Towards guidelines for post‐disaster vulnerability reduction in informal settlements

Although the development community has long recognised that securing land tenure and improving housing design can benefit significantly informal settlement residents, there is little research on these issues in communities exposed to natural disasters and hazards. Informal settlements often are located on land left vacant because of inherent risks, such as floodplains, and there is a long history worldwide of disasters affecting informal settlements. This research tackles the following questions: how can informal settlement vulnerabilities be reduced in a post‐disaster setting?; and what are the key issues to address in post‐disaster reconstruction? The main purpose of the paper is to develop a set of initial guidelines for post‐disaster risk reduction in informal settlements, stressing connections to tenure and housing/community design in the reconstruction process. The paper examines disaster and reconstruction responses in two disaster‐affected regions—Jimani, Dominican Republic, and Vargas State, Venezuela—where informal settlements have been hit particularly hard.     

中国自然灾害灾情统计现状及展望

自然灾害灾情统计是灾害评估、应急救助、灾后恢复重建等工作的基础。本文从我国自然灾害灾情统计的现状出发，认为灾种界定不清、统计内容不规范、尚未建立高效的灾情上报系统是我国灾情统计工作中存在的几大问题。建立规范的灾情统计标准和对重大自然灾害事件的统计制度、建立灾情统计的评估方法、提高基层灾情统计人员素质等，是推动我国灾情统计工作快速发展的主要途径。     

Build back better: implementation in Victorian bushfire reconstruction

The ‘build back better’ (BBB) concept signals an opportunity to decrease the vulnerability of communities to future disasters during post‐disaster reconstruction and recovery. The 2009 Victorian bushfires in Australia serve as a case study for this assessment of the application of core BBB principles and their outcomes. The results show that several BBB measures were successfully implemented in Victoria and are relevant for any post‐disaster reconstruction effort. The BBB initiatives taken in Victoria include: land‐use planning determined by hazard risk‐based zoning; enforcement of structural design improvements; facilitated permit procedures; regular consultations with stakeholders; and programmes conducted for social and economic recovery. Lessons from the Victorian recovery urge the avoidance of construction in high‐risk zones; fairness and representativeness in community consultations; adequate support for economic recovery; the advance establishment of recovery frameworks; and empowerment of local councils.     

Embedded wisdom or rooted problems? Aid workers' perspectives on local social and political infrastructure in post‐tsunami Aceh

This paper analyses the role of local social, cultural, and political institutions in post‐disaster reconstruction projects. It contends that such institutions are important considerations within community‐driven reconstruction initiatives, but are often viewed with ambivalence by external aid organisations. This paper draws upon in‐depth qualitative interviews with aid workers involved in the post‐tsunami reconstruction in Aceh, Indonesia, to establish: (i) what roles community institutions were suited to play in the reconstruction; (ii) what were the limitations of community institutions when engaging with external aid agencies; (iii) how did external aid agencies engage with local community institutions; and (iv) how did external aid agencies perceive community institutions.     

基于国内外灾害经济研究与管理实践的启示

中外学者从不同视域对灾害经济与管理问题进行了研究,形成了一些有代表性的观点。各国政府在防灾减灾、灾后重建等方面也积累了大量的经验。这些观点和经验为我们深入研究灾害管理机制奠定了基础,结合汶川8.0级地震导致的惨重损失及灾后重建出现的问题,阐述了构建我国以人为本的灾害管理机制和可持续重建地震灾区的基本对策。     

‘Here,I'm not at ease’: anthropological perspectives on community resilience

A number of recent studies on disaster reconstruction have focused on the concept of community resilience and its importance in the recovery of communities from collective trauma. This article reviews the contributions the anthropological literature and the ethnographic case studies of two post‐Hurricane Mitch housing reconstruction sites make to the theorising of community and resilience in post‐disaster reconstruction. Specifically, the article demonstrates that communities are not static or neatly bounded entities that remain constant before, during and after a disaster; rather, communities take on shape and qualities depending on the relationships in which they engage with government agencies and aid organisations before and after disasters. Consequently, the article argues that definitions of community resilience and disaster mitigation programmes must take the emergent and relational nature of communities into account in order to address the long‐term causes and impacts of disasters.     

