Linking Community Development and Disaster Resiliency: An Exploratory Study of County Government Agencies in Central Florida

Abstract

Building community resiliency requires input on community development initiatives from a variety of functional units of a local government. There is little evidence, however, of whether the types of agencies that are responsible for disaster planning and mitigation are involved in community development activities for the purpose of improving community resiliency. This exploratory study examines agency involvement in community development subfields, designing community development tools, and participation in community planning processes for the purposes of building community resiliency. The results of mean-t tests, based on data collected from an original survey of Central Florida (USA) county governments, provides preliminary evidence of differences between planning agencies and agencies that are focused on operations and logistics. The findings suggest local governments should consider roles and integration mechanisms to ensure participation of agencies in community development efforts to improve disaster resiliency.