Housing Recovery Through Social Capital: Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria

Puerto Rico was devastated by Hurricane Maria on September 20, 2017. Due to a delayed and insufficient official response from the local and federal governments and other aid agencies, the effects are still crippling more than a year after the event. When official response networks failed, communities often engaged in informal reconstruction processes to facilitate their recovery. This research seeks to explain why certain communities were effective in reconstructing on their own and uses social capital theory as the theoretical framework. This study was conducted in four municipalities in Puerto Rico (Adjuntas, Barranquitas, Loíza, and Utuado). A mixed methods approach was adopted in this study which included interviews (N=31 with community members, local business owners and stakeholder representatives in Adjuntas, Barranquitas and Yabucoa) and door to door households surveys (N=163 in Loíza). Data analysis included qualitative analysis of the interviews where the researchers coded main social capital themes (e.g. linking, bridging and bonding). Data analysis of surveys included chi squared tests evaluating the frequency of social capital forms and informal reconstruction. The results show a significant relationship between informal reconstruction with bridging and linking social capital. Results will contribute to theory and practice of social capital mobilization in post disaster recovery contexts especially in the context where housing is ineligible for official aid. Understanding informal reconstruction through mobilization of social capital will contribute to identifying how communities can use resources available to them in times of crisis and need

Using AHP and Spatial Analysis to Determine Water Surface Storage Suitability in Cambodia

Cambodia suffers from devastating droughts in the dry season and floods in the wet season. These events’ impacts are further amplified by ineffective water resources infrastructure that cannot retain water during the dry season. Water harvesting (the collection and management of floodwater or rainwater runoff to increase water supply for domestic and agricultural use) is an approach that could improve Cambodia’s resiliency against droughts and floods. Despite the known benefits of water harvesting, there are currently few studies on water harvesting suitability in Cambodia. This research argues that suitable water harvesting sites can be identified by combining various expertise and evaluating hydrologic site conditions. Thirty-one local and USA water infrastructure experts made pairwise comparisons between essential engineering criteria: soil drainage, geologic porosity, precipitation, land cover, and slope. Then, model weights were calculated based on the comparisons. Using the model weights, a water harvesting suitability model showed that 19% of Cambodian land has high suitability, and about 13% of the land has the best suitability. This water harvesting model can help guide future water infrastructure projects to improve climate resiliency by identifying suitable sites for water harvesting reservoirs.This article is published as Ward, Michael, Cristina Poleacovschi, and Michael Perez. "Using AHP and spatial analysis to determine water surface storage suitability in Cambodia." Water 13, no. 3 (2021): 367. doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/w13030367. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

The importance of expertise visibility across organizational boundaries for individual performance

The importance of knowledge sharing within engineering organizations is well acknowledged within the literature. A critical step to organizational knowledge sharing involves expertise visibility, or knowing who knows what, as employees must first identify who has the knowledge needed for project or organizational tasks before engaging in knowledge exchange. Thus, expertise visibility is theorized to improve group and organizational performance; however, there is a dearth of literature that has analyzed the importance of expertise visibility on employee performance. Due to the importance of employee performance for group and organizational performance, this research analyzed the relationship between expertise visibility and employee performance. Specifically, we analyzed responses to survey questionnaires to compare visibility across organizational boundaries with employee performance using social network analysis and linear regression analysis. Results showed that being visible across technical expertise, office, and hierarchy boundaries were associated with increased employee performance. Engineering organizations can use these results to encourage and incentivize employees to become more visible outside of their immediate groups in order to increase their performance. The paper contributes to theory of transactive memory by showing the importance of expertise visibility for performance at the individual level.</p

Proposing an Engineering Gendered Racial Microaggression Scale

Background Minorities in engineering regularly experience negative statements or behaviors of others that disparage them due to their gender, race, ethnicity, or other identity. Students from engineering have cited these persistent subtle negative statements and behaviors, or microaggressions, as reasons for considering leaving engineering programs or the university entirely. Previous measures of microaggressions have not been designed to capture the unique experiences of minorities within the engineering environment. Purpose This research differs from previous work because it incorporates an intersectional perspective by acknowledging microaggressions are not experienced universally for individuals within all groups or institutions (Crenshaw et al. 1993; Wilkins 2012). In the context of a predominantly white institution (PWI) and a historically black college/university (HBCU), the experiences of gender and racial minorities in engineering departments were asked to share their experiences to identify overarching themes in microaggressive language and actions. The research strives to answer, “How do gender and race microaggressions affect student success and persistence in engineering programs?” Brief Research Methodology and Approach The preliminary scale used a three phased approach to scaled design to nest the novel scale in the existing literature, previous scales, and from interviews with minority engineering undergraduate students. The current paper presents a preliminary Engineering Gender and Racial Microaggression Scale (EGRMS) to measure microaggressions within the engineering environment. Preliminary Results This research expands knowledge on intersectional microaggression experiences of engineering students. The overarching goal is to address the needs of multiple identity groups including the dominant white male student, female students, and students of color

Resilient Micropolitan Areas in the Face of Economic Shocks: A Stakeholder Collective Capacity Perspective

