DRC Research
DRC projects have been supported by diverse sources, including: National Science Foundation (NSF), U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Department of Transportation (DoT), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Sea Grant Program, Social Science Research Council (SSRC), and Public Entity Risk Institute (PERI).
Coastal Hazards, Equity, Economic Prosperity and Resilience (CHEER)
DURATION: September 1, 2022 –
RESEARCHERS: Rachel Davidson, Sarah DeYoung, Joseph Trainor, A.R. Siders[/if 449]
FUNDING: National Science Foundation
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
The UD-led hub — Coastal Hazards, Equity, Economic prosperity and Resilience (CHEER) — is one of five NSF-funded projects announced recently as part of the agency’s Coastlines and People program, which is concentrating its research efforts to protect the natural, social and economic resources of U.S. coasts, and to help create more resilient coastal communities.
This five-year project will be led by Rachel Davidson, a core DRC faculty member and UD professor of civil and environmental engineering. Co-principal investigators include Sarah DeYoung, core DRC faculty member and associate professor of sociology and criminal justice at UD; Linda Nozick, professor and director of civil and environmental engineering at Cornell University; Brian Colle, professor and division head of atmospheric sciences at Stony Brook University; and Meghan Millea, professor of economics at East Carolina University.
COVID-19: Community Impacts and Adaptation To Crisis: Delawareans Living With HIV/Aids
RESEARCHERS: Tricia Wachtendorf
FUNDING: Internally Funded, Delaware HIV Consortium
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
The crisis surrounding COVID-19 impacted communities across the globe. Appreciating that disasters have differential impacts on those affected, this study examined the impact the crisis had on Delawareans living with HIV/AIDS. The study explored issues of preparedness, response, adaptation, and decision-making, among other social consequences, as well as challenges related to health, housing, finances, and support. Over 50 interviews were conducted with clients of the Delaware HIV Consortium to better understand their experiences and needs over the course of the pandemic.
DRC RESEARCH PROJECTS: 36
FILTER BY RESEARCH AREA:
4 Climate Change | 5 Humanitarian Assistance | 6 Infrastructure Risk Management | 12 Protective Actions | 14 Public Health | 15 Response | 3 Social Vulnerability | 4 Warning and Risk Perception | CLEAR ALL
FILTER BY CLASSIFICATION:
11 Active Research | 19 Past Research | 5 Student Research | CLEAR ALL
NSF EAGER: Risk Objects In Public Health Crisis: An Exploratory Investigation Of Stigma, Role-Triage, And Cautionary Measures
DURATION: October 1, 2015 – August 31, 2019
RESEARCHERS: James Kendra, Tricia Wachtendorf
ADDITIONAL INVESTIGATOR: Sarah Sisco, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
DRC, in partnership with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will conduct research on the management of the Ebola crisis in NYC. This study focuses on the generation of stigma in epidemic (or epidemic threatened) environments. In particular, we explore who is involved in the generation of stigma labels, why these labels emerge, the consequences they generate, and how various stakeholders promote, resist, or contend with stigma. The project seeks to learn how public officials, in an environment of scientific uncertainty and multijurisdictional conflict and contradiction, can counter stigmatization and mitigate the creation of risk.
NSF HAZARD SEES TYPE 2: Next Generation, Resilient Warning Systems For Tornados And Flash Floods
RESEARCHERS: Joseph Trainor
ADDITIONAL INVESTIGATOR: Brenda Philips, Umass Amherst)
FUNDING: National Science Foundation
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
On this project, researchers are working as part of a collaborative, multi-disciplinary team to explore the basic science to support the next generation of warning systems for rapid-onset hazards such as tornadoes and flash floods. In particular, we are working to better understand how to predict and disseminate warnings in shorter time windows and with smaller warning spaces. In order to do this, the project combines new radar and mobile phone technology with an improved understanding of human responses to warnings in order to better meet the goal of keeping people and property safe. DRC researchers are using focus groups, surveys, and short questionnaires on a cell phone app to better understand how people decide if specific weather is threatening or not. In addition to other factors, we are specifically focused on how different times and places people find themselves in when they receive warnings might change how they respond to them. We are also exploring how warnings delivered on mobile phones differ from other types of dissemination methods. For example, we are examining the ability of apps to deliver individualized storm warning information to people and whether people give their attention differently to warnings received through their phones than they might to more traditional methods of warning delivery.
