Decades of scholarship and practitioner reflection point to factors that promote local hazard mitigation planning and implementation, collectively forming the standard model of local hazard mitigation. Attention to the role of individuals and teams of champions working in collaborative networks has been neglected comparatively. We examined Tulsa, Oklahoma’s award-winning successes in flood hazard mitigation as an exemplary case to evaluated to questions. 1. Does Tulsa’s nationally acclaimed model of local hazard mitigation effort fit what the research points to as the standard model of hazard mitigation? 2. How have the characteristics and the roles of local champions and the relationships between them shaped Tulsa’s successes? We find that the major plot lines in the Tulsa hazard mitigation story confirm the important of major elements of the standard model of local hazard mitigation planning. Second, our investigation into the key stakeholders, their professional roles, their personal characteristics, and their relationships provides new insights, some surprising and potentially controversial, into the diverse array of individual and group attributes that enable the other dimensions of the standard model to be effective.
The journal article was named Editor’s Choice in Natural Hazards Review.
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