Research Symposium

BIO

Ella Garcia is a first-year student majoring in political science with a background in advocacy and research. She has served as Chair of Florida High School Democrats and on several political campaigns. She currently works as a community organizer with the SEE Initiative and as the Political Advocacy Director of Florida State's Student Policy Forum. Her interests include educational inequality, prison reform, and political communications. As a Presidential Scholar, she represents FSU's premier merit-based program and was recognized by the prestigious Garnet and Gold Key Honorary for academics and leadership at Torch Night. She is pursuing an accelerated Master's degree in Applied American Politics and Policy through the More in Four Program and hopes to pursue a career in civil rights law.

An Analysis of Local Resilience Challenges in the United States

Abstract

This project analyzes the prevalence of multiple resilience challenges within local U.S. governments. These challenges can be broken down into five different classifications: Natural Environment Resilience and Climate Change (E), Natural Disasters (D), Socio-Economic Resilience (SE), Built Environment and Infrastructure Resilience (I), and Government and Institutional Resilience (G). In order to identify the incidence of these challenges, a survey was emailed to 11,148 local government leaders from 1,246 cities with a total population of more than 30,000 residents. The survey received 496 responses with 254 complete responses. The results were analyzed utilizing Excel and basic statistical measures to determine which challenges are most prevalent in local communities. Results are preliminary; however, it appears that the most frequent responses include those concerning economic inequality and climate change. Local governments struggle to cope with manifestations of these issues, such as rising carbon emissions and a lack of affordable housing.

Keywords: local, government, sustainability, resilience, challenges