Social media and disasters: a functional framework for social media use in disaster planning,response, and research

A comprehensive review of online, official, and scientific literature was carried out in 2012–13 to develop a framework of disaster social media. This framework can be used to facilitate the creation of disaster social media tools, the formulation of disaster social media implementation processes, and the scientific study of disaster social media effects. Disaster social media users in the framework include communities, government, individuals, organisations, and media outlets. Fifteen distinct disaster social media uses were identified, ranging from preparing and receiving disaster preparedness information and warnings and signalling and detecting disasters prior to an event to (re)connecting community members following a disaster. The framework illustrates that a variety of entities may utilise and produce disaster social media content. Consequently, disaster social media use can be conceptualised as occurring at a number of levels, even within the same disaster. Suggestions are provided on how the proposed framework can inform future disaster social media development and research.     

Natural hazard events and social capital: the social impact of natural disasters

This study investigates if and to what extent natural disasters affect social capital. Twelve different events in Europe are examined in a quantitative analysis, using data derived from the European Social Survey and the EM‐DAT International Disaster Database. The study uses social trust as an indicator of social capital and offers evidence that a change in social trust is a possible occurrence during or after a disaster, but that it is not an inevitable consequence of it. The results reveal that social trust decreases after a disaster with a death toll of at least nine. Changes in social capital, therefore, are found to be more probable as the severity of the event increases. National, rather than regional, disasters lead more frequently to significant shifts in social trust. This evaluation of 12 separate cases pinpoints several disasters that have had an effect on social trust, but it does not identify any general patterns, underlining the significance of contextual dependency.     

中国自然灾害应急管理研究进展与对策

从中国自然灾害应急管理的现状出发,系统分析了自然灾害应急管理领域的研究进展,指出了中国自然灾害应急管理在理论和实践方面存在的问题.在此基础上,提出了中国自然灾害应急管理框架,认为建立适合中国国情的自然灾害应急管理体制是提高中国自然灾害应急管理的基础;应急预案的制定和实施是规范灾害应急管理,提高灾害紧急救援能力的关键措施;灾害信息快速准确的获取和评估是灾害应急管理的有效保障;建立实际可用的应急管理系统是提高灾害应急管理水平和工作效率的根本出路.     

Livelihoods,precarity, and disaster vulnerability: Nicaragua and Hurricane Mitch

How livelihoods determine vulnerability to disasters is a recent topic of inquiry. Few quantitative works have been produced to date. The empirical analysis that follows draws on household‐level data available for Nicaragua, preceding and following Hurricane Mitch, a devastating Category 5 storm that made landfall in Central America in October 1998, to examine differentials in disaster recovery outcomes vis‐à‐vis household livelihood profiles. Livelihoods are distinguished according to economic sector along with ownership of productive means, a central mechanism of vulnerability under sociological labour frameworks. The findings indicate uneven recovery outcomes in relation to livelihoods. During the year immediately following the event, agricultural wage earners and agricultural owner‐producers experienced marked losses owing to the disaster, whereas business owners saw an improvement in condition. Analysis of long‐term recovery reveals that households reliant on agricultural wage employment exhibit lagged recovery relative to other livelihood profiles. The findings are discussed with respect to the dynamic pressures posed by contemporary developmental processes.     

Defining disaster resilience: comparisons from key stakeholders involved in emergency management in Victoria,Australia

Three years after the introduction of the National Strategy for Disaster Resilience there remains no unanimously adopted definition of disaster resilience within Australia's emergency management sector. The aim of this study is to determine what the concept means to key stakeholders in the emergency management sector in the Australian State of Victoria, and how these conceptualisations overlap and diverge. Via an online survey, 113 people were asked how they define disaster resilience in their work in the emergency management sector. A data mining software tool, Leximancer, was employed to uncover the relationships between the definitions provided. The findings show that stakeholders see resilience as an ‘ability’ that encompasses emergency management activities and personal responsibility. However, the findings also highlight some possible points of conflict between stakeholders. In addition, the paper outlines and discusses a number of potential consequences for the implementation and the success of the resilience‐based approach in Australia.     

The social impact of natural hazards: a multi‐level analysis of disasters and forms of trust in mainland China

This study aimed to assess the multi‐level effects of natural hazards on trust in Chinese society. Drawing on the Chinese General Social Survey conducted in 2012 and provincial disaster damage records, it examined the association between individuals’ past experiences of disasters and province‐level damage (measured by the number of affected people, deaths, and economic loss) and various forms of trust: in‐group; out‐group; generalised; and political. The findings indicate that Chinese individuals with experience of disasters have higher levels of out‐group trust but lower levels of political trust. Similarly, at the province level, damage owing to disasters over the past three years (2009–11) positively impacted on residents’ out‐group trust while negatively affecting their political trust. However, when provincial damage was aggregated for disasters over the past five years (2007–11), which included the devastating Sichuan earthquake on 12 May 2008, only total deaths had a positive effect on generalised trust.     

