Makarand Hastak Expertise

Prof. Hastak and his team conduct research in the area of Disaster Risk Reduction in terms of (i) critical infrastructure and its impact on associated industries and communities, (ii) resilience of power grid infrastructure, (iii) resilience and capacity building for seven layers of infrastructure: Civil, Civic, Social, Educational, Financial, Environmental and Cyber, (iv) Capacity building for a resilient supply chain and business continuity, (v) disaster debris management, and (vi) post disaster housing. Their work has produced four PhD and several MS thesis and numerous journal and conference publications. They have developed several decision support systems to help decision makers develop appropriate disaster mitigation and capacity building strategies

The initial results were developed based on the data collected through National Science Foundation (NSF) SGER Project: A Short-term Site Investigation of the 2008 Midwest Floods. The objective of this research was to conduct in-depth case studies in the regions affected by the 2008 Midwest Floods to obtain ephemeral data through on site-investigations, interviews, and survey questionnaires. The inter-relationships provide a foundation for the decision support system that determines the criticality, vulnerability, and severity of industries and communities in terms of technical, social, and economic aspects. Site-investigations were conducted at various affected cities like Gulfport, Illinois; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and St. Louis, Missouri to collect damage information including time sensitive ephemeral data. Additional relevant data was obtained from interviews and survey questionnaires. Prof. Hastak and his team have also explored post disaster housing needs and how rapid deployment of housing could be achieved within a short span of 30 days. Presently the team is working on several projects including debris management; business continuity and supply chain; stress-strain capacity analysis for hospitals as a SoS; capacity building for feasible resilience; as well as a NSF funded project to develop a Resilient Grid: An Investment Prioritization Decision Framework that Integrates the Growing Risks of Severe Weather- Induced Outages.