Disaster Risk Reduction Policies Research Articles

Heritage Community Resilience: towards new approaches for urban resilience and sustainability

The value of cultural heritage and its transmission for “making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” is an integral part of the UN Agenda 2030 and the new international policy for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030. Nonetheless, the role of culture for these important challenges is an issue that current scientific literature on resilience has not yet sufficiently investigated. Starting from the concept of Heritage Community, elaborated in the Council of Europe's Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society (Framework convention on the value of cultural heritage for society, 2005), along with the hypothesis of its role for Community Resilience, this study elaborates a conceptual framework in which “Heritage Community Resilience” is defined. It is both a target and a process in which cultural heritage supports the building of a community able to prevent, cope with and recover from disturbances and/ or disasters. Through a survey of several case studies on heritage-driven practices in Italian inner peripheral areas, the research aims to define the specific characteristics of Heritage Community Resilience as well as identify any critical actors and variables, strategies and governance mechanisms, which influence both Heritage Community and Community Resilience. It predicts the challenges and highlights the potential that culture and heritage can develop for Community Resilience, towards further perspectives of resilient circular city.

Local disaster knowledge: Towards a plural understanding of volcanic disasters in Central Java's highlands, Indonesia

Local, traditional, or indigenous knowledge play an important role in disaster risk reduction (DRR), and many policy recommendations now call for the integration of local and expert views. While these attempts at integration are indeed promising, they are often built on assumptions that local knowledge is inherently separate from, or even subordinate to, expert perspectives. This article presents an account of what we call “local disaster knowledge” (LDK) in the Dieng Plateau of Central Java; a region characterised by volcanic craters that periodically expel poisonous concentrations of carbon dioxide gas. LDK is interpreted as a plural, embedded, relational and embodied knowledge system, which incorporates complementary forms of knowledge gained through everyday livelihood practice, scientific information and cultural‐religious beliefs. Rather than focusing on the “separateness” of local knowledge, this article forwards an ethnographic approach to disaster research that recognises the beneficial knowledge interactions that already exist (many of which occur informally), and the contextual reasons that explain local understandings of risk. Our findings advocate for the more genuine and equal inclusion of local views in global DRR policy and frameworks, as well as in the design and implementation of local level programmes.

Assessment of the Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction studies since 2015

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) (2015–2030) was specifically initiated to advance Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) policy globally, to further understand the complexity of disaster risk in our contemporary time. Despite the potency of the framework, its implementation remains low at the local level. This paper provides a portrait of the intellectual stance of SFDRR studies. Our bibliometric exploration over the survey period of 2015–2019 shows a total of 34 documents with an annual percentage growth of 15.9%, which implies the increase of research on SFDRR during the period of analysis. The UK ranked first in terms of the highest number of corresponding authors during the study period. In addition, the UK was top on the most cited country on the SFDRR documents indexed in WOS from 2015 to 2019, with a sizeable chunk of developed countries on the top. This paper recommends researchers (from well off countries) across climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction intellectual domains should encourage research collaborations which will improve teamwork with Universities and other research councils in transitions countries in a bid to improve their ability to inter alia, development of policies and communication of research outcomes to the final user. This paper concludes that public policymakers and stakeholders working at the local government level should rejig strategies towards implementing the SFDRR and other international frameworks of this manner.

Devolution and disaster risk reduction in Kenya: Progress, challenges and opportunities

