scholarly journals Measuring Community Resilience to Natural Hazards: The Natural Hazard Resilience Screening Index (NaHRSI)—Development and Application to the United States

GeoHealth ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (12) ◽  
pp. 372-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Kevin Summers ◽  
Linda C. Harwell ◽  
Lisa M. Smith ◽  
Kyle D. Buck
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Natural Hazard ◽  
Community Resilience ◽  
The United States

Damages Done: The Longitudinal Impacts of Natural Hazards on Wealth Inequality in the United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 448-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junia Howell ◽  
James R Elliott
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Natural Hazard ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
Wealth Inequality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Income Dynamics ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Research And Policy

Abstract This study investigates a largely ignored contributor to wealth inequality in the United States: damages from natural hazards, which are expected to increase substantially in coming years. Instead of targeting a specific large-scale disaster and assessing how different subpopulations recover, we begin with a nationally representative sample of respondents from the restricted, geocoded Panel Study of Income Dynamics. We follow them through time (1999–2013) as hazard damages of varying scales accrue in the counties where they live. This design synthesizes the longitudinal, population-centered approach common in stratification research with a broad hazard-centered focus that extends beyond disasters to integrate ongoing environmental dynamics more centrally into the production of social inequality. Results indicate that as local hazard damages increase, so does wealth inequality, especially along lines of race, education, and homeownership. At any given level of local damage, the more aid an area receives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the more this inequality grows. These findings suggest that two defining social problems of our day – wealth inequality and rising natural hazard damages – are dynamically linked, requiring new lines of research and policy making in the future.

Financing Community Resilience Before Disaster Strikes: Lessons From the United States

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte L. Kirschner ◽  
Akheil Singla ◽  
Angie Flick
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Community Resilience ◽  
The United States ◽  
Disaster Resilience ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Ex Ante ◽  
State And Local

As more and more of the population moves to areas prone to natural hazards, the costs of disasters are on the rise. Given that these events are an eventuality, governments must aid their communities in promoting disaster resilience, enabling their communities to reduce their susceptibility to natural hazards, and adapting to and recovering from disasters when they occur. The federal system in the United States divides these responsibilities among national, state, and local governments. Local and state governments are largely responsible for the direct provision of services to their communities, and the Stafford Act of 1988 provides that the federal government will pay at least 75% of all eligible expenses once a presidential major disaster declaration has been made. As a result, state and local governments have become largely reliant on transfers from the federal government to pay for disaster relief and recovery efforts. This system encourages state and local governments to ignore the risks they face and turn to the federal government for aid after a disaster. This system also seems to underemphasize an important mechanism that can bolster disaster resilience: financing the costs of disasters in advance through ex ante budgeting. Four tools for budgeting ex ante—intergovernmental grants, disaster stabilization funds, the municipal bond market, and hazard insurance—are described and examples of their use provided. Despite limited use by state governments, these tools provide governments the opportunity to build community resilience to disasters by budgeting ex ante for them.

scholarly journals As Disaster Costs Rise, So Does Inequality

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 237802311881679 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junia Howell ◽  
James R. Elliott
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Random Sample ◽  
Natural Hazard ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
The United States ◽  
County Level ◽  
The Social ◽  
Damage Data ◽  
Over Time

Across the United States, communities are experiencing increases in the frequency and severity of natural hazards. The pervasiveness and upward trajectory of these damages are worrisome enough, but equally disconcerting are the social inequalities they can leave in their wake. To examine these inequalities, the authors linked county-level damage data to a random sample of American households. The authors visualize the pervasiveness of natural hazards as well as their influence on racial wealth gaps over time. The results show that natural hazard damages and how relief is provided afterward exacerbate the growing gap between white and black wealth.

U.S. Floods

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beverly A. Cigler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Disaster Response ◽  
Natural Hazard ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Response And Recovery ◽  
Property Losses ◽  
State And Local

Floods are the costliest natural hazard events in the United States in terms of lives and property losses. The financial costs of flood disasters are unsustainable, especially for the national government, which assumes the most costs while state and local governments have the greatest ability to avoid great losses due to their influence over land use, economic policy, and other areas that can help mitigate floods and reduce the high costs of relief and recovery. This article summarizes the types, causes, and occurrence of floods in the United States and their unsustainable economic and social costs. It explains that the growing burden to taxpayers from disaster response and recovery has resulted in increased interest by national decision makers in shifting more disaster responsibilities and costs to state and local governments. The article reviews the broad tool kit of mitigation strategies available to local governments and their residents in taking greater responsibility for the impacts of flood events.

Emergency management policies and natural hazards in the United States: A state-level analysis

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Luis M. Pinet-Peralta, PhD ◽  
Rick Bissell, PhD ◽  
Katrina Hein, BSc, MSc ◽  
David Prakash, MSc
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Disaster Response ◽  
Disaster Relief ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
Response And Recovery

Every year, natural hazards kill and injure hundreds of people and also have significant social, economic, and political effects on society. However, not all disasters or crises are the focus of state, regional, or national efforts to mitigate their effects. In this article, the authors use Wilson’s policy typology to describe the unintended consequences that disaster legislation has had on the distribution of costs and benefits of disaster relief programs in the United States. The data provide evidence that the concentration of disaster relief programs for natural disasters is not based on need and that interest groups commonly drive disaster policies to benefit those with the greatest risk for losses rather than those in greatest need. Policymakers can use this information to examine both intended and unintended consequences of disaster response and recovery policies and can orient the limited resources available toward those who are least capable of recovering from natural disasters.

An Economic and Geographic Appraisal of a Spatial Natural Hazard Risk: A Study of Landslide Mitigation Rules

1988 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 621-631 ◽  
Author(s):  
R L Bernknopf ◽  
D S Brookshire ◽  
R H Campbell ◽  
C D Shapiro
Keyword(s):  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Physical Science ◽  
Spatial Representation ◽  
Natural Hazard ◽  
The United States ◽  
Physical Parameters ◽  
Hazard Risk ◽  
Related Development ◽  
Landslide Mitigation ◽  
Underlying Soil

Natural hazards in the form of landslides are pervasive throughout the United States. Efficient mitigation of natural hazards requires a spatial representation of the risk, based upon the geographic distribution of physical parameters and man-related development activities. Through such a representation, the spatial probability of landslides based upon physical science concepts is estimated for Cincinnati, Ohio. Mitigation programs designed to reduce loss from landslide natural hazards are then evaluated. An optimum mitigation rule is suggested that is spatially selective and is determined by objective measurements of hillside slope and properties of the underlying soil.

scholarly journals Living on the Ring of Fire: Perspectives on Managing Natural Hazard Risk in Pacific Rim Countries

2009 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Paton
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Natural Hazard ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pacific Rim ◽  
Hazard Risk ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Alter Ego

AbstractFrom the perspective of studying natural hazards, the peace and tranquillity that might be expected from a literal translation of its name does not always capture the reality of life for communities on the Pacific Rim. This reality is more readily discerned in its alter ego: the Ring of Fire. The latter leaves one in less doubt as to the hazardous circumstances likely to prevail in this region. In addition to the hazards posed by the numerous volcanoes that resulted in the ‘Ring of Fire’ appellation, communities situated around the Pacific Rim also have to contend with earthquakes, tsunami, storms, cyclones/typhoons, flood and bushfire. To this list of acute events can be added hazards of a chronic nature such as salinity, environmental degradation and sea-level rise that represent growing threats to many Pacific Rim countries. The region also faces increased risk from health-related hazards. Sydney, for example, has been identified as a pandemic hotspot as a result of it being a hub linking the airways of Asia and the United States.

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