Resilience and inequality growth monitoring after disaster using indicators based on energy production

TL;DR

This study develops indicators based on energy production to monitor resilience and inequality growth after natural disasters, demonstrated through Hurricane Irma's impact on Caribbean territories, revealing resilience differences and inequality increases.

Contribution

Introduces specific energy-based indicators for resilience and inequality growth analysis post-disaster, applied to Hurricane Irma case study, highlighting disparities between territories.

Findings

Energy production decreased significantly after Hurricane Irma.

Saint Barthelemy recovered energy production faster than Saint Martin.

Inequality between territories increased during resilience recovery.

Abstract

The estimation of resilience and the determination of inequality growth after a disaster is often difficult. In this study, specific indicators were developed to analyze resilience, and the trajectories of resilience were compared. Energy production is relevant for describing variations in social and economic activities. This indicator was applied to a case study of a natural disaster, that is Hurricane Irma in 2017. The hurricane caused fatalities and destruction in the Caribbean islands of Saint Martin and Saint Barthelemy, which are two French overseas territories. Energy production after Hurricane Irma exhibited a significant decrease due to the destruction of the electricity network as well as perturbations in economic and social activities. The energy production restoration rate was higher in Saint Barthelemy than in Saint Martin. The electricity restoration rate after a disaster was almost constant. However, the energy production 18 months after Hurricane Irma was identical to that before Hurricane Irma in Saint Barthelemy; this was not the case in Saint Martin. During resilience, an increase in the gap between energy production in Saint Barthelemy and Saint Martin was observed. This study indicated that this gap represents an inequality growth between Saint Barthelemy (gross domestic product (GDP) of 40 000 euros/inhabitant) and Saint Martin (GDP of 16 600 euros/inhabitant). The indicators emphasized that inequality growth after natural disasters favors less vulnerable and more resilient territories. The number of inhabitants must be considered during indicator construction to avoid any bias.