Articles | Volume 26, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-26-4763-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-26-4763-2026
Research article
 | 
02 Oct 2026
Research article |  | 02 Oct 2026

A quantitative methodology for analysing physical damage and recovery dynamics from concurrent and consecutive hazards: forensic insights from Puerto Rico

Alessandro Borre, Daria Ottonelli, Eva Trasforini, Tatiana Ghizzoni, Roberto Rudari, Giacomo Zoppi, Giorgio Boni, and Silvia De Angeli

Model code and software

Multi-Hazard Impact Assessment Framework Alessandro Borre and Silvia De Angeli https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22773741

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Short summary
This study presents a quantitative method to capture how damage caused by concurrent and consecutive hazard events evolves, including how earlier damage and ongoing recovery affect later events. Applied to a sequence of hurricanes and earthquakes in Puerto Rico, it shows that ignoring residual damage significantly underestimates the impacts caused by consecutive events.  By accounting for recovery and interaction effects, the method supports more realistic damage assessment and risk planning.
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