Undergraduate Research: An Archive - 2021 Program

Beverly Shen ’21
SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AND INTERNATIONAL
AFFAIRS
Certificate in Environmental Studies
THESIS TITLE
Weathering the Storm:
Mitigating the Impacts
of Natural Disasters in
United States Cities
Through Smart
Technologies
ADVISER
Anu Ramaswami,
Sanjay Swani '87
Professor of India
Studies, Professor of
Civil and Environmental
Engineering and the
High Meadows
Environmental Institute
With the increase in urban populations and
climate-related risks, there has been a growing
interest in applying smart technology and the
smart-city paradigm toward urban disaster
management. The Sendai Framework for
Disaster Risk Reduction specifically encourages
global-scale investment in innovation
and technology development in disaster
management frameworks. However, the degree
of technological adoption to address disasters
vary widely by country. American cities have
lagged behind in the investment and integration
of disaster risk-reducing smart technologies
compared to cities in countries such as Japan,
which has some of the most developed disaster
risk-reduction technologies in the world.
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.
My research aimed to evaluate the landscape
of smart-technology use in urban disaster
management and explore the barriers to the
widespread adoption of these technologies in the
United States. Specifically, my thesis contributes
to the discourse on the use of disaster riskreduction
and management technologies in
United States cities.
URBAN
SUSTAINABILITY
50