Reducing social vulnerability to environmental change : building trust through social collaboration on environmental monitoring

ABSTRACT: The occurrence of natural and socially driven catastrophic events has increased in the last few decades in response to global environmental changes. One of the most societally relevant challenges in managing the effects of these events is the establishment of risk management strategies that focus on managing vulnerability, particularly in disfavored countries, and communities among them. Most cases of enhanced vulnerability occur in, but are not limited to, developing countries, where the combination of social inequity, inappropriate use of natural resources, population displacement, and institutional mistrust, among other factors, make risk management particularly challenging. This paper presents a vulnerability-centered risk management framework based on social cohesion and integration principles that, combined with scientific, technical, and popular knowledge, lead to the development of social networks of risk reduction. This framework is intended as a strategy to strengthen early warning systems (EWS), where the human-related factor is among their most challenging components. Using water-related hazards as a case study, this paper describes the experience of the conformation of a social network for environmental monitoring using this model example on vulnerability reduction in the rural areas of the central Andes in Colombia. This experience allowed the effective conformation of a social network for environmental monitoring in 80 municipalities of Colombia, where communities developed a sense of ownership with the instrumentation and the network, strengthening links with local authorities and contributing to more efficient EWS. More generally, the authors highlight the need to develop vulnerability-centered risk management via community-building strategies, particularly for areas where little can be done to decrease the occurrence of catastrophic events

Assessing Community Coping Strategies in Sustainable Flood Management. A Case Study of Kaemibre and Walantu in Kasoa

Community based flood management has become fundamental in increasing societies’ resilience to flooding. As climate change and urbanization continue to worsen flood disaster events, it is practical to examine local adaptation to floods. To achieve this objective, multi criteria analysis, using Geographic Information System and Digital Elevation Model for flood modelling and risk mapping assessment, buttressed by questionnaires, was employed to evaluate human relationship and response to flood risks management. A landuse map of Satellite remote sensing Level 1B satellite images from Landsat ETM Plus for the month of October 2018 was created, using Environment for Visualising Images Software and Geographic Information System for estimating changes in the land cover during the modelling process. The most affected communities were defined from the overlay of the risk map on the topographic map of the same scale. It was revealed that even though flood risk map shows communities’ risk of flooding, socio-economic and cultural factors play major role in flood risk management. The coping strategies of the affected communities involved bolstering walls and increasing compound elevation above flood level, desilting drains, and changing jobs. The study recommends the integration of flood hazard maps into sustainable flood management of communities

Community Disaster Management in the Community of Tio-Angan in the Philippines

Natural hazards have affected human society throughout history. The Philippines is a country particularly vulnerable to natural hazards due to its geographical location and widespread social vulnerabilities. This research is conducted in the Philippine province La Union, and aims to investigate community-based disaster management as an approach to strengthening disaster resilience of communities. The research design is an explanatory case study, and data was collected through eleven semi-structured interviews and unstructured observations of field work. The study was conducted through an internship in the Philippines, with the organisation Alay Bayan-Luson, Inc. Two research questions are explored. The first investigates the practice of disaster preparedness and response in the community of Tio-Angan, before the members received training in community-based disaster management. This training forms a community disaster management organisation. The second question investigates how and why a community-based approach to disaster management is helping communities increase their disaster resilience. To analyse the collected data, a conceptual framework was constructed, consisting of the concepts disaster risk reduction, disaster risk management, community, vulnerability, capacity, local ownership and resilience. The findings are that members of Tio-Angan community prepare for disasters by telling their neighbours about them and securing their houses and their animals. Post-disaster assessment includes cooperation to clear roads. Furthermore, in communities with an established community organisation for disaster management, members state a greater unity among the people. Moreover, they describe an increased knowledge about disasters and how to mitigate their effects. Implementing community-based disaster management takes time, but the findings show it brings positive effects to the communities targeted

Creating Community Environments That Promote Comprehensive Health and Wellness

Describes the impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the health of the residents of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Outlines strategies to identify effective programs designed to reduce health disparities and improve health status in the region

Unpacking the social construction of 'natural' disaster through policy discourses and institutional responses in Mexico: the case of Chalco Valley's floods, State of Mexico

This research analyses 'natural' disaster policies for Mexico. The objective is to demonstrate that 'natural' disaster and the policies oriented to prevent them are socially constructed. It adopts a constructionist perspective because it is concerned with the understanding of collective social constructions of meaning and knowledge that are determined by political and social processes. This study focuses on the relation between the discourses of disaster causality, policy problem construction and policy responses in Mexico. The central argument is that in Mexico when disaster is conceived as a 'natural' phenomenon the exposure of vulnerable people to disaster risk is concealed therefore inhibiting the emergence of socially sensitive responses at policy level. Two analytical inter-related frameworks were elaborated. The first framework was set up to examine the discursive construction of floods causality as a policy problem and the second one to unpack the argumentative construction of policy responses. The research chooses the case of Chalco Valley's floods that took place in June 2000 in the State of Mexico, Mexico and the institutional responses deployed before, during and after the floods as the empirical ground on which the central argument is examined. Four different disaster discourses were found at policy level, namely inadvertence by 'ignorance', inadvertence by 'carelessness', accidental and structural. These were shaped by how causal ideas of disaster were assembled and made persuasive. In turn, these four different discourses construct four different floods policy problems and therefore imply four types of policy responses even though important connections were found amongst them. These connections represent relevant policy coalitions upon which policy change can be sought. It was found that people's vulnerability to floods is a component in only one discourse, namely structural causality discourse, and therefore in one group of policy responses. The research approach and the findings suggest areas to improve policy making and research in the disaster field in Mexico. The outcome of the research contributes to a better understanding of the how scientists, policy makers and people affected by disaster assign meanings and beliefs, construct knowledge and use evidence to support and legitimise disaster causality claims in different ways. These epistemological differences have to be acknowledged for improving policy formulation and implementation aimed at reducing disaster risk of vulnerable people

