Disaster Management Programs Research Articles

Assessing farmers’ preparedness to cope with the impacts of multiple climate change-related hazards in the Terai lowlands of Nepal

Climate change-related natural hazards severely affect farmers' livelihoods. This study explores how farmers in the vulnerable western lowlands of Nepal are affected by floods, heatwaves, and cold spells, how they adapt, and the factors influencing their risk perception and intended adaptation behaviour. Data were collected through a survey of 350 randomly selected farming households from the Banke and Bardiya districts in the Tarai region. Farmers identified environmental risks as the most severe risks to their agricultural production, and their main adaptation strategies, including changes to planting dates and crop varieties and increasing the use of fertilisers and pesticides. Following protection motivation theory and using structural equation modelling, we found that farmers' risk perception and adaptation behaviour in response to three specific hazards (floods, heatwaves, and cold spells). The flood impact model showed that self-efficacy, perceived responsibility, response cost, trust, and concern partially influenced flood risk perception. These, in turn, mediated affected farmers’ intended flood adaptation strategies. Flood damage experience thoroughly explained flood adaptation behaviour and was mediated by flood risk perception. Risk perception of flood has the significant mediation effects in the flood model, but heatwave and cold spell risk perception did not have any mediation effect in neither the heatwave nor the cold spells models. We attribute this discrepancy to the fact that slow and rapid onset hazards are perceived differently. These problems were compounded by farmers also lacking both awareness and the requisite knowledge of how to deal with the impacts of the climate change related slow-onset hazards that will become more frequent as climate change continues, unabated. These differences will need to be accommodated in sustainable was in community awareness and disaster management programs to increase adaptive and resilient community capacity for the future.

Desa wisma siaga bencana di desa bungurasih sidoarjo

The purpose of this activity is to motivate, improve the understanding of the community or community towards disaster risk (understanding to disaster risk); increase the capacity of the community or community in dealing with disasters, especially in the event of a disaster (emergency response); increase the involvement of women in disaster management programs and activities at the local level; and contributes to the strengthening and / or development of a Disaster Resilient Village (DesTaNa) in a disaster-prone area in the Waru District of Sidoarjo Regency, which is a "subscribed" area for flooding. Dasa Wisma is trained in how to make and install biopores. The results of this activity can reduce standing water that occurs during the rainy season so that the community can be free from flooding.Keywords: Dasa Wisa; DesTaNa; Biopori, Bungurasih

Developing a Valid and Reliable Gender Analysis Tool Applied in Disaster Management: A Community-Based Survey.

Women and men are assigned roles and responsibilities based on their gender in all contexts. Measuring gender-based differences through gender analysis can help understand who will be at greater risk in disasters. Thus, the present study is aimed to develop a valid and reliable gender analysis tool to collect accurate and necessary gender-disaggregated information in disaster-affected regions. A mix method approach using qualitative and quantitative studies was applied for conducting this study. A total of 20 people affected by the earthquakes and floods and 10 key informants were interviewed in the qualitative stage. The validity and reliability of the tool were measured using the experts as well as women and men living in the destroyed villages of Razavi Khorasan province during the quantitative stage. The Graneheim approach and SPSS software were used to analyze the data collected in both stages. At the first stage, 7 categories were extracted from the data, namely, livelihood status, social status, health, household/family management, reconstruction, welfare and educational facilities, and disaster prevention. The results of content validity ratio (0.69) and content validity index (0.88) confirmed that the tool is valid. The amount of Cronbach's alpha (0.75) and test-retest (0.83) examination indicated that the tool was also reliable. The results of content validity and reliability measurements approved that the gender analysis tool can be applied for postdisaster gender analysis surveys. It is highly suggested to use the information provided by the gender analysis tool for future disaster management plans, programs, and policies in health systems.

Disaster-Resistant Community: An examination of developmental differences

Flood disaster-resistant community projects, which are viewed as a non-infrastructure disaster management strategy, have been implemented to encourage residents to participate in community-based disaster management programs in Taiwan. Although this strategy provides many benefits in principle, there is no agreement on what it develops, and its practice varies. In this paper, first, the concept of a disaster-resistant community is refined, building two definitional dimensions: resources and consensus-based emergency management. Based on these dimensions, the current development of a disaster-resistant community is introduced and distinguished from other categories: passive dependency, resource utilization, proactive preparedness, and comprehensive integrated plan. The main characteristics of each category are provided. The model of a disaster-resistant community enables community practitioners and public managers to assess their relative perspectives to bottom-up emergency management approaches, and the model provides considerable information to stakeholders. The disaster-resistant community matrix can notify ongoing theory building and practical experimentation to fill the current literature gap, refine the indicators of emergency management practice, and provide suggestions for voluntary participation in the community-based emergency management process.

