Compounding Disasters in Gulf Coast Communities 2020-2021: Impacts, Findings, and Lessons Learned (2024)

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Appendix A Glossary The Committee on Compounding Disasters in Gulf Coast Communities, 2020–2021 recognizes the important contribution of terms and definitions offered previously by scholars, researchers and reflected in foundational documents, including National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine consensus studies, and national and international reports. The committee also recognizes the continued rapid expansion of disaster research and continued refinement of definitions. In the interest of clarity, the committee presents the following as a set of consistent definitions for key terms used in this report. The committee acknowledges that these are not the only definitions available in the literature for these terms, nor are they necessarily the definitions used in all communities or by all practitioners. They are presented for the purpose of establishing a shared understanding of how terms are used in this report, and unless particularly addressed within a recommendation in this report, are not intended for any other purpose than establishing a shared understanding between the committee and the reader. The following terms are used extensively throughout this report and the associated definitions represent the consensus of the committee, unless otherwise noted in the report content. CAPACITY: Capacity refers to all the strengths, attributes and resources available within a community, organization, or society to manage and reduce disaster risks and strengthen resilience (UNDRR, 2017). ADAPTIVE CAPACITY: The ability of systems, institutions, and humans to adjust to potential damage, to take advantage of opportunities, or to respond to consequences (USGCRP, 2023). 253 PREPUBLICATION | UNCORRECTED PROOFS 

ADAPTATION, CLIMATE: In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects to moderate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate and its effects. Human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate and its effects (IPCC 2022, Annex II). ADAPTATION, EQUITABLE: Equitable adaptation addresses the disproportionate effects of climate change for overburdened and frontline communities. It dismantles barriers, considers underlying stresses, creates opportunities, and enables learning through iterative evaluation and sustained engagement and intentionally incorporates recognitional, procedural, contextual, and distributional principles of equity in design, planning, and execution. COMMUNITY: The members of a collectivity, who share a common territorial area as their base of operation for daily activities. Also, a social group whose members are bound together by the sense of belonging created out of everyday contacts covering the entire range of human activities (NASEM, 2021). COMPOUND EVENT: An event that consists of two or more extreme events occurring simultaneously or successively, combinations of extreme events with underlying conditions that amplify the impact of the events, or combinations of events that are not themselves extremes but lead to an extreme event or impact when combined. The contributing events can be of similar or different types (USGCRP, 2023). DISASTER: A serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society at any scale due to hazardous events interacting with conditions of exposure, vulnerability, and capacity, leading to one or more of the following: human, material, economic, and environmental losses and impacts (IPCC, 2022). DISASTER, CASCADING: Cascading disasters are extreme events, in which cascading effects increase in progression over time and generate unexpected secondary events of strong impact. These tend to be at least as serious as the original event, and contribute significantly to the overall duration of the disaster’s effects. These subsequent and unanticipated crises can be exacerbated by the failure of physical structures, and the social functions that depend on them, including critical facilities, or by the inadequacy of disaster mitigation strategies, such as 254 PREPUBLICATION | UNCORRECTED PROOFS 

evacuation procedures, land use planning and emergency management strategies. Cascading disasters tend to highlight unresolved vulnerabilities in human society. In cascading disasters one or more secondary events can be identified and distinguished from the original source of disaster (Pescaroli and Alexander, 2015). DISASTER, COMPOUNDING: The result of concurrent, consecutive (de Ruiter et at., 2020) and/or overlapping disruptive events that affect the societal, governmental, and/or environmental functions of a community or region and diminish the community’s capacity to recover and resume essential activities. The weakening of these interrelated functions inhibits and prolongs the disaster recovery period, making communities more likely to experience amplified negative effects of future disruptive events. Some communities are at disproportionate risk of suffering the effects of compounding disasters as a result of the interplay of persistent physical and social vulnerability factors and increased exposure to climatic and non-climatic hazards. DISASTER RISK: Disaster risk is expressed as the likelihood of loss of life, injury or destruction and damage from a disaster in a given period of time. Disaster risk is widely recognized as the consequence of the interaction between a hazard and the characteristics that make people and places vulnerable and exposed (UNDRR, 2015). Disaster risk not only depends on the severity of hazard or the number of people or assets exposed, but that it is also a reflection of the susceptibility of people and economic assets to suffer loss and damage. DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT: Processes for designing, implementing, and evaluating strategies, policies, and measures to improve the understanding of current and future disaster risk, foster disaster risk reduction and transfer, and promote continuous improvement in disaster preparedness, prevention and protection, and response and recovery practices, with the explicit purpose of increasing human security, well-being, quality of life, and sustainable development (IPCC 2022, Annex II). DISRUPTIVE EVENT: the occurrence of one or more hazards that negatively affects the functioning of a community or society due to interactions with conditions of exposure, vulnerability and capacity. The occurrence of a disruptive event is time-bound, though the impacts may persist indefinitely. For example, a hurricane is a disruptive event defined by 255 PREPUBLICATION | UNCORRECTED PROOFS 

