Open AccessResilience of School Systems Following Severe Earthquakes
Author(s) -
Hassan Emad M.,
Mahmoud Hussam N.,
Ellingwood Bruce R.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
earth's future
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.641
H-Index - 39
ISSN - 2328-4277
DOI - 10.1029/2020ef001518
Subject(s) - resilience (materials science) , backup , psychological resilience , quality (philosophy) , natural disaster , testbed , community resilience , process (computing) , psychology , medical education , business , public relations , political science , medicine , computer science , geography , social psychology , philosophy , physics , epistemology , redundancy (engineering) , meteorology , thermodynamics , operating system , computer network , database
Natural disasters may have catastrophic and long‐lasting impacts on communities' physical, economic, and social infrastructure. Slow recovery of educational services following such events is likely to cause traumatic stress in children, lead families to out‐migrate, and affect the community's overall social stability. Methods for quantifying and assessing the restoration process of educational systems and their dependencies on other supporting infrastructure have not received adequate attention. This study introduces, for the first time, a new framework to evaluate the functionality, recovery, and resilience of a school system following severe earthquake events. The framework considers both the quantity and quality of education services provided, school enrollment, and staff employment, as well as the interaction between various agents such as staff, students, parents, administration, and community. A virtual testbed community, Centerville, is utilized to highlight the application of this framework. The impact of school reopening policies on the number of students enrolled as well as the potential for homeschooling is also considered. The availability of various enrollment alternatives for students, backup classroom space and functioning utility systems, and facilitation of staff and supplies transfer between schools substantially increase the resilience of the education service.