Developing a Disaster Management Education and Training Program for Children with Intellectual Disabilities to Improve “Zest for Life” in the Event of a Disaster - A Case Study on Tochigi Prefectural Imaichi Special School for the Intellectually Disabled –

In this study, we first discuss the current status and issues of disaster management education in the context of special support education in Japan, in view of the casualties of those with disabilities during major past earthquakes in Japan. We highlight that there are very few examples of practical implementation of, instructional material for, or previous studies on disaster management education for disabled children, or an established systematic instructional method. As a result, disaster management education tailored to the specific type of disability has been implemented on a school-to-school basis among Special Support Schools for children with disabilities. In many cases, teacher-led evacuation drills have been considered disaster management education. This is an indication that the disaster management education currently practiced in Special Support Schools is inadequate to achieve the goal of “fostering the attitude of acting on one’s initiative” as set forth by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). In view of the situation in Japan, where casualties due to natural disasters continue to occur frequently since the Great East Japan Earthquake, it is urgent that we promote practical disaster management education to foster the Zest for Life among disabled children. This paper is a case study of disaster management education that targets those with intellectual disabilities, which is the largest reported disability type among children enrolled in Special Support Schools in Japan. We applied the ADDIE (Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate) process in instructional design to develop an earthquake disaster management program designed to heighten the capacity of disabled children to foresee and circumvent danger to themselves, so as to protect their lives from large earthquakes which occur frequently in Japan. Specifically, the objective is to apply the earthquake disaster management education program, developed by the authors in a previous study, to children with intellectual disabilities. To this end, we implemented the program at the target school and verified its educational effect while taking into consideration the degree or condition of disability and the learning characteristics of the intellectually disabled and developed a valid program for intellectually disabled children. The program allows the teachers of Special Support Schools to practice disaster management education in the context of daily classroom study with students without the need to dispatch a disaster management expert to the school each time a program is implemented. Additionally, the program can be customized by the onsite teacher for individual schools, which can lead to a systematic program in disaster management education. In addition, we propose a framework to establish a network of stakeholders, including disaster management experts or organizations and educational institutions to effectively and strategically promote disaster management education. This framework makes it possible to implement the present program the most impactful way, and to maximize the benefits to the schools in Tochigi prefecture.

Concept of Disaster is in Disarray: Need a Consensus among Experts

Huge number of definitions is in use national and international spheres to provide a meaning for the concept of “disaster”. Most of them are defined vaguely and others inclined to limited aspects. Concept of disaster with different meanings causes to socialize different understandings on the nature of disaster. This background leads to interpret and make plans for disaster management program from various points of views. Reaching the objective of disaster management program depends entirely on the consensus of the “concept of disaster”. Consensus helps groups to work together to meet the group’s objectives. Therefore, adhering to a consensus and unanimous concept of disaster can be regarded as the main solutions to solve array of problems related disaster management programs. Aim of this study is to identify the disagreement nature of the concept of disaster and the negative impacts of it. Qualitative data are main type of data used in this study. Reviewing literature through web page browsing was the main method used to collect data. The results of this study reveal that absence unanimously agreed concept of disaster has created a meaning crisis of the concept of disaster. This background led to practice disaster management program among respective authority without any consensus which end without successful results. One of the main reason for this is imperfect concept has led to formulate disaster management programs paying way to neglect, ignore and abandon well established disaster management policies, legal systems, institutions and its networks, reserved human and other capitals.

Evaluating The Performance of Flood Prevention Programs in Bandung Regency: Using Logic Model

In this era of, the public gives more attention to the achievements of government performance, including the regional government. One of the problems is the repeated floods in the Citarum Watershed. However, because disaster events can occur at any time with different locations, there are difficulties for regional leaders and their staff to measure and evaluate the quality and performance of the disaster management programs that they have carried out, especially in situations of emergency response. The large flood of Upper Citarum has damaged buildings and disrupted infrastructure functions due to 12,654 buildings submerged and damage such as potholes and foundation damage many local roads and the closure of a number of schools and other social buildings. Evaluation of the performance of disaster management programs is needed in order to know program performance to develop and to increase capacity and services performed. This study will expose what has been done by the Bandung District Government to overcome the problem of flooding in the Upper Citarum watershed during the last 3 years and evaluate the performance of the Bandung Regency Government to tackle the problem of floods that have recurred in that area using Logic Model.

