Resilience-based design (RBD) modelling of civil infrastructure to assess seismic hazards - Seismic Risk Analysis and Management of Civil Infrastructure Systems - page 271

the temporal scale (short-term emergency response, long-term reconstruc-
tion phase, mid-term reconstruction phase, etc.) of the problem of interest.
The selection of the control period T LC will affect the R ; therefore,
when comparing different scenarios the same control period should be
considered.

11.3.4 The seven dimensions of community resilience

In order to emphasize the primary role of the human system in community
sustainability, the acronym 'PEOPLES' (Renschler et al. , 2010, 2011) has
been adopted to describe a framework that is built on and expands previous
research at the Multidisciplinary Center of Earthquake Engineering
Research (MCEER). This framework linked several previously identifi ed
resilience characteristics (technical, organizational, societal and economic)
and resilience attributes (r4: robustness, redundancy, resourcefulness and
rapidity ) (Bruneau et al. , 2003; Bruneau and Reinhorn, 2007; Cimellaro et
al. , 2010b). These are the four attributes along which resilience can be
improved:

1. Rapidity is the 'capacity to meet priorities and achieve goals in a timely

manner in order to contain losses and avoid future disruption' (Bruneau
et al. , 2003). Mathematically it represents the slope of the functionality
curve given in Fig. 11.1.

2. Robustness referring to engineering systems is, 'the ability of elements,

systems or other units of analysis to withstand a given level of stress, or
demand without suffering degradation or loss of function' (Bruneau et
al. , 2003). It is therefore the residual functionality right after the extreme
event.

3. In earthquake engineering, redundancy is 'the quality of having alterna-

tive paths in the structure by which the lateral forces can be transferred,
which allows the structure to remain stable following the failure of any
single element' (FEMA, 2000). In other words, it describes the avail-
ability of alternative resources in the recovery process of a system.

4. Resourcefulness is 'the capacity to identify problems, establish priorities,

and mobilize resources when conditions exist that threaten to disrupt
some element, system, or other unit of analysis' (Bruneau et al. , 2003).
This property is diffi cult to quantify since it mainly depends on human
skills and improvisation during the extreme event.

Resourcefulness and redundancy are strongly interrelated. For example,
resourcefulness can create redundancy that did not exist previously. In fact,
one of the major concerns with the increasingly intensive use of technology
in emergency management is the tendency to over-rely on these tools, so
that if technology fails, or it is destroyed, the response falters. To forestall