Progress in Disaster Science最新文献

Rapid urbanization has increased the risks to and vulnerabilities of urban systems, society, and organizations. In recent years, urban areas have been exposed to multiple hazards such as floods, landslides, storms, and rising sea levels. To reduce exposed elements' risk of and vulnerability to natural hazards, the first requirement is a better understanding of the vulnerable elements as stated in Sendai Framework. Different concepts and approaches can be employed in vulnerability assessment, depending on the scope and context of the study. In this study, the vulnerability concept was based on six dimensions (social, economic, physical, institutional, environmental, and cultural) adapted from the Method for the Improvement of Vulnerability (MOVE) framework. This approach was applied to three industrial urban districts in Selangor, Malaysia: Sepang, Kuala Langat, and Hulu Langat. These are located in the Langat River catchment and consist of 17 mukim (subdistricts). A spatial vulnerability assessment was conducted to determine the areas of very high vulnerability in this study area. A map was subsequently produced that shows the areas classified into five vulnerability categories (very low, low, medium, high, and very high vulnerability). The findings from all the areas studied identified 5.7% in the very high class, 8.9% in the high class, 33.3% in the medium class, 21.6% in the low class, and 30.5% in the very low class. The multidimensional vulnerability assessment used scientific proof to provide information for better understanding to the government, disaster agencies, and local governments so that policy making, and local disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies can improve.

The number of natural disasters has increased globally as a result of climate change. Community nurses become frontline workers in disaster-struck areas, protecting their clients from harm and risk. The number of community-based healthcare providers in Japan has increased in recent years, along with the shift from cure-focused acute healthcare to home-based care settings. Many studies have investigated the preparedness and willingness to provide care in the aftermath of a disaster. However, there is still a dearth of knowledge on disaster preparedness among community-based healthcare professionals globally. This study investigated the preparedness of community nurses in Hiroshima, Japan, focusing on nurses providing home-based care. A mixed method design was employed, and data were collected through surveys and interviews. The survey results indicated a positive association between disaster experience and training, as well as training and the existence of a disaster plan. Further, participants reported that healthcare providers neglected the preparation of disaster plans due to time constraints and a lack of incentives; our results suggest that incentives may promote disaster preparedness.

As risks and effects of climate hazards increase, disaster-prone communities need to gather and systematize Local Disaster Knowledge (LDK) and link it with scientific knowledge for effective disaster risk management. Methods for extracting and synthesizing local knowledge have been developed, though duplicating the methods in any other areas remains a challenge. This study utilizes the concept of gamification for knowledge extraction, and develops a game called “Local Disaster Knowledge Extracting Game: Flood management in Thailand” and designs a focus group discussion which enables easy comparison with the game. The study sets its indicators to evaluate the effectiveness of LDK extraction, and through a social experiment in a model community for community-based flood management in North Thailand, it reveals the superior benefits of the gamification in comparison to focus group discussion in extracting more knowledge related to local contexts and more locally specific knowledge and promoting the social learning enabler.

In many parts of tsunami prone areas, providing tsunami evacuation structures is often regarded as costly and difficult to manage, whereas several existing building and hills can be introduced as tsunami evacuation sites. This research intends to introduce practical and scientific methods in assessing the feasibility of hills and buildings for vertical tsunami evacuation facilities. Here, the aim is to combine tsunami numerical simulations and field assessment to determine suitable hills and buildings as vertical tsunami evacuation facilities in Calang and Banda Aceh (Indonesia) that were severely destroyed by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The numerical simulations were based on the latest condition of land cover of the study area, which has changed significantly in the last 20 years. Using the newly updated land cover, the tsunami model reveals that the tsunami estimated maximum height is 13 m in Calang. The existing buildings and hills, with an altitude higher than tsunami heights, which can be reached within 30 min (15 min less than the minimum tsunami arrival times) from the centres of the villages, are proposed as tsunami evacuation sites. In Banda Aceh and Calang, 10 public buildings, 13 mosques, and 4 hills are proposed as alternative escape sites.

Despite the extensive literature on flood-related depression, depression severity for individual damaged household items is unclear. Furthermore, the effect of depression levels on the time taken to replace damaged household items is equivocal. To resolve these research gaps, this study employed a questionnaire to collect data from slum dwellers in Old Fadama and analysed using a Wilcoxon signed-rank test and stepwise multinomial regression techniques. The findings revealed that flood-affected persons ranked depression levels associated with damaged furniture/chairs/tables/sofa more severe than other household items such as Electronic: Fan/Iron, Electronic: Fridges/deep freezers/coolers/food storage, Beds/ Mattresses/other sleeping mats. Damaged items considered to have moderate cost generated mild depression levels while affordable items were less likely to generate severe depression. Concerning the replacement of damaged items, younger respondents, with lower income, in rent-free apartments and with low depression levels replaced damaged items after a year and more. The study recommends that National Disaster Management Organisation [NAMDO] should include the provision of psychological assistance to flood victims and spearhead the establishment of a national flood insurance policy, while insurers support with packages for slum areas in Ghana.

