Active Studies

Below is a list of active research studies being conducted at the DRC. In addititon to the brief description of each project on this page you can see more detailed information by clicking on a study's title.

Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA)-Technology, Weather Forecasts, and Warnings: Integrating the End User Community

The Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA) project is one of a small number of multi-disciplinary, multi-institution engineering research centers in the United States funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). CASA focuses on the development of radar technology to permit earlier and more accurate forecasts of tornadoes, floods, and other severe weather which may improve weather forecasts and increase lead times.CASA has an end-to-end integration goal. Instead of developing the technology and making it available to users, CASA examines end user needs and takes into account user recommendations. CASA brings together social scientists from DRC with decision scientists, computer scientists, meteorologists, and radar engineers from universities across the United States.

Collaborative Proposal Project: Interaction between Building and Occupant Responses during Collapse (IBORC)

This research investigate how a building’s dynamic response to an extreme event impacts the actions of occupants present throughout the building. Using a bomb blast near critical structural members as an example of an extreme event, we will utilize computational simulation to investigate emergent occupant response during situations that involve partial or complete building collapse. The research will take place at the intersection of structural engineering, social science, and computer science

Collaborative Research Proposal on Improvisation and Sensemaking in Sudden Crisis

This study examines organizational improvisation and sensemaking under conditions of rapid change and urgent needs for decision and action. It extends these themes to investigate their occurrence across geographically dispersed organizations that are able to coordinate actions and responses by “making sense” with each other regarding swiftly-developing emergency needs and coordinating actions responsively and productively.

COT Institute for Safety, Security and Crisis Management, “Learning from a Large Scale Flood Exercise in the Netherlands

The objectives of this project are to exchange information regarding key processes, best practices, and complexities of flood disaster management identified from the literature and US experience that are validated (or refuted) during the a Netherlands crisis exercise. Such information is particularly valuable for emergency planning and future exercises. Furtermore the intent it to Identify areas throughout which additional research is necessary, particularly those areas in which results of the literature study were not validated by the case-study.

DRU: Contending with Materiel Convergence: Optimal Control, Coordination, and Delivery of Critical Supplies to the Site of Extreme Events.” Funded by the National Science Foundation

The overall goal is to develop methodologies and tools to foster an accelerated convergence between the dynamic needs and supplies of critical resources (e.g., blood, water) to the site of an extreme event. These methodologies will be based on state of the art concepts from the social sciences, control theory, and robust stochastic optimization of dynamic supply chains with the aim of reducing adverse impacts of convergent low priority goods, while expediting the flow of high priority supplies to various response related sites.

DRU: Integrated Optimization of Evacuation and Mass Care Sheltering for Hurricanes

This proposal seeks to improve understanding of and decision support for evacuation and mass case sheltering in hurricanes. In the past, math modeling in this application has been limited to estimating the time required to clear a region, assuming many characteristics of the problem are uncontrollable input (e.g., where shelters are located). Instead, we will expand the decision frame and use optimization models to support the full range of strategic and operational evacuation and sheltering decisions, with higher-level objectives such as minimizing life loss, cost, and inequity. These models will be developed through a tight interaction between sociologists and engineers to ensure that they are firmly grounded in the reality of people’s behavior.

Infrastructure Security and Emergency Preparedness

The objective of this project is to develop a framework to evaluate the resiliency of transportation corridors before, during or after a catastrophic event. The proposed research will serve as the initial concepts and framework for a suite of tools to assist agencies to be better prepared for, better able to respond to and better able to recover from catastrophic events due to natural hazards.

Investment Planning for Regional Natural Disaster Mitigation

This project will develop a set of models to: help guide an optimal expenditure of regional natural disaster mitigation funds, and provide insight into the many factors that interact to determine the best mix of mitigation strategies. Focusing on earthquakes and hurricanes, the regional natural disaster mitigation analysis models will help an at-risk region with a limited budget decide how much to spend on pre-event mitigation that aims to reduce future losses versus post-event recovery, and which of the many possible pre-event mitigation activities to fund so as to meet the region’s objectives, The proposed set of models will advance knowledge about natural disaster risk management and the simultaneous planning for multiple hazards.

