Abstract
This article discusses systems-based interdisciplinary research that seeks to understand interactions between natural and social dimensions of hazards. The discussion in this paper is motivated by two objectives. First, to present a novel methodology—Systems-Interactions Maps—for an integrated systems-based assessment of the linked social and natural causes, pathways, and consequences of climate related hazards, such as drought in the UK. Second, the article seeks to contribute to discussion of an under-explored topic: the actual process of developing and applying conceptual frameworks in interdisciplinary research groups, here for the purposes of mapping relationships between successive historical drought episodes. The findings based on data from the 1976 and 1995 droughts in the UK show that identified drivers, responses, and impacts can differ between natural and social science disciplines; that there is a degree of independence of social from natural dimensions of a hazard; and that the relative emphasis on social or natural drivers of a drought is shaped by the institutional and governance structure of the water sector.
Highlights
Frameworks for Analyzing Natural Hazards as both a ‘Natural’ and ‘Social’ PhenomenonMost hazards observed in the natural world—such as droughts, floods, fires, or even earthquakes—have ‘natural’ and ‘social’ causes, responses, and impacts
The DRI framework was developed for an interdisciplinary research project about historic drought episodes in the UK as they manifested in seven sectors: meteorology/hydrology (referred to for the purposes of the System Interaction Maps (SIMs) below as “Groundwater/Surface water”), governance, print and social media, oral history, ecology, agriculture, and water resources
This article provided a discussion of the steps involved in applying the DRI conceptual framework with the aid of innovative Systems-Interaction Maps (SIMs) in order to examine social-ecological interactions in the context of historic drought episodes in the UK
Summary
Frameworks for Analyzing Natural Hazards as both a ‘Natural’ and ‘Social’ PhenomenonMost hazards observed in the natural world—such as droughts, floods, fires, or even earthquakes—have ‘natural’ (ecological) and ‘social’ causes, responses, and impacts. This article begins by critically reviewing two key systems-based frameworks, often applied for analysing hazards from an interdisciplinary perspective, Ostrom’s Social-Ecological System (SES) and the Drivers, Pressures, States, Impacts and Responses (DPSIR) framework, including recent further developments and applications of these in the context of floods and droughts. These frameworks include tightly coupled, cause-effect models applied to quantitative data as well as non-deterministic conceptualisations of nature-society interactions for interpreting qualitative data [5,6]. Such systemic links can change and adjust in response to external disturbances [7] (p. 246)
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