A Distributed Computing Platform for Community Resilience Estimation

Abstract

Mitigating the risks of extreme natural hazards, such as hurricanes and earthquakes, triggers intricate interdependencies between various aspects of a community. These interdependencies can have a significant impact on community resilience quantification. To address this problem, a fully scalable and versatile distributed computing platform for the estimation of community resilience through the integration of discipline-specific models (simulators) is considered. A list of developed simulators is presented to clarify the idea that each simulator is treated as a black box that interacts with the simulation platform by subscribing to its input and publishing its output. Examples of how these developed simulators are connected effectively to calculate losses to the built environment due to hurricanes and losses to the built environment and lifeline infrastructure due to earthquakes are presented to demonstrate the versatility and scalability of the platform in the context of community resilience quantification.