RAPID Proposal to Conduct a Comparative Study of Community Impacts of the 2010 BP Oil Spill

2010年4月20日，越洋公司拥有的、与英国石油公司(BP)签约的深水地平线钻井平台在墨西哥湾北部发生爆炸并开始燃烧。该钻井平台位于离海岸50英里的地方，沉没后留下了一个破裂的井口，估计每天涌出2万桶石油。最初试图阻止漏油的努力没有成功，专家估计可能需要长达三个月或更长时间才能阻止原油流动。石油泄漏威胁到北海湾沿岸的几个“处于风险”的行业，包括商业和休闲渔业、旅游业和其他与自然资源有关的企业。最初的社会影响已经在展开，并可能继续并随着时间的推移而演变。这一快速研究项目将重点研究英国石油公司漏油事件对可再生资源社区和团体的影响。这场正在上演的灾难在生态、文化、社会和经济方面的破坏和破坏，以及潜在的长期影响，将其与1989年的埃克森-瓦尔迪兹石油泄漏(EVOS)相提并论。在过去的21年里，这个研究团队记录了EVOS对人类的影响，重点是亚肯色州科尔多瓦的社区，这个项目建立在这项研究的基础上，并将其扩展到目前的BP漏油事件。这项研究的首要目标是收集有关墨西哥湾北部可再生资源社区的利益相关者如何应对这场漏油灾难的高度易腐烂的、对时间敏感的数据。具体地说，研究小组将把他们的数据收集活动集中在阿拉巴马州Bayou La Batre的社区，以便与科尔多瓦进行社会科学比较。研究小组将收集定性和定量数据，说明灾难不仅对该地区的生态，而且对居民的社会和文化系统产生了怎样的影响。他们将利用以前的EVOS研究中使用的研究设计和工具，制定和进行有目的的面对面访谈，对关键利益攸关方群体的个人进行有目的的抽样，并对随机抽样的社区家庭进行自我管理调查。主要数据将在两个时间点收集，首先进行访谈，然后进行调查。他们将从启动Bayou La Batre的社区案例研究开始。这项研究不仅将帮助研究团队评估他们在过去20年中开发的研究EVOS的社会、文化和心理影响的理论和方法的更广泛应用，而且有可能向政策制定者提供关于环境和经济以外的影响的信息，这些影响可能对当地社区的可持续性产生重大影响。

On April 20, 2010 the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig owned by Transocean Ltd. and contracted to British Petroleum (BP) exploded and started burning in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Located 50 miles off-shore, the rig sank leaving a breached wellhead gushing an estimated 20,000 barrels of oil per day. Initial attempts to stop the spill have been unsuccessful and experts estimate it could take up to three months or more to stop the flow of crude oil. The spill threatens several "at-risk" industries along the Northern Gulf including commercial and recreational fishing, tourism, and other enterprises tied to natural resources. Initial social impacts are already unfolding and are likely to continue and evolve over time. This RAPID research project will focus on how the BP oil spill affects renewable resource communities and groups. This unfolding disaster draws comparisons to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill (EVOS) in terms of ecological, cultural, social, and economic damage and disruption, as well as potential long-term impacts. Over the past 21 years, this research team has documented human impacts of the EVOS with a focus on the community of Cordova, AK and this project builds upon and extends this research to the current BP spill. The overarching goal of the study is to capture highly perishable, time sensitive data regarding ways in which stakeholders in renewable resource communities along the northern Gulf of Mexico are reacting to this oil spill disaster. Specifically, the research team will focus thier data gathering activities on the community of Bayou La Batre, Alabama in order to make social scientific comparisons to Cordova. The research team will collect qualitative and quantitative data on how the disaster impacts not only the ecology of the region but the social and cultural systems of the residents. They will draw on research designs and instruments used in their previous EVOS studies to develop and conduct structured face-to-face interviews with purposive sample of individuals from key stakeholder groups and self-administered surveys to a random sample of community households. Primary data will be collected at two points in time with interviews occurring first, followed by the survey. They will begin by initiating a community case study of Bayou La Batre. This research will not only assist the research team in assessing the wider application of the theories and methodologies they have developed over the last 20 years researching the social, cultural, and psychological impacts of the EVOS, but has the potential to inform policy makers about effects outside of environmental and economic that can have a major impact on local community sustainability.