Research and Practice Highlights

The National Science Foundation-supported CONVERGE facility was established in 2018 as the first social science-led component of the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI). Headquartered at the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder, CONVERGE identifies, trains, connects, and funds researchers across disciplines in the hazards and disaster field. This article provides an overview of one of our most widely used tools, the CONVERGE Training Modules. These free, interactive, online trainings are designed for students, early career professionals, and others who are new to hazards and disaster research and practice. Since July 2019, our team has released 12 modules that cover a range of foundational topics in hazards and disaster research, including Institutional Review Board procedures, conducting emotionally challenging research, cultural competence, collecting and sharing perishable data, social vulnerability, and disaster mental health. In addition, CONVERGE offers advanced trainings in specialized topics such as broader ethical considerations for hazards and disaster researchers, reciprocity, gender-based violence in fieldwork, and public health implications of hazards and disaster research. Between July 2019 and November 2022, 6,311 unique users registered for the modules, and these users logged 7,222 module completions. Of the module completions to date, the largest percentage of users completed only one (46.0%) of the available trainings, although a small group of “superusers”—whom we surveyed for this article—have completed all or almost all of the available modules. When asked why they planned to complete the modules at the time of registration, most users indicated that it was to fulfill a classroom or other educational requirement (51.2%), for personal interest/to learn more (9.0%), or to prepare for or to support research (7.1%) or practice-oriented activities (5.8%). In addition to providing more information regarding module users, this article details the development of the technology and discusses the impact and success of this tool for transferring knowledge and skills to the hazards and disaster research and practice community. We conclude with a discussion of future directions for this research-based educational intervention.

Researchers across disciplines have long sought to collect ‘perishable data’ in the context of disasters. Yet, this data type is neither consistently defined nor discussed in specific detail in the literature. To address this gap, this paper defines perishable data and provides guidance on ways to improve both how it is collected and shared. Here, perishable data is conceptualized as highly transient data that may degrade in quality, be irrevocably altered, or be permanently lost if not gathered soon after it is generated. Perishable data may include ephemeral information that must be collected to characterize pre-existing hazardous conditions, near-miss events, actual disasters, and longer-term recovery processes. This data may need to be gathered at multiple points in time across varying geographic scales to accurately characterize exposure, susceptibility to harm, or coping capacity. The paper considers ethical and logistical challenges and discusses opportunities to advance equitable perishable data collection and dissemination.

The U.S. Geological Survey-managed ShakeAlert® earthquake early warning system is the first public alerting system in the United States to provide rapid mass notification when an earthquake is detected. Although public alert delivery via mobile phones began in California in 2019 followed by Oregon and Washington in 2021, little is known about what might drive widespread implementation in at-risk institutional settings such as schools. To address this gap, our research team distributed a 15-minute online survey to every school district superintendent in Alaska, California, Oregon, and Washington. The survey assessed superintendent knowledge of ShakeAlert, preferences for alert messaging, and perceived opportunities and barriers to incorporating the system in schools. The results showed that superintendents had low awareness of ShakeAlert but held positive perceptions of the system’s potential to enable life-saving protective actions. A major barrier to adoption included the perceived financial cost of implementing and maintaining the system. There were some statistically significant differences in state responses, and future research could investigate the specific needs of each state based on school district size and composition, hazard exposure, and earthquake experience. Together these findings can help inform targeted strategies to increase ShakeAlert adoption in schools and ultimately improve the safety of school children and staff during earthquakes.

While the number of older adults is projected to increase rapidly over the next few years, so is the frequency and intensity of natural hazards due to climate change. The research regarding how older adults make decisions during disasters is thin. Furthermore, the research that has been conducted has conflicting results as some assert that older adults are far more prepared than other demographics. In comparison, other research finds evidence that older adults are more vulnerable due to cognitive decline and the need for social support. Given the trends in population growth and the frequency of hazards, we must investigate and identify the individual decision-making factors that lead to appropriate hazard adjustments for older adult populations. Several broadband wireless devices for personal use have been developed to assist in disseminating warnings, disaster preparedness, or preparedness training among the broader population. In Japan, virtual reality has been used for disaster exercises among children or certain communities. This project uses a survey to assess disaster preparedness levels, disaster experience, and the willingness to use broadband wireless devices for disaster preparedness. The results will be used to make comparisons about the use of technology for disaster preparedness among older adults (ages 65 and older) and younger adults (ages 18 to 64). The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funded this research. Opinions expressed in this work are not necessarily the opinions of the FEMA.

