Self-recovery from disasters: an interdisciplinary perspective

This working paper presents the findings from a pilot research project that investigated how disaster-affected households in low- and middle-income countries rebuild their homes in situations where little or no support is available from humanitarian agencies. The project was an interdisciplinary collaboration involving social scientists, geoscientists, structural engineers and humanitarian practitioners. The work was broad in scope. It investigated households’ self-recovery trajectories and the wide range of technical, environmental, institutional and socioeconomic factors influencing them over time. It also considered how safer construction practices can be more effectively integrated into humanitarian shelter responses

Building Information Modeling as Tool for Enhancing Disaster Resilience of the Construction Industry

As frequencies of the disasters are increasing, new technologies can be used to enhance disaster resilience performance of the construction industry. This paper investigates the usage of BIM (Building Information Modeling) in enhancing disaster resilience of the construction industry and in the establishment of the resilient built environment. In-depth literature review findings reveal BIM’s contribution to the disaster resilience in the pre-disaster and post-disaster phases especially through influencing the performance of the supply chain, construction process, and rescue operations. This paper emphasises the need for BIM’s integration to the education and training curriculums of the built environment professionals. Policy makers, construction professionals, professional bodies, academics can benefit from this research

Exploring Effective Ecosystems in Disaster Management: Case studies of Japan and Nepal

Existing literature argues that taking a holistic approach to disaster management is important for organizations in achieving resilience. However, theoretical underpinnings are lacking to achieve a holistic understanding. This paper applies the notion of an ecosystem as a holistic lens to understand complex disaster management. \ \ We report two case studies from Japan and Nepal to illustrate how an ecosystem works during a disaster. The Japan case is a government initiative, whereas the Nepal case is a non-governmental initiative. The theoretical framework of information ecology is used in analyzing the cases. \ \ Based on the findings, we formulate three propositions that show important elements of ecosystems to approach resilience. The study suggests that coevolution is a key to respond to constantly changing situations during a disaster. To accomplish ecosystem coevolution, creating a collaboration system with governments and local communities and embedding local knowledge into the system are essential. Furthermore, digital tools can play a critical role in the coevolution process.

Disaster Management in Nepalese Context: An Ecological Perspective

This paper attempts to identify major natural hazards and disaster incidents damage and losses in Nepal. Using participatory and geographical diversity approach and for collecting information, multi- criteria decision making methods and analytical hierarchic process to identify the hazard prone area with type and intensity and location - specific innovative practices and their legitimization for integrating local knowledge and skills into mainstream development policy, science and technology through educational assessment to incorporate local knowledge as live science for disaster management, climate change adaptation and sustainable livelihood improvement. Findings of the study reveal that their variety of natural hazards, such as landslides, flood/inundation, droughts, soil erosion, earthquakes, thunderstorm/lightening and fire are exacerbated by environmental degradation processes. There are location specific local practices for resource conservation, utilization and disaster management for the well- being of communities before, during and after disasters. Such practices passed on from one generation to the next without being integrated into mainstream development strategies, disaster policy and science. Knowledge of ecology and local skills and materials for hazard prevention and mitigation have the important role to mitigate the hazards and ensure the sustainability for community life style. Moreover, this study proposed an action- oriented model i.e. political- ecological framework of the environmental resource conservation, disaster management and climate change adaptation practices in mostly vulnerable locations of Nepal. Moreover, measures are suggested to enhance the community capacity for managing their livelihood resources and are hindrance to policy making and scientific advancement at the community level with proper integration of local knowledge with science and mainstream development policy

Nepal: One Year Later

Give2Asia, a US-based social enterprise, announces today the release of a report on disaster recovery work in Nepal to mark the first anniversary of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit near Kathmandu on April 25, 2015. Within hours of the quake, Give2Asia responded with a program with its network of local Nepali nonprofits to support immediate and long-term needs. The earthquake killed more than 8,800 people and left 3.5 million people homeless. On May 12, just as the shock of that event was wearing off and people began to rebuild, a 7.3-magnitude aftershock hit, killing an additional 153 people. Give2Asia partnered with corporate, foundation and individual donors. Facebook made a commitment of $2 million to support locally-based organizations in long-term recovery with assistance from Give2Asia. Johnson & Johnson and EMC, among others, raised substantial amounts with employee giving campaigns. To date, Give2Asia and its donor partners have 1) provided both temporary and permanent shelter, 2) health services and health education. In addition, projects have provided foundational elements of the rebuild like electrical grid access in remote areas and radio transmissions, which serve as most people's primary source of information. Give2Asia anticipates continuing to support recovery work through 2016 and into 2017

