Doctoral Dissertation Research: Mitigating Inter- and Intra-Community Geospatially Dependent Vulnerability Through the Enhancement of Network Resilience: A Case Study of Sarasota

据估计，墨西哥湾沿岸的风暴潮高达28英尺，卡特里娜飓风显示了风暴潮可能对沿海社区造成的破坏，因为这些社区没有为这种规模的自然事件做好准备。随着人们向沿海地区迁移的趋势继续，卡特里娜灾难重演的可能性也在增加。海平面上升增加了风暴潮洪水的范围，暴露了以前认为安全的部分社区，从而大大增加了沿海社区的脆弱性。除了海平面上升带来的威胁外，持续的近岸人口增长和经济发展增加了易发灾害地区的建筑物和社区资产的数量，从而产生了新的风险。这个博士论文研究项目将研究人们对风暴潮带来的物理风险的理解如何支持考虑海平面上升、人口增长和发展的长期规划，从而帮助沿海社区更好地抵御未来的风暴潮。博士候选人将特别关注风暴潮如何破坏基础设施和关键设施网络的功能，以及如何规划可以减轻这种破坏。学生将通过结合风暴潮模型、脆弱性评估和基于团队的决策支持方法来完成他的工作。决策支持方法将严重依赖焦点小组，将科学和非专家对飓风风暴潮、气候变化、脆弱性、人口增长和发展的理解结合起来，形成沿海社区的长期规划。该项目将包括对佛罗里达州萨拉索塔县沿海社区的物理脆弱性进行案例研究，以应对当代和气候变化加剧的飓风风暴潮危害。这个研究项目是独特的，因为传统的脆弱性评估没有考虑地理关系如何影响一个地区或社区的脆弱性。例如，一个没有医院的社区可以依靠附近城镇的医疗设施来满足其保健需求。如果连接两个社区的唯一道路上的桥梁无法通行，那么没有医院的市政当局的脆弱性就会增加。由于未能将传统基础设施与关键设施结合起来，脆弱性评估在对基础设施网络的研究中也存在不足。因此，该项目非常重要，因为它提供了一个过程，使沿海社区官员、规划者和居民能够改进和扩大对脆弱性信息的使用，以进行远程基础设施、关键设施和整体发展规划，从而创建更可持续、更抗灾的社区。这项研究将提高社会规划和应对未来气候变化带来的自然灾害和破坏的能力。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。

With an estimated storm surge of 28 feet along the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the devastation that a surge could wreak on coastal communities, because those communities are not prepared for natural events of this magnitude. As the trend of people migrating to coastal locations continues, the potential for a repeat of the Katrina catastrophe increases. Sea-level rise enhances the vulnerability of coastal communities significantly by increasing the extent of storm-surge flooding and exposing parts of communities previously thought to be safe. In addition to the threat brought by sea-level rise, continued near-shore population growth and economic development increases the number of buildings and community assets in hazard-prone areas, thereby creating new risks. This doctoral dissertation research project will examine how people's understanding of the physical risks from storm surge supports long-range planning that accounts for sea-level rise, population growth, and development, thereby helping to make coastal communities more resilient to future storm surges. The doctoral candidate will pay special attention to how storm surges might disrupt the functioning of networks of infrastructure and critical facilities and how planning might lessen such disruptions. The student will accomplish his work by combining storm surge models, vulnerability assessments, and team-based decision-support methods. The decision-support methods will rely heavily on focus groups to combine scientific and non-expert understandings of hurricane storm surge, climate change, vulnerability, population growth, and development into long-range planning for coastal communities. The project will consist of a case study on the physical vulnerabilities of coastal communities to contemporary and climate change-enhanced hurricane storm surge hazards in Sarasota County, Florida.This research project is distinctive because traditional vulnerability assessments have not considered how geographic relationships influence a region's or a community's vulnerability. For example, a community without a hospital may depend on a facility in a nearby town for its health care needs. If a bridge on the only road connecting the two communities becomes impassable, then the vulnerability of the municipality without a hospital increases. Vulnerability assessments have also fallen short in their study of infrastructure networks by failing to combine traditional infrastructure with critical facilities. The project therefore is important because it provides a process that will allow coastal community officials, planners, and residents to improve and expand their use of vulnerability information for long-range infrastructure, critical facility, and overall development planning, thereby creating more sustainable, hazard-resistant communities. This research will enhance society's ability to plan for and respond to natural hazards and disruptions posed by climate change in the future. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.