Selecting a Temporary Debris Management Site for Effective Debris Removal

The overall debris removal after disasters is often prolonged due to the huge amount of debris and lack of capacities such as a Temporary Debris Management Site (TDMS) in the community. This results in a delay of overall recovery and increases the total recovery cost. Strategic planning and building a TDMS will help in providing extra time for proper disposal of debris and clearing a disaster-impacted site that will facilitate the reconstruction process. This paper presents a unique approach for identifying and selecting TDMS locations for expediting debris removal from the community. A hypothetical example of a community impacted by a natural hazard is presented to explain how the the proposed model works. The research integrates data from a loss assessment report obtained from HAZUS-MH, Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA), and Geographical Information System (GIS) in a dynamic simulation model. Various TDMS locations could be evaluated based on the existing capacity and infrastructure services and considering factors such as overall debris removal time, associated cost, productivity, and availability of resources. Debris management teams would greatly benefit from the research for strategically siting TDMS for accelerating the debris removal process. 1. BACKGROUND AND NEEDS Recent research shows that the world is becoming vulnerable to extreme natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes. These events often cause destruction to physical assets, such as buildings and infrastructure, resulting in the generation of a large volume of debris. Removal of debris in a timely manner can be challenging for communities as it may require capacities that exceed the existing capacities of the communities. High impact disasters could result in generating five to ten times the debris volume of the annual waste generation rate of a community (Table 1). Within limited capacities after disasters, the debris removal process is unable to be completed in the desired time which delays the response and recovery efforts of the community. In the United States, the debris removal process is undertaken in alliance with the city’s waste management system. There is a need to establish a system that is able to mesh well with the existing waste management system and bolster its capacities for expediting the debris process. This will allow the communities to handle the overwhelming amount of debris generated in the desired time. Both the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have emphasized the need for temporary debris management sites (TDMS) for transporting and processing debris in a timely manner (EPA, 2008; Table 1. Historical debris volume Year Event Volume Data (million CY) 2012 Hurricane Sandy 5.25 Elias, 2013 2010 Earthquake Haiti 23–60 Booth, 201