The influence of caste,class and gender in surviving multiple disasters: A case study from Orissa,India

Sociological and anthropological studies in India reveal that caste, class and gender in everyday life are both rigid and dynamic, but little is known about how they influence the survival mechanisms of women during ‘multiple disasters’, nor about how women negotiate with these structural mores to meet their cultural and biological needs. This is explored through the experiences of 12 women-headed households from different social castes in Orissa, India. Multiple disasters or disasters that occur in ‘one specific place’ (such as floods, cyclone and drought) are regular events in coastal parts of the state of Orissa. The super-cyclone of 1999, two floods of 2001 and 2003 and drought of 2000 and 2002 form the case study. Participant observation, in-depth interviews and documentary evidence complement the fieldwork. The findings suggest a complex interplay of caste, class and gender in surviving the multiple disasters including structural mutability under the purview of social organization. In doing so, women demonstrated their individual and collective agencies in order to meet their cultural and biological needs under severe crisis. This research stresses that gender and disaster studies must include a consideration of caste and class for effective disaster management and social vulnerability reduction.     

The role of microcredit in reducing women's vulnerabilities to multiple disasters

This article explores the relationship between microcredit and vulnerability reduction for women-headed households in'multiple disasters'. Here multiple disasters are understood as disasters that occur in one specific place and cause severe devastation. The case study covers the super-cyclone in 1999, floods in 2001 and 2003, and drought in 2002 in Orissa, India. The study entailed eight months fieldwork and interviews with several governmental and non-governmental officials and 12 women-headed households from different social castes. The findings suggest that microcredit is a useful tool to replace women's livelihood assets that have been lost in multiple disasters. But inefficient microcredit delivery can cause microdebts and exacerbate caste, class and gender inequalities. It is posited that microcredit delivery cannot achieve vulnerability reduction for women in multiple disasters unless it is complemented by effective financial services, integrated policy planning and disaster management between government, non-governmental organisations and the community.     

新疆主要自然灾害及其减灾策略

新疆是一个自然灾害较多的地区,地震灾害、地质灾害、气象灾害、洪水灾害都比较频繁。本文在概述、分析上述灾害的基础上,提出了减轻自然灾害的策略。     

General overview of the disaster management framework in Cameroon

Efficient and effective disaster management will prevent many hazardous events from becoming disasters. This paper constitutes the most comprehensive document on the natural disaster management framework of Cameroon. It reviews critically disaster management in Cameroon, examining the various legislative, institutional, and administrative frameworks that help to facilitate the process. Furthermore, it illuminates the vital role that disaster managers at the national, regional, and local level play to ease the process. Using empirical data, the study analyses the efficiency and effectiveness of the actions of disaster managers. Its findings reveal inadequate disaster management policies, poor coordination between disaster management institutions at the national level, the lack of trained disaster managers, a skewed disaster management system, and a top‐down hierarchical structure within Cameroon's disaster management framework. By scrutinising the disaster management framework of the country, policy recommendations based on the research findings are made on the institutional and administrative frameworks.     

关于社会因素对灾害的影响

在分析影响灾害主要因素的基础上,以具体灾害实例着重分析了社会因素对灾害的影响,指出社会因素影响灾害主要通过影响灾害源,承灾体的防、抗灾能力,同时社会经济发展水平对灾害损失也有很大影响。     

天文灾害学刍议(Ⅱ)——天文灾害学研究的意义及其进展

简述了开展天文灾害学研究的意义。已有研究表明 ,一些天文因素对许多自然灾害的孕育有调制作用 ,对一些自然灾害的发生有诱发、触发的作用 ,深入开展天文灾害学研究有理论意义和应用价值。同时作者简要综述了这一交叉研究领域近些年的进展情况。     

对中国防灾减灾立法体系的探讨

中国是自然灾害和经济、社会发展中人为突发事件灾害普遍、灾情严重的国家。灾害已直接影响和制约着国家的经济建设、社会发展和公众的安全。要把防灾减灾作为中国的基本国策。为此,必须长远规划和全面制定中国的防灾减灾立法体系,以适应２１世纪中国减灾安全与可持续发展的战略任务。本文就编制中国防灾减灾立法体系应遵循的指导方针、基本原则及方案的框架设想全面提出研讨建议。     

Shared responsibility: the who,what and how

As natural disasters increase around the world and stretch the capacities of emergency services, national governments and international institutions have stressed the importance of shared responsibility; the idea that all actors within a society have some obligations in disaster management and must work collectively to reduce disaster risk. However, the exact balance between individual and government responsibility is not yet established and continually contested, especially after major events. In Australia, the National Strategy for Disaster Resilience (NSDR) is the overarching policy framework for disaster risk management and aims to create resilient communities through an emphasis on shared responsibility and empowerment. Through a literature review and document analysis of the NSDR and associated policy documents, we clarify, organise and operationalise the necessarily general policy goal of shared responsibility. We first analyse how the NSDR conceptualises communities to discover which community actors are mentioned. We then identify the responsibilities it prescribes or implies for these different actors and consider the types of policy instruments that are relevant to disaster risk management. Our analysis reveals a tension between the NSDR’s placement of government at the centre of disaster risk management, and its other, less well-explained emphasis on community empowerment.     