NSF HDBE: Collaborative Research: Leveraging Massive Smartphone Location Data to Improve Understanding and Prediction of Behavior in Hurricanes
DURATION: September 1, 2020 – August 31, 2023
RESEARCHERS: Rachel Davidson, Tricia Wachtendorf, Sarah DeYoung
FUNDING: National Science Foundation
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
In this project, newly available anonymous smartphone location data will be used to dramatically improve understanding of how people behave during hurricanes (e.g., how many people will evacuate, when, how, from where, and to where). In this project, we will promote the progress of science by capitalizing on the availability of a new type of data—anonymous location information from smartphones—to make a leap forward in understanding and predicting the behavior of the population during hurricane evacuations. The project will advance national welfare and benefit society by substantially improving the ability to manage future evacuations. During a hurricane, officials make many highly consequential decisions, including issuing official evacuation orders, messaging the public, opening shelters, staging materials, and staff, implementing special traffic plans, executing support for vehicle-less populations, and preparing to undertake rescues. All of these depend directly on how many people are expected to evacuate, when, how, from where, and to where. By providing a more accurate and nuanced prediction of population behavior during hurricanes, this project will enable officials to make those decisions in a more informed and effective way. Our practitioner partners from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Florida and North Carolina state emergency management agencies will also help us share findings with the larger emergency management community. Combining the power of the new data with domain expertise based on traditional survey and interview data will advance the science.
NSF LEAP HI: Embedding Regional Hurricane Risk Management in the Life of a Community: A Computational Framework
DURATION: September 1, 2018 – August 31, 2023
RESEARCHERS: Rachel Davidson, Joseph Trainor
FUNDING: Cornell University, East Carolina University, National Science Foundation
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
A breakthrough in disaster risk reduction will require an approach that views disasters not as abnormal events but as a regular part of a community’s evolution, and disaster risk management as inextricably interwoven with the normal activities of everyday life. In this project, a novel computational modeling framework will be developed using this approach to improve understanding of the underlying dynamics that lead to escalating regional natural disaster risk, and to support design and analysis of public policy interventions to address them. In a system-wide analysis, the Multistakeholder Disaster Risk Management (MDRM) framework will explicitly consider perspectives of and interactions among multiple key stakeholders (government, primary insurers, and homeowners), multiple diverse interventions (e.g., home strengthening, insurance, land use planning), and not just actions that are explicitly risk-focused but “risk-influential” actions as well. The MDRM computational framework will include seven interacting mathematical models representing physically-based simulation of damage, losses, and ways to strengthen homes; decision-making by each main stakeholder type including oligopolistic competition among insurers; and the changing building inventory and regional economy that provide the context. It will be developed with a full-scale application for hurricanes in North Carolina. This project promises improved understanding of the creation and management of regional natural disaster risk by, for the first time, uniting the conceptualization of disasters as part of the normal life of a community with the power of quantitative, dynamic engineering modeling of risk, decision-making, and economics. Principal Investigators: Linda Nozick, Cornell University, and Jamie Kruse, East Carolina University
NSF SCC-CIVIC-PG TRACK B: An Integrated Scenario-Based Hurricane Evacuation Management Tool to Support Community Preparedness
DURATION: February 1, 2021 – May 31, 2021
RESEARCHERS: Rachel Davidson, Tricia Wachtendorf
FUNDING: National Science Foundation
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
As a hurricane approaches, emergency managers must determine when and where to issue official evacuation orders. It requires integrating large amounts of uncertain, changing information to make consequential decisions in a short time frame under pressure, and the stakes are high. An opportunity exists to leverage recent research—in particular, the Integrated Scenario-based Evacuation (ISE) tool—to help meet that challenge. This team designed the ISE tool to be run for a particular hurricane as it approaches the U.S. When run at a point in time, it generates a set of contingency plans and defines the circumstances under which to implement each, depending on how the hurricane evolves. Each plan includes recommendations about whether or not to issue an evacuation order for each geographic evacuation zone, and if so, when. While the new technology has promise, moving from research to practice brings its own challenges. The objectives of Stage 1, therefore, are to: (1) Determine how the new tool and its output can support emergency managers’ natural decision-making process; (2) Conduct a needs assessment for the tool; and (3) Advance understanding of community innovation in disaster management. The Stage 2 objective is to implement an operational prototype of the ISE-based decision support tool for North Carolina. The emergency manager partners will ensure the tool is of practical use; the researchers will ensure it reflects the best science, and the industry partner will ensure its impact is sustainable by hosting it on their platform.