Culture,local capacity,and outside aid: a community perspective on disaster response after the 2009 tsunami in American Sāmoa

Research on diverse cultural contexts has indicated that aid organisations often fail to leverage local, culturally‐grounded resources and capacities in disaster‐affected communities. Case‐study methodology was employed to explore the relationship between local and external disaster response efforts in American Sāmoa following the earthquake and tsunami on 29 September 2009 in the southern Pacific Ocean, with a specific focus on the role of culture in defining that relationship. Interview and focus group data from 37 participants, along with observational data, suggested that the local response to the event was swift and grounded in Samoan cultural systems and norms. External aid was viewed as helpful in some respects, although, on the whole, it was seen as a disruption to village hierarchies, social networks, and local response efforts. The study discusses the implications for the role of outside aid in diverse cultural contexts, and makes suggestions for improving the ecological fit of post‐disaster interventions.     

Urban disaster recovery: a measurement framework and its application to the 1995 Kobe earthquake

This paper provides a framework for assessing empirical patterns of urban disaster recovery through the use of statistical indicators. Such a framework is needed to develop systematic knowledge on how cities recover from disasters. The proposed framework addresses such issues as defining recovery, filtering out exogenous influences unrelated to the disaster, and making comparisons across disparate areas or events. It is applied to document how Kobe City, Japan, recovered from the catastrophic 1995 earthquake. Findings indicate that while aggregate population regained pre‐disaster levels in ten years, population had shifted away from the older urban core. Economic recovery was characterised by a three to four year temporary boost in reconstruction activities, followed by settlement at a level some ten per cent below pre‐disaster levels. Other long‐term effects included substantial losses of port activity and sectoral shifts toward services and large businesses. These patterns of change and disparity generally accelerated pre‐disaster trends.     

Disaster studies inside out

Disaster studies is faced with a fascinating anomaly: frequently it claims to be critical and innovative, as suggested by the so‐called vulnerability paradigm that emerged more than 40 years ago, yet often it is perpetuating some of the core and problematic tenets of the hazard paradigm that we were asked to challenge initially. This paper interrogates why such an anomaly persists. In so doing, it employs Antonio Gramsci's concept of hegemony to unpack why disaster studies is still dominated by Western epistemologies and scholars that perpetuate an orientalist view of disasters. Ultimately, it suggests a research agenda for the 40 years to come, which builds on the importance of local researchers analysing local disasters using local epistemologies, especially in the non‐Western world. Such subaltern disaster studies are to be fuelled by increasing consciousness of the need to resist the hegemony of Western scholarship and to relocate disaster studies within the realm of its original political agenda.     

区域综合公共安全管理模式及中国综合公共安全管理对策

中国政府将公共安全事件分为4大类,即自然灾害、事故灾难、公众卫生和社会安全。中国的公共安全管理体制包括在中央一级成立国务院应急管理办公室,以及针对上述4类公共安全问题相应组建的以管理自然灾害为主的国家减灾委员会;以管理事故灾难为主的国家安全生产委员会;以管理公共卫生为主的中国爱卫会和以管理社会治安为主的中央综合治理委员会。在地方政府一级,一般与中央有关公共安全管理体制的机构相对应,也相应组建了地方政府的应急管理办公室和上述4类的公共安全管理的委员会。此外,国家出台了各类公共安全管理的应急预案,并针对一些主要的公共安全因素,相继制定了一系列法律、规定和决定。由此可以认为,中国公共安全的管理体制是“以中央为主,中央与地方政府相互配合”。中国公共安全管理机制是中央与地方政府的相关部门,在灾前、灾中与灾后分别承担相应的责任,至今还没有一个政府部门就某一种公共安全因素承担全部的备灾、应急与恢复和重建任务。国家的公共安全管理战略一直是以“预防为主,防抗救相结合”,2003年SARS事件后,各级政府重视公共安全管理工作中应急管理体系的建设。文章提出了区域综合公共安全管理模式,即灾区政府、企业、社区在灾前备灾、灾中应急、灾后恢复与重建的减灾全过程中,形成一个有机的整体。在此模式的指导下,针对中国公共安全管理体制与机制中存在的问题,提出了进一步改进中国各级政府综合公共安全管理的对策：一是加大公共安全信息的及时公开力度,建立国家和地方公共安全信息共享体系;二是建立公共安全管理的纵向、横向与综合协调机制,全面提高各级政府的综合公共安全管理能力;三是从源头上降低公共安全事件的发生频率,建立发展规划的“风险”评价制度;四是鼓励非政府组织在综合公共安全管理中发挥作用,建立社区综合公共安全管理体系;五是大力提高减灾资源的利用效率与效益,建设区域综合风险防范关键技术示范基地。     