African countries are increasingly embracing decentralization to improve governance as a catalyst for development. The challenges that devolution can address include bureaucratic inefficiencies, poor accountability and transparency, unequal distribution of resources, low citizen engagement, increased poverty and marginalization. The need for devolution in the context of disaster risk reduction (DRR) is even more critical owing to the fact that it has potential to improve governance which can influence the meaningful engagement of communities at-risk in planning. This paper adopts a diagnostic approach on investigating the extent devolution is augmenting DRR as well as adaptation to climate change adaptation (CCA) in five arid counties in Kenya over the 2014–2018 period. The analysis shows that county DRR policy frameworks are at various stages of development, DRR is increasingly being institutionalized and it has been integrated into County Integrated Development Plans (CIDPs). A number of challenges noted in the implementation of DRR include inadequate funds, weak coordination mechanisms, few and poorly trained personnel, insufficient engagement of the vulnerable persons and low commitment from county policy makers. The policies being developed were also found to be poorly aligned to the national and Sendai framework while the DRR and CCA responsible institutions operate asymmetrically. The study recommends greater commitment in mainstreaming DRR and adaptation into entire county planning processes and capacitating the institutions to support risk – informed planning. Systems for engaging the most vulnerable persons need to be developed and applied to ensure their voice is heard in development planning processes.

Climate Change and Social Perception: A Case Study in Southern Italy

The consequences of climate change can involve various ambits and be very severe. For this reason, the social perception of climate change is a fundamental issue since it can influence the decisions of the policymakers, by encouraging or discouraging political, economic and social actions. In this paper, a sample of 300 interviews, collected through a standardized questionnaire and carried out among two municipalities located in southern Italy, was exploited to investigate the perception of climate change. Specific issues, regarding perceptions about climate change, concerns about its impacts, level of information, behavior and actions, exposure to extreme natural events and trust, were addressed to give answers to the research questions: (i) Is climate change perceived by the population? (ii) What is the degree of the community resilience to extreme natural events and climate change? As the main findings, this survey highlighted that the spatio-temporal dimension affects population perception, suggesting that some issues, such as correct behavior towards the geosphere, the sustainability of anthropization processes, community resilience and disaster risk reduction policies, can be very central and useful to mitigate the effects of climate change in population and society. Moreover, climate change perception varies in relation to contextual factors, including media communication, socio-demographic characteristics of respondents, knowledge and education, economic and institutional factors, personal values and, finally, psychological factors and experience.

Assessing policy preferences amongst climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction stakeholders using serious gaming

The ESPREssO Project set out to propose ways to inform more coherent national and European approaches on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA). A critical step in this process is the identification of existing barriers to effective collaboration, finding new areas of common ground, and ways to enhance co-operation with regards to CCA and DRR policymaking in Europe. This is particularly important considering the potential relationships between CCA and DRR activities at the regional, national, European and global levels.Serious games have emerged as a valuable tool to communicate information and catalyse discussion in many policy arenas. The games have the power to inform, mainly by exposing strengths and weaknesses of a system but not necessarily create policy choices. This paper presents the development process and rationale behind creation of RAMSETE I, a serious game developed by and for the ESPREssO Project to elicit information from its stakeholders in aiming to inform synergies between CCA and DRR sectors. The results assess its application as a device to frame discussions during an international Think Tank workshop. The serious game focused on three particular aspects of CCA and DRR policy interactions: (1) separation of administrative responsibilities and the use of different terminology, (2) the ongoing competition for funding and political will as well as (3) difficulties regarding the top-down implementation of policies.The rules and design process are presented briefly, before going in-depth into the information gleaned during its application in the workshop.

Identifying societal challenges in flood early warning systems

Flood Early Warning Systems (FEWS) are implemented in many parts of the world, but early warnings do not always translate into an emergency response from all individuals at risk. This article examines challenges such as warning communication and community response capabilities. Literature review, global online survey results, and experiential knowledge helped identify cross-cutting issues such as failure to use participatory approaches involving communities and addressing their concerns in warning, insufficient preparedness and response levels of FEWS, inadequate translation of disaster risk reduction (DRR) policies into action at the community level, lack of DRR knowledge and practices among key stakeholders, insufficient gender and social inclusion in all stages of FEWS, gaps in institutional communication and collaboration, and, finally, technical and financial constraints. The paper also discusses the contribution of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in addressing the identified challenges and eventually strengthening FEWS locally. CSOs were found to act positively at local level challenges and significantly contribute to addressing them through tailored solutions to community concerns. Such solutions include DRR awareness campaigns to educate the communities and key officials; enhanced communication between vulnerable communities and local authorities; transforming reactive community response that relied on government officials to a risk-informed and self-prepared community response; gender inclusion and diversity in various stages of FEWS; and advocacy campaigns to build resilience to disasters. Eventually, policy-based recommendations that can help to root out the challenges discussed in this study are presented.

