Chapter 90 - Disaster Management Cycle, Smart Technologies, Urban Form, Traditional Developments, and Sprawl

Abstract

This chapter investigates the disaster management cycle and its stages, assigns the stages within a three-period disaster management timeframe, and investigates contributions of smart technologies in each period, human behaviors in each period, explores possible contributions of urban form in disaster management, and considers the impact of smart technologies on urban form. The advent of smart technologies has exponentially increased the amount of data available for collection, interpretation, presentation, and finally, dissemination to stakeholders, managers, and the population. The three disaster time periods of pre-, during, and postdisaster help organize the contribution of smart technologies in the disaster management cycle, but each time period has its own data needs, data processing, smart technology requirements, and applications of data. This chapter also explores human behavior during the three disaster periods with changes in human mobility as an important aspect of human behavior during disasters. Urban form includes a multitude of characteristics that may be impacting disaster management but when we consider human mobility, evacuation exits and assembly areas become important aspects to consider, as they are affected by urban form. The presence of smart technologies in any type of urban form, whether sprawl or traditional developments, can only enhance disaster management efforts, due to the ability to analyze, process, and disseminate a tremendous amount of available and incoming data.