Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Meaning of Place Recovery on the Mississippi Coast

这一博士论文研究项目调查了灾难发生后的长期恢复，以及这种恢复是如何通过个人账户和量化指标表现出来的。恢复，特别是从长期来看，是灾难周期中最不为人所知的阶段。目前的研究往往将复苏等同于基础设施的重建、受影响地区的重新人口或区域经济活动的恢复。仅依赖总体指标的评估技术虽然有效，但可能会掩盖当地社区和社会团体在恢复经验和结果方面的小范围差异。Place在调解灾难幸存者的恢复进程方面发挥了重要作用。它是一个制定恢复指导方针的管理实体，但也提供了一个社会社区和一个包含个人和团体历史的象征性景观。这项研究使用密西西比海岸作为一个地点，探索自卡特里娜飓风以来的八年时间里的长期恢复过程。这项研究首先考察了复苏对当地居民意味着什么，以及是否存在基于社会地位和地理背景的差异。其次，这项研究探索了这些关于复苏的经验性观点与基于经验的评估之间是否存在差异。半结构化访谈、照片启发和参与性绘图练习将记录居民对其社区的空间、功能和象征性恢复的看法。在地理信息系统中对这些定性数据进行专题比较，并对参与者地图进行空间比较，以隔离居民视角的差异。然后构建了基于长期人口、经济和住房重建数据的量化指标。使用空间聚类算法将指标描述的恢复时间、程度和空间程度与通过定性方法收集的居民观点进行比较。本研究旨在发展一种地点复原的理论模型及整合多种基于地点的知识的方法论，其结果将从多方面促进复原研究、规划及政策的制定。建立对各种恢复经验敏感的细致入微的、以地点为基础的恢复模式，将推动关于灾害周期这一阶段的跨学科教学和研究。将当地恢复知识作为更大规模基准程序的一部分，将有助于州和地方恢复领导人更有效地瞄准传统上代表性不足的群体未得到满足的需求，特别是妇女、老年人和有色人种，他们是本研究的目标。制定这种由居民确定和评估当地恢复情况的参与式方法，广泛适用于其他受灾地区。让居民参与行动研究也有可能增强参与者的能力，并通过增强恢复过程的效力来增强社区的复原力。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项将为有前途的学生建立独立的研究生涯提供支持。

This doctoral dissertation research project investigates long-term recovery following a catastrophic disaster and how such recovery is represented through personal accounts and quantitative indicators. Recovery, especially in the long-term, is the least understood phase in the disaster cycle. Current research often equates recovery with the rebuilding of infrastructure, the repopulation of affected areas, or the return of regional economic activity. Assessment techniques that rely solely on aggregate metrics, while valid, could potentially mask small-scale differences in the recovery experiences and outcomes of local neighborhoods and social groups. Place plays a substantial role in mediating the recovery process for disaster survivors. It serves as a governing entity that establishes recovery guidelines, but also provides a social community and a symbolic landscape containing individual and group histories. This study uses the Mississippi Coast as a site for exploring the long-term recovery process over an eight-year period since Hurricane Katrina. The study first examines what recovery means to local residents, and whether or not differences exist on the basis of social position and geographic background. Second, the study explores whether there are differences between these experiential perspectives on recovery and empirically-based assessments. Semi-structured interviews, photo elicitation, and a participatory mapping exercise will document perceptions of residents about the spatial, functional, and symbolic recovery of their community. Thematic comparisons of these qualitative data and spatial comparisons of participant maps performed in a geographic information system (GIS) isolate differences in perspectives of residents. Quantitative indicators based on long-term population, economic, and housing reconstruction data are then constructed. A spatial clustering algorithm is used to compare the timing, degree, and spatial extent of recovery described by the indicators with perspectives of residents gleaned through qualitative methods. The aim of this research is to develop a theoretical model of place recovery and a methodology for integrating multiple types of place-based knowledge.The results of this study will enhance recovery research, planning, and policy in a variety of ways. The generation of a nuanced, place-based recovery model sensitive to a diversity of recovery experiences will advance interdisciplinary instruction and research on this phase of the disaster cycle. The inclusion of local recovery knowledge as part of a larger-scale benchmarking procedure will assist state and local recovery leaders in more efficiently targeting the unmet needs of traditionally underrepresented groups, in particular, women, the elderly, and people of color, who are targeted in this study. The development of such a participatory methodology in which residents define and assess local recovery is widely applicable to other disaster-impacted locations. Engaging residents in action research also has the potential to empower participants and enhance community resilience by bolstering efficacy in the recovery process. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award will provide support to enable a promising student to establish an independent research career.