Seven-Layer Classification of Infrastructure to Improve Community Resilience to Disasters

Community resilience to natural disasters depends to a large extent on the adequacy of infrastructure services provided through multidimensional interdependent systems during postdisaster recovery. In the aftermath of a disaster, enormous and diverse community recovery needs emerge, necessitating an effective interplay of cyber-physical-social systems during emergencies and throughout the phases of short- and long-term recovery. With recognition of the important roles played by multidimensional infrastructure, considerable research and development has been undertaken in each discipline to support communities in the aftermath of disasters. These multiple domains of infrastructure systems are heterogeneous in their structure and operation but are nevertheless interrelated. Therefore, the absence of an integrated platform on which emergency personnel from different disciplines could coordinate resilience planning often hampers the smooth and effective recovery process of communities during postdisaster recovery. This study proposes a new approach for analyzing capacity needs of a wide range of critical infrastructure during postdisaster recovery, framed within seven interrelated infrastructure layers: civil, civic, social, financial, environmental, educational, and cyber/communication. This research employs node analysis to deal with the complexity of the infrastructure layer networks and visualize the interplay among them. The proposed seven-layer framework facilitates an understanding of the interdependencies within and between the infrastructure layers, and an analysis of various communities’ needs specific to the phases of postdisaster recovery. Finally, the implementation and the benefits of this seven-layer conceptualization are demonstrated through case studies of past postdisaster recovery operations.