Workshop: Hazards and Disaster Researchers Meeting: Improving Post-Disaster Rapid Reconnaissance Research; Broomfield, Colorado; July 11-12, 2018

University Of Colorado At Boulder, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

This grant provides funding for a special NSF RAPID grant focused workshop on July 11-12, 2018, that immediately follows the Natural Hazards and Disasters Research Meeting being held in Broomfield, Colorado. As the United States has experienced more frequent and intense disasters that have affected larger numbers of people, the hazards and disasters research community has mobilized in response. Following each disaster, large numbers of core as well as situational researchers from locally-affected areas and across the nation, many with NSF RAPID grant funding, launch new studies to understand the impacts of these events on both the affected population and the built environment, to explore the root causes of the disasters, and to trace long-term recovery trajectories among population groups and across communities. This special workshop provides a forum to take stock of what the community has learned from past disaster reconnaissance research and to develop best practices for future disaster investigations. The workshop is open to all members of the hazards and disasters research community and will convene engineers, social scientists, and public health researchers who received NSF RAPID grants in 2017 as well as those who have ongoing hazard and disaster research projects. The funds will be used principally to support travel costs for NSF RAPID awardees making presentations at the workshop. This workshop will contribute significantly to the NSF mission of promoting the progress of science in our understanding of hazards and advancing the national health and prosperity by using this understanding to reduce damage from future events. This work will improve rapid reconnaissance research. The specific objectives are to: 1) identify salient research needs based on the experiences of RAPID grantees, leaders of disaster research coordination networks and researchers with ongoing investigations, 2) integrate new and emerging hazards and disaster researchers into the existing coordination networks through information sharing activities; and 3) generate improved research coordination, data collection, and data sharing capabilities by combining the experiences of this diverse group of emerging and established hazards and disaster researchers. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.