Understanding post-disaster population recovery patterns. Issue 163 (19th February 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yabe, Takahiro; Tsubouchi, Kota; Fujiwara, Naoya; Sekimoto, Yoshihide; Ukkusuri, Satish V.
• Is Part Of: Journal of the Royal Society interface. Volume 17:Issue 163(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-02-19
• Subjects: human mobility -- disaster resilience -- population recovery -- mobile phone data; Physical sciences -- Research -- Periodicals; Life sciences -- Research -- Periodicals; Interdisciplinary research -- Periodicals; 570.5
• DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2019.0532
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1742-5689

Abstract

Abstract : Despite the rising importance of enhancing community resilience to disasters, our understandings on when, how and why communities are able to recover from such extreme events are limited. Here, we study the macroscopic population recovery patterns in disaster affected regions, by observing human mobility trajectories of over 1.9 million mobile phone users across three countries before, during and after five major disasters. We find that, despite the diversity in socio-economic characteristics among the affected regions and the types of hazards, population recovery trends after significant displacement resemble similar patterns after all five disasters. Moreover, the heterogeneity in initial and long-term displacement rates across communities in the three countries were explained by a set of key common factors, including the community's median income level, population, housing damage rates and the connectedness to other cities. Such insights discovered from large-scale empirical data could assist policymaking in various disciplines for developing community resilience to disasters.