Socio-Economic Indicators for Coastal Community Disaster Response and Resilience

A critical element to effective disaster response is an understanding of the underlying socio-economic conditions of the impacted community. Disasters range from very local, such as a harmful algal bloom, to potential widespread damage that might be associated with an oil spill or hurricane. Identifying socio-economic indicators that can be used in disaster response assessments as well as day-to-day decision making is important for resource deployment as well as resiliency and adaptation strategies.

In order to support an infrastructure that can respond to disasters we propose to:

1. Inventory the state-of-art socio-economic indicators for community and human well-being by bringing together leading expertise in this area to populate a searchable database;
2. Examine operationalizing the indicators in a local context by working with Gulf of Mexico National Estuarine Research Reserves, and;
3. Publish an online and in print guide to socio-economic indicators for disaster response and community resilience.

This project is one in a series funded by the state Office of the Governor and administered through the Texas OneGulf Center of Excellence research consortium.