Ali Asgary

Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies » Faculty & Staff » Faculty Profiles

Professor
Director, CIFAL York
Executive Director, ADERSIM

Office: Disaster & Emergency Management, School of Administrative Studies, tkinson College, 232
Phone: 416-736-2100 Ext: 22879
Email: asgary@yorku.ca
Primary website: DEM, SAS
Secondary website: ADERSIM

Attached CV

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Ali Asgary is an expert in disaster, emergency and business continuity management. He has been actively involved in research, teaching and professional activities in these fields since 1993. His research has been published in leading disaster and emergency management journals including Disasters, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, International Journal of Disaster Science, Disaster Prevention and Management, Environmental Hazards, International Journal Of Emergency Management, International Journal of Business Continuity and Risk Managemnet, Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, and International Journal of Emergency Services among others. He was among the funding faculty members who started the first university program in Disaster & Emergency Management in Canada at Brandon University in 2003 and later on among the funding faculty embers who started Disaster & Emergency Management at York University. Dr. Asgary served as the IAEM Canada president between 2007-2009 and as the board member of IAEM during the same period. He has led as a PI, Co-PI and collaborator in a large number of research projects funded by different agencies including NSERC, GEOIDE, SSHRC, PreCarn, CIHR, NFRF, ORF, Transport Canada, Public Safety Canada, Wellcome Trust, IDRC, and DRDC. Since 2015 Dr. asgary has been the executive director of York University's Advanced Disaster, Emergency and Rapid-response Simulation (ADERSIM). His research interests include post disaster recovery and reconstruction, business continuity and risk assessment, disaster and emergency simulations and modeling, applications of AI, VR, AR and MR, and geomatics in disaster and emergency management, and cost-benefit analysis and decision making under uncertainty.

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Degrees

PhD, University of Newcastle< Newcastle upon Tyne, England
MA, University of Tehran
BA, University of Tehran

Appointments

Faculty of Graduate Studies

Professional Leadership

Past President, IAEM-CANADA (International Association of Emergency Managers).
Executive Director, Advanced Disaster, Emergency and Rapid-response Simulation (ADERSIM)
Director, CIFAL York

Research Interests

Emergency Management , Urban Planning/Design, Disaster Simulation and Modeling, Business Continuity, Decision support systems, GIS, AI, VR, AR, and MR applications in disaster and emergency management, Post disaster recovery and reconstruction

Current Research Projects

Predictive modeling and forecasting of the transmission of COVID-19 in Africa using Artificial Intelligence

Summary:

York University has joined forces with epidemiologists, modelers, physicists, statisticians, software engineers, and data scientists across Africa to integrate the power of predictive modelling and simulations with the capacity of a comprehensive COVID-19 monitoring dashboard that will be used to predict epidemic trends and inform decision-making and real-time management across Africa.

Description:

Role: Co-Applicant

Start Date:

Month:

Year:

End Date:

Month:

Year:

Funders:
International Development and Research Centre (IDRC),

Radar-based All-Weather Roadway Safety System

Summary:

Radar-based All-Weather Roadway Safety System for First Responders

Role: Co-PI

Start Date:

Month:

Year:

End Date:

Month:

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Collaborator: Dr. Peter Park
Collaborator Institution: York Regional Police, AUG signals
Funders:
DRDC

Advanced Disaster, Emergency and Rapid Response Simulation Facility, Ontario Research Fund (ORF), ORF Research Infrastructure

Role: Co-Lead

Start Date:

Month:

Year:

End Date:

Month:

Year:

Funders:
Ontario Research Fund (ORF), ORF Research Infrastructure

Advanced Disaster, Emergency and Rapid Response Simulation, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)

Role: Co-PI

Start Date:

Month:

Year:

End Date:

Month:

Year:

Funders:
NSERC

Building Bridges across Social and Computational Sciences: Using Big Data to Inform Humanitarian Policy and Interventions

Role: Co-investigator

Start Date:

Month:

Year:

End Date:

Month:

Year:

Funders:
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)

Crisis Management: Case of School Shooting

Role: Collaborator

Development of a Rule-Based Structural Fire Threat Assessment System for Canadian Fire Departments

Funders:
Precarn

Joint Emergency Preparedness Program - Program Safety Canada

Funders:
SSHRC

REAL-TIME MULTI-CRITERIA SPATIAL DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS: IMPROVING FIRE RESPONSE IN CANADIAN COMMUNITIES

Role: Principle Investigator

Determinants of Business Continuity Planning in Canada: Estimating Business’ Willingness to Pay for Power Outage Mitigation and Preparedness Using Stated Choice Analysis

Role: Principle Investigator

Real-time oil spill detection using Laser-Induced Fluorescence LIDAR, Internet-based Temporal-GIS, and Mobile Emergency Asset Management

Role: Co-Investigator

Articles
Papers/Reports

Journal Articles

Publication

Year

Asgary A., Nosedal-Sanchez, J., Pantin, B., Wu, J., and Shafei-Sabet, M., “Testing and validating a disaster mutual assistance decision support tool for electricity companies”, Int. J. Business Continuity and Risk Management, 2017, 7(4).

