Disaster Risk Management Policies Research Articles

Enhancing Sustainable Communities through the Protection of Natural Buffer Zones

Certain regions within Middle Eastern countries are vulnerable to climate-related hazards, including floods and dust storms, resulting in adverse consequences for these nations and hindering the sustainable development of urban communities. The preservation and development of natural buffer zones, such as green spaces and surface waters, offer nature-based solutions to shield urban areas from the impacts of these hazards. This article examines the significance and legal protection of these buffer zones and concludes that, despite their effectiveness in mitigating floods and dust storms, natural buffer zones have not received distinct recognition as protective zones for urban areas in international and national legal frameworks. The study recommends the integration of natural buffer zones preservation and development into national and regional urban planning and disaster risk management policies and strategies, highlighting their role as nature-based solutions for enhancing urban sustainability in the Middle East, especially Iran.

Social learning and collective action in flood-hazard management in Manitoba, Canada

ABSTRACT Knowledge of social learning about flood hazards in the literature, especially regarding its transformation into collective action for risk reduction, is very limited. This study addresses these gaps by developing an integrated framework that describes how social learning is transformed into collective action – particularly the underlying components and processes – and then applying it to empirical case studies of two communities, (namely, St. Adolphe and St. Agathe) of the Rural Municipality of Ritchot, Manitoba, Canada. Primary data were collected during the summer months of 2022 using participatory research appraisal (PRA) tools (i.e. key informant interviews and oral histories), while secondary data were collected primarily via government and NGO sources. The findings revealed that a) the flood experience and related interactions among community members and local institutions produced unique and distinct types of social learning, and b) that local and multilevel institutions had helped to create learning platforms that facilitated the formation of strategies for collective action related to flood risk reduction. These processes resulted in single – and double-loop learning at the community level. Based on the findings of this work, we recommend that learning and reflection relating to community members’ flood experiences be integrated into disaster risk reduction and management policies.

Filipino migrant worker organisations, social capital and disaster resilience: An Aotearoa-New Zealand case study

There is increasing evidence that access to social capital, and particularly linking capital can significantly enhance the resilience of minoritised and vulnerable communities impacted by disasters. Understanding levels and types of access to social capital within such communities before disasters occur is an important part of disaster risk management policy and planning. Migrant worker communities, however, remain an understudied group in general, and there are very few published findings concerned with the 3.5 million Filipino migrant workers who primarily live in high-income host countries. This article contributes to addressing this gap with an Aotearoa-New Zealand qualitative case study that aims to increase understanding of the social capital accessed pre-disaster by members of Filipino migrant worker organisations in the Canterbury region. Interview and focus group data indicated that worker organisations facilitated access to local Filipino migrant worker networks, contributing to consistently high reliance on bonding capital, but less access to bridging or linking capital. This trend is linked to the precarious immigration status afforded by temporary work visas, which increased the vulnerability of participants. Only one organisation provided access to the linking capital required to mitigate this vulnerability. Factors influencing the capacity of organisations to develop linking capital appeared to include establishment objectives, length of time since establishment and support from government and industry groups. These findings emphasize the valuable role that migrant worker organisations can play in mitigating disaster risks, through providing connections that facilitate support and resourcing from authorities and industry bodies.

Estimating the Impact of Adaptive Capacity on Vulnerability in Nepal

The adaptive capacity of households is an effective instrument for minimizing climate change-induced vulnerability. Varying adaptive capacity across different income and socio-strata of households make different vulnerability impacts. This paper assesses the impacts of adaptation capacity on household susceptibility index and ranks in Nepal employing an explorative method. In the explorative method, the household vulnerability index as a composite index and multiple regression model are analytical methods. The data set is collected from the questionnaire survey of 642 households in the Sotkhola Water Basin Gadhi, Lekhagaon, and Kunathari through a regression model. As a result, a flood disaster is terrible more than a landslide. By cluster, its intensity is deeper in Gadhi than in Kunathari and Lekhagaon in terms of destruction of assets and non-assets. Total income loss magnifies household vulnerability 7 times deeper. The distribution of vulnerability level falls to poor households three times more than rich households in accordance with headcount poverty and food sufficiency poverty measures. The composite index shows adaptive capacity plays a key role in household vulnerability. Therefore, adaptive capacity is an instrument of resilience to household safety and welfare. In the context of poverty alleviation, preparedness, and climate change initiatives, this result will be valuable to improve the adaptive capacity of the socioeconomically vulnerable population for disaster and climate resilience, further development, and future disaster risk management policy implications.