Over the past four decades, wildfire frequency and intensity have surged, resulting in a doubling of the average annual burn area. This escalation is compounded by rapid population expansion into the wildland-urban interface (WUI). Our work focuses on the evacuation preparedness of households prior to wildfire events using the framework of the Protective Action Decision Model (PADM). Partnering with regional and city emergency managers, we will evaluate evacuation protocols and messaging strategies, informing the development of a FlamMap fire analysis application scenario designed to engage stakeholders in pivotal decision-making points during wildfire events. Based on key decision points, we will develop and share community-based wildfire evacuation scenarios with study area residents to explore the drivers of evacuation behavior and evacuation intentions. This social-behavioral data will then be integrated into agent-based models (ABMs) to explore the impact of decisions on evacuation time estimates and outcomes for each scenario. Collaboration with three WUI communities across two states enables us to identify factors influencing critical evacuation decision-making management action points for emergency personnel, explore resident evacuation intention between communities who have experienced a recent evacuation (City of Ashland, OR) relative to those who have not (Ada County, ID), and integrate social-behavioral data into wildfire evacuation scenarios using ABMs to assess various evacuation strategies. Our shared results will facilitate the refinement of pre-event hazard strategies used to foster greater community engagement and enhance local authorities’ preparedness and evacuation planning efforts. 

Our research aims to develop a novel method for improving small-scale river and stream flood prediction and warning systems. Flood risk in small rivers and streams is getting worse as torrential rains increase due to climate change. As many casualties occur as a result of flooding in small streams, it is urgent to develop an effective flood early warning system. Doing so, however, is difficult because of challenges associated with the high speed of flood wave propagation which creates insufficient calculation time to predict the risk area in small streams using a numerical model. In addition, to apply the existing numerical models, detailed information for determining optimal parameters is required to accurately represent small stream dynamics, and additional processes for predicting boundary such as flow and water surface elevations are required. Our research team developed a real-time prediction method by using the Manning formula to predict depth in unmeasured sections with predicted flow discharges from the Flood Early Warning Framework. To evaluate the novel method, our research team predicted the depth by using the hydrodynamic information measured in three test bed small streams in Korea—the Insu, Neungmac, and Jungsunpil streams—and compared the results with measured values. We also predicted depths in unmeasured sections by using the evaluated method for application test. For applicability evaluation the research predicts depth in unmeasured sections by using the evaluated method and comparing it to the embankment. The results show that the new method can closely represent real depth values measured in 2022. Our research confirmed the novel method’s potential utility in small-scale river flood prediction and warning systems.

From mass media to everyday experience, environmental disasters tend to be framed as singular events from which communities recover and rebuild. To speak with communities in the years after a disaster, however, reveals how the lasting impacts of these events change lives in culturally significant ways. As our two audio story series, Carried by Water and Archival Ecologies document, lived stories of disaster show that recovery has many meanings. Produced by Princeton’s environmental storytelling group Blue Lab, these podcasts traveled to two communities affected by major environmental disasters—one in Canada and the other in the Philippines. In Carried by Water, Mario Soriano examines prolonged displacements in communities devastated by Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. These upheavals stem from the storm’s destruction as well as from subsequent resettlement efforts that led to loss of neighborhood ties, customary livelihoods, and relations to nature. In Archival Ecologies, Jayme Collins traces cultural collections destroyed or damaged by a 2021 wildfire in Lytton, B.C., Canada. As they begin to rebuild, communities emphasize local knowledge and cultural memory and improvise new ways to carry forward the longstanding stories and practices that matter to them. Through our research-driven, human-centered approach to disaster storytelling, we found that the processes of listening and amplification that attend audio production provided methods for foregrounding community experiences and unveiling compounding vulnerabilities in ways that diverge from official narratives. Storytelling became a lens for transforming recovery discourse and for amplifying community frameworks for imagining futures in the wake of disruption.

Drought, compounded by climate and land use changes, has significantly impacted agriculture in the Mid-South since a historic drought in 2011. Excessive irrigation to mitigate crop production losses may strain water resources, leading to environmental and economic challenges. Thus, the primary aim of this project is to foster behavioral changes in water consumption amid escalating drought risks to promote regional environmental sustainability. Funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, researchers from Louisiana State University are working to achieve three project objectives: (1) develop and widely deploy a web-based, user-interactive decision support tool—or webtool—for agricultural irrigators that provides site-specific strategies reflective of drought risk, considering current hydrological conditions; (2) identify potential advisors, collaborators, and stakeholders for coordinating discussions on improving rapid responses by leveraging existing scientific advances; and (3) conduct a community design approach and aggressive outreach campaign focusing on mitigating drought risks through webtool adoption and encouraging the reduction of water footprints. By accomplishing these objectives, the project aims to empower agricultural stakeholders with the necessary tools and knowledge to effectively navigate drought challenges. By promoting informed decision-making and proactive water management practices, the project endeavors to contribute to the long-term sustainability of the region's water resources and agricultural sector. Through collaborative efforts and community engagement, the project seeks to foster resilience and adaptability in the face of evolving environmental conditions, ultimately ensuring the viability of agriculture in the Mid-South region.

