  Cities are complex systems comprised of socioeconomic systems relying on
critical services delivered by multiple physical infrastructure networks. Due
to interdependencies between social and physical systems, disruptions caused by
natural hazards may cascade across systems, amplifying the impact of disasters.
Despite the increasing threat posed by climate change and rapid urban growth,
how to design interdependencies between social and physical systems to achieve
resilient cities have been largely unexplored. Here, we study the
socio-physical interdependencies in urban systems and their effects on disaster
recovery and resilience, using large-scale mobility data collected from Puerto
Rico during Hurricane Maria. We find that as cities grow in scale and expand
their centralized infrastructure systems, the recovery efficiency of critical
services improves, however, curtails the self-reliance of socio-economic
systems during crises. Results show that maintaining self-reliance among social
systems could be key in developing resilient urban socio-physical systems for
cities facing rapid urban growth.
