Implications For Disaster Risk Reduction Research Articles

Experiences and challenges of emergency medical services in Incheon, South Korea: Implications for disaster risk reduction

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in South Korea were formally established in 1982 meaning that they are relatively young in comparison to western counterparts. The handling of the 1988 Seoul Olympics earned widespread global support. Recent disasters have, however, brought the nation's preparedness into question. EMS provides life-critical pre-hospital emergency care. In South Korea, services are free at point-of-use, and, like several other countries, they are experiencing ever higher levels of stress. Budget cuts, personnel shortages, and increasing operational tempo are known stressors that cause individual and organizational harm which compromises disaster preparedness. Interestingly, EMS in South Korea suffer from poor social acknowledgement within a rank-based society that venerates firefighting and specialist rescue units. EMS are deemed less prestigious; this constrains their organizational voice, minimizes leadership representation, and reduces morale. Recent visceral disaster experience and the limited research focused expressly on the socio-cultural context of EMS provision in South Korea constitute a pertinent research gap. Accordingly, this study critically evaluated perceptions of the experiences and challenges faced by EMS crews in Incheon, South Korea.Constructivist grounded theory, semi-structured interviewing, and induction underpin 24 interviews that address the experiences and challenges faced by EMS. The resultant 24 codes, eight categories, and three themes drawn from 253 quotations are presented within a comprehensive network diagram that provides the building blocks of a new tentative theory. The posited EMS organizational efficiency model is, therefore, grounded within empirical data and is designed to mitigate chronic stressors and enhance disaster preparedness.

Decoding the livelihood vulnerability of flood-prone communities in Vietnam: Implications for disaster risk reduction and sustainable rural development

In the midst of increasing global uncertainties, understanding household vulnerability to disaster risks and identifying the most susceptible individuals and communities has become an urgent concern. This study assesses and compares the flood vulnerability of two communities, Quang Tho and Quang Phuoc, in Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam. The study utilizes primary data collected in 2022 from 280 rural households whose livelihood sources are agriculture and fishery. Flood vulnerability is determined by applying the Livelihood Vulnerability Index based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's definition (LVI-IPCC) approach. Our analysis reveals that both communities exhibit moderate vulnerability to flood hazards across various dimensions. Notably, fishing-only communities are found to be more vulnerable to flooding compared to mixed agri-fishery farmers. Additionally, we have identified several factors that exacerbate vulnerability, including poverty, low education levels, single parenthood, limited resources, narrow livelihood strategies, and inadequate social connections. Therefore, development policies and disaster risk reduction programs should prioritize disadvantaged groups, focusing on promoting social inclusion and gender equality in accessing services and public resources. It is concluded that tailored disaster risk management and rural livelihood development initiatives are crucial to addressing each community's specific vulnerabilities and challenges, fostering resilience, and thus reducing future risks. Achieving greater sustainability and equilibrium for vulnerable groups necessitates continuous action and investment.

Modelling on assessment of flood risk susceptibility at the Jia Bharali River basin in Eastern Himalayas by integrating multicollinearity tests and geospatial techniques

AbstractClimate change and anthropogenic factors have exacerbated flood risks in many regions across the globe, including the Himalayan foothill region in India. The Jia Bharali River basin, situated in this vulnerable area, frequently experiences high-magnitude floods, causing significant damage to the environment and local communities. Developing accurate and reliable flood susceptibility models is crucial for effective flood prevention, management, and adaptation strategies. In this study, we aimed to generate a comprehensive flood susceptibility zone model for the Jia Bharali catchment by integrating statistical methods with expert knowledge-based mathematical models. We applied four distinct models, including the Frequency Ratio model, Fuzzy Logic (FL) model, Multi-criteria Decision Making based Analytical Hierarchy Process model, and Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process model, to evaluate the flood susceptibility of the basin. The results revealed that approximately one-third of the Jia Bharali basin area fell within moderate to very high flood-prone zones. In contrast, over 50% of the area was classified as low to very low flood-prone zones. The applied models demonstrated strong performance, with ROC-AUC scores exceeding 70% and MAE, MSE, and RMSE scores below 30%. FL and AHP were recommended for application among the models in areas with similar physiographic characteristics due to their exceptional performance and the training datasets. This study offers crucial insights for policymakers, regional administrative authorities, environmentalists, and engineers working in the Himalayan foothill region. By providing a robust flood susceptibility model, the research enhances flood prevention efforts and management, thereby serving as a vital climate change adaptation strategy for the Jia Bharali River basin and similar regions. The findings also have significant implications for disaster risk reduction and sustainable development in vulnerable areas, contributing to the global efforts towards achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.

