Senior Community Resilience: Assessing the Interdependencies between Critical Transportation Infrastructures and Implications on Aging People’s Households

University  Florida State University (FSU)
Florida A&M University (FAMU)
Principal Investigators  Eren Erman Ozguven, Ph.D.
PI Contact Information  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Phone: 850.410.6453
Email: eozguven@fsu.edu
Funding Source(s)and Amounts  Provided(by each agency or organization)  USDOT: $153,700
Florida State University:$72,500
Florida A&M University: $4,600
Total Project Cost  $230,800
Agency ID or Contract Number  DTRT13-G-UTC42-033177-039129
Start and End Dates 09/09/2016 – 10/31/2018
Brief Description of Research Project 

There are increasing number of aging populations in the State of Florida for whom safe, reliable and accessible transportation is a very significant issue. This is highly dependent on the performance of Florida’s roadways and critical assets such as bridges, critical facilities such as hospitals and other relevant structures. Their performance becomes especially critical in the presence of extreme events such as hurricanes where the connectivity between the critical structural and transportation assets, and the roadway network play a vital role in providing safety, reliability and accessibility to all roadway users including aging populations. Central to this challenge is the need to identify the interdependencies between these vital elements, and their effects on the aging people’s communities and households, which is a very challenging problem. This problem becomes even more challenging since the aging populations are identified as one of the cohorts with a heightened vulnerability to climate change. In order to respond to this challenge, this project presents a holistic approach based on the implementation of Geographical Information Systems-based novel models that study the interdependencies between power lines, roadways, critical facilities such as hospitals and bridges with a focus on demographics and socioeconomics. These models can provide solutions to handle the high risk associated with these disruptions, reduce their effect on the aging people’s communities, and therefore improve the community resilience. Realistic case studies are built and used to evaluate the differences in mitigation strategies for different types of roadway-related disruptions based on the impact point/area, the weather conditions (i.e., wind and rain), the aging population living in the affected area, and duration/type of the event.

Describe Implementation of Research Outcomes (or why not implemented) Place Any Photos Here Final Report
Impacts/Benefits of Implementation (actual, not anticipated) See Final Report