Identification of the impacts of infrastructure failure on businesses for community resilience analysis

The objective of this research is to identify the impacts of the earthquake-induced failure of infrastructure system on the commercial activities of a community. Earthquakes can negatively affect the functionality of community infrastructure systems by damaging their components. The failure of infrastructure systems can negatively affect the businesses that are dependent upon their functionality. In addition, an earthquake can cause death and injury, which can lead to a shortage of workforce and a reduction in the number of customers for the goods and services produced by businesses. This can disrupt or stop business activities, which will, in turn, lead to business closure, unemployment, and workforce migration. The economic and social consequences of such events are vast. Several past research studies have focused on the identification of the impacts of earthquake-induced disruption of the infrastructures systems on business activities. Nevertheless, there is a need for research to identify and classify the impacts of an earthquake on the economic activities of a community. In this study, using an extensive review of literature and analysis of relevant content, a complete map of the impacts of an earthquake on the economic activities of community is developed. This map identifies the causal relationship among various earthquake consequences. This research is a stepping-stone for the quantification of the costs associated with lack of resilience of infrastructure systems in communities. It contributes to the quantification and analysis of community resilience.

کلیدواژه ها:

business ، resilience ، earthquake ، infrastructure ، system dynamics