Post-disaster recovery policy assessment of urban socio-physical systems

The post-disaster recovery system is composed of the complex interplay between physical and social infrastructures. Despite the rise of coupled physical and social post-disaster recovery systems, less attention has been paid to the interdependent role of social support ties and physical infrastructure. This paper analyzes the data-driven models of post-disaster recovery system dynamics with the interdependence between the social and physical coupling to assess the post-disaster recovery policies. This paper utilizes the large-scale mobile phone location data, power outages, and socio-economic attributes for modeling the recovery dynamics during Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Parameter estimation results show that the model has regional heterogeneity and disparate impacts on socio-economic attributes to the model. The model's budget allocation scenarios also demonstrate that different budget allocation strategies affect the recovery period. The proposed model emphasizes the complex properties of the post-disaster recovery system and the importance of heterogeneous recovery policies across regions. •Models the interdependence between social and physical coupling with significant sources of informal social support ties•Finds the role of regional heterogeneity in the coupled systems•Tests various initial conditions and the budget allocation scenarios for accelerating short-term and mid-term post-disaster recovery in the coupled systems