Disaster Resilient Village Program: Manifestation of Community-Based Disaster Risk Management and Reduction Policy

The potential and risk of disasters in Indonesia over the last two decades have become a major challenge for this country. Dynamic natural activities, global climate change, and rapid urbanization have increased vulnerability to various types of natural and man-made disasters. Although this risk cannot be completely avoided, mitigation efforts, risk management and community empowerment have been carried out to reduce its impact. The Disaster Resilient Village Program is one of the Indonesian government's important efforts to reduce disaster risk and increase community resilience. Although there are still challenges and obstacles that must be overcome, this program has provided significant benefits in preparing communities to face the threat of disaster.

Governing disaster risk in Myanmar: Institutions and policy pathways during 1885–2015

Unlike many disaster-prone countries in Southeast Asia, such as Indonesia and the Philippines, there is a lack of study on Myanmar's long-term evolution of disaster policy, governance and institutions. A substantial increase in the Myanmar disaster management policy literature can be observed after Cyclone Nargis 2008. Most researchers treated Myanmar's pre-Nargis period as a monolithic period when disaster policy measures were either a full set of reactive responses or nothing. Furthermore, there is a lack of an appreciative approach to understanding Myanmar's disaster risk management policy, for example, from a historical overview. Using a descriptive research and content analysis, this paper explores the evolution of institutions and policies related to disaster and emergency planning in Myanmar since 1885. This paper employs secondary data collection methods, including historical archives, policies, reports and other documents, to establish a historical trajectory of the evolution of Myanmar disaster and emergency management-related policies in Myanmar from 1885 to 2015. The researchers found that the policy narrative has incrementally shifted from a state-centric and top-down approach (pre-Hyogo period) to a whole-of-government approach (Hyogo period) to a polycentric model where “whole of society” can be involved. However, the research shows that path-dependency theory remains the best predictor for long-term policy pathways: (1) pure endogenous disaster policy-making is often trapped in endless trial and error; (2) Large-scale disasters such as Cyclone Nargis can facilitate disaster policy change provided that there is productive engagement to allow exogenous policy transfers including more opportunity to adopt international disaster governance frameworks.

Differential ethnic approach in disaster risk reduction and management: The case of Colombia

Colombia is a multicultural country, with ethnic minorities comprising 13% of its population. These ethnic groups have high vulnerability to disasters, not only due to their geographic location, but also because of inequities that exacerbate the vicious cycle of poverty. However, they have developed knowledge and tools to face these disasters that are responsive to their specific needs and should be incorporated into national and sub-national disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) policies and strategies to ensure inclusion and institutionalization. This article aims to understand the current incorporation of the differential ethnic approach in the DRRM system of Colombia. A literature review of journal articles and grey literature directly relevant to the differential ethnic approach in DRRM in Colombia was conducted on December 2022 and January 2023. Out of 1067 records, only 20 were eligible: 15 (75.0%) grey literature and 5 (15.0%) journal articles. Majority of the records (19, 95.5%) were on disaster prevention or mitigation. Results showed that official national DRRM policies and plans recognize the cultural diversity of Colombia, mandating several activities that require the inclusion of ethnic minorities. Narratives of DRRM activities where ethnic minorities were involved were found. However, challenges in adopting the guidelines at the national and local levels were found, highlighting the need to increase efforts to strengthen the integration of the differential ethnic approach in the DRRM system. The low number of scoped records also highlights the lack of documentation, monitoring, evaluation, or research that can provide insights that can contribute to this topic.

