Multiobjective Optimization of Postdisaster Reconstruction Processes for Ensuring Long-Term Socioeconomic Benefits

Abstract

Widespread destruction from large-scale disasters results in lengthy and costly recovery of damaged infrastructure and communities, with societal and economic impacts persisting many years after a hazard event. Robust and coherent reconstruction planning and rapid execution play pivotal roles in ameliorating time-consuming postdisaster recovery. Reconstruction generally constitutes a considerable portion of an entire disaster recovery process that requires significant resources, including materials, workforce, funding, time, and others. To pursue maximum socioeconomic benefits, which can be one of the critical goals of the postdisaster recovery process, optimized recovery strategies should be designed by considering given federal, state, and local resources. Even though recent studies have proposed disaster recovery planning and execution models, they rarely addressed social and economic indicators required for comprehensive postdisaster recovery plans. This paper presents a new postdisaster recovery prioritization model, including social and economic factors, that evaluates priorities of damaged facilities recovery projects in affected regions through a resource allocation analysis. The primary goal of the proposed model is to optimize resource allocation and quantify and maximize socioeconomic benefits for a postdisaster reconstruction project portfolio through multicriteria decision analysis and multiobjective optimization. Also, this research study adopts a modular construction technique as a potential solution for facilitating the recovery processes, which can significantly reduce their time and cost. The proposed model is expected to provide a comprehensive decision-making process for researchers and practitioners to design a postdisaster recovery plan and arrange their available resources by considering the socioeconomic factors of affected communities.

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