Children first: women’s perspectives on evacuation at Fuego volcano and implications for disaster risk reduction

As major drivers of behavior during crisis, cultural norms influence how disasters differentially affect people of different genders. Cultural gender norms also impact how authorities and at-risk populations approach disaster risk reduction strategies. At Fuego volcano, Guatemala, we applied qualitative methods to investigate women’s experiences of the evacuation process after a paroxysmal eruption on 7–8 March 2022. While participants’ experiences and decisions varied, we identified how gender influences evacuation dynamics within communities at Fuego volcano, including who evacuates and who decides at the community and household levels. We find that communities prioritized women for evacuation with the children and elderly in their care, yet prioritized men in the evacuation decision-making; that despite this hierarchy, a woman may override a male partner’s decision in order to prioritize the safety and well-being of her children; and that even if she overcomes social barriers to leaving, she may be unable to evacuate in a timely manner because of lack of transportation—a barrier impacting all residents, but especially women since they are the ones leading their households in evacuation. This gendered evacuation strategy disproportionately leaves men exposed to the threat, since most do not evacuate, and places the burden of evacuation on the women, who leave their homes and likely face the challenges of evacuation with multiple children in their care. This study contributes an example of how gendered norms impact disaster risk reduction strategy at an active volcano and how understanding gendered experiences of evacuation can inform future disaster risk reduction efforts.

Homelessness and COVID-19 in New Zealand: Challenges, emergency responses, and implications for disaster risk reduction

People experiencing homelessness have traditionally received limited attention in disaster research and disaster risk reduction policy. The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on the vulnerable conditions of urban homelessness during emergency with unprecedented response efforts. Focusing on Aotearoa New Zealand, this research analyses homeless people's experiences of the COVID-19 and examines the policies and actions developed by government agencies and local organisations. The study highlights that while the homeless did not perceive the virus as a threat the COVID-19 framework with border closures and lockdowns had direct impacts on their livelihoods. The emergency policies focused mainly on homeless who are rough sleepers with a strong emphasis on emergency shelters. The study finds that while effective in temporally housing the homeless, the emergency shelters were often inappropriate to cater for homeless needs and lacked long-term views to transit towards sustainable solutions to homelessness. We also point out issues linked to coordination across agencies, leadership and resources needed for both effective emergency management and disaster risk reduction.

Flood Vulnerability-Rural Poverty Nexus: Implications for Disaster Risk Reduction and Sustainable Rural Development in Vietnam

Flood Vulnerability-Rural Poverty Nexus: Implications for Disaster Risk Reduction and Sustainable Rural Development in Vietnam

Exploring the Scope of Public Participation for Risk Sensitive Land Use Planning in Nepal: A Policy Review

Risk Sensitive Land Use Planning (RSLUP), a process that has implications for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) as well as Urban Planning and Development, requires the participation of the public and wider stakeholders. Public participation has been conceptualized in Nepal’s disaster governance after the country transitioned into a federal democracy. It has undergone decentralization as part of the federal reform process, including its undertakings towards DRR. However, it remains unclear what this redistribution of authority means for public participation in relation to RSLUP. It is important to ask whether the current institutional set up and policy instruments are conducive for public participation. Therefore, this article examines how participation is construed within relevant federal and local policies in Nepal. The article presents a thematic analysis of leading policy instruments. The research reveals that participation emerges as a constitutional principle but the concept of participation itself is characterised by definitional ambiguity. Although most policies encourage the creation of spaces for public participation, this research reveals that these spaces are limited in implementation and impact. Lack of clear guidelines on how to design and implement public participation can hinder effective practice. Non-binding language within policy documents makes it difficult to understand the intended outcome of participation. This paper illustrates the extent to which participation has become a malleable construct that can have repercussions for ways in which RSLUP is enacted and enforced, in both Nepal and other countries who share similar socio-political context.

Appraising Evidence-Based Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) Guidelines-PART II: A Content Analysis with Implications for Disaster Risk Reduction.

