Targeting vulnerability after the 2005 earthquake: Pakistan's Livelihood Support Cash Grants programme

The 7.6 magnitude (Richter scale) earthquake that struck northern Pakistan on 8 October 2005 was devastating. This paper gauges success in targeting vulnerable families during the transition from relief to reconstruction through cash assistance provided by the Livelihood Support Cash Grants (LSCG) programme. Families without a male member, with a disabled male member aged between 18 and 60 years or with more than five children, defined as vulnerable, were provided with USD 50 per month for six months via a bank transfer. The LSCG scheme enrolled around 750,000 families and selected 267,402 vulnerable families to whom it disbursed a total of USD 86.95 million. Using a community‐based survey, this paper assesses leakage and under‐coverage (exclusion). Approximately 30 per cent of families received the cash grant. However, only one in two was eligible for the benefit, and one in two deserving families was excluded. This is a matter of grave concern.     

城市建筑物抗震能力评估方法

由于建筑物震害预测方法只能估计建筑物的破坏而不能评定建筑物的抗震能力,基于对城市建筑物潜在破坏的估计,提出了城市建筑物抗震能力的评估方法。影响城市建筑物抗震能力的因素包括城市所处的地震危险性环境和城市建筑物的易损性。为了考虑地震危险性因素,进行了以地面峰值加速度(PGA)为参数的地震危险性分析,提出了我国不同地震危险性特征分区的PGA概率密度函数;为了考虑建筑物的易损性因素,采用HAZUS-MH中的静力弹塑性分析(push-over anal-ysis)方法研究群体建筑物易损性。通过对这两个因素的研究,建立了城市建筑物抗震能力评估方法,提出的相对全概率抗震能力指数可以反映城市建筑物在其所在的地震危险性环境下所具有的抗震能力,而采用绝对全概率抗震能力指数能够比较不同建筑抗震能力的差异,再结合建筑物抗震能力评估标准,可确定抗震能力水平。以晋江市抽样建筑物抗震能力评估为例,结合震害经验,论证了该方法的有效性。     

基于改进DEA交叉效率模型的洪水灾害区域脆弱性评价

为了评价洪水灾害区域脆弱性,提出了应用改进DEA交叉效率模型和熵权法相结合的洪水灾害区域脆弱性评价方法。首先,在洪灾形成理论的基础上,构建洪灾区域脆弱性指标体系和评价标准;其次,应用改进DEA交叉效率模型计算不同区域的成灾效率,利用熵权法计算权重集结全局成灾效率。根据成灾效率的实际意义分析不同区域脆弱性的相对大小。最后,选取我国各省份洪灾作为实证分析的研究对象。研究结果表明:该方法能够准确评价区域洪灾脆弱性程度,评价结果与实际情况一致,具有较好的适用性。     

Classification of residential areas according to physical vulnerability to natural hazards: a case study of Çanakkale,Turkey

The selection of new settlement areas and the construction of safe buildings, as well as rendering built‐up areas safe, are of great importance in mitigating the damage caused by natural disasters. Most cities in Turkey are unprepared for natural hazards. In this paper, Çanakkale, located in a first‐degree seismic zone and sprawled around the Sartçay Delta, is examined in terms of its physical vulnerability to natural hazards. Residential areas are analysed using GIS (geographic information system) and remote‐sensing technologies in relation to selected indicators. Residential areas of the city are divided into zones according to an evaluation of geological characteristics, the built‐up area's features, and urban infrastructure, and four risk zones are determined. The results of the analysis show that the areas of the city suitable for housing are very limited. In addition, the historical centre and the housing areas near Sartçay stream are shown to be most problematic in terms of natural disasters and sustainability.     

生态脆弱性评价在矿区规划环评中的应用研究 ——以阜新矿区为例

以辽宁阜新矿区总体规划环评为例,基于生态环境指数,生态敏感性和景观空间结构等指标构建矿区开发生态脆弱性评价指标体系,运用层次分析和综合指数法评价和划分区域生态脆弱性等级,利用GIS技术并结合法规要求将规划矿区划分为适宜、优化、适度、限制和禁止开采等5类地区.评价结果表明,阜新矿区生态脆弱性整体较高,脆弱度属于4级和5级的区块分别约占规划总面积的51.38%和39.36%,且已建和规划新建煤矿全部处在脆弱性较高的区域范围内,矿区开发与生态保护之间的矛盾突出.     

