Effective Disaster Risk Reduction Research Articles

Quality Of Life And Life Satisfaction Of Displaced Persons Living In Tokyo, Japan -The Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Accident

Japan has the world’s highest proportion of older people. To better prepare the future disaster incidents for older people, identifying challenges in the their lives is critical for effective disaster risk reduction. Technological disasters such like the nuclear power have a long- term impact on the health of the affected population than natural disasters. The purpose of this study is to gain a detailed understanding challenges of displaced older people in technological disaster situation. We carried out with twelve older people who have been moved in Tokyo. Respondents seek opportunities to talk with their friends and felt that their interactions with others were reduced. The reason why they lost their community and relationship neighbors from when they have evacuated. A majority of respondents reported that their life activities has changed after taking refuge in Tokyo.

WeShareIt Game: Strategic Foresight for Climate-change Induced Disaster Risk Reduction

Nile Basin policy makers, at all levels, are constantly making quick decisions to address emergencies. The decisions are made in the context of a complex, uncertain, ever-changing and highly volatile basin. However, for these decisions to take into account future uncertainties, like climate-change induced disasters, policy makers need to enhance their capacity in strategic foresight. Strategic foresight helps them make more robust decisions that take into account deep uncertainties and thus buffer the basin from future natural disasters. The authors explore the contribution of serious gaming in enhancing the Nile Basin policy makers’ capacity on strategic foresight. They present the findings from the application of a game-based, experimental study of a serious game known as WeShareIt. WeShareIt was played in Nairobi on 22 October 2015 by 11 participants from the Kenyan Ministry of Water and Irrigation and Moi University Centre for Public Sector Reforms. Data on the added value and contribution of the game to increased strategic foresight and disaster risk reduction were collected using pre-game, in-game and post-game questionnaires, together with a debriefing session and observations. The analysis shows that strategic foresight is an important element for effective disaster risk reduction. Observations in the game-based intervention provided evidence that the participants engaged in short term quick decision making and were not prepared for life-threatening natural disasters. The results of the experiment support the conclusion that serious gaming may be an effective and promising method for enhancing the capacity of policy makers on strategic foresight so as to prepare them for future climate induced natural disasters.

What to Expect After Sendai: Looking Forward to More Effective Disaster Risk Reduction

The Sendai Framework represents the most complete international policy instrument on disaster risk reduction to date. It complements and updates the Hyogo Framework and provides comprehensive guidance to governments, but also to other organizations, NGOs, the private sector, local authorities, and academic institutions in their efforts to reduce risk related with natural hazards. Nevertheless, policy guidelines are only that, guidelines for political and community leaders to use in their work of guiding and facilitating actual work at various levels, in various sectors, and with multiple stakeholders. It is leadership and management capacities that are required for actually effecting change in any society, be it at the local, national, or even international level. Internationally agreed guidelines are applied in different ways and with different approaches by individuals and organizations around the world. The differences are mainly due to the availability, or not, of aware and competent leaders and managers whose teamwork can introduce changes in any given community to address risk reduction in an effective manner. Therefore, institutions responsible for policy and education on disaster risk reduction—in particular, governments, NGOs, international organizations, and academic institutions—need to focus on identifying and supporting existing competent leaders and managers and using their work as a model to promote elsewhere, in locations where such capacities are still not fully developed. Rather than address the many valuable recommendations the Sendai Framework contains, I wish to focus in this brief commentary on the framework’s shortcomings and, in particular, on the most urgent tasks that need to be undertaken. Among the shortcomings, three main issues appear to be missing: prioritization in the implementation of the recommended actions; quantified targets; and a plan for the implementation of the framework.

Declining vulnerability to river floods and the global benefits of adaptation

The global impacts of river floods are substantial and rising. Effective adaptation to the increasing risks requires an in-depth understanding of the physical and socioeconomic drivers of risk. Whereas the modeling of flood hazard and exposure has improved greatly, compelling evidence on spatiotemporal patterns in vulnerability of societies around the world is still lacking. Due to this knowledge gap, the effects of vulnerability on global flood risk are not fully understood, and future projections of fatalities and losses available today are based on simplistic assumptions or do not include vulnerability. We show for the first time (to our knowledge) that trends and fluctuations in vulnerability to river floods around the world can be estimated by dynamic high-resolution modeling of flood hazard and exposure. We find that rising per-capita income coincided with a global decline in vulnerability between 1980 and 2010, which is reflected in decreasing mortality and losses as a share of the people and gross domestic product exposed to inundation. The results also demonstrate that vulnerability levels in low- and high-income countries have been converging, due to a relatively strong trend of vulnerability reduction in developing countries. Finally, we present projections of flood losses and fatalities under 100 individual scenario and model combinations, and three possible global vulnerability scenarios. The projections emphasize that materialized flood risk largely results from human behavior and that future risk increases can be largely contained using effective disaster risk reduction strategies.

Twitter as a Potential Disaster Risk Reduction Tool. Part II: Descriptive Analysis of Identified Twitter Activity during the 2013 Hattiesburg F4 Tornado.

Background: This article describes a novel triangulation methodological approach for identifying twitter activity of regional active twitter users during the 2013 Hattiesburg EF-4 Tornado.Methodology: A data extraction and geographically centered filtration approach was utilized to generate Twitter data for 48 hrs pre- and post-Tornado. The data was further validated using six sigma approach utilizing GPS data. Results: The regional analysis revealed a total of 81,441 tweets, 10,646 Twitter users, 27,309 retweets and 2637 tweets with GPS coordinates.Conclusions: Twitter tweet activity increased 5 fold during the response to the Hattiesburg Tornado. Retweeting activity increased 2.2 fold. Tweets with a hashtag increased 1.4 fold. Twitter was an effective disaster risk reduction tool for the Hattiesburg EF-4 Tornado 2013.

Twitter as a Potential Disaster Risk Reduction Tool. Part IV: Competency-based Education and Training Guidelines to Promote Community Resiliency.

Twitter can be an effective tool for disaster risk reduction but gaps in education and training exist in current public health and disaster management educational competency standards. Eleven core public health and disaster management competencies are proposed that incorporate Twitter as a tool for effective disaster risk reduction. Greater funding is required to promote the education and training of this tool for those in professional schools and in the current public health and disaster management workforce.

Governance struggles and policy processes in disaster risk reduction: A case study from Nepal

In the neo-liberal climate of reduced responsibility for the state, alongside global platforms established to implement the Hyogo Framework for Action, a new arena opens for a multitude of stakeholders to engage in disaster risk reduction (DRR). The key role that the state can play in instituting effective DRR tends to receive little attention, yet in situations where the state apparatus is weak, such as in Nepal, it becomes evident that integrating DRR into development is a particularly challenging task. Due to the political situation in Nepal, progress has been stalled in providing a legislative context conducive to effective DRR. This paper traces the evolution of key DRR initiatives that have been developed in spite of the challenging governance context, such as the National Strategy for Disaster Risk Management and the Nepal Risk Reduction Consortium. Informed by in-depth interviews with key informants, the argument is made that the dedicated efforts of national and international non-governmental organisations, multilateral agencies and donors in mainstreaming DRR demonstrate that considerable progress can be made even where government departments are protective of their own interests and are slow to enact policies to support DRR. The paper suggests however, that without stronger engagement of key political actors the prospects for further progress in DRR may be limited. The findings have implications for other post-conflict countries or weak states engaging in DRR.

An Ecological Risk Management and Capacity Building Model

Worldwide, natural and human ecosystems are increasingly subjected to natural hazards due to global environmental change. Because these threats reflect interaction between social and ecological systems, effective Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) can best be accomplished by increasing community capacity to mitigate, cope with, adapt to, and recover from hazard consequences by developing DRR strategies that accommodate natural and human ecosystem interdependency. One reason of the widespread ineffectiveness in preparedness has been the neglect of environment/community interactions, and how community and individual variables interact with each other. To address this gap an all-hazard and inter-disciplinary literature review was conducted that synergized and integrated individual-level and environment/community-level factors. Based on the review a social-ecological model was developed. This model identifies a multitude of variables operating across a wide range of dimensions (i.e., individual, historical, physical/natural, social, spiritual/religious, economic, political) and different scales (i.e., individual, household, community organisations, businesses, local government, state government). Based on the review a holistic ecological all-hazard inter-disciplinary risk management and capacity building model was developed that describes how these factors interact to influence risk management and adaptive capacities. This holistic model provides a foundation and rationale for facilitating the capacity of all stakeholders in at-risk areas to develop comprehensive social-ecological relationships and researchers to investigate human-environment interactions in depth.

Where there is no local government: addressing disaster risk reduction in a small town in Malawi

Disaster risk reduction (DRR) has become a major area of concern in the wake of increasing numbers of disasters. With rapid urbanization, both globally and locally, attention to the challenge of disaster risks has turned to urban settlements, where high densities and settlement patterns can, and do, create vulnerabilities. This paper presents an analysis of the hazards and risks that the town of Karonga in Malawi faces from earthquakes, floods, strong winds and drought, and considers locally appropriate methods to address these. It also discusses the limits of collaborative urban planning in this context, especially in light of the absence of an elected local government. Lessons from Karonga can inform the development of effective DRR mainstreaming tools in countries reliant on external support.

A revision of communication strategies for effective disaster risk reduction: A case study of the South Durban basin, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

The study examined how effective forms of communication are, or could be, impacting themore traditional forms of emergency and disaster management communication throughthe print and electronic media and how an integrated communication strategy involving allstakeholders could prove to be successful. This study was of an exploratory and descriptivenature, using a case study of the South Durban basin to demonstrate how media analysis,community discussions and internal and external evaluations of current practices in use bymajor industrial players in the basin has thus far failed to reach its full potential for effectivedisaster risk reduction. Strongly emerging from this study was the finding that, as a resultof these evaluations, new systems are now being planned to incorporate social media as anintegral part of an overall communication strategy, which could have far-reaching implicationsfor corporate communicators and strategic planners.

New Framework for Developing Disaster Risk Reduction Plans for Delta Cities — An Application on Chittagong City, Bangladesh

Deltas are the acme of the living environment, a promising place with the diversified ecosystem and that is why historically most important cities have been established in the coastal delta region. On the contrary, due to the geo-morphic characteristics, these regions are extremely vulnerable for hydro-meteorological hazards especially flooding. Additionally, climate change, rapid urbanization and subsidence are exacerbating the existing situation and causing massive loss. Recognizing this increased risk of flooding in the delta region, the study is aiming at developing a framework for formulating Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) plan. The methods include an identification of various strategies, policies and measures of DRR and correlate those with different factors that can influence the adoption of those measures. Eleven delta city’s DRR plans including strategies, policies and measures have been reviewed to develop the framework. The framework has been applied for the study area Chittagong, Bangladesh. Findings show that protecting cities from flooding and reducing exposure to floods are two different but interrelated strategies of DRR. Combinations of structural and non-structural measures are the prerequisite to achieve effective DRR. The study further shows that the adoption of appropriate DRR measure depends on some prevailing factors related to geography, climate, risk magnitude and so forth. Cities should take into account those factors while deciding on DRR measures.

Spatial vulnerability assessment of floods in the coastal regions of Bangladesh

Vulnerability assessment is considered as a key step towards effective disaster risk reduction. It is multi-dimensional, and its assessment is complicated due to the social, economic, political, and institutional patterns of societies. The demand for comprehensive vulnerability assessments including a spatial differentiation of vulnerability is high. In this study, a methodology for the spatial vulnerability assessment of floods in the coastal regions of Bangladesh is developed. For a 706 km2 area in the Sundarbans Reserve Forest and its surroundings 12 vulnerability domains are defined and 44 indicators are developed. These indicators are ranked by 20 local experts through an analytic hierarchy process (AHP). All data-sets are transformed into 100 m resolution raster (grid) data-sets in a geographic information system (GIS). This grid approach surmounts the problems of data availability and different data scales, and allows the inclusion of indicators for the social dimension. A spatial vulnerability assessment is carried out using GIS weighted overlay. The resulting maps and figures reveal both the extents and levels of vulnerabilities. The assessment maps are validated by local experts visually, and by using maps of past floods. Ultimately, the transferability of this approach to other contexts is discussed.

Creating a disaster resilient built environment in urban cities

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the role and challenges for Sri Lankan local governments in creating a disaster resilient built environment within urban Sri Lankan cities.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on a literature review and a case study conducted in the Batticaloa city of Sri Lanka, supported by expert interviews among local and other government officials, policy makers, practitioners and academics who are engaged in disaster management and urban planning within the country.FindingsThe literature and empirical data reveal that local governments are facing a number of challenges in contributing to making cities resilient to disasters. Some of the issues that have emerged are inadequate financial and human resource capabilities; a lack of knowledge of disaster risks and vulnerabilities; the need for long‐term political commitment; a lack of focus on pre‐disaster planning; inadequate legislative authority; a lack of clear cut responsibilities and coordination among agencies; and a lack of involvement in major development activities, physical planning and regulation of land use. It is important to address these challenges faced by local governments in creating a disaster resilient built environment in a holistic manner to ensure effective disaster risk reduction within cities.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper is based on partial findings of research which aims to explore and propose mechanisms to empower the Sri Lankan local governments to make cities more resilient to disasters, within the context of the built environment.Originality/valueThe paper identifies the weaknesses of the current institutional arrangements in place for creating a disaster resilient built environment in Sri Lanka and highlights the challenges faced by a local government in creating a disaster resilient built environment within a Sri Lankan city.

Dynamics of configuring and interpreting the disaster risk script: Experiences from Zimbabwe

People in Zimbabwe have been faced with disasters in different forms and at various levels. When people experience hazard events and disasters, they perceive these phenomena through lenses that are largely shaped by their local day-to-day experiences and some external influence. As they do this, they develop their own local conception of hazards and disasters, and they tend to model their response or preparedness through this. This article argues that on the basis of this premise, each society therefore develops its own unique and localised way of interpreting the disaster, which comes in the form of a ‘script’, that needs to be deciphered, read, analysed and understood within local priorities and knowledge systems. The hazard may be the same, say, fire, but as it occurs in different communities, they configure and read the fire script differently, hence spawning different response and prevention strategies. The way people anticipate, prepare for, and respond to a particular disaster stems from their perception of it, based on their own local conceptions of reality. The article argues that effective disaster risk reduction must focus on people’s holistic understanding of the unfolding scenario, thereby feeding into disaster risk early warning systems. For effective understanding of the utility of early warning systems, the socio-cultural processes involved in the ideation of the disaster cannot be ignored. It is also critical to examine people’s past experiences with external early warning systems, and how much faith they put in them.

Measuring vulnerability to natural hazards: a macro framework

The measurement of vulnerability--defined here as the asymmetric response of disaster occurrences to hazardous events--signifies a key step towards effective disaster risk reduction and the promotion of a culture of disaster resilience. One of the reasons for not being able to do the same in a wider context is related to conceptual, definitional, and operational issues. This paper presents an operationally feasible framework for conducting this task and measures revealed macro vulnerability as a function of disaster risk and hazard probability. The probabilities of hazard and its perceived disaster risk were obtained from past data and from probability distributions. In this paper, the corresponding analytical framework is constructed using the case study of floods in Assam, India. The proposed indicator will help policymakers to draw on available macro-level data to identify the regions that are vulnerable to disasters, where micro-level disaster vulnerability assessments could be performed in greater detail.

Catastrophe Risk Models for Evaluating Disaster Risk Reduction Investments in Developing Countries

Major natural disasters in recent years have had high human and economic costs, and triggered record high postdisaster relief from governments and international donors. Given the current economic situation worldwide, selecting the most effective disaster risk reduction (DRR) measures is critical. This is especially the case for low- and middle-income countries, which have suffered disproportionally more economic and human losses from disasters. This article discusses a methodology that makes use of advanced probabilistic catastrophe models to estimate benefits of DRR measures. We apply such newly developed models to generate estimates for hurricane risk on residential structures on the island of St. Lucia, and earthquake risk on residential structures in Istanbul, Turkey, as two illustrative case studies. The costs and economic benefits for selected risk reduction measures are estimated taking account of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability. We conclude by emphasizing the advantages and challenges of catastrophe model-based cost-benefit analyses for DRR in developing countries.