High quality mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) guidelines are indispensable for policy and practice to address the mental health consequences of disasters. This contribution complements a review that assessed the methodological quality of 13 MHPSS guidelines. We analyzed the content of the four highest-ranking guidelines and explored implications for disaster risk reduction (DRR). A qualitative explorative thematic analysis was conducted. The four guidelines proved largely similar, overlapping or at least complementary in their MHPSS definitions, stated purpose of the guidelines, user and target groups, terminology, and models used. Many recommended MHPSS measures and interventions were found in all of the guidelines and could be assigned to five categories: basic relief, information provision, emotional and social support, practical support, and health care. The guidelines stress the importance of monitoring needs and problems, evaluating the effect of service delivery, deliberate implementation and preparation, and investments in proper conditions and effective coordination across professions, agencies, and sectors. The MHPSS knowledge base embedded in the guidelines is comprehensive, coherent, and sufficiently universal to serve as the “overarching framework” considered missing yet vital for the integration of MHPSS approaches in DRR. Although application contexts differ geographically, this common ground should allow policymakers and practitioners globally to plan, implement, and evaluate MHPSS actions contributing to DRR, ideally together with target groups.

Fire safety behavior model for residential buildings: Implications for disaster risk reduction

Starting from the unexplored level of the fire safety of citizens in Serbia, this paper presents the results of quantitative research regarding a fire safety behavior model for residential buildings in Serbia. The research was conducted using a questionnaire that was provided and then collected online for 540 respondents during April 2021. The study's objective was to determine to what degree education level and gender influence the prediction of the fire safety behavior model (individual preparedness, personal security, fire risk, fire prevention knowledge) for residential buildings in Serbia. The multivariate regression analyses showed that the most important predictor of individual preparedness, personal security, and fire risk perception was gender, followed by age. On the other hand, education level, ownership status, and monthly income did not significantly affect individual preparedness for fire protection, personal security, fire risk, and prevention knowledge. Moreover, the results showed the main reasons for not taking preventive actions are the high cost of the equipment, not being familiar with the exact measures to take, believing that the emergency services would provide them with the necessary assistance, a lack of time, etc. The obtained results can be used to improve the preparedness of citizens to respond in a timely and appropriate manner to fires in residential buildings and create programs and campaigns to improve awareness among the general public.

Fire Safety Behavior Model for Residential Buildings: Implications for Disaster Risk Reduction

This paper presents the results of quantitative research regarding the fire safety behavior model for residential buildings in Serbia. The survey was conducted using a requested and collected questionnaire from 540 respondents during April 2020. The study's objective was to determine to what degree the education level and gender influence the prediction of the fire safety behavior model (individual preparedness, personal security, fire risk, knowledge on fire protection) for residential buildings in Serbia. The multivariate regression analyses showed the most important predictor of individual preparedness, personal security, and fire risk perception was gender. On the other hand, education level, ownership status, and monthly income did not significantly affect individual preparedness for fire protection, personal security, fire risk, and prevention knowledge. Also, the results showed the main reasons for not taking preventive actions are the high cost of the equipment then, not being familiar with the exact measures to take, believing that the emergency services would provide them with the necessary assistance, the lack of time etc. The obtained results can be used to improve the preparedness of citizens to respond timely and appropriately to fires in residential buildings and create programs and campaigns to improve awareness among the general public.

Particularizing adaptation to non-predominant hazards: A history of wildfires in County Donegal, Ireland from 1903 to 2019

Recent years have seen a historical turn in research on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. This has included a call for historical research that particularizes adaptation in specific locations. This paper responds to this call by using newspaper archives to construct a history of wildfires in County Donegal, Ireland. This study goes beyond existing research that particularizes adaptation, by using this history as a lens through which to evaluate current adaptation policy. In doing so it uncovers problematic mismatches between the experience of local communities living with wildfire hazards and current climate change adaptation policies. National adaptation policy in Ireland presents uncontrolled wildfires as a largely new and unfamiliar hazard that requires innovative management approaches. However, newspaper archives reveal that local communities have adopted a variety of adaptive practices for wildfire hazards for over a century, and that these practices have coevolved with shifting economic, social, political, and cultural contexts. This paper also introduces the concept of non-predominant hazards, that is hazards that are often overlooked, forgotten, or neglected. Historical research on non-predominant hazards can play an important role in making visible trajectories of adaptation for such hazards. This study also points towards how deeper particularization studies that examine the long-term usage of specific adaptation practices can also be used to test the effectiveness of these practices through time, and to offer lessons for contemporary adaptation. These results have implications for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation to non-predominant hazards in a variety of contexts.