2017

Asgary, A., Pantin, B., Emamgholizadeh Saiir, B., and Wu, J., (2017) "Developing disaster mutual assistance decision criteria for electricity industry", Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, Vol. 26 Iss: 2, pp.230 – 240.

2017

ASGARY, ALI. Business Continuity and Disaster Risk Management in Business Education: Case of York University. AD-minister [online]. 2016, n.28 [cited 2016-09-05], pp.49-72. Available from: . ISSN 1692-0279. http://dx.doi.org/10.17230/ad-minister.28.3.

2016

Asgary A., Ansari S., Duncan R., and Pradhan S., “Mapping potential airplane hazards and risks using airline traffic DATA”, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, Volume 13, September 2015, pp. 276-280.

2015

Juan Pablo Sarmiento, Gabriela Hoberman, Maria Ilcheva, Ali Asgary, Ana Maria Majano, Sarah Poggione, Luis R. Duran, Private sector and disaster risk reduction: The Cases of Bogota, Miami, Kingston, San Jose, Santiago, and Vancouver, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction.

2014

Sadeghi-Naini A. and Asgary A. , (2013) "Modeling number of firefighters responding to an incident using artificial neural networks", International Journal of Emergency Services, Vol. 2 Iss: 2, pp.104 – 118.

2013

Ali Asgary, Nooreddin Azimi, Muhammad Imtiaz Anjum, (2013) Measuring small businesses disaster resiliency: case of small businesses impacted by the 2010 flood in Pakistan, International Journal of Business Continuity and Risk Management, 4(2), 170-187.

2013

Asgary A, Anjum MI, Azimi N, (2013) "Disaster recovery and business continuity after the 2010 flood in Pakistan: Case of small businesses", International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2, 46-56.

2013

Mojtaba Rafieian, Ali Asgary, (2013) "Impacts of temporary housing on housing reconstruction after the Bam earthquake", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 22 Iss: 1, pp.63 - 74.

2013

Azimia, N., Asgary, A., 2013, Rural residents and choice of building earthquake-resistant house: results of a choice experiment study, Environmental Hazards.

2013

Asgary, A., Moeini, S.M., Mehregan, N., 2012, Willingness to pay for enhancing local emergency preparedness programmes: evidences from Canada, International Journal of Emergency Management, Vol. 8, No. 2, PP.168-181.

2012

Asgary, A., Sadeghi Naini, A., Levy, J., 2012, Modeling the risk of structural fire incidents using a self-organizing map, Fire Safety Journal, Volume 49, Pages 1-9.

2012

Asgary A., Halim A., (2011), “Measuring Peoples’ Preferences for Cyclone Vulnerability Reduction Measures in Bangladesh”, Journal of Disaster Prevention and Management 20 (2), 186-198.

2011

Asgary , Ali; Rezvani, Mohammad Reza and Mehregan , Nader (2011): Local Residents’ Preferences for Second Home Tourism Development Policies: A Choice Experiment nalysis. Published in: TOURISMOS: An International Multidisciplinary Journal of Tourism , Vol. 6, No. 1 (15. April 2011): pp. 31-51.

2011

Asgary, A. and Naini, A. S. (2011) , MODELLING THE ADAPTATION OF BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING BY BUSINESSES USING NEURAL NETWORKS. Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management. doi: 10.1002/isaf.326

2011

Asgary, A. and Y. Mousavi-Jahromi, 2011. Power outage, business continuity and businesses' choices of power outage mitigation measures. Am. J. Econ. Bus. Admin., 3: 312-320.

2011

Mehregan N., Asgary A., and Rezaei M., 2011, “Disasters and employment changes: impacts of the Bam earthquake on employment structure using shift-share analysis”, Disasters, 17 NOV 2011, DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7717.2011.01268.x

2011

Paulus, Jeremy and Asgary, Ali (2011) "Enhancing Border Security: Local Values and Preferences at the Blue Water Bridge (Point Edward, Canada)," Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management: Vol. 7 (1), Article 77.

2011

Bagheri, Ali, Darijani, Musa, Asgary, Ali, and Morid, Saeid, 2010, “Crisis in Urban Water Systems during the Reconstruction Period: A System Dynamics Analysis of Alternative Policies after the 2003 Earthquake in Bam-Iran, Water Resource Management, 0920-4741, 1573-1650.