Sharing responsibility in disaster management policy

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction delivers internationally agreed upon norms for disaster risk reduction, engendered in part through shared-responsibility, and subsequently adopted by Australia. However, it has been contended that shared-responsibility in Australia is a partially articulated social contract. Through targeted engagement with the works of Foucault, a combination of document analysis on selected disaster risk reduction policies and employing a taxonomy of obligations of shared-responsibility, we investigate if shared-responsibility signifies the failure of dominant disaster management discourses to articulate concrete responsibilities. We identify that an incomplete normalisation process is in part responsible for partial articulation.

Flood risk perceptions and coping capacities among the retired population, with implications for risk communication: A study of residents in a north Wales coastal town, UK

Flood risk communication strategies have been ineffective for older adults as they have failed to accommodate diversity, viewing retired populations as homogenous. There have been calls from academics and NGOs to develop more detailed understandings of older adults' risk experiences to inform disaster risk reduction (DRR) and communication approaches. We conducted in-depth interviews with twelve members of the retired population, of which the majority happened to be members of a local church, in a flood risk area of north Wales, UK, in 2018 to ascertain risk perceptions, coping capacities, and risk communication preferences to inform more age-centred approaches. Results present retired population are a diverse group with varying perceptions and capacities. While personal risk perceptions were low overall, coping capacities varied and were primarily social in nature, which can be sustained despite mobility or other limitations typical of older age. Participants expressed preference for traditional/interpersonal risk communication methods, such as telephone calls or home visits. A key recommendation from this study is that risk communication and DRR practices should adopt people-centric approaches that are co-produced and respect the differentiated vulnerabilities, capacities and needs of at-risk populations. This study and its findings are important is providing a more nuanced picture of the vulnerabilities and capacities of the particularly at-risk population of older adults. We must ensure that future DRR research, policies and practices focus on all experiences of at-risk populations, not only the dominant narratives or extremes of groups, to capture differences within groups’ abilities to support more effective community DRR.

The effect of spatial proximity to cities on rural vulnerability against flooding: An indicator based approach

Vulnerability to environmental hazards has widely been assessed in disaster risk science and climate change literature by integrating socio-economic and geographical features of a community or a place. However, the role of spatial proximity to cities – an important geographical feature – in influencing household vulnerability has not been scrutinized. This paper assesses how distance to cities affects the vulnerability of rural farming communities against flood hazard. This paper proposes a Vulnerability-Proximity Nexus (VPN) framework and operationalises it in the context of Pakistan. A household survey was conducted to collect primary data from three flood-affected sub-districts of Punjab province. A total of 325 samples were collected, out of which 164 samples were from villages located near to the cities and 161 were far from the cities. Vulnerability indices were developed through holistic (exposure, susceptibility, and capacity) and livelihood (human, social, financial, physical, and natural) perspective of vulnerability. Mann-Whitney U and Pearson’s correlation tests were performed to analyse linkages between distance and vulnerability. Results confirmed that the distance to the cities influences the vulnerability of surrounding farming communities. A significant and positive correlation between distance to city and rural livelihood vulnerability was found. Rural farming communities living close to the cities were less vulnerable, mainly due to better transfer of services and facilities from cities, which has also made rural communities more educated, informed, financially strong, and connected with easier access to public and private institutions. This study highlights the importance of regional and rural development discourse for vulnerability and can help disaster managers and planners to establish synergies for designing effective disaster risk reduction policies and strategies.

