Disaster Resilience of Drinking Water Infrastructure Systems to Multiple Hazards

Abstract

The increased dependability of modern societies on deteriorated water infrastructure (i.e., transmission and distribution systems) places special emphasis on its continuous functioning. Consequently, disaster resilience of these systems during and after hazards is vital for the response and recovery to the event. Water infrastructure system managers must understand the critical aspects of resiliency such as planning for hazardous conditions by anticipating the impacts and subsequently taking necessary measures to minimize consequences, and also prevent the disruption of other infrastructure systems (e.g., electrical infrastructure) by understanding and dealing with the critical interdependencies. A majority of these aspects are not always clear until the system has been exposed to the hazard, which is why we can learn so much from recent disasters. This paper will outline the key aspects of drinking water infrastructure system resiliency (e.g., system vulnerability, redundancy, management and response plans, etc.) and the parameters will be analyzed using historical hazardous events (e.g., earthquakes and hurricanes) to determine what the best practices were and should be moving forward. Recommendations for incorporating the best practices into rehabilitating existing systems and future designs will be discussed.