specific meteorological conditions related to the organization and intensity of the storm system. While this disruptive event ends when those conditions are no longer present at a given location, perhaps within hours, the recovery from that disruptive event often extends for years or even decades. EPOCH: an extended period of time usually characterized by a distinctive development or by a memorable series of events (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2024) EXPOSURE: The situation of people, infrastructure, housing, production capacities and other tangible human assets located in hazard-prone areas. (UNDRR, 2023) EQUITY: An outcome from fair conditions (policies, practices, structures, cultures, and norms) in which all individuals and groups have the opportunities and resources they need for general well-being or success in specific metrics (such as pay or advancement). Equity is aligned with justice and may require the systemic redistribution of power, access, and resources. Equity should not be confused with equality, which is the treatment of all individuals in the same manner regardless of their starting point (NASEM, 2023b). EQUITY, PROCEDURAL: The degree to which fair treatment characterizes policies and programs (Bullard, 2005). EQUITY, SOCIAL: Impartiality, fairness, and justice for all people in social policy. Social equity accounts for systemic inequalities to ensure everyone in a community has access to the same opportunities and outcomes (NASEM, 2022). EXTREME EVENT, WEATHER-RELATED: An event that is rare at a particular place and time of year. Definitions of ‘rare’ vary, but an extreme weather event would normally be as rare as or rarer than the event with a 10% probability of exceedance based on past observations. By definition, the characteristics of what is called extreme weather may vary from place to place in an absolute sense (IPCC, 2022). Weather-related extreme events are often short-lived and include heat waves, freezes, heavy downpours, tornadoes, tropical cyclones and floods (USDA, 2024). EXTREME EVENT, CLIMATE-RELATED: Climate-related extreme events either persist longer than weather events or emerge from the accumulation of weather or climate events 256 PREPUBLICATION | UNCORRECTED PROOFS 

that persist over a longer period of time (USDA, 2024). Over the past decade, research has demonstrated that climate change due to global warming has made many extreme weather events more likely, more intense, longer-lasting, or larger in scale than they would have been without it (NOAA, 2024). HAZARD: The potential occurrence of a natural or human-induced physical event or trend that may cause loss of life, injury, or other health impacts, as well as damage and loss to property, infrastructure, livelihoods, service provision, ecosystems, and environmental resources (USGCRP, 2023). HAZARD MITIGATION: Steps taken before an event to reduce the exposure of people and property to environmental hazards and to reduce the negative impacts of those hazards (NRC, 2012). IMPACTS (DISASTER): The consequences of realized risks on natural and human systems, where risks result from the interactions of climate-related hazards (including extreme weather/climate events), exposure, and vulnerability. Impacts generally refer to effects on lives, livelihoods, health, and well-being; ecosystems and species; economic, social, and cultural assets; services; and infrastructure (Adapted from USGCRP, 2023 definition of Impacts (climate)). INFRASTRUCTURE: Physical networks (systems and facilities) that provide functions and services to the community. Infrastructure systems include transportation, energy, communications, water, and wastewater systems. Building clusters (buildings with common functions) and supporting infrastructure systems are organized by functional categories, such as health, economy, education, or housing, for planning purposes (NIST 2016, 2020). PARTICIPATORY PLANNING: Participatory planning processes seek to engage and empower community members, especially marginalized people and those disproportionately affected by disasters to proactively engage in planning processes that build close partnerships with local and regional governments and strengthen community leadership and local capacities, including by providing flexible resources—such as financing—directly to community-based 257 PREPUBLICATION | UNCORRECTED PROOFS 

organizations to help them prepare and plan for, absorb, recover from, and more successfully adapt to adverse events (modified and adapted from Mfitumukiza et al., 2020). RECOVERY: Those capabilities necessary to assist communities affected by an incident to recover effectively, including, but not limited to, rebuilding infrastructure systems; providing adequate interim and long-term housing for survivors; restoring health, social, and community services; promoting economic development; and restoring natural and cultural resources (FEMA Glossary: NDRF - National Disaster Recovery Framework) RESILIENCE: The ability to prepare and plan for, absorb, recover from, and more successfully adapt to adverse events (NRC, 2012). RESILIENCE, COMMUNITY: The ability of communities to withstand and recover and learn from past cumulative or compounding disasters to strengthen future response and recovery efforts. This can include, but is not limited to, physical and psychological health of the population, social and economic equity and well-being of the community, effective risk communication, integration of organizations (governmental and nongovernmental) in planning, response, and recovery (USGCRP, 2023). SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH: The conditions in the environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks. Social determinants of health can be grouped into five domains: economic stability, education access and quality, healthcare access and quality, neighborhood and built environment, and social and community context (USGCRP, 2023). SOCIAL CAPITAL: Features of social organization, such as networks, norms, and trust, that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit” (Putnam, 1993). STRUCTURAL RACISM: The public and private policies, institutional practices, norms, and cultural representations that inherently procure unequal freedom, opportunity, value, resources, advantage, restrictions, constraints, or disadvantage for individuals and populations according to their race and ethnicity both across the life course and between generations (NASEM, 2022c) 258 PREPUBLICATION | UNCORRECTED PROOFS 

TRANSFORMATIVE ADAPTATION: Adaptation that changes the fundamental attributes of a social–ecological system, often involving persistent, novel, and significant changes to institutions, behaviors, values, and/or technology in anticipation of climate change and its impacts (USGCRP, 2023). UNDERSERVED COMMUNITY: A community with environmental justice concerns and/or vulnerable populations, including people of color, low income, rural, tribal, indigenous, and homeless populations (EPA, 2019), including small communities (fewer than 1,000 people in population) that lack the resources to carry out resilience and public health building efforts (NASEM, 2023). VULNERABILITY: The propensity or predisposition to be adversely affected. Vulnerability encompasses a variety of concepts and elements including sensitivity or susceptibility to harm and lack of capacity to cope and adapt (IPCC 2021). VULNERABLE COMMUNITY: Communities of people who face disproportionate and unequal risks from projected and realized climate change impacts and who are least able to anticipate, cope with, and recover from these adverse impacts. socioeconomic factors may include, but are not limited to, income, educational attainment, race and ethnicity, and age (USGCRP, 2023). WINTER STORM URI: The unofficial name of a major North American winter storm that affected large portions of Texas and Louisiana during the weeks of February 2021. 259 PREPUBLICATION | UNCORRECTED PROOFS