承压含水层脆弱性影响因素分析及评价模型的构建——以山东省济宁市为例

由于浅层地下水的污染以及承压水的开采,导致受到污染的浅层地下水越流补给深层承压水,增大了承压含水层受到污染的风险,如何评价承压含水层受到污染的可能性是迫切需要解决的问题。论文根据承压含水层受污染的特点将承压含水层脆弱性分为固有脆弱性和扰动脆弱性两个方面,同时根据脆弱性大小具有相对性这一特性,将研究区内承压含水层各脆弱性评价指标归一化,根据信息熵反映实测数据的效用值计算评价指标权重,而后加权求和得到反映脆弱性的综合指数,从而避免了构建脆弱性分级和定额的主观性。以济宁市承压含水层脆弱性评价为例,对评价方法的可靠性进行了分析,通过与数值模拟结果进行对比验证了方法的可靠性。该方法具有概念清晰、操作简便等特点,对无法建立地下水流数值模型和溶质运移模型的地区开展承压含水层脆弱性评价有一定的应用前景。     

The spatial nexus between population growth and land degradation in a dry Mediterranean region: a rapidly changing pattern?

A better understanding of the spatial linkage between the distribution of land vulnerable to degradation and long-term population growth may contribute to sustainable land management of dry regions. Such a nexus has received increasing attention among politicians and local stakeholders, as its complex outcomes depend on mutual interactions between socioeconomic and biophysical factors. This is particularly true in southern Europe, where important processes of land degradation (LD) have been observed in recent years. This paper analyses population growth (1871–2007) in southern Italy and questions its relationship with the level of land vulnerable to degradation. Results indicate that vulnerable lands were more likely associated with areas where population growth has determined environmental pressures on coastal areas and the neighbouring lowlands during 1950–1980. This pattern consolidated the socioeconomic polarisation between core and peripheral areas. Since the 1980s, however, southern Italy has experienced a phase of polycentric development, possibly determining a ‘decoupling’ between population density and land vulnerability to degradation. Population increased in moderately vulnerable areas but decreased in highly vulnerable areas. The policy implications of these results are discussed.     

A review of coastal community vulnerabilities toward resilience benefits from disaster reduction measures

The coast has always been an area of significant hazards. In situations of community self-sufficiency, consequences of coastal hazards might be isolated to regions directly affected by the hazard. But, in the current global economy, fewer and fewer communities are isolated; damage to one location frequently has consequences around the globe and coastal community resilience can have broad-reaching benefits. Hazard responses for the built coastal environment have typically been resistance: constructing stronger buildings, enhancing natural barriers or creating artificial barriers. These approaches to hazard reduction through coastal engineering and shoreline defence efforts have been crucial to sustained coastal development. However, as coastal forces continue or magnify and resources become scarcer, resistance alone may be less effective or even unsustainable, and interest in resilience has grown. Resilience is a community's ability either to absorb destructive forces without loss of service or function, or to recover quickly from disasters. Community resilience encompasses multiple elements, ranging from governance to structural design, risk knowledge, prevention, warning systems and recovery. This paper focuses on hazards of coastal communities, and provides a review of some recent engineering efforts to improve the resilience elements of risk knowledge and disaster warnings for coastal disaster reduction.     

Linking the stressors and stressing the linkages: Human—environment vulnerability and brownfield redevelopment in New York City

This paper suggests that the mitigation of one hazard—soil contamination—can unintentionally affect vulnerabilities and perceived vulnerabilities to additional stressors in the local human—environment system through a study of brownfield redevelopment in New York City. This study employs a Vulnerability Scoping Diagram (VSD) approach to identify components that contribute to vulnerabilities and perceived vulnerabilities in the local community, based on the thematic analysis of 55 interviews with residents from four neighbourhoods with brownfield redevelopment activities in New York City. This analysis of resident observations and perceptions of post-redevelopment hazard conditions indicates how mitigating vulnerability to one urban hazard—soil contamination—has the potential to affect vulnerabilities and perceived vulnerabilities to additional hazards like flooding and air pollution because of the complex linkages among multiple stressors. A causal model of vulnerability to the unintended impacts of brownfield redevelopment is subsequently developed to further demonstrate the interactive linkages among exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity to multiple stressors. This study also provides measures that stakeholders can monitor and evaluate over time to track the socio-spatial and environmental implications of brownfield redevelopment and subsequent changes in the local human—environment system.     

中国区域物流系统脆弱性评估研究

为了提升区域物流系统可靠性与可持续发展能力,基于复杂系统理论对区域物流系统脆弱性进行概念界定,构建了区域物流系统脆弱性的概念模型;在分析区域物流系统脆弱性影响因素的基础上,提出了脆弱性评价指标体系及综合评价模型,并对中国大陆地区31个省（直辖市、自治区）区域物流系统脆弱性的空间分异特征进行了研究。研究表明:全国层面的区域物流系统脆弱性两极分化的空间分异特征显著,具有明显的“西高东低”特征;高生态环境脆弱性和高社会脆弱性是区域物流系统脆弱性居高的主要原因;全国的区域物流系统生态环境脆弱性普遍偏高,而东部地区物流系统资源脆弱性最高。