Jennifer Bogle
UEP 232
Assignment 1
Assessing the Resilience of Coastal Communities in Massachusetts
Topic Summary
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has established a standard
definition for coastal areas under the Coastal Zone Management Act. To acknowledge the
complex human dimension of the coast, the NOAA also delineated two categories of coastal
communities, which are referred to as either Coastal Watershed Counties or Coastal Shoreline
Counties. Coastal Watershed Counties include those that most directly affect the coast, while
Coastal Shoreline Counties include those most directly affected by the coast. According to the
definition of Coastal Shoreline Counties, individuals living within these areas “bear a great
proportion of the full range of effects from coastal hazards” (Ache et al., n.d.).
Coastal Shoreline Counties in particular may benefit from the development of resilience profiles,
given their potential vulnerability to coastal hazards. Cutter et al. (2008) suggest that community
resilience be measured according to ecological, social, economic, institutional, infrastructure,
and community competence dimensions. Each dimension is then divided into more detailed
variables. For instance, ecological variables include wetland acreage, erosion rates, impervious
surface coverage, and coastal defense structures, while economic variables include employment,
property value, and municipal finance.
This project would involve the development of a resilience profile map for a community within a
NOAA-defined Coastal Shoreline Counties. Areas of interest may include, for instance, a
mainland metropolitan area (e.g., Boston) or a city located in U.S. territories (e.g., San Juan,
Puerto Rico or Pago Pago, American Samoa), depending on the availability of data.
Questions to be addressed through this project are as follows:
1. How does the selected coastal city score in its overall resilience?
2. Which neighborhoods within that city are least resilient (e.g., are furthest from
transportation networks or emergency infrastructure)?
3. Which resiliency factors scored the lowest in the area of interest?
References
Ache, B.W., Crossett, K.M., Pacheco, P.A., Adkins, J.E., & Wiley, P.C. (n.d.). “The Coast” is
Complicated: A Model to Consistently Describe the Nation’s Coastal Population.
Retrieved from
http://coastalsocioeconomics.noaa.gov/assessment/the_coast_is_complicated.pdf
Cutter, S. L., Barnes, L., Berry, M., Burton, C., Evans, E., Tate, J.W. (2008). A place-based
model for understanding community resilience to natural disasters. Global Environmental
Change, 18, 598-606.
U.S. Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System Program. (2007). How Resilient is Your Coastal
Community? A Guide for Evaluating Coastal Community Resilience to Tsunamis and
Other Hazards. Retrieved from
www.csc.noaa.gov/psc/.../How_Resilient_is_Your_Coastal_Community.pdf
Wellbeing Map of Belize
The Earth Institute at Columbia University recently issued a World Happiness Report, which
challenges the economists’ use of Gross National Product (GNP) per capita as measure of
progress. Instead, the report suggests that the world consider adopting Gross National Happiness
(GNH) as a more comprehensive and accurate indicator of successful policy. The World
Happiness Report uses both objective (e.g., health, education, and poverty data) and subjective
(e.g., self reported life satisfaction) to determine happiness levels of the countries evaluated.
In the case of Bhutan, the GNH Index is based on a country-level survey across a range of
domains, including psychological wellbeing, community vitality, cultural diversity and
resilience, time use, governance, ecological diversity and resilience, health, and education. While
information covering each domain is not available for Belize, the most recent Poverty
Assessment Report (2010) offers a range of data that may be used as a variation of the Bhutanese
BNH Index. Additionally, because much of the data is reported by district, wellbeing indices can
be reported for the Corozal, Orange Walk, Belize, Cayo, Stann Creek, and Toledo districts.
Below is a list of data available in the Poverty Assessment Report that may be used in
conjunction with other available indicators.
Indictor
Source*
*Poverty Assessment Report unless otherwise noted.
Education
Primary School Enrollment
Attendance
Access
Financial Assistance
Cost
Primary School Enrollment
Attendance
Access
Living Standards
Poverty Level
Indigence Level
Poverty Gap
Poverty Severity
Inequality
Financial Vulnerability
Financial Difficulty by Type
Child Poverty
Youth Poverty
Elderly Poverty
Household Projects
Road Networks
http://www.biodiversity.bz/mapping/warehouse/
Health
Food Security
Reported Illness or Injury
Occurrence of Illness
Satisfaction
Costs
Immunization Coverage
Nutritional Status
Good Governance
Social Investment
Ecological Diversity and Resilience
Protected Area Coverage
Land Degradation
Fire Risk
http://www.biodiversity.bz/mapping/warehouse/
http://www.biodiversity.bz/mapping/warehouse/
http://www.biodiversity.bz/mapping/warehouse/
Key questions to be answered through the wellbeing map include:
1. What is the geographic distribution of wellbeing in Belize?
2. How do the wellbeing indices correlate with the racial composition of each district?
References
Columbia University. (2013). World Happiness Report. Retrieved from
http://www.earth.columbia.edu/sitefiles/file/Sachs%20Writing/2012/World%20Happines
s%20Report.pdf
Government of Belize. (2010). Poverty Assessment Report. Retrieved from
http://www.caribank.org/uploads/2012/12/Belize-2009-Report-Vol2.pdf