Title:
In the Shadow of the Volcano: Human Health and Community
Resilience following Forced Evacuation
Funding Agency: Center
for Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (CDMHA)
Amount:
$139,050
PI:
Graham Tobin, Ph.D.1, Linda Whiteford, Ph.D.2
Affiliation:
1) Dept. of Geography, 2) Dept. of Anthropology, University of South Florida
Contact Info:
4202 E. Fowler Ave., SOC 107
Tampa, FL 33620-8100
(813) 974-4932
gtobin@chuma1.cas.usf.edu,
lindaw@chuma1.cas.usf.edu
In the last decades
of the 20th century, disaster research has focused on the nexus between
extreme geophysical events and sociocultural responses. Attention has been
devoted to the prevention of disasters through better building construction,
management of the natural environment, and the location of populations. Regardless
of this preparation, a high degree of risk remains and consequently millions
of people continue to live in the shadow of disaster. This research examines
both the impacts of these disasters on people's lives, particularly on their
health, and the longer-term affects on community stability. The focus of this
project is how communities recover from disaster, i.e. their resilience.
Based on continuing
research near the Tungurahua volcano in Ecuador, the investigators will test
the effects of evacuation on infectious disease patterns, exposure to volcanic
ash, and community resilience. They will focus on: a) Public Health, particularly
infectious disease, consequences of large-scale population movement such as
evacuation; and b) comparative analysis of the resilience of three communities
in the shadow of an active volcano. This project extends the investigators'
previous research in the area and brings together researchers from the United
States and Ecuador with differing expertise in geographical information systems
(GIS), epidemiology, volcanology, natural hazards, public health, and infectious
disease. Methodology will include archival demographic data, physical geography,
medical anthropology, and health tracking through GIS. Results will be shared
with the US and Ecuadorian governments to facilitate better future evacuations
and to mitigate their potential negative health consequences. Additionally,
data generated will help formulate a theoretical framework to explain (i) how
some communities appear to be more resilient than others, and (ii) model those
variables that create and maintain community resilience.
Title:
Choosing a Paradigm for Disaster Recovery
Funding Agency: Center
for Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (CDMHA)
Amount:
$128,054
PI:
William J. Siembieda, Ph.D.
Affiliation:
Professor and Head, Dept. of City and Regional Planning
California Polytechnic State University,
San Luis Obispo
Contact Info:
Dept. of City and Regional Planning
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis
Obispo
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
(805) 756-1315
wsiembie@calpoly.edu
The ability of
people and communities to recover from disaster depends on factors linked to
their socioeconomic status and a set of societal relations existing before a
disaster. This project examines how community groups choose between a return
to normalcy path (paradigm A) or a transformative path (paradigm B), wherein
they transform their relations with society (donors, government, employer, social
groups) in ways that are sustainable. The multi-national team of researchers
will field studies of nine communities in four countries (Mexico, El Salvador,
Honduras, and Nicaragua). For each community, a profile will be made (location,
demographics, assets, relations with external groups), a survey completed, local
interviews conducted, and a set of variables related to disaster recovery choices
and actions will be scored on a scale. The extent of existing legal frameworks
under which communities participate in disaster mitigation actions will be examined
to determine the level of involvement actually achieved. Asset based and Access
Vulnerability models serve to organize data sets and to incorporate time into
the dynamics of response and mitigation. This project provides information
that will inform the emerging international strategy to include mitigation plans
in development programs. It provides a comparative view of community-based
decision-making under conditions of stress. The study design and focus supports
the research agenda of the Social Sciences Network for the Prevention of Disasters
in Latin America (a regional ten-country consortium).
Title:
Disaster Learning, Poder Convocatorio,
and Coordination in Six Latin American Countries
Funding Agency: Center
for Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (CDMHA)
Amount:
$122,586
PI:
Richard S. Olson, Ph.D.
Affiliation:
Dept. of Political Science
Florida International University
Contact Info:
University Park, DM 480
Miami, FL 33199
(305) 348-6398
olsonr@fiu.edu
The key to more
effective national-level disaster response in Latin America and the Caribbean
(LAC) is the ability to actually coordinate efforts by an increasingly
wide variety of organizations: government ministries, external donors, militaries,
non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and civil society broadly understood.
In the foreseeable future few, if any, national governments in the LAC region
will have the resources to create an emergency management organization capable
of responding on its own to anything more than small- to medium-sized disaster
events. Therefore, poder convocatorio
(convoking authority) is everything if improvements are to be made in coordinating
multi-organization and multi-sector responses to major disasters.
This project examines
changes (or lack thereof) in the poder convocatorio of national emergency
organizations in six countries struck by disasters in recent years: Peru, Bolivia,
and Ecuador (the El Niño of 1997-98), the Dominican Republic (Hurricane Georges
in 1998), and Honduras and Nicaragua (Hurricane Mitch in 1998). A case study
approach will be used. The principal data sources will be i) media coverage
and reports; ii) document review, including legislation, decrees, policy or
organization announcements, and government publications; and most importantly,
iii) key actor interviews in each of the countries. The 12-15 structured but
open-ended interviews per country will allow inter-sectoral as well as cross-national
comparisons.
Title:
Assessing Disaster Vulnerability at the Community Level: A Pilot
Research Project with Low-Income Women’s Groups in the Dominican Republic and
St. Lucia
Funding Agency: Center
for Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (CDMHA)
Amount:
$119,918
PI:
Elaine Enarson, Ph.D., Betty Morrow, Ph.D.
