RAPID: Field Investigation on Post-Disaster Humanitarian Logistic Practices under Cascading Disasters and a Persistent Threat: The Tohoku Earthquake Disasters

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY

Investigators

Abstract

Objectives: The Tohoku disaster(s) is an event almost without parallels in disaster history. Four specific features make it a very unique disaster: severity and pervasiveness of the trigger and cascading disasters, geographic coverage, and persistence over time of the nuclear threat. As a result of these factors the disaster and its response offer important lessons of benefit to future relief operations. In this context, the main objectives of the project are: (1) to study the impacts on the humanitarian logistic response produced by the cascading disasters that impacted Tohoku; (2) to study how the post-disaster humanitarian logistic (PD-HL) system responded to the disasters; (3) to study how the persistent nuclear threat impacted the overall PD-HL effort; (4) to identify a preliminary topology and features of the various PD-HL structures that emerged in the response; (5) to gather insight into their level of effectiveness, positive and negative characteristics, manpower provided, coverage and extent of their operations; (5) to gather data about the flows of critical / non-critical supplies, and their dynamic patterns over time; (6) to gather data about the impact of preexisting conditions on post-disaster relief capacity; and, (7) to document lessons learned, both positive and negative. Intellectual merit and broader impacts: The research to be conducted is important to the nascent field of PD-HL and disaster research because it will provide much needed evidence-based insight into actual/emerging PD-HL practices, and lessons both positive and negative that could benefit future relief operations. In this context, it is important to highlight that the realities of PD-HL response are not well understood by the disaster research community at large. This is because of: (1) the relatively low occurrence of disasters; (2) the extremely small size of the professional and research PD-HL communities; and (3) the ephemeral nature of the data. The project will provide the first systemic characterization of the PD-HL process that emerged after cascading disasters with a persistent nuclear threat. The findings produced by such characterization would: (1) enhance theoretical understandings of organizations and organizing in disaster environments; and (2) set the stage for advanced modeling of these approaches. The research will: (1) promote multidisciplinary collaboration on humanitarian logistics research; (2) integrate students to a multidisciplinary and international research process, with a particular emphasis on underrepresented students; (3) generate findings that will be integrated into disaster and logistics courses; (4) generate findings with applied benefits that will be broadly disseminated to organizations engaged in humanitarian logistics, including stakeholders in Japan.