RAPID: Collaborative Research: Hurricane Sandy, Disaster Recovery, and the Seeds of Urban Transformation

这个快速反应研究项目调查了飓风桑迪对新泽西州和纽约州严重受损社区未来沿海发展的影响。借鉴社会生态转型理论的新创新，该研究检验了一个假设，即关键转型或政权转变可以由外部冲击事件（如重大自然灾害）促成。利用过渡框架，本研究探讨了飓风桑迪及其对飓风造成的严重风暴潮破坏的反应是否创造了可能导致纽约-新泽西（NY-NJ）大都会区沿海地区定居模式转变的条件。这项研究的研究需要记录和分析正在考虑或正在进行的响应和行动的类型和特征，这些响应和行动是由个人财产和企业主、市、县、州和联邦各级的政府官员以及非政府组织（ngo）在新泽西州和纽约州四个受影响严重的沿海社区（每个州两个）的代表性群体中进行的。将过渡框架应用于飓风“桑迪”短期灾后应对措施的评估，提供了一个独特的机会，可以促进对极端灾害事件如何在大城市地区脆弱和风险地区引发基本社会生态系统变化的理论和应用理解。该项目有助于从根本上了解随着气候变化而出现的新型灾害事件如何影响美国城市化地区的沿海发展模式。在美国和全球范围内，减少灾害风险的政策和战略都强调从过去的事件中吸取教训，以便了解未来应该避免什么。然而，越来越多的人认识到气候的非平定性，这迫使从地方社区到联邦政府的各级工作人员以不同的方式看待飓风桑迪和其他类似的极端事件。特别是，人们越来越认识到，重建沿海财产、基础设施和更大的相互关联的城市系统不能仅仅以减少对上次事件的脆弱性为目标，重建工作必须考虑到未来更大的恢复能力。这项研究为促进或阻碍大型沿海城市系统恢复力的因素提供了宝贵的信息。研究结果将通过向当地和区域利益攸关方公开介绍以及通过政策文件和研究文章传播。在实习机会方面，本研究促进了罗格斯大学和纽约城市大学的研究生在快速响应气候变化影响和适应评估方面的培训。

This RAPID response research project investigates the impact of Hurricane Sandy on future coastal development in heavily damaged communities in New Jersey and New York. Drawing from new innovations in socio-ecological transition theory, the study tests the hypothesis that that critical transitions or regime shifts can be precipitated by external shocks events, such as major natural disasters. Using a transition framework, the study explores whether Hurricane Sandy and the responses to the severe storm surge damage from the hurricane have created conditions that may lead to a transformation of settlement patterns of the New York-New Jersey (NY-NJ) Metropolitan Region coastal zone. Research for the study entails documentation and analysis of the types and character of responses and actions that are being considered or are just underway by individual property and business owners, government officials at the municipal, county, state, and federal levels, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in a representative set of four heavily impacted coastal communities in New Jersey and New York (two in each state). The application of a transition framework to the assessment of responses taken in the short-term aftermath of Hurricane Sandy presents a unique opportunity to advance theoretical and applied understanding of how extreme disaster events set in motion fundamental, socio-ecological system shifts within vulnerable and at risk areas of large metropolitan regions. This project contributes to fundamental understanding of how new types of disaster events emerging with climate change might affect coastal development patterns in urbanized areas of the United States. Within the United States and globally, disaster risk reduction policies and strategies have emphasized using lessons from the past events in order to understand what should be avoided in the future. Yet growing recognition of the non-stationarity of the climate is compelling individuals operating at all levels, from local communities to the federal government, to look at Hurricane Sandy and other similar extreme events in a different way. In particular, there is growing recognition that coastal properties, infrastructure, and larger interconnected, urban systems cannot be rebuilt with the simple goal of reducing vulnerability to the last event and that the rebuilding effort must allow for much greater resilience in the future. This study provides invaluable information about factors that promote or hinder resilience within large, coastal urban systems. Results of the study are to be disseminated via public presentations to local and regional stakeholders and through policy documents and research articles. With respect to traineeship opportunities, the study facilitates the training of graduate students at Rutgers University and City University of New York in rapid response climate change impact and adaptation assessment.