Fire Safety Behavior Model for Residential Buildings: Implications for Disaster Risk Reduction

Fire Safety Behavior Model for Residential Buildings: Implications for Disaster Risk Reduction

Helices of disaster memory: How forgetting and remembering influence tropical cyclone response in Mauritius

Tropical cyclones have had a considerable impact on Mauritius. Large cyclones are relatively rare, and in popular imagination are thought to hit Mauritius every 15 years. Yet it has been over 25 years since the last cyclone widely considered as ‘significant’. Critically, there is little known about the role of memory in responses to cyclones and details regarding responses to past cyclones in Mauritian history are scant.This article examines past experiences and impacts of cyclones in Mauritius, as well as contemporary perceptions of cyclone vulnerability and memories of historical cyclones. The analysis draws on both community interviews and archival research conducted in Mauritius and takes a longue durée approach. This approach combines an examination of both event and process with historical discourses in an effort to uncover the long-standing and slowly changing relationships between people and extreme events.The results reveal a number of repetitive patterns of responses that act out over the long term and repeat for many of the largest cyclones, indicating that tropical cyclone impact and recovery in Mauritius is strongly conditioned by complex, cultural, and place based memory (and forgetting). While these patterns could be characterised as cycles, the research instead presents a concept of ‘helices’ as a new conceptualisation of long term disaster memory patterns. This research is part of a growing literature arguing for the need to account for the historical processes fundamental to understanding vulnerability. This has implications for disaster risk reduction (including climate change adaptation) in Mauritius, other small islands, and elsewhere.

Risk perception and management of debris flow hazards in the upper salween valley region: Implications for disaster risk reduction in marginalized mountain communities

Debris flows in mountain environments are among the most destructive natural hazards often leading to loss of human lives and economic damage. Understanding the public perception of debris flow hazards and associated adaptation measures generates theoretical and practical basis for disaster risk reduction in mountain environments. Based on household questionnaires and key informant interviews, we determined risk perception and management of debris flow events in the Upper Salween Valley Region, China, and implications for disaster risk reduction in marginalized mountain communities. Our findings demonstrated that farmers perceived heavy and frequent rainfall as a primary natural cause for debris flow events, and road construction as a major anthropogenic factor. In addition, farmers perceived a big threat and high occurrence probability of debris flow hazards. Farmers obtained information from television programs and local government to enhance their awareness of debris flow risks; they preferred living away from debris flow gullies and relying on help from neighbors to reduce risks. The government employed emergency cards to improve farmers’ emergency response capabilities, and manual early-warning systems to ensure risk management. This research indicates a long-term interaction between mountain communities and debris flow hazards, and a development perspective which integrates the development of disaster risk reduction strategies into rural development programs. Therefore, risk reduction of debris flows in marginalized mountain communities will benefit from the integration of farmer-based measures into government-led programs, and the implementation of a comprehensive rural development scheme.

Precipitation responses to ENSO and IOD in the Maldives: Implications of large-scale modes of climate variability in weather-related preparedness

This research seeks to address the extent to which indices of large-scale modes of climate variability (El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD)) can be linked to physical differences in the local mean and extreme rainfall conditions experienced in the Maldives in order to suggest implications for disaster risk reduction (DRR). While some significant differences in precipitation metrics do occur at the local level between different phases of the large-scale modes of climate variability studied, they do not occur for all sites studied. While the constrained availability of historical meteorological data in the region is a limiting factor in this analysis, these findings suggest that with respect to decision-making related to extreme precipitation, ENSO/IOD forecasting may be most helpful on local scales, when supplementing an approach of on-going readiness in which communities are prepared to effectively manage hazards in any phase of the large-scale modes of climate variability studied. These conclusions are based on only precipitation; results may vary for other impacts including changing sea levels and sea surface temperatures.

