Project Overview

Summary:

Dr. Melissa Finucane at RAND Corporation was awarded an RFP-IV grant at $8,987,037 to conduct the RFP-IV project titled, “Consortium for Resilient Gulf Communities (CRGC). The project consisted of 4 other institutions (Louisiana Public Health Institute, Louisiana State University, Tulane University, University of South Alabama); 1 principal investigator (Finucane), 18 co-PIs (Troy Blanchard, Craig Bond, Gary Cecchine, Anita Chandra, Noreen Clancy, Matthew Lee, Amy Lesen, Shanthi Nataraj, Rajeev Ramchand, Tim Slack, Michael Blum, Lisanne Brown, Charles Engel, George Hobor, Ky Luu, Keith Nicholls, J. Steve Picou, Kristen Brent Venable); 13 PhD- level students ( Jessica Liddell, Estilla Lightfoot, Andres Melendez, Matthew Olson, Megha Patel, Chloe Tucker, Chelsea Adams, Margaret Chamberlin, Leah Drakeford, Amanda Edelman, Jacqueline Fiore, Vanessa Parks, Jordan Smith); 22 master’s level students (Leila Darwish, Kelsie Davis, Anna Feigum, Alex Fixler, Brandi Gilliam, Elizabeth Harrison, Samantha Haun, Allison Kalnik, Hope Levins, Elizabeth Lopez, Bethanie Mangigian, Nancy Mayhall, Lindsay McBeth, Bria Means, Heather Milton, Karen Montano, Tristan Morath, Jennifer Murphy, Elisabeth Perez, Phallon Treece, Alyssa Wood, Tona Zwanziger); 9 undergraduate students (Olivia Cabello Gorchs, Laura Eddington, Alex Gain, Chia Ikefuna, Cody Licorish, Peter Riser, Keagan Smith, Xinyue Cassie Wang, Alyssa Wood); ); and several research technicians and administration personnel.

The Consortium for Resilient Gulf Communities assesses and addresses the impacts of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DH) oil spill on the health, social, and economic wellbeing of people in the Gulf Coast region. Distinguished scientists from the RAND Corporation, Louisiana State University (LSU), Tulane University, University of South Alabama (USA), and Louisiana Public Health Institute (LPHI) bring together varied expertise, close partnerships, and deep local knowledge to address a major concern to Gulf Coast decision makers and residents: How can communities build resilience to adverse future events like the DH oil spill?

Our research, outreach, and education goals and the products developing from our work are aimed at helping communities across the Gulf Coast to more effectively understand, withstand, and overcome the multiple stressors brought on by such disasters.

Goals Include Resilience-Related Research, Outreach, and Education

The Consortium addresses Theme 5 in the GoMRI RFP-IV. Our work is comprised of five components that guide our research, outreach, and education activities. Together, the components will reach and bridge community organizations and leaders, policy makers, and scholars seeking to improve understanding of and responses to hydrocarbon release disasters:

Component A: Integrating research disciplines and joining researchers and communities. Resilience requires robust interaction between a community’s physical, social, and economic systems. To facilitate this, the Consortium takes a complex systems approach to resilience and resilience-based programming, and works to enhance collaboration across academic disciplines and between researchers and community stakeholders.

Research team members represent multiple disciplines, including public health, psychiatry, psychology, sociology, economics, political science, implementation science, computer science, risk analysis, disaster resilience, ecology, decision science, and program evaluation. We collaborate closely with communities and policy makers to ensure that our work develops outputs directly relevant to building resilience to the accidental release of oil, other hydrocarbons, or related materials.

Component B: Closing knowledge gaps. There is a deep need to understand the

medium- and long-term public health, social, and economic effects of the DH oil spill. To do so, the Consortium will conduct probability-based sampling and survey assessments of impacts on public health, social wellbeing, and health-economics via a telephone survey in five Gulf states (Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida) and an in- person survey in areas relatively more exposed to the DH oil spill, oversampling communities of special interest (e.g., households whose income is primarily from the oil or fishing sectors). In addition, we will estimate the extent of economic costs of the DH oil spill imposed on major Gulf region industries, such as fishing and fish/seafood processing, tourism, and oil and gas production.

