Rebuilding in conflict-affected built environments: a simulation-based framework

Two billion people—a quarter of the global population—currently live in war-affected areas. As conflicts become increasingly present in urban areas, not only are human lives at risk from the immediate threats of violence, but displacement, destruction of infrastructure, and inability to rebuild resilient communities persist even after periods of active conflict end.

Determining the methods of rebuilding is a multifaceted challenge without an obvious solution. While remote technology has proven to be helpful in civil engineering disaster reconnaissance and structural assessment data collection, the integration with current workflows is still in progress. After accurate building assessments are made remotely, the data must be analyzed to plan recovery efforts. There is a gap in the literature on the possibility of using a simulation-based framework to assess damage inflicted by military conflict and developing a methodology to utilize assessments to repair and rebuild partially damaged structures.

This study developed a simulation-based framework for repairing partially damaged buildings in post-conflict areas. To showcase this, a case study of a typical apartment damaged by conflict in Kyiv, Ukraine, was considered. Energy modeling tools, LadyBug and HoneyBee, were used to analyze the performance of the buildings. Results from the case study preliminarily showed an 47.2% reduction in annual energy demand after repairs.

In the future, additional factors—such as a financial investigation—would need to be analyzed in order to fully understand the impact. Overall, by incorporating experiences of buildings in conflict zones into these workflows, the rebuilding process can be more efficient and effective to allow affected communities to recover.