Path towards community resilience: Examining stakeholders? coordination at the intersection of the built, natural, and social systems

It is well established that low-income and communities of color often receive delayed disaster recovery while disproportionately impacted from disasters. Governments have more recently employed equity principles into their policies and frameworks to improve resiliency of such communities to disasters. However, although many city agencies have an overlying goal to advance racial equity, the reality of coordination efforts may reveal shortcomings that perpetuate inequitable outcomes in the decision-making process of city stakeholders. This study assessed internal stakeholder interviews from city agencies, social services, and a nonprofit in summer of 2018 to identify obstacles and opportunities for building community resilience in Southeast Austin. An inductive qualitative analysis was then performed to extract emergent themes from the interviews. Key recommendations for improving equitable community resilience planning were developed such as, increased internal coordination and collaboration, and improved external communication and engagement. This study contributes to understanding the relationship of equity in community resiliency planning and represents an important contribution to understanding the influential factors that shape a decision-makers role in planning efforts. Improving such understandings can support more collaborative and participatory decision-making processes between affected community members and city agencies.

Automated summary

The study analyzed internal stakeholder interviews to identify obstacles and opportunities for building community resilience in Southeast Austin, with key recommendations focusing on increasing internal coordination and collaboration, as well as improving external communication and engagement. Although city agencies have a goal to advance racial equity, the reality of coordination efforts may reveal shortcomings that perpetuate inequitable outcomes in decision-making processes.