Jennifer Schneider

This study examines social disparities in U.S. K–12 school flood exposure and the distribution of federal disaster recovery aid for affected schools. Using national datasets on school locations, flood hazards, and socioeconomic characteristics, we analyze (1) the spatial patterns of schools within 100-year flood zones, and (2) factors associated with the local receipt of FEMA recovery aid for schools. Our findings reveal substantial regional variation, with flood-prone schools concentrated in the Southern and Gulf Coast states. Local geographic conditions are consistently associated with schools’ flood exposure across most states. Schools in communities with higher poverty rates and larger Hispanic populations are more likely to be located in flood zones. Regarding recovery, greater FEMA aid is allocated to schools in localities with greater damage, larger populations, and more schools in floodplains. The relationship between social factors and aid is mixed: communities with lower incomes and larger Hispanic populations receive less school aid, yet aid levels are also positively correlated with poverty rates. This study contributes to understanding school flood exposure and social equity in disaster recovery, offering insights for policymakers, urban planners, and school administrators to develop targeted mitigation strategies and promote more equitable recovery for flood-prone schools.

The world and its operations are becoming increasingly risky and brittle, with organizations and communities facing escalating threats from both internal and external sources. Risk management and business systems exist to help navigate both acute shocks and chronic stressors, but the decisive factor is how entities plan and respond. This article explores the strategic application of systematic resilience planning across risk types and presents an integrated application for implementation grounded in risk management and business continuity systems standards. The article also explores how these standards can support the identification and treatment of organizational risks and vulnerabilities to provide a clear path to resilience. No risk environment is static. Applied as a dynamic framework that is responsive to evolving risk contexts, a systematic approach offers a powerful path forward in an era of compounding disruption.

Many cities across the United States (U.S.) face threats from natural hazards, and as climate change continues to worsen, cities will face increased risks. Emergency management helps cities to mitigate these risks and adapt to shifting threats. Based on the Rockefeller City Resilience Framework and City Resilience Index Driver 3, Indicator 3.4, the scope of this research was to develop an emergency management maturity model and explore emergency management capacity for future disasters based on an assessment of five cities across the U.S. With the resulting data, a city’s score would serve as an evaluation of the emergency response indicator (Indicator 3.4) in order to eventually enter the City Resilience Index. The cities selected were Buffalo, New York; Honolulu, Hawaii; Memphis, Tennessee; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Saint Paul, Minnesota, based on their hazard/risk factors. It should be noted that these scores were intended to compare resilience in a city over time and identify unique areas in which the cities could improve emergency management and were not meant to rank the cities against each other. An interesting find was the overlap between the counties and cities regarding policy data, creating a new avenue for research in local level emergency management.

Communities and businesses continue to experience the effects of climate change as global temperatures rise and extreme weather events become more frequent. In the United States (US), the public sector has traditionally been responsible for mitigating these risks; however, engaging the private sector is crucial, given industrial impacts on and vulnerability to climate change. Private-sector mitigation and adaptation efforts are critical in the Great Lakes Region due to aging infrastructure as well as its economic, environmental, and political importance in the US and Canada. This study explores private-sector resilience efforts in three Great Lakes cities to identify opportunities and trends that could inform climate resilience strategies in the region. Climate-related commitments and actions of nine major firms in Toronto, Chicago, and Cleveland are evaluated in relation to seven climate resilience criteria on a five-level maturity scale from January to May 2022. The results indicate a moderate level of maturity, with efforts mainly at facility and community levels of engagement. Overall, this study suggests that major firms participate in climate resilience efforts, but to a limited extent, and may have varying priorities that affect the initiatives they pursue. This study could contribute to advancing climate resilience efforts in the public and private sectors from regional to global levels.

Disruption is an inevitable factor in business and society, while inability to mitigate and manage risk can cause irreparable damage to business, the economy, and our ways of life. The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened interest in standards-based strategies for risk management and crisis preparedness to enhance organizational and societal resilience. University curricula that integrate national and international standards offer students a rich skill-set for effective performance in their careers. Moving forward, we must cultivate capable professionals who understand the challenges and risks facing society, and who grasp standards and systems for strategic planning, response, and recovery to promote organizational resilience and sustainable development. This paper focuses on the effectiveness of integrating risk management and continuity standards into university curricula, based on implementation at a large private university and regional community college in the Northeastern United States. We propose and evaluate a modular approach to introduce students to specific national and international standards, and teach them to identify and apply relevant standards based on the locally driven, whole community nature of disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. Education using standards-based curriculum and the competencies that result will be key to readiness for tomorrow’s graduates.

