Asymmetrical Recovery in Cities After Disaster. The Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina

Authors

  • Mark Kammerbauer Technische Hochschule Nürnberg, Keßlerplatz 12, 90489, Nürnberg, Deutschland University of Queensland, St Lucia QLD 4072, Brisbane, Australia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13147-014-0309-4

Keywords:

Disaster recovery, Floods, Disaster, Vulnerability, Urban planning

Abstract

When flood events trigger disaster in cities, the recovery process constitutes a complex field of activity covering urban space, state institutions, and impacted citizens. Recovery may not occur evenly, but instead, asymmetrically. In the case of the city of New Orleans in the USA, heavily hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, this can be observed particularly in the city’s Lower Ninth Ward. Here, a rebuilding program oriented towards homeowners was supposed to enable citizens to return. Why couldn’t the plans and programs for recovery prevent the emergence of asymmetric recovery in the Lower Ninth Ward? This paper shows that these plans and programs didn’t adequately respond to urban spatial and social conditions and weren’t oriented towards the vulnerability of impacted citizens. For this purpose, empirical data collected via quantitative and qualitative methods in 2007 and 2009 are featured here. The aim is to support knowledge-based planning recommendations that address the vulnerability of impacted citizens and to contribute to a discussion on just and sustainable recovery in and of cities after disaster.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Birkmann, J. (2006): Measuring vulnerability to promote disaster-resilient societies: Conceptual frameworks and definitions. In: Birkmann, J. (Hrsg.): Measuring Vulnerability to Natural Hazards. Towards Disaster Resilient Societies. Tokyo, New York, Paris, 9–54.

Bohle, H.-G. (2001): Vulnerability and Criticality: Perspectives from Social Geography. In: Newsletter of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change 2 (1), 3–5.

Campanella, R. (2008): Bienville’s Dilemma. A Historical Geography of New Orleans. Lafayette.

Chambers, R. (1989): Editorial Introduction: Vulnerability, Coping and Policy. In: IDS Bulletin 20 (2), 1–7.

City of New Orleans (o. J.a): The Unified New Orleans Plan (UNOP). Citywide Strategic Recovery and Rebuilding Plan. New Orleans. http://quake.abag.ca.gov/wp-content/documents/resilience/New%20Orleans-FINAL-PLAN-April-2007.pdf (02.06.2014).

City of New Orleans (o. J.b): A Foundation for Recovery: Strategies for Neighborhood Stabilization. http://www.nolacitycouncil.com/docs/resources/AFoundationForRecovery.ppt (02.06.2014).

City of New Orleans (2010): Plan for the 21st Century. New Orleans 2030. New Orleans. http://www.nola.gov/city-planning/master-plan/ (02.06.2014).

Colten, C. (2005): An Unnatural Metropolis. Baton Rouge.

Cuddeback, M.; Bosworth, F. (2008): Rebuilding Community Block by Block. In: Cityscape 10 (3), 77–99.

Czerwinski S. (2007): Gulf Coast Rebuilding. Preliminary Observations on Progress to Date and Challenges for the Future. Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Disaster. Recovery, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, U.S. Senate. http://gao.justia.com/department-of-housing-and-urban-development/2007/4/gulf-coast-rebuilding-gao-07–574t/ (12.08.2014).

Dombrowsky, W. (1998): Again and again: Is a disaster what we call a „disaster“? In: Quarantelli, E. (Hrsg.): What is a disaster? Perspectives on the question. New York, 19–30.

Dynes, R. (1998): Coming to terms with community disaster. In: Quarantelli, E. (Hrsg.): What is a disaster? Perspectives on the question. New York, 109–126.

Dynes, R. (2006): Social Capital: Dealing with Community Emergencies. In: Homeland Security Affairs 2 (2), 5.

Feireiss, K. (2009): Architecture in Times of Need. Make It Right. Rebuilding New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward. New York.

Flick, U. (2012): Qualitative Sozialforschung. Eine Einführung. Reinbek.

Freudenburg, W.; Gramling, R.; Laska, S.; Erikson, K. (2009): Catastrophe In The Making. The Engineering of Katrina and the Disasters of Tomorrow. Washington, DC.

Gaillard, J. C.; Glantz, M.; Kelman, I.; Wisner, B.; Delica-Willison, Z.; Keim, M. (2014): Taking the ‚naturalness‘ out of natural disaster (again). In: Natural Hazards Observer 38 (3), 1–14.

GNOCDC – Greater New Orleans Community Data Center (2000): Percent African American by Census block group in Orleans Parish. http://gnocdc.org/maps/race/pdfs/african_american.pdf (02.06.2014).

GNOCDC – Greater New Orleans Community Data Center (2003a): Income & poverty comparison for neighborhoods within Orleans Parish. http://www.gnocdc.org/xls/nbhd_income.xls (02.06.2014).

GNOCDC – Greater New Orleans Community Data Center (2003b): People & household characteristics comparison for neighborhoods within Orleans Parish. http://www.gnocdc.org/xls/nbhd_people.xls (02.06.2014).

