Workshop on Deploying Post-Disaster Quick-Response Reconnaissance Teams: Methods, Strategies, and Needs

University Of Delaware, Newark DE

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports a two-day workshop in Arlington, VA, in 2012 on conducting Rapid Response Research (RAPID) grants that have been supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) following major disasters. Scholars in a number of disciplines have long recognized the importance of deploying research teams to the site of a disaster as soon as possible in order to gather perishable or ephemeral data, i.e., data that might be available for only a short period of time. Initial data gathering, scoping out the likely scientific content, proposal development, assembling a team (including collaboration with colleagues in the affected area), and reaching the field quickly are among the challenges in this research. While findings from RAPID studies have enriched knowledge across the phases of disaster, techniques for conducting quick-response research are less shared across the research community. The workshop will provide a forum for information exchange and development of best practices, including new and innovative ones, for this demanding research genre. Projected workshop attendees are RAPID grant recipients, as well as representatives of the principal research centers, agencies, and societies whose work involves disaster-related research. The objectives of the workshop are to explore burgeoning methods for developing initial situation awareness after disaster strikes (such as through growing social media); transforming initial situation awareness into researchable questions for transformative potential; team-building and best practices for deploying researchers (including the prospect of novel approaches); and recommendations to NSF and the hazards community on how to best organize and support RAPIDs following a major disaster for maximum efficiency, alacrity in reaching research sites, and scientific benefits. The outcome of the workshop will be a workshop report. This award is part of the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP), and the workshop report will be archived on the NEHRP web site (http://www.nehrp.gov). NSF has developed the RAPID program as a mechanism for funding small-scale exploratory projects on an expedient basis to enable researchers to get into the field quickly to gather perishable or ephemeral data. More recently, researchers have been supported by NSF to conduct quick-response research for major earthquakes and tsunamis worldwide. Disaster research often requires multidisciplinary knowledge, and it is anticipated that the workshop will be valuable in helping scholars from a variety of disciplines to share best practices for conducting quick-response research and to build cooperative networks.