Helena Molin Valdés, Dilanthi Amaratunga and Richard Haigh
The purpose of this paper is to provide an update of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) campaign on Making Cities Resilient.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide an update of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) campaign on Making Cities Resilient.
Design/methodology/approach
An opinion piece written by the Director a.i. of UNISDR and the Editors of the International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment.
Findings
The campaign will continue and the focus will shift to more implementation support, city‐to‐city learning and cooperation, local action planning and monitoring of progress in cities.
Originality/value
Continued advocacy will seek to commit more cities and increase the support by national governments to support city resilience and local capacities.
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Lisa Bornstein, Gonzalo Lizarralde, Kevin A. Gould and Colin Davidson
The aim of this paper is to add a new dimension to urban resilience by exploring how representations of disasters, reconstruction and human settlements are made, and how, by…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to add a new dimension to urban resilience by exploring how representations of disasters, reconstruction and human settlements are made, and how, by shaping plans and programs, they ultimately influence resilience.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on James Scott's notion of “legibility” to ask how different representations simplify complex realities and how they are transformed into plans and programs. The paper first outlines the various broad analytic lens used to examine legibility to portray post‐disaster reconstruction, drawing on international literature and policies. The paper then focuses on post‐earthquake Haiti and analyzes eight reconstruction plans and reviews design proposals submitted for the Building Back Better Communities program to explore how different stakeholders portrayed the disaster, identified the reconstruction challenges and proposed to address human settlements.
Findings
Representations of the disaster, the reconstruction challenge and the housing problem were quite varied. While the plans assumed a very broad view of the reconstruction challenge (one that goes beyond the representations found in the literature), the BBBC program adopted a very narrow view of it (one that the literature condemns for failing to achieve sustainable resilience).
Research limitations/implications
The empirical research is exploratory, suggesting an approach that throws a new light on the analysis of plans and programs for improved resilience.
Practical implications
The study suggests that the representations that decision makers, institutions and organizations make of the world ultimately establish the framework in which resilience is constructed.
Originality/value
The lens of legibility confirms that the expression of different representations makes the world legible in different ways and therefore transforms the way in which resilience can be improved.
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Yuki Matsuoka, Yukiko Takeuchi and Rajib Shaw
The purpose of this paper is to review the challenges for disaster risk reduction (DRR) by local governments and local implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) as…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review the challenges for disaster risk reduction (DRR) by local governments and local implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) as the global DRR guideline.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a survey on 20 tasks identified in “A guide for implementing HFA by local stakeholders”, HFA implementation by local government is analyzed to identify priorities and the gaps. The target group for the detail analysis was the Makati city DRR coordinating council (MCDRRCC).
Findings
The survey reviewed how multi‐stakeholders involved in local DRR perceive these HFA 20 tasks, which revealed trends and gaps within their work. The result showed that Makati currently places more emphasis on HFA 1, but revealed some gaps in the area of HFA 4. While suggesting a set of recommended actions for Makati, the analysis also revealed how these gaps were addressed in its recent action plan. MDRRCC demonstrated a case for local platform for DRR in terms implementing the actions and addressing the challenges through proper coordination among stakeholders.
Research limitations/implications
Since local HFA implementation is relevantly new area, its applicability needs to be examined further considering linkages between national and local governments.
Originality/value
This paper is unique since the original data were collected from the survey. Makati city case proposes a model of local platform for comprehensive DRR actions along with HFA, which provides value added approach contributing to the ISDR Campaign. The case of Makati provides an on‐going model process of a local platform for DRR which can be leant by other local government for possible replication.
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During the last few decades social resilience and social vulnerability have been two crucial sociological concepts for everyone involved in crisis and disaster management. The…
Abstract
Purpose
During the last few decades social resilience and social vulnerability have been two crucial sociological concepts for everyone involved in crisis and disaster management. The fundamental purpose in the present analysis is based on the consideration of resilience from a sociological perspective and the notion of social capital, its proper features, dynamics and processes within different groups of people involved in a disaster process.
