To what extent is electricity central to resilience and disaster management of the built environment?

Kinn, MC; Abbott, C

Abstract

Purpose:
This paper aims to establish two key points. Firstly that there is a gap in the resilience literature, and to show that electricity
needs to play a more central role in all the academic research fields associated with ‘disasters’ and ‘resilient cities’.
Design/methodology/approach:
Two approaches were used, database interrogation and establishing areas of expertise in the resilience and disaster case study
literature. Firstly a database search was carried out, and the ‘keyword’ and ‘abstract’ fields searched for electricity related words.
Then academic papers, and reports by public bodies were analysed to establish which academic disciplines are most active in this
area of research.
Findings:
This paper shows; that only 3.9% of the 4127 papers analyzed, had key words connected to electricity, and that there is not a
specific discipline within the resilience literature looking explicitly at how electricity effects the built environment.
Research implications:
This paper implies that the role of electricity, in the academic literature associated with resilience, is under represented. A future
research agenda should be developed that more adequately reflects the importance of electricity to the resilience of the built
environment.
Practical implications
With more focused research, into how the loss of electrical energy affects all aspects of life during and post disaster, better
approaches to disaster risk reduction and management can be formulated.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to analyses the literature to understand how important the continuity of electrical supply is to the resilientcities
and disaster management academic communities, and has highlighted this theme as a gap in the literature.
* Corresponding author E-mail address: [e-mail] OR [e-mail]
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Citation

Kinn, M., & Abbott, C. (2014). To what extent is electricity central to resilience and disaster management of the built environment?. Procedia Economics and Finance, 18(1), 238-246. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2212-5671%2814%2900936-8

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 8, 2014
• Publication Date: Aug 11, 2014
• Deposit Date: Mar 30, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 5, 2016
• Journal: Procedia Economics and Finance
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Volume: 18
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 238-246
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2212-5671%2814%2900936-8
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2212-5671(14)00936-8
• Related Public URLs: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/procedia-economics-and-finance/