Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Meaning of Place Recovery on the Mississippi Coast

博士论文研究：密西西比海岸地区恢复的意义

• 批准号: 1301830
• 负责人: Susan Cutter
• 金额: $ 1.3万
• 依托单位: University of South Carolina at Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-06-01 至 2015-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1301830&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Meaning; Place

This doctoral dissertation research project investigates long-term recovery following a catastrophic disaster and how such recovery is represented through personal accounts and quantitative indicators. Recovery, especially in the long-term, is the least understood phase in the disaster cycle. Current research often equates recovery with the rebuilding of infrastructure, the repopulation of affected areas, or the return of regional economic activity. Assessment techniques that rely solely on aggregate metrics, while valid, could potentially mask small-scale differences in the recovery experiences and outcomes of local neighborhoods and social groups. Place plays a substantial role in mediating the recovery process for disaster survivors. It serves as a governing entity that establishes recovery guidelines, but also provides a social community and a symbolic landscape containing individual and group histories. This study uses the Mississippi Coast as a site for exploring the long-term recovery process over an eight-year period since Hurricane Katrina. The study first examines what recovery means to local residents, and whether or not differences exist on the basis of social position and geographic background. Second, the study explores whether there are differences between these experiential perspectives on recovery and empirically-based assessments. Semi-structured interviews, photo elicitation, and a participatory mapping exercise will document perceptions of residents about the spatial, functional, and symbolic recovery of their community. Thematic comparisons of these qualitative data and spatial comparisons of participant maps performed in a geographic information system (GIS) isolate differences in perspectives of residents. Quantitative indicators based on long-term population, economic, and housing reconstruction data are then constructed. A spatial clustering algorithm is used to compare the timing, degree, and spatial extent of recovery described by the indicators with perspectives of residents gleaned through qualitative methods. The aim of this research is to develop a theoretical model of place recovery and a methodology for integrating multiple types of place-based knowledge.The results of this study will enhance recovery research, planning, and policy in a variety of ways. The generation of a nuanced, place-based recovery model sensitive to a diversity of recovery experiences will advance interdisciplinary instruction and research on this phase of the disaster cycle. The inclusion of local recovery knowledge as part of a larger-scale benchmarking procedure will assist state and local recovery leaders in more efficiently targeting the unmet needs of traditionally underrepresented groups, in particular, women, the elderly, and people of color, who are targeted in this study. The development of such a participatory methodology in which residents define and assess local recovery is widely applicable to other disaster-impacted locations. Engaging residents in action research also has the potential to empower participants and enhance community resilience by bolstering efficacy in the recovery process. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award will provide support to enable a promising student to establish an independent research career.

该博士学位论文研究项目调查了灾难性灾难后的长期恢复，以及如何通过个人帐户和定量指标代表这种恢复。恢复，尤其是从长远来看，是灾难周期中最不知情的阶段。当前的研究通常将恢复等同于基础设施的重建，受影响地区的重建或区域经济活动的回归。虽然有效的虽然有效，但虽然有效的评估技术可能会掩盖当地社区和社会群体的恢复经验和结果的小规模差异。广场在调解灾难幸存者的恢复过程中起着重要作用。它是建立恢复指南的管理实体，但还提供了一个社会社区和象征性的景观，其中包含个人和团体历史。这项研究使用密西西比州海岸作为自卡特里娜飓风以来八年来探索长期恢复过程的场所。该研究首先检查了恢复对当地居民的意义，以及是否基于社会地位和地理背景存在差异。其次，该研究探讨了这些经验观点对恢复和基于经验评估的观点之间是否存在差异。半结构化访谈，照片启发和参与式地图练习将记录居民对其社区空间，功能和象征性恢复的看法。这些定性数据和参与者图的空间比较的主题比较在地理信息系统（GIS）孤立居民观点的孤立差异中进行了比较。然后构建基于长期人口，经济和住房重建数据的定量指标。空间聚类算法用于比较指标描述的时间，程度和空间恢复量的恢复量，其视角通过定性方法收集的居民。这项研究的目的是开发一个理论模型的地点恢复和整合多种基于地点知识的方法。本研究的结果将以各种方式增强恢复研究，计划和政策。对各种恢复经验敏感的细微差别，基于地点的恢复模型将在灾难周期的这一阶段提高跨学科的指导和研究。将本地恢复知识作为大规模基准测试程序的一部分，将有助于州和地方恢复领导者更有效地针对传统代表性不足的群体的未满足的需求，尤其是妇女，老年人，有色人种和有色人种。这种参与方法的发展，居民定义和评估当地恢复广泛适用于其他受灾地点。吸引居民进行行动研究也有可能通过增强恢复过程中的疗效来增强参与者的能力并增强社区的韧性。作为博士学位论文研究改进奖，该奖项将提供支持，使有前途的学生能够建立独立的研究职业。