Doctoral Dissertation Research: IMEE: Disaster Recovery, Social Capital, and the Sri Lankan Context: A Comparative Study of Two Communities in Batticaloa

本研究项目将分析斯里兰卡Batticaloa两个社区的恢复过程和结果：一个主要是泰米尔/印度教社区，另一个是穆斯林社区。该地区遭受了2004年印度洋海啸和斯里兰卡内战的影响，并为了解复杂的人道主义紧急情况与自然灾害之间的相互作用提供了机会。在世界各地的叛乱和“小型战争”、不断增加的灾害损失和全球环境变化的背景下，各国和国际社会都面临着在持续的人道主义危机背景下提供灾难援助的挑战。这项研究将为受武装冲突影响地区的灾后恢复提供实际经验。它还将为建立社区灾后恢复理论的努力提供基础知识，这将提高世界各地社区的复原力。研究重点关注三个社区层面的恢复成果：社会恢复；基础设施和建成环境恢复；以及降低风险的措施在多大程度上被纳入了恢复过程。该研究将调查三大类因素对恢复的影响：既存疾病；灾难的影响;灾后条件和与恢复相关的干预措施。利用从早期nsf赞助的实地考察中获得的知识，联合pi将与地区和地方领导人进行探索性和开放式访谈，住在两个研究社区中并参与日常社区活动，并探索当地的恢复动态，特别强调恢复挑战受到内战经验影响的方式。除社区成员外，联合调查团还将采访地方、地区和国家政府官员以及参与相关救济和恢复项目的个人，如非政府组织的代表。该项目的研究结果将被整合到科罗拉多大学的本科课程中。

This research project will analyze recovery processes and outcomes in two communities in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka: one predominantly Tamil/Hindu community and one Muslim community. This area suffered the impact of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and the civil war in Sri Lanka, and provides an opportunity to understand the interaction between complex humanitarian emergencies and natural disasters. Within a context of insurgencies and "small wars" around the world, increasing disaster losses, and global environmental change, both nations and the international communities are faced with the challenge of providing disaster assistance in the context of ongoing humanitarian crises. This research will result in practical lessons regarding disaster recovery in areas affected by armed conflict. It will also contribute fundamental knowledge to the efforts to build a theory of community recovery from disasters which should increase community resilience around the world.The research focuses on three community-level recovery outcomes: social recovery; infrastructure and built-environment recovery; and the extent to which risk reduction measures have been incorporated into the recovery process. The study will investigate the impacts on recovery of three broad sets of factors: pre-existing conditions; disaster impacts; and post-disaster conditions and recovery-related interventions. Using the knowledge gained through earlier NSF-sponsored fieldwork, the co-PI will conduct exploratory and open-ended interviews with district and local leaders, live in each of the two study communities and participate in everyday community activities, and explore local recovery dynamics, with a specific emphasis on the ways in which recovery challenges were influenced by experiences in the civil war. In addition to community members, the co-PI will interview local, district, and national government officials and individuals involved with relevant relief and recovery projects, such as representatives of non-governmental organizations. The findings from this project will be integrated into University of Colorado undergraduate curricula.