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What are cascading disasters?

Pescaroli, G; Alexander, D; (2019) What are cascading disasters? UCL Open Environment , 2019 (1) , Article 3. 10.14324/111.444/ucloe.000003. Green open access

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Abstract

Cascades have emerged as a new paradigm in disaster studies. The high level of dependency of modern populations on critical infrastructure and networks allows the impact of disasters to propagate through socio-economic systems. Where vulnerabilities overlap and interact, escalation points are created that can create secondary effects with greater impact than the primary event. This article explains how complexity can be categorised and analysed in order to find those weak points in society that enable cascading impacts to develop. Scenarios can be used to identify critical dependencies and guide measures designed to increase resilience. Experience suggests that many potential impacts of cascading disasters remain uninvestigated, which provides ample scope for escalation of impacts into complex forms of crisis.

Type: Article
Title: What are cascading disasters?
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.14324/111.444/ucloe.000003
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.14324/111.444/ucloe.000003
Language: English
Additional information: ©2019 The Authors. Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) 4.0 International licence https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Keywords: built environment, cascading disasters, cascading effects, interdependencies, critical infrastructure, complex systems, scenarios, the environment, policy and law
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Inst for Risk and Disaster Reduction
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10080494
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