Publicly available technologies are only truly ‘public’ if people are aware of them and know how to use them. In the US, significant resources have been devoted to public education around the recently released ShakeAlert® earthquake early warning (EEW) system operated by the U.S. Geological Survey; however, those efforts have been inconsistently evaluated, leaving educators and communicators with questions about their effectiveness, particularly for engaging broad, diverse, and multilingual publics. This mixed methods, dual-language (English/Spanish) paper addresses this gap by examining an animated video designed to increase awareness, understanding, and action related to ShakeAlert EEW. Results indicate that the video was enjoyable, easily understandable, and positively impacted viewers’ intentions to ‘Drop, Cover, and Hold On’ (DCHO) following a ShakeAlert-powered alert. Viewers also expressed a desire for more information about how to receive alerts and how to protect themselves in situations where DCHO is impractical. This study suggests that animated video, developed and disseminated in multiple languages, can be an effective tool for impacting public understanding and behavior related to geohazards. Additionally, the process and findings of this study suggest that outcomes may be improved by engaging multilingual and multicultural audiences earlier and throughout the video development process.

An increasing number of extreme weather events—including storms and hurricanes—are now being live-streamed on websites such as YouTube. These streams often either (a) repurpose existing webcam infrastructure to generate channels that host footage of extreme weather and damage it causes (thus differing from storm-chaser footage), or (b) emerge from individuals using phones to stream their personal hazard experience. Despite evidence of increasing popularity—YouTube streams, for example, sometimes generate hundreds of thousands of simultaneous viewers—they are yet to be critically examined. My work is beginning to examine both the various forms and motivations of live-stream production as well as how they are consumed. In a recent paper published in Environmental Hazards, I examined how commentors utilized live-streams as opportunities for hazard engagement, sense-making, and witnessing. The study analyzed data from streams of three events: Hurricane Irma (2017), Hurricane Ian (2022), and the 2022 United Kingdom Storms (Dudley, Eunice, and Franklin). In doing so, I evidenced that these streams could operate as spaces where attachments and (dis)connections to affected places are imagined and performed. In particular, I drew attention to viewers who watch streams in their entirety (sometimes 8–24 hours), and whose commitments to the mundaneness of “weather watching” are considered as performances of support and solidarity. The paper concludes by calling for further research that examines the role of informal or ad-hoc virtual spaces that enable (a) engagement with changing places and/or (b) the sharing or contestation of risk communication messaging.

Addressing flood risk and enhancing community resilience pose significant challenges in flood-prone regions like Louisiana. Despite the apparent solution of implementing freeboard standards for existing homes, various factors complicate their adoption. With funding from Louisiana Sea Grant, our team is evaluating the social, economic, and policy pathways to freeboard implementation that reduce home flood risk and enhance community resilience for pre-existing homes in coastal Louisiana. This research seeks to provide actionable insights to enhance flood resilience in Louisiana's coastal communities. Our team consists of researchers from the University of New Orleans, Louisiana State University, and LaHouse Research and Education Center. Our four project objectives include: (1) build on its current research by discovering similarities and differences between barriers and incentives of freeboard for new construction vs. existing structures in Louisiana’s 20 coastal parishes through interviews and focus groups with stakeholders, and cross-parish data comparison; (2) collect baseline data and develop new economic risk models to estimate hazard code requirements, elevation cost, and flood insurance premiums; (3) conduct GIS-based flood loss and loss reduction analyses by expanding capabilities of the team’s “Flood Safe Home” web-based decision support tool (https://floodsafehome.lsu.edu/) to reflect the economic realities of existing homes across 20 coastal parishes; (4) document and delineate the social, economic, and policy pathways to the use of freeboard, and enhance understanding of the extent to which this information may change stakeholder and community perspectives regarding implementing freeboard for existing residences.

