Local Disaster Resilience

Ashley D. Ross is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Sam Houston State University. Her research focuses on comparative public policy with an emphasis on local governments. In addition to this work on local disaster resilience, her research has examined decentralization in Latin America, education policy in the United States, and environmental policy among municipalities in Costa Rica.

• 1. Introduction: Local Disaster Resilience. 2. The Concept of Disaster Resilience. 3. Studying Disaster Resilience of the Gulf Coast. 4. Resilience Meanings and Perceptions. 5. Adaptive Capacities for Disaster Resilience across the Gulf Coast. 6. Exploring the Adaptive Process of Resilience across the Gulf Coast. 7. Intersecting Perceptions with Realities to Assess Resilience across the Gulf Coast. 8. Concluding Thoughts on Local Disaster Resilience.

"Ashley D. Ross has done those of us who think resilience has meaning in disaster recovery a great favor. This book establishes the definition of resilience in a nuance and important way. No longer are we left with a rudimentary discussion of resilience. Ross has attached methodological heft to the meaning of resilience. Going forward, we can discern just what can be termed a resilient response to disaster and what is not."—Roland V. Anglin, Rutgers University"Ashley D. Ross is a rising star among the next generation of scholars who study natural hazards and disasters. Her book represents an important contribution to the field, effectively filling a niche in how emergency managers and elected officials perceive their own community’s disaster resilience relative to an empirical assessment of local resilience in these same jurisdictions. Her findings are particularly relevant to our emerging understanding of this often misunderstood concept, while providing key insights into how we can improve our national policy in order to better assist local communities achieve this still elusive aim."—Gavin Smith, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill & Executive Director, Department of Homeland Security Coastal Hazards Center of Excellence