In 2005, Hurricane Katrina and subsequent levee failures produced widespread flooding in New Orleans, Louisiana and forced the evacuation of most of the local population. This event allowed for the study of the communitys resilience, or the ability of a system to absorb changes or perturbations and still function. Statistical analysis and case studies were used to study resilience and answer the following questions. Can natural community recovery models be used when evaluating the population recovery of a human community following a disturbance? Given that there are variations in population recovery patterns, what factors account for this difference in recovery?
The recovery patterns of zip codes in Orleans Parish were able to be classified by those patterns demonstrated by tree communities following a hurricane, indicating that natural system models may be relevant to social communities. Census tracts of Orleans Parish were compared through discriminant analysis and it was delineated that higher flood depth, high percentage of black population, and low population with a bachelors degree have the greatest significant impact on population recovery. It was also indicated that flood depth was the most important factor affecting return to the area. Knowledge gained through this study is applied to methods that can improve the resiliency of New Orleans and other communities that face the threat of a disturbance. Through this analysis suggests that maintenance of the physical infrastructure and the natural ecosystem are essential to the resilience of New Orleans communities.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-06262009-105556 |
| Date | 29 June 2009 |
| Creators | DeFrank, Lauren Marie |
| Contributors | Lam, Nina, Wascom, Michael, Reams, Margaret |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-06262009-105556/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
Page generated in 0.0059 seconds