Empirical Analysis of Building Permits in Response to Hurricane Landfalls

摘要

Each year, hurricanes cause massive amounts of damage around the world. Because the construction industry plays an important role in almost every aspect of mitigation and recovery efforts, a high priority shall be given to identify ways in which the industry is affected by hurricanes and rebounds afterward. The disruption of building construction is discussed, and the statistical relationship between hurricane landfalls and observed changes in new building permits at the county level is investigated in the paper. The result shows that a storm can have either a temporary or permanent impact on a community but not both. For the temporary impact case, the level of construction activities is lowered in some counties in the sample following a hurricane landfall but quickly recovers to the prestorm norm. In contrast, the permanent impact shifts the mean value of the time series and results in lasting losses in future years. The observed disparity could be used to assess the capability of coastal communities to withstand future risks. The results are further discussed in the context of physical damages estimated from software and capitals contributing to disaster resiliency. (C) 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.