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| CIMA Disaster Recovery Platform |
Over the summer, and now into this Fall semester, I have been working on an amazing project called CIMA (Convergence, Inventory, Matching & Assignment). I would like to share my excitement for this project and bring attention to the problems it is working to solve.
The frequency of disasters in the United States is increasing year after year. When disasters occur, homes are damaged and many victims are often left displaced in the aftermath. With a lack of resources, Low-to-Moderate Income (LMI) and medically fragile households tend to experience lengthy periods of displacement, much longer than other groups. Lengthy recovery periods are associated with increased pain and suffering and reduced longevity. These disparities in recovery times across population groups pose fundamental equity and injustice concerns. Getting displaced households quickly back on their feet through housing recovery not only helps lessen disparate health, educational, and economic impacts but also helps to bring back a sense of security and peace of mind to our communities.
In a broader context, members of the project first identified the drivers behind differences in recovery times. Often there is a disconnect between the repair needs of displaced, vulnerable households and the resources flowing into the impacted region. Not all households are able to efficiently connect with the volunteer labor and donated materials flowing into the impacted region. This misalignment between the material/labor supplies and the needs of particularly vulnerable households is a critical pain point in American recovery efforts. Understanding the problem and conceptualizing a practical solution has been the North Star of the project.
CIMA is a Web platform created by Dr. Katherine Smith, Dr. Joshua Behr, and Dr. Rafael Diaz of Old Dominion University and Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC) for aiding in housing recovery efforts. It aims to bring about better collaboration and coordination among organizers and local recovery organizations in order to shorten displacement times and bring relief to victims of disasters sooner rather than later. CIMA helps to aid vulnerable populations by prioritizing both resources and scheduling for households most likely to experience lengthy recovery times. Through the use of CIMA, recovery efforts can be completed with much less friction by addressing scheduling, logistics, and reporting pain points. The CIMA platform is deployable for individual recovery organizations, such as Volunteer Organizations Assisting Disasters (VOADs), as well as recovery partnerships, such as Long-Term Recovery Groups (LTRGs) that consist of multiple recovery organizations. The number and functions of the various organizations involved in housing recovery varies greatly from one disaster to the next. Through the CIMA platform, there is enhanced visibility and coordination across these groups.
The CIMA platform has undergone extensive design and development over several years. The project is nearing completion as work moves into more final stages, to be followed by adoption within the recovery environment and adoption by those organizations preparing for their next recovery effort. We are excited to share our progress and see the platform having a community impact.
Below is a brief demo of the CIMA Web application in its very early stages of development. I will share further developments down the road as we improve the application and it reaches a more mature release stage.
- David