Anchoring tools to communities: insights into perceptions of flood informational tools from a flood-prone community in Louisiana, USA
The lack of community-relevant flood informational resources and tools often results in inadequate and divergent understandings of flood risk and can impede communities' ability to function cohesively in the face of increasing flood threats. The current study reports on a set of workshops that...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2023-07-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Water |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frwa.2023.1087076/full |
| _version_ | 1797778019901767680 |
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| author | Emad H. Habib Brian Miles Liz Skilton Mohamed ElSaadani Anna C. Osland Emma Willis Robert Miller Trung Do Stephen R. Barnes |
| author_facet | Emad H. Habib Brian Miles Liz Skilton Mohamed ElSaadani Anna C. Osland Emma Willis Robert Miller Trung Do Stephen R. Barnes |
| author_sort | Emad H. Habib |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The lack of community-relevant flood informational resources and tools often results in inadequate and divergent understandings of flood risk and can impede communities' ability to function cohesively in the face of increasing flood threats. The current study reports on a set of workshops that the authors conducted with various groups (citizens, city engineers and planners, realtors and builders, and media representatives) within a flood prone community to evaluate how novel hydroinformatic tools that include hydrodynamic modeling, geospatial visualization, and socioeconomic analysis can enhance understanding of flood risk and engagement in flood risk mitigation among diverse community members. The workshops were designed to help identify stakeholder preferences regarding key functionality needed for integrated hydroinformatic technologies and socioeconomic analyses for flood risk reduction. Workshop participants were asked to use and comment on examples of prototype flood risk informational tools, such as: (1) flood damage estimation tool, (2) drivability and emergency accessibility tool, and (3) community-scale social and economic metrics tool. Data gathered from workshops were analyzed using qualitative analysis based on a grounded-theory approach. Data were coded by hand based on themes identified by the research team and incorporated deviant case analysis to ensure minority opinions was represented. The study results are focused on the following main themes and how flood tools can address them: (1) improving the understanding of flood risk and engagement in flood risk mitigation, (2) reducing the gap between individual and community risk, (3) challenges in communicating flood risk information, (4) enhancing relevance to and engagement of the community, and (5) enabling actionable information. Our research demonstrates the need for community-anchored tools and technologies that can illustrate local context, include local historical and simulated events at multiple levels of community impact, enable analyses by flood professionals while also providing simplified tools of use by citizens, and allow individuals to expand their knowledge beyond their homes, businesses, and places of work. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T23:11:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2f40062f4bb3449f9543f239882db182 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2624-9375 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T23:11:19Z |
| publishDate | 2023-07-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Water |
| spelling | doaj.art-2f40062f4bb3449f9543f239882db1822023-07-18T00:58:31ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Water2624-93752023-07-01510.3389/frwa.2023.10870761087076Anchoring tools to communities: insights into perceptions of flood informational tools from a flood-prone community in Louisiana, USAEmad H. Habib0Brian Miles1Liz Skilton2Mohamed ElSaadani3Anna C. Osland4Emma Willis5Robert Miller6Trung Do7Stephen R. Barnes8Department of Civil Engineering and Louisiana Watershed Flood Center, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA, United StatesCenter for Coastal and Ocean Mapping, NOAA-University of New Hampshire Joint Hydrographic Center, Durham, NH, United StatesDepartment of History, Geography and Philosophy, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA, United StatesDepartment of Civil Engineering and Louisiana Watershed Flood Center, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA, United StatesKathleen Babineaux Blanco Public Policy Center, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA, United StatesDepartment of History, Geography and Philosophy, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA, United StatesDepartment of Civil Engineering and Louisiana Watershed Flood Center, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA, United StatesDepartment of Civil Engineering and Louisiana Watershed Flood Center, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA, United StatesKathleen Babineaux Blanco Public Policy Center, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA, United StatesThe lack of community-relevant flood informational resources and tools often results in inadequate and divergent understandings of flood risk and can impede communities' ability to function cohesively in the face of increasing flood threats. The current study reports on a set of workshops that the authors conducted with various groups (citizens, city engineers and planners, realtors and builders, and media representatives) within a flood prone community to evaluate how novel hydroinformatic tools that include hydrodynamic modeling, geospatial visualization, and socioeconomic analysis can enhance understanding of flood risk and engagement in flood risk mitigation among diverse community members. The workshops were designed to help identify stakeholder preferences regarding key functionality needed for integrated hydroinformatic technologies and socioeconomic analyses for flood risk reduction. Workshop participants were asked to use and comment on examples of prototype flood risk informational tools, such as: (1) flood damage estimation tool, (2) drivability and emergency accessibility tool, and (3) community-scale social and economic metrics tool. Data gathered from workshops were analyzed using qualitative analysis based on a grounded-theory approach. Data were coded by hand based on themes identified by the research team and incorporated deviant case analysis to ensure minority opinions was represented. The study results are focused on the following main themes and how flood tools can address them: (1) improving the understanding of flood risk and engagement in flood risk mitigation, (2) reducing the gap between individual and community risk, (3) challenges in communicating flood risk information, (4) enhancing relevance to and engagement of the community, and (5) enabling actionable information. Our research demonstrates the need for community-anchored tools and technologies that can illustrate local context, include local historical and simulated events at multiple levels of community impact, enable analyses by flood professionals while also providing simplified tools of use by citizens, and allow individuals to expand their knowledge beyond their homes, businesses, and places of work.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frwa.2023.1087076/fullfloodingcommunityinformaticstoolsworkshopsrisk |
| spellingShingle | Emad H. Habib Brian Miles Liz Skilton Mohamed ElSaadani Anna C. Osland Emma Willis Robert Miller Trung Do Stephen R. Barnes Anchoring tools to communities: insights into perceptions of flood informational tools from a flood-prone community in Louisiana, USA Frontiers in Water flooding community informatics tools workshops risk |
| title | Anchoring tools to communities: insights into perceptions of flood informational tools from a flood-prone community in Louisiana, USA |
| title_full | Anchoring tools to communities: insights into perceptions of flood informational tools from a flood-prone community in Louisiana, USA |
| title_fullStr | Anchoring tools to communities: insights into perceptions of flood informational tools from a flood-prone community in Louisiana, USA |
| title_full_unstemmed | Anchoring tools to communities: insights into perceptions of flood informational tools from a flood-prone community in Louisiana, USA |
| title_short | Anchoring tools to communities: insights into perceptions of flood informational tools from a flood-prone community in Louisiana, USA |
| title_sort | anchoring tools to communities insights into perceptions of flood informational tools from a flood prone community in louisiana usa |
| topic | flooding community informatics tools workshops risk |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frwa.2023.1087076/full |
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