IN-CORE at NIST Presentations

IN-CORE at NIST Presentations, November 2024

Session A, Summary. Updates from NIST Community Resilience Group and Applied Economics

The Decadal Influence of CoE and NIST Resilience Research (Jenn Helgeson). Updates from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Community Resilience Group and Applied Economics. It explores significant advancements in community resilience research, functional recovery of built environments, and planning for climate-related hazards. The concept of resilience is defined as a community’s ability to prepare for, adapt to, and recover from disruptions while maintaining essential functions. This research highlights the need for integrating social and physical infrastructures to set performance goals for buildings and infrastructure.

The presentation introduces tools such as IN-CORE, an open-source modeling environment for assessing recovery scenarios, and EDGe$, the Economic Decision Guide Software, which evaluates community resilience plans using economic metrics like Return on Investment (ROI) and Net Present Value (NPV). Additionally, NIST ARC (Alternatives for Resilient Communities) is highlighted as an interactive tool for developing resilient strategies informed by socio-economic data and hazard information.
PDF: https://in-core.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sessionA1.pdf

Functional Recovery of the Built Environment (Siamak Sattar). Collaborations form a cornerstone of the research involving federal agencies, local governments, academic institutions, and professional organizations. Partnerships with standards organizations like ASCE and ASTM have facilitated the integration of resilience principles into future building codes, such as the ASCE 7-28 standard, which will address “future conditions” related to climate change.
PDF: https://in-core.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sessionA2.pdf

ARC Updates (Ken Harrison). The presentation emphasizes case studies that illustrate the application of resilience planning to various hazards, including flooding in Lumberton, NC; earthquakes in Shelby County, TN; tornadoes in Joplin, MO; wildfires in Paradise, CA; and sea level rise in Fairfield, CT. These studies focus on retrofitting buildings and infrastructure, population dislocation, and recovery timeframes. They also incorporate policy-driven incentives like insurance subsidies and cost-sharing for retrofitting critical facilities.
PDF: https://in-core.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sessionA3.pdf

CR Metrics (Maria Dillard). Research efforts have produced substantial outcomes, including the development of a comprehensive community resilience indicator inventory through the TraCR database. This resource integrates social, economic, and physical system indicators and provides a foundation for analytical resilience methods. The presentation also notes the publication of hundreds of journal articles and the validation of resilience indicators for improving community recovery planning.
PDF: https://in-core.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sessionA4.pdf

Climate Resilience (Terri McAllister). Looking forward, the team plans to advance climate-informed building codes and standards through targeted workshops, refine measurement science for resilience indicators, and enhance tools like NIST ARC to support broader community engagement. This forward momentum is designed to ensure that resilience strategies are equitable, cost-effective, and inclusive.
PDF: https://in-core.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sessionA5.pdf

Session B, Summary. Project IN-CORE Update

Focused on advancements in the IN-CORE platform and its role in community resilience modeling and planning. IN-CORE Studio is highlighted as a web-based application that allows users to perform community resilience analyses using a graphical user interface (GUI), eliminating the need for Python coding. It caters to modelers who lack Python experience or do not require new analysis creation. Key features of IN-CORE Studio include project and workflow management, integration of datasets and hazards, visualization of geospatial maps, and execution of workflows with diverse input datasets.

The architecture of IN-CORE Studio incorporates various services, such as hazard, data, plotting, and geospatial visualization services, all running on a cloud computing system supported by Dockers and Kubernetes. A development timeline outlines the release of an alpha version in November 2024 for closed testing, followed by a beta version in March 2025 for open user testing, and a full release by June 2025. A mockup Demo was presented.

The presentation also discussed the NSF POSE II Proposal, which outlines a vision to create a globally recognized open-source platform supporting interdisciplinary research in community resilience. The proposal emphasizes the implementation of an Open-Source Ecosystem (OSE) for IN-CORE, governance structures, community building through user conferences, and fostering contributors. Sustainability goals include developing a business model, ensuring cybersecurity, providing educational programs, and facilitating interoperability of IN-CORE.

The presentation noted that IN-CORE has launched an official website and a YouTube channel for community engagement. Additionally, it acknowledges funding from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) through a cooperative agreement with Colorado State University.

PDF: https://in-core.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sessionB.pdf

Session C, Summary. The Art & Science of Field Studies Past, Present, and Future

The presentations in this session reflect the collaborative efforts and advanced methodologies employed in resilience research, offering pathways for future investigations and applications.