Wind hazards account for the majority of natural hazard-induced economic losses in the United States. Despite the availability of proven materials and techniques to mitigate wind losses, multiple barriers hinder their widespread adoption. With funding from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, our team is working to enhance wind resilience throughout Louisiana by bolstering extension capacity to develop and implement impactful education and outreach strategies based on sound scientific information, with a specific focus on FORTIFIED® wind mitigation strategies. These efforts will provide more effective weather preparedness techniques and resources to Louisiana residents. Our team consists of researchers from multiple institutions, including LaHouse Research and Education Center at Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, Southern University, and Louisiana State University. Our three project objectives include: (1) Train a statewide extension resilience educator and the project team on FORTIFIED® requirements and best practices for wind and weather resilience/preparedness; (2) Implement stakeholder focus groups and training sessions that help the project team learn community needs regarding resilient construction practices, and educate government leaders and professional stakeholders about resilient new and retrofit construction practices, their benefits, and their costs. (3) Conduct a statewide education and outreach campaign that enhances equity through training programs, demonstration projects, youth weather preparedness curriculum development, 4-H volunteer and club leader training, and educational outreach materials focused on underserved communities. Additionally, to ensure accessibility and user-friendliness for the target audience, all curricular materials will also be made available in an online format.

In recent years, South Korea has been experiencing frequent floods and droughts due to climate change, with hourly rainfall in various regions breaking historical records. To mitigate the resulting damage, it is crucial to predict future rainfall using scientific and rational methods and to improve design standards so that they consider climate change. The main objectives of our research project are as follows: First, to propose improvements in disaster impact factor prediction and analysis considering recent climate change, thereby suggesting ways to enhance existing disaster prevention performance goals. Second, to present new guidelines for disaster mitigation facilities by refining the method for calculating design rainfall related to floods and droughts. Finally, to enhance guidelines for disaster prevention facilities, particularly addressing water crises caused by rising sea levels and droughts, based on references from South Korean academic research results.

The process of sending rapid and accurate emergency alerts is a difficult endeavor as diverse populations have varied communication needs. In the United States, people with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) and those with auditory or visual disabilities often must rely on unofficial sources, word-of-mouth, or other modes of communication to understand and receive emergency messages since official messages are not always accessible. This can imperil people’s lives, making it paramount that alerting authorities send messages in accessible formats. While the importance of developing inclusive alerts and warnings has long been recognized, there has been limited focused research in this area. In 2023, however, the Natural Hazards Center was directed through House Bill 23-1237 to conduct a study on challenges and opportunities to develop more inclusive emergency alerting systems for the State of Colorado. We conducted a review of relevant research literature, a survey of 222 local emergency response personnel, and held 18 partner meetings with local organizations and alerting authorities. Our study revealed a patchwork of alerting systems and low alert opt-in rates statewide. We also identified significant technical and resource constraints at the local level. Our project offers actionable recommendations, such as enhancing staffing and funding alerting authorities, providing guidance for standardized practices, and developing formal relationships with LEP populations and those with disabilities. Our findings are particularly useful to emergency management personnel, state-level actors, and local officials in the emergency alerts space, and researchers interested in advancing the state of the art for inclusive alerts and warnings. 

Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOADs) depend on interorganizational networks to rapidly deliver services to communities during times of crisis. These networks allow VOAD members to share resources before, during, and after disasters. A growing body of empirical research indicates that routine, pre-disaster interactions and exchanges between organizations predict coordination and collaboration during disasters. Rarely, however, do organizations systematically assess such routine exchanges. This paper seeks to fill this gap by presenting a cyclical five-step framework in which organizations use assessments of multilevel routine exchanges to improve disaster response networks. During a pilot project with Nebraska VOAD members and their partners, we created a network survey to collect multilevel resource exchange data. The survey was administered to a total of 51 organizations in the Nebraska VOAD survey roster. We received complete surveys from 43 Nebraska VOAD organizations (84% response rate). We use these survey results to illustrate how organizations can use our network assessment process of identifying, intervening, and improving to enhance disaster response capacity. State-level VOADs can use this approach to understand: 1) how their exchange networks function, 2) which organizations are exchange ‘pillars’ across multiple networks, and 3) which organizations could be better integrated into exchange networks. By evaluating resource exchange networks before and between disaster events, VOADs can adapt their networks to better assist communities during disasters.

