Cascading Disasters and Resilience Planning

The overall objective of this study is to develop transferable knowledge of how cities can better prepare for and mitigate climate-related cascading hazards through integrated, adaptive, equitable, and transformative resilience planning based on a case study of the Portland metro area. Recent disasters that have unevenly affected different populations in the United States and across the globe remind us of the fragility of human existence, the interconnectedness of human and non-human ecologies, and the vulnerability of our socio-ecological and economic systems. In the past year, the US has experienced multiple concurrent disasters from extreme wildfires, devastating floods, powerful hurricanes, economic recession, a reckoning with racial inequities and injustices, and the spread of the deadly coronavirus. While the underlying mechanisms and drivers of these events are different, their combined and compounding effects have resulted in widespread social disruption, job losses, destitution, and death, particularly among Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). Lessons from the cascading disasters such as the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic suggest: 1) historical injustices amplify the effects of cascading events on disadvantaged communities; 2) underinvestment in baseline resilience before disaster can undermine response capacity and recovery 3) undoing legacies of racial, gender, socioeconomic, and ecological inequities is fundamental to enabling communities to bounce forward after cascading disasters.

By focusing on climate-related cascading events in the Portland metro area, our proposed study seeks to: 1) develop typologies of extreme events in the Earth system leading to cascading interactions and impacts on people, environment, urban infrastructure and services; 2) assess the uneven impacts of cascading hazards and the spatial and temporal threshold for disaster at the neighborhood and community scale; 3) develop a framework for measuring equity in urban resilience planning (policies and projects) for better future outcomes; 4) use findings to build robust theoretical generalizations, practical interventions, and policy guidance. Our project develops a novel convergence research approach to advance the understanding of equitable and transformative urban resilience planning through cross-fertilization and integration of knowledge across natural and social science disciplines and institutions.