Vulnerability Of Local Communities Research Articles

The drame of kalehe, DRC. Study of the interactions beteen climate change, public prevention and human safety in mounainous Kivu

The tragedy that occurred in Kalehe, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in May 2023, following torrential rains, highlights the urgent need to analyze the interactions between climate change, public prevention and human safety in the mountainous region of Kivu, also known as “Mountainous Kivu”. Mountainous Kivu, at the heart of the East African Rift Valley, is directly affected by the impacts of climate change, including extreme weather events leading to flooding and landslides. Research points to an increase in extreme weather events, contributing to environmental instability and the vulnerability of local communities, most of whom depend on family farming. Weakly defined measures for adaptation and resilience to climatic disturbances, as well as gaps in public prevention policies, have amplified this vulnerability. This study explores the complex dimensions of the Kalehe tragedy, focusing on agrarian explanations. On the one hand, the study examines the dimensions of human security, considering socio-economic, political and environmental factors, in order to define measures to strengthen community resilience. Secondly, the study assesses existing public prevention policies in the region, identifying the strengths, weaknesses and gaps that contributed to the scale of the Kalehe tragedy. The methodology is based on data collection from documentary sources and unstructured interviews with resource persons in the field.

Nomadism of public space dwellers in Metro Manila: On their home, mobility, and survival

The paper focuses on the contemporary urban nomadism of public space dwelling in a developing country. In particular, the paper considers the case of public space dwelling in Metro Manila which reportedly has the largest public space dweller population among the world’s metropolises. It examines their shift from sedentary living, and how they navigate the terrain of conflicts and compromises that come with the localized articulation of various modes of economic production. To probe into their characteristics, the paper employs a framework based on the heterogeneity of anthropolocal functions—i.e. how people use local spaces for economic production and human regeneration. The paper reveals that the circumstances underlying the shift to nomadic living are: unresolved land problems in the provinces that go back to the feudal era, vulnerability of local communities against natural disasters due to development unevenness between Metro Manila and the provinces, and deteriorating work conditions under a globalizing economy. The paper further identifies the living stereotype of public space dwellers as forager stereotype in which the individual band-members move relative to the mobile base camp. Lastly, the paper points out that the lives of public space dwellers in the capitalist urban environment are unstable and precarious. As a survival strategy, public space dwellers employ—albeit often unconsciously—subsistence from their urban habitat, living in small and non-hierarchical units, building social relationships that transcend consanguineous relationships, sharing of limited resource, reciprocity, and mutual aid within and outside the band, division of labour, and giving and receiving care.

Do spatial interactions fuel the climate-conflict vicious cycle? The case of the African continent

We propose an analysis of the multiple linkages between violent conflicts, weather-related variables and socio-economic conditions based on an original geo-referenced database covering the entire African continent with a grid resolution of 1° × 1° for the period 1990–2016. We implement a dynamic spatial panel Durbin model that allows us: (1) confirming well-known mechanisms in violent conflicts analysis; (2) assessing the relevance of persistency of violence over time; (3) adding new insights related to the role of spatial relations associated to contagion. In particular, the spatial specification allows us quantifying the contagious effect across space, that persists in a radius of more than 300 km. Weather-related variables seem to play a prominent role in shaping contagion with different strength depending on the temporal horizon adopted. The main implications we derive are twofold: (1) adaptation policies designed for reducing vulnerability of local communities to climate change must be integrated with direct actions for peacekeeping in order to break the persistency of violence over time that is responsible for failures of the adaptation actions themselves; (2) synergies from simultaneous actions developed for different local communities must drive geographical coordination of integrated policies in order to capture the positive elements of cooperation associated to geographical spillovers while breaking violence contagion across neighbours.

Kerentanan Penghidupan Masyarakat Pesisir Perkotaan Terhadap Variabilitas Iklim (Studi Kasus di Kota Kupang)

Adaptation to climate change cannot be separated from the climatic conditions and vulnerability of local communities. This study aims to determine the vulnerability of household livelihoods in urban coastal areas to climate variability. This research was conducted in coastal city of Kupang. Community livelihood vulnerability analysis using vulnerability index (LVI and LVI-IPCC). In addition, an analysis of climate variability of rainfall and average temperature from 1988-2017 was also carried out. The results of the study show that climate variability is seen in decreases in rainfall and and increase in surface temperature in the past 30 years. The LVI and LVI-IPCC scores also show the vulnerability of livelihoods on a medium scale in three sample villages. Climate variability in urban coasts can have an impact on coastal communities on the components of livelihood strategies, food, homes and land and water which are generally influenced by climatic factors. Non-vulnerable components such as health support the vulnerable components as part of the adaptation process

