Risk,vulnerability, and pragmatic inevitability: the conflict–disaster nexus and urban governance in Johannesburg,South Africa

This paper spotlights post-disaster relief provision in Johannesburg, South Africa, following the floods of 2016 in a bid to explore how local government and non-governmental actors in the country conceive of compounding vulnerability and conflict within urban disaster governance. It reveals the diverse strategies employed to navigate violent conflict during the cyclical occurrence of disaster and reconstruction that the predominantly migrant population experiences in the Setswetla informal settlement, adjacent to the Alexandra township in northern Johannesburg. Rendered visible in moments of disaster and recovery are the spatial politics and multidimensional nature of conflict. These phenomena unfold across various levels of urban governance and in the affected community and effectively construct a disaster citizenship that makes risk reduction and community cohesion impossible in the eyes of disaster managers. This research, based on a set of expert interviews, integrates conflict and disaster studies to shed light on how the conflict–disaster interface materialises, and is operationalised, in an urban setting.     

Social Dimensions of Urban Flood Experience,Exposure, and Concern

With growing urban populations and climate change, urban flooding is an important global issue, even in dryland regions. Flood risk assessments are usually used to identify vulnerable locations and populations, flooding experience patterns, or levels of concern about flooding, but rarely are all of these approaches combined. Furthermore, the social dynamics of flood concerns, exposure, and experience are underexplored. We combined geographic and survey data on household‐level measures of flood experience, concern, and exposure in Utah's urbanizing Wasatch Front. We asked: (1) Are socially vulnerable groups more likely to be exposed to flood risk? (2) How common are flooding experiences among urban residents, and how are these experiences related to sociodemographic characteristics and exposure? and (3) How concerned are urban residents about flooding, and does concern vary by exposure, flood experience, and sociodemographic characteristics? Although floodplain residents were more likely to be White and have higher incomes, respondents who were of a racial/ethnic minority, were older, had less education, and were living in floodplains were more likely to report flood experiences and concern about flooding. Flood risk management approaches need to address social as well as physical sources of vulnerability to floods and recognize social sources of variation in flood experiences and concern.     

水电工程施工阶段应急管理系统脆弱性评价

为有效评估水电工程施工阶段应急管理系统应急能力并发现系统中的薄弱环节,提出一种应急管理系统脆弱性评价方法。首先,引入脆弱性理论,将应急管理系统的脆弱性分为暴露性、适应性和恢复性3部分;然后,根据水电工程施工阶段应急管理系统的特点构建了进攻性和防御性指标体系,并运用ANP（网络层次分析法）计算各指标权重,结合灰色聚类分析得到各防御性指标和系统整体的脆弱性系数,从而判断水电工程施工阶段应急管理系统脆弱性等级;最后,运用该模型对国内某水电站工程应急管理系统进行评价,在定量计算的基础上得到该应急系统的脆弱性等级,结果表明该系统脆弱性等级处于中等状态,并发现其薄弱环节,为完善水电工程施工阶段应急管理系统的建设提供支撑。     

输气管道隧道的脆弱性评估方法研究

为研究输气管道隧道的脆弱性,结合工程和实践研究,建立管道本体致灾因子、隧道本体致灾因子、人为致灾因子和环境致灾因子4个方面共16个底层因素的指标体系。采用加速遗传算法改进的层次分析法（AGA-AHP）计算脆弱性级别权重和样本集权重。对于脆弱性级别权重边界突变的问题,用拟合曲线的方法来解决。运用组合权重与模糊综合评价法相结合的方法,按照不同隶属原则分别对系统整体和各子系统的脆弱性进行对比评估。实例分析结果表明,该输气管道隧道表现为中脆弱性,管道公司应及时采取有效措施整治和改善。     

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.     

Measuring vulnerability to natural hazards: a macro framework

The measurement of vulnerability—defined here as the asymmetric response of disaster occurrences to hazardous events—signifies a key step towards effective disaster risk reduction and the promotion of a culture of disaster resilience. One of the reasons for not being able to do the same in a wider context is related to conceptual, definitional, and operational issues. This paper presents an operationally feasible framework for conducting this task and measures revealed macro vulnerability as a function of disaster risk and hazard probability. The probabilities of hazard and its perceived disaster risk were obtained from past data and from probability distributions. In this paper, the corresponding analytical framework is constructed using the case study of floods in Assam, India. The proposed indicator will help policymakers to draw on available macro‐level data to identify the regions that are vulnerable to disasters, where micro‐level disaster vulnerability assessments could be performed in greater detail.     