Methods for Measuring, Monitoring and Evaluating Post-Disaster Recovery

This study will develop innovative methods for systematically and quantitatively measuring and monitoring post-disaster recovery. Using Hurricane Charley and Hurricane Katrina as a case studies, the proposed project will achieve the following objectives: (1) Develop methods to process and interpret remote-sensing data to describe the physical and socio-economic manifestations of post-disaster recovery; (2) Obtain and compile quantitative and qualitative recovery data from: remote-sensing, field reconnaissance surveys, secondary statistical sources, interviews, and surveys; (3) Develop methods to analyze and synthesize the recovery data to comprehensively measure and monitor recovery; and (4) Demonstrate application of the new methods within the case study area.

Modeling the Ignition and Spread of Post-Earthquake Fires

In this project, we have developed a new physics-based model that simulates the spread of post-earthquake urban fires. in addittion, we have also developed a new approach to statistical modeling of post-earthquake fire ignitions and to data collection for such modeling, and applied it to late 20th century California.

Multi-Organizational Collaborative Leadership and Interaction

The goal of this project is to help officials do a better job of coordinating incidents that are multi-organizational and/or multi-jurisdictional. Consideration is given to traditional formal responders as well as other community-based involvement and the integration of public and private sector efforts, social and human factor elements, and political and cultural facilitators/barriers to response participation.

NEES-SG. NEESWood: Development of a Performance-Based Seismic Design Philosophy for Mid-Rise Woodframe Construction

This project will develop a performance-based seismic design (PBSD) philosophy to safely increase the height of woodframe structures in active seismic zones of the United States as well as mitigating damage to low-rise woodframe structures. NEESWood will provide a seminal advancement in seismic design of woodframe construction as well as the full-scale seismic testing of structural systems including dynamic distributed testing between two sites. When this challenge is successfully met, mid-rise woodframe construction may be an economic option in seismic regions around the United States and the world.

Netherlands US Water Crisis Research Network (NUWCREN)

The purpose of NUWCREN is to develop a sustainable network of Dutch and US knowledge institutes that can facilitate the advancement of the Netherlands’ preparedness with respect to (possible) floods. In addition to distributing existing knowledge, we also aim to develop scientific knowledge and assess operational practice for flood disaster management. The ultimate goal is to institutionalize a collaborative international network that can generate approaches to policy in the Netherlands and/or the United States.

Post-Earthquake Water Supply Restoration

In this project, we developed a discrete event simulation model of the post-earthquake restoration process for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) water supply system, the largest municipal utility in the U.S. This is the first application of discrete event simulation to post-disaster water supply restoration, and one of the first for any infrastructure system. Discrete event simulation offers many benefits for restoration modeling compared to alternative methods. The water supply system and restoration process are represented in great detail with few simplifications.

Resiliency of Transportation Corridors During Disasters

This study examines how multi-organizational actors/agencies expect and are expected to interact during a transportation corridor disaster. Using social network analysis, researchers will examine the codified and actor-anticipated interaction in maintaining the continuity of transportation flows along the I-95 corridor in Delaware.

Training the Next Generation of Disaster Scholors: DRC's Research Experience for Undergraduates REU Site

Beginning in the summer of 2005, the Disaster Research Center (DRC) at the University of Delaware established a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Program. The DRC-REU Program is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the United States Department of Defense (DoD) and the University of Delaware. The main goal of the program is to engage undergraduate students in hands-on research training and enhance their understanding of the social science aspects of disasters. Each summer, a nine week research training institute is held at the DRC-REU site to provide students with the necessary academic background, training, mentoring and research experiences that will greatly contribute to increase interest in disaster research and strengthen the next generation of social science disaster scholars.