RAPID: Post-Disaster Risk Redefinition in Small New Jersey Municipalities During the Initial Recovery Period following Super Storm Sandy

Rutgers University New Brunswick, New Brunswick NJ

Investigators

Abstract

This Rapid Response Research Grant (RAPID) will help identify how experts and non-experts reassess storm surge flood risks that affect small municipalities following a record-setting disaster. It is informed by, and will contribute to, the interdisciplinary research literature on disaster recovery and risk governance. Experts in emergency management organizations and flood plain management organizations will be surveyed electronically to establish the scope of risk information needs in the wake of Sandy, risk information exchange activities, risk information gaps and unmet needs among user groups, openness to involvement by non-experts, and suggestions about ways that risk information could be employed more effectively. Public leaders and risk professionals in each of three small municipalities that sustained losses will also be interviewed to assess their roles in demanding, supplying, receiving, and using risk information pertinent to their communities. Semi-structured interviews will be conducted with local residents who have decided to continue living in these communities after the storm. Interviews will identify residents' activities as suppliers of local knowledge about post-storm risks, their assessments of other flood risk information, and the perceived importance of risk information in reducing uncertainties about recovery and community futures. Cross-tabulations and content analysis of the data collected in surveys and interviews will be undertaken to reveal shared concerns and assumptions about future flood risks as well as to uncover the structure of evolving new networks that blend inputs from external experts and local residents. The grant will provide information necessary to improve preparedness for coastal flood risks that are anticipated to increase as a consequence of climate change. Progress in anticipating more floods is being made at the global, transnational and national scales but little is known about how small municipalities are equipped for that urgent task. Small independent municipalities with limited resources and populations of less than 10,000 are the norm for much of coastal America. These are the places that most need, and can benefit from, decision-support information. The survival of small municipalities and the wellbeing of adjacent coasts will depend in large part on their ability to take advantage of expert information in the aftermath of disasters that wreak major damage. At such times prompt but judicious decisions are required about future uses of the damaged and vulnerable areas that will increase their long-term resilience. What happens in the small municipalities will determine the success of broader regional and national responses to rising sea levels and worsening storms. By supplying a sign-posted road map to the ways that risk information is being used and pointing out opportunities for improvements, this research will make a valuable contribution to human welfare, economic recovery and environmental sustainability.