Component C: Building capacity for community action planning. To help communities build their own action plans, the Consortium will develop evidence-based processes and templates for resilience strategies and risk communication. These will be developed from the data and findings established in Component B as well as on-the-ground support from field teams, including community health workers, graduate and undergraduate students, and local organizations. We will use artificial intelligence and behavioral decision research methods to develop a profile-based web tool to help coordinate the display of information about the DH oil spill impacts and how to build resilience to future events for specific user groups, including information intermediaries and county/parish emergency managers.

Component D: Training for undergraduate and graduate students. Including education as an explicit objective of our Consortium will advance discovery and understanding and promote teaching, training, and learning in diverse ways. The Consortium will provide a number of opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to learn about innovative, trans-disciplinary research methods and best practices in community disaster risk resilience in the Gulf States.

Component E: Evaluating Consortium activities. Periodic self-evaluation will provide a baseline against which we assess progress and improve Consortium planning and operations. This evaluation research will also yield invaluable lessons for other trans- disciplinary and Gulf State programs aimed at assessing and addressing disaster impacts.

We will use quantitative and qualitative metrics derived from an Action-Logic Model to achieve this goal.

Outcomes Are Designed to Provide Much-Needed Information and Tools

To help communities build resilience to adverse future events like the DH oil spill, the Consortium is working towards two interrelated outcomes:

• An improved knowledge base about the ways the DH oil spill has affected communities in the Gulf of Mexico region and what factors enhance or diminish resilience after the spill or similar events.
• Evidence-based strategic planning and risk communication strategies for specific communities in areas relatively more exposed to the DH oil spill.

Both outcomes will provide long-term societal benefits by helping policy makers to identify specific actions that will mitigate future disaster impacts more effectively. Linking academic and practice institutions in our management model and integrating basic science and applied research within and across the Components will enable us to create products that are collectively used and informed by each audience.

Research Highlights

Dr. Finucane’s research, which included 62 outreach products and activities, resulted in 16 peer-reviewed publications, 1 Book Chapter, 48 scientific conference presentations to date and 18 datasets submitted to the GoMRI Information and Data Cooperative (GRIIDC), which are available to the public.

Significant outcomes of their research (all related to GoMRI Research Theme 5) are highlighted below.

Generating new knowledge

1. Demonstrated that community recovery takes a long time and is still ongoing after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (DHOS) – suggests that long-term, tailored support is needed to help communities regain functioning.

   • Six years after the DHOS, positive screens for depression and anxiety were associated with exposure to the spill (represented by spill-related resource loss) (Ramchand et al., 2019).

   • Communities are still worried about impacts from the DHOS, especially about health and household finances (Parker et al. 2020).

   • Women are particularly worried about ongoing impacts of the DHOS; residents who have been exposed to multiple disasters have a higher perception of the likelihood of future disasters (Liddell et al., 2020).

   • Trauma exposure may be a better indicator of long-term behavioral health risk than DHOS exposure among disaster-prone Gulf Coast residents (Ayer et al., 2018).

   • Living in areas with high levels of religious concentration may magnify the risk of problem drinking among disaster-affected individuals for whom

     religion is not very salient (Drakeford et al., 2019).

2. Demonstrated that some groups are less resilient than others, according to our economic analyses and surveys – suggests that policy makers and NGOs could target these groups in preparedness and recovery efforts.

   • Economic analyses showed that short-run negative impacts of the spill on fisheries were because commercial fishing operations stopped temporarily in the spill area; spatial substitution and recovery trends appear species- specific, suggesting varying levels of resilience within each fishery (see Fiore et al., 2017, working paper onfisheries landings; and Fiore et al., 2019, working papers oncommercial blue crab landings).

   • Economic analyses showed that the tourism industry was differentially impacted, depending on the sector of operation.

