Bachelor's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

This paper studies how organizational mission influences policy implementation. Interagency conflicts and bureaucratic challenges affecting implementation are largely due to different missions and different assessment measures. The focus of this investigation is the relationship between humanitarian assistance/disaster relief (HA/DR) agencies and associated Department of Defense (DOD) medical components. Access point theory is important to this study, for it helps us understand how successful policy implementation is enabled in the midst of bureaucratic conflicts and challenges. The notion of access points has traditionally involved lobbyists and interest groups accessing elected officials and their staffs. I ask what is the effect of lobbyists and interest groups accessing bureaucrats directly in the policy implementation process and its subsequent evaluation. More importantly, I argue that bureaucrats take advantage of access points to other bureaucrats during policy implementation proceedings. This study offers the novel perspective that access points for HA/DR bureaucrats, to include those in the DOD, are readily available during the punctuating event (i.e., the natural disaster itself) and may be evaluated through the notions of timing, efficiency, and the information and capabilities they possess and can leverage during these punctuations. Simply stated, bureaucratic access points theory helps us understand how policies are successfully implemented in the midst of bureaucratic conflicts and challenges. / text

This exploratory study examined the interaction and effect of message characteristics, organizational credibility, and the presence of disaster on intention to donate to a Disaster Relief Organization (DRO). The Elaboration Likelihood Model and the Theory of Planned Behavior were used to theorize and test participant's message processing and donation behaviors. The study design incorporated random assignment into one of eight conditions. Findings reveal (a) participants have a higher donation intention when a disaster is present, (b) negative framing, when compared with positive framing, yielded the highest intention to donate when a disaster was present, (c) when no disaster is present, participants expressed a higher intention to donate to a highly credible DRO over a DRO that lacked credibility, (d) perception of DRO credibility is mediated by presence of a disaster, and (e) social media is being used in addition to more commonly found traditionally mass media for information during a disaster. In summary, this study extends previous research on processing and donation behaviors by examining the interaction of message characteristics and source credibility both during a disaster and without a current disaster. The study contributes to the growing body of research on disaster donations by incorporating social media use. / text

Post-disaster reconstruction, critical in restoring the affected community, provides new opportunities to redevelop the disaster affected region for economic growth, future vulnerability reduction and sustainable development as well. However, previous studies reveal that these opportunities have not been fully exploited. Many reconstruction projects have performed poorly due to various political, administrational, social, and policy/regulation-related reasons. To address the spotlighted gaps in post-disaster reconstruction, Public-Private-People Partnership (4P) is proposed and developed to procure more sustainable public infrastructure and to improve the overall performance of disaster management (DM) through integrating preparedness and mitigation into reconstruction processes. Public- Private Partnerships (PPP), which have demonstrated superior performance compared to the traditional approach in many infrastructure projects, are the practical and theoretical foundation of the proposed 4P. The integrated 4th P-‘people’ refers to major stakeholders who play critical roles in reconstruction, namely Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), local communities, academia, professional groups and media. A 4P framework, comprising of a procurement framework and a partnership framework, was developed based on the consolidated findings from a literature review and empirical data. The procurement framework provides a three-stage procurement process to deliver a typical 4P project, including planning for post-disaster reconstruction procurement, establishing framework agreement and 4P delivery. Through pre-disaster arrangements formally linking potential participants in advance, it enables targeted 4Ps to mobilize faster, while being more efficient and sustainable. The partnership framework provides the corner-stone of establishing sustainable and successful relationships among multiple participants, to ensure smooth execution of 4P projects. Developed on significant findings from previous research on partnerships/relationship management in the construction industry, it describes the partnership structure, role of each major participant and institutional and relational strategies to improve the partnership/relationship. A comprehensive research design enabled collection of the data required to achieve each objective of this research project. The first-round semi-structured interviews were conducted to mainly investigate the feasibility of applying PPP in reconstruction and integrating ‘people’ into PPP, so as to narrow down the potential scope of the proposed 4P. Findings from the first-round interviews, current practice and pitfalls in the DM cycle especially in reconstruction were examined in the subsequent two parallel sets of questionnaire surveys targeting DM and PPP professionals. The results derived from 14 first-round interviews and 81 responses received in the questionnaires clearly suggest that 4P has great potential to deliver better performance in reconstruction projects of certain types. Nine second-round interviews helped to test and improve the established preliminary 4P framework. In addition, to further probe into the role of ‘people’, case studies of ‘Project Mingde’, which comprises of three construction projects including a Sichuan reconstruction project, were implemented. The proposed 4P framework, developed based on the above research, was validated through a focus group meeting. It is concluded that the 4P approach could help realize better performance and sustainable redevelopment in appropriate reconstruction scenarios, as well as contribute to improving the overall DM. The 4P framework also provides a basic methodology and conceptual foundation to procure 4P projects in industry with pointers for future development in academic research. / published_or_final_version / Civil Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

This research is about disaster relief semi-temporary housing in China which based on disasters database, area selection and climate data in Yunnan Province, attempting to develop an effective and comfortable earthquake relief temporary shelter which can be processing both physical relief and psychological relief. The major components of this research are post-disaster analysis, project design, and computer simulation. By designing a new shelter model, we will try to identify different functions and reorganize them for the shelter in order to satisfy all special requests after disasters. After computer simulation, it will allow more energy efficient considerations and taking social responsibility to both the designing part and disaster relief process.

Beyond possible sovereignty disputes resulting from melting Arctic ice, very little is said or written about the maritime security implications of climate change. What does climate change mean for Canadian maritime security, and how can Canada adequately prepare to ensure continued safe and secure use of the world’s oceans in an era of climate change? Climate change is relevant to maritime security through two chief dimensions. First, navies will more frequently be tasked to deliver humanitarian assistance and disaster relief in the wake of more intense natural disasters. Second, increasing disorder on land will ‘slop over’ into the world’s oceans, threatening the safety of maritime commerce. Canada has stakes in both of these dimensions, and so there is great impetus for preparedness. The recommended model for preparedness sees Canada’s navy adopting a more varied fleet structure, one better suited for constabulary and diplomatic functions as opposed to traditional military functions.

Thesis (D.Min.)--South Florida Center for Theological Studies, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 108-111). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Southern Mississippi, 2004. / Title from title screen. "December 2004." Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, Dec., 2009. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.