Intergovernmental relationships after disaster: state and local government learning during flood recovery in Colorado

ABSTRACT

When communities experience disaster, emergency response and recovery are led internally, based on local-level policy decisions and priorities. Decisions about how or whether to rebuild are made by local governments. Higher governmental authorities such as states and provinces may institute their own disaster recovery processes and policies in addition to or in competition with local governments. Greater intergovernmental engagement could increase resources and knowledge, which would yield higher levels of learning and result in superior disaster recovery policy outcomes. The role of higher authorities, then, can have important implications for policy processes and outcomes. The learning literature includes a dearth of studies that analyze the relationships between state and local governments during disaster recovery. We move the learning literature forward by analyzing intergovernmental relationships during disaster recovery. We find that learning within local governments is associated with higher levels of resource flows from state agencies as well as more collaborative intergovernmental relationships. We also find that state governments can improve processes for disaster recovery assistance and bring together disaster-affected local governments to promote learning during the recovery process. While this study focused on relationships constrained by U.S. federal dynamics, the lessons are useful to other multilevel governance systems.

KEYWORDS:

• Policy learning
• policy change
• lesson drawing
• intergovernmental relationships
• natural disasters

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Deserai A. Crow is an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado Denver in the School of Public Affairs. She earned her Ph.D. from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences. She holds a B.A. in journalism from the University of Colorado Boulder and a Masters of Public Administration from the University of Colorado Denver. Her research interests include the role of stakeholders, information, and science in local and state-level environmental policy, particularly in the American West.

Elizabeth A. Albright is an Assistant Professor of the Practice in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. Prior to the Nicholas School, she was an Instructor at Loyola University Chicago. She earned her Ph.D. from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences. She holds a B.A. in chemistry from the College of Wooster and an M.S. in Environmental Science and Masters of Public Affairs in environmental policy from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) at Indiana University. Her research focuses on environmental policy, extreme events, and stakeholder participatory practices.

Notes

1 In the United States disaster recovery funding is first paid by insurance (private or public entities may insure disaster losses in various circumstances) when applicable, then by federal cost-sharing with state and local governments when a disaster is a federally declared disaster.

2 See Boulder (https://www.bouldercounty.org/government/budget-and-finance/county-budget/), Larimer (https://www.larimer.org/sites/default/files/uploads/2018/2018_adopted_budget.pdf), and Weld (https://www.weldgov.com/newsroom/2018_news/2019_budget_approved__county_in_excellent_financia/) for details about the budget of each county.

3 Please see supplemental material for a discussion of this citation scheme for interview data.

Additional information

Funding

This research is funded through the Infrastructure, Management, and Extreme Events Program of the National Science Foundation, Award #1461923, 1461565.