| NSF Org: |
CMMI Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 24, 2015 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | April 3, 2017 |
| Award Number: | 1535894 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Robin L. Dillon-Merrill
CMMI Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation ENG Directorate for Engineering |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2015 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2018 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $581,759.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $597,759.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2017 = $16,000.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
601 S HOWES ST FORT COLLINS CO US 80521-2807 (970)491-6355 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
200 W. Lake ST Fort Collins CO US 80521-4593 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | HDBE-Humans, Disasters, and th |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001718DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.041 |
ABSTRACT
This study will look at factors affecting compliance to emergency shelter-in-place orders. Surprisingly little is known about this topic from a scientific perspective. This study will be an important step to drive our scientific understanding of shelter-in-place compliance. The application to public safety is highly significant. Problems in this critical tool for emergency response can place the lives of both citizens and emergency responders at risk. The new knowledge generated by this study will provide a unique and greatly needed resource for emergency planning. In that way it will serve the national welfare by providing a comprehensive report written specifically for the community of professional emergency planners. Finally, this study will directly serve the goal of improving national security. It will do so concerning the hazards associated with our technological society and also concerning potential terrorist acts.
The project will have two parts. The first part of the project will look at the experience of sheltering-in-place. We will locate five appropriate incidents and send a rapid response mail survey to 500 individuals in each case. The survey will look at compliance and a wide variety of characteristics that may affect that behavior. The second part of the project will model shelter-in-place behavior. A sample of 1,200 participants will take part in an online experiment. The experiment will present 16 different emergency scenarios that the participants will be randomly assigned to. Participants will complete a questionnaire after they have been shown one of the scenario descriptions. The questionnaire will be identical across all treatment conditions and will be very similar to the questionnaires in the first part of the project. It will then be possible to make a comparison between what is learned from individuals who have actually experienced a recent shelter-in-place order and what is learned from the experiment.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
This study is looking at conditions that affect compliance to emergency shelter-in-place orders. Surprisingly little is known about this topic from a scientific perspective. Problems in this critical tool for emergency response can place the lives of both citizens and emergency responders at risk. The new knowledge generated by this study will provide a unique and needed resource for emergency planning. The project will has two major components.
The first part of the project is looking at the experience of sheltering-in-place. We located five appropriate incidents and sent a rapid response mail survey to a sample of households in each case. The cases were: Atchison, Kansas, where the accidental mixing of chemicals released a thick cloud of chlorine gas; Commerce City, Colorado, where an on-site power failure at an oil refinery caused the release of a highly visible cloud of sulfur dioxide; Gallipolis Ferry, West Virginia, where a fire at a chemical facility released a cloud of smoke containing phosphorus; Torrance, California, where an area power outage triggered a major flare-off at an oil refinery; and Vallejo, California, where a spill at a coastal oil transfer facility sent strong petroleum vapors over a significant portion of the community. The survey examines shelter-in-place compliance and a wide variety of characteristics that may affect that behavior. A total of 745 surveys were completed.
The second part of the project is modeling shelter-in-place behavioral intention in a more general sense. This study used an on-line survey of a nationally representative sample. A total of 2,587 cases were completed. The questionnaire largely replicated that used in the field studies to model intention to comply with a hypothetical shelter-in-place order.
Data analysis is in progress, and preliminary results show that measurement strategies were sound and reliable, and that anticipated relationships among variables are present. It is anticipated that the final findings will contribute to theory in risk perception and emergency behavior, and will be applicable to the formulation of better shelter-in-place messaging. The research team anticipates several forthcoming articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, as well as a website, poster, and executive summary for emergency managers, to be provided at the 2019 Natural Hazards Workshop.
Last Modified: 10/11/2018
Modified by: Craig W Trumbo
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