2010

Asgary Ali, Ghaffari Alireza, and Levy Jason, 2010, “Spatial and Temporal Analysis of Structural Fire Incidents and Their Causes: A Case of Toronto, Canada”, Fire Safety Journal, 45 (1), 44-57.

2010

Asgary Ali, Spatial and Temporal Analysis of Structural Fire Incidents and Their Causes: A Case of Toronto, Canada, Fire Safety Journal, 2010, 45 (1), 44-57.

2010

Asgary Ali, 2010, “Spatial Patterns and Distribution of Disasters in the OIC Member Countries”, Arab World Geographers, 12 (1,2).

2010

Asgary Ali, Sadeghi Alireza, and Levy, Jason, 2009, “INTELLIGENT SECURITY SYSTEMS ENGINEERING FOR MODELING FIRE CRITICAL INCIDENTS: TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE SECURITY”, J Syst Sci Syst Eng, 1861-9576

2009

Asgary Ali, Levey Jason and Mehregan Nader, 2007, “Estimating Willingness to Pay for a Hypothethical Earthquake Early Warning System”, Environmental Hazards 7, 312-320

2007

Levy, J.K., Hartmann, J., Li, K.W., An, Y. & Asgary, A. (2007) Multi-criteria Decision Support Systems for Flood Hazard Mitigation and Emergency Response in Urban Watersheds, Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 43(2):1-13.

2007

Asgary, A., Klosterman, R. and Razani, A., 2007, “Sustainable Urban Growth Management Using What-If?”, International Journal of Environmental Research, 1(3): 218-230.

2007

Bagheri A., Asgary A., Rafiean M., and Levy J., 2006. “Measuring Urban Water System Performance: A Fuzzy Inference Model Approach”, Journal of the American Water Works Association, 98(11): 84-92.

2006

Badri S.A., Asgary A., Eftekhari, AR., and Levy J., 2006, “Post Disaster Resettlement, Development and Change: 12 Years after Manjil Earthquake”, Disasters, 30 (4): 451-468.

2006

Burns C., Asgary A., and Levy J., (2005), “Operator support for ageing nuclear critical infrastructure systems: integrating ecological interface design with prospect theory, Int. J. Critical Infrastructures, 4(1): 299-311.

2005

Asgary A., Willis K.G., Taghvaei A.A., and Rafiean M., (2004), "Estimating Rural Households Willingness to Pay for Health Insurance", European Journal of Health Economics, 5(3): 209-215.

2004

Eftekhari A.R., Asgary Ali, and Taherkhani Mahdi, 2002, “Industrial Districts and Rural Development: A case Study of Markazi Province”, Asia-Pacific Journal of Rural Development, XII(2):47-60.

2002

Asgary A., Willis K.G., and Hosseini, (2000), “The Impacts of Caspian Sea Level Rise on the Housing Market”, Journal of Humanities, 7(4):1-8.

2000

Asgary Ali, and Willis K.G., (1997), “Estimating the Benefits of Construction Measures to Mitigate Earthquake Risk”, Environment & Planning B, Planning and Design, 24:613-624.

1997

Asgary Ali and Willis K.G., (1997), “Households’ Behavior in Response to Earthquake Risk: An Assessment of Alternative Theories”, International Journal of Disaster Studies, Policy and Management, 21(4).

1997

Degrees

PhD, University of Newcastle< Newcastle upon Tyne, England
MA, University of Tehran
BA, University of Tehran

Appointments

Faculty of Graduate Studies

Professional Leadership

Past President, IAEM-CANADA (International Association of Emergency Managers).
Executive Director, Advanced Disaster, Emergency and Rapid-response Simulation (ADERSIM)
Director, CIFAL York

Research Interests

Current Research Projects

Predictive modeling and forecasting of the transmission of COVID-19 in Africa using Artificial Intelligence

Summary:

Description:

Project Type:

Role:

Start Date:

Month:

Year:

End Date:

Month:

Year:

Funders:

Radar-based All-Weather Roadway Safety System

Summary:

Radar-based All-Weather Roadway Safety System for First Responders

Project Type:

Role:

Start Date:

Month:

Year:

End Date:

Month:

Year:

Collaborator:

Collaborator Institution:

Funders:

Advanced Disaster, Emergency and Rapid Response Simulation Facility, Ontario Research Fund (ORF), ORF Research Infrastructure

Project Type:

Role:

Start Date:

Month:

Year:

End Date:

Month:

Year:

Funders:

Advanced Disaster, Emergency and Rapid Response Simulation, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)

Project Type:

Role:

Start Date:

Month:

Year:

End Date:

Month:

Year:

Funders:

