Build Back Better and Long-Term Housing Recovery: Assessing Community Housing Resilience and the Role of Insurance Post Disaster

The purpose of this research is to better understand community housing resilience and the role of insurance using a Build Back Better Long-term Recovery Housing framework to analyze approaches and effects on long-term housing rebuilding and recovery. A comparative case study approach is taken to assess insurance policies and outcomes following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the Canterbury earthquake sequence in Christchurch, New Zealand, both affluent urban communities with strong insurance markets. Framed within the context of Build Back Better, the community housing and insurance resilience assessment is based on five key indicators;governance, community resources, risk reduction, housing rebuilding funding (funding and speed of funding), and time compression (built environment and periods of recovery time). Public and private insurance schemes for both case studies are identified and are considered together with analysis of insurance claims and other sources of financial support. The findings and results show that recovery is the result of highly interdependent Build Back Better processes. The data suggests that insurance and governance systems greatly influences the onset and overall speed of recovery (time compression), thereby performing a major role in long-term recovery. This research provides an original contribution to disaster recovery knowledge by analyzing insurance claims from two well-documented natural disasters. Additionally, the paper proposes for the singular definition of community housing resilience

Disaster recovery in urban communities

Recovery after disasters is becoming a more prominent focal area of research as the geography literature on disaster management embraces a resilience approach. The damaging impacts of natural disasters on individuals are often compounded by problems and failures in managing recovery after the event. Such problems and failures in recovery take on specific dimensions when disaster events damage the well-established and well-functioning but costly infrastructure and built environments of affluent urban societies. In these circumstances, the extent and nature of property damage combines with the specific pattern of economic and institutional resources available and the disaster recovery management applied to shape the long-term recovery process. As such events become more common and costly, it is important to develop systematic knowledge of how to have a successful and organized recovery process, and, curiously, especially in the case of developed countries. There is a need for a better understanding of what constitutes a successful recovery process, what happens with this process, what long-term recovery is, and how to use the process to mitigate future disasters. The purpose of this research is therefore to compare and contrast long-term recovery planning and management following major disasters in order to identify common lessons, challenges, and ways to mitigate future losses and damages. Although recovery is not everywhere managed the same, there are important lessons that can be learned from the experiences of others. In particular, it is worth identifying the effects of local institutions on recovery and the learning processes that occur. This research seeks to understand and assess disaster recovery in urban communities by examining the relationship between disaster resilience, housing and insurance. This dissertation addresses five research questions, which are addressed in separate chapters, each of which will be published separately: (1) How to assess urban resilience policies supporting disaster risk reduction approaches? The 100 Resilient Cities (100RC) was launched by the Rockefeller Foundation to build worldwide resilience. An evaluation of each member city Resilient Strategies plan took place using directed and summative content analysis to determine whether or not vulnerability and risk narratives were applied in its disaster risk reduction approaches. The results reveal the differences produced among member cities due to the role of actors and power expressed in the policy design and implementation. The overall findings suggest that the 100RC program has not fundamentally addresses issues related to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction goals to reduce disaster risk and vulnerabilities. While many members identified many disaster risks and challenges among shocks and stresses, most were overlooked when designing and implementing key policies for urban resilience. This research was published as a journal article in a special publication focused on reviewing the five-year progress of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction implementation for insight into lessons and planning (Hofmann Zavareh, 2021). (2) How do urban-rural linkages in sustainability transitions impact disaster recovery management and recovery? Analysis of urban-rural linkages in recovery from the earthquake events in Christchurch, New Zealand reveal how desired transformations were entangled in rural, national and international linkages. Three key findings are found; (1) the elements in urban-rural linkages framework are interconnected; (2) the relationalities assumed in the framework do not always hold, and (3) emphasis on urban-rural linkages may obscure other geographies of recovery. This reveals the complexity of the task to map spatial flows, linkages and partnerships among urban, peri-urban and rural areas managing transition pathways for sustainable development. This research was published as part of a special peer-reviewed book publication focused on Rural-Urban Linkages for Sustainable Development edited by Armin Kratzer and Jutta Kister with Routledge (Winder & Hofmann Zavareh, 2020). (3) How to analyze natural disaster damage for specific localized regions to obtain calculations of losses for communities managing recovery using economic models? Micro-level assessments of regional and local disaster impacts in tourist destinations provide the opportunity for economic geographers to assist in calculating precise damage assessments at small regional scales that in turn support the tourism sector and other inter-dependent economies facing reconstruction challenges after disasters. To calculate precise damage assessments, a micro-level assessment model is developed. The island of Dominica is chosen as an example for the model using statistical data from the tourism sector to outline and detail the consequences of a disaster specifically for communities. The results highlight the importance of damage assessments on a small-scale level needed for communities to better understand impacts for residents and the local tourism sector. Only after identifying regional impacts, it is then possible to apply adequate disaster recovery financing needed for residents and the tourism sector recovery. This research was published in the Tourism Geographies journal as part of the Tourism in Changing Natural Environments special publication (Schmude et al., 2018). (4) How to measure long-term community housing recovery using dynamic economic resilience? The research assesses long-term housing recovery and community resilience in the case of Broadmoor, a community located in New Orleans. The community long-term housing measurement is calculated using housing recovery scenarios (dynamic economic resilience). The dynamic economic resilience scenario results provide an indication as to how significant implementation of new disaster recovery policies and procedures can be centered on a more efficient handling of applications for building permits, as well as financial claims for rebuilding or buy-outs, and a more effective management of constrained reconstruction resources for community resilience rebuilding. These results also support recent Munich Re disaster risk modeling studies to improve flood protection in New Orleans. This case demonstrates the role of measuring long-term housing is necessary to better understand the housing recovery processes in different market types. The Broadmoor case also highlights that the speed of recovery was greatly influenced by adopting a community-based approach to managing local and regional resources. This research has been accepted for publication as a journal article in Environmental Hazards (Zavareh & Winder, 2021). (5) What is the role of insurance in managing overall community recovery and housing resilience? The role of insurance, and government buy-outs in recovery are explored in two case study communities (Broadmoor, New Orleans and Avonside, Christchurch). Analysis of case studies using a framework based on “Build Back Better” demonstrating the role of insurance embedded in the scale of long-term housing recovery processes in different market types. Regardless of how the financing or insurance scheme was employed, the most significant factor appears to be the rate (time compression) at which households were able to successfully access and implement financial resources. These two aspects of time compression are interconnected for the success of financing recovery schemes. Successive events or extreme events as seen in both cases, placed considerable burdens on complex institutional systems (local, state, national) that are often disruptive in a nonlinear recovery process. The cases highlight the speed of recovery as the main influencer of long-term housing recovery, given that personal liability is rather manageable if able to access funding for rebuilding efforts. This suggests that a reconceptualization of what exactly community housing resilience is, is needed as it relates to the field of disaster recovery. Here resilience is the opposite of simply rebuilding, contesting the current housing recovery paradigm in “Build Back Better” and disasters research. This research is currently under review for publication. There is still much to be learned about disaster resilience, sustainability transitions, measuring disaster damages and losses, as well as housing recovery for long-term community resilience. Future research should aim to provide more robust modeling and attempt to bridge the gaps in literature and knowledge in collaboration with community stakeholders of post-disaster recovery