Analysing news media coverage of the 2015 Nepal earthquake using a community capitals lens: implications for disaster resilience

South Asia is one of the regions of the world most vulnerable to natural disasters. Although news media analyses of disasters have been conducted frequently in various settings globally, there is little research on populous South Asia. This paper begins to fill this gap by evaluating local and foreign news media coverage of the earthquake in Nepal on 25 April 2015. It broadens the examination of news media coverage of disaster response beyond traditional framing theory, utilising community capitals (built, cultural, financial, human, natural, political, and social) lens to perform a thematic content analysis of 405 news items. Overall, financial and natural capital received the most and the least emphasis respectively. Statistically significant differences between local and foreign news media were detected vis‐à‐vis built, financial, and political capital. The paper concludes with a discussion of the social utility of news media analysis using the community capitals framework to inform disaster resilience.     

NGO collaboration in community post‐disaster reconstruction: field research following the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China

The number of communities affected by disasters has been rising. As a result, non‐governmental organisations (NGOs) that attend community post‐disaster reconstruction are often unable to deliver all requirements and have to develop cooperative approaches. However, this collaboration can cause problems because of the complex environments, the fight for limited resources and uncoordinated management, all of which result in poor service delivery to the communities, adding to their woes. From extensive field research and case studies conducted in the post‐Wenchuan earthquake‐stricken communities, this paper introduces an integrated collaboration framework for community post‐disaster reconstruction with the focus on three types of NGOs: international, government organised and civil. The proposed collaboration framework examines the three interrelated components of organisational structure, operational processes and reconstruction goals/implementation areas. Of great significance in better promoting collaborative participation between NGOs are the crucial concepts of participatory reconstruction, double‐layer collaborative networks, and circular review and revision.     

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.     

Temporary disaster debris management site identification using binomial cluster analysis and GIS

An essential component of disaster planning and preparation is the identification and selection of temporary disaster debris management sites (DMS). However, since DMS identification is a complex process involving numerous variable constraints, many regional, county and municipal jurisdictions initiate this process during the post‐disaster response and recovery phases, typically a period of severely stressed resources. Hence, a pre‐disaster approach in identifying the most likely sites based on the number of locational constraints would significantly contribute to disaster debris management planning. As disasters vary in their nature, location and extent, an effective approach must facilitate scalability, flexibility and adaptability to variable local requirements, while also being generalisable to other regions and geographical extents. This study demonstrates the use of binomial cluster analysis in potential DMS identification in a case study conducted in Hamilton County, Indiana.     

韧性理论视角下贫困村灾后恢复重建与灾害风险管理刍议

韧性理论引入灾害风险管理领域,为世界防灾减灾实践提供了新理念,并在国内外韧性城市社区建设中得到广泛应用,但针对乡村地区,尤其是高脆弱性的贫困村韧性社区建设的研究还较为鲜见。该文以韧性理论为基础,结合乡村振兴战略规划,通过对贫困村社会生态系统特征的分析,探讨了新时期我国贫困村灾后恢复重建与灾害风险管理发展方向及特点。研究发现:贫困村不仅产业经济落后,而且还具有自然环境复杂、基础设建设滞后、社会公益设施匮乏、教育水平较低、自然灾害频发等特点。这类灾害多发区与贫困人口聚集区在空间上的叠加,成为我国社会生态系统高脆弱性地区,面临着严峻的防灾减灾与扶贫开发的双重挑战;基于韧性理论视角,通过构建贫困村适灾韧性系统,开展贫困村社区韧性综合评价,调整贫困村灾后恢复重建规划编制理念等,以推动贫困村灾后恢复重建的转型;在此基础上,结合贫困村社会生态系统特点,以建立健全贫困村灾害风险管理机制、探究提升贫困村适灾韧性社区建设的新途径、协同灾害管理与乡村振兴发展目标、开展灾区恢复重建动态监测与后效评价等政策举措为抓手,深化贫困村灾害风险管理实践,提升贫困地区可持续发展能力。     

Of timelines and timeliness: lessons from Typhoon Haiyan in early disaster response

Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines on 8 November 2013 with maximum sustained winds of 235 kilometres per hour, adversely affecting at least 11 million people and displacing some 673,000 in the central regions of the country. The disaster clearly overwhelmed the Philippine government despite its seemingly well‐crafted disaster management plan. Using timelines of different organisations, this paper identifies gaps in the government's response, mainly due to its failure in coordinating and managing relief operations, which adversely affected its effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery of critical goods and services following the disaster. The paper also demonstrates how non‐governmental organisations (NGOs), the United Nations, foreign governments and other organisations provided assistance, mainly through aid niching, to cover the government's shortcomings. The paper recommends a paradigm shift in the government's disaster response by integrating collaborative arrangements between government agencies and NGOs, and giving local governments the lead role, with the national government as support, in disaster planning and response.     

地方政府灾害应急管理问题研究——以灾区某市政府地震灾害应急管理为例

为了建立健全我国突发公共事件应急管理体制,提高各级政府应对突发事件的能力,分析和研究各级政府在突发公共事件应急管理过程中存在的问题显得非常重要。本文通过对九江地区5.7级地震发生后灾区某市政府在应急救灾抢险方面所展开的各项管理工作的调查研究,对灾区政府从启动初动体制到全面展开应急救灾工作的应急管理过程进行了详细分析。在此基础上,以灾区某市政府地震灾害应急管理为例,就我国各级政府在灾害管理过程中普遍存在的有应急预案但没有相应的防灾规划实施细则、灾后受灾应急评估体系不健全、应急避难与应急救灾物资缺少规划管理等问题进行了探讨和分析,并就如何加强我国地方政府灾害应急管理能力提出了相应的建议和方法。     

Cyclone shelters and their locational suitability: an empirical analysis from coastal Bangladesh

Bangladesh is one of the poorest and the most disaster‐prone countries in Asia; it is important, therefore, to know how its disaster reduction strategies are organised and planned. Cyclone shelters comprise a widely acceptable form of infrastructural support for disaster management in Bangladesh. This paper attempts to analyse empirically their use during cyclones in a sample study area along the southwest coastal belt of the country. It shows how the location of a cyclone shelter can determine the social power structure in coastal Bangladesh. The results reveal that the establishment of cyclone shelters in the studied communities is determined by neither a right‐based nor a demand‐based planning approach; rather, their creation is dependent on the socio‐political affluence of local‐level decision‐makers. The paper goes on to demonstrate that socially vulnerable households (defined, for example, by income or housing conditions) are afforded disproportionately less access to cyclone shelters as compared to less socially vulnerable households.     

Towards an earthquake-resilient world: from post-disaster reconstruction to pre-disaster prevention

ABSTRACT

Destructive earthquakes in urban or rural areas around the world have caused severe damage to local societies. Pre-disaster prevention and post-disaster reconstruction can significantly reduce the impact of earthquakes on communities. To explore the popular research topics and trends in this area, CiteSpace was used to develop a knowledge map visualization. It was found that the main research into earthquake disaster prevention and reconstruction has been focused on disaster risk reduction planning, disaster mitigation knowledge, participatory disaster governance, and community resilience building. In this Special Issue, there were six distinctive earthquake disaster research papers that covered scientific, social, and institutional aspects. It was concluded that to reduce the effects of earthquake disasters, an interdisciplinary research approach and systems thinking is needed. The investigation also revealed that there has been a paradigm shift from post-disaster reconstruction to pre-disaster prevention to build community and urban resilience.     

辽西北地区农业干旱灾害风险评价与风险区划研究

以辽西北29个农业县(市、区)为研究区域,选取辽西北最主要的玉米作物作为研究对象,从造成农业干旱灾害的致灾因子危险性、承灾体暴露性、脆弱性和抗旱减灾能力4个方面着手,利用自然灾害风险指数法、加权综合评价法和层次分析法,建立了农业干旱灾害风险指数(ADRI),用以表征农业干旱灾害风险程度;借助GIS技术,绘制辽西北农业干旱灾害风险评价区划图,将风险评价区划图与2006年辽西北受干旱影响粮食减产系数区划图对比,发现两者可以较好的匹配。研究结果可为当地农业干旱灾害预警、保险,以及有关部门的旱灾管理、减灾决策制定提供理论依据和指导。