Child participation and disaster risk reduction

It has been shown that child participation can have positive results in the rescue, relief and rehabilitation phases of a disaster. Currently child participation is achieving increased attention as a component of disaster risk reduction (DRR). This paper examines the ongoing dialogues on child participation and reviews pertinent literature describing effective DRR outcomes within diverse contexts. A myriad of factors such as gender, age, socio-economic status, caste, religion and geographic location play a role in socialising children into particular ways of being. These factors are considered in light of the ways in which they may influence opportunities for children to participate in DRR and other activities in meaningful ways. The roles of adults in facilitating or preventing child participation, with particular regard to complex power structures and attitudes towards children's rights, are also discussed. Drawing out the potential implications of these factors calls for analyses of attitudes and possible restructuring of societal systems at several levels to enhance child participation. Planning for DRR may represent a crucial sequeway for challenging social norms and promoting equity, inclusion and participation – for children and other groups. This paper explores the role of child participation in DRR plans and practices, and identifies directions for developing an evidence base to support this potentially significant connection.

The value of a Pacific-wide tsunami database to risk reduction: putting theory into practice

AbstractThe recent 2011 Tōhoku Tsunami showed yet again the devastating impact that these events can have on coastal communities. Even prior to the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami there had been a growing awareness of the need to document a record of past tsunamis for risk reduction purposes. The bulk of such early databases were based on historical data. Only in recent years have palaeotsunami databases started to be collated. When one considers that the Pacific region accounts for 85% of known historical tsunamis worldwide, it is unsettling that we have only documented 11 palaeotsunamis throughout all Pacific Island countries (PICs). The way forward to enhance our understanding of palaeotsunamis, and to better understand the magnitude and frequency of events from local, regional and distant Pacific sources, is to gather data from each PIC. By collating data from each island it should be possible to map the spatial and temporal distribution of past events over the last several thousand years throughout the entire Pacific region. These data will provide the essential baseline information needed for achieving more effective disaster risk reduction for PICs.

The Importance of Explicit Discussions of What is Valuable in Efforts to Reduce Disaster Risk: A Case Study from Fiji

This article argues for the importance of explicit discussions of what is valuable as a foundation for any disaster risk reduction initiative to be effective. It does so by stating that it is impossible to talk about risk at all if not having some notion of uncertain potential impacts on something that humans value. What is assumed as valuable and important to protect is then determining what hazards that are relevant in this context etc. However, this is rarely explicitly debated in contemporary disaster risk reduction, indicating a common assumption that all stakeholders implicitly agree in this matter. Such assumption may hold with only a few involved individuals, but is shown in an empirical study in Fiji as unlikely to be valid in any more participatory approaches to disaster risk reduction. In order to facilitate effective disaster risk reduction in such contexts it is important to start by involving the stakeholders in an explicit discussion of what is valuable in their specific context. Without such discussion there is a risk that stakeholders unintentionally impede each other’s efforts by pursuing different goals.

Coping strategies and risk manageability: using participatory geographical information systems to represent local knowledge

The accumulated knowledge and perceptions of communities 'at risk' are key elements in managing disaster risk at the local level. This paper demonstrates that local knowledge of flood hazards can be structured systematically into geographic information system (GIS) outputs. When combined with forecasting models and risk scenarios, they strengthen the legitimacy of local knowledge of at-risk populations. This is essential for effective disaster risk reduction practices by external actors, local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and municipal authorities. The research focused on understanding coping strategies and 'manageability' of flood hazards as defined by communities. 'Manageability' is how people experience flooding in relation to their household capacity and the coping mechanisms available. The research in the Philippines highlights the significance of localised factors, including socioeconomic resources, livelihoods, seasonality and periodicity, for understanding manageability. The manageability concept improves practice at the municipal level by legitimising local coping strategies, providing better indicators, and developing understanding of flooding as a recurrent threat.