Development of a Sustainable Water Resource Financing Mathematical Model for Donors and End-Users

Rural villages and underdeveloped communities represent the largest group challenged by poor water supply and sanitation with inequalities in resources to adequately implement potential solutions and even more with their high risk level of financing, funding is particularly challenging for water projects. Innovative financing alone will not eliminate the burdens of rural villages and underdeveloped communities. The purpose of this thesis is to address the lack of sustainable water financing of water projects in rural areas using a novel framework of a mathematical model based on system dynamics using optimal feedback control theory to maximize the performance of a water project. This is achieved by using feedback loops that allow for a real-time adjustment of the input parameters. The case model presented considers a renewable water supply system for a rural village where the user\u27s willingness to pay along with demand drive the performance indicators to simulate how decision makers can make real-time decisions on how to manage financing instruments and long-term debt. The results of the study are the first step to the mathematical framework of optimal control of cash flows. Future research is aimed at applying optimal control using ordinary differential equations and stochastic differential equations which is presented in theoretical form

100 Resilient Cities program and the role of the Sendai framework and disaster risk reduction for resilient cities

The Rockefeller Foundation launched 100 Resilient Cities (100RC) in 2013 to build worldwide urban resilience. The 100RC program aims to implement urban resilience under the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030. These frameworks link disaster resilience and disaster risk reduction to issues of vulnerability, climate change, livelihoods, rebuilding, and equity. Achieving disaster resilience and risk reduction requires more than building back better, or bouncing back from disaster: social equity, participation and livelihoods must also be advanced. Using a pathways approach related to narratives of disaster vulnerability and risk, this paper analyzes the resilience policies developed to support disaster risk reduction under the program. Evaluating member city Resilient Strategies plans using directed and summative content analysis, this research assesses whether the 100RC program emphasized vulnerability and risk narratives in its disaster risk reduction approaches. These results reveal the differences produced among member cities – and from expectations of advancing social equity, livelihoods and participation – due to the role of actors and power expressed in the policy design and implementation. The paper concludes with recommendations to support urban disaster resilience using the Sendai Framework