Environmental knowledge and human experience: using a historical analysis of flooding in Ireland to challenge contemporary risk narratives and develop creative policy alternatives

Focusing on three of the largest coastal cities in the Republic of Ireland, this paper highlights the importance of a historical analysis of flood hazards in contextualising current events and potential future risks. Over the last decade, the cities of Dublin, Cork and Galway have experienced several major coastal, river and pluvial floods. In the aftermath of these floods, two distinct but related narratives have dominated public discourse and official responses. The first narrative presents recent floods as unprecedented and as possible evidence of climate change. The second constructs floods primarily as natural events and assumes that the optimal means of reducing flood losses is to prevent flood events. In this paper, I suggest that these narratives are not supported by a historical analysis of exposure and vulnerability to flood hazards in Irish cities. This paper draws primarily on newspaper archives to construct a record of past flooding that challenges these narratives in several ways and in doing so offers lessons for similar cities in other countries. I contend that these narratives are perpetuated by a narrow form of knowledge production (quantitative risk assessment) and a narrow range of data (numeric instrumental records). Incorporating a broader range of sources and data types into risk and vulnerability assessments may illuminate more creative strategies for reducing both contemporary and future flood losses.     

Social vulnerability and pneumonic plague: revisiting the 1994 outbreak in Surat,India

The 1994 outbreak of pneumonic plague in Surat, India is revisited and analyzed using the pressure and release (PAR) model. Overviews of the outbreak, of India's experience with plague, and of the disease are provided and the PAR model is used to trace the production of vulnerability via root causes, dynamic pressures, and unsafe conditions and to explain the why, when, and where of the epidemic. The emergence of plague in Surat was an unfortunate amalgam of prior hazard events and of factors generating vulnerability. Root causes include the country's colonial legacy and a complex and pervasive social hierarchy promoting caste and class interests over the common good. Dynamic pressures include: a curative-focused healthcare system; a weak civil society; misplaced spending priorities; and public and private corruption that deprived public health programs of needed funds and which compelled workers to live and labor in unhealthy environments. Unhealthy public, residential and workplace environments; fragile economic conditions; and a lack of surveillance and preparation are immediately linked to the outbreak and to the transmission of pneumonic plague.     

Mapping social vulnerability to flood hazard in Norfolk,England

In this paper, we present a method to assess social vulnerability through the creation of an Open Source Vulnerability Index (OS-VI). The OS-VI provides context to environmental hazards and allows NGOs and local agencies to better tailor services and provide targeted pre-emptive vulnerability reduction and resilience-building programmes. A deductive indicator-based approach is utilised to incorporate a wide range of vulnerability indicators known to influence vulnerability. Unlike many vulnerability indices, the OS-VI incorporates flood risk as well as the loss of capabilities and the importance of key services (health facilities and food stores) through the measurement of accessibility when determining an area's level of social vulnerability. The index was developed using open-source mapping and analysis software and is composed completely of open-source data from national data sets. The OS-VI was designed at the national level, with data for all proxy indicators available across the entirety of England and Wales. For this paper, a case study is presented concerned with one English county, Norfolk.

Highlights

• We produce an open-source vulnerability index.

• Accessibility to health care found to be severely affected by flooding.

• High vulnerability areas found to be disproportionately impacted by flooding.

• Urban extent of an area found to increase its level of vulnerability.

• Flood affected areas more likely to be composed of elderly, sick and poor.

     

城市供水管网脆弱性评价研究进展

脆弱性评价有助于甄别城市供水管网的薄弱环节,确定合理的风险削减措施,保证供水安全。阐述脆弱性的有关定义及其与风险的联系与区别,回顾城市供水管网脆弱性评价的发展历程,介绍几种脆弱性评价方法的基本原理、优缺点及适用范围,并按不同评价思路对国内外使用的主要脆弱性评价方法进行分类总结。研究发现,目前尚未形成统一的脆弱性概念及切实可行的评价方法,今后应不断完善和整合各类方法,以定量和通用为核心,使城市供水管网脆弱性评价方法更为实用、有效。