With funding from the National Science Foundation, the Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center (CRESCENT) was launched in October 2023 to advance scientific knowledge and public awareness of the geohazards in the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ). Subduction zones are known for producing the world’s largest, most devastating earthquakes; moreover, their strong shaking is often accompanied by cascading effects, such as tsunamis, landslides, liquefaction, and fire. In the Pacific Northwest, the CSZ could unleash a catastrophic magnitude 8+ earthquake and tsunami at any moment, yet there is relatively low public awareness and preparedness in the region, because the last megathrust event was over 300 years ago and background seismicity is low. CRESCENT's mission is to advance our understanding of CSZ earthquake and tsunami hazards and to improve regional resilience. With input from 12 academic institutions, the center’s work is structured around three pillars: (1) Science Planning: This pillar aims to close CSZ knowledge gaps. Five initial working groups are dedicated to characterizing Earth properties and fault structures to help identify past and future potential earthquake and tsunami behavior. (2) Geoscience Education and Inclusion: This pillar is committed to five educational programs that address skill shortages and lack of diversity in geosciences. Designed to serve high school students and early career professionals from minoritized groups, these programs aim to diversify and train the next generation of geoscientists. (3) Partnerships and Applications: This pillar works towards translating the center’s research and products to practical applications, enhancing societal resilience to earthquake hazards. A committee is tasked with building relationships with federal, state, and municipal agencies, utilities, educational institutions, and community leaders. Learn more at: cascadiaquakes.org

Limited research has examined the ramifications of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (DHOS) on children and their families. This paper builds on secondary data analysis and representative survey findings from the multi-method, multi-phase Gulf Coast Population Impact (GCPI) project. Specifically, this phase of the GCPI research draws on in-depth, semi-structured interview and focus group data to illuminate the social conditions that influenced poor child health outcomes in the aftermath of the DHOS and amid other disasters. These qualitative data were collected two years after the spill with caregivers, teachers, and faith- and community-based leaders in five highly impacted Gulf Coast communities. Exploratory qualitative analysis revealed that children were affected by the DHOS and other related challenges through exposure to familial stress emerging from livelihood disruptions. Such disruptions were the result of ongoing poverty, damage to the fishing industry, and exposure to cumulative and compounding environmental disasters. In cases of severe familial stress, children may have experienced toxic stress because of caregivers’ displaced distress; ambiguous loss through caregivers’ physical and/or emotional absence; and the children’s recognition of their families’ dire financial situations. Toxic stress was most often expressed through acute and chronic physiological, emotional, and behavioral health challenges. This study expands current understandings of the impact of technological disasters and cumulative environmental disasters on children and families. It underscores the importance of investing in harm prevention strategies to reduce threats to the health and wellbeing of young people living in ecologically and socioeconomically insecure environments prone to intensifying technological and climate-fueled disasters.

Energy-efficient technologies and design strategies provide resilience benefits for buildings and the energy system before, during, and after major disruptive winter storms and extreme heat events. Louisiana did not keep up with building energy code policy, including updates made to the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) between 2013 and 2021. This decision significantly weakened the ability of buildings in Louisiana to withstand extreme weather events as well as increased building energy consumption. This resulted in Louisiana having one of the lowest building energy performance levels in the nation. In 2022, the state's energy code authority took a crucial step by adopting the 2021 IECC. This shift presents substantial opportunities for resilience and energy savings enhancement. The transition to the 2021 IECC is projected to reduce statewide carbon emissions by nearly 10 million metric tons over 30 years. Funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the team at the LaHouse Research and Education Center at Louisiana State University Agricultural Center is undertaking a project with dual objectives. First, we are conducting a thorough Life-Cycle Cost Assessment to analyze the energy savings and resilience effectiveness of building upgrade measures tailored for Louisiana's needs. Second, we are leading a statewide Education and Outreach Campaign for Enhanced Equity. This initiative encompasses adult and youth education programs, outreach projects, youth energy-efficiency curriculum development, 4-H volunteer and club leader training, extension publications, and industry resources, all aimed at addressing the needs of underserved communities.

To better understand what issues young people were concerned about during the COVID-19 pandemic, we analyzed media coverage that centered children’s perspectives and actions. We found coverage mostly focused on the heart-wrenching and often heroic stories of individual children. Journalists tended to magnify the challenges that children experienced during the pandemic and the creative ways that they responded. Upon closer examination, however, it became apparent that the young people at the center of the stories were often trying to organize and collectively mobilize groups of children and youth to address systemic inequalities that rendered entire groups of people disproportionately vulnerable. Specifically, we found that children were especially eager to work with their peers to help frontline workers, healthcare providers, non-English speaking populations, children and families without access to the internet or tutoring services, and people experiencing food insecurity. They also helped people at high risk of illness or death, such as the elderly, the unhoused, those living in poverty, and those who were members of non-White racial or ethnic groups. The coverage revealed that many of the children had developed a critical consciousness of the systemic inequalities that were worsening nearly every consequence of the pandemic for the most socially marginalized. They understood that the COVID-19 disaster was not affecting people equally and, therefore, required a targeted, organized, and socially just response. This study adds to a rapidly growing body of child-centered social science disaster research that focuses on children’s perspectives and capacities.

