Field damage assessments as a design tool for information and communications technology systems that are resilient to natural disasters

Abstract

This paper discusses how to perform field damage assessments after natural disasters as a systematic design tool to achieve information and communications technology (ICT) systems that are more resilient to natural disasters. Hence, damage assessments are analogous to performing forensic analysis, such as autopsies, in biological sciences. Yet, for ICT system designs, practical studies based on damage assessments have been used with a limited scope, and mostly oriented towards earthquakes only. The ultimate goal of the damage assessments is, hence, to build a permanent record of data and information that allows answering the two basic questions that are the focus of such forensic analysis: what failed and what did not fail, and how was service restored in the cases when ICT systems failed. Other alternative approaches more commonly used to attempt to answer these questions, such as inquiries, computer based modeling and simulation, or pure theoretical analysis, has been shown to yield limited and sometimes erroneous outcomes. This paper shows that damage assessments can provide valuable insights not generally gained through these other approaches. In doing so, this paper discusses planning and procedures involved in performing an effective damage assessment. Some of the discussed factors that influence damage assessment planning include geographic layout, meteorological or geophysical conditions of the disasters under study and ICT networks characteristics, both technically (hardware and software) and in terms of management (logistics, operations, maintenance, etc.). Since failures in ICT facilities may be originated in supplying infrastructures, evaluation and description of both types of interdependencies, physical and functional, are also explained. A practical example based on the March 2011 Japan's earthquake and tsunami is provided.