“Even if it doesn't come, you should be prepared”: Natural hazard perception, remoteness, and implications for disaster risk reduction in rural Fiji

“Even if it doesn't come, you should be prepared”: Natural hazard perception, remoteness, and implications for disaster risk reduction in rural Fiji

The Nature of \u201cNatural Disasters\u201d: Survivors\u2019 Explanations of Earthquake Damage

The distinction between natural and human-made disasters is ingrained in everyday language. Disaster scientists have long been critical of this dichotomy. Nonetheless, virtually no attention has been paid to how disaster survivors conceptualize the causes of the disasters they experience. In this mixed-methods longitudinal study, 112 survivors of the 2016–2017 Central Italy earthquakes completed questionnaires 3 and 16 months following the earthquakes, with the aim of assessing attributions of blame for the earthquake damage. In-depth interviews were also conducted with 52 participants at the 3-month mark to explore representations of causation for the earthquake damage. The distinction between disasters caused by nature and disasters caused by humans was not supported by survivors of the earthquake. In the longitudinal surveys, building firms and the State were assigned as much blame as nature for the earthquake damage, at both 3 months and 16 months after the earthquakes. Corroborating this complexity, in the interviews, the causes of the earthquake damage, rather than being understood as purely natural, were perceived as a complex mosaic composed of political, technological, natural, and moral factors. This empirical work shows that disaster survivors combine both nature-based and human-based explanations of disasters, rather than subscribing to one or the other. These findings have practical implications for disaster risk reduction and response.

How Development Affects News Media Coverage of Earthquakes: Implications for Disaster Risk Reduction in Observing Communities

Previous research suggests that lesson-drawing news coverage of disasters can create windows of opportunity for policy learning in the observing communities. This is especially important for cities facing similar vulnerabilities to disaster-affected communities, where they can learn from their events to pursue disaster risk reduction policies to mitigate against those risks at home. However, little is known about the conditions under which newspapers in at-risk communities provide the type of news coverage necessary for policy learning. Using logistic regression to analyze an original dataset produced from a content analysis of five newspapers’ coverage of five earthquakes, we demonstrate that the level of development of the disaster-stricken community systematically influences the nature of news coverage in at-risk communities. These results have important implications for the understanding of urban disaster risk reduction, suggesting that the conditions for bottom-up policy learning are more likely to occur following disasters in wealthier countries.

Socio-political drivers and consequences of landslide and flood risk zonation: A case study of Limbe city, Cameroon

Disaster risk zonation is often proposed as a long-term disaster risk reduction strategy by international treaties and academic research. This strategy has been implemented in the city of Limbe, which is known to be a disaster-prone one. Citizens are forced to settle in unsafe terrains, ranging from wetlands to unstable hillslopes due to the city’s geographical location and economic attraction. Following the fatal landslides and floods in 2001, a local crisis committee identified affected areas and declared them ‘risk zones’ to prevent further exposure. Empirically, this study narrates the production and implementation of risk zonation policy in the city of Limbe. Theoretically, it uses an urban political ecology perspective, which incorporates science and technology studies, post-political theory and disaster research to interpret the drivers and implications of the mismatch between research, policy and action. In this case study, we investigate the implications for disaster risk reduction by describing three underlying socio-political drivers of the risk zonation policy: (i) authoritarian science regime, (ii) post-political discourse, and (iii) blame diversion. We argue that authorities from national to local level use a post-political discourse to promote and implement disaster risk reduction in the city of Limbe through the development and the application of risk zonation policy. As a consequence, risk zonation leads to poor enforcement of the law and corruption, ultimately leading to risk accumulation in this case. This analysis allows us to draw broader conclusions on drivers and implications of the implementation of disaster risk zonation policy in urban areas that are primarily governed hierarchically and prone to corruption.

Predicting collective behaviour at the Hajj: place, space and the process of cooperation.

Around 2 million pilgrims attend the annual Hajj to Mecca and the holy places, which are subject to dense crowding. Both architecture and psychology can be part of disaster risk reduction in relation to crowding, since both can affect the nature of collective behaviour-particularly cooperation-among pilgrims. To date, collective behaviour at the Hajj has not been systematically investigated from a psychological perspective. We examined determinants of cooperation in the Grand Mosque and plaza during the pilgrimage. A questionnaire survey of 1194 pilgrims found that the Mosque was perceived by pilgrims as one of the most crowded ritual locations. Being in the plaza (compared with the Mosque) predicted the extent of cooperation, though crowd density did not. Shared social identity with the crowd explained more of the variance than both location and density. We examined some of the process underlying cooperation. The link between shared social identity and giving support to others was stronger in the plaza than in the Mosque, and suggests the role of place and space in modulating processes of cooperation in crowds. These findings have implications for disaster risk reduction and for applications such as computer simulations of crowds in pilgrimage locations.This article is part of the theme issue 'Interdisciplinary approaches for uncovering the impacts of architecture on collective behaviour'.