Given the the lack of available research on earthquake early warning (EEW) in schools, our research team conducted 118 interviews with school staff and others in four earthquake-affected school districts to explore the following questions: How can the ShakeAlert EEW system be most effectively integrated into schools in the western United States? What concerns do school leaders, teachers, emergency managers, students, and other people with a stake in school safety have about the adoption and use of EEW? How might those concerns or considerations influence their willingness to use EEW in schools? We learned that school leaders are enthusiastic about the potential of EEW to enhance school safety efforts. They also, however, had very low awareness of what EEW is and how it works. Therefore, respondents asked questions and provided feedback in the following six areas of concern: (1) awareness and knowledge; (2) funding and diversion of resources; (3) alert channels; (4) alerting threshold and frequency of alert delivery; (5) alert message content and drills; and (6) school infrastructure. This study culminated in focused recommendations for the U.S. Geological Survey and other partner agencies regarding how to best address these concerns and considerations. 

As water-related hazards become increasingly prevalent, communities rely on water data and information to improve their decision-making and increase their resilience. Climate data services, especially those that are provided for free by reputable sources, can provide valuable information. One such tool is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Water Model (NWM), which shows where water has been in the past, where it is presently, and where it is predicted to be in the future. A recent study by Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science (CUAHSI) and the Global Resilience Institute at Northeastern University revealed that 65% of the stakeholders who are involved in resilience-related planning had never previously heard of the NWM. Moreover, while the study showed these stakeholders were frequent users of water science data and information, few of them were trained hydrologists. While the NWM’s use in emergency management has been traditionally explored, there was a gap between the NWM and its potential use in resilience planning. This study has since co-developed use cases with stakeholders that leverage the NWM in their resilience-related work. These use cases include one team that used the NWM as an educational outreach tool to combat flood amnesia among municipal leaders. Another use case describes a team using the NWM’s retrospective data to create maps of previous flood events, which will inform planning in data-limited areas. Our project defines the NWM’s value as compared to other information sources. It also provides lessons learned for coastal and emergency managers and others involved in forward-looking decision-making as it relates to water and leveraging the NWM in resilience planning. For more information, please visit: https://globalresilience.northeastern.edu/project/cooperative-institute-for-research-to-operations-in-hydrology-ciroh/   

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Center for Environmental Health Outreach and Emergency Communications team is launching an updated version of its e-learning course, “Preparedness and Safety Messaging for Hurricanes, Floods, and Similar Disasters Virtual Workshop.” (https://www.train.org/cdctrain/course/1111271/compilation) The hour-long course is designed for state and local health department communicators as well as others who talk to the public about health hazards related to natural disasters. Learners will receive an overview of CDC's Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication Curriculum and be walked through how to use and adapt CDC's prepared messaging to reach multiple audiences before, during, and after a disaster. The updated class will launch in September and includes updated messaging for priority populations. 

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted capacity challenges within nation’s charitable food systems. The confluence of these health-related issues and the increasing frequency and intensity of climate-related disasters continue to alter the landscape of risk across the country. It is also altering the populations who are most vulnerable in times of disaster, putting untold pressures on food banks that support their needs. The pandemic has uniquely exposed populations not typically considered vulnerable in the hazard and disaster literature—those we refer to in this project as the “New Vulnerable.” This group includes individuals that have experienced unanticipated economic hardship due to mitigation measures taken at local, state, and federal levels to stop the spread of the virus, as well as financial pressures that continue to manifest themselves in rising rates of inflation and the challenges of housing affordability. This project has three primary elements: (1) identify vulnerable populations and the existing capacity of Feeding America food banks to meet the needs of this population; (2) examine factors influencing food bank capacities including social equity considerations and uptake of disaster planning tool resources by local food banks; and (3) assess the perspectives of representatives of food banks and other local agencies on the “new vulnerable” populations. The anticipated outcomes of the work will ensure that Feeding America and its national network of food banks have a comprehensive understanding of community needs and assets for leveraging more responsive and best practices in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. 