Environmental and Social Pressures in Mining. Results from a Sustainability Hotspots Screening

In recent years, increased interest and actions have been taken to better understand, and mitigate, sustainability impacts of mining activities, by both industry and policy. The present work reports on a sustainability hotspots screening performed for the EU Horizon 2020 “Integrated Mineral Technologies for More Sustainable Raw Material Supply” (ITERAMS) project, which foresees a more efficient water recycling, tailings valorization, and minimization of environmental footprint. The focus of this paper is on social and environmental issues in mining. Different methodologies were explored, starting from a qualitative causal loop modelling. Afterwards, an environmental and social LCA screening was performed using well-accepted databases and methods, thus completing results with a literature research. The main findings related to the importance of the supply chain, the vulnerability of local communities, and the toxic emissions from tailings offer a starting point to reflect on the specific social, socio-economic, and environmental context which may influence these issues. A better understanding of the environmental and social pressures associated with mining is not only crucial to orient the sustainability assessment foreseen for the ITERAMS project, but also to contribute in terms of methodology to the challenges tackled by policy and research worldwide towards a more sustainable mining.

Policy Directions Addressing the Public Health Impact of Climate Change in South Korea: The Climate-change Health Adaptation and Mitigation Program

Climate change, caused by global warming, is increasingly recognized as a major threat to mankind's survival. Climate change concurrently has both direct and modifying influences on environmental, social, and public health systems undermining human health as a whole. Environmental health policy-makers need to make use of political and technological alternatives to address these ramifying effects. The objective of this paper is to review public health policy in Korea, as well as internationally, particularly as it relates to climate change health adaptation and mitigation programs (such as C-CHAMP of Korea), in order to assess and elicit directions for a robust environmental health policy that is adaptive to the health impacts of climate change. In Korea, comprehensive measures to prevent or mitigate overall health effects are limited, and the diffusion of responsibility among various government departments makes consistency in policy execution very difficult. This paper proposes integration, synergy, and utilization as the three core principles of policy direction for the assessment and adaptation to the health impacts of climate change. For specific action plans, we suggest policy making based on scientifically integrated health impact assessments and the prioritization of environmental factors in climate change; the development of practical and technological tools that support policy decisions by making their political implementation more efficient; and customized policy development that deals with the vulnerability of local communities.

Investigations on natural hazards which trigger technological disasters in Romania

Abstract. Romania faces the challenges of a developing country preparing to cope with disasters, be they natural or technological. The paper entails comprehensive research on technological accidents triggered by natural hazards (so-called Natech accidents). The research is based on a survey conducted by the competent authorities on the Seveso II Directive in 2009. This survey enabled the identification of Natech hazards and their correlation with the vulnerability of local communities and infrastructures. The Natech hazards were analyzed also in terms of their inclusion in the emergency planning process, starting from the current legislation. The results indicate that the number of incidents (including Natech events) has significantly decreased subsequent to the appropriate implementation of emergency plans and safety reports.

Community-Based Hazard Warning in Sri Lanka: Miniaturization Assessment of Terminal Devices in the Last-Mile Link

The M=9+ earthquake in Sumatara, Indonesia, on December 26, 2004 at 00:59 GMT triggered destructive tsunami waves, which greatly affected Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, the Maldives, and Thailand. People were caught unawares as there was no warning system in place for tsunamis in the Indian Ocean. Overall it is estimated that more than 250,000 in the region perished. The aim of the Last-Mile Hazard Warning System (LM-HWS) was to deploy various alert and notification wireless technologies intended to reduce the vulnerability of local communities to natural and manmade hazards in Sri Lanka. The project adopted an all-hazards, all- media approach designed around a set of five wireless communication technologies: Addressable Satellite Radios for Emergency Alerting, Remote Alarm Devices, Mobile Phones, Fixed Phones and Very Small Aperture Terminals. The pilot project entitled, Evaluating Last-Mile Hazard Information Dissemination, or the HazInfo Project, involved deployment, training, and field-testing of the technologies, in various combinations, across 32 tsunami-affected villages, using the Common Alerting Protocol 1 (CAP) for data interchange with content provided in three languages (English, Sinhalese and Tamil). The ultimate LM-HWS intentions are to introduce Alerting and Notification to improve the situational awareness of all-hazards in 15,000 Sarvodaya 2 embedded Communities in the Island of Sri Lanka. While this paper discusses the overall performance of the LM-HWS its main purpose is to report on one aspect of the effectiveness measure - identifying the need for miniaturized terminal devices that not only can be used during hazard alert and notification but also during the response and recovery stages of the disaster management cycle. The measure introduced gives a set of guidelines for equipment manufacturers as well as a mechanism for planners to set a strategy when introducing terminal devices in to a Last-Mile warning system.