Conceptualizing Compound Disasters And Environmental Justice: Improving Disaster Planning For Compound Disaster Events

Abstract

Hazards rarely occur in isolation, but disaster scientists and practitioners are still developing the tools and language to address overlapping hazards. This dissertation includes three distinct studies to conceptualize compound disasters, understand recent experiences in a compound disaster situation across the United States, and improve planning for these situations in a way that can be used for future compound disasters and for environmental justice communities. An accurate typology is critical for scholars and practitioners to address the distinct challenges and requirements for addressing different compound disaster situations. To achieve this, first, a systematic literature review was used to develop a comprehensive lexicon of terms and create a typology that categorizes compound hazard terminology into three overarching categories–compound, cascading, and simultaneous –based on their causal relationships, if any. Second, a state planning analysis examined the current depth of formal and informal state planning for compound hazards across the United States. How governments plan for compound hazards needs to differ from how they plan for independent hazards, but there is little research on whether or how this is done. State emergency management plans were evaluated based on whether and how they address simultaneous hazards, cascading hazards, and environmental justice. Results indicate that 45 of 51 state and territorial disaster plans mention compound hazards in some capacity in at least one sentence of their plan. Half as many, 22 discuss the implications of compound hazards or establish a plan to deal with them, and only 7 include more than one sentence of actionable procedures. It is important to explore how these plans are used in a real-life situation and the COVID-19 pandemic as a compound disaster has demonstrated how compound disasters complicate the responsibilities of emergency managers. Interviews were conducted in late 2021 with state emergency management planners from 21 states to discuss their experience handling COVID-19 and other disasters concurrently. Key themes identified included the need for more cross-training in emergency management positions for personnel, clearer roles for political actors and plans for how to handle politicized disasters, mental health resources to combat trauma and burnout, sheltering plans for rural areas, increased coordination with all other units no matter their seeming relevance, and the need for plans for long-term hazards. The specific case study experience of a long-term hazard (COVID-19) and a short-term sudden onset event can be used to help plan for environmental justice communities in the future. These studies conclude with a recommendation that future plans not only acknowledge the possibility of all types of compound hazards but recognize the common occurrence of such events, identify the variety of interactions that are possible between hazards, establish plans for how to prioritize resources and personnel that will inevitably be in short supply and to align potentially contradictory response plans, and address mental health and political concerns to allow emergency managers to do their jobs effectively. Phenomena such as climate change, COVID-19, long-term environmental pollutants, and urbanization increase the probability of hazards occurring simultaneously or sequentially – creating a compound hazard. Even now, compound events are not uncommon and need clarity in research and practice to effectively study, plan for, and respond to these disasters.