The Institute for Science, Technology and Public Policy (ISTPP) team of Dr. Rotem Dvir, Carol Goldsmith, Ian Sevey, and Dr. Arnold Vedlitz, Director of ISTPP, have recently published a paper in Environmental Hazards. In their article, Local-level Managers’ Attitudes towards Natural Hazards Resilience: The Case of Texas, they explore the views of professional stakeholders (public managers and leading executives in the private industry) with regard to natural hazards resilience in Texas.
Local-level managers’ attitudes towards natural hazards resilience: the case of Texas
The authors argue that while public opinion on natural hazard resilience is well known, an under-explored area are the views of professional stakeholders – public and professional managers who play a role in the process of designing disaster relief and prevention policies. Based on survey data collected in 2020, funded through Texas OneGulf RESTORE, they map the views of these stakeholders to the causes and potential solutions for severe damages following extreme weather events like Hurricane Harvey (2017). The results show that while in some cases public mangers support long-term mitigation strategies, for the most part, they hold views that are fairly similar to the public and focus on immediate solutions. We also find that stakeholders in government positions prefer less direct governmental involvement in disaster resilience.
The study offers important insights about the opinions of a less dominant group of stakeholders in disaster resilience. The results complement existing research on individual perceptions and policy preferences facing natural hazards. It also has concerning implications on the views of those who are central to decisions about the resources allocated towards future- oriented solutions to mitigate the growing risks from climate change.