Challenges and Opportunities in Field Studies: Emphasized the need for standardizing field safety protocols, integrating infrastructure and socio-demographic data, and employing decision-making models under uncertainty. The session highlighted the importance of longitudinal studies to capture recovery trajectories.

Future Work: Includes advancing methodologies for community resilience modeling, refining empirical fragility functions, and validating results through interdisciplinary collaborations and workshops.

Lumberton Field Study (Wave 6): Focused on documenting recovery processes, assessing mitigation, and filling data gaps. Data collection included structured housing surveys and qualitative interviews. Findings indicated persistent vulnerabilities, incomplete recovery, and substantial inequities in the community.
PDF: https://in-core.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sessionC1.pdf

Midwest Tornado Reconnaissance Study: Covered the 2021 Quad-State Tornado Outbreak, which caused $3.9 billion in damages and over 90 fatalities. Longitudinal data collection spanned multiple waves, utilizing advanced techniques like 360-degree video capture and a social susceptibility metric to assess community stability.
PDF: https://in-core.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sessionC2.pdf

Hurricane Ian and Helene Studies: Utilized Virtual Damage Assessments (VDA) to validate building damage states. Empirical fragility functions were developed to predict structural vulnerabilities based on factors like distance from the shoreline and year of construction. Future plans include cross-model validations with IN-CORE and detailed loss assessments.
PDF: https://in-core.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sessionC3.pdf

Barrier Island Resilience in Dauphin Island, Alabama: Explored flood risk management strategies like beach nourishment and dune restoration. XBeach modeling assessed present and future conditions, providing adaptation pathways to improve resilience against sea level rise and extreme weather events.
PDF: https://in-core.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sessionC4.pdf

Session D, Summary. IN-CORE for Resilience Planning: Partnerships with Three Communities

Sara Hamideh

IN-CORE for Resilience Planning presentation, Sara Hamideh, NIST Center of Excellence Semi-Annual Meeting on November 7, 2024, focuses on the capabilities of the IN-CORE Community User Web Application in aiding resilience planning.

Key Points

The IN-CORE platform enables communities to estimate hazard impacts on physical infrastructure, the local economy, and social institutions, plan “what if” scenarios, and devise long-term investment strategies.
The development and adaptation of the IN-CORE Community User Web Application aim to meet diverse city and county needs across the U.S. Partnerships with communities like Galveston, Joplin, and Salt Lake City were organized through workshops to ensure IN-CORE models are useful, usable, and actively utilized. Workshops covered resilience metrics, stakeholder input, and the practical use of IN-CORE models for mitigation and recovery planning. Partner communities benefit from IN-CORE tools by lowering risk, sustaining insights post-project, and enhancing engagement. Specific community examples included:
Galveston (Hurricane): Resilience analysis questions included predicting road disconnections, power outages, and population displacement after hurricanes. Mitigation strategies like property buyouts and residential building retrofits were highlighted. A retrofit model required that 34.2% of residential buildings be upgraded to manage household dislocations.
Salt Lake City (Earthquake): Examined the percentage of non-functional buildings across income groups during seismic events. Developed the Fix the Bricks program to address seismic retrofits for unreinforced masonry structures, benefiting 75,000 residents. Seismic retrofit projects were prioritized based on available funding and anticipated multi-dimensional benefits.
Joplin (Tornado): Investigated the impact of tornado intensity on physical service metrics, population stability, and economic stability. Piloted smaller-scale tornado retrofit programs. The presentation emphasized community engagement, capacity building, and lessons learned.
There is significant interest among local resilience stakeholders in tools like IN-CORE. Successful partnerships depend on data availability, regional expertise, and adapting to changing circumstances. The next steps include expanding funding resources for Salt Lake City’s Fix the Bricks program, Galveston’s grant applications for building elevation, and Joplin’s focused housing initiatives.

PDF: https://in-core.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sessionD.pdf

Session E, Summary. Solving the BIG Research Questions: Then and Now

Session E focused on solving major research challenges in resilience and disaster modeling. These studies emphasize interdisciplinary collaboration, advanced computational methodologies, and integration of socio-economic factors to address the complex challenges of disaster resilience.

