Disaster reconnaissance framework for sustainable post-disaster materials management

Nazli Yeşiller; James L Hanson; Joseph Wartman; Benjamin Turner; Andrea Gardiner; Derek C Manheim; Juyeong Choi

doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2023.07.010

Disaster reconnaissance framework for sustainable post-disaster materials management

Waste Manag. 2023 Sep 1:169:392-398. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2023.07.010. Epub 2023 Aug 4.

Authors

Nazli Yeşiller¹, James L Hanson², Joseph Wartman³, Benjamin Turner⁴, Andrea Gardiner⁵, Derek C Manheim⁶, Juyeong Choi⁷

Affiliations

¹ Global Waste Research Institute, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA 93407, USA. Electronic address: nyesille@calpoly.edu.
² Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA 93407, USA. Electronic address: jahanson@calpoly.edu.
³ Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. Electronic address: wartman@uw.edu.
⁴ Dan Brown and Associates, Los Osos, CA 93402, USA. Electronic address: bturner@dba.world.
⁵ Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN 37209, USA. Electronic address: agardine@tnstate.edu.
⁶ Global Waste Research Institute, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA 93407, USA; Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA 93407, USA. Electronic address: dmanheim@calpoly.edu.
⁷ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Tallahassee, FL, USA. Electronic address: jchoi@eng.famu.fsu.edu.

PMID: 37544208
DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2023.07.010

Abstract

A first foundational assessment is provided for disaster debris reconnaissance that includes identifying tools and techniques for reconnaissance activities, identifying challenges in field reconnaissance, and identifying and developing preliminary guidelines and standards based on advancements from a workshop held in 2022. In this workshop, reconnaissance activities were analyzed in twofold: in relation to post-disaster debris and waste materials and in relation to waste management infrastructure. A four-phase timeline was included to capture the full lifecycle of management activities ranging from collection to temporary storage to final management route: pre-disaster or pre-reconnaissance, post-disaster response (days/weeks), short-term recovery (weeks/months), and long-term recovery (months/years). For successful reconnaissance, objectives of field activities and data collection needs; data types and metrics; and measurement and determination methods need to be identified. A reconnaissance framework, represented using a 3x2x2x4 matrix, is proposed to incorporate data attributes (tools, challenges, guides), reconnaissance attributes (debris, infrastructure; factors, actions), and time attributes (pre-event, response, short-term, long-term). This framework supports field reconnaissance missions and protocols that are longitudinally based and focused on post-disaster waste material and infrastructure metrics that advance sustainable materials management practices. To properly frame and develop effective reconnaissance activities, actions for all data attributes (tools, challenges, guides) are proposed to integrate sustainability and resilience considerations. While existing metrics, tools, methods, standards, and protocols can be adapted for sustainable post-disaster materials management reconnaissance, development of new approaches are needed for addressing unique aspects of disaster debris management.

Keywords: Debris; Disaster; Landfill; Reconnaissance; Waste.

MeSH terms

Disaster Planning*
Disasters*