Update article: applicability of artificial neural networks to integrate socio-technical drivers of buildings recovery following extreme wind events

Abstract

In a companion article, previously published in Royal Society Open Science, the authors used graph theory to evaluate artificial neural network models for potential social and building variables interactions contributing to building wind damage. The results promisingly highlighted the importance of social variables in modelling damage as opposed to the traditional approach of solely considering the physical characteristics of a building. Within this update article, the same methods are used to evaluate two different artificial neural networks for modelling building repair and/or rebuild (recovery) time. By contrast to the damage models, the recovery models (RMs) consider (A) primarily social variables and then (B) introduce structural variables. These two models are then evaluated using centrality and shortest path concepts of graph theory as well as validated against data from the 2011 Joplin tornado. The results of this analysis do not show the same distinctions as were found in the analysis of the damage models from the companion article. The overarching lack of discernible and consistent differences in the RMs suggests that social variables that drive damage are not necessarily contributors to recovery. The differences also serve to reinforce that machine learning methods are best used when the contributing variables are already well understood.

Keywords

• resilience
• tornado
• recovery
• modelling