Physiotherapy and Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation Approaches in SARS-CoV-2 Infection

An arising of infectious outbreaks lately December of 2019 has been reported as pneumonia of unknown cause appeared in Wuhan city, China which called SARS-CoV-2. Globally, 12 July 2023, there have been 767.972.961 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 6.950.655 deaths, reported by WHO. As of 8 July 2023, a total of 13.474.185.140 vaccine doses have been administered. In 2013, the number of people has been died from cardiovascular disease more than 17.3 million and representing an increase from 1990 of 40.8%. Evaluating the effects on cardiopulmonary physiology has an important place among the parameters of the COVID-19 pandemic affecting public health. For this reason, we evaluated physiotherapy and rehabilitation approaches as a for CBRN threats and disaster risk management policies by associating cardiopulmonary physiology with the effects of the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic

Risk Assessment and Adaptation to Climate Change Impacts in Mexico for Indigenous and Women

The present article<strong> </strong>studies the policy, numbers, and costs of disaster risk management (DRM) in Mexico, a country highly exposed to climate change, due to two oceans warming up. The PEISOR methodology facilitates interrelating complex interactions and pressures between the natural and the societal system (P), where dangerous effects (E) occur in extreme events, such as floods, landslides, and drought. The impacts (I) of global warming, the pressure of historical poverty, and vulnerable regions were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. These societal outcomes (SO) are aggravated by gender and ethnic discrimination. The governmental response (R) has built up an alternative health system with access to medical attention. About DRM against climate catastrophes, loss and damage (L&D) policies prioritized cash transfers to affected people. This policy increased the dependency of poor people but produced electoral benefits for the leading party. Nevertheless, this DRM limits adaptation and resilience-building among social groups living in exposed regions mainly in the South, where indigenous groups suffer from low human development index and extreme poverty. The article also compares the quantitative costs of disasters in Mexico during the last five decades. Growing L&D invoices for the government and affected people occurred predominantly during the last decade. Worsening climate conditions, combined with the COVID-19 pandemic, public insecurity, and extreme poverty, represent survival threats for exposed people, where only a local bottom-up resilience-building may create an integrated DRM. In conclusion, the reactive policy of L&D has raised the electoral support of needed people but limited adaption to deal with extremer climate impacts. The official DRM policy impacts allocated 96% of the disaster budget for reconstruction and emergency management and only 4% for prevention. Especially affected are women, girls, and indigenous people with the highest death toll. Empowering these vulnerable groups would create greater resilience, where training in care economy, and environmental restoration could reduce the risks. The lack of adaptation also created a dependency on foreign countries for climate advice, hurricane tracking, early warnings, and disaster recovery, where affected people are trapped in poverty and often forced to migrate.

Policy implementation for extreme hazard events in Caribbean Small Island Developing States: a case study – Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada

PurposeExtreme natural hazard events in the Caribbean continue to result in major adverse consequences. Studies of disaster experiences have identified operational deficiencies that limited the effectiveness of disaster management policies in live emergencies. This paper reports on a study of the implementation characteristics of specific public disaster risk reduction and response measures in two Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada, which may impact the success of these measures. The purpose of this paper is to examine these characteristics and their potential impacts.Design/methodology/approachThe authors collected data on specific aspects of disaster risk management (DRM) policy implementation from policy documents and interviews with public DRM agencies. A sample of business entities also provided data on their interactions with public risk management measures. The data focussed on operational aspects of implementation to identify likely impacts on hazard event outcomes.FindingsThe study identifies implementation deficiencies that may hamper achievement of risk reduction objectives and limit the effectiveness of emergency response.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings may be instructive for other Caribbean SIDS which share similar economic and social characteristics, natural hazard exposures and potential catastrophic outcomes.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest tactical areas of focus to enhance the operationalisation of policy.Social implicationsImproved operational effectiveness will support the efforts of Caribbean SIDS to reduce the scale of adverse outcomes on people and property.Originality/valueThe findings of this study broaden the scope of Caribbean disaster studies to provide an insight into operational weaknesses that may be recognised and addressed prior to hazard events.

Addressing the interplay of the Sendai Framework with sustainable development goals in Latin America and the Caribbean: moving forward or going backwards?