Affiliation: International
Hurricane Center, Florida International University
Contact Info:
University Park
Miami, FL 33199
(305) 348-1607
morrowb@fiu.edu
This project uses
a gender perspective to investigate how development patterns affect disaster
vulnerability of women and men in the Caribbean, with a special focus on low-income
women and women maintaining households. Responding to the call for more participatory,
community-based, and gender-focused disaster social science, it builds on local
community knowledge and engages low-income women as the subjects rather than
objects of disaster social science. The project forges a partnership between
outside researchers knowledgeable about gender, development, and disasters and
local women knowledgeable about specific political-economic and social conditions
affecting women's vulnerability and utilizing this knowledge to effect social
change.
The investigators
will work with consultants in the Dominican Republic and St. Lucia to develop
and pilot an action research model and use four grassroots women's organizations.
The investigators will train these women in research and communication, and
will collaborate with them to conduct primary community-based research on disaster
vulnerability and resilience, resulting in the development of Community Vulnerability
Profiles at each location. Additionally, the investigators and women's groups
will collaborate with local emergency managers, disaster practitioners, and
other community-based groups to develop of a bilingual set of guidelines for
engaging low-income women in the assessment of local capacity and vulnerability.
This collaboration
of at-risk women, researchers, and disaster practitioners fosters recognition
of the specific needs and resources of low-income women and women who maintain
households, and encourages networking between vulnerable social groups and designated
emergency planners and responders.
Title:
The Impact of Occupational Stress and Burnout on Attrition in Deployed
and Non-Deployed Army Medical Personnel
Funding Agency: Center
for Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (CDMHA)
Amount:
$90,570
PI:
Candace Burns, Ph.D.
Affiliation:
College of Nursing
Contact Info:
12901 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., MDC 22
Tampa, FL 33612-4766
(813) 974-9160
cburns@hsc.usf.edu
This study explores
the relationship among occupational stress, compassion fatigue, burnout, and
coping in USAR medical personnel who leave (attrition) the USAR after a MOTW
deployment, i.e. disaster/humanitarian/peacekeeping operations and those who
stay (retain). The military's downsizing, coupled with high turbulence and
the increased operations tempo, has created an increasingly greater reliance
on medical personnel in the USAR. Retention of highly qualified, skilled health
care providers in the USAR is a challenge for every military leader today.
The research hypothesizes
that: 1) Characteristics of USAR medical personnel, specifically deployment
status and military grade, will directly affect the degree of burnout, compassion
fatigue, and occupational stress and will indirectly affect their decision to
stay or leave the service; 2) Burnout, compassion fatigue, and occupational
stress will directly affect the decision to stay or leave the service; and 3)
Coping strategies, both positive and negative, will moderate the relationship
hypothesized above. Four strata/groups of USAR medical personnel will be surveyed,
including deployed and non-deployed personnel who have stayed or left the service.
The investigator will use the Occupational Stress Inventory Revised Edition
(OSI-R), the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and the Compassion Fatigue Test.
Additional demographic, socioeconomic and health variables will also be collected
and analyzed.
Title:
SOUTHCOM and Latin America: Structural and Organizational Changes Post Mitch
Funding Agency: Center
for Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (CDMHA)
Amount:
$39,560
PI:
Scot D. Welch, MA
Affiliation:
Systems Analyst, Logicon Information Systems and Services
Contact Info:
Scott Welch
998 NW 97th PL.
Miami, FL. 33178
scott.welch@pepperdine.edu
(H) 305.471.5965
(C) 310.463.0750
Hurricane Mitch,
striking several Latin American countries in November 1998, was one of the most
destructive hurricanes in Latin American history. Mitch's destruction and attendant
after-effects necessitated a United States strategic response from a U.S. military
regional command -- U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM). This response was due
to 1) previous U.S. military disaster relief operations in the region and, 2)
SOUTHCOM's employment of disaster relief as a critical instrument, within the
framework of the command's Theater Engagement plans, to promote U.S. interests
and regional goodwill.
The United Sates
government and SOUTHCOM are currently examining lessons identified derived from
Hurricane Mitch, as are Latin American countries and non-governmental relief
institutions. Consequently, these entities (to various degrees) are attempting
to strengthen, through pre-disaster activities and engagement strategies, the
operational effectiveness of various Central American governments and institutions
to respond to future natural disasters in the Central American region. This
is the subject matter of the research.
The research will
first develop and identify a pre-Hurricane Mitch
disaster response capability
description for SOUTHCOM and certain
Latin American countries (primarily Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras). The
research would then identify changes made in key emergency management and disaster
response capabilities and relationships
by these Central American countries and SOUTHCOM post-Hurricane Mitch. The
research's focus would then center on an assessment of the effectiveness of current communication and
coordination between these Central American governments (and supporting
non-governmental entities) and SOUTHCOM in planning for future major
natural disasters (and operational responses) in Central America.
The research will
be conducted in Washington D.C, Miami and in Latin America. The research will
aim to gather primary documents and conduct on-site interviews. These research
activities will be conducted at SOUTHCOM, the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster
Assistance, the Pentagon, and the U.S. State Department. The research will
also be supported by on-site interviews and professional interactions in the
Latin American region.
The results of
this research will hopefully lead to a better understanding of SOUTHCOM's cooperative
plans and capabilities with various Latin American institutions in order to
respond to future natural disasters in Central America.