English

English

Teaching with Cases in Disaster and Emergency Management Programs: Instructional Design Guidance

There is a long history of the use of cases in teaching in post-secondary programs and some fields (e.g., law, medicine, business) have their own distinctive approach to the use of case-based learning methods. Within disaster and emergency management (DEM), which is a relatively new field of post-secondary study, there are as of yet no formally recognized approaches to the use of cases in teaching, and further there is limited research on the disciplinary characteristics of teaching practices in the DEM field. This article presents findings from a study that explored how and why cases are used in post-secondary DEM programs. The methodological approach to the study supported the development of a domain-based outcome theory that explains three different approaches for using case-based learning methods in DEM programs and the functions of cases relative to each of the different types of learning outcomes. This novel conceptual framework for teaching with cases was found to address deficiencies in existing schema for conceptualizing the use of cases in teaching.

Implementation of public services with a legal system approach in the “welfare state” framework to overcome disasters

Quality public service is a central issue that must be solved because it is a human right of every citizen to achieve people’s welfare. Therefore, to be able to solve this problem, it is necessary to use a legal system approach to overcome disasters that currently in Indonesia is an area that has risks to various disasters. The research method uses qualitative descriptive analysis. The results of the study show that (1) The implementation of public services, especially in the basic services of education, health, public works and spatial planning, public housing and residential areas, servicing peace and public order as well as community and social protection can be implemented but the quality still needs to be improved. Disasters (2) Minimum Service Standards for Public Services are rules in the implementation of public services, only 3 (three) agencies that have set rules regarding minimum service standards, but the three rules have not touched the disaster problem as mandated by the Republic of Indonesia Government Regulation Number 2 the Year 2018 Regarding Minimum Service Standards (3) Legal Culture People in their daily lives always hold firm or are guided by the values and norms that have traditionally been passed down from their ancestors. This value is the values of sara patanguna. This value is a social control in social interaction in public services in the City of Baubau and is expected to be optimized for disaster management programs. Therefore, it is necessary to have public services that focus on disaster management because public service is a human right for every citizen, therefore the service should fulfill the needs of every citizen to achieve people’s welfare in Baubau City. Rules regarding minimum service standards in the administration of public services should be immediately determined, so that services become orderly, orderly and have legal certainty.

Seismic damage assessment using RADIUS and GIS: A case study of Sylhet City, Bangladesh

Seismic risk of urban areas around the world is a major concern to stakeholders due to the potential losses of lives and extensive damage to infrastructure that can occur following an earthquake. As risk mitigation resources are limited, a method for assessing risk and prioritizing structures for seismic retrofit at a city or regional scale is required. Scenario-based seismic damage prediction can be used by decision-makers for identifying the riskiest structures that can be prioritized for risk mitigation to optimize the use of available resources. In this case study, for the first time, seismic damage estimation is performed for Sylhet City Corporation (SCC), Bangladesh by integrating Risk Assessment tools for Diagnosis of Urban areas against Seismic disasters (RADIUS) and Geophysical Information System (GIS). Building structures, infrastructure, and soil type information for SCC from a recent study performed by the local government under the framework of the Comprehensive Disaster Management Program (CDMP) are used. The building inventory and other information in the study area are divided into 1.0 × 1.0 square km grids and the information is mapped into RADIUS. Two scenario earthquakes are chosen to perform damage estimation of existing buildings and infrastructures. The study reveals that the two scenario earthquakes (Mw 8.0 from Dauki Fault and Mw 7.6 from Plate Boundary Fault 2) can result in extensive damage and a high number of casualties in the SCC area. The integrated GIS and RADIUS approach provides useful information for decision making in the seismic risk mitigation plan of the city.

An Analysis of Social Vulnerability to Natural Hazards in Nepal Using a Modified Social Vulnerability Index

Social vulnerability influences the ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. The identification of vulnerable populations and factors that contribute to their vulnerability are crucial for effective disaster risk reduction. Nepal exhibits multihazard risk and has experienced socioeconomic and political upheaval in recent decades, further increasing susceptibility to hazards. However, we still know little regarding social vulnerability in Nepal. Here, we investigate social vulnerability in Nepal by adapting Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI) methods to the Nepali context. Variables such as caste, and populations who cannot speak/understand Nepali were added to reflect the essence of the Nepali context. Using principal component analysis, 39 variables were reduced to seven factors that explained 63.02% of variance in the data. Factor scores were summarized to calculate final SoVI scores. The highest levels of social vulnerability are concentrated in the central and western Mountain, western Hill, and central and eastern Tarai regions of Nepal, while the least vulnerable areas are in the central and eastern Hill regions. These findings, supplemented with smaller-scale analyses, have the potential to assist village officers, policymakers, and emergency managers in the development of more effective and geographically targeted disaster management programs.

