Establishment and Operation of Shelters Serving Socially Vulnerable Populations: A Socio-spatial Analysis

本研究考察了卡特里娜飓风过后应急和临时避难所是如何建立和运作的。该项目的重点是为社会弱势群体，特别是需要特殊需要支助的群体提供服务的庇护所。虽然公众认可的正式红十字会庇护所为许多有需要的人提供服务，但流离失所者人数惊人，因此需要开设许多非正式庇护所。因此，本研究试图了解为数十万流离失所者（其中许多是低收入者、老人、妇女和儿童、少数种族和族裔以及残疾人）提供服务的住房类型的范围。该研究的目的是：(1)增加关于庇护所运作以及社会和经济弱势群体的有限知识体系；(2)注重为有特殊需要的人提供服务的庇护所；(3)确定政策和实践建议；(4)让各类本科生和研究生参与科学探究，包括应急管理、灾害规划、社会学、家庭研究和地理专业的学生；(5)制作一套视频，供参与院校的应急管理课堂使用。为了实现这些目标，一个由俄克拉荷马州立大学、密西西比州立大学和德克萨斯农工大学组成的跨学科研究小组将研究密西西比州、路易斯安那州、德克萨斯州和俄克拉荷马州避难所的建立和运作。该小组将利用地理信息科学来了解避难所的位置，并记录疏散人员在四个州的分布情况。研究人员还将采访收容所的管理人员，了解他们的观点，并对收容所的居民进行调查。这项研究的一个独特之处在于，它将要求避难所的居民拍摄“他们生命中的一天”。把重点放在易受伤害人口的问题和解决办法上，应导致更有效的住房行动。因此，这项研究的主要社会效益是减少人类在未来事件中的痛苦。

This research examines how emergency and temporary shelters were established and operated after Hurricane Katrina. The project focuses on shelters serving socially vulnerable populations, particularly those requiring special needs support. Although the publicly recognizable, formal Red Cross shelters serve many in need, the staggering numbers of displaced persons required that many informal shelters open as well. Accordingly, this study tries to understand the range of shelter types that opened to serve the hundreds of thousands of displaced persons, many of whom were low-income, the elderly, women and children, racial and ethnic minorities and persons with disabilities. The research aims to: (1) add to the limited body of knowledge on shelter operations as well as socially and economically vulnerable populations; (2) focus on shelters that serve persons with special needs; (3) identify recommendations for policy and practice; (4) involve a diverse set of undergraduate and graduate students in scientific inquiry, including students in emergency management, disaster planning, sociology, family studies and geography; (5) develop a set of videos for use in emergency management classrooms at participating institutions.To reach these goals, an interdisciplinary team of researchers from Oklahoma State University, Mississippi State University, and Texas A&M University will study the establishment and operations of shelters across Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma. The team will use geographic information sciences to understand how shelters were located and to document the spread of evacuees across four states. Researchers will also interview shelter managers for their perspectives and will conduct surveys with shelter residents. A unique feature of the study will ask shelter residents to photograph "a day in their life."Focusing on problems and resolutions for vulnerable populations should result in more effective shelter operations. Consequently, the main societal benefit of this research is the reduction of human suffering in future events.