Adaptation to coastal hazards: the livelihood struggles of a fishing community in Kerala,India

This case study examines the coastal hazard adaptation strategies of a fishing community in a village in Kerala, India. It shows that formal adaptation strategies are highly techno‐centric, costly, and do not take into account the vulnerabilities of the fishing community. Instead, they have contributed to ecological, livelihood, and knowledge uncertainties. The adaptation strategies of the fishing community are a response to these uncertainties. However, they may not lead to the fishing community's recovery from its vulnerability contexts. This case study is primarily qualitative in nature. Data were collected through in‐depth interviews. Insights reveal that when actors with diverse values, interests, knowledge, and power evolve or design their respective adaptation strategies, the resulting interface often aggravates existing uncertainties associated with hazards. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that local discourses on coastal hazards are livelihood‐centric and socially constructed within the struggle of the fishing community to access resources and to acquire the right to development.     

Traditional Ecological Knowledge Trends in the Transition to a Market Economy: Empirical Study in the Doñana Natural Areas

Abstract: Researchers and conservation managers largely agree on the relevance of traditional ecological knowledge for natural resource management in indigenous communities, but its prevalence and role as societies modernize are contested. We analyzed the transmission of traditional knowledge among rural local people in communities linked to protected areas in Doñana, southwestern Spain. We studied changes in knowledge related to local practices in agriculture and livestock farming among 198 informants from three generations that cover the period in which the area transited from an economy strongly dependent on local ecosystem services to a market economy with intensified production systems. Our results suggest an abrupt loss of traditional agricultural knowledge related to rapid transformations and intensification of agricultural systems, but maintenance of knowledge of traditional livestock farming, an activity allowed in the protected areas that maintains strong links with local cultural identity. Our results demonstrate the potential of protected areas in protecting remaining bodies of traditional ecological knowledge in developed country settings. Nevertheless, we note that strict protection in cultural‐landscape‐dominated areas can disrupt transmission of traditional knowledge if local resource users and related practices are excluded from ecosystem management.     

Elements of resilience after the World Trade Center disaster: reconstituting New York City's Emergency Operations Centre

In this paper we examine the reconstitution of the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) after its destruction in the World Trade Center attack, using that event to highlight several features of resilience. The paper summarises basic EOC functions, and then presents conceptions of resilience as understood from several disciplinary perspectives, noting that work in these fields has sought to understand how a natural or social system that experiences disturbance sustains its functional processes. We observe that, although the physical EOC facility was destroyed, the organisation that had been established to manage crises in New York City continued, enabling a response that drew on the resources of New York City and neighbouring communities, states and the federal government. Availability of resources--which substituted for redundancy of personnel, equipment and space--pre-existing relationships that eased communication challenges as the emergency developed and the continuation of organisational patterns of response integration and role assignments were among the factors that contributed to resilience following the attack.     

四论灾害系统研究的理论与实践

作者曾分别于1991,1995和2001年发表了关于灾害研究理论与实践的3篇文章,对灾害系统的性质、动力学机制等进行了探讨.本文在前3篇文章的基础上,从综合灾害风险管理的角度,完善了灾害系统的结构与功能体系,论证了灾情形成过程中恢复力的作用机制,分析了区域开发与安全建设的互馈关系,构建了区域综合减灾的行政管理体系,提出了由政府、企业与社区构成的区域综合减灾范式.研究结果表明,区域灾情形成过程中,脆弱性与恢复力有着明显的区别,脆弱性是区域灾害系统中致灾因子、承灾体和孕灾环境综合作用过程的状态量,它主要取决于区域的经济发达程度与社区安全建设水平;恢复力则是灾害发生后,区域恢复、重建及安全建设与区域发展相互作用的动态量,它主要取决于区域综合灾害风险行政管理能力、政府与企业投入和社会援助水平.区域安全水平与土地利用的时空格局和产业结构关系密切,通过划定区域高风险“红线区“的办法,调整土地利用时空格局和产业结构,有利于建立区域可持续发展的综合减灾范式.针对区域自然灾害系统存在着相互作用、互为因果的灾害链规律,以及灾害系统所具有的结构与功能特征,完善由纵向、横向和政策协调共同组成的一个“三维矩阵式“的区域综合减灾行政管理体系,构建以政府为主导、企业为主体、社区全面参与的区域综合减灾范式.以此促进在发展中提高区域减灾能力,并在一定安全水平下,建设区域可持续发展模式.     

