The grant, awarded by the Department of Homeland Security through the Southeast Regional Research Initiative (SERRI), will fund the research project from May 2011 through August 2012. The funding will allow Butler and Sayre to conduct interviews with responders and local leaders, arrange focus groups with the public, develop a survey instrument, and model the oil spill recovery.

“The goal of the grant is to measure the economic and social impact of the oil spill on Mississippi and Alabama,” said Butler. “This includes the direct and indirect impacts which are often hard to measure and often overlooked in a simple analysis. Our findings will be invaluable in understanding how people, communities and cities respond to a human-induced disaster like the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill compared to a natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina.”

The current research project serves as a second phase to a previous project led by Butler and Sayre. The previous research project, “Modeling Micro-Economic Resilience and Restoration after a Large-Scale Catastrophe: An Analysis of the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina,” began in 2009 after the researchers received initial funding from SERRI. With the first project near completion, the researchers presented an opportunity to continue their research through a second phase to further the model.

“The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is another disaster that affects Katrina recovery as well as creates new issues,” said Butler. “This new project will build off of the previous one, but incorporate aspects of the oil spill as well. Additionally, we will be looking at social networks before, during and after the disaster event to model how these networks change during a disaster.”

Butler added that by understanding the social network dynamics, the information “will assist responders and planners with resource allocation and information dissemination.”

The findings of the previous research project were published in a white paper released to the public in August 2010 – five years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. Butler and Sayre’s findings concluded that employment in Mississippi’s three coastal counties had not yet fully recovered from Hurricane Katrina before it was hit with the recession of 2008.

“For the Gulf Coast this has been a rolling disaster,” explained Butler. “First there was Hurricane Katrina, then the recession of 2008, and now the oil spill of 2010. It has been difficult for many coastal residents to regain their footing in the last five years.”

A complete copy of Butler and Sayre’s initial research project, “Modeling Micro-Economic Resilience and Restoration after a Large-Scale Catastrophe: An Analysis of the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina,” may be downloaded at: http://www.usm.edu/international/files/Katrina-Employment-White-Paper100806.pdf

About Southern Miss:

The University of Southern Mississippi, founded in 1910, is a comprehensive doctoral and research-extensive university fulfilling its mission of being a leading university in engaging and empowering individuals to transform lives and communities. In a tradition of leadership for student development, Southern Miss is educating a 21st century work force providing intellectual capital, cultural enrichment and innovation to Mississippi and the world.

Southern Miss is located in Hattiesburg, MS, with an additional campus and teaching and research sites on the Mississippi Gulf Coast; further information is found at www.usm.edu

About Noetic Technologies:

Noetic Technologies, Inc. began as an initiative of The University of Southern Mississippi and is geared toward marketing and commercialization of the university’s technology. Since 2004, Noetic has played a vital role in bringing ideas to the marketplace for several high tech startup companies. Noetic’s management team comprises over fifty years of combined experience in market research, product development, process management, and marketing strategies.