Professional doctorates: applicability to the construction industry in increasing societal resilience to disasters

With the increase in occurrence of high impact disasters, the role of Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in enhancing the disaster related knowledge and skills of construction professionals is highly recognised. HEIs are expected to contribute to both theory and practice in the development of societal resilience to disasters through the development of curricular and modules to update the knowledge and skills that employees have obtained in the past. Doctoral education is identified as one of the methods in upgrading the knowledge of the construction professionals in this regard. Due to the shortcomings of the traditional doctoral programmes in addressing the needs of the industry and professionals, professional doctorates have become increasingly recognised. As such professional doctoral programmes have been considered as more appropriate in developing knowledge and skills of the construction professionals. Accordingly, a EU funded project, CADRE, aims to develop and test an innovative professional doctoral programme that integrates professional and academic knowledge in the construction industry to develop societal resilience to disasters. As part of this project, the paper aims to analyse the applicability of professional doctorates to the construction industry in developing societal resilience. Based on an extensive review of literature, paper introduces the concept of professional doctoral programmes and its applicability to the construction industry in developing societal resilience

Global Response for Capacity Building of Disaster Preparedness: A TIEMS Initiative

At the end of 2013, the devastating consequences of the Typhoon Haiyan that struck the Philippines on November 8, 2013, were exposed worldwide through intensive media coverage. The death toll reached more than 6,000 people, and around one million people were displaced and in desperate need of help and support. The international community queued up to offer support and help and showed that worldwide solidarity works when we know our “brothers and sisters” are in desperate need of help. But how can this international community, eager to respond when disaster strikes, better help before disasters strike? Vulnerable areas in the world where people are unprepared are mostly known; educational material, early warning systems, shelters, and other means of preparedness are available; it is estimated that $1 spent on preventative measures saves up to$7 in emergency response and rehabilitation. It is our conviction that global preparedness can be improved by creating an international base of shared knowledge and expertise in emergency management and by engaging the international aid community to help build disaster resilience in the places where it is needed most. The International Emergency Management Society (TIEMS) invites participation in an international initiative, Disaster Resilience Establishment in Vulnerable Societies (DREVS), to work toward these goals, making risk management and disaster preparedness a part of cultures throughout the world

Development of Disaster Resilient Coastal Communities to Enhance Economic Development and Social Welfare: Book of Abstracts

Coast at risk – the importance of risk knowledge Coastal communities all over the world are under severe pressure resulting from planned and unplanned development, population growth and human induced vulnerability, coastal hazards with increasing frequency and magnitude and impacts of global climate change. These unprecedented changes have increased the level of risk of such coastal communities from a wide range of coastal hazards arising from natural phenomena and human induced activities. In this respect the assessment and management of risk for coastal hazards plays a vital role for safety of human lives, conservation of ecosystems and protection of the built environment. It leads to the development of disaster resilient communities to enhance economic development and social welfare. Risk assessment is one of the fundamental first steps towards planning, improving and implementing effective disaster risk reduction policies and programmes. One has to know and identify risks if they are to be effectively reduced and contained. There is a need to develop simplified approaches to risk assessment to convince a wider stakeholder base that investing in risk assessments pay. Such approaches bring together so many members of civil society leading the efforts to make disaster risk reduction everyone’s business

The influence of the physical environment on self-recovery after disasters in Nepal and the Philippines

Following a disaster, the majority of families rebuild their homes themselves. In this paper, we consider how the physical environment influences such ‘self-recovery’ by investigating disasters in the Philippines (typhoons Haiyan in 2013 and Haima in 2016) and Nepal (the Gorkha earthquake - 2015). Despite the many differences in the disaster contexts, there are some common barriers to self-recovery (and building back better) in a substantially changed and dynamic multi-hazard, post-disaster environment. These are related to changes in water supply (shortage or surplus), impacts of post-disaster geohazard events on infrastructure (particularly affecting transport) and the availability of technical advice. People face a broad spectrum of challenges as they recover and tackling these ‘geo-barriers’ may help to create a more enabling environment for self-recovery. The findings point to what needs to be in place to support self-recovery in dynamic physical environments, including geoscience information and advice, and restoration of infrastructure damaged by natural hazard events. Further research is necessary to understand the issues this raises for the shelter and geoscience communities, particularly around availability of geoscience expertise, capacity and information at a local scale