1. Introduction
In recent years the potential socio-economic impact of disasters in urban areas has increased many-fold because of increased population, settlements in high risk areas, technological risks, built environments density (Mileti, 1999), and highly engineered environment and infrastructure (Prieto, 2002). Modern cities are complex and rely on inter-dependent systems including a mix of utilities, transportation, and telecommunication infrastructure, commercial and residential building, making them extremely vulnerable. As a result, the damage caused by disasters has the tendency to
Supporting disaster response and recovery
411
Structural Survey Vol. 26 No. 5, 2007
pp. 411-425
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0263-080X DOI 10.1108/02630800810922757
SS 26,5
412
increase many-fold because of the cascading effect resulting from interdependency between components in metropolitan areas. For instance, the cascading disasters that followed Hurricane Katrina resulted in no electricity, no running water, and no means of communication with the outside world or within the city itself (Price, 2006). All this makes the process of predicting or estimating damage and planning an effective disaster response very difficult. Wrong estimation of the severity and scope of work resulting from a disaster can have disastrous consequences.