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

亚利桑那大学研究生本·麦克马汉（Ben McMahan）将在马克·尼赫特博士和黛安·奥斯汀博士的指导下，在美国墨西哥湾沿岸路易斯安那州和德克萨斯州的两个地方进行灾后相互援助的通讯模式和网络研究。这两个地区在2005年都受到了严重的急性飓风事件的影响。这些地区还面临着与中度季节性风暴、长期海岸侵蚀和环境退化相关的长期风险。飓风突出了国家应急管理计划在多个规模和情况下的差距。然而，虽然国家备灾能力是有效管理的关键组成部分，但地方和区域内嵌入的社会网络在社区备灾中发挥的作用也很重要，但人们对其了解甚少。该项目旨在填补这一空白。研究人员将把民族志和参与性观察与参与性GIS制图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，以及这些感知是如何凝聚或分裂地方和区域社会群体的。这些数据将说明社交网络在减轻中断的即时和长期影响方面所起的作用。这些数据还将允许检查网络连接以及与社区社会和物理景观的历史联系如何影响感知风险水平和对灾害事件的反应以及急性危机之前的慢性疾病。最后，本研究将开创一种综合方法，将参与式测绘和社会网络分析纳入定性研究，利用民族志、参与式空间和社会网络数据的融合优势，加强对面临地方性风险地区居民如何在这些事件中动员起来的理解。该研究的重要之处在于，它将为在动态情况下跨尺度的社会网络分析的新用途提供理论依据；提高国家备灾能力；以及对研究生的进一步教育。

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.