Keeping Local Economies Safe: The Role of Economic Development Plans in Hazards Resilience
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Date
2015-06
Authors
Allison, Sarah
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Department of Planning, Public Policy & Management, University of Oregon
Abstract
When
communities
suffer
the
impacts
of
a
natural
disaster,
damage
to
the
local
economy
can
keep
the
community
in
a
state
of
crisis
long
after
the
disaster
itself.
Although
this
threat
has
considerable
implications
for
communities,
it
is
unclear
which
organizations
or
entities
have
the
responsibility
and
capacity
to
address
economic
vulnerability
to
hazards.
Economic
development
and
emergency
management
are
often
isolated
from
each
other,
resulting
in
emergency
plans
that
do
not
serve
the
business
community
as
well
as
they
might
otherwise,
and
economic
development
plans
that
do
not
address
business
needs
related
to
disasters.
One
way
to
think
about
strengthening
the
local
economy
and
reducing
its
vulnerability
to
disruption
from
hazards
is
through
the
lens
of
resilience,
or
the
ability
of
a
system
to
anticipate,
absorb,
recover
from
and
adapt
to
stresses.
This
study
explores
the
potential
role
of
economic
development
plans
in
addressing
the
resilience
of
local
economies
to
natural
hazards.
Through
the
evaluation
of
ten
economic
development
plans
from
a
three-‐county
region
and
supporting
interviews,
this
study
analyzes
how
well
economic
development
plans
currently
address
economic
resilience
to
hazards,
and
how
they
might
address
it
in
the
future.
The
results
indicate
that
economic
development
plans
have
an
overall
existing
alignment
with
resilience
principles
that
can
be
built
upon
both
within
the
plans
themselves
and
through
supporting
activities.
Description
51 pages