Grappling with real property supremacy in US urban climate finance

In US cities, drives to secure property value against climate risks have become a preoccupation for mainstream climate finance. This real property bias sidelines non-owners and inhabitants of historically marginalized housing types, limiting their capacity to prepare for and recover from climate change events. In this intervention, we survey major pathways of existing climate finance, before turning to emerging trends for residential ‘climate-proofing,’ retrofitting efforts that bring climate finance ‘home’ to the building level. Building on the concept of ‘real property supremacy,’ we demonstrate how resourcing climate response is limited by the privileging of real property in the structure and distribution of low-carbon financial tools and incentives. We argue that this privileging reproduces hierarchies of protection for some, while exacerbating existing social inequalities, exclusions, and predations for others—ultimately, yielding greater control over climate futures to those with asymmetrical power over real property. This structurally unequal treatment risks locking-in extant social hierarchies embedded in US real property relationships instead of seizing opportunities to transform them via the historic urban investments required for climate change

The ‘colorblindness’ of climate finance:how climate finance advances racial injustice in cities

The interactions between climate change and financial markets are increasingly becoming a topic of study, yet the ways in which climate finance reinforces new modes of racialization in urban climate adaptation projects remain an under-represented line of questioning in both academic and policy worlds. In order to uncover myriad processes of racialization occurring within financing modes that are mobilized to solve the climate crisis, this paper focuses on three different urban deal-making spaces: Cagayan De Oro City located in Mindanao, in the southern part of the Philippines; Mexico City, the capital of Mexico; and Philadelphia, PA, situated in the northeastern corridor of the United States. Through analysis of the financial deals structuring urban climate endeavors in these three different cultural and environmental milieus, we find that the ‘colorblindness’ of climate finance both reinforces historical environmental injustices and creates new spatialities of environmental racism through its reliance on structures of racial capitalism. In doing so we also show the relevance of the racial capitalism framework beyond its theoretical heartlands

Micro-level assessment of regional and local disaster impacts in tourist destinations

The tourism sector faces severe challenges due to the economic impacts from changing natural environments as seen with the increased frequency of natural disasters. Therefore, analyses of disaster impacts models are necessary for managing successful tourism recovery. Typically, disaster assessments are conducted on a countrywide level, which can lead to imbalanced recovery processes, and a distorted distribution of recovery financing or subsidies. We address the challenges of recovery using the tourism disaster management framework by Faulkner. To calculate precise damage assessments, we develop a micro-level assessment model to analyze and understand disaster impacts at the micro-level supporting tourism recovery in an affected destination. We examine economic consequences of a disaster at a small regional scale arguing recovery from a natural disaster is more difficult in individual areas because of differences in geographic location or infrastructure development. The island of Dominica is chosen as an example for the model using statistical data from the tourism sector to outline and detail the consequences of a disaster specifically for communities. The results highlight the importance of damage assessments on a small-scale level, such as communities in order to distinguish between individual regions facing severe changes for resident livelihoods and the local tourism sector. We argue that only after identifying regional impacts it is possible to apply adequate governmental subsidies and development strategies for a country's tourism sector and residents in a continuously changing environment in the hopes of mitigating future financial losses and future climate change impacts

Unusual isolated extrapulmonary sarcoidosis: Case report

Sarcoidosis is a granulomatous condition with unidentified etiology. This disease should be considered in differential diagnosis if non-caseating granulomas is noted in biopsies, because numerous cases presented with no clinical symptoms. Although the lung is the most common organ involved in the disease, there also is an extra-pulmonary form (<10%). It should be noted that the presentation of sarcoidosis may be atypical. In this article, we report a systemic sarcoidosis case, with specific clinical findings: extrathoracic onset with lymph nodes

Interrupted rhythms and uncertain futures: Mortgage finance and the (spatio-) temporalities of climate breakdown

As intensifying climate-related disasters strike cities across the United States, they are provoking rising concern for the stability of the U.S. housing market and broader financial system. How homeowners, mortgage lenders, federal institutions/regulators, and investors will variously encounter and manage climate risk is an urgent question for urban scholars, as is who might bear the costs of restabilizing mortgage finance under new breakdowns. This paper’s multi-scalar intervention draws on financial “following” methods to explore how climate risks are being experienced and governed at multiple illustrative moments of U.S. mortgage finance: (1) working households at the front line of urban climate impacts, (2) mortgage professionals brokering loans to them, (3) government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) negotiating incoming federal climate risk disclosure requirements, and (4) capital markets off-taking GSE risks through financial derivatives like credit risk transfers. Emerging concerns include ruptures between household risks and financial system-preserving responses and new dangers of “climate redlining.”.Urban Development Managemen