PurposeThe 2030 agenda for sustainable development and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) constitute an overarching global milestone for creating a better sustainable future worldwide. The risk component of the agenda under the SFDRR must be better embedded into the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and integrating disaster risk management policy with broader development objectives at national and subnational levels in many countries is still a work in progress. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the progress between the SDGs and the SFDRR in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and its complementary featuresDesign/methodology/approachComprehensive and contextualized analyses of the progress of SFDRR and SDGs related to the LAC region need to be fully addressed to examine synergies and trade-offs with the two global agendas. Based on empirical evidence from United Nations global reports, a literature review of DRR and DRM, as well as development planning evidence, this paper addresses the implications of building coherence between the SDGs and the SFDRR in the region.FindingsInterplay and connections of the two agendas are highlighted together with an analysis of coherence among indicators. Despite the richness of several indicators, the examined evidence suggests that derived from the current progress, indicators are unable to completely reflect the dynamics among disaster risk drivers for both the SFDRR and the SDGs in the region.Research limitations/implicationsData availability at UNIDSR as well as at the regional level can limit the scope of the research. When comparing and matching the agendas, results could be further improved upon new releases of data. SFDRR and SDGs have also ground for improvement and countries are doing well but still slow.Practical implicationsThe paper offers new insights and findings for decision/policy makers in Latina America and the Caribbean.Originality/valueThe paper offers an overall understanding of the progress and coherence among SFDRR and SDGs global frameworks and provides insights to identify the gaps and opportunities that need to be addressed to integrate disaster risk reduction into sustainable development planning at national and regional scales in LAC.

A Deliberative Rural Community Consultation to Assess Support for Flood Risk Management Policies to Strengthen Resilience in Malawi

As disasters increase in frequency and magnitude with adverse effects on population health, governments will be forced to implement disaster risk management policies that may include forced relocation. Ineffective public consultation has been cited as one reason for failure of these policies. Using the deliberative polling method, this study assessed the capacity of rural communities to participate in flood risk management policy priority setting and the impact of providing accurate and balanced information on policies by comparing pre-and post -deliberation data. The study also assessed the level of trust on whether government and community would use the results of this study. Results indicated strong community support for policy options to reduce vulnerability in communities and strong resistance to relocation. As all the top five ranked policy options were concerned with population pressure, gender, and social service issues, which are all conceptually considered social determinants of a healthy community, this study concludes that public health considerations are central to flood risk policy development and implementation. The study revealed high levels of trust in government and the community relating to flood risk management, which policymakers in low-to-middle income countries can capitalise on for meaningful community consultation for effective disaster risk management.

Reforming the institutional and operational mechanism of SAARC organization: Potentials of SAARC in Disaster Risk Management (DRM) in South Asia

SAARC is a regional agreement that was established to co-operate regional economic, political, and socio-cultural affairs in South Asia. As a highly vulnerable region towards natural and social disasters, South Asia needs a committed body that can manage sudden catastrophes in the region. Therefore, SAARC has founded SDMC and SEDMC to corporate in Disaster Risk Management (DRM) in South Asia. However, these SAARC agencies have been unsuccessful in DRM to deal with emerging disasters in the region. Hence, this study investigates the failures and weaknesses of the SAARC operational and structural framework of proceeding DRM operations while contributing to the existing body of literature regarding SAARC. The data and information of this research are based on secondary quantitative and qualitative data which were extracted from relevant printed and online materials, including organizational websites. These data and information were analyzed under five categories that are Policy Adoption Failures; Structural failures of SAARC; coordination and cooperation failures; financial inabilities in Disaster Management; Absence of Logistic Preparedness Plan; and Lack of Military Co-operation in DRM. These findings reveal that SAARC has been failed to adopt an effective and efficient DRM policy to manage emerging disasters in South Asia. Therefore, this study recommends policy reforms, restructuring the organization, establishing reliable ICT system to coordinate and co-operate DRM, introducing SAARC Disaster Management and Emergency Relief Fund in resolving financial issues, Disaster Emergency Logistic System, and SAARC Militaries Ready Group adhering ASEAN to implement an efficient DRM while reforming SAARC institutional and operational mechanism.

