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

这个博士论文研究项目调查了灾难性灾难后的长期恢复，以及如何通过个人账户和量化指标来表示这种恢复。恢复，特别是长期恢复，是灾害周期中人们最不了解的阶段。目前的研究往往将恢复等同于基础设施的重建、受影响地区的人口重新增加或区域经济活动的恢复。仅依赖综合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规模差异。地点在调解灾难幸存者的恢复过程中发挥着重要作用。它作为一个管理实体，制定恢复指导方针，但也提供了一个社会社区和一个包含个人和群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网站，探索长期的恢复过程中，八年的时间，因为卡特里娜飓风。本研究首先探讨了复苏对当地居民的意义，以及是否存在社会地位和地理背景的差异。其次，本研究探讨了这些经验的角度对恢复和基于实践的评估之间是否有差异。半结构化的采访，照片启发，和参与性绘图练习将记录居民的看法，空间，功能和象征性的恢复他们的社区。这些定性数据的专题比较和空间比较的参与者在地理信息系统（GIS）中进行的地图隔离居民的观点的差异。然后构建基于长期人口、经济和住房重建数据的定量指标。一个空间聚类算法是用来比较的时间，程度和空间范围的恢复所描述的指标与居民的观点收集通过定性方法。本研究的目的是开发一个理论模型的地方恢复和方法，整合多种类型的地方为基础的知识。本研究的结果将加强恢复研究，规划和政策的各种方式。建立一个细致入微的、以地点为基础的、对各种恢复经验敏感的恢复模式，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针对传统上代表性不足的群体，特别是妇女，老年人和有色人种的未满足需求，他们是本研究的目标。制定这样一种参与性方法，让居民确定和评估当地的恢复情况，可广泛适用于其他受灾地区。让居民参与行动研究也有可能通过提高恢复过程的效率来增强参与者的能力和增强社区的复原力。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个独立的研究生涯。

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.