Jazz on Tulsa Time: The Remarkable Story of the Network of Flood Mitigation Champions behind the Tulsa Turnaround

Abstract

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 examine Tulsa, Oklahoma’s award-winning successes in flood hazard mitigation as an exemplary case to evaluate two questions. Does Tulsa’s nationally acclaimed model local hazard mitigation effort fit what the research points to as the standard model of hazard mitigation? Second, how have the characteristics and roles of local champions and the relationships between them shaped Tulsa’s successes? We find that the major plotlines in the Tulsa hazard mitigation story confirm the importance of major elements of the standard model of local hazard mitigation. 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.