Disaster Impacts on the Built Environment: A Systems Perspective

Abstract

The effects of disasters on the built environment go beyond physical destruction of buildings and infrastructure. This research considers the built environment from a systems perspective at the city scale to enable an examination of disaster impacts including not only damage to physical assets but also the disruption of flows and the spatial redistribution of populations. It is intended to contribute to the development of a systems view of the built environment so as to better understand its resilience. Such a holistic perspective is important from both an educational and a policy point of view as it can complement or even challenge a tendency to focus on isolated elements by drawing attention to the interrelatedness of component subsystems and their interdependencies. An initial systems model of the built environment inspired by the literature is proposed. Preliminary data gathered from a qualitative content analysis of media reports from two cities affected by conflict (Maiduguri in Nigeria and Donetsk in Ukraine) are used to assess the ways in which conflict has impacted the built environment of these cities. Whereas the data collected serves to confirm some aspects of the rudimentary systems model proposed, the research also reveals the need for further development of the model and the data collection methodology to enable a detailed consideration of underlying processes, self-organizational attributes and system boundaries for specific recommendations in terms of resilience to be made.