Post-disaster community tourism recovery: the tsunami and Arugam Bay, Sri Lanka

Tourism is highly vulnerable to external, non-controllable events. A natural disaster can affect the local tourism industry in numerous ways, and such events are particularly devastating for small communities whose local economy is heavily dependent on the sector. Loss of infrastructure plus negative media stories can have long-term ramifications for the destination. In spite of the economic importance of tourism, post-disaster recovery efforts in this sector are often overlooked by non-governmental organisations (NGOs), which focus on more traditional livelihoods such as agriculture or fishing. This paper describes Mercy Corps' support of tourism recovery activities in Arugam Bay, a remote village on the east coast of Sri Lanka, following the 2004 tsunami. The local economic base is built largely on two sectors: community tourism and fishing. As many other actors were supporting recovery in the local fishing industry, Mercy Corps concentrated on revitalising the tourism sector.     

Stakeholder participation in building resilience to disasters in a changing climate

The resilience perspective has emerged as a plausible approach to confront the increasingly devastating impacts of disasters; and the challenges and uncertainty climate change poses through an expected rise in frequency and magnitude of hazards. Stakeholder participation is posited as pivotal for building resilience, and resilience is not passive; rather, stakeholders are actively involved in the process of building resilience. Who is involved and how they are involved are crucial aspects for developing resilience in practice. Nevertheless, there are few empirical studies available to inform theory or show how these issues are addressed. This study focuses on revealing how practitioners frame the issue of participation in relation to resilience, its relevance to a changing climate and how, in consequence, they construct practices. Using Hajer's [(1995). The politics of environmental discourse: Ecological modernization and the policy process. New York] ‘Social-interactive discourse theory’, in this interdisciplinary research, we study the frames and subsequent practices developed around a disaster management policy initiative in Australia: the Natural Disaster Resilience Program in Queensland. What emerges from the research findings as critical and requiring urgent attention is stakeholder and especially local government and community participation, and for this to become socially relevant, challenges such as meaningful communication and power structures need to be addressed. What is also critical is to move from experiential learning to social learning. Additionally, the results presented here offer empirical evidence on how broadening the pool of actors can be implemented, and the opportunities that this opens up for building resilience.     

From Resistance to Resilience: Media Discourses on Urban Flood Governance in Mexico

This article examines the continuities and changes in newspaper coverage of urban flood governance in Tabasco, southeastern Mexico, where highly destructive floods have made flood risks a socially sensitive and politically contested public issue. The analysis draws upon post-Foucauldian critical discourse analysis, paying special attention to different actors’ discursive strategies to further their agendas amid the shifting forms of environmental governance. We argue that in recent years, discourses that promote integrated flood governance, based on cultural adaptation and social resilience instead of technological control, have become prominent in the media presentation of flood governance. These discourses endorse neoliberal views of flood governance as an issue of public–private co-governance and civil self-responsibility while being reluctant to consider flood risk from the perspective of the uneven distribution of vulnerabilities or as an issue of human rights.     

恢复力视角下秦岭贫困山区乡村振兴潜力研究

恢复力概念为秦岭贫困山区乡村发展研究提供了新的视角,从恢复力视角研究乡村振兴潜力,对于提高贫困山区乡村内生发展动力、实现乡村有效振兴具有重要意义。以秦岭贫困山区商洛市为案例,在理论构建的基础上,建立贫困山区乡村恢复力评价体系测度恢复力指数,采用空间主成分分析法识别恢复力关键影响因素,据此提出三区县乡村振兴潜力类型分类。研究结果表明：（1）商洛市三个区县各镇办的恢复力指数呈集聚分布态势,恢复力整体上处于偏低水平状态。（2）环境因素、经济因素对乡村社区恢复力起到决定作用。（3）三区县乡村振兴潜力可分为四种类型：均衡发展潜力区、农业主导潜力区、农业旅游兼营潜力区和地理环境限制潜力区,根据其资源禀赋和现状发展条件提出针对性的乡村振兴策略。     

