b'The Pulte InstituteforGlobal DevelopmentLocalizing Earthquake Response in HaitiTracy Kijewski-Correa, professor of engineering and global affairs and the William J. Pulte Director of the Pulte Institute for Global Development, was the lead author of the study, published in the Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering.This research shows how the 2021 earthquake response in Haiti leveraged both local data collection and remote expertise on a large scale to quickly assess the damage and inform local decision makers, Kijewski-Correa said. This hybrid approach shows how we can proactively embrace localization, enabling affected populations to play a significant role in generating solutions. construction. This in turn enabled data collectors in Haiti Kijewski-Correa, partners at GeoHazards International, andto conduct forensic documentation of 30 of these homes students at Notre Dame helped coordinate the assessment,that performed well in the earthquake using another which she said unfolded amid travel constraints following themobile app.assassination of the Haitian president in 2021. But going hybridThe results were surprising, Kijewski-Correa said: Structures turned out to be an advantage: Small teams of Haitians usedbuilt using traditional Haitian construction fared better smartphones to share data and images with remote engineers. than those built with contemporary concrete and masonry This divide-and-conquer approach allowed responders toapproaches that experts had been touting in Haiti. The cover more ground more quickly than they could have with atraditional homes bracing scheme, which determines how conventional arrangement where engineers traveled to seebuildings distribute and support the shock imparted by the damage sites firsthand, Kijewski-Correa said. And after anyearthquake, made all the difference.disaster, she said, gathering forensic information quickly, beforeKijewski-Correa has shared takeaways from the debris shifts, is critical to determining what caused the damage. earthquake assessment with researchers and humanitarian Responders captured a representative sample of differentresponders, including those at the World Bank, to help building classes, including residential, educational, commercial,better support housing recovery after major disasters.government, and medical facilitiesand facilitated a rapid assessment that assigned global damage ratings to overThis model can help vulnerable 12,500 buildings. communities worldwide more swiftly Next, remote engineers used machine learning to analyzelearn from disasters and build back approximately 40,000 collected images and identifybetter to reduce future risk.some 200 homes that were built using traditional Haitian On this page: Rubble resulting from damage to structures during Haitis deadly earthquake in August 2021.907 | 2023-24 Annual Review'