RAPID: Infrastructural Failures and the Role of the Built Environment: The Case of the Winter Storm in Houston, Texas

快速反应研究（Rapid）项目的研究问题是，在德克萨斯州休斯顿冬季风暴期间，建筑环境（住房和社区）如何影响老年人对基础设施故障的敏感性。极端天气事件可能对老年人造成威胁生命的后果，他们的行动能力往往更有限，因此更有可能留在住所及其周围。这些威胁可能会因住房类型和结构、社区规模的基础设施和便利设施而加剧，特别是在发生停电等关键基础设施故障的情况下。尽管这些建筑环境因素具有重要意义，但它们在灾害期间对老年人等弱势群体的重要性和影响尚未得到仔细研究。2021年袭击德克萨斯州的北极海浪为填补这些空白提供了机会，并促进了我们对建筑环境和社区特征如何在极端天气事件中加剧或减轻老年人口脆弱性的后果的理解。此外，项目发现可以作为发展针对年龄的干预措施的起点，并有可能导致建立改善老年人灾害反应的项目，从而支持国家科学基金会推进我们国家社区健康、繁荣和福利的使命。具体来说，这个RAPID项目调查了单户与多户住房（单户连接和独立，5岁以下和5岁以上的多户，联排别墅），住房质量（隔热，通风，住房材料，能源效率，加热器可用性）和社区设施（庇护所，发电机，社会服务机构，医院，交通通道，街道条件，安全）对老年人的影响。该项目还将审查当地政府和社会服务组织的反应，以及他们对这场前所未有的灾难的创新解决方案。项目研究成果将有助于提高人们对住房类型和结构以及社区规模基础设施在灾害影响和极端天气事件应对中的作用的认识。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并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。

This Grants for Rapid Response Research (RAPID) project addresses the research question of how the built environment – housing and neighborhood – impact the susceptibility of older adults to infrastructure failures during the winter storm in Houston, Texas. Extreme weather events can have life threatening consequences for elder populations that are often more limited in mobility and hence more likely to stay in and around their residences. These threats can potentially be compounded by housing type and structure, neighborhood-scale infrastructure, and amenities, especially when accompanied by critical infrastructure failures such as power outages. Despite the significance of these built environmental factors, their significance and impact on the vulnerable population such as the older adult during disasters has not been examined closely. The arctic waves that hit Texas in 2021 provide an opportunity to fill these gaps and advance our understanding of how the built environment and neighborhood characteristics can have compounding or mitigating consequences for our elderly population’s vulnerabilities during extreme weather events. In addition, project findings can serve as starting points for the development of age-specific interventions, and potentially lead to the establishment of programs to improve geriatric disaster response thereby supporting NSF's mission of advancing the health, prosperity, and welfare of our nation’s communities.Specifically, this RAPID project investigates how elderly individuals were impacted based on single vs. multiple family housing (single family attached and detached, multi-family under and over 5, townhomes), housing qualities (insulation, ventilation, housing materials, energy efficiency, heater availability), and neighborhood amenities (shelters, generators, social service organizations, hospitals, transportation access, street conditions, safety). The project will also examine local responses by the government and social service organizations and their innovative solutions to an unprecedented disaster. Project findings will contribute to advancing knowledge on the role of housing types and structure as well as neighborhood-scale infrastructure in disaster impact and response to extreme weather events.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.