GNOCDC – Greater New Orleans Community Data Center (2008): The New Orleans Index. Anniversary Edition. Three Years After Katrina. New Orleans.

GNOCDC – Greater New Orleans Community Data Center (2009): The New Orleans Index. New Orleans.

GNOCDC – Greater New Orleans Community Data Center (2010): The New Orleans Index at Five: Reviewing Key Reforms After Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans.

Gottdiener, M.; Hutchison, R. (2006): The New Urban Sociology. Boulder.

H3 Studio Project Team (2007): A Framework for Sustainable Resilience in the Lower Ninth Ward. http://willdoo-storage.com/Plans/D8/District_08_Lower9th_Chapter_01_Introduction_to_the_District.pdf (03.06.2014).

Hassenpflug, D. (2006): Reflexive Urbanistik. Reden und Aufsätze zur europäischen Stadt. Weimar.

Hassenpflug, D. (2009): Der urbane Code Chinas. Basel.

IRDR – Integrated Research of Disaster Risk (2011): Forensic investigations of disasters: The FORIN Project. Beijing.

Kromm, C.; Sturgis, S. (2007): Blueprint for Gulf Renewal. Durham, NC.

Louisiana Recovery Authority (2006): Migration Patterns – Estimates of Parish Level Migrations due to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. http://popest.org/popestla2006/files/MigrationReport_FINv4.pdf (03.06.2014).

Miles, M.; Huberman, A. (1994): Qualitative Data Analysis. An Expanded Sourcebook. Thousand Oaks.

Pelling, M. (2003): The Vulnerability of Cities. Natural Disasters and Social Resilience. London.

Perry, R.; Quarantelli, E. (Hrsg.) (2005): What Is a Disaster? New Answers to Old Questions. Philadelphia.

Plyer, A. (2010): Neighborhood Recovery Rates. https://gnocdc.s3.amazonaws.com/reports/GNOCDC_NeighborhoodRecoveryJune2010.pdf (12.08.2014).

Pohl, J. (2010): Wiederaufbau nach dem Erdbeben – Perspektiven für Haiti. In: Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte 28–29, 10–17.

Putnam, R. D. (2007): Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital. In: Le Gates, R.; Stout, F. (Hrsg.): The City Reader. New York, 121–129.

Regional Planning Commission (2009): New Orleans Council District C: LLT Properties, April 17th 2009. http://bucrp.uno.edu/docs/CouncilDistrictC24X36.pdf (12.08.2014).

Rodriguez, H.; Quarantelli, E.; Dynes, R. (2007): Handbook of Disaster Research. New York.

Schnell, R.; Hill, P.; Esser, E. (2011): Methoden der empirischen Sozialforschung. München.

Stallings, R. (1998): Disaster and the theory of social order. In: Quarantelli, E. (Hrsg.): What is a disaster? Perspectives on the question. New York, 127–145.

Stallings, R. (2005): Disaster, crisis, collective stress and mass deprivation. In: Perry, R.; Quarantelli, E. (Hrsg.): What is a disaster? New answers to old questions. Philadelphia, 237–274.

US Census (2012): State & County Quick Facts. http://quickfacts.census.gov (04.05.2014).

US House of Representatives (2006): A Failure of Initiative: Final Report of the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina. Washington, DC.

Vale, L.; Campanella, T. (2005): The resilient city: How modern cities recover from disaster. Oxford.

Wagner, J.; Frisch, M.; Fields, B. (2008): Building Local Capacity: Planning for Local Culture and Neighborhood Recovery in New Orleans. In: Cityscape 10 (3), 39–55.

Wallace Roberts & Todd, LLC (2006): Action Plan for New Orleans: The New American City. http://www.npr.org/documents/2006/jan/CityPlanningFinalReport.pdf (05.06.2014).

Weiss, N. (2007): Rebuilding Housing After Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned and Unresolved Issues. http://www.hlswatch.com/sitedocs/RL33761.pdf (02.06.2014).

Williams, M. (1985): Neighborhood Organizations. Seeds of a New Urban Life. Westport.

Wilson, R.; Stein, R. (2006): Katrina evacuees in Houston: One-year out (white paper). http://brl.rice.edu/Katrina/White_Papers/White_Paper_9_8_06.pdf (02.06.2014).

Downloads

Published

2014-10-31

Issue

Vol. 72 No. 5 (2014)

Section

Research Article

License

Copyright (c) 2014 RuR Editors

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Articles in Raumforschung und Raumordnung – Spatial Research and Planning are published under a Creative Commons license. From Vol. 79 No. 2 (2021), the license applied is CC BY 4.0. From Vol. 77 No. 1 to Vol. 79 No.1, articles were published under a CC BY-SA license. Earlier volumes have been re-published by oekom 2022 under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License CC BY 4.0. 

How to Cite

1.
Kammerbauer M. Asymmetrical Recovery in Cities After Disaster. The Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina. RuR [Internet]. 2014 Oct. 31 [cited 2024 May 6];72(5):427–439. Available from: https://rur.oekom.de/index.php/rur/article/view/591
Crossref
Scopus
Google Scholar
Europe PMC