupled Human-Infrastructure Networks for Urban Resilience

Abstract

The objective of this study is to enhance the fundamental understanding of the dynamics of coupled human-infrastructure networks for urban resilience. Natural hazards are natural phenomenon, while the consequent disasters are the outcomes of human-infrastructure interactions related to social behavior (e.g., collaboration), urban planning and the governance of infrastructure systems. Therefore, urban resilience needs to account for the human-infrastructure interactions, instead of merely focusing on the resilience of infrastructure systems. In this study, we focus on three synergistic areas embedded in human systems affecting infrastructure systems: actor networks, networks of plans and actor values, norms and cognition. The study proposes an institutional connectedness framework to investigate the extent to which the interdependencies among these areas would affect urban resilience. We mainly use the data extracted from a stakeholder survey that aims to, among other targets, collect collaborations among actors for resilience planning and actor preferences to flood risk reduction policy actions. The study includes five research studies to investigate (1) the network positions of actors from diverse urban sectors in the collaboration network for resilience planning management of infrastructure systems, (2) the coordination dynamics among actors from diverse urban sectors, (3) the extent to which networks of plans incorporate and reflect diverse stakeholder values, (4) the extent of actor coordination, plan and task consistencies in terms of infrastructure interdependencies, and (5) the local interactions and homophily effects for collective actions in resilience planning and management of infrastructure systems. The results show the lack of coordination among actors across diverse urban sectors, and strong local interactions within sectors, especially in the transportation sector. The results also show that transportation plans fail to incorporate and reflect diverse stakeholder values in resilience planning and there lacks consistency among networks of plans. The study demonstrates the necessity to involve diverse actors in resilience planning and improve the collaboration among the actors, especially the across-sector coordination.