Stay in Risk Area: Place Attachment, Efficacy Beliefs and Risk Coping.

For residents living in earthquake-threatened areas, choosing suitable risk coping behaviors can effectively reduce the loss of family life and property. However, some residents still choose to continue to live within areas at risk of earthquake disaster. Place attachment may play an important role. Based on place attachment theory and the Protective Action Decision Model (PADM), this study explores the possible relationships among place attachment, efficacy beliefs, and evacuation/relocation intention. Furthermore, it examines the mediating role of efficacy beliefs. The study also used the partial least squares method (PLS-SEM) to test samples of 327 rural households in Wenchuan and Lushan earthquake-hit areas. The results show that: (1) Place attachment has a significant effect on response efficacy (RE), but not on self-efficacy (SE); (2) Place dependence (PD) has a negative and significant effect on relocation intention (RI) but has no significant effect on evacuation intention (EI). However, place identity (PI) can indirectly affect EI by influencing RE; (3) Efficacy beliefs have a significant positive effect on EI and RI. These results help us understand the complex relationships among place attachment, efficacy beliefs, and residents’ risk coping behavior, thus providing decision-making references for the formulation and improvement of regional disaster risk management policies.

Assessing knowledge creation process: A case of the National Disaster Management Agency of Gambia

The Disaster Risk Management policy and strategy of Gambia’s National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) have technical challenges and require knowledge creation to enhance capacities to lessen the adverse effect of risks and probabilities of disasters in The Gambia. Also, limited or no resources and leadership support to knowledge creation. The research aimed to assess the current condition of knowledge creation process in NDMA on socialisation-sharing experiences from tacit knowledge, externalisation-voicing tacit to explicit, combination-structuring explicit, and internalisation-expressing explicit to tacit (SECI) and role of leadership in the knowledge creation process. Detailed interviews, questionnaires, and WhatsApp call employed with four questions targeted five staff informants from NDMA and eight partner institutions with one informant from each. The research adopted a qualitative case study and content analysis to analyse the data using Voyant tools looking at the subject and concept. The research found that SECI has unearthed NDMA strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and leadership bureaucracy coupled with fear factors to build capacities leading to coup d’état for positions. Therefore, SECI has been unnoticed and uncoordinatedly implemented from “Happy Corner” with experiential knowledge and the National Platform for disaster risk reduction (DRR).

Disaster vulnerability analysis of small towns in Brazil

Most of the global urban population lives in cities with less than one million people, whereas in Brazil, more than 45% of the population is estimated to live in cities with up to 100,000 people. As in both the global and Brazilian contexts, many of these people live in disaster-prone areas, there has been an increasing demand for research on small cities to subsidize actions contributing to disaster risk reduction. Thus, this study evaluates the vulnerability and capacities of small Brazilian municipalities to reduce risks, especially those related to landslides and floods. To this end, 234 municipalities located in the southern and southeast regions of the country were classified into two population classes, that is, cities from 20,000 to 50,000 people and those from 50,000 to 100,000 people. These municipalities are characterized by high levels of municipal human development and availability of municipal master plans. Statistical analysis of a set of quantitative and qualitative indicators revealed that the vulnerability of populations and municipal capacities is mainly related to the economic sectors, public policies, and city size. Municipal master plans and high levels of municipal human development guarantee neither better urban infrastructure nor specific risk management legislations. Although there are legal tools recommending disaster risk management policies, such tools are insufficient to reduce vulnerabilities and increase capacities in small Brazilian cities.

Capacity Development of Local Self-Governments for Disaster Risk Management.