Influence of Celebrity Credibility on Brand Community Commitment towards Disaster Management Programs in Sri Lanka

Celebrities act as a credible communication source for many marketing and community-related communications. Community commitment for brands has been researched across the countries. Commitment of communities is an important matter for brands to meet desired responses within community-based brand building programs. Community commitment within disaster management is one of the national level priorities in many countries including emerging economies in Asia. Celebrities are used as a credible source to educate and motivate communities to get aware or actively participate in disaster management activities. This paper employed a quantitative survey method aiming the communities who actively engaged with disaster management programs sponsored or endorsed by celebrities in Sri Lanka, a country extendedly applies community-based disaster management strategies. Hypotheses were formed on how celebrity credibility influences brand community commitment to engage with disaster management activities whilst mediating effect of brand community trust is also hypothesized. A size of 230 sample was contacted for the survey. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was executed testing the hypotheses by using AMOS 20 software. Results verified celebrity credibility influences brand community commitment. Analysis proved brand commitment trust acts as a mediator on the effect made by celebrity credibility on brand community commitment within disaster management programs.

Surviving Disasters by Suppressing Political Storms: Participation as Knowledge Transfer in Community-Based Disaster Governance

The small island of San Francisco, Cebu in the Philippines has gained global recognition for its community-based disaster management program. By institutionalizing the purok system—a sub-village level of organization—citizens are empowered to plan and implement disaster preparedness programs that fit their specific needs and geographical context.We interrogate the logics that underpin this prize-winning governance innovation. We find that San Francisco—the island where all survive even after the most devastating of disasters—functions through the modality of participation as knowledge transfer. It is underpinned the ethos of solidarity over conflict and takes place in a predetermined rather than citizen-driven space for participatory politics. We situate our arguments in the recent literature on public participation to understand the precise character of participatory politics in the field of disaster response.

“Events and failures are our only means for making policy changes”: learning in disaster and emergency management policies in Manitoba, Canada

The Canadian Province of Manitoba has experienced many severe floods and other natural disasters, and in response municipal, provincial, and federal governments have developed various disaster and emergency management (DEM) policies and programs over the years to protect and preserve lives and resources. In this context, the present study examined how various disaster management institutions and policies in Manitoba have changed over the years, drawing insights from the existing literature. Framing devices employed included Birkland’s policy change and learning framework, Peter May’s categorization of policy learning, and other social learning literature. A total of 21 key informant interviews (KIIs), comprising 3 senior provincial political leaders, 10 senior bureaucrats, and 8 municipal emergency coordinators, were conducted to collect primary data. Our findings reveal that significant policy changes were made in response to events such as the droughts of the 1930s; the floods of 1950, 1966, 1997, and 2011; and the wildfires of 1989. However, these were largely “reactive” initiatives driven by “top-down” decision-making processes. While natural as well as technological disasters [such as the 1979 Mississauga (Ontario) train derailment and 1984 Bhopal (India) chemical plant disaster] led to the successful implementation of institutional learning provisions within Manitoba DEM policy, the achievement of similar provisions for responding to climate change and other emerging threats has been impeded by numerous barriers such as a lack of political will and/or financial constraints.

Devastating Monsoon: Water Induced Disaster Management Practices in Nepal

Nepal is prone to a variety of recurring natural disasters such as floods, landslides, snow avalanches, thunderstorms, drought, earth quake and epidemics. In particular, floods, landslides, hailstorms and drought are almost regular phenomena. This paper has focused mainly on water induced disaster (Monsoon) prepared through review of documents, consultation with related line agencies and field level interaction with affected communities. The paper also seeks to explore and document the major disasters and their impacts in Nepal. It discusses policy and program, institutional arrangement and activities related to the disaster management as well as identification of gaps in the policy and program. Nepal has attempted to manage the prevalence of these hazards and their associated disasters through both informal civic involvement and formal government instruments. A legal and policy environment to deal with disasters has existed in one or the other form in Nepal since 1982, and these have been reviewed. Study showed that disaster management activities only found initial response rather post disaster program. However, findings of the previous and present programs and activities on disaster management have not addressed effectively to the vulnerable people and to reduce the impact from disasters at the local level. It is suggested that disaster management policy and program should be integrated and mainstreamed in development agenda.

