Investigating the Data Inputs and Requirements for Response and Recovery Decision Models in Flooding Events

Access to accurate and timely data by disaster response decision-makers is vital in the management of flood risk. The possibilities of using emerging and historical data have increased the need to develop systematic methods for evaluating data input requirements to ensure appropriate use of data-driven methods in disaster response. The goal of this work is to present current data formats and requirements in response and recovery decision models and identify potentials to include measures of equity to make them more flexible and equitable for a larger segment of the US population. This study evaluates existing decision models and presents a framework to aid researchers and modelers to incorporate social vulnerability and community data with other data sources used in disaster response and recovery. The framework contributes to the advancement of flood resilience management by providing an analysis process to facilitate inclusion of diverse data streams for use in decision-making.