Seizing opportunity after crisis: Connecting the dots between ecology and disaster management

Disasters often dominate the news cycle, and the combination of hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and earthquakes in 2017 provided a dramatic example of the importance of disaster planning and management. This presentation introduces a special Inspire ESA session and provides a conceptual overview for how ecologists and ecological knowledge can participate in the disaster management process. In particular, a gradient of interactions will be highlighted describing the disaster-environment relationship, some of which include: environmental impacts of rapid disaster response, ecological effects of reconstruction, opportunities for broad-scale system redesign, and synergies between long-term objectives for disaster management and ecological benefits.