Impact Of Disasters Research Articles

IPV and disasters: A systematic review of the literature of risk factors and interventions

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pressing issue and a global concern around the world. Moreover, there is solid evidence in the literature on the relationship between women's physical and mental health, the risk of IPV and the impact of disasters. This review examines the available literature to better understand how disasters and vio-lence against women in couple relationships are related and what risk factors and in-terventions might play a role in this. 29 articles were analysed. The inclusion criteria were: (1) English-language papers, (2) studies of IPV in the context of disasters, (3) published in indexed journals, (4) focused exclusively on intimate partner violence, and (5) with a sample of only women as the data source. The findings highlighted some key issues, such as prevalence, risk factors and recommendations, emphasising the importance of implementing specific assessment strategies and targeted interven-tions to prevent negative outcomes.

A National Disaster Medicine Quality Management Tool in an International Context – A Theoretical Study

Abstract The impact of disasters is changing, with disaster events becoming more complex and often affecting multiple countries simultaneously. Despite this, quality management systems have not yet been established in the field of disaster medicine. The German research project QUARZ-SAND, developed a national disaster medicine quality management system and an online registry. This theoretical study ascertains the current state of quality management in disaster medicine and compares existing initiatives to QUARZ-SAND and highlights advantages and synergies in the pooling of incident data, in view of improving resilience to national and transboundary disaster events. A systematic literature research was conducted on December 18, 2020 in the databases PubMed and LIVIVO. Existing disaster medicine quality management tools were identified and compared with QUARZ-SAND. It was determined that a lot of effort is still needed to get to an internationally accepted common standard and a tool such as a registry for evaluating medical disaster responses. A first step toward the establishment of a registry is the development of a standardized data set.

Culture and effectiveness of distance restriction policies: evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Natural disasters bring indelible negative impacts to human beings, and people usually adopt some post hoc strategies to alleviate such impacts. However, the same strategies may have different effects in different countries (or regions), which is rarely paid attention by the academic community. In the context of COVID-19, we examine the effect of distance restriction policies (DRP) on reducing human mobility and thus inhibiting the spread of the virus. By establishing a multi-period difference-in-differences model to analyse the unique panel dataset constructed by 44 countries, we show that DRP does significantly reduce mobility, but the effectiveness varies from country to country. We built a moderating effect model to explain the differences from the cultural perspective and found that DRP can be more effective in reducing human mobility in countries with a lower indulgence index. The results remain robust when different sensitivity analyses are performed. Our conclusions call for governments to adapt their policies to the impact of disasters rather than copy each other.

Impact of the Sewol Ferry Disaster on Physical Changes: Focused on BMI

This study aims to empirically verify whether disasters affect physical changes, linking research on the effects of disasters on psychology and the effects of psychology on physical changes. It focused on the Sewol ferry disaster, and physical changes were tracked from 2010 to 2018, including the four years before and after the disaster in 2014. We constructed panel data on obesity rates from 229 local governments and used longitudinal data to analyze the impact of large disasters on changes in obesity rates over time. The results indicated that the Sewol Ferry Disaster had a long-term effect on the increase in obesity rate over time. In the directly affected areas of Ansan and Jindo, there was not only a long-term increase but also an immediate increase in the obesity rate. The findings of this study provide an opportunity to expand our understanding of the impact of disasters on society, and can also serve as foundational data for national and local disaster-related long-term impact support policies.

Basic Concepts of Disaster Management and Hazard Risk Vulnerability Profile of Gurgaon Based on District Disaster Management Plan 2020

To understand the process of disaster risk reduction and disaster management it is very important to know the usage meaning and difference between the basic concepts of disaster management. While hazard refers to probable event that can occur, disaster is actual occurrence of the event. Any event becomes a disaster after occurrence when it has very wide impact in terms of loss of life, injury to people, damage and destruction of physical structures and environment. Similarly, vulnerability is situation it can be physical, social or economic but risk is calculation of probable impact of disaster. Capacity improvement can lower the vulnerability, lower the risk and lower the total impact of disaster. Capacity improvement by building strong structures and creating awareness among communities will help in building a resilient society to cope with disasters. In this paper we tried to understand the meaning of these basic concept with illustrations from District Disaster Management Plan 2020 of Gurgaon District of Haryana

The Role of Political Uncertainty in Climate-Related Disaster Impacts on Financial Markets

This research presents a new model for analyzing the effects of government policies on climatic disasters on financial markets. Using Fama–MacBeth rolling regressions and the construction of model-proposed risk factors, three major risk factors are found to be significant in explaining stock returns. First, there is the risk of climate disasters. Second, there is the risk of uncertainty regarding government actions. Third, there is the risk of government response to climatic disasters. Through the increase in the cost of capital from climate disasters and the uncertainty of government response, the future cost of capital is higher, leading to less investment and lower productivity. However, the government’s actions to compensate for losses due to climate damage help offset the damages from disasters. This implies that the previous estimates of economic damages due to climate risk have been underestimated. This work adds to the literature by providing a fuller estimate of the economic implications of climate change

