Spring 2020 – Natural Disaster Recovery Policy: Spending and Effectiveness

The U.S. Federal Government has taken an increasingly active role in disaster relief efforts, yet program analyses of the efficacy of Federal recovery programs–particularly at the individual household and business level–are limited. This project will have two major research aims to address this gap. The first piece of this project is the analysis of 20 years of Federal disaster spending with the goal of creating a database of all the programs, the available dollars, intended recipients, and application requirements to understand trends and funding eligibility. Students can learn ways to present data in visually appealing and informative ways to and come up with ways to translate this knowledge to individuals and local communities. This can help communities increase their disaster resilience as well as build students’ professional portfolios with tangible work products. The second piece of the project analyzing how disaster spending has been implemented in communities in Texas. Disaster assistance data for Hurricane Ike and Hurricane Harvey has been obtained, and students have the opportunity to participate in statistical analyses of the data as well as join researchers in conducting interviews with households and businesses in Galveston County. Students participating in this project can expect to gain experience in conducting human subjects research, data visualization, policy analysis methods (introduction), database management, and ethics in disaster research, as well as have tangible work products for their professional or academic careers.