区域灾情评价模型

自然灾害发生的次数和灾害种类与灾情强度密切相关，因此有必要对灾情强度进行合理的评价。首先用灾次指数Di和灾种指数Di′来量化单灾种的多发性和多灾种的群发性，提出了计算Di和Di′的方法，然后在此基础上建立了量化灾情强度指数Q的模型，该模型适用于单区域和多区域中多种灾害发生的情况。对北京市怀柔、平谷和海淀3个区进行了模型的实例应用，考虑洪灾、冰雹灾和旱灾3种灾害情况，结果表明，怀柔区的灾情强度指数高于平谷和海淀区，3种灾种中冰雹灾的灾情强度指数高达42．76％。     

A proposed framework of key activities and processes in the preparedness and recovery phases of disaster management

This paper proposes an empirically grounded framework for examining the preparedness and recovery phases of disaster management activities and processes pertaining to predictable disasters within a developed country. The two‐stage framework provides a single model composed of important preparedness and recovery initiatives, as well as activities and processes derived from empirical data collected for case studies from Australia: the ‘Black Saturday’ bushfires in the state of Victoria in February 2009; and Cyclone Larry in March 2006. The framework enables a variety of analyses, including the generation of insights into disaster management preparedness and recovery in the context of events in wealthy developed countries. The paper combines two empirical examples, a series of bushfires and a severe tropical cyclone, to enhance understanding of, and to contribute to better, disaster preparedness and recovery in the future. The paper contributes to the growing literature on disasters, preparedness, recovery and associated logistics, and other issues.     

The role of coalitions in disaster policymaking

Disasters have the potential to act as focusing events, which can increase the amount of attention on disaster‐related problems and encourage policy action. Understanding of the political characteristics of disaster policymaking is underdeveloped, yet it is known that these features may be dissimilar to those of non‐disaster policy areas, especially concerning the coalitions of policy actors engaged in the disaster policy process. Coalitions in the realm of disaster policy processes may be less likely to form, may look very different, and may have different goals than those in non‐disaster domains. Knowledge of the emergence, composition, and purpose of coalitions in disaster policy is lacking. This paper draws on prior theory and case observations to define and describe the characteristics of a disaster policy subsystem and to build a typology of coalitions that may appear within such a subsystem, providing a foundation upon which scholars can work to study coalition dynamics in disaster policy subsystems.     

中国综合减灾发展趋势研究

综合减灾的“综合”是各灾种、各阶段和各环节的综合,是资源和手段的综合,也是信息技术和科学技术的综合。通过对中国知网数据和《灾害学》期刊论文数据的定性与定量分析可知:从灾种来看,综合减灾研究的是地质灾害、地震灾害和气象灾害;从过程研究来看,每一种灾害的研究都是全过程综合性研究;从阶段性研究来看,灾前风险研究和灾后经验教训研究较多,应急救援的研究较少。总体来说,我国综合减灾研究现阶段还停留在政策研究和理论研究阶段,技术应用和行业指导作用较少。因此综合减灾发展可以增加技术和行业应用层面的研究,把新技术运用于综合减灾研究与实践,实现科学减灾。     

农村气象灾害防御体系理论模型初探

根据灾害防御基本原理,简要分析了气象灾害致灾因子对气象灾害防御的影响。在此基础上,结合浙江、重庆、山西、辽宁、安徽、江西、广东、内蒙、贵州等省市的农村气象灾害防御实践,借鉴国外灾害防御体制建设和机制设计的经验,探索性提出了组成农村气象灾害防御体系的6项基本内容,即农村气象灾害风险识别与评价、农村气象灾害监测与预警发布机制、气象灾害预警信息传播与应急响应、气象灾害防御组织体系、气象灾害防御的工程体系以及气象灾害防御的法制化;构建了农村气象灾害防御体系的理论模型;并在专业能力支撑、行政支持、组织保障、政策法规等方面,对未来农村气象灾害防御体系建设提出了建议。     

The politics of risk in the Philippines: comparing state and NGO perceptions of disaster management

It is now generally appreciated that what constitutes vulnerability to one person is not necessarily perceived as such by the next. Different actors 'see' disasters as different types of events and as a result they prepare for, manage and record them in very different ways. This paper explores what different perceptions of vulnerability mean in terms of the understanding and practices of two significant sets of actors and stakeholders involved in disaster preparedness and management in the Philippines: the state and NGOs. Approaches to disaster are not just a function of people's perceptions of disaster risk but also of their understanding of the prevailing social order and social relations. Despite a shared vocabulary—which increasingly presents disasters as processes rather than events, takes a proactive rather than a reactive approach, and favours the inclusion of stakeholders rather than solely relying on technocratic management—different realities continue to make for different responses.     