Timely information provided by rapid needs assessments—also known as RNAs—can improve situational awareness and guide disaster response and recovery efforts. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPER) is a household-based RNA designed to provide information about a community, allowing public health leaders and emergency managers to make informed decisions. While CASPERs have a proven success record over the past decade, there are situations in which the traditional CASPER 30x7 design is not feasible or ideal. This is often evident, for example, when disasters affect smaller areas (e.g., tornados), more rural or frontier communities, and jurisdictions with less resources or staffing. Further, as CASPER is designed for the whole community, new methodological approaches are needed that are tailored to the contexts of specific populations including, persons experiencing homelessness and other groups more at risk for negative health impacts during disasters (e.g., those with higher social vulnerability, children, older adults). Therefore, CDC is developing new guidance on disaster-related public health RNA methodologies as alternatives to CASPER. Thus far, four methods have been field tested: a combined stratified systematic and purposeful sampling approach in a frontier county, a simple random mail-based sample where fieldwork was denied, a targeted sample based on damage assessment data, and a combined 1- and 2-stage cluster sample method for a rural community impacted by a tornado. While CASPER is successful in several regards, there is a current gap for when CASPER may not be the best fit or most appropriate method. Therefore, CDC is currently developing and piloting new RNA guidance.

Since 1987, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and American Red Cross (Red Cross) have collaborated to monitor and characterize the health of sheltered populations during disasters to help guide response and recovery efforts. Disaster-related shelters provide an important refuge for displaced persons in need of temporary housing, medical assistance, and community support. Previously, Red Cross disaster health services volunteers collected data using a paper-based aggregate morbidity form (“tally form”) that gathered information on client reasons for visit every 24 hours. In Summer 2022, CDC and Red Cross updated the paper-based form to a mobile app to allow for near real-time data collection. Red Cross volunteers have used the new app during 32 incidents since August 2022. Overall, the app is user-friendly and well-received. The transition eliminated several issues with the paper tally form, including inconsistent completion, missing data points, illegible handwriting, and blurry pictures of the final form. For example, during Hurricane Harvey (2017), 39% of age, 32% on sex, and 20% of disposition data was missing from the paper tally form reports. During Hurricane Ian (2022) and Typhoon Mawar (2023), in contrast, only 3.5%-4% of age, 1.6-1.7%% of gender, and 1.0%-1.9% of disposition data was missing from the mobile app reports. Another key aspect of the mobile app was the ability to analyze data in near real-time and with more detail. Electronic data collection has significantly improved data quality. It also allows for flexibility to change variables such as locally relevant diseases (e.g., Dengue) or current concerns (e.g., H1N1, COVID-19). It can also potentially be shared with new partners (e.g., states, other agencies) so data collection is standardized and can be aggregated.

Florida has been repeatedly struck by catastrophic hurricanes and tornados in recent years, and 2024 is already shaping up to be another active year for severe weather events. To bolster disaster preparedness and response, the Florida Department of Health is partnering with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists to offer comprehensive trainings on disaster epidemiology and response surveying. From June 2024 through April 2025, five in-person trainings will be held for state- and county-level and health department staff. The first two sessions have already taken place with attendees from communities severely impacted by Hurricanes Ian (2022) and Idalia (2023). The sessions also incorporated multiple state-level actors whose work contributes to public health disaster response efforts or focuses on medically fragile populations who are disproportionately affected by service disruptions. These in-person trainings are designed to foster professional collaboration within the Department, creating a cohesive team prepared to tackle the challenges posed by natural disasters. Complementing these sessions is a robust webinar series that delves into the Department's in-house data systems used during disaster response. Topics include syndromic surveillance, EMS surveillance, acute infectious disease reporting, finalized emergency department and hospital data, and death records. This training initiative offers a vital opportunity to disseminate critical knowledge on the full spectrum of impacts that natural disasters have on Florida's diverse population. By equipping health professionals with this essential expertise, the Florida Department of Health aims to enhance the state's resilience and responsiveness to future emergencies, ensuring better outcomes for all residents.

The Natural Hazards Review recently published a Special Collection on the Legacy of Dennis S. Mileti and the Future of Public Alert and Warning Research. The aim of this special collection was to assess the legacy of Dennis S. Mileti’s contributions to risk communication research and explore and advance the future of public alert and warning research, policy, and practice globally. The collection includes an introduction and 10 original research articles. It was guest edited by his former students and collaborators, Jeannette Sutton, Hamilton Bean, Lori Peek, Erica Kuligowski, and Michele Wood.

