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Abstract

Introduction
Community resilience, the ability of a community to respond positively to adverse situations, is an increasingly important topic in public health. Many resilience frameworks are grounded in concepts initially developed by ecologists to describe and explain the capacity of complex systems, such as a community, to persist or return to its original state following disturbances. As a result, much of the research on resilience is concerned with maintaining systems in their current form, preventing degradation, or promoting recovery. However, for a system that is stuck in a trap, or an unfavorable state, deliberate efforts to build the components that contribute to resilience, called adaptive capacities, may enable that system to reorganize after a disturbance to reach a more favorable state.


Objective
The purpose of this research was to apply a resilience framework to analyze how the community of St. Gabriel, Louisiana adapted in response to environmental change.


Methods
We used qualitative case-study methodologies to systematically collect newspaper articles, which served as primary data sources to examine how resilience and adaptive capacity evolved in the community of St. Gabriel, Louisiana.


Results
Key events in the recent history of St. Gabriel include industrial development, growing concern about environmental health and pollution, the environmental justice (EJ) movement, and the incorporation of the community as a self-governing municipality. Two events, the community's organized resistance to a large hazardous waste facility and the change in government structure, represent critical transformations, or fundamental changes in how the community functions.


Conclusion
The incorporation of St. Gabriel gave community members more input in planning and development decisions. As a result, the community has taken steps to improve public health in the form of zoning ordinances to prevent new exposure risks and building community infrastructure, such as a new sewer system and a recreation center.

Abstract
The presence of legacy pollutants, on-going chemical manufacturing activities, and population shifts have introduced complex, cumulative exposure risks to residents of many highly industrialized communities. These "industrial corridors" present unique challenges to environmental health science professionals, public and private sector decision makers, and residents seeking to make their communities safer and healthier. Social-ecological resilience theory offers a useful framework for the design and implementation of community engagement efforts to help stakeholders take action to reduce their exposure risks. A resilience framework views the human community as a coupled social-ecological system, wherein disturbances to the equilibrium of the system – acute and/or chronic – are common rather than rare events. It recognizes three key capacities of more resilient communities. These are the abilities of community members to self-organize to address changing threat levels, to hold scientifically sound understandings of the risks, and to learn from past experiences and take action – individually or collectively – to adapt to or mitigate the hazards in their local environment. We apply this resilience theory framework to a case study from Camp Minden, Louisiana, conducted through the Louisiana State University (LSU) Superfund Research Center's Community Engagement program and supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). The case illuminates a critical path by which resilience theory can be applied to guide bi-directional communication and information-gathering, and co-development of risk-reducing strategies at the community level. These are central elements of community engagement within a contentious, real-world setting. The three components of the resilience framework were supported by specific program mechanisms and activities. The capacity for self-organization among community stakeholders was furthered through the convening of a Dialogue Committee which brought together representatives of concerned residents, regulatory agencies, research scientists, and others. This collaborative problem-solving approach supported a more holistic and scientifically sound understanding of the problem through a series of interactive meetings in which members discussed site-remediation options with thermal-treatment experts and regulators, and shared how recent explosions and concerns about air quality affected them. The members co-developed selection criteria and reached consensus on two types of disposal methods that would best reduce the significant threats to public health and the local environment. We also include a brief summary of our recent randomized survey of over 550 residents of Louisiana's industrialized communities to determine the influences on household-level adaptive behaviors to reduce acute and chronic environmental exposure risks. The results of the logistic regression analysis indicate that residents with more concern and knowledge about environmental hazards, along with confidence in their ability to implement risk-reduction measures – such as checking air-quality forecasts and then limiting outside activities – were much more likely to adopt the exposure-reducing behaviors, even when controlling for socioeconomic and demographic differences among respondents. These findings shed light on the conditions under which residents of these types of communities may be more likely to take action to reduce potential environmental exposure risks, and may help in the design of public education efforts. These "lessons learned" from Louisiana communities facing cumulative environmental exposure risks suggest that application of resilience theory to the design and implementation of community engagement programs may support the longer-term effectiveness of the efforts and enhance overall environmental health resilience. In addition, they provide practical insights about how to operationalize and apply these theoretical concepts to real-world environmental health challenges faced by residents of industrialized communities throughout the world.

While the United States has not established federal regulations for greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets, many US states have adopted their own standards and guidelines. In this study we examine state adoption of targets for GHG reductions during the ten-year period of 1998–2008, and identify factors that explain variation in target adoption. Potential influences are drawn from research from the public policy formulation and diffusion literature, and from studies specific to climate policy adoption. Potential influences on GHG reduction efforts among US states include socioeconomic attributes of residents, political and ideological orientations of citizens and state government, interest group activities, environmental pressures, and proximity to other states that have adopted GHG reduction targets. The findings of the multinomial logistic regression analysis indicate that states are more likely to adopt GHG reduction targets if they share a border with another state with a similar climate program and if their citizens are more ideologically liberal. Other factors including socioeconomic resources and interest group activities were not found to be associated with policy adoption. The findings yield insights into the conditions under which states are more likely to take action to reduce GHG's, and are relevant both to state policy makers and residents with an interest in climate planning, and for researchers attempting to estimate future greenhouse gas reduction scenarios.