生计资本异质对农户农地流转行为的影响——以武汉城市郊区的516户农民为例

以武汉市城郊江夏区和蔡甸区的516户农民家庭为实证,运用logistic和分位数回归模型探索家庭生计资本对农户土地流转行为的影响及阈值。结果表明:(1)人力资本和金融资本与农户农地转出行为呈显著正向相关,家庭农地资源禀赋、机耕能力、社会资源禀赋及经营能力的信任程度等与农地转出行为负向相关。相反,自然资源禀赋及农业机械投入对农户土地转入行为的正向影响显著,而家庭融资能力则对农户转入行为呈显著的负向影响。(2)分位数回归结果显示,对农户土地流转行为存在影响阈值的仅有韧性指数。当农户家庭韧性指数≤2时,随韧性指数增强农户农地转出倾向愈强;家庭韧性指数≥3时,农户农地转出倾向随指数增强而弱化。该研究从农户微观个体视角探索生计资本异质对农地流转行为的影响,为针对农户家庭需求制定差别化的农地流转政策、有效推进农业适度规模经营提供建议参考。     

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.     

Supporting the risk management process with land information: a case study of Australia

It is frequently argued that, at the parcel level, 1 stakeholders are capable of and well supported in managing their land‐related risks. Yet, evidence from the contemporary Australian context suggests otherwise: numerous large‐scale disaster events have revealed that citizens are ill‐prepared to respond and recover adequately. This paper begins with the premise that information, specifically land information, could better support parcel‐level risk preparation, mitigation, response, and recovery. State land administration organisations in Australia primarily maintain this information and make it accessible. Land information is used regularly across all levels of government to support risk management activities; however, such application has not always occurred at the parcel and citizen level. Via a case study approach, this paper initially explores the land information available in Australia to stakeholders interested in parcel‐level detail, and then goes on to propose how the utilisation of parcel‐level land information could serve to enhance risk management practices.     

基于DEMATEL的区域洪涝灾害恢复力影响因素及评价指标体系研究——以巢湖流域为例

影响洪涝灾害恢复力的因素众多且相互关联,识别和区分这些影响因素,找到因素间互相影响程度和因果关系,对于明确洪涝灾害恢复力关键因素,快速找到需要改善的因素具有重要意义。通过分析灾害恢复力的内涵,从自然维、社会维、经济维、技术维、管理维5个维度构建区域洪涝灾害恢复力的影响因素指标体系,应用DEMATEL方法分析区域洪涝灾害恢复力影响因素之间的关系,并以巢湖流域为例凝练出适合该区域的洪涝灾害恢复力评价指标体系,结果表明,一级指标中自然维、经济维对其他因素影响最为显著,二级指标中政府财政支撑能力、土地因子、地形因子对其他影响因素的影响最大;而一级指标中经济维和社会维与其他因素关系最为密切,二级指标中政府财政支撑能力、区域经济实力、土地因子处于核心的位置。从整体影响输出上看,一级指标中原因因素共有2个,分别为自然维、经济维,且以经济维为最,二级指标中原因因素有11个,涉及五个维度,包括所有自然维中因素,并以地形因子、政府财政支撑能力、灾害政策法规为重。一级指标中结果因素有3个,分别为管理维、技术维、社会维;二级指标中共有12个,以管理维中的因素为主,相比于原因因素,通过改善结果因素可以更直接的提高区域洪涝灾害恢复力的水平。     

Examining the spatial incongruity between mining sector and beekeeping activities

The seminal work of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services on pollinators, pollination, and food production, informed scientific studies on the understudied impacts of mining on agriculture sub-sectors. This paper assesses the potential impacts of mining activities on beekeeping as an agricultural sub-sector, and the flow-on effects on associated economic values and enterprises to enhance sustainable development. A case study is conducted in the emerging northwest gold mining region of Ghana. The Location Quotient (LQ) and Location Association (La) models are used to explore the economic significance of beekeeping, its spatial links with tree habitats, and mining activities. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) were used to analyze the spatial interactions between concessions, trees, and beekeeping. The paper finds that districts with LQ < 1 in beekeeping also record LQ > 1 in mining, and La < 50 between beekeeping and mining. The findings are useful for stakeholder decision-making toward harnessing and leveraging the prospects of mining on integrated rural and sustainable development.     

Climate change and disaster management

Climate change, although a natural phenomenon, is accelerated by human activities. Disaster policy response to climate change is dependent on a number of factors, such as readiness to accept the reality of climate change, institutions and capacity, as well as willingness to embed climate change risk assessment and management in development strategies. These conditions do not yet exist universally. A focus that neglects to enhance capacity-building and resilience as a prerequisite for managing climate change risks will, in all likelihood, do little to reduce vulnerability to those risks. Reducing vulnerability is a key aspect of reducing climate change risk. To do so requires a new approach to climate change risk and a change in institutional structures and relationships. A focus on development that neglects to enhance governance and resilience as a prerequisite for managing climate change risks will, in all likelihood, do little to reduce vulnerability to those risks.