Micropolitan areas (between 10,000 and 50,000 people) are not immune to economic shocks that threaten their vitality. Factors related to economic shocks can range from local companies leaving a town or national economic crises affecting local economies. Using the perspective of local micropolitan area stakeholders, this research seeks to identify why certain micropolitan areas recover from an economic shock while others do not. The research included the case study of two micropolitan areas in the U.S. Midwest (one resilient and one vulnerable), based on 22 interviews with key stakeholders representing diverse for-profit and government organizations. Our results reveal differences in the collective capacity and its underlying practices in the two micropolitan areas. We found that stakeholders built collective capacity by aligning effort, interacting face-to-face, supporting participation, sharing identity and building organizational capacity. Collective capacity ultimately enhanced the resilient micropolitan area’s ability to adopt place-based, or localized, strategies at a higher rate and larger scale than the vulnerable micropolitan area. The results contribute to theory of constitutive collaboration and help policy makers and stakeholders make informed decisions regarding practices to promote economic resilience

Engineers Seeking Knowledge: The Effect of Control Systems on the Accessibility of Tacit and Codified Knowledge

Engineering and construction organizations realize that knowledge sharing between employees is essential to be competitive, yet few understand how knowledge sharing is affected by management choices. This paper examines how managerial control systems, the structures and routines used to influence organizational activities, influence knowledge accessibility, defined as the effort that one takes to request and access knowledge from another person. Specifically, this research examines and compares the effects of clan and bureaucratic control on the accessibility of tacit versus codified knowledge. The researchers propose that individuals who perceive greater clan control, or governance through common values and beliefs, will perceive greater accessibility of both tacit and codified knowledge; while individuals who perceive greater bureaucratic control, or governance through rules and procedures, will perceive increase in codified knowledge only. To test the role of alignment between control systems and knowledge types in affecting knowledge accessibility, a questionnaire was administered to all engineers located in North America (855 people) within one engineering organization, and data collected from 298 responses were analyzed using linear regression analysis. The results in this research improve our understanding of knowledge accessibility and is an important step toward integrating control systems, knowledge type and knowledge accessibility.</p

Using AHP and Spatial Analysis to Determine Water Surface Storage Suitability in Cambodia

Cambodia suffers from devastating droughts in the dry season and floods in the wet season. These events’ impacts are further amplified by ineffective water resources infrastructure that cannot retain water during the dry season. Water harvesting (the collection and management of floodwater or rainwater runoff to increase water supply for domestic and agricultural use) is an approach that could improve Cambodia’s resiliency against droughts and floods. Despite the known benefits of water harvesting, there are currently few studies on water harvesting suitability in Cambodia. This research argues that suitable water harvesting sites can be identified by combining various expertise and evaluating hydrologic site conditions. Thirty-one local and USA water infrastructure experts made pairwise comparisons between essential engineering criteria: soil drainage, geologic porosity, precipitation, land cover, and slope. Then, model weights were calculated based on the comparisons. Using the model weights, a water harvesting suitability model showed that 19% of Cambodian land has high suitability, and about 13% of the land has the best suitability. This water harvesting model can help guide future water infrastructure projects to improve climate resiliency by identifying suitable sites for water harvesting reservoirs

Work in Progress: Perception of the Culture of Disengagement by Minoritized Students

Engineering students are often taught to apply ethical codes when making engineering and professional decisions. However, ethical codes often concern technical matters such as only undertaking assignments in their areas of competence and professional matters such as acting as faithful agents or trustees for their clients, with little regard to sociopolitical matters such as addressing discriminations and inequalities in the field of engineering and beyond. This disregard of sociopolitical matters might contribute to a large amount of discrimination in the forms of microaggressions facing engineering students of minoritized backgrounds. Microaggressions are deniable acts of racism or sexism that reinforce pathological stereotypes and inequitable social norms. A study found that different groups of racially minoritized students experience university campuses differently in some ways. Therefore, we want to investigate how minoritized engineering students understand microaggressions and how their experience with microaggressions contributes to their experience in engineering programs.ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: Nguyen, Luan M., Nell Gabiam, and Cristina Poleacovschi. "Work in Progress: Perception of the Culture of Disengagement by Minoritized Students." In 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access. 2021. https://peer.asee.org/38188. © 2021 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. Posted with permission

Barriers to Postdisaster Housing Reconstruction: Issues of Place and Power Mismatch

Puerto Rico has a long and complicated history with the US, and although the archipelago is no longer a colony, the colonial relationship remains embedded in US–Puerto Rico relations. In the disaster context, this historical legacy manifests as mismatches in power and place between where recovery is planned and policies are created (the federal US) and where disaster is experienced and recovery is carried out (Puerto Rico). This research investigated how these mismatches have affected housing reconstruction in Puerto Rico since Hurricanes Irma and Maria, with a particular focus on local actors, US-affiliated nonlocal agencies, and global-scale actors. Using semistructured interviews with representatives from Puerto Rico–based reconstruction organizations with extensive knowledge of housing reconstruction, this study investigated how place and power mismatches have created barriers to the housing reconstruction process in Puerto Rico after Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Our findings reimagine an existing mismatch framework (spatial, temporal, functional, knowledge, and norms) through the lenses of power and place. In doing so, we demonstrate that power and place are more than descriptive features of disaster recovery, but are dynamic dimensions that require alignment among all involved actors to achieve desirable recovery outcomes. The paper ends with a discussion of key strategies for facilitating the integration of multiple-scale actors along the dimensions of power and place.This accepted article is published as Jessica Talbot, Ph.D.; Cristina Poleacovschi, Ph.D.; and Jane Rongerude, Ph.D. Barriers to Postdisaster Housing Reconstruction: Issues of Place and Power Mismatch. Natural Hazards Review, May 2023, 24(2);https://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/NHREFO.NHENG-1530. Posted with permission. © 2023 American Society of Civil Engineer