基于民生满意度的资源型城市转型绩效测度及群体差异研究——以湖北省黄石市为例

民生满意度评价是资源型城市转型绩效测度的终端体现,对于改善转型绩效、促进资源型城市可持续发展具有重要的现实意义。论文以民生满意度为视角,从居民生计、公共服务、民生环境、文化消费4个方面构建资源型城市转型绩效测度指标体系,采用专家群决策及AHP方法确定指标权重,运用顾客满意度评价法对黄石这一典型资源型城市转型绩效进行测度并进一步揭示被调查群体的差异特征。研究结果表明:1)基于民生满意度的黄石市转型绩效测度值为4.17,总体上处于"优秀"等级水平,但在某些局部指标上仍略显不足;2)黄石市转型绩效存在由被调查者特征而引起的群体和区域差异:不同性别、年龄、文化程度、职业类别、家庭年经济收入群体对转型民生满意度评价不同,并呈现一定规律;从区域差异来看,铁山区、大冶市等传统老矿区依托国家资源型城市转型政策支持,转型民生满意度绩效值相对较高,西塞山区、下陆区、黄石港区等中心城区历史包袱沉重、转型升级民生满意度暂时落后,以阳新为代表的农业县市,民众对于转型的认知和感受相对滞后,转型升级民生满意度居末;3)黄石市转型的民生满意度赋值与其物质产出绩效具有一致性。     

Social impact of the 2004 Manawatu floods and the 'hollowing out' of rural New Zealand

The Manawatu floods of 2004 have had significant, long-lasting social consequences. This paper draws on findings from a series of detailed surveys of 39 farm households directly affected by the floods and 17 individuals directly involved in managing the flood recovery programme. The nature of the impact on rural families highlights how the 'hollowing out' of rural New Zealand has changed the capacity of rural communities to respond to natural hazards and increased their sense of isolation. In addition, the floods exposed the vulnerability of rural communities. This is shown to have implications for policies designed to build resilience and improve responses to adverse events, including the need to support local, community initiatives on self-reliance and mutual support. Approaches to manage better long-term flood risks should be designed within a context of ongoing rural decline that has compromised the health of both individuals and communities.     

钢铅组合防屈曲支撑的滞回性能与参数研究

为简化防屈曲支撑的加工工艺,提高防屈曲支撑的初始刚度和在小变形下的耗能能力,基于现有防屈曲支撑在截面形式与构造方式上的特点,提出了一种新型钢铅组合防屈曲支撑并进行了构造设计。通过有限元数值模拟,分析了钢铅组合防屈曲支撑的耗能特性与效果,建立了恢复力简化模型,并根据理想弹塑性材料本构关系推导出滞回规则。通过对不同设计参数的理论分析和数值模拟,分析了钢铅屈服力比、铅剪切面长宽比、核心段宽厚比和耗能段长度等参数对防屈曲支撑滞回性能的影响。研究结果表明,钢铅组合防屈曲支撑能够提供较大的抗侧刚度,耗能效果良好,加工工艺简单,适合工程应用。     

Australian local government action on climate change adaptation: some critical reflections to assist decision-making

The primary objective of this paper is to discuss the limitations of risk management as a strategy for Australian local government climate change adaptation and explore the advantages of complementary approaches, including a social-ecological resilience framework, adaptive and transition management, and vulnerability assessment. Some federal and local government initiatives addressing the limitations of risk-based approaches are introduced. We argue that conventional risk-based approaches to adaptation, largely focused on hazard identification and quantitative modelling, will be inadequate on their own for dealing with the challenges of climate change. We suggest that responses to climate change adaptation should move beyond conventional risk-based strategies to more realistically account for complex and dynamically evolving social-ecological systems.     

An ecosystem approach to analyse the livelihood of fishers of the Old Brahmaputra River in Mymensingh region,Bangladesh

This paper applies an ecosystem approach to analyse the livelihood of fishers dependent on the Old Brahmaputra River in Mymensingh, Bangladesh. Results suggest that the livelihood of fishers is increasingly threatened because of the fragile river ecosystem and poor livelihood assets. Most fishers face a wide range of vulnerability including shocks, trends and seasonality. This is because the ecosystem of the resource base on which their livelihood depends (i.e. the Old Brahmaputra River) has been degraded severely resulting in a significant decline in fish catch due to a combination of factors, such as over-fishing, use of destructive fishing gears, water pollution, siltation, rapid urbanisation and environmental degradation. We propose an adoption of the socio-ecological system with active community participation in the management of the resource base and collaboration amongst key stakeholders to produce positive livelihood outcomes for the fishers.