Population Health
January 31, 2018
Collecting perishable natural disaster data
The analysis of infrastructure damaged by natural disasters allows researcher to gain insights that helps inform development of more resilient communities. However, data for this type of analysis must be gathered quickly after a disaster to ensure it is useful, meaning research teams must get on the ground before clean up and repair work progresses too far.
A research team from the University of Washington’s Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering recently traveled to Mexico in the aftermath of the 7.1 magnitude earthquake to gather such data. By evaluating which structures survived and which ones suffered damage, researchers hope to improve construction methods and engineering designs.