Dennis Mileti was regarded by many of his colleagues as the world’s foremost expert on public alert and warning research. Tragically, he died from complications due to COVID-19 in 2021. An esteemed disaster sociologist and former director of the Natural Hazards Center, Mileti’s influence on the fields of public alerts and warnings, sustainable hazards mitigation, and human behavior during emergencies is difficult to overstate: It can be seen in the 100+ publications he authored or co-authored over the course of his 50-year career, the thousands of scholarly citations of his work, the engagement of countless practitioners and students he taught or trained, and the policies and practices that his research influenced worldwide.

Amid the lingering pandemic, intensifying effects of climate change, and accelerating technological transformations, there is urgent need to take stock of Dr. Mileti’s contributions to public alert and warning practice and chart a future path that both honors his legacy and builds upon his pioneering research. This special issue, which is now available online, does just that. For more information, see: https://ascelibrary.org/nhrefo/dennis-mileti-legacy. 

The Coastal Inundation Community of Practice is a national network of practitioners that facilitates peer-to-peer learning, information exchange, and collaborative engagement to advance coastal flooding science, knowledge, and solutions. Coastal communities across the country are implementing innovative flood-reduction strategies to address increasing flooding challenges. In response, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office for Coastal Management, the National Sea Grant Office, and the American Society of Adaptation Professionals have come together to support a national community of practice focused on building resilience to coastal flooding. The participants include practitioners involved in making decisions about coastal community flood impacts (i.e., state and local planners, floodplain managers, emergency managers, resilience and climate coordinators, and resource managers) and the boundary spanners who engage with these audiences to enhance flood resilience. If you are interested in getting involved check out the Coastal Inundation Community of Practice Email Listserv and webpage to learn about upcoming events: https://adaptationprofessionals.org/coastal-inundation-community-of-practice/

Markets seem powerless to eliminate intractable problems like homelessness, disaster relief, and adult illiteracy, while solving previously impossible problems like global communication systems and reusable spacecraft. Complex and impossible problems can be profitable to solve, creating strong incentives for markets to innovate solutions. However, all intractable problems require third parties to internalize loss in the absence of macro profit opportunities to offset those losses. Networks dedicated to internalizing third-party loss are subject to forces both familiar to and alien from those found in traditional markets. These forces render a large class of problems manageable, but essentially unsolvable. Conventions of market analysis contain latent biases toward profit and value creation. These biases adopt the funder’s perspective and cannot tell the beneficiary’s story. I propose a network theory of loss distribution called an “unmarket.” An unmarket bifurcates a market buyer into its constituent parts—funder and beneficiary—then separates the parties. A beneficiary suffers overwhelming loss and cannot purchase a solution. With no resources, they must productize their suffering and find a funder to internalize some portion of their loss. Separating funder and beneficiary produces predictable innovation paradoxes. Forces of loss, rather than profit, govern unmarkets. Traditional market solutions produce consistent, predictably wasteful, and sometimes catastrophic results in unmarkets. Unmarket theory proposes a taxonomy and methodological framework to analyze them and improve outcomes for beneficiaries. Common unmarkets include racism, war, criminal justice, climate change, neglected tropical diseases, mental illness, human trafficking, humanitarianism, homelessness, homeland security, illiteracy, immigration, sexual assault, and online privacy.

The major objective of this research was to apply a conceptual model to examine which variables (i.e., risk perception, hazard experience, hazard intrusiveness, hazard information search, and demographics) have significant influences on people’s adoption of hazard adjustment (i.e., adequate preparedness and household emergency preparedness) in New York City. The regression results showed that only hurricane experience was a significant predictor of adequate preparedness while the hazard information search was a significant predictor of household emergency preparedness. Unexpectedly, the regression results revealed that psychological variables (i.e., flood risk perception, hurricane risk perception, and hazard intrusiveness) were not a predictor of either adequate preparedness or household emergency preparedness. In addition, the data demonstrated that New York City residents had relatively low levels of flood risk perception, hurricane risk perception, and hazard intrusiveness. Findings suggest local and state emergency managers need to increase awareness of hazard risk perception and hazard intrusiveness among New York City residents as well as their preparedness for future floods and hurricanes.

The recent increase in natural disasters events has created challenges for community organizations that provide relief assistance. Providing appropriate resources to local stakeholders, often requires collaboration between community partners, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and private businesses. Disaster relief organizations usually work independently during their decision-making process. Consequently, the attention to the marginal impacts of deploying relief supplies is limited. Using data from personal surveys and interviews of emergency managers and operators in the Central Florida region, the purpose of this study is to examine the contribution of public-private partnerships (PPP’s) to hurricane relief operations from an organizational perspective.