Design/methodology/approach
All these social components could be evaluated as social indicators of vulnerability and resilience according to the sociological approach and its main theories about social capital and resilience, social and methodological implications. The operative context of this theoretical reflection has been constituted by megacities, considered as the “new” social space where, nowadays, major social relations and risk reduction actions take place through a collaborative pattern not based on a top down organizational model.
Findings
Attention is focused on the sociological findings as the importance of social cohesion, strengthening social relationships with particular consideration for the crucial role of social capital during all stages of the disaster process: prevention and preparedness, planning, warning communication, physical and psychological impacts, emergency and disaster response, recovery and reconstruction with the specific aim of enhancing social resilience and attempting to diminish social vulnerability.
Originality/value
The originality of this proposal in the field of disaster resilience is its use of the sociological approach and its theoretical characteristics and instruments, such as, for example, the definitions of social capital. The consideration for this topic will be future challenges to improve urban disaster risk reduction according to social relationship and its characteristics of interconnection and multidimensionality.
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Fuad Mukkarram Munawwar Ali and Keith Jones
The aim of this paper is to develop a discussion of the production of community resilience to extreme weather during the first years of a new national government, one which is…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to develop a discussion of the production of community resilience to extreme weather during the first years of a new national government, one which is cognisant of the political change and uncertainty, the legislative framework and the institutional complexity that defines the adaptation scenario in the UK and London specifically.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative semi‐structured interviews and group interventions were conducted amongst regional and local authority decision‐makers in London in the period from late 2010 through to early 2011.
Findings
Hazard experience and political will were found to be important, interrelated drivers of community resilience. Adaptation work was found to face a tangibility problem that challenged stakeholders to make the case for its higher prioritisation in a highly economistic decision‐making process. Citywide resilience‐building schemes were observed of increasing organisational sophistication, and remained difficult to test and largely disengaged from the general public.
Originality/value
The paper offers tools to understand movement in the administrative architecture of adaptation, probing the associated inter‐agency workings. It introduces the idea of the epistemic ecology to describe and explain the multiple kinds of knowledge employed by stakeholders in the adaptation scenario, and anticipates the impacts of localism and insurance policies currently in the pipeline.
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Saumyang Patel and Makarand Hastak
Natural disasters often destroy hundreds of homes that leave victims homeless and leads to community displacement. In the USA, such disasters happen over 60 times per year. This…
Abstract
Purpose
Natural disasters often destroy hundreds of homes that leave victims homeless and leads to community displacement. In the USA, such disasters happen over 60 times per year. This leads to logistical and contractual nightmare for the planning agencies and political/community leaders required to provide shelter for displaced citizens. One of the most important challenges for the policy makers and aid providers is to make homes available to the homeless victims in as short a period as possible. Temporary shelter is costly and often excessively delayed. Also quality and long stay (more than four years for the Katrina victims) in temporary shelter affected victims both mentally and physically. The aim of this paper is to propose a strategic framework that assists responsible entities to provide housing to the disaster victims in a short period of time, for example to construct 200 homes in 30 days after disaster (representing a subdivision).
Design/methodology/approach
The main objective of this research is to perform feasibility study of implementing such a strategy that would enable agencies to provide better solutions for post disaster housing assistance. This paper mainly explains four phases that constitute the development of the strategic framework. The first two phases of the framework carry out pre‐disaster planning and establish relationships among the participating entities. Whereas, the third phase includes simulating post disaster processes identified in the previous phases to evaluate response trade‐offs. The last phase is about the real implementation of this strategy after disaster that also incorporates its outcomes and experiences into previously planned strategy.
Findings
It was found through second part of research, simulation studies, that such a strategy can be prepared before the disaster and activated when needed. This would drastically reduce the housing response time.
Originality/value
This would help in improving the strategy for future disasters. Successful execution would facilitate opportunities to reduce stress for the victims and encourage faster recovery.