RAPID/Collaborative Research: Cascading Impacts of the 2021 Texas Winter Storm on Subsidized Housing Residents: A Comparative Analysis

2021年德克萨斯州冬季风暴包括从2月10日到20日通过三个北极锋。由于德克萨斯州许多县遭遇创纪录的低温，德克萨斯州的独立电网几乎完全崩溃，超过500万人失去了电力供应。这场灾难的连锁效应包括供水中断、沸水警报、通信和交通中断、粮食短缺以及居民流离失所，对COVID-19的传播和治疗产生影响。这项快速反应研究（Rapid）项目的目的是对2021年德克萨斯州冬季风暴对八个大都市区居民的级联影响进行全面和比较分析。对家庭经历的可靠评估具有时效性，快速发展项目的资金支持从受影响家庭收集高质量的短期数据。该项目将促进学术、从业者和公众对流行病期间影响社会易受级联灾害影响因素的认识，这将是今后努力提高全国对此类事件的复原力的基础。项目团队将通过多种渠道传播研究成果，包括在顶级期刊上发表文章，并向相关利益相关者举办网络研讨会。此外，调查结果将通过一个网站分享，为利益相关者、研究人员、教育工作者和其他利益相关者提供有关2021年德克萨斯州冬季风暴不利影响的信息。通过这些渠道，该项目将把社会效益扩展到学术界之外。本项目将灾害中的社会脆弱性视角应用于2021年德克萨斯州冬季风暴，以提高对级联灾害的社会不平衡影响的认识，以及补贴租赁住房居民所经历的灾害脆弱性。我们将调查以下研究问题：(1)2021年德克萨斯州冬季风暴对居民的级联影响是什么？(2)不同社会特征、住房状况、电网服务提供商（ERCOT vs.其他）和大都市地区对级联冬季风暴的影响有何不同？(3)居民的社会特征、住房状况、电网服务提供商以及当地风暴的物理属性（如温度和降水）如何影响他们所经历的级联冬季风暴影响？(4)新冠肺炎大流行如何放大冬季风暴对居民福祉的级联效应？该项目包括在德克萨斯州八个大都市地区，通过手机对居住在hud援助的多户住房的家庭和居住在私人（非hud援助）住房的家庭进行英语/西班牙语社会调查。通过系统地研究这场灾难多方面影响的社会、物理和建筑环境决定因素——基于对补贴住房与私人住房、ERCOT网格内与外部住宅以及八个msa的比较——我们的项目试图改变社会脆弱性的基本知识，以应对灾难导致的级联基础设施故障。此外，它还将提高人们对社会弱势群体（补贴多户住房的居民）所经历的灾害脆弱性的认识。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。

The 2021 Texas Winter Storm included the passage of three arctic fronts from 10 through 20 February. As numerous Texas counties faced record low temperatures, the independent electric grid for Texas nearly experienced a total collapse and more than 5 million people lost access to electricity. The cascading effects of this disaster included water service disruptions, boil-water advisories, communication and transportation disruptions, food shortages, and residential dislocation with implications for COVID-19 transmission and treatment. The purpose of this Grant for Rapid Response Research (RAPID) project is to conduct a comprehensive and comparative analysis of the cascading impacts of the 2021 Texas Winter Storm on residents in eight metropolitan areas. Reliable assessment of household experiences is time-sensitive, and RAPID funding is enabling the collection of high quality, ephemeral data from affected households. The project will advance academic, practitioner, and public knowledge regarding factors influencing societal vulnerability to cascading disaster impacts during a pandemic which will be foundational to future efforts that seek to enhance resilience to such events nationwide. The project team will disseminate findings via multiple outlets, including by publishing articles in top-tier journals and delivering webinars to relevant stakeholder audiences. Additionally, findings will be shared via a website providing stakeholders, researchers, educators and other stakeholders with access to information about adverse impacts of the 2021 Texas Winter Storm. Through these channels, the project will extend societal benefits beyond the academic community.This project applies a social vulnerability to disasters perspective to the 2021 Texas Winter Storm to advance knowledge of the socially uneven impacts of cascading disasters, and the disaster vulnerabilities experienced by subsidized rental housing residents. We will investigate the following research questions: (1) What cascading impacts did residents experience in response to the 2021 Texas Winter Storm? (2) How did cascading winter storm impacts differ based on social characteristics, housing status, electricity grid service provider (ERCOT vs. others), and metropolitan area? (3) How did the social characteristics of residents, their housing status, their electricity grid service provider, and the local physical attributes of the storm (e.g., temperature and precipitation) influence the cascading winter storm impacts they experienced? (4) How did the COVID-19 pandemic amplify the cascading effects of the winter storm on residents’ well-being? The project involves a social survey conducted by cellular phone in English/Spanish with households in HUD-assisted multi-family housing and households residing in private (non-HUD-assisted) homes, in eight Texas metropolitan areas. By systematically examining the social, physical, and built environment determinants of this disaster’s multifaceted effects—based on comparisons between subsidized vs. private housing, residence within vs. outside the ERCOT grid, and across eight MSAs—our project seeks to transform fundamental knowledge of social vulnerability to cascading infrastructure failure due to disasters. Additionally, it will advance knowledge regarding disaster vulnerabilities experienced by a socially disadvantaged and under-studied group—residents of subsidized multi-family housing.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.