10 - Examining Community-Scale Disaster Recovery and Resilience beyond Colorado

Summary

Chapter 10 of Community Disaster Recovery: Moving from Vulnerability to Resilience builds upon the analyses presented in the prior chapters and applies those findings to other cases within and beyond the U.S. This chapter provides a broader foundation for the book’s argument that certain factors are important for disaster recovery and resilience-building at the community-scale beyond the book's focus on Colorado’s 2013 floods.Variation in disaster damage and internal capacity to fund and administer disaster recovery influences the ability of a community to learn from, change policies, and build resilience to future events. Internal community characteristics influence the disaster recovery processes and decisions made by local governments, including perceptions of problem severity and future risk perceptions, which are influenced by government information dissemination and participatory processes established after disaster. Additionally, the role of stakeholders in forming coalitions to advocate for disaster recovery goals can play important roles in the decision process after a disaster.