This paper details the objectives, process and lessons learned from a workshop-based research project that examined the spatial extent of groundwater contamination in Los Angeles County's groundwater basins.
This paper considers disaster severity to assess efficiency for electric utilities. We provide an application to recent post-hurricane restoration activities across different electric power companies in the states and territories of the United States.
Proposing new directions for evaluation framework development targeting the Belt and Road Initiative projects, using the Standard Gauge Railway project in Kenya as a proof of concept of our proposed evaluation framework.
Our results suggest that the savings associated with replacing subsidies with our proposed means-tested subsidy would be $183 million per year if all households in the study area hold NFIP policies, or a savings of approximately $3800 per policy.
This report analyzes the fiscal capacity of eight local levee districts in southern Louisiana to shoulder the burden of operating and maintaining the Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System and other key hurricane protection infrastructure currently under construction by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, specifically focusing on operation and maintenance costs.
In light of what occurred after Katrina and the other 2004-2005 hurricanes, the authors propose goals for an effective Gulf Coast residential insurance market and highlight policy reforms that warrant consideration for achieving those goals.
The residential insurance market along the U.S. Gulf Coast has not functioned well since the devastating 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons. Policymakers, deeply divided about how to improve the system, have been unable to build consensus for reform. This paper aims to inform the current policy debate by diagnosing the problems confronting residential insurance markets and outlining policy responses that merit consideration.
The Louisiana Disaster Case Management Pilot was funded to help people still affected by the 2005 hurricanes access needed services and more permanent housing. This report describes the challenges that hindered implementation. In light of these challenges, researchers recommend that future efforts establish better ways to identify and locate affected residents, consider needs and vulnerabilities in planning, and ensure continuity of services.
The breakup of households in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina are investigated to examine the resilience of family and household structure to displacement-inducing natural disaster.
Human recovery is the process of rebuilding social and daily routines and support networks that foster physical and mental health and well-being. RAND researchers conducted a facilitated discussion with Louisiana NGO leaders to capture lessons learned and challenges faced by these organizations in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The subsequent lessons also serve to inform potential policy changes and future research directions.
To support development of affordable housing for those displaced by Hurricane Katrina and for the region's newcomers, researchers from the RAND Gulf States Policy Institute studied Mississippi housing and made recommendations for policymakers.
In response to the current situation in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, this report provides recommendations regarding effective organizational and strategic approaches to revitalizing the city’s economy, identifies the best practices that other cities have used to foster economic development, describes how these practices might be applied to New Orleans, and considers historical trends and past development missteps.
In summer 2006, the Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding, and Renewal asked the RAND Gulf States Policy Institute to describe the state of the pre-Hurricane Katrina housing markets in Mississippi’s three coastal counties, to estimate the damage the storm did to their housing markets, to describe the status of the recovery effort, and to identify problems that might inhibit it. This report publishes the findings.
This research brief summarizes a study showing that Hurricane Katrina's damage compounded an affordable-housing shortage and that recovery has been uneven and will take at least another three years with a total estimated cost of more than $4 billion.
This fact sheet summarizes key findings of a comprehensive quantitative assessment of both the extent and nature of Hurricane Katrina damage to the housing stock in Mississippi's coastal counties and progress that has been made toward recovery.
The Displaced New Orleans Residents Pilot Study examined the location, well-being, and plans of people living in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005. This paper describes the study and lessons for future studies of this population.
In October 2005, RAND researchers went to Mississippi to help the Governor’s Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding, and Renewal and the Affordable Housing Subcommittee of the Infrastructure Issues Committee. They identified policy and implementation options that could help local communities address affordable-housing issues. They considered challenges in providing affordable housing and strategies for dealing with those challenges.
In November 2005, New Orleans city leaders asked RAND to estimate the repopulation of the city in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The Bring New Orleans Back Commission needed estimates of the city’s population in the immediate and near-term future to guide the redevelopment planning process. An assessment of flood damage to housing based on the depth of floodwater and the likely pace of reconstruction of damaged housing guided the estimates.
Key Findings: - Mitigating the destructive impact of hurricane force winds will require developing and implementing new building codes. - Mitigating the impact of floods will require site-specific investments in infrastructure and planning. - California provides the best example of “lessons learned” from an aggressive policy to protect hospitals from the effects of natural disasters.