Building Bridges across Social and Computational Sciences: Using Big Data to Inform Humanitarian Policy and Interventions

Project Type:

Role:

Start Date:

Month:

Year:

End Date:

Month:

Year:

Funders:

Crisis Management: Case of School Shooting

Role:

Development of a Rule-Based Structural Fire Threat Assessment System for Canadian Fire Departments

Project Type:

Funders:

Joint Emergency Preparedness Program - Program Safety Canada

Funders:

REAL-TIME MULTI-CRITERIA SPATIAL DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS: IMPROVING FIRE RESPONSE IN CANADIAN COMMUNITIES

Project Type:

Role:

All Publications

Journal Articles

Publication

Year

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

Asgary A, Anjum MI, Azimi N, (2013) "Disaster recovery and business continuity after the 2010 flood in Pakistan: Case of small businesses", International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2, 46-56.

2013

Mojtaba Rafieian, Ali Asgary, (2013) "Impacts of temporary housing on housing reconstruction after the Bam earthquake", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 22 Iss: 1, pp.63 - 74.

2013

Azimia, N., Asgary, A., 2013, Rural residents and choice of building earthquake-resistant house: results of a choice experiment study, Environmental Hazards.

2013

2012

Asgary, A., Sadeghi Naini, A., Levy, J., 2012, Modeling the risk of structural fire incidents using a self-organizing map, Fire Safety Journal, Volume 49, Pages 1-9.

2012

Asgary A., Halim A., (2011), “Measuring Peoples’ Preferences for Cyclone Vulnerability Reduction Measures in Bangladesh”, Journal of Disaster Prevention and Management 20 (2), 186-198.

2011

Asgary, A. and Y. Mousavi-Jahromi, 2011. Power outage, business continuity and businesses' choices of power outage mitigation measures. Am. J. Econ. Bus. Admin., 3: 312-320.

2011

2010

Asgary Ali, Ghaffari Alireza, and Levy Jason, 2010, “Spatial and Temporal Analysis of Structural Fire Incidents and Their Causes: A Case of Toronto, Canada”, Fire Safety Journal, 45 (1), 44-57.

2010

Asgary Ali, Spatial and Temporal Analysis of Structural Fire Incidents and Their Causes: A Case of Toronto, Canada, Fire Safety Journal, 2010, 45 (1), 44-57.

2010

Asgary Ali, 2010, “Spatial Patterns and Distribution of Disasters in the OIC Member Countries”, Arab World Geographers, 12 (1,2).

2010

Asgary Ali, Sadeghi Alireza, and Levy, Jason, 2009, “INTELLIGENT SECURITY SYSTEMS ENGINEERING FOR MODELING FIRE CRITICAL INCIDENTS: TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE SECURITY”, J Syst Sci Syst Eng, 1861-9576

2009

Asgary Ali, Levey Jason and Mehregan Nader, 2007, “Estimating Willingness to Pay for a Hypothethical Earthquake Early Warning System”, Environmental Hazards 7, 312-320

2007

Asgary, A., Klosterman, R. and Razani, A., 2007, “Sustainable Urban Growth Management Using What-If?”, International Journal of Environmental Research, 1(3): 218-230.

2007

2006

Badri S.A., Asgary A., Eftekhari, AR., and Levy J., 2006, “Post Disaster Resettlement, Development and Change: 12 Years after Manjil Earthquake”, Disasters, 30 (4): 451-468.

2006

2005

Asgary A., Willis K.G., Taghvaei A.A., and Rafiean M., (2004), "Estimating Rural Households Willingness to Pay for Health Insurance", European Journal of Health Economics, 5(3): 209-215.

2004

Eftekhari A.R., Asgary Ali, and Taherkhani Mahdi, 2002, “Industrial Districts and Rural Development: A case Study of Markazi Province”, Asia-Pacific Journal of Rural Development, XII(2):47-60.

2002

Asgary A., Willis K.G., and Hosseini, (2000), “The Impacts of Caspian Sea Level Rise on the Housing Market”, Journal of Humanities, 7(4):1-8.

2000

Asgary Ali, and Willis K.G., (1997), “Estimating the Benefits of Construction Measures to Mitigate Earthquake Risk”, Environment & Planning B, Planning and Design, 24:613-624.

1997

Conference Proceedings

Publication

Year

Ali Asgary, Alireza Ghaffari, and Albert Kong, Automated Intelligent Emergency Assessment of GTA Pipeline Events, ASME Conf. Proc. 2010, 413 (2010), DOI:10.1115/IPC2010-31006

2010

Upcoming Courses

Term	Course Number	Section	Title	Type
Summer 2025	GS/DEMS5010 3.0	A	Advanced Disaster & Emergency Management	BLEN