Development of disaster risk reduction policy in Thailand

PurposeThis exploratory study discusses the policy learning process of the development of disaster risk reduction (DRR) policy.Design/methodology/approachThe paper discusses how DRR has and has not developed in Thailand through the two major disasters: the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and the 2011 Great Flood. The information was collected by documentary analysis to gain a historical and critical understanding of the development of the system and policy of DRR in Thailand. Additionally, key stakeholders' interviews were undertaken to supplement the analysis.FindingsThe paper demonstrates that Thailand's DRR development has been “reactive” rather than “proactive”, being largely directed by global DRR actors.Research limitations/implicationsBeing a small-scale study, the sample size was small. The analysis and argument would be consolidated with an increase in the number of interviews.Practical implicationsThe model can help deconstruct which dimension of the learning process a government has/has not achieved well.Originality/valueThe application of the “restrictive-expansive policy learning” model, which identifies different dimensions of policy learning, reveals that the Thai government's policy learning was of a mixed nature.

E-LAHOK: An e-Participatory Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management

The study aimed to design, develop and determine the extent of user acceptability of e-LAHOK (Legazpi Alisto at Handang magbigay ng Opinyon para sa Kaligtasan), an electronic and participatory Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Platform for the City of Legazpi that fosters civic engagement and open participatory governance by soliciting Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) strategies and incident reports from the local populations. An integrated Design Thinking (DT) and Extreme Programming (XP) framework (DT@XP) was utilized in the design and development of e-LAHOK whereas, a user’s evaluation based on ISO 9126 software quality metrics was conducted to determine the extent of user acceptability. Significant findings showed that e-LAHOK facilitated orderly solicitation and submission of DRR strategies and incident reports from the local populations by allowing the creation, management, consolidation, analysis and visualization of survey responses as well as submission, verification and acceptance of submitted incident reports for analysis. These results could serve as basis to concerned agencies in the development and implementation of DRR plans and policies to ensure preparedness and effective response by the barangays and its citizens in the event of a disaster. Further, evaluation results show that the system was rated highly acceptable in terms of functionality and usability. This concluded that the features of e-LAHOK provided an organized way of gathering inputs from the local communities of Legazpi City, fostering civic engagement and open, participatory governance. Thus, utilization of the proposed system is recommended.

Sendai Five Years on: Reflections on the Role of International Law in the Creation and Reduction of Disaster Risk

This article offers a critical examination of the position of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 within international law. It is argued that any interrogation into the relationship between international law and disaster risk reduction (DRR) must begin not with existing DRR laws and policies, but rather with an enquiry into the nature of disaster risk and the role of international law in its creation and reduction. It is demonstrated how, while areas such as international human rights law can be utilized to enforce obligations in support of DRR, other areas—in particular international investment law—actively work to undermine DRR efforts. In order for international law to be a productive tool in the reduction of disaster risk, international lawyers must engage with critical work in disaster studies and explore the role that international law has played, and can play, in creating and addressing hazards, vulnerabilities, and capacities.

Disaster Knowledge Gaps: Exploring the Interface Between Science and Policy for Disaster Risk Reduction in Europe

Expert scientific knowledge is fast becoming an integral part of disaster management, and, in the process, is changing the role of science for the reduction of disaster risks at the policy level. Yet science and policy operate in different domains between which there are often competing interests and modes of valuing knowledge. Based on research done as part of the research project Enhancing Synergies for Disaster Prevention in the European Union (ESPREssO), we discuss three major issues facing European Union member states with respect to the interface between science and policy for disaster risk reduction: knowledge transfer, disaster expertise, and risk awareness. In doing so, we hone in on three gaps: an epistemological gap, an institutional gap, and a strategic gap. We argue that these gaps can help explain underlying systematic challenges for the integration between science and policy for disaster risk reduction. These gaps need to be addressed by focusing on changes at the governance level.