The Social Dimensions of Adaptation to Climate Change in Mozambique

The purpose of the Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change (EACC) study is to better understand and estimate the true costs of adapting to climate change in less developed countries. The study is made up of three components. At a global level, there is an analysis of costs across different economic sectors. At a country level, there is an economic component and a social component, taking place in a set of representative case study countries. Mozambique is one of these countries. The economic component of the Mozambique country study has the objective of identifying a set of robust adaptation options for the country, then comparing the direct costs and benefits of those options. To calculate the costs, the team has utilized a computable general equilibrium method. This method is data intensive, it requires a good model of the national economy, but can generate an estimate of the costs of targeted government interventions, in terms of reduced overall economic growth, once those effects have trickled through the labor and capital markets and the economy has returned to equilibrium. The economic team considered a range of adaptation options, which were gathered from the literature and from interactions with national level policy makers and other stakeholders

Empowering Community Resilience to climate Change in Cameroon using Technology-enhanced Learning

Located in Central Africa, Cameroon is considered the driving force of the sub-region due to its strategic location in the center of the African continent. During the last five years, the country has been under the constant threat of a large range of disasters like floods, droughts, landslides, epidemics, etc. In such a context, the government is implementing several strategies for Disaster Risk Reduction in the country. Under the lead of the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralization, the Directorate of Civil Protection, coordinates Disaster Risk Reduction activities through a network of over 379 decentralized institutions and international partners (Ayanji, 2004). Despite a high level of deployment, these activities still prove to have a low level of efficiency on the field. Results from the literature review suggest that this may be due to strategies for public education and public awareness that do not mirror stakeholders’ needs, capacities, and background. There is a need to: (1) identify the failures of the pre-existing public education and public awareness strategy, (2) assess the educational needs and capacities of each category of actors, (3) select adequate instructional methods and tools and (4) ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of the newly proposed strategy. The aim of this work, which is a three-year PhD project funded by the AXA Research Fund, is therefore to propose a public education and public awareness model adapted to the Cameroonian context, using Technology Enhanced Learning to strengthen capacities and competencies of stakeholders involved in the problem of climate change. The study makes use of a mixed method approach. From the literature review, four categories of actors involved into the climate change education process in the country have first been identified namely (1) government, (2) educational institutions, (3) Non-Governmental Organizations and (4) communities. A sample population has been driven from each category using the Respondent Driven Sampling method. Then data were collected during a six-month field trip in Cameroon, using semi-structured interviews (McNamara, 1999), qualitative survey (Fowler, 2009), direct observation (Bernard, 2006) and focus group discussion (Krueger & Casey, 2009). Findings from data analyses, performed using Epi info software for quantitative data and MAXQDA software for qualitative data show that: the educational strategy is not clearly defined; there is a lack of adequate infrastructures; technologies available are not properly used: either they are not evenly accessible, or when accessible they do not match learners’ capacities and competencies. Finally, quality criteria for the evaluation of the existing educational strategy are not met, thus failing to ensure it sustainability. The conceptual solution proposed in this work makes use of the concept of learning communities, especially Community of Practice as proposed by Lave and Wenger (1991) to develop an information and knowledge sharing community system to establish best practices for improving community resilience to climate change impact. This Community of Practice will operate essentially offline with a selected domain, a well-defined and structured community, and a practice that makes use of identified technologies already available among communities and, most importantly, that mirrors the Cameroonian socio-cultural context. One unexpected factor that had to be taken into consideration while determining adequate technology tools, is the actors’ perception, or rather say actors’ (un)acceptance of “new technologies”, which render the design of the instructional model quite challenging.Kamerun ist ein Land in Zentralafrika. Aufgrund seiner strategischen Lage in der Mitte des afrikanischen Kontinents, gilt das Land als die treibende Kraft der Sub-Region. Während der letzten fünf Jahre wurde Kamerun Opfer von ständigen Bedrohungen einer Vielzahl von Katastrophen wie Überschwemmungen, Dürren, Erdrutsche, Epidemien, usw. In diesem Kontext hat die Regierung eine Reihe von Strategien zur Verringerung der Katastrophenrisiken imstande gebracht. Dies wurde unter der Leitung vom Ministerium der territorialen Verwaltung und Dezentralisierung und vom Amt für Katastrophenschutz durchgeführt. Weiterhin nahmen mehr als 379 dezentrale Institutionen und internationale Partner an diese bedeutende Aktion teil (Ayanji, 2004). Die bei diesem Großeinsatz getroffenen Maßnahmen haben aber bisher eine sehr geringe Effizienz auf dem Feld gebracht. Eine nähere Betrachtung im Zusammenspiel mit entsprechender Literatur lassen folgendes vermuten: die Strategien zur Sensibilisierung sind auf die Bedürfnisse, Kapazitäten und Hintergründe der Akteure nicht angepasst. Demnach sind folgende Tatsachen in Betracht zu ziehen: (1) Identifikation der Ausfälle der bevorstehenden Awareness-Strategie; (2) Bewertung den pädagogischen Bedürfnissen und Kