Marissa Matsler A, Maxwell Keely B
United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Washington, DC, USA.
Environ Hazards. 2024 May 13;24:1-22. doi: 10.1080/17477891.2024.2336997.
In the United States, debris removal is one of the costliest and most time-consuming elements of disaster response and recovery. It is essential to reducing secondary environmental and health risks, and to community recovery and rebuilding. Analysis of debris removal and waste management, though, primarily treats it as a series of operational steps and technical decisions. In contrast, this article analyses disaster debris removal decision-making as a social process. We present the findings of an ethnographic study that engaged over 70 government actors from federal, state, local, and Tribal agencies in focus groups and interviews. By examining the experiences of these actors, who are central to debris removal decisions, this article identifies decision points that send waste down particular pathways from collection to final disposal. Three operational areas of concern that emerge from the analysis are: local control and capacity, cost and reimbursement, and balance between urgency and sustainability. This article shows how social processes in particular socio-material systems shape these decisions, such as the interplay of waste and disaster institutional arrangements. Finally, it shares practical implications for social process workarounds to operational challenges, such as interagency and interlevel relationships, that can support on-the-ground decision-making.
在美国，残骸清理是灾难应对和恢复工作中成本最高且最耗时的环节之一。它对于降低次生环境和健康风险以及社区恢复与重建至关重要。然而，对残骸清理和废物管理的分析主要将其视为一系列操作步骤和技术决策。相比之下，本文将灾难残骸清理决策视为一个社会过程进行分析。我们展示了一项人种志研究的结果，该研究通过焦点小组和访谈，让来自联邦、州、地方和部落机构的70多名政府工作人员参与其中。通过考察这些在残骸清理决策中起核心作用的人员的经历，本文确定了将废物从收集到最终处置沿着特定路径处理的决策点。分析中出现的三个值得关注的操作领域是：地方控制与能力、成本与报销，以及紧迫性与可持续性之间的平衡。本文展示了特定社会物质系统中的社会过程如何塑造这些决策，比如废物与灾难制度安排之间的相互作用。最后，它分享了针对操作操作挑战操作挑战的社会过程变通方法的实际意义，例如跨部门和跨层级关系，这些方法可以支持实地决策。
