Advances in Economics and Disaster Forensics: A Multi-criteria Disaster Forensics Analysis (MCDFA) of the 2012 Kahuku Wind Farm Battery Fire on Oahu, Hawaii

The discipline of economics and its many sub- and closely related disciplines offer valuable modeling techniques to relate and apply forensic theory, insight and analysis to disaster related research. We herein propose advances in economics and disaster forensics to also reduce disaster risk and assess the direct and indirect impacts of disasters. This chapter constitutes a landmark attempt to address, comprehensively and in-depth, the many timely and important issues associated with using the field of economics to build a culture of disaster prevention and to understand the root cause and complex causality of disasters. In particular, advances in microeconomic, macroeconomic and forensic analyses are used to assess the causes and consequences of energy related disasters. A timely, original and valuable Multi-Criteria Disaster Forensics Analysis (MCDFA) approach for the forensic analyses of disasters is put forth and the 2012 battery room fire at the Kahuku wind-energy storage farm on Oahu, Hawaii is used as a case study to illustrate the proposed approach. Modeling identifies dynamic volt-amp reactive (D-VAR) technology as a preferred alternative over lead acid batteries for the Kahuku windfarm.

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