   • STRONG survey suggests a new mechanism that contributes to the unique vulnerability of members of renewable resource communities after environmental disasters: fishing households with more robust (larger) social networks are uniquely susceptible to depression in the long-term aftermath of an oil spill (Parks et al., 2019).

   • In-person surveys reveal that being older or having higher educational attainment is correlated with increased resilience, black and Vietnamese residents showed less resilience than white residents (Patel et al., 2018).

   • Small-scale geographic differences in resilience, disaster exposure, and job loss as a result of DHOS are evident, suggesting that local-level interventions are important (Lesen et al. 2019).

      

     Advancing research methods

3. Established a probabilistic, longitudinal panel of 2,520 coastal residents in the Gulf States.

   • Panel provides baseline measures of health, social, and economic functioning and perceptions of risk against which post-disaster functioning can be measured (e.g., in Wave II of the STRONG survey we collected a second set of data with the same individuals in our Texas sample immediately following Hurricane Harvey).

   • Panel permits investigation of cumulative impacts of future disasters in the Gulf region (e.g., How does exposure to multiple disasters impact individuals’ mental health? Does allostatic load increase linearly or nonlinearly?)

   • Instrument and user guide for the STRONG I survey is publicly available.

4. Developed innovative “complex adaptive systems” approach to assessing and addressing community resilience.

   • Provides a rationale for achieving resilience by addressing the dynamic social context of a disaster (see Finucane et al. 2019).

   • Underscores importance of advancing resilience through inclusivity, clarifying interdependencies, and making course corrections through

     iterative processes

5. “Use-inspired” approach to community resilience research resulted in products that quickly and directly addressed stakeholder needs

   • We developed a searchable database of projects on human impacts of the DHOS that allows lay people to understand the various research efforts underway)

   • We developed a searchable database of literature on oil spills and public health

   • We developed a searchable database of sources of information on fisheries, tourism, and oil spill claims

   • We developed a searchable database of disaster survey literature

6. Developed new, more socially relevant approach to measuring “exposure” to DHOS impacts

   • For instance, “exposure” index adopts a “resource loss” framework and includes employment type, clean-up work, property damage, financial loss, diet, exercise, fishing, hunting, gathering

7. Deepening community-researcher partnerships

   • Partnered with local community organizations in data collection and dissemination, and interviewed community partners to receive critical feedback on the collaborations and to inform future community-based resilience research (Lesen et al., 2019).

8. Data available at GRIIDC

   • STRONG Wave I and STRONG Wave II

   • In-person disaster preparedness and resilience survey

   • Compilation of Louisiana Commercial Fisheries landings 1999-2015

   • Compilation of NOAA Commercial Fisheries landings 1994-2014
     
     

      

     Building community capacity and future leaders

9. Intensively trained community members from diverse sectors in resilience-building efforts

   • 40 community members participated in extensive classroom and in-situ practical resilience training run by the University of South Alabama’s Coastal Resource and Resiliency Center (courses included Basic Training, Peer Health Advocate Training, Advanced Training in Chronic Disease Management, and Building Resilience at the Community Level) (see Nicholls et al. 2017).

   • 27 community leaders participated in Leadership Forums implemented by Tulane University’s Disaster Leadership Resilience Academy; included developing and critiquing proposals for resilience-building activities.

10. Provided health and social services directly to vulnerable coastal residents

    • Deployed 7 community health workers in community organizations and clinics in Alabama and Louisiana; they recorded almost 7,000 services in the period May 2016-September 2017.

11. Trained students in transdisciplinary methods

    • 44 graduate and undergraduate students

    • From Gulf region universities (Tulane University, Louisiana State University, University of South Alabama) and non-Gulf states (Pardee RAND Graduate School in CA)

    • Two students have been recognized as GoMRI Scholars and incorporated CRGC research into their dissertations

    • Students are lead authors of published peer-reviewed journal articles; contribute to literature reviews; collect, manage, and analyze data; develop tools; train community members in best practices for resilience; present talks at conferences and workshops

References

Ayer, L., Engel, C., Parker, A., Seelam, R., & Ramchand, R. (2018). Behavioral health of Gulf Coast residents six years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill: the role of trauma history. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness.

