Dr. Ki Eun Kang, Institute for Science, Technology and Public Policy (ISTPP) Postdoctoral Research Associate, and Dr. Ann Bowman, Bush School Professor and ISTPP Fellow, presented their paper, “Policy and Governance for Urban Resilience,” at the 50th Annual Conference of the Urban Affairs Association (UAA) in Washington, DC on April 13, 2022.
Their research seeks to determine how cities approach the issue of resilience. To answer this question, they use an original data set developed from a survey of resilience policy and programs in the 101 largest U.S. cities. They develop and test three aspects of city resilience efforts: city engagement in disaster preparation activities, coordination with other city departments, and coordination with external organizations. The analysis includes potentially influencing factors like organizational capacity, problem severity, political institutions, and city characteristics. The overall results show that cities with dedicated resilience staff and a commitment to becoming more resilient invested in more disaster preparation activities. Supportive leadership and dedicated resilience funding appear to be associated with both internal and external coordination. Importantly, cities with various disaster experiences and high hazard threat tend to reach out to different external partners on resilience efforts.