Risk Transfer for Populations in Precarious Urban Environments

This study explores risk transfer options that precarious and marginal urban communities could use to protect themselves from future damages and losses generated by socio-natural hazards and disasters at the individual and community levels. The design is framed within an evidence-based disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategy and follows the case study research approach. We analyze the 2018 Neighborhood Approach for DRR programming evaluation carried out in four Latin American cities’ informal settlements and review relevant risk transfer experiences aimed at vulnerable populations. We calculate the pure risk premium for the four cases selected, using a previous catastrophe risk assessment for earthquakes and landslides. We propose three risk transfer options based on our analysis: (1) voluntary collective insurance; (2) structural reinforcement with a comprehensive housing insurance; and (3) hybrid parametric insurance. Risk transfer mechanisms conventionally focus on residual risk management. Here, due to the precariousness of the analyzed urban settings, the proposed alternatives go beyond the management of just residual risk to positively impact the beneficiaries’ quality of life and the reduction of the built environment’s physical vulnerability in the short and medium terms. Our study proposes a prospective estimation of future risk despite the limitations of data availability. This study opens a window to new approaches and proposes a systematic process to design DRR policy aimed at the poor and vulnerable strata of society.

A geospatial analysis of multi-hazard risk in Dharan, Nepal

Natural hazard risk assessment generally focuses on a single hazard type, such as earthquakes, landslides, or floods. This emphasis tends to consider physical processes in isolation. However, most locations are simultaneously at risk to multiple, interacting hazards that generate cascading effects or synergies. Although scholars have proposed a multi-hazard risk framework based on probabilities, the quality and quantity of data required for such an approach are often unavailable in developing countries. Using geospatial and socioeconomic data, this study represents a first step in assessing multi-hazard risk in the city of Dharan, Nepal. Three hazards—landslides, floods, and earthquakes—were considered for an integrated hazard assessment using statistical methods and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). We employed a Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI) to create a vulnerability map of the study area, which was then combined with a multi-hazard hazard map to produce a total risk map. Our results indicate that eastern Dharan along the Seuti River and southwestern Dharan on the left bank of the Sardu River are at high risk to multiple hazards. Central Dharan and the hills in the western portion of the city are categorized as low risk areas. Data limitations, such as availability and spatial resolution, did not allow for dynamic modeling; however, our results identified the spatial extent of low to high risk areas, which can inform future disaster planning. For example, the methodology and results of this study could assist in the development of disaster risk reduction programs and policies.

Landslide risk perception survey in Angra dos Reis (Rio de Janeiro, southeastern Brazil): A contribution to support planning of non structural measures

The increasing magnitude and frequency of landslide-related disasters exposes weaknesses in disaster risk reduction (DRR) policy. One of the underlying reasons is that DRR policies tend to focus only on the physical aspects of the problem (i.e. mass movement processes) while neglecting the level of vulnerability of exposed populations to landslide threats, which affects the types and magnitude of adverse consequences. This neglect is a typical symptom of the remoteness that can exist between public administrators and local communities and undermines the implementation of participatory risk management. Certain dimensions of vulnerability depend on how communities relate to the issue of disasters based on their intuitive or rational judgment, i.e. their perception of risk. This paper seeks to shed light on the need for an understanding of risk perception based on the findings from a survey of residents in the city of Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to be taken into account in aiming at a more efficient landslide risk management policy. The survey was carried out through semi-structured face-to-face interviews with residents of three typical hillside communities in this municipality. In general, the study found that residents will often weigh landslide risks against other threats and opportunities existing where they live. It also found that community members find it difficult to see themselves as agents of change in the environment where they live and in mitigating landslide risks, and that better communication is needed between the government agencies involved in risk management and local residents.