Foundations of community disaster resilience: well-being,identity, services,and capitals

If community disaster resilience is to mature into a robust and lasting area of research, methodologically facilitated dialogue between empirical observations and theory is necessary. However, methodological and empirical research has outpaced community disaster resilience theory. To address this gap, a theoretical framework called WISC is presented. WISC is named after four constructs of the framework: well-being, identity, services, and capitals. WISC relates the two concepts of community and infrastructure, broadly defined, to the four constructs it is named after. The 4 constructs are respectively defined by 29 variables. The broadest interpretation of WISC is that infrastructure supports and facilitates components of community within human settlements. Infrastructure is represented as combinations of capitals and services; community is represented by connections of identity and well-being. Ultimately, well-being of a community is dependent on that community's collective capital. But these two constructs are mediated by the intervening constructs of identity and services. WISC goes beyond existing frameworks by addressing essential elements of theory building that have been overlooked in the literature, while synthesizing other frameworks and areas of knowledge. WISC provides a powerful foundation for posing and evaluating hypotheses, improving data collection efforts, and, most importantly, enabling critical theory building.     

Stressful but rewarding: Norwegian personnel mobilised for the 2004 tsunami disaster

Adequate responses to disasters and emergency situations rely, among other factors, on coping abilities in disaster workers and emergency personnel. In this study, different aspects of disaster-related stressors and training/experience were investigated in Norwegian personnel (n = 581) mobilised for the 2004 tsunami disaster. The level of stress reactions, measured nine to ten months after the tsunami, was relatively low in this sample, indicating that the personnel coped well with the challenges of the disaster. The level of intrusive memories was higher in disaster-area personnel (n = 335) than in home-base personnel (n = 246). Stress reactions were significantly associated with witnessing experiences (disaster-area group) and with having to reject victims in need of help (both groups). Specific preparation for the mission was associated with a lower level of stress reactions in disaster-area personnel. Such factors may be considered in training and preparation programmes for disaster workers.     

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.     

综合自然灾害风险管理--全面整合的模式与中国的战略选择

综合自然灾害风险管理是目前国际上防灾减灾和灾害管理较先进的措施和模式，是针对各种自然灾害的全灾害的管理，是贯穿于灾害管理全过程，集中于灾害风险和承灾体脆弱性分析并强调多层面、多元化和多学科参与合作的全面整合的灾害管理模式。介绍了综合自然灾害风险管理的必要性、概念和本质，探讨了综合自然灾害管理的基本理论、对策及其实施过程和实施战略，在此基础上提出了对我国实施综合自然灾害风险管理的建议，为强化和推动我国综合自然灾害风险管理提供参考。     

Living with disasters: social capital for disaster governance

This paper explores how social networks and bonds within and across organisations shape disaster operations and strategies. Local government disaster training exercises serve as a window through which to view these relations, and ‘social capital’ is used as an analytic for making sense of the human relations at the core of disaster management operations. These elements help to expose and substantiate the often intangible relations that compose the culture that exists, and that is shaped by preparations for disasters. The study reveals how this social capital has been generated through personal interactions, which are shared among disaster managers across different organisations and across ‘levels’ within those organisations. Recognition of these ‘group resources’ has significant implications for disaster management in which conducive social relations have become paramount. The paper concludes that socio‐cultural relations, as well as a people‐centred approach to preparations, appear to be effective means of readying for, and ultimately responding to, disasters.     

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.     

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。     

Resident preferences for augmented rainstorm disasters management strategies: the case of Nanjing in China

In recent years, rainstorm disasters have enormously negative effect on property safety and life safety in Nanjing. In order to achieve the consistency of optimal social supply of rainstorm disasters prevention management strategies and public sector supply, this paper studies citizens’ preferences for augmented strategies in Nanjing. Using a choice experiment approach, we consider willingness-to-pay (WTP) for augmented efforts for non-structural reform strategy of rainstorm runoff control, structural reform strategy of rainstorm drainage and non-structural education. Our results showed that citizens were generally in favor of augmented rainstorm disaster prevention management strategies, but with varying degrees. They were most favorable to increased educational effort that does not physically affect rainstorm, with the WTP of ¥134.29 a year. Followed by improvements in Non-structural Reform Strategy of Rainstorm Runoff Control, its WTP was ¥88.08 a year. The improving Structural Reform Strategy of Rainstorm drainage was less influential, but still significantly affected policy choice with the WTP of ¥55.42 a year. Specifically, the results of latent class model best confirmed the assumption that individual preference is heterogeneous. Furthermore, in order to gain the support of the public, policy-makers should advance publicly linked strategies such as mentioned in this study that appear most useful.     

