Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Panel: Public Sector Management of Natural Disaster Risks

(Public and Non-Profit Management and Finance)

As is well known, natural disasters are low-probability and high-consequence events. They impose extraordinary demands on the service-delivery systems of the communities they affect, challenge the usual organizational routines and operation, and require immediate government interventions and responses. How to effectively manage disaster risk has become a daunting and complex issue for government, especially subnational government agencies that are on the frontline of coping with emergencies that often exceed their capacity. This panel is comprised of four empirical papers examining different aspects of emergency management including multi-phased tasks to mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from natural disasters. Specifically, it brings together two papers on organizational responses and two papers focused on community-level actions to better understand how disaster management decisions are made and communicated by organizations, how collective actions are taken within local communities as well as their social implications. The first paper examines the use of information technology in emergency management by using Twitter user data to track the information flows among state emergency management agencies and other types of organizations (e.g., nonprofit, for-profits, citizen groups). Based on a network analysis, this research provides important insights into the role of social media in fostering and promoting the development of cross-sector emergency information networks. Also from an organizational perspective, the second paper specifically focus on the public transit agencies and explore how the transit planners and managers prepare for and respond to extreme weather events. Utilizing data from a national survey of nearly 300 U.S. transit agencies, this study examines both internal and external factors that shape organizational decisions in undertaking various risk-mitigating strategies (e.g., emergency responses and preparedness, long-term planning and adaptation approaches) in the transit systems. The third paper investigates community hazard management practices with a particular focus on the discretion of local government officials and street-level bureaucrats on a variety of climate change action issues. Also based on a national survey, this research provides evidence on the relationship between greater discretionary autonomy and choices elected principals make to achieve risk-reduction policy goals. The fourth paper focuses on community-level disaster preparedness, and more specifically, the Community Rating System as part of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) which aims to promote local flood risk management initiatives in return for lower flood insurance premium. The paper examines the impact of CRS on poverty and income inequality, and sheds light on social implication of local risk-mitigating decisions, and inform national disaster management design. All the four papers in this panel are linked by a common theme on disaster risk management. They not only contribute to the literature on emergency management, collaboration, and public organizational behavior, but also offer important implications for improving the effectiveness of disaster management and policy designs.