Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Post-Hurricane Participatory GIS Mapping along the Gulf Coast to Assess Community Preparedness and Social Network Connection

亚利桑那大学的研究生Ben McMahan将在Mark Nichter博士和Diane Austin博士的指导下，在美国墨西哥湾沿岸的两个地方，一个在路易斯安那州，一个在德克萨斯州，对沟通模式和灾后互助网络进行研究。2005年，这两个地区都受到了严重的急性飓风事件的影响。这些区域还面临与中度季节性风暴和长期海岸侵蚀和环境退化有关的长期风险。飓风突显了国家应急管理计划在多个规模和背景下存在的差距。然而，虽然国家备灾能力是有效管理的关键组成部分，但地方和区域社会网络在社区备灾中发挥的作用也很重要，但了解甚少。这个项目旨在填补这一空白。研究人员将把人种学和参与者观察与参与式地理信息系统地图绘制和社会网络分析结合起来，调查当地对感知到的环境和气候风险的反应，以及这些认知如何凝聚或区分当地和地区的社会群体。这些数据将阐述社交网络在缓解中断的直接和长期影响方面所发挥的作用。这些数据还将允许检查网络连接和与社区社会和自然景观的历史联系如何影响感知的风险水平和对灾害事件的反应，以及严重危机之前的长期状况。最后，这项研究将开创一种综合方法，将参与性地图和社会网络分析纳入定性研究，利用人种学、参与性空间和社会网络数据的优势，加强对面临地方性风险的地区的居民如何围绕这些事件进行动员的理解。这项研究将对在动态情况下对跨尺度社会网络分析的新用途进行理论研究、改善国家备灾能力和促进研究生教育做出重要贡献。

University of Arizona graduate student Ben McMahan, supervised by Dr. Mark Nichter and Dr. Diane Austin, will undertake research on patterns of communication and networks of mutual post-disaster assistance in two localities on the U.S. gulf coast, one in Louisiana and one in Texas. Both regions were affected by severe acute hurricane events in 2005. The regions also experience chronic risks associated with moderate seasonal storms and long term coastal erosion and environmental degradation. The hurricanes highlighted gaps in national emergency management plans, across multiple scales and contexts. However, while national preparedness capacity is a critical component of effective management, the role that locally and regionally embedded social networks play in community preparedness is also significant, but poorly understood. This project is directed towards filling that gap.The researcher will combine ethnography and participant observation with participatory GIS mapping and social network analysis to investigate local responses to perceived environmental and climatic risks, as well as how these perceptions cohere or divide local and regional social groupings. The data will address the role that social networks play in mitigating immediate and long-term impacts of disruptions. The data also will permit examination of how network connectivity and historical ties to a community's social and physical landscape affect level of perceived risk and responses to disaster events and the chronic conditions that precede acute crises. Finally, the research will pioneer an integrative methodology that incorporates participatory mapping and social network analyses into qualaitative research, drawing on the strength of the confluence of ethnographic, participatory spatial, and social network data to strengthen understanding of how residents of regions facing endemic risks mobilize around these events.The research is important in the contribution it will make to theorizing new uses of social network analysis across scales in dynamic situations; to improving national disaster preparedness; and to furthering the education of a graduate student.