Human losses due to climate-related disasters: an urgent call for quality control

Abstract Missing data in climate impact databases are a source of major bias in disaster impact analyses and can mislead policy making. EMDAT, an international reference data source on disaster impacts, is often used without much quality control or consideration of data gaps. Ignoring these gaps undermines both the evaluation of disaster risk management activities and the evidence base for global policies for early warnings and disaster risk reduction. EMDAT, considered a key data source on climate extremes and their human impacts, records casualty information for only one in three climatological disasters. In this study, we provide insights into the missing data, highlighting the importance of data quality control to account for bias. Understanding where and why data is missing provides insights into whether trends can be attributed to true progress in disaster risk reduction or are merely statistical artifacts. We also underline the pressing need for harmonization across other databases that are relevant for measuring the human impact of climate disasters and suggest new technologies to fill gaps. As major resource investments were requested during COP 28 (2023) to attenuate the impact of future disasters, more complete and convincing data on climate disasters and human impacts will be needed to better identify the efficiency of countermeasures.

Rapid Emergency Response Resilience Assessment of Highway Bridge Networks under Moderate Earthquakes

Quick post-disaster emergency response of highway bridge networks (HBNs) is vital to alleviating the impact of disasters in affected areas. Nevertheless, achieving their emergency response resilience remains challenging due to the difficulty in accurately capturing the response capacity of HBNs and rapidly evaluating the damage states of regional bridges. This study delves into the emergency response, seismic resilience, and recovery scheduling of HBNs subjected to frequent yet mostly ignored moderate earthquakes. Firstly, the feasibility of intelligent methods is explored as a substitute for nonlinear time-history analysis of regional bridges. Subsequently, for realistic modeling of post-disaster HBNs, a decision tree model is developed to determine potential traffic restrictions imposed on damaged bridges. Moreover, their emergency response functionalities are thoroughly investigated, upon which a comprehensive multi-dimensional resilience metric vector is proposed. Finally, the proposed methodologies are applied to the Sioux Falls HBN as a case study, revealing a decreasing mean value and increasing deviation values in the long term. The results are expected to provide important theoretical and practical emergency response guidance.

Are Disaster Impact Estimates Distorted by Errors in Popular Night-Time Lights Data?

Satellite-detected night lights data are widely used to evaluate economic impacts of disasters. Growing evidence from elsewhere in applied economics suggests that impact estimates are potentially distorted when popular Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) night lights data are used. The low resolution DMSP sensor provides blurred and top-coded images compared to those from the newer and more precise Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) images. Despite this, some disaster impact studies continue to use DMSP data, which have also been given a new lease of life through the use of harmonized series linking DMSP and VIIRS data to provide a longer sample. We examine whether use of DMSP data affects evaluations, using expected typhoon damages in the Philippines from 2012–19 as our case study. With DMSP data, negative impacts on economic activity from expected damages at the municipality level appear over 50% larger than when the VIIRS data are used. The DMSP data give the appearance of greater spatial autocorrelation in luminosity and through this channel may tend to spread apparent spatial impacts of shocks. Harmonized data that adjust VIIRS images to be like the DMSP data also have this spurious autocorrelation so researchers should be cautious in using these data for disaster assessments.

Impact of Natural Disasters on Mental Health and Behavioral Changes

Impact of Natural Disasters on Mental Health and Behavioral Changes

The TransIRIO model: Capturing the economic ripple effect of different economic behaviours in post-disaster emergency - Recovery - Reconstruction

Existing models for assessing the indirect economic impact of disasters typically focus on the economic impact of post-disaster reconstruction and ignore the repercussions of the periodic characteristics of disaster management; thus, these models rarely capture the full indirect economic impact of disasters. In response, this study develops the TransIRIO model, which captures the amplified impacts of emergency rescue, transportation interruption and reconstruction on demand during the emergency - recovery - reconstruction. The balancing of adaptive behaviours, such as creating an inventory buffer, price elasticity, import/export control strategies, and distribution optimization is explored, and the intelligent response behaviour of interregional industrial entities in post-disaster management is assessed. We apply the TransIRIO model to simulate the propagation of impacts across 31 provinces in mainland China following the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake. Our results found that previous assessment models that did not consider specific social activities during emergency rescue underestimated the indirect economic impact of disasters to some extent, and that underscored the importance of incorporating the spatially distributed and networked characteristics of transportation systems into supply-demand chain-based economic models. This study not only presents a novel approach to economic modelling but also provides valuable insights for policymakers and researchers engaged in post-disaster recovery planning.