ANALYTICAL FRAGILITY CURVES FOR REINFORCED CONCRETE BUILDING USING SINGLE POINT SCALED SPECTRUM MATCHED GROUND MOTION ANALYSES

Seismic performance is obtained for a five-storied reinforced concrete frame building performing non-linear dynamic time history analyses. Performance of the building was obtained as a mean of fragility function of spectral acceleration. Earthquake ground motion records are selected from online source considering local earthquake faults scenario proposed in Comprehensive Disaster Management Program (CDMP) and then scaled to fit with Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) 1993 design response spectra. Since the structure is considered as typical reinforced concrete ordinary moment resisting frame located in Bangladesh, mechanical properties and other associated parameters are chosen according to Bangladeshi perspective. Each ground motion spectrum is matched with design code spectrum at fundamental time period of the building. Non-linear static pushover analysis is performed to determine damage states from pushover curve. Four damage states (from slight to collapse) are defined based on simplified assumptions. A set of dynamic time history analyses are carried out in order to obtain probability density function of the displacement demand correspond to different level of ground motions. Cumulative distribution of each associated damage states allows deriving fragility curves. Finally four fragility curves are obtained for four damge grades (slight, moderate, severe and collapse).

Resilience Performance Scorecard: Measuring urban disaster resilience at multiple levels of geography with case study application to Lalitpur, Nepal

Making a city disaster-resilient means understanding the capacity of communities and decision-makers to actively adapt to, cope with, and transform in view of potential threats. Urban resilience needs to be considered a multi-dimensional concept, visible at multiple levels, and highly dynamic. Various indicator frameworks rely on pre-arranged indicator sets and beneficiaries to measure resilience neglecting the need to dynamically adjust indicators to the context of specific places or sub-city levels of geography. The purpose of this paper is to introduce an approach for measuring and monitoring resilience within cities. The Resilience Performance Scorecard (RPS) is a multilevel and multi-scale self-evaluation tool that empowers stakeholders to quantitatively assess resilience parameters based on primary source information. This scorecard approach will lead to a highly contextualized resilience appraisal reflecting the goals and objectives of the local actors and cannot be substituted by a ready-to-go, generic questionnaire. To demonstrate the RPS approach as a tool to guide and enable local policy makers and communities to establish priorities for more in-depth analysis, to allocate funds, and to develop emergency and disaster management programs more effectively, we implemented the RPS with city officials and community stakeholders of Lalitpur before and after the 2015 Nepal Earthquakes.

Participatory Vulnerability Reduction (PVR): an urban community-based approach for earthquake management

Participation of local people during any disaster is enormous. They possess better knowledge and information about their own community than anyone else from the outside. This study proposes Participatory Vulnerability Reduction (PVR), a community-based approach for disaster management. The concept of PVR was applied to an urban community of Dhaka city (Ward no. 06 of Dhaka North City Corporation) which has been identified by the Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme as one of the most vulnerable areas of the city for earthquake. PVR consists three steps, and in each step, different participatory urban appraisal tools were used. In the first step, the community people assessed the earthquake vulnerability. It was found that some certain parts of the study area are highly vulnerable due to lack of accessibility to the critical facilities, inadequacy of open space, poor construction practice and unsuitable soil condition for building construction. This was followed by analyzing the root causes and effects of these problems. Structural fragility of the buildings, construction of settlements by filling the low-lying areas and development of slums beside taller buildings are the three major causes behind the above vulnerable issues. In the second step, capacity of the community was assessed in terms of resources and their organizational structure. In the final step, local people developed the strategies to overcome the vulnerability and a community-based organizational set up was proposed to coordinate the collective actions. Although developed in local context, application of PVR is not limited for earthquake and it can be replicated for other communities as well.

Community resilience in Walkerton, Canada: Sixteen years post-outbreak

The implications of a public health emergency on a community may be devastating and long-term. The severity of the implications depends on the gravity of the emergency and the capacity of individuals and communities to respond to and recover from its effects. However, the long-term implications of emergencies are often excluded from disaster management research making it difficult to determine whether communities are truly able to achieve and maintain resilience post-crisis. This interdisciplinary, qualitative study examined the impacts of the May 2000 Escherichia coli outbreak in Walkerton, Canada sixteen years post-outbreak on the present-day resilience status of the community. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted with a purposeful sample of 29 Walkerton community members. The data were transcribed verbatim and coded using conventional content analysis to identify themes inductively. The study's findings reveal the importance of various elements of the social capital dimension in facilitating (i.e., capacity building, positive perspective) and hindering (i.e., ongoing health effects) the community's collective resilience status today both directly and indirectly. Some elements, including local economy, local government, rural community characteristics, preparedness, and reputation act as both facilitators and barriers to the social capital component of community resilience. The findings from this work are critical for designing preparedness and recovery programs for emergency situations, particularly in rural communities. They also suggest disaster management program plans and strategies for rural communities should encompass a proactive, long-term, community-centered approach integrating social capital.