The pandemic bond issued by the World Bank (WB) in 2017 is a financial innovation enabling the transfer of the pandemic risk from the underdeveloped/developing countries to the financial market. It covers perils of various diseases that could overwhelm the global health systems and adversely impact the world economy. If all the triggers are activated, the bond’s principal and coupons are used to finance coordinated, swift and resilient medical response to safeguard the well-being of the populace. This product, however, is criticised for its onerous trigger requirements. We examine the WB’s pandemic-bond pricing framework, which requires inputs that are only partially available. From a rather unstructured COVID-19 data set, an information database is created and customised for pandemic-bond valuation. A vector auto-regressive moving average model is utilised to jointly describe the triggers dynamics. Our modelling simulations of risk triggers reveal that the bond payout could be made in less than half of the WB’s earliest opportunity of 85 days.

Post-disaster reconstruction requires not only an immediate response but also long-term consideration of the recovery of local livelihoods, sustainability of technology transfer, and respect for sociocultural norms. A top-down approach for post-disaster reconstruction, usually relying on external resources and standardized prototypes, might strongly hinder the recovery process. To enhance community resilience, the use of traditional knowledge in post-disaster reconstruction is highlighted in the Sendai Framework. This study specifically focuses on traditional construction. A systematic literature review is conducted on post-earthquake housing recovery with traditional construction, and a hierarchical analysis framework helps categorize the review results at strategic, managerial, and operational levels. Drawn from the review, a classification of traditional construction systems is proposed, corresponding to their varied seismic performance. The results indicate the possibility of strengthening traditional construction with seismic engineering and its successful implementation into reconstruction. Specifically, it includes timber-reinforced masonry, wattle and daub, timber frame construction, reinforced rammed earth, and reinforced adobe. However, we also find that the sustainable practice of traditional construction remains problematic, and the replication of participatory reconstruction is difficult. This preliminary review serves to bridge the discipline of vernacular architecture and disaster management and establish a solid common ground for further argumentation.

In 2010, southern Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted, releasing ash that spread across Europe. Due to its potential to damage aircraft, much of European airspace was closed for six days. Known problems were brought to the forefront regarding the anticipation of and response to systemic risks. To contribute a deeper understanding of this situation, this paper explores this disaster through its fundamental causes and cascading impacts, highlighting perspectives from disaster risk reduction, complexity sciences, and health in order to support analysis and resolution of systemic risks. Two principal future directions emerge from this work. First, how to manage dependency on air travel. Second, how to think about and act to avert future calamities.

Child-centred disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation have gained traction through projects and programs implemented by various actors worldwide. However, there remains a lack of understanding of their longer-term impact and influence on policy and practice at different levels of governance. This longitudinal research examines the processes of mainstreaming child-centred disaster risk reduction (DRR) and school safety programs at various levels. The data collection methods included participatory workshops, focus group discussions, and participant observations collected in 2008 and 2019. The findings suggest that the existence of local disaster regulation and mainstream institutions does not serve as a legitimate predictor for how likely governments adopt child-centred DRR and sustain school safety policy implementation. By adopting hybrid and combining approaches to DRR institutionalisation, NGOs and governments have collaboratively combined various strategies, including local regulatory change, incentives, nudging, and coercive and discursive approaches.

Pandemics and sudden disease outbreaks place considerable stress on hospital resources. Their increasing numbers in recent years has necessitated investment in disaster risk management strategies, particularly in the healthcare sector. The sudden surge of patients, particularly in requesting ambulance services, overwhelms hospital systems and compromises health service delivery. Failure of health planners to respond immediately to a sudden disease outbreak can result in insufficient distribution of healthcare services and can thereby exacerbate the death toll dramatically. The current research aims to develop an optimisation-based integrated decision model to assist healthcare decision-makers with immediate and effective planning for ambulances to move critical patients from their residences to hospitals, considering the available capacities of each hospital. Several lemmas for the problem are proposed, and based on these; several local search methods are developed to improve the performance of the proposed optimisation method. To confirm the efficacy of the proposed approach, a comprehensive comparison is conducted. In conclusion, sensitivity analyses are performed to discuss some practical insights. The proposed models can be adopted to develop decision tools that enable hospital system managers to optimize their resources to changing healthcare needs in disease outbreaks.