Conceptualising disaster social capital: what it is,why it matters,and how it can be enhanced

Social capital discourse occupies an important place in disaster studies. Scholars have adopted various inflections of social capital to explain how those with greater amounts of this crucial resource are generally more resilient to disasters and experience speedier recovery. Disaster scholars have also discovered that people typically display altruistic tendencies in the wake of disasters and develop novel networks of mutual support, known as ‘communitas’, which is also seen to build resilience and boost recovery. In this paper, we use the work of Pierre Bourdieu to synthesise these literatures, conceptualising communitas as ‘disaster social capital’. We offer a fleshed-out definition of disaster social capital to distinguish it from regular social capital and discuss the barriers to, and the enablers of, its formation. While primarily a conceptual discussion, we believe that it has practical and policy value for disaster scholars and practitioners interested in inclusive disaster risk reduction as well as full and just recoveries.     

Vulnerability of community businesses to environmental disasters

Business plays important roles in community functioning. ² However, disaster research has been disproportionately focused on units of analysis such as families, households and government agencies. This paper synthesises the major findings within the business development research field and the disaster research field. It constructs a framework for evaluating business vulnerability to natural disasters. Our theoretical integration of the research conducted to date addresses five major issues. First, it defines the ways in which businesses are subject to the impacts of natural disasters. Second, it identifies the factors that determine the magnitude of business impacts after a disaster. Third, it identifies how and when businesses return to their pre-disaster level in the disaster stricken community. Fourth, it describes measures that can be taken by individual firms and community planners to reduce the impacts of environmental disasters. Fifth, it identifies needs for public policy and future research to reduce business vulnerability to environmental disasters.     

台风等重大灾害性事件的风险认知及预警机制

通过调查受灾民众及未受灾民众对台风等重大灾害性事件的风险认知及预警情况,比较两者的差异,为政府对重大灾害性事件建立预警管理模式提供依据。研究结果表明:①受灾民众和未受灾民众对重大灾害性事件的风险认知水平低,受灾民众对台风的风险认知明显高于未受灾民众(P<0.01);②两者对提升防灾意识的意愿强烈但对防灾资讯关心程度不够,且受灾民众明显更关心防灾资讯(P<0.01);③两者在通过某项预防措施可以避免灾害所造成的损失和撤离危险地区的问题上意见基本一致,但未受灾民众对政府辅助撤离更具有依赖性(P<0.01,P<0.05);④受灾民众比未受灾民众更相信科学家对灾害的预警能力(P<0.01),但均对目前的灾害预警系统满意度一般。     

The impact of disasters on small business disaster planning: a case study

A major flood in 1997 forced the evacuation of Grand Forks, North Dakota and caused damage of USD 1 billion. Despite this recent disaster there is only marginal evidence of an increase in disaster recovery planning by businesses that experienced the flood. This finding is consistent with the results of other business-related disaster research. Statistical tests of survey results from 2003 indicate that there is a significantly higher rate of disaster recovery planning in businesses started since the 1997 flood than in businesses started before the flood and still in business. Such an outcome indicates a need for public policy actions emphasizing the importance of disaster planning. Improved disaster planning is an aid to business recovery and the results demonstrate the need for more widespread efforts to improve disaster recovery planning on the part of smaller businesses, even in areas that have recently experienced disasters.     

旅游灾害事件成灾模型的建立及解析

在我国旅游业蓬勃发展的今天,旅游灾害事件频发已引起了相关部门的高度重视和全社会的关注.根据灾害学原理和对旅游灾害事件成灾机制的研究,建立旅游灾害事件成灾模型,将在成功防范和减轻旅游灾害事件的损失方面发挥巨大作用.该模型主要就旅游灾害事件的基础条件、旅游灾害的诱发因素、旅游灾害的承灾体、旅游灾害损失类型、以及防灾减灾有效措施等方面的问题进行了分析和探讨.     

基于灾度的亚洲巨灾划分标准研究

分析了灾害的双重属性:自然属性和社会属性。灾度是灾害社会属性的定量描述,论述了灾度在灾害分级中的应用。提出了灾度计算模型,该模型的影响因子包括:死亡人数、直接经济损失和受灾人数。收集了1954-2010之间的亚洲灾害,并应用灾度计算模型对收集到的资料进行了计算与分析。提出了亚洲巨灾标准:灾度大于8的灾害为亚洲巨灾。该标准具有计算简便、易于对不同灾害进行比较的特点。