Building disaster resilience using social messaging networks: the WeChat community in Houston,Texas, during Hurricane Harvey

Analyses of disaster resilience have focused increasingly on the role of social capital and online social networks in recovery. This study complements this field of work by investigating three key issues. First, it examines how a social messaging application, WeChat, helped individuals to access and to mobilise three types of social capital—bonding, bridging, and linking—during Hurricane Harvey, a Category 4 storm that made landfall in Louisiana and Texas in the United States in August 2017, resulting in significant flooding and loss of life. Second, it pinpoints and assesses quantitatively how individuals' WeChat group usage and social capital influenced their post-disaster well-being. Third, it demonstrates how a minority and immigrant community in Houston, Texas, overcame the disadvantages commonly observed in other disaster research through the utilisation of social media. The findings of this study should aid governmental and community efforts to foster resilience in the face of natural and human-induced hazards.     

Lateral knowledge: shifting expertise for disaster management in Chile

Deemed as technocratic and exclusionary, disaster management has failed in its promise of knowing, let alone controlling, catastrophic events. Consequently, disaster managers are searching outside of science for sense‐making analytics. This paper analyses the emergent narratives articulated by disaster managers in Chile to cope with the uncertain nature of their object of intervention. It explores how knowledge of disasters is modified and enriched by disaster managers in what is termed here as ‘lateral knowledge’: the epistemic adjustment by which practitioners revalidate their expert status by expanding key assumptions about disaster risk reduction. The study, which draws on in‐depth interviews with disaster managers in Chile, suggests that lateral knowledge is established both through the increasing validation of community knowledge and the recognition of politics as a critical mediator in the practice of disaster management. The paper concludes by making the larger point that public understanding of science scholars should pay more attention to the adapting capacities of expertise.     

大型社会活动事故风险管理程序与方法

分析了活动特性、人群类别、环境因素、场地类型和组织管理等对大型社会活动事故风险的影响，论述了大型社会活动风险管理的一般程序与方法，提出了大型社会活动风险控制的范围和措施。以某园艺博览会为实例，介绍了大型社会活动事故风险管理应用的全过程，并选用层次分析法进行了事故风险的综合评价。     

'All hazards approach' to disaster management: the role of information and knowledge management, Boyd's OODA Loop, and network-centricity

The ever-increasing complexity of disasters demands utilisation of knowledge that exists outside domains traditionally drawn upon in disaster management. To be operationally useful, such knowledge must he extracted, combined with information generated by the disaster itself, and transformed into actionable knowledge. The process, though, is hampered by existing, business-oriented approaches to knowledge management, by technical issues related to access to relevant, multi-domain information/knowledge, and by executive decision-making processes based predominantly on historical knowledge. Consequently, as shown by many recent incidents, the management of large-scale (mega) disasters is often inefficient and exceedingly costly. This paper demonstrates that the integration of modified information and knowledge management into the concepts of network-centric operations and network-enabled capabilities, and the employment of Boyd's OODA (Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act) Loop-based decision-making in unpredictable and dynamically changing environments, may address some of these problems.     

Addressing challenges for future strategic‐level emergency management: reframing,networking, and capacity‐building

The mounting frequency and intensity of natural hazards, alongside growing interdependencies between social‐technical and ecological systems, are placing increased pressure on emergency management. This is particularly true at the strategic level of emergency management, which involves planning for and managing non‐routine, high‐consequence events. Drawing on the literature, a survey, and interviews and workshops with Australia's senior emergency managers, this paper presents an analysis of five core challenges that these pressures are creating for strategic‐level emergency management. It argues that emphasising ‘emergency management’ as a primary adaptation strategy is a retrograde step that ignores the importance of addressing socio‐political drivers of vulnerabilities. Three key suggestions are presented that could assist the country's strategic‐level emergency management in tackling these challenges: (i) reframe emergency management as a component of disaster risk reduction rather than them being one and the same; (ii) adopt a network governance approach; and (iii) further develop the capacities of strategic‐level emergency managers.