An analysis of outcomes for FEMA individual assistance recipients in the context of social vulnerability

Thesis: S.M. in Technology and Policy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, Technology and Policy Program, September, 2020

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bann, Gabriel(Gabriel T.)
Other Authors: Jarrod Goentzel.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/129077
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author2 Jarrod Goentzel.
author_facet Jarrod Goentzel.
Bann, Gabriel(Gabriel T.)
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description Thesis: S.M. in Technology and Policy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, Technology and Policy Program, September, 2020
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spelling mit-1721.1/1290772022-02-01T18:56:36Z An analysis of outcomes for FEMA individual assistance recipients in the context of social vulnerability Analysis of outcomes for Federal Emergency Management Agency individual assistance recipients in the context of social vulnerability Bann, Gabriel(Gabriel T.) Jarrod Goentzel. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Data, Systems, and Society. Technology and Policy Program. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Data, Systems, and Society Technology and Policy Program Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division Institute for Data, Systems, and Society. Technology and Policy Program. Thesis: S.M. in Technology and Policy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, Technology and Policy Program, September, 2020 Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 57-58). Natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods, and wildfires have been increasing both in frequency and in the cost of damages. Different communities experience disasters differently, from the immediate losses to the long-term recovery process. Age, disability, race, housing status, and socioeconomic status are factors that can contribute to disparities in a person or community's vulnerability to disasters. Federal disaster aid policy has historically contributed to disaster vulnerability as well, at times enhancing disparities in survivors' ability to respond or recover. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has recently significantly expanded its efforts to individualize the survivor experience, and especially consider the survivor's social vulnerability. We received a large dataset with outcomes for Individual Assistance (IA) programs for registrants in eight different natural disasters from 2008-2017. My research has been to analyze these outcomes in order to explore potential disparities in the survivor experience based on demographic characteristics at the individual and community levels. This document covers my exploration of this data set in the context of social vulnerability. I employ high-level descriptive statistics as well as multi-level modeling techniques to depict the relationship between demographic variables associated with social vulnerability and outcomes in IA programs. Through these modeling techniques, I find that many individual and community-level demographic variables are strongly correlated with FEMA assistance outcomes including assistance amount and the number of contacts between the registrant and FEMA. Finally, I outline significant disparities in assistance levels for different demographic groups. by Gabriel Bann. S.M. in Technology and Policy S.M.inTechnologyandPolicy Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, Technology and Policy Program 2021-01-06T17:38:36Z 2021-01-06T17:38:36Z 2020 2020 Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/129077 1227201492 eng MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 58 pages application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Institute for Data, Systems, and Society.
Technology and Policy Program.
Bann, Gabriel(Gabriel T.)
An analysis of outcomes for FEMA individual assistance recipients in the context of social vulnerability
title An analysis of outcomes for FEMA individual assistance recipients in the context of social vulnerability
title_full An analysis of outcomes for FEMA individual assistance recipients in the context of social vulnerability
title_fullStr An analysis of outcomes for FEMA individual assistance recipients in the context of social vulnerability
title_full_unstemmed An analysis of outcomes for FEMA individual assistance recipients in the context of social vulnerability
title_short An analysis of outcomes for FEMA individual assistance recipients in the context of social vulnerability
title_sort analysis of outcomes for fema individual assistance recipients in the context of social vulnerability
topic Institute for Data, Systems, and Society.
Technology and Policy Program.
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/129077
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