The objective of this research was to examine the capacity development of local self-governments in the field of disaster risk management (DRM). This quantitative research examines the degree of implementation of strategic, legislative, and institutional frameworks, as well as the capacity of local authorities to apply related policies through five analytical scopes: (1) degree of preparedness and legal framework; (2) financial framework; (3) policy aspects; (4) cooperation and partnership; (5) communication. The ability of municipalities and towns to respond to disasters was also analyzed and compared. In this paper, our initial hypothesis was that the effective implementation of the concept of DRM policy in towns of Serbia requires the continual strategic, tactical, and operational transformation of the public administration and public management system in order to strengthen the capacity of local self-governments for disaster prevention, preparation, response, and recovery. This multimethod research was conducted over the period of 2014–2017 and included the following two target groups: (a) heads of disaster sectors in local self-government units (mayor) and (b) employees of the DRM sector in local self-government units. The results of this research will enable decision makers to successfully respond to challenges and help to improve the capacity of local self-governments and public local administrations within the scope of DRM in the Republic of Serbia, based on the principles of prevention and proactive action, coordination, cooperation, partnership, and responsibility.

Assessing Capacity and Implementation Status of the Disaster Risk Management Strategy for Health and Community Disaster Resilience in Malawi

Floods are among the most frequently occurring natural hazards in Malawi, often with public health implications. This mixed methods study assessed the capacity for and implementation status of the disaster risk management (DRM) strategy for the health sector in Malawi, using flooding in the Nsanje District as a case. Data were collected using desk review and a workshop methodology involving key officials from government ministries, national and international development partners, and the academia. The results show that Malawi had recently strengthened its DRM institutional frameworks, with a pronounced policy shift from reactive to proactive management of disasters. Health sector personnel and structures were key contributors in the design and implementation of DRM activities at all levels. Development partners played a significant role in strengthening DRM coordination and implementation capacity. Lack of funding and the limited availability, and often fragmented nature, of vulnerability and risk assessment data were identified as key challenges. Limited human resource capacity and inadequate planning processes at district level impeded full implementation of DRM policies. These findings call for community-level interventions for improved coordination, planning, and human resource capacity to strengthen community disaster resilience and improve public health. The approach used in this study can serve as a model framework for other districts in Malawi, as well as in other low- and middle-income countries in the context of Sendai Framework implementation.

English

Climate Compatible Development (CCD) is an emerging development approach which seeks to minimize the threat posed by climate change while maximize the opportunities for development. In view of the adverse impact of climate change on the general development of the country, Ethiopia, a number of polices which constitute climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies have been adopted and established. Among such polices, Ethiopian water resources and disaster risk management policy is expected to have direct and indirect role in addressing climate change mitigation and adaptation. Rainwater harvesting, water shed management, use of water efficiently, small scale irrigation and water resource protection, strengthening drought and flood early warning system are adaptation strategies for water resource policy, and water harvesting and improved energy efficiency are low carbon footprint strategies/mitigation strategies. Disaster risk management policy also comprises climate change and variability related disaster risk reduction strategies; enhancing early warning information system, and safety net program as the climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies, which are the major component of CCD. These policies also have its own limitation in relation to the system base and institutional gap in implementing CCD. In fact, these barriers can be eased by updating and/or adjustment of the policies under the framework of climate compatible development; mainstreaming climate change issues into water resource and disaster risk management policy; strengthening sector-wise linkage and synergy to avoid overlap; as well as monitoring the climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies among sectors. Key words: Climate change, low-carbon footprint, adaptation, mainstreaming, Ethiopia

The influence of professionals on the general public in the choice of earthquake disaster preparedness: Based on the perspective of peer effects

Disaster preparedness is an important link in disaster risk management and an effective means to reduce disaster losses. However, few studies focus on the peer effects of the social network in residents' disaster preparedness decisions. Based on the survey data of 327 rural households affected by the Wenchuan and Lushan earthquake in China, this study theoretically constructs the peer effects model of professionals to the general public, and empirically uses the binary logit model to verify the peer effects of professionals on the general public. The results show that: (1)there are significant differences between the general public and professionals in emergency supplies preparedness and knowledge training preparedness; (2)the general public will imitate professionals' disaster preparedness to achieve the convergence of disaster preparedness; (3)the general public will enhance the level of emergency supplies and disaster insurance preparedness by social learning; (4)the general public's house reinforcement preparation is only related to the direct economic loss, and has nothing to do with social learning. The results of this study are helpful to improve the current policy system of mass monitoring and mass prevention in China and provide a reference for other countries in formulating earthquake disaster risk management policies.