Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2018, Civil Engineering

As urbanization increases in cities prone to earthquakes, increasing disaster resilience, or the ability to absorb shock of the disaster, is increasingly important to preserve the integrity of critical infrastructure and save human lives. This study explores the response and resilience of Haiti following the 2010 M7.0 earthquake. Traditional methods of measuring resilience following a major earthquake require census data. Census data is seldom available at a great level of detail. As an alternative to census data, satellite imagery provides an objective measurement of the history of the earth, consistent both in temporal and spatial resolution. The currently available Very High Resolution (VHR) remote sensing sensors observe objects on the ground as small as 0.3 meters. The additional dimensions of volume and shape of the buildings provide the ability to distinguish building functions when compared to the traditional two-dimensional data. From the land cover and land use classification results for each year, a time series analysis analyzes the changes through the years of the individual buildings and building types. Using the building type classification results, the changes in resilience indicators are analyzed by year. Elasticity, amplitude, and malleability are the three indicators used to measure resilience. Elasticity refers to the recovery duration of the city to a stable state after the earthquake; Amplitude refers to the changes in the built-up area caused by the earthquake, essentially how much the city is impacted by the earthquake; finally, malleability refers to the city's new development after the earthquake, compared to its original state. The results are compared to census data to illustrate the correlations between the observed dynamics and the given data, as well as to draw conclusion about the recovery processes. Using satellite images to characterize the resilience of a built-up area is feasible, and change detection analysis can be used to (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Rongjun Qin (Advisor); Desheng Liu (Advisor); Alper Yilmaz (Committee Member) Subjects: Civil Engineering

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2020, Civil Engineering

Seismic risk has increased noticeably in the last decades due to rapid growth of earthquake-prone urban regions and deterioration of aging infrastructure. Meanwhile, mounting evidence of changing climate has reinforced experts' efforts to develop new techniques for sustainable design of structures. Recent studies point to the need for an integrated approach to include both sustainability and resilience criteria in design of building environments. This dissertation integrates seismic resilience quantification methods with economic input-output life cycle assessment and whole-building energy simulation methods to present a new comprehensive decision model for design of building environments. A new multi-criteria decision framework is introduced to integrate various resilience and sustainability measures including asset loss, downtime, number of casualties, greenhouse gas emissions produced by construction, maintenance, and seismic repair, and annual energy consumption and cost. The risk in decision analysis in addition to vulnerability and loss analyses are included via a combined model using analytic hierarchy process, multi-attribute utility theory, and Technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) methods. Results show that with a multi-criteria approach, the benefits of sustainable design techniques can outweigh possible shortcomings in structural performance. The proposed framework is implemented on a series of steel diagrid and reinforced concrete buildings. A comprehensive investigation into the nonlinear dynamic performance of steel diagrids is also conducted and new seismic performance criteria are developed for loss estimation. Diagrids are found to have a substantial collapse capacity but, the non-structural loss due to large maximum absolute floor acceleration may increase expected total loss. Lastly, a new framework is introduced for resilience quantification and rapid safety evaluation of building structures using data obtain (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Yu Li PhD (Advisor); Xiong (Bill) Yu PhD, PE (Committee Member); Wojbor Woyczynski PhD (Committee Member); Michael Pollino PhD, PE, SE (Committee Member) Subjects: Civil Engineering; Design; Engineering; Sustainability