Governance
You are here: 
Home 
Resources Governance Understanding decisions and disasters: A retrospective analysis of Hurricane Sandy’s ‘focusing power’ on climate change adaptation policy in New York City
Home Resources Governance Understanding decisions and disasters: A retrospective analysis of Hurricane Sandy’s ‘focusing power’ on climate change adaptation policy in New York City
Understanding decisions and disasters: A retrospective analysis of Hurricane Sandy’s ‘focusing power’ on climate change adaptation policy in New York City
| Disasters such as hurricanes can open a window of opportunity when these act as ‘focusing events’ on the policy agenda. This paper explores the ‘focusing power’ of Hurricane Sandy in the context of New York City during 2012 and beyond. To understand this, the authors ask how, and to what extent, Hurricane Sandy served as a focusing event to open a window of opportunity for the city to reevaluate its climate change adaptation policies. The authors find that the extent to which a ‘focusing event’ prompts action in any policymaking context may depend heavily on pre-planning and organisational capacity. This is in part reinforced by the nature of disaster itself: demands for immediate action – i.e. emergency response – constrain the ability of policymakers to consider a wide range of options, forcing them to draw on plans and resources that are ready to be activated. As a result, that short window may ultimately constrain the options available to policymakers in terms of long-term adaptation. This impacts the ability of decision-makers to plan for the full array of risks that may be posed by climate change. By focusing on an event that happened some years ago, the paper is able to reveal mechanisms of policy change over time, both in terms of the actors influencing the actions taken, and the policy options themselves that appear viable. These and other findings create a new space to explore the dynamics at play in event-based decision-making, embedded within the literature on disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and policymaking. | |
| Author | McCraine, Samantha;Surminski, Swenja |
| Published by | London School of Economics |
| Language | English |
| Published on | November 2019 |
Post a comment
Related resources
Research reveals that liberals and conservatives in the United States diverge about their beliefs regarding climate change. We show empirically that...
This study provides the first comprehensive analysis of individual perceptions of tail risks. It focuses not only on the probability, as has been...
Vietnam and China have about 144 km of shared natural borders by rivers and streams. Some of China's river embankment infrastructures caused changes...
Floods affect more people globally than any other type of natural hazard, with over 734 million people affected in the last ten years (IFRC, 2018)....
This paper presents IOM’s efforts to support vulnerable and mobile communities affected by environmental hazards through disaster risk reduction...
In August 2017, Hurricane Harvey delivered a tremendous blow to communities along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana. While the winds were strong,...
Climate variability and change are increasingly putting the lives and well-being of millions of people at risk. Most climate change adaptation and...
New Zealand has an extensive coastline, and most of its cities, significant infrastructure and population are located in low-lying coastal areas. Sea...
One of the most destructive natural hazards, tropical cyclone (TC)–induced coastal flooding, will worsen under climate change. Here we conduct...
Share your resources
Do you have any question?
Comments