WEATHERING THE STORM: Mitigating the Impacts of Natural Disasters in United States Cities Through Smart Technologies

Abstract

With the increase in urban populations and climate-related risks, there has been a growing interest in applying the smart technology and smart city paradigm toward urban disaster management. The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction specifically encourages investment in innovation and technology development in disaster management frameworks on a global scale. However, despite this rhetoric on the international level, the degree of technological adoption to address disasters vary widely by country. Compared to cities in countries like Japan, which has been globally lauded as a world leader in disaster management and has some of the most developed disaster risk reduction technologies in the world, United States cities have lagged behind in both the investment and integration of disaster risk-reducing smart technologies. Although there is ample literature surrounding both disaster management frameworks and smart technology applications, the combination of the two fields is a relatively new subject area and has not been extensively studied. Thus, this thesis aims to evaluate the landscape of smart technology use in urban disaster management and to explore the barriers to the widespread adoption of these technologies in the United States. Specifically, this paper aims to contribute to the discourse on the use of disaster risk reduction and management technologies in United States cities.

To address the topic at hand, this paper uses both qualitative and quantitative research methods. First, a literature review is conducted on: 1) Urban disaster risk, 2) Global and American disaster risk reduction frameworks, 3) Smart cities and smart technologies, and 4) Smart technology use in disaster risk reduction and management. Second, a comparative case study is conducted on four cities around the world on their technology use in disaster management. Experts in the field were interviewed to enrich the case study findings. Lastly, a quantitative text analysis of official disaster risk reduction and management plans proposed by government agencies in Japan and the United States is conducted. Through the case studies, expert interviews, and text analysis, this thesis finds that smart technologies have concrete benefits when integrated into the disaster risk reduction and management frameworks of urban areas, and that the United States has not capitalized on the opportunities of such technologies to their fullest potential, especially when compared to peer countries. The findings also indicate that the main barriers to adoption include the lack of national and local prioritization of technological development, insufficient funding and high costs, data privacy concerns, and the difficulty of upgrading technologies on a wide scale.

This thesis concludes that the United States should invest more in the research, development, and implementation of these smart technologies for urban disaster management, and provides policy implications for the federal government, state and local officials, the private sector, and knowledge networks, on how to encourage best practices to drive the development and adoption of such technologies moving forward.