As college campuses reopened in fall 2020, we saw a large-scale experiment unfold on the efficacy of various strategies to contain the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Traditional individual surveillance testing via nasal swabs and/or saliva is among the measures that colleges are pursuing to reduce the spread of the virus on campus. Additionally, some colleges are testing wastewater on their campuses for signs of infection, which can provide an early warning signal for campuses to locate COVID-positive individuals. However, a representation of wastewater surveillance has not yet been incorporated into epidemiological models for college campuses, nor has the efficacy of wastewater screening been evaluated relative to traditional individual surveillance testing, within the structure of these models. Here, we implement a new model component for wastewater surveillance within an established epidemiological model for college campuses. We use a hypothetical residential university to evaluate the efficacy of wastewater surveillance for maintaining low infection rates. We find that wastewater sampling with a 1-day lag to initiate individual screening tests, plus completing the subsequent tests within a 4-day period can keep overall infections within 5% of the infection rates seen with traditional individual surveillance testing. Our results also indicate that wastewater surveillance can effectively reduce the number of false positive cases by identifying subpopulations for surveillance testing where infectious individuals are more likely to be found. Through a Monte Carlo risk analysis, we find that surveillance testing that relies solely on wastewater sampling can be fragile against scenarios with high viral reproductive numbers and high rates of infection of campus community members by outside sources. These results point to the practical importance of additional surveillance measures to limit the spread of the virus on campus and the necessity of a proactive response to the initial signs of outbreak.

As college campuses reopen, we are in the midst of a large-scale experiment on the efficacy of various strategies to contain the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Traditional individual surveillance testing via nasal swabs and/or saliva is among the measures that colleges are pursuing to reduce the spread of the virus on campus. Additionally, some colleges are testing wastewater on their campuses for signs of infection, which can provide an early warning signal for campuses to locate COVID-positive individuals. However, a representation of wastewater surveillance has not yet been incorporated into epidemiological models for college campuses, nor has the efficacy of wastewater screening been evaluated relative to traditional individual surveillance testing, within the structure of these models. Here, we implement a new model component for wastewater surveillance within an established epidemiological model for college campuses. We use a hypothetical residential university to evaluate the efficacy of wastewater surveillance to maintain low infection rates. We find that wastewater sampling with a 1-day lag to initiate individual screening tests, plus completing the subsequent tests within a 4-day period can keep overall infections within 5% of the infection rates seen with traditional individual surveillance testing. Our results also indicate that wastewater surveillance can be an effective way to dramatically reduce the number of false positive cases by identifying subpopulations for surveillance testing where infectious individuals are more likely to be found. Through a Monte Carlo risk analysis, we find that surveillance testing that relies solely on wastewater sampling can be fragile against scenarios with high viral reproductive numbers and high rates of infection of campus community members by outside sources. These results point to the practical importance of additional surveillance measures to limit the spread of the virus on campus and the necessity of a proactive response to the initial signs of outbreak. Author Summary: College campuses have employed a variety of measures to keep their communities safe amid the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Many colleges are implementing surveillance testing programs wherein students are randomly selected to be tested for SARS-CoV-2. These strategies aim to manage the number of infections among the student population by isolating infected individuals. Some colleges are monitoring wastewater on their campuses for signs of the virus, which has been found to be capable of detecting viral RNA. If a wastewater sample shows signs of viral RNA, then screening tests are administered to the individuals who live or work in the buildings that contribute to the sewer in question. We present a model for such wastewater surveillance within a larger model for the spread of SARS-CoV-2 on a college campus. We show that wastewater surveillance can reduce the number of false positive cases and the associated disruptions to student life, while maintaining similar overall numbers of infections. However, we find that surveillance testing strategies that rely solely on wastewater sampling may be less effective if the local transmission rate of the virus is high, or if the rate of infection of members of the campus community by outside sources is high.

Disaster management has begun to examine the unique role of the private sector in disaster relief. The hotel and lodging industry is an especially critical infrastructure for community disaster relief and resilience, providing many lifeline services in addition to core skills and competencies contributing to the community’s social and human capital. Social and human capital empower the community to better cope with disturbance, and companies’ efforts to build social and human capital are often tied to their corporate social responsibility (CSR) management systems. A framework was developed to evaluate the management system maturity of the hotel and lodging industry’s CSR management for disaster relief and resilience. An analysis of three hotel and lodging corporations was performed to understand the current state of the industry. While many hotel properties are engaging in CSR activities during disaster relief, the analysis revealed that corporate management systems have room for maturation and growth to support the resilience of their community.

This Research Full Paper will discuss the demonstration of critical thinking of undergraduate students through their required co-op experiences. Critical thinking is an important 21st century skill that is expressed through measurable outcomes such as the ability to successfully use information, design, analyze, and problem solve. At Rochester Institute of Technology, a primarily technically focused university with strong programs in engineering and computing sciences, there is a dedicated effort to enhance the critical thinking ability of the students on campus. This paper will discuss our initiative for the integration of critical thinking into the student experience. In addition, the majority of our students complete one or more paid cooperative education experiences to satisfy their degree requirements. Upon completion of the experience, the employers are asked to rate the student performance on several metrics, one of which is demonstration of critical thinking. By analyzing the data from these surveys, we have found that employers consistently rate our students as proficient and capable. Our analysis shows that there is a slight difference in critical thinking ratings based on field of study, but not based on term in which it occurred, or number of experiences students engaged in.