Drakeford, L., Parks, V., Slack, T., Ramchand, R., Finucane, M., & Lee, M. R. (2019). Oil Spill Disruption and Problem Drinking: Assessing the Impact of Religious Context among Gulf Coast Residents. Population Research and Policy Review.

Finucane, M.L.; Blum, M.; Ramchand, R.; Parker, A.M.; Nataraj, S.; Clancy, N.; Cecchine, G.; Chandra, A.; Slack, T.; Hobor, G.; Ferreira, R.; Luu, K.; Lesen, A.; Bond,

C. (2019). Advancing Community Resilience Research and Practice: Moving from "Me" to "We" to "3D". Journal of Risk Research.

Lesen, A., Tucker, C., Olson, M., & Ferreira, R. (2019). 'Come Back at Us': Reflections on Researcher-Community Partnerships during a Post-Oil Spill Gulf Coast Resilience Study. Social Sciences, 8(1), 8.

Liddell, J. L., Saltzman, L. Y., Ferreira, R. J., & Lesen, A. E. (2020). Cumulative disaster exposure, gender and the protective action decision model. Progress in Disaster Science, vol.5.

Nicholls, K., Picou, S. J., & McCord, S. C. (2017). Training Community Health Workers to Enhance Disaster Resilience. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 23, S78–S84.

Parker, A. M., Edelman, A. F., Carman, K. G., & Finucane, M. L. (2019). On the Need for Prospective Disaster Survey Panels. Disaster Medicine and Pubic Health Preparedness, 12 November 2019.

Parker, A. M., Finucane, M. L., Ayer, L., Ramchand, R., Parks, V. A., & Clancy, N. (2020). Persistent risk-related worry as a function of recalled exposure to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and prior trauma. Risk Analysis.

Parks, V., Drakeford, L., Cope, M. R., & Slack, T. (2018). Disruption of Routine Behaviors Following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Society & Natural Resources, 31(3), 277–290.

Parks, V., Slack, T., Ramchand, R., Drakeford, L., Finucane, M. L., & Lee, M. R. (2019). Fishers, Social Support, and Depression after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Rural Sociology, 85(2):495-518.

Patel, M., Saltzman, L., Ferreira, R., & Lesen, A. (2018). Resilience: Examining the Impacts of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill on the Gulf Coast Vietnamese American Community. Social Sciences, 7(10), 203.

Petrun Sayers, E., Parker, A. M., Ramchand, R., Finucane, M., & Parks, V. (In Press/Early Release). Reaching Vulnerable Populations in the Disaster Prone U.S. Gulf Coast: Communicating Across the Crisis Lifecycle. Journal of Emergency Management, 17(1).

Ramchand, R.; Seelam, R.; Parks, V.; Ghosh-Dastidar, B.; Lee, M.; Finucane, M. (2019). Exposure to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Associated Resource Loss, and Long-Term Mental and Behavioral Health Outcomes. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 13(5-6):889-897.

Cope, M. R., Slack, T., Jackson, J. E., & Parks, V. (2020). Community sentiment following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster: A test of time, systemic community, and corrosive community models. Journal of Rural Studies, 74, 124–132.

Slack, T., Parks, V., Ayer, L., Parker, A. M., Finucane, M. L., & Ramchand, R. (2020). Natech or natural? An analysis of hazard perceptions, institutional trust, and future-storm worry following Hurricane Harvey. Natural Hazards, 102(3), 1207-1224 .

Lightfoot, Estilla S., Lesen Amy E, Ferreira, Regardt J. 2020. Gender and Resilience in Gulf Coast Communities: Risk and Protective Factors Following a Technological Disaster. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction.

 Proposal Abstract - RFP-IV PI Melissa Finucane