Reducing Risks from Climate Change and Hazards
Assessing the Influence of Hazard Mitigation Planning on Disaster Recovery
Principal Investigator: Ward Lyles
Co-Principal Investigator: Elaina J. Sutley
Funding Agency: National Science Foundation
Period: 2019 - 2022
Project Summary:
The research team, led by Ward Lyles and Elaina Sutley, will address an important gap in knowledge about how hazard mitigation and planning before a natural disaster affects recovery after a disaster and reduces long-term risk. Thanks to prior work from the research team, they can collect data on post-disaster recovery decision-making, outputs such as planning documents, and outcomes like decisions to steer development out of locations known to be hazardous. The team will merge that data with existing data on hazard mitigation. Through this research, the team will generate information relevant to policymakers and practitioners, extend the foundation of datasets needed for future data analysis, and strengthen the hazards research community.
CAREER: Integrated Modeling of Hazard Mitigation Stakeholder Networks for Compassionate, Sustainable Risk Reduction
Principal Investigator: Ward Lyles
Funding Agency: National Science Foundation
Period: 2018 - 2023
Project Summary:
This project develops, tests, and refines a new model which explicitly incorporates stakeholders' thoughts and emotions as factors that interact to enhance or constrain hazard mitigation decision-making. Anticipated contributions of the project include an improved process for more effective, sustainable hazard mitigation decision-making at the local level and expansion of a generation of hazard mitigation champions across multiple professional and academic disciplines. The integrated education and research program will foster dissemination of findings widely and cost-effectively, including to historically underrepresented populations.
Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program Phase III
Principal Investigator: Ward Lyles
Funding Agency: University of Oklahoma Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program
Period: 2018 - 2021
Project Summary:
Ward Lyles will provide expertise and engage in research efforts around three tasks in the project, each based on a research question: How do emergency managers participate in a planning process that seeks to develop long-term hazard risk reduction? How do configurations of social networks and social capital evolve in response to disasters? How does information-seeking behavior differ between resource-constrained and resource-abundant jurisdictions, and how does that affect planning outcomes? Lyles will participate in the conceptual framing, research design and methodology, interpretation, and dissemination of the findings for each of these questions.