Climate Change Hazard Mitigation and Disaster Policy in South Louisiana: Planning and Preparing for a “Slow Disaster”

Abstract

Our climate is in a constant state of flux and disaster policy and hazard mitigation measures must anticipate and adapt to these and other changes. This is especially true in the parishes of South Louisiana where a combination of factors have created a highly dynamic landscape where residents must react to anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic forces simultaneously. Major policies and mitigation efforts along Louisiana's Gulf Coast as they relate to disaster management and/or climate change were chronicled to determine how they have incorporated the unique vulnerabilities of South Louisiana. In addition to exacerbating disasters, changes in climate can create a "slow disaster" because of far-reaching impacts on multiple natural processes. A "slow disaster" is difficult to encourage communities to prepare for because the impact is usually realized over the course of years and decades instead of a few hours or days, as is the case with most disasters. Proactive planning and inclusion of potential climate change impacts in hazard mitigation plans is a positive step in reducing the impact of future disasters.

A systematic review of 20 years of crisis and disaster research: Trends and progress

“…In the past 5 years (2016-2020), we see renewed attention for recovery, pushed forward by interest in resilience in the aftermath of disasters such as hurricanes in the United States (Baker et al, 2018;Houston et al, 2017;Roque et al, 2020;Smith et al, 2018;Walsh et al, 2015), Nepal earthquake (Kumar, 2020) and the Great East Japan Earthquake (Ono, 2017), as well as institutional crises (Useem et al, 2017). In contrast, issues of mitigation received little attention in crisis research throughout the past 20 years (Joyner & Orgera, 2013;Sadiq, 2010).…”

Initiating a Transdisciplinary Conversation to Improve Indoor Ecologies

“…Many of the forms of vulnerability and harm to humans and the environment included in this special issue have been discussed in the literature under the term "slow disaster," as they lack the spectacular, immediate, and explosive qualities that are typically associated with "typical" disasters (Joyner & Orgera, 2013;Morrison, 2017). However, Nixon (2011) and others (O'Lear, 2016) made the persuasive argument that where deliberate actions are taken that have known effects on human health or the environment, such as emitting large quantities of greenhouse gases or using chemicals that are persistent or bioaccumulative, "violence" is a more appropriate term than "disaster."…”