RAPID: Public Support for Disaster Risk Reduction Policies in the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian

快速反应研究（Rapid）项目创造的新知识对发展更具抵御力的社区至关重要。它提高了对经历灾害如何影响人们对灾害风险和减少灾害风险（DRR）政策，特别是建筑标准和建筑法规的态度和支持的理解。项目研究人员收集并分析了巴哈马的民意数据波，其中部分地区在2019年9月初被5级飓风多里安摧毁。该项目将促进对灾后民意动态的科学认识，并有助于支持加强政策和项目的战略努力，以减少灾害造成的人员和经济损失。它还将符合美国的人道主义和安全利益，因为加勒比地区灾害事件造成的损失影响到美国的对外援助、移民流动和模式，并最终影响到国家安全。最后，该项目将增加公众对科学技术的参与和欣赏，因为研究人员将传播面向公众的报告，内容包括灾害事件经验的关键发现、公众对降低风险的支持，以及实现增强建筑生存能力和安全性的“机会之窗”。这个项目的数据将在12个月的时间里在巴哈马群岛通过多次电话调查收集，然后由佛罗里达国际大学极端事件研究所的研究人员进行分析。研究结果将揭示像灾难这样的“焦点事件”是否以及如何引起公众意识和舆论的事件驱动型转变——对于这个问题，现有的研究提供了好坏参半或最多不确定的结果。具体而言，该项目旨在了解a)灾害是否以及如何增加对风险的认识和公众对减少风险政策的需求，以及b)公众舆论中任何此类变化的程度和持续时间（例如，这些态度的变化是长期的还是短期的，态度是否倾向于回到事件发生前的基线水平或在新的平衡状态下稳定下来）。该项目不仅有助于灾害研究方面的知识积累，而且有助于公共政策和行政、风险心理学和政治文化方面的知识积累。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 Rapid Response Research (RAPID) project creates new knowledge that is crucial for developing more resilient communities. It improves understanding of how experiencing a disaster affects people’s attitudes towards, and support for, disaster risk and disaster risk reduction (DRR) policies, particularly building standards and construction regulations. Project researchers collect and analyze waves of public opinion data from the Bahamas, parts of which were devastated by the Category 5 Hurricane Dorian in early September 2019. The project will advance scientific understanding of post-disaster public opinion dynamics and help support strategic efforts to strengthen policies and programs to reduce human and economic losses from disasters. It will also serve U.S. humanitarian and security interests, since losses from hazard events in the Caribbean region affect U.S. foreign assistance, immigration flows and patterns, and, ultimately, national security. Finally, this project will increase public engagement with and appreciation of science and technology, as researchers will disseminate public-facing reports on key findings about hazard event experiences, public support for risk reduction, and “windows of opportunity” for achieving enhanced building survivability and safety. The data for this project will be collected over a 12 month period in multiple waves of telephone surveys in the Bahamas, and then analyzed by researchers at Florida International University’s Extreme Events Institute. Findings will reveal whether and how “focusing events” like disasters cause event-driven shifts in public awareness and opinion—a question for which existing research has offered mixed or at best inconclusive results. Concretely, the project seeks to understand a) whether—and how—disasters increase perceptions of risk and public demand for risk reduction policies, and b) the extent and duration of any such changes in public opinion (e.g., whether these changes in attitudes are long-term or short-term, whether attitudes tend to return to baseline pre-event levels or settle at a new equilibrium). The project will contribute to the accumulation of knowledge not only in disaster research but also in public policy and administration, the psychology of risk, and political culture.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.