Innovation in Disaster Mitigation Communication Model, Coordination, and Digital Literacy after the Cianjur Earthquake Disaster

Indonesia is vulnerable to natural disasters, including earthquake. Earthquake has an impact on the community including environmental, property, and psychological damage as well as loss of life. Such an impact also happened to earthquake-stricken Cianjur in West Java, which required disaster mitigation and digital literacy to deal with it. The aim of this research is to determine innovations in disaster mitigation communication models, coordination and digital literacy after the Cianjur earthquake. This is a form of handling the impact of a natural disaster before and after it occurs. The theory used in this research is Haddow Disaster Communication focusing on customer focus, leadership commitment, situational awareness, and media partnership. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative conducted by collecting data through field observations, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The results of this research are innovations in disaster mitigation communication models to become disaster mitigation models in Cianjur in the future, know the coordination paths between the parties and the community in case of a disaster, and provide digital literacy for the people of Cianjur through emergency response call centers and WA groups to disseminate information to the public. The efforts of the parties involved in disaster mitigation aim to help the community reduce the risk of disaster affecting physical development, increase the ability of the community in disaster risk mitigation and get an understanding of the community’s access to disaster information.

The Impact of Natural Disasters on Corporate ESG Performance: Evidence from China

Over the past decades, the frequency and economic losses from natural disasters have continued to escalate globally. Disasters pose significant challenges to global sustainable economic and social development. As a critical part of the economy, a firm’s ESG performance is a key indicator of sustainability. Whereas the determinants of firms’ ESG (environmental, social, and governance) performance have gained growing attention, limited research focuses on the impact of natural disasters on ESG performance. This paper provides the first empirical study on the short-, medium-, and long-term impacts of natural disasters on firms’ ESG performance through the lensof earthquakes. By exploiting a difference-in-differences approach based on panel data of Chinese listed firms and a dataset of seismic events, this paper shows that earthquakes have a significant positive impact on affected firms’ ESG performance, with short-term positive effects on environmental and social performance and long-term positive effects on social and governance performance. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the positive effects are more pronounced for state-owned firms, relatively smaller firms, and firms located in cities with frequent earthquake occurrences. This study highlights the distinct temporal effects on different ESG dimensions and provides new insights for policymakers to employ ESG practices to alleviate the negative effects of disasters.

Sociopolitical Impact of a Natural Disaster

Drawing on primary historical sources and secondary paleoclimatic data, this paper examines the significant ‘snow disaster’ (gangs skyon) that occurred in the Nagchu region of Northwestern Tibet in 1828. It places this event within the context of the ‘Little Ice Age’, a globally cold period. By analysing reports of natural disasters exchanged between the Ganden Podrang Government and local administrators, the paper argues that the snow disaster led to an ‘unprecedented’ ecological and economic crisis. This crisis resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of livestock and triggered various social and economic catastrophes. It also highlights that the Tibetan government responded by providing relief measures, including the suspension of yearly taxes. Notably, the Qing court extended substantial aid, facilitating the acquisition and replacement of livestock. This study underscores how a single climatic event can contribute to triggering various socio-political challenges in societies that are more exposed to vulnerabilities.

Combined membrane separation and photocatalysis process for the recovery and decomposition of micro/nanoplastics from polyester fabrics

The mismanagement of plastic waste has had a disastrous impact on the aquatic and terrestrial environment This study aims to develop and evaluate an innovative system for treating polyester-polluted water by combining membrane separation and photocatalytic processes. The research objective is to concentrate polyester fibers using membrane technologies and subsequently decompose them through a photocatalytic process using different oxidants, such as hydrogen peroxide and sodium peroxodisulfate.The results, compared in terms of permeate flux, water permeability, fouling index (FI %) and cleaning efficiency (CE %), indicated nanofiltration as the membrane process that allowed not only the complete recovery of fibers from water as with all processes used, but also the almost complete recovery of the initial performance of the membrane used (CA 2 kDa NF) with a cleaning efficiency of 98 % and a low fouling index (16 %).Preliminary photocatalytic tests on some recovered polyester fibers by membrane process showed a decrease in their length and thickness with a weight loss of 13.52 % in 48 h, highlighting the potential of the photocatalytic process to degrade polyester fibers. Furthermore, these results indicated that the photocatalytic process can be tuned to allow the decomposition of polyester avoiding the use of dangerous and costly methods such as the thermal process that can produce toxic by-products. The proposed system, which combines the membrane separation process and the photocatalysis process, could lead to an effective integrated process for the treatment of MPs/NPs from polluted water.

