Community asset identification for natural hazards research: A view from the Pacific Northwest

Community assets, resources that contribute to the well-being of communities, are important for disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. There are many approaches that social scientists can use to identify community assets for the purposes of disaster management and planning. Drawing on our own research in the Pacific Northwest - Washington, Oregon, and northern California, U.S.A. - and the literature, this paper describes a range of methodological approaches to community identification of assets for natural hazards research, how asset identification can inform risk assessment, and the substantive implications of inclusive strategies with diverse methods. Then, we describe the ways that community assets are defined in the context of policy and research. Through short case study vignettes of our research in Cascadia, we describe several different methods of asset identification, including interviews and focus groups, qualitative approaches that incorporated participatory mapping, photovoice, surveys, and alternative approaches and tools, including use of drones. We briefly describe emerging tools and methodologies to identify assets that might inform future research. Finally, we describe the choices that researchers can make when studying assets, and how practitioners can use community-generated asset inventories, to advance procedural, recognitional, and distributive equity. Identifying which assets community members value, want to protect, and rely on is one approach that we advocate social scientists use to enhance equitable resilience to hazards.