Digital Reconnaissance and Performance Assessment of Rural Infrastructure for 2018 Natural Hazards
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 34, Issue 4
Abstract
The goal of this investigation is to assess the performance of rural structures in natural hazard events in 2018. Digital reconnaissance was implemented to retrieve data on damage-inflicting events, where collected data included a general summary of the event, the severity of damage inflicted, and the types of structures affected. To better understand the benefits and shortcomings of digital reconnaissance, findings are compared with those of traditional, field reconnaissance for two hazard events. The 2018 digital reconnaissance database is analyzed to discern regional, structural, and event-type trends and the fragility of specific rural structural systems. The investigation identified that, in 2018, damaged rural structures substantially outnumbered damaged urban structures, and the vast majority of damaging events occurred in the South and Midwest regions of the United States. Structures typical of rural areas, particularly barns, grain bins/silos, and manufactured homes, proved especially vulnerable, with many of these structures suffering complete failure in events causing only minor damage to structures more typical of urban areas. However, a comparison with field reconnaissance indicated that quantities of damaged structures are likely underestimated through digital reconnaissance, particularly in rural areas.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are available in a repository or online in accordance with funder data retention policies (Wittich and Loken 2019).
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s College of Engineering, Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, and the Layman Foundation. The third author, Lianne Brito, was supported for this project during summer 2018 under National Science Foundation REU Site: Sustainability of Horizontal Civil Networks in Rural Areas (Award No. 1659601). The authors also thank Ms. Kaitrin Colby of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for her assistance in the processing of the field reconnaissance data.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 34 • Issue 4 • August 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 9, 2019
Accepted: Jan 21, 2020
Published online: Apr 30, 2020
Published in print: Aug 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Sep 30, 2020
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