Impact of Climate Change Disasters on the Education Sector of Coastal Bhola District, Bangladesh

Impact of Climate Change Disasters on the Education Sector of Coastal Bhola District, Bangladesh

Of comics and climate change: an interview with Brian Fies

ABSTRACT Wildfires are both a devastating reality and a growing concern in the face of our changing climate. Brian Fies’s A Fire Story is a graphic narrative that sensitively presents the harrowing experiences of losing his home to Northern California wildfires (2017). This article offers insights from an email interview with Fies, examining the distinctive narrative affordances of the comic medium. The interview is divided into two sections. Part one titled ‘Drawn from the Ashes: Of Comics and Climate Change,’ Fies responds to questions regarding the artistic choices (visual storytelling elements etc.) he made to convey the emotional spectrum of the wildfire experience. Part two, titled ‘Rebuilding from Ashes: Resilience and Realities,’ Fies presents his perspective on the role of personal storytelling in addressing climate change and resilience. Put together, Fies reflects on the potential of comics to evoke empathy, raise awareness, and enable meaningful dialogue on urgent issues such as wildfires, climate resilience and natural disasters. In so doing, the present interview contributes to the discussion on the intersection of comics, personal narrative, and environmental crises, offering a nuanced understanding of the role of graphic storytelling in conveying the impact of natural disasters.

Jayapura Regency Government's Strategy in Flood Disaster Management in Sentani District

Sentani District in Jayapura Regency often faces floods that have a significant impact on people's lives, infrastructure, and the environment. High rainfall intensity, geographical conditions, and suboptimal spatial management are the main factors causing flooding in this region. The floods that occurred not only damaged people's homes, but also disrupted economic and social activities, and caused huge losses to the community and local government. The aim of this research is to analyze and formulate appropriate strategies to be used by the Jayapura Regency Government in managing flood disasters, especially in the Sentani District, in order to find out appropriate steps that can be implemented in resolving the problems of flood disasters that frequently occur. The research method used is descriptive qualitative through an inductive approach. Apart from that, the author's data sources are people, places, and documents, with data collection techniques using interviews, observation, and documentation. The theory used by researchers is strategic theory using SOAR analysis. This research produced 5 (five) strategies for flood management. By implementing the right strategy and good collaboration between stakeholders, it is hoped that it can reduce the risk and impact of flood disasters and increase community resilience in facing these disasters.

The Effects of Work Ability, Level of Coordination and Work Motivation on the Success of the Government's Food Reserve (GFR) Program in Bengkulu City

The Government Food Reserve (GFR) program is a strategic step in ensuring food availability throughout Indonesia, managing price volatility, and dealing with the impact of natural and social disasters. In Bengkulu City, the successful implementation of the GFR has a very significant impact given the similar challenges faced by other regions in Indonesia. The success of the GFR program in Bengkulu City is influenced by three key factors: work ability, level of coordination, and motivation of the program implementers. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the influence of these three factors on the success of the GFR program in Bengkulu City. The census method was used, targeting GFR program implementers at the kecamatan, village/kelurahan, dusun, and RT levels. Data was collected through a survey with a questionnaire designed to measure the variables of work ability, coordination level, work motivation, and GFR program success. The results showed that there is a significant influence of work ability, coordination level, and work motivation on the success of GFR program in Bengkulu City. The support from these three factors allows the GFR program to maintain food availability for the community effectively and efficiently. Hard work and integration of related agencies are the main keys in achieving the objectives of the GFR program, providing a positive impact on social and economic stability in Bengkulu City.

Predicting Post-Disaster Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Trajectories: The Role of Pre-Disaster Traumatic Experiences.

The mental health impact of disasters is substantial, with 30-40% of direct disaster victims developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is not yet clear why some people cope well with disaster-related trauma while others experience chronic dysfunction. Prior research on non-disaster trauma suggests that an individual's history of traumatic experiences earlier in the life course, prior to the disaster, may be a key factor in explaining variability in psychological responses to disasters. This study evaluated the extent to which pre-disaster trauma predicts PTSD trajectories in a sample of Hurricane Katrina survivors followed for 12 years after the storm. Four PTSD trajectories were identified using latent class growth analysis: Resistant (49.0%), Recovery (29.3%), Delayed-Onset (8.0%), and Chronic-High (13.7%). After adjusting for covariates, pre-Katrina trauma had only a small, positive impact on the probability of long-term, chronic Katrina-specific PTSD, and little effect on the probability of the Resistant and Delayed-Onset trajectories. Higher pre-Katrina trauma exposure moderately decreased the probability of being in the Recovery trajectory, in which Katrina-specific PTSD symptoms are initially high before declining over time. When covariates were added to the model one at a time, the association between pre-Katrina trauma and Chronic-High PTSD was attenuated most by the addition of Katrina-related trauma. Our findings suggest that while pre-disaster trauma exposure does not have a strong direct effect on chronic Katrina-specific PTSD, pre-Katrina trauma may impact PTSD through other factors that affect Katrina-related PTSD, such as by increasing the severity of Katrina-related trauma. These findings have important implications for the development of disaster preparedness strategies to diminish the long-term burden of disaster-related PTSD.