Based on conference paper; US. Examines formal mechanisms for policy development, selected program activities, and identification of variables likely to influence state efforts to prevent or mitigate contamination.

Many have voiced concern about the long-term survival of coastal communities in the face of increasingly intense storms and sea level rise. In this study we select indicators of key theoretical concepts from the social-ecological resilience literature, aggregate those indicators into a resilience-capacity index, and calculate an index score for each of the 52 coastal counties of Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Building upon Cutter's Social Vulnerability Index work [1], we use Factor Analysis to combine 43 variables measuring demographics, social capital, economic resources, local government actions, and environmental conditions within the counties. Then, we map the counties' scores to show the spatial distribution of resilience capacities. The counties identified as having the highest resilience capacities include the suburban areas near New Orleans, Louisiana and Tampa, Florida, and the growing beach-tourist communities of Alabama and central Florida. Also, we examine whether those counties more active in oil and gas development and production, part of the region's "energy coast", have greater capacity for resilience than other counties in the region. Correlation analyses between the resilience-capacity index scores and two measures of oil and gas industry activity (total employment and number of business establishments within five industry categories) yielded no statistically significant associations. By aggregating a range of important contextual variables into a single index, the study demonstrates a useful approach for the more systematic examination and comparison of exposure, vulnerability and capacity for resilience among coastal communities.

The purpose of our research was to determine whether residential recycling programs introduced an additional benefit-reduced litter. We evaluated the proposition that such programs should impart to participants a heightened environmental awareness and understanding that may encourage them to litter less and/or pick up more accumulated litter. We examined accumulated litter by various types-recyclable litter, recyclable accessories, and nonrecyclable litter-in selected neighborhoods before and after the implementation of the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, curbside recycling program. We found that recyclable lifter decreased significantly after the onset of the program. However, there was no similar decline in other types of litter. Although participants were motivated to discard fewer recyclables and/or pick up more recyclable litter after Implementation of the program, this behavior did not carry over to the proper disposal of nonrecyclable lifter.

Abstract
We present findings from our 2018 survey of organizations involved in emergency management in areas affected by Hurricanes Sandy and Isaac to gain insight into their social media use throughout the four phases of emergencies – preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation planning. While 90% of the 269 respondents report using social media in their communications with the public, government offices are more active throughout the four phases compared to the other groups. First responders use social media most during the response and preparedness phases, while news media and NGOs are more active during the recovery phase. This suggests that groups that perform emergency-response functions and NGOs play complementary roles in emergency communications. Further, respondents representing government offices and first responders use social media primarily to disseminate information, while news media groups and NGOs expressed more confidence in social media as a mechanism for bi-directional communications. While Facebook is most commonly used to respond to the public, the NGOs and news media groups also use newer, image-based options like Instagram. All groups reported less social media use during the quiet time (mitigation planning phase) between emergencies, suggesting opportunities for these organizations to increase communications with the public before emergencies arise.

In an effort to address climate change, many cities have joined the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) whose members commit to work toward five specific program objectives designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This study examines the extent to which 257 member cities in the US have been successful in achieving these program milestones and identifies factors that may explain variation in the performance of member cities. Potential influences on milestone attainment include socioeconomic, political and ideological characteristics of residents, length of ICLEI membership, existence of other climate programs within the state, and local environmental pressures. Multiple regression results indicate that length of membership is the strongest predictor of milestone attainment, regardless of local socioeconomic conditions, ideological and political orientations of residents, or other climate-related initiatives within the state. This finding supports the general effectiveness of ICLEI's network organizational model and its outreach and education efforts. However, member cities facing more "climate stress", including higher levels of hazardous air pollutants (HAP's) and greater automobile use among residents are making slower progress. The findings yield insight into the conditions under which cities engaged in climate planning are more likely to succeed in reducing local greenhouse gas emissions-relevant information for planners, community stakeholders and administrators of organizations like ICLEI.

Residents of south Louisiana face a range of increasing, climate-related flood exposure risks that could be reduced through local floodplain management and hazard mitigation planning. A major incentive for community planning to reduce exposure to flood risks is offered by the Community Rating System (CRS) of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The NFIP encourages local collective action by offering reduced flood insurance premiums for individual policy holders of communities where suggested risk-reducing measures have been implemented. This preliminary analysis examines the extent to which parishes (counties) in southern Louisiana have implemented the suggested policy actions and identifies key factors that account for variation in the implementation of the measures. More measures implemented results in higher CRS scores. Potential influences on scores include socioeconomic attributes of residents, government capacity, average elevation and past flood events. The results of multiple regression analysis indicate that higher CRS scores are associated most closely with higher median housing values. Furthermore, higher scores are found in parishes with more local municipalities that participate in the CRS program. The number of floods in the last five years and the revenue base of the parish does not appear to influence CRS scores. The results shed light on the conditions under which local adaptive planning to mitigate increasing flood risks is more likely to be implemented and offer insights for program administrators, researchers and community stakeholders.