RAPID: Assessing Community-Scale Disruption and Restoration of Basic Needs in Post-Earthquake Haiti

这项快速反应研究补助金(RAPID)旨在了解灾害中的物质损失与社区规模的社会经济破坏之间的关系。在本研究中，社区规模指的是构成城市区域的社区或类似的空间单元。我们的中心研究问题是：建筑物损坏的程度能在多大程度上预测社区社会结构和经济功能受到破坏的严重程度？损伤率和中断之间是否存在线性关系？或者，有没有损害的门槛，超过了这个门槛，灾难就变成了灾难？在最初的响应期和恢复期，破坏和中断之间的关系如何随时间变化？地震后海地遭受了广泛的城市破坏和破坏，因此提供了一个难得的机会，可以在单一灾害事件的背景下调查这些问题。实地工作将侧重于收集两类信息：1)损害数据到地面真实情况；2)现有的关于建筑物破坏的遥感卫星信息；2)关于社区范围的社会经济破坏的数据。由于现场信息必须与遥感图像在时间上保持一致，因此收集损伤数据具有时间敏感性。收集中断数据具有时间敏感性，因为这些信息将基于实地采访，寻求对灾难发生后立即和头几个月的情况做出判断和回忆。这项研究将使用三种互补的方法进行：1)对高分辨率卫星和航空遥感图像进行自动化、半自动和目视分析；2)利用VIEWS实地数据收集系统获取和专家解释街景GPS参考照片和视频；3)采访参与海地社区规模救济、反应和恢复的非政府组织(辅之以次要数据)。数据收集将集中在8-12个选定的海地社区，这些社区共同代表了广泛的地震破坏严重程度。这项研究通过在海地测试美国的方法，扩展了研究小组目前在衡量查利和卡特里娜飓风后社区破坏和恢复方法方面的工作。它还借鉴了研究小组在海地地震基于遥感的损失评估方面的经验(通过GEO-CAN倡议)，将全国范围的工作扩展到社区规模。除了有待开发的关于破坏和破坏的数据集，研究的一个主要成果将是分析海地地震中破坏和破坏之间的空间和时间关系。我们设想，这项研究的成果将以一份报告的形式记录我们关于海地选定社区的破坏和恢复基本需求的调查结果。遥感和实地调查结果还将通过包括虚拟灾难观察者在内的在线媒体进行记录和展示。

This Grant for Rapid Response Research (RAPID) seeks to understand the relationship between physical damage in disasters and socio-economic disruption at the community-scale. In this study, the community scale refers to neighborhoods or similar spatial units that comprise an urban area. Our central research question is: To what extent can the extent of building damage predict the severity of disruption to the communities social fabric and economic function? Is there a linear relationship between damage rate and disruption? Or are there thresholds of damage beyond which disasters become catastrophes? How does the relationship between damage and disruption change over time in the initial response and restoration periods? Post-earthquake Haiti experienced an extensive range of damage and disruption across the urban landscape, thus providing a rare opportunity to investigate these questions within the context of a single disaster event.Fieldwork will focus on gathering two types of information: 1) damage data to ground-truth available remote satellite information on building damage, and 2) data on socio-economic disruption at the community scale. Gathering the damage data is time-sensitive because the field information must be temporally consistent with the remote sensing images. Gathering the disruption data is time-sensitive because the information will be based on field interviews that seek to elicit judgments and recollections about conditions in the immediate aftermath and first few months of the disaster. These data must be gathered quickly, in order to capture the perishable recollections and situational observations that rapidly fade from memory.This research will be undertaken using three complementary approaches: 1) automated, semi-automated and visually-based analysis of high resolution satellite and aerial remote sensing imagery; 2) acquisition and expert interpretation of street-view GPS referenced photographs and video using the VIEWS field data collection system; and 3) interviews with NGOs involved in community-scale relief, response and recovery within Haiti (supplemented with secondary data). Data collection will focus on 8-12 selected Haitian communities that collectively represent a broad range of earthquake damage severity.The study extends the research teams current work on methods for measuring community disruption and recovery following Hurricanes Charley and Katrina, by testing U.S. methods in the context of Haiti. It also draws on the research teams experience with remote sensing-based damage assessment for the Haiti earthquake (through the GEO-CAN initiative) by extending the nationwide work to the community scale.In addition to the datasets on damage and disruption to be developed, a primary outcome of the research will be analysis of the relationship between damage and disruption over space and time in the Haitian case. We envision that the outputs of this research will take the form of a report documenting our findings about disruption and the restoration of basic needs in the selected Haitian communities. Remote sensing and in-field survey results will also be documented and displayed through online media including the Virtual Disaster Viewer.