RAPID: Mitigating Litigating: NSF RAPID Proposal to Study Social and Psychological Impacts of the 2012 BP Claims Settlement

University Of Colorado At Boulder, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

This RAPID research will investigate the social and psychological effects of the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill on Gulf communities. The research examines how settlement and litigation processes in the aftermath of technological disaster are influencing social and psychological recovery in coastal communities along the northern Gulf of Mexico. The Primary Investigator, Liesel Ritchie, is a leading expert on the social and psychological effects of technological disasters. She has done over two decades of research, starting with her seminal research on the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez in Alaska, 1989. Building on an early Arctic Social Sciences RAPID award that supported the collection of data immediately following the BP spill, this RAPID will allow Ritchie and her team to gather date following the BP legal settlement and create a comparative data set with the post legal settlement data from the communities affected by the Exxon Valdez. The project responds to calls for research on community resilience to disasters by the National Research Council Committee on Disaster Research in the Social Sciences- the National Council on Science and Technology- and the Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency. This research will advance knowledge regarding ways in which post-disaster processes such as litigation and the timely settlement of damage claims can facilitate or hinder community recovery. The research is responding directly to important federal issues on research on policy and practice for community disaster resilience. As pointed out by the applicant- this research is an explicit focus of the Presidents reorganization of the Homeland Security and National Security Councils and is a priority of the DHS Science and Technology Directorate. In addition, research results will be used to inform local- state- and federal initiatives with respect to community resilience to both technological and natural disasters.