Bridging interactions and robustness of inter-community structures in disaster response systems: A hypergraph-based analysis

Disaster response systems (DRS) are critical infrastructures that must remain functional under disruptive conditions. Due to the inherently modular nature of response operations, DRS often exhibit mesoscale inter-community structures that play a pivotal role in system-wide coordination and resilience. However, existing studies have largely overlooked the structural robustness of these inter-community patterns. To address this gap, we propose a hypergraph-based framework for modelling DRS, where hyperedges naturally capture high-order interactions among organizations. Within this framework, we focus on bridging interactions – hyperedges that connect different communities – and develop a metric to quantify their structural strength under perturbations. We then assess the robustness of inter-community structures through hypergraph dismantling experiments under random node failures and targeted attacks. Our results reveal that the fracturing of strong bridging interactions does not necessarily lead to system disintegration. Some weak bridging interactions act as important structural stabilisers. Moreover, we identify robustness-enhancing hubs, whose emergence is jointly determined by their hyperdegree and the strength of associated bridging interactions. By integrating hypergraph modelling with robustness analysis at the mesoscale level, this study contributes a novel analytical perspective and practical tools for understanding and improving the resilience of complex emergency coordination networks.