Key Points

High-Throughput Hazard Modeling: Emphasized challenges such as geological complexity, infrequent events, and insufficient data in seismic and tsunami modeling. Current strategies incorporate probabilistic approaches and scenario analysis for improved hazard visualization and infrastructure risk assessment.
PDF: https://in-core.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sessionE1.pdf

Structure, Infrastructure, and Interdependencies: Presented past challenges like modeling physical responses and validating recovery times. Current strategies integrate damage, interdependencies, and socio-demographic characteristics into computational models, enabling targeted resilience planning.
PDF: https://in-core.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sessionE2.pdf

Quantitative Socio-Demographic Science: Addressed data integration issues by employing housing unit allocation methodologies. These approaches enhance fidelity between socio-demographic and engineering models, allowing exploration of infrastructure demands and population stability metrics.
PDF: https://in-core.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sessionE3.pdf

Quantitative Socio-Economic Science: Explored the integration of CGE models with machine learning to analyze economic impacts of disasters. This multidisciplinary approach combines on-the-ground field studies with computational techniques for scalable resilience planning.
PDF: https://in-core.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sessionE4.pdf

Decision Support and Recovery Modeling: Highlighted methods for optimizing recovery of interdependent infrastructure networks and prioritizing repair efforts. Trade-offs between objectives, such as population and economic stability, were explored.
PDF: https://in-core.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sessionE5.pdf

Uncertainty Quantification in Modeling: Focused on methods like Monte Carlo simulations and sensitivity analyses to improve model accuracy and decision-making processes.
PDF: https://in-core.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sessionE6.pdf

Session F: Summary of Resilience and Disaster Mitigation Presentations

Multiple presentations highlight resilience and disaster mitigation models for a variety of specific conditions. These studies collectively underscore the importance of integrating multi-disciplinary approaches, leveraging technology, and developing community-specific strategies to enhance resilience against diverse hazards.

Simulating Communities using Hetero-Functional Graph Theory: Explores interconnected models of physical, social, economic, and governance systems to map resources and their functions using Hetero-Functional Graph Theory. This approach emphasizes understanding the relationships between community assets and infrastructure.
PDF: https://in-core.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sessionF1.pdf

Electric Power Network Modeling for Household-Level Outage Assessment: Studies power transmission and distribution systems, leveraging computer vision to detect utility poles for enhanced power grid modeling. Applications include modeling outage scenarios in Lumberton, NC, and Galveston Island.
PDF: https://in-core.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sessionF2.pdf

Optimizing Coastal Community Resilience to Sea Level Rise Through Hybrid Strategies: Focused on hybrid strategies involving seawalls, home elevations, and nature-based solutions to minimize storm-related damages. Results highlight the benefits of combining gray infrastructure with natural approaches.
PDF: https://in-core.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sessionF3.pdf

Seismic Resilience Modeling for Mitigation, Recovery, and Assessment of National and Local Building Inventories: A methodology for assessing vulnerabilities and implementing mitigation strategies in seismic regions like Salt Lake County. It integrates engineering and economic perspectives to optimize recovery and resilience.
PDF: https://in-core.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sessionF4.pdf

Assessing Predictive Accuracy of Tornado Resilience Models Using Post-Event Data: Evaluates tornado resilience models, comparing field data and model predictions. Highlights include the need for improved modeling accuracy to match observed damage patterns.
PDF: https://in-core.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sessionF5.pdf

Optimization of Mitigation and Evacuation under Multi-Hazard Risks: Integrates building retrofitting and evacuation planning to address interdependencies between mitigation and evacuation demands. Case studies include Seaside, Oregon.
PDF: https://in-core.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sessionF6.pdf

Regional Risk Analysis of Interdependent Engineering-Economic Systems: Introduces a computational workflow that quantifies regional economic impacts of seismic hazards by modeling infrastructure interdependencies and propagating uncertainties.
PDF: https://in-core.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sessionF7.pdf

Weighing structural damage and social susceptibility: A decision-making tool to perform longitudinal studies of geographically large hazards events: Develops a decision-making tool that uses social and economic factors to predict community recovery outcomes after disasters. Applications include identifying communities at risk of long-term decline.
PDF: https://in-core.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sessionF8.pdf

Power Reliability on Economic Growth and Income Inequality: Examines how power interruptions affect state GDP and income inequality, emphasizing the need for resilient energy infrastructure to mitigate economic disparities.
PDF: https://in-core.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sessionF9.pdf

Agent-based modeling for community resilience analysis under tornado hazards considering testbed variability: Simulates community recovery under tornado hazards using agent-based modeling, focusing on the impact of spatial layouts and infrastructure characteristics. The spatial distribution of structures in a community significantly impacts the recovery process and resilience of a community. Agent-based modeling can simulate the recovery process of different types of agents accurately with sufficient information on the agents. Achieving knowledge transfer between resilience simulations of different testbeds using the ABM approach is a significant future research direction.
PDF: https://in-core.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sessionF10.pdf