Disaster impact analysis based on interrelationship of critical infrastructure and associated industries A winter flood disaster event

Purpose – Natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina (the most destructive natural calamity in US history), have destructive impact on residents, critical infrastructure, as well as, functions and services of associated industries in the affected areas. In addition, due to a lack of both understanding of natural disaster impacts and preparedness to the hurricane, it was revealed that the emergency-related organizations were not prepared to maximize the use of the critical infrastructure to mitigate the impacts. The purpose of this paper is to help those organizations have more understanding of disaster impacts and facilitate their decision making in order to prepare better mitigation plans. Design/methodology/approach – A disaster impact mechanism and inter-relationships based on the main functions of associated industries are derived through an extensive literature review and case analyses. Based on these inter-relationships, a decision support system is developed and evaluated using a winter flood disaster event in the USA as a case study. The level of inter-relation is chosen as a metric to measure the weights for inter-relationships between critical infrastructure and associated industries. These weights are obtained through expert interviews and surveys. Findings – The healthcare industry, for example, is revealed as the most dependent industry and the electricity and transportation infrastructure are the most significant to the communities and the associated industries. Originality/value – The cell model of the disaster impact mechanism, the inter-relationship approach, and the use of the concept of level-of-service in this paper will contribute to improving the methodology in the area of disaster impact analysis and mitigation.