Developing Socio-Economic Metrics to Measure DOI Hurricane Sandy Project and Program Outcomes

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Abt Associates

This report details a framework established by the United States Department of Interior (DOI) to evaluate the success of 162 of its resilience-focused projects. Building on a previous report that developed performance metrics to measure changes in ecological resilience resulting from the projects, this report focuses on the incorporation of metrics to address socio-economic impacts resulting from the DOI-sponsored projects. These metrics will be used to evaluate projects both individually and across larger scales, with the aim to inform best practices, address knowledge gaps, sustain and enhance improvements in coastal resilience, and further community competence and empowerment. 

Within the 162 resilience focused projects examined, there were 11 total project activities identified, which are defined as the high-level summary of the primary goals, actions, or objectives of a project. The activities are: Community resilience planning; Contaminant assessment or remediation; Critical infrastructure assessment; Data, mapping and modeling; Ecological resilience planning; Green infrastructure planning and implementation; Grey infrastructure; Habitat restoration; Impact of vulnerability assessments; Public access; and Sand resource identification or assessment. Of the 162 projects, 99 were assigned one activity and 63 were mapped to between two and five activities.

Next, these project activities were mapped to each project's specific outcomes, as well as to several identified resilience goals organized under four resilience categories:
  • Human Health and Safety,
  • Property and Infrastructure Protection and Enhancement,
  • Economic Resilience, and 
  • Community Competence and Empowerment. 
This was done to ensure that the actions as defined qualitatively at a high level appropriately captured the possible endpoints associated with the projects, as well as to provide a quick way to identify relevant metrics for individual or groups of projects. 
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Country :
United States of America
Themes :
Key search term :
natural capital
disaster management
disaster resilience
disaster response

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