RAPID: Operationalizing the Capabilities Approach in the Context of Disaster Resilience: Measuring the Social Burden of Infrastructure Disruptions

RAPID：在抗灾能力的背景下实施能力方法：衡量基础设施中断的社会负担

• 批准号: 2128030
• 负责人: Susan Clark
• 金额: $ 19.94万
• 依托单位: SUNY at Buffalo
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-05-15 至 2022-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2128030&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Operationalizing; Capabilities; Approach; Context

This Grant for Rapid Response Research (RAPID) project assesses the impacts of power outages and associated infrastructure disruptions (e.g., water and transportation) on households by conducting a residential survey in Texas of people impacted by the February 2021 Winter Storm. During the storm, millions of households without power and water struggled to meet their basic needs. Cooking food, accessing clean water, and staying warm proved difficult without electricity and water. Focusing on these interrupted household services and the additional effort necessary to complete important household tasks enables research to understand how critical infrastructure facilitates the achievement of basic household needs. Moreover, through the examination of the additional ‘costs’ (e.g., extra time and money spent) required to meet these needs and maintain household capabilities during disruptions, the project contributes to developing a metric that captures the social burden of infrastructure disruptions. This metric of the social impacts of infrastructure disruptions can inform infrastructure planning and investment decisions by capturing currently unmeasured consequences of infrastructure failure. This research seeks to advance the Capabilities Approach (CA) framework for understanding human development and well-being by investigating the social impacts of infrastructure disruptions on households. The primary objective is to empirically examine the impacts of the recent power outages (and associated infrastructure disruptions) in Texas on household basic capabilities (i.e., being healthy and feeling safe). The research team conducts a representative, outage-wide survey of Texan households to identify the type and intensity of capability losses experienced, and examines the role of prior outage experience in mediating impacts. The event in Texas is particularly distinct because a significant portion of the population impacted has not experienced significant outages in recent memory. By comparing the responses of people with varying levels of prior outage experience, this research elucidates the role of experience in mediating outage impacts, and enables the researchers to more accurately measure the true burden of disruptions on households caught off-guard by Winter Storm Uri. This research goes beyond prior work by obtaining granular data on the links between critical infrastructure services and basic capabilities by analyzing the impacts of power outages as they cause cascading infrastructure system disruptions (i.e., water, food, etc.). The research maps the linkages between the disruption of household infrastructure services (i.e., lighting, refrigeration) and the disruption of day-to-day household activities critical for maintaining basic needs (i.e., keeping warm, eating) that may limit the achievement of critical capabilities and functions important for human well-being (i.e., being healthy and felling safe). This work supports a novel and augmented Capabilities Approach framework that can be used to understand the social impacts of infrastructure disruptions on households as well as the ways in which households adapt to meet basic needs. Second, the data collected are used to develop a metric that quantifies the social burden of infrastructure disruptions on households, which is estimated according to the extra time and costs required of households to fulfill basic needs during infrastructure outages.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该快速反应研究（RAPID）项目资助评估停电和相关基础设施中断的影响（例如，通过在德克萨斯州对受2021年2月冬季风暴影响的人进行住宅调查，对家庭进行了水和交通）。在风暴期间，数百万没有电和水的家庭努力满足他们的基本需求。在没有电和水的情况下，烹饪食物、获得清洁水和保暖都很困难。把重点放在这些中断的家庭服务和完成重要家务所需的额外努力上，使研究能够了解关键的基础设施如何促进满足家庭的基本需要。此外，通过审查额外的“成本”（例如，为了在中断期间满足这些需求和维持家庭能力所需的额外时间和金钱），该项目有助于制定一个衡量标准，以反映基础设施中断的社会负担。基础设施中断的社会影响的这一指标可以通过捕捉基础设施故障目前无法衡量的后果，为基础设施规划和投资决策提供信息。本研究旨在通过调查基础设施中断对家庭的社会影响，推进能力方法（CA）框架，以了解人类发展和福祉。主要目标是实证研究德克萨斯州最近的停电（以及相关的基础设施中断）对家庭基本能力（即，保持健康和安全）。研究小组对德克萨斯州的家庭进行了一次具有代表性的停电范围的调查，以确定所经历的能力损失的类型和强度，并研究了先前停电经验在调解影响方面的作用。德克萨斯州的事件特别独特，因为受影响的人口中有很大一部分在最近的记忆中没有经历过重大停电。通过比较人们的反应与不同水平的先前停电经验，这项研究阐明了经验在调解停电影响的作用，并使研究人员能够更准确地衡量真正的负担中断对家庭措手不及的冬季风暴乌里。这项研究超越了先前的工作，通过分析停电造成级联基础设施系统中断（即，水、食物等）。研究绘制了家庭基础设施服务中断（即，照明、制冷）和对维持基本需求至关重要的日常家庭活动的中断（即，保暖，进食），这可能限制对人类健康重要的关键能力和功能的实现（即，健康和安全）。这项工作支持一个新的和增强的能力方法框架，可用于了解基础设施中断对家庭的社会影响，以及家庭适应满足基本需求的方式。第二，根据基础设施中断期间，家庭为满足基本需求所需的额外时间和成本，对基础设施中断给家庭带来的社会负担进行量化。该奖项体现了NSF的法定使命，通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Developing an equity-focused metric for quantifying the social burden of infrastructure disruptions

制定以公平为中心的指标来量化基础设施中断的社会负担

• DOI: 10.1080/23789689.2022.2157116
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure
• 影响因子: 5.9
• 作者: Clark, Susan Spierre;Peterson, Sara K.E.;Shelly, Michael A.;Jeffers, Robert F.
• 通讯作者: Jeffers, Robert F.