NSF: Information Chain Support for Disaster Mitigation, Preparedness, Response and Recovery
RESEARCHERS: James Kendra
FUNDING: National Science Foundation
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
This project seeks to develop and implement a tuple based information retrieval system that efficiently retrieves information from the big data environment, i.e. InfoChain. This system is being designed for practical application in the emergency management information environment and is being evaluated as it interfaces with the Disaster Research Center’s existing Resource Collection catalog database, DISCAT. Currently, a new search engine is being developed that will provide enhanced functionality and capabilities to DISCAT. The platform is also being designed with broader applications beyond emergency management information mining in mind.
NSF: Multi-Perspective Evacuation Performance
DURATION: September 1, 2015 – August 31, 2020
RESEARCHERS: Joseph Trainor
FUNDING: National Science Foundation
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
This project combines sociological, engineering, and economics approaches to explore the question of what makes an evacuation a success or a failure. This question is explored from two perspectives: that of the transportation agencies charged with managing an evacuation, and that of the individual households who participate in the evacuation. Through focus groups, a survey, and simulations, this project is exploring how these two groups experience evacuations, and by what criteria they deem an evacuation “good” or “bad”. The project will attempt to quantify these criteria into measurable variables, which can be used to form models to evaluate how much of a success or failure an evacuation is, according to these two perspectives. These models could be used to evaluate the impact of different evacuation strategies, in order to enable authorities to conduct evacuations that are more successful, both for the agencies that manage them and the households that participate in them. Project Status as of January 2018: The design phase of the project has been concluded, and the design of data collection instruments is complete. IRB approval on design and data collection methodology and instruments has been obtained, and the project has entered the data collection phase. Additional Principal Investigators: Pamela Murray-Tuite (Virginia Tech), Praveen Edara (University of Missouri), Konstantinos Triantis (Virginia Tech)
Promoting Community Resilience In New York City After Hurricane Sandy: A Model-Based Approach
RESEARCHERS: James Kendra
FUNDING: Johns Hopkins University, New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene Office, US Department of Health and Human Services
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
This project is a collaborative effort between the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware, and the Center for Public Health Preparedness at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. A sample of 2,087 households were randomly sampled using random digit dialing to cell phones and landlines in NYC between September 2014 and May 2015. The project aims to identify factors that influence community resistance, resilience, and recovery in NYC; develop a predictive model of resilience; and, identify possible candidate interventions in order to promote disaster resilience and recovery strategies in NYC. Principal Investigators: Jonathan M. Links, Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health Preparedness, and Sarah Sisco, New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene Office of Emergency Preparedness and Response.
The Emergency Medical Services Delivery in Mass Gathering Events: A Case Study Of The Hajj
RESEARCHERS: Abdulhadi Al Ruwaithi
FUNDING: Umm al-Qura University
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Mass gatherings occur more frequently in today’s world, and they have increased in size and magnitude. They can be organized/regular events or non-organized/irregular events, local or international, and peaceful or aggressive. One of the best well-known of these international mass-gathering events is the Hajj (or pilgrimage to Mecca), which occurs annually when over three million people come to a defined area within a very well-known schedule to perform a set of specific Islamic rituals. Over its long history, the Hajj has been prone to many documented risks -either security-related risks, health-related, or others- which are attributed to factors such as transportation, human mistakes, and diverse international attendance. Several instances happened in the past when those risks materialized. It is in this context that studying the response of public health and emergency organizations in these mass-gathering events can generate knowledge for improving the safety of those attending these events. This dissertation project focuses on investigating the emergency medical services delivery system in the Hajj sites, to reveal the factors associated with the EMS systems’ successes and failures during both regular times and emergencies. The project aims to understand factors that impact the EMS process within the Hajj mass gathering context. A mixed-methods approach is utilized by which the patients’ presentation statistics are analyzed and a stratified sample of EMS ambulance crews are interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. The quantitative approach is used to evaluate the EMS response time and inform the sample stratification process. The qualitative approach (interview data) is used to evaluate the intra- and inter-organizational coordination between the ambulance operators and other agencies in the Hajj.
TNC: Legal Tools for Floodplain Management
RESEARCHERS: A.R. Siders
FUNDING: The Nature Conservancy
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Climate change and development are exacerbating flood-risk across the United States. Numerous legal tools exist to help local governments minimize flood risk, and this project seeks to understand and address challenges that limit the ability of local governments to use these tools or shape the outcomes they are able to achieve. The team developed communication tools to facilitate conversations about managed retreat with government officials and members of the public. Interviews with officials who have administered floodplain property acquisition programs explore how federal policy shapes local decisions and how variations in local administration affect participant outcomes. Case studies of municipalities that have adopted progressive development regulations explore what factors enable the adoption and enforcement of progressive laws.
DRC RESEARCH PROJECTS: 36
FILTER BY RESEARCH AREA:
4 Climate Change | 5 Humanitarian Assistance | 6 Infrastructure Risk Management | 12 Protective Actions | 14 Public Health | 15 Response | 3 Social Vulnerability | 4 Warning and Risk Perception | CLEAR ALL
FILTER BY CLASSIFICATION:
11 Active Research | 19 Past Research | 5 Student Research | CLEAR ALL
Addressing the Holy Grail of Emergency Management: A Study Of Faith-Based Organizational Coordination Following Hurricane Florence
ADDITIONAL INVESTIGATOR: Lauren Clay, MPH at D’Youville College
FUNDING: Self-Funded, The National Academies of Sciences, The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, & Medicine Gulf Research Program, Early-Career Research Fellowship
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
This research explores the interorganizational coordination of faith-based organizations responding to disaster-impacted communities. During disasters, faith-based organizations play an integral role by providing extensive human, physical, and monetary resources to address the needs of the impacted community. This research buildings on the existing literature by studying how resources, norms, and environment enable or constrain the coordination of faith-based organizations. This study is a qualitative inquiry exploring the interorganizational coordination of faith-based organizations which responded to 2018 Hurricane Florence in the community of New Bern, North Carolina. Findings from this study will address gaps in the existing literature and inform emergency management practitioners on better coordination practices for faith-based and other community-based organizations in disasters.
An Interdisciplinary Approach to Modeling Multiple Stakeholder Decision Making to Reduce Regional Natural Disaster Risk
RESEARCHERS: Rachel Davidson, Joseph Trainor
FUNDING: Department of Homeland Security, National Science Foundation
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
The project will result in a new framework of interacting mathematical models that can be used to better understand, design, and evaluate government natural disaster risk management policies, such as providing funds to help homeowners strengthen their homes or requiring homeowners to buy natural disaster insurance. By supporting improved design and evaluation of public policies, the project will help the country better manage its risk. By considering the individual, sometimes competing stakeholder points-of-view up front, as an integral part of the analysis, the new framework will make it easier to identify those win-win system-wide solutions that are most likely to be put into action and to be effective. Engaging representatives of the relevant government agencies, and insurance and home building industries as partners at the beginning of the project will help ensure that the research offers usable results that can be put into practice as quickly and effectively as possible.
Co-Principal Investigators: Jamie Kruse, East Carolina University; Linda Nozick, Cornell University
Approaches to Coastal Adaptation in the United States
RESEARCHERS: A.R. Sider, Tess Doeffinger
FUNDING: National Science Foundation
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Sustainable development along the United States’ coast is challenging for several reasons, including continual weathering and climatic shocks. These risks are expected to be exacerbated due to climate change. There are currently a wide range of coastal adaptation responses being employed across the United States. The purpose of this research is to develop a fundamental understanding of the variation in adaptation responses that directly impact households, how these responses were chosen, and also to determine whether the most vulnerable members of communities are benefiting from these responses. The knowledge gained from this research offers the ability to identify gaps in adaptation, track progress, and aid in future decision making.
Business Continuity as Entrepreneurship
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Now into its second year, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt community life by forcing small organizations like businesses, non-profits, and neighborhood committees to adapt in ways that they never could have imagined. This study seeks to engage with the owners, managers, and employees of small organizations across two sets of interviews to understand how they’ve been updating their processes, products, and services to preserve their value and spur recovery.
Coastal Hazards, Equity, Economic Prosperity and Resilience (CHEER)
DURATION: September 1, 2022 –
RESEARCHERS: Rachel Davidson, Sarah DeYoung, Joseph Trainor, A.R. Siders[/if 449]
FUNDING: National Science Foundation
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
The UD-led hub — Coastal Hazards, Equity, Economic prosperity and Resilience (CHEER) — is one of five NSF-funded projects announced recently as part of the agency’s Coastlines and People program, which is concentrating its research efforts to protect the natural, social and economic resources of U.S. coasts, and to help create more resilient coastal communities.
This five-year project will be led by Rachel Davidson, a core DRC faculty member and UD professor of civil and environmental engineering. Co-principal investigators include Sarah DeYoung, core DRC faculty member and associate professor of sociology and criminal justice at UD; Linda Nozick, professor and director of civil and environmental engineering at Cornell University; Brian Colle, professor and division head of atmospheric sciences at Stony Brook University; and Meghan Millea, professor of economics at East Carolina University.
COLLABORATIVE CDI-TYPE II: Cyber Enabled Discovery System for Advanced Multidisciplinary Study of Humanitarian Logistics for Disaster Response
RESEARCHERS: Tricia Wachtendorf
FUNDING: National Science Foundation
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
This project seeks to better understand how donations are collected and distributed. Using observational work conducted during recent disasters and interviews with individuals from organizations and agencies involved in formal and informal relief efforts, this study examines the organizational aspects of material convergence and subjective motivations for contributing donations to disaster relief, with particular emphasis on unsolicited donations. Drawing on the mathematical and social sciences, and on transportation, industrial and computer engineering, it aims to develop new models of the flow of goods to the disaster site based on analysis of media data (e.g., news, websites, social networks), and on responses to previous disasters. The project qualitatively and quantitatively examines the relationship between media framing of needs and material convergence, improving understanding of what and how donations are collected and shared, and it suggests response strategies to better react to or influence media-driven material convergence.
Compounded Social Vulnerability: Parole Supervision and Disasters
RESEARCHERS: Tricia Wachtendorf, Felicia Henry
FUNDING: Unidel Award (Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice)
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Henry with Wachtendorf is using an exploratory case study method and documentary analysis to review parole policies in Texas, Louisiana, and Florida. We find that parole policies in each state fail to address how parolees should respond during disasters and the implications for compliance failure. Conditions of parole and parole policies and procedures (or lack thereof) can make it extremely difficult for individuals on parole to successfully and simultaneously navigate disasters. Without proper guidance from the agencies responsible for parole in each state, individuals may be caught further on the web of correctional control. Our findings lead us to make several recommendations for justice agencies, as well as state and local governments.
COVID-19: Community Impacts and Adaptation To Crisis: Delawareans Living With HIV/Aids
RESEARCHERS: Tricia Wachtendorf
FUNDING: Internally Funded, Delaware HIV Consortium
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
The crisis surrounding COVID-19 impacted communities across the globe. Appreciating that disasters have differential impacts on those affected, this study examined the impact the crisis had on Delawareans living with HIV/AIDS. The study explored issues of preparedness, response, adaptation, and decision-making, among other social consequences, as well as challenges related to health, housing, finances, and support. Over 50 interviews were conducted with clients of the Delaware HIV Consortium to better understand their experiences and needs over the course of the pandemic.
DRC COVID-19: Community Impacts and Adaptation to Crisis
RESEARCHERS: Tricia Wachtendorf, James Kendra
FUNDING: Internally Funded
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
The crisis surrounding COVID-19 impacted communities across the globe. This effort examined the impact of the crisis on community in the early stages of the pandemic, exploring issues of preparedness, response, adaptation, and decision-making, among other social consequences. A concentric approach to data collection began with the impact of the crisis on an institution of higher education – the University of Delaware and its population. The examination spanned outward to include others who have relationships with the institution (e.g. community members, businesses, faith-based organizations, agencies, among others). We then circle back to those involved with the community around the core institution, to examine in greater depth core questions around impact, decision-making, and adaptation under crisis. Several hundred in-depth interviews were conducted with people impacted by the crisis, with the potential to follow up with participants at a later date.
Floodplain Management in the United States: Where, why, and how policies have shaped floodplain development
DURATION: September 1, 2021 –
RESEARCHERS: AR Siders, Logan Gerber-Chavez, Salvesila Tamima, Miyuki Hino[/if 449]
ADDITIONAL INVESTIGATOR: Katharine Mach, University of Miami
FUNDING: National Science Foundation
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Managing infrastructure and housing development in hazardous areas is fundamental to limiting damages from extreme weather events.
But construction in hazardous places continues. This project, a collaboration between the University of Delaware, University of Miami, and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, investigates how and why some communities are able to grow without developing housing and infrastructure in floodplains. We are generating lessons for broader climate risk management efforts. The project will (a) measure floodplain development by creating a systematic, national measurement of municipal floodplain development, (b) analyze patterns of contextual factors and floodplain development outcomes, and (c) use comparative case studies, interviews, and legal analysis to explore how local regulations have shaped floodplain outcomes. Our floodplain development measurements will be open access, so researchers, local officials, and citizen advocates can use and adapt the data for their own needs and provide feedback to refine the indices. Ongoing work with practitioners is supporting a peer-to-peer learning network to improve floodplain development management.