Monitoring progress of the Sendai Framework using a geospatial model: The example of people affected by agricultural droughts in Eastern Cape, South Africa

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) was adopted by 187 countries and offers a tangible agenda for evidence-based policy for disaster risk reduction as an integral part of the overall post-2015 global development agenda. The progress of implementation of the seven Global Sendai Targets at the national level is tracked by a set of 38 indicators. However, despite the formal commitment, the majority of countries is currently not in the position to monitor the implementation of the Global Targets. The lack of information on disaster-related loss and damage is mainly due to gaps in data availability, quality, and accessibility, which impairs an accurate, timely and high quality monitoring process. This research addressed this gap by developing a model approach, which aimed at “translating” indicators described by the technical guidance of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) into a geospatial procedure which builds on remote sensing data, climate data, land cover and land use data, agricultural statistics and population census data. With this geospatial model approach, we quantified indicators of the SFDRR for Target B “number of people affected” for the example of agricultural drought in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa in a spatially explicit way. We conducted a media content analysis to generate proxy reference data for evaluation of the model results. In addition, we explored the sensitivity of the model using three different input data on drought hazard, namely the Vegetation Condition Index (VCI), the Standard Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) and the combination of these. The spatial distribution of number of people affected corresponded very well with reference data from the media content analysis; however, model results were very sensitive to different hazard input data. This geospatial model based on remote sensing and geostatistical data is to the best of our knowledge the first attempt to measure Sendai indicators in the absence of national loss and damage databases and provides a unique opportunity to support many countries in implementing the framework. Due to its retrospective nature, even a baseline measure of the indicators can be derived as a reference for monitoring progress. However, the model needs to be further validated in order to qualify the underlying assumptions made to determine thresholds of people being affected. Future research should transfer this model to different hazard contexts to allow hazard-specific monitoring of loss and damage in order to develop targeted disaster risk reduction measures.

Analysis of the Attitude Within Asia-Pacific Countries Towards Disaster Risk Reduction: Text Mining of the Official Statements of 2018 Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction

This study aims to investigate the attitude within Asia-Pacific countries towards disaster risk reduction (DRR) through text mining of the official statements of the 2018 Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction. The official statements can be considered as a proxy of the participating countries’ stances on DRR. As methodology, four different kinds of text mining techniques were adopted; namely, word frequency list, hierarchical cluster analysis, co-occurrence network, and correspondence analysis for the sake of quantitative content analysis. Consequently, the word frequency list showed that words such as “development (develop)” and “climate change” seemed to be distinctive of the conference focusing on DRR issues. The result of hierarchical cluster analysis seemed to imply that the participating countries, namely their governments, had appeared to be keen to implement the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (SFDRR) along with their national DRR policies and to connect DRR with their development, while climate change had not been directly linked to the SFDRR and was stated as another global issue closely related to DRR. Considering that the SFDRR is closely related to the SDGs and the Paris Agreement, the observation of these contrasting results of the text mining analysis is a noteworthy finding. The result is also consistent with that of the co-occurrence network. The result of the correspondence analysis implied that the statement announced by Japan had appeared to have a characteristic feature in comparison to other statements. One possible reason for this is that there was no explicit reference to climate change, while the countries faced with disasters caused by climate change, such as those in the Pacific Islands, tended to focus on it.

Collaborative Governance In The Reduction Of Earthquake And Tsunami Disaster Risks In Bengkulu City

This study analyzes Collaborative governance in the earthquake and tsunami Disaster Risk Reduction Policy (DRR). Collaborative governance analysis in disaster risk reduction policy uses Ratner's Collaborative Governance Stages (2012) theory, which includes Identifying Obstacles and Opportunities, Debating Strategies for Influence and Planning Collaborative Actions
 Disaster Risk Reduction for Earthquake and Tsunami Disasters has been carried out in the City of Bengkulu which is located on the west coast of the island of Sumatra. Various institutions have developed DRR, with their respective patterns and limited coordination. Collaborative governance foundation has been carried out and needs to be developed strategically as an alternative implementation and development of more effective policies and management.
 The findings in this study that Collaboration on DRR The earthquake and tsunami in Bengkulu City were in the pilot stage, which provided the initial foundation for developing DRR policy implementation. There are obstacles in DRR implementation and management, which require strategic collaboration for the development of DRR effectively and equitably and continuously. Collaborative follow-up needs to be done with the establishment of a permanent forum that is needed flexibly, by avoiding a strict hierarchical structure or using organization horizontally, so that it can accommodate and utilize various stakeholders' potential optimally.