After a disaster strikes, the ability of individuals to recover is shaped by the many inter-connected systems that make up a community.
Exploring this complex problem is the goal of Rodrigo Costa, who recently joined the Department of Systems Design Engineering (SYDE) as an assistant professor.
Rodrigo Costa is a new systems design engineering professor at Waterloo.
His research integrates knowledge from engineering, planning and social sciences to understand how extreme natural events impact communities. At the core of the issue is how the interaction of systems can worsen disaster risk and inequalities.
"Urban communities are, by definition, a system of systems," Costa says. "You have your infrastructure systems, economic systems, social systems, political systems and many others. Thus, to understand how extreme events, like an earthquake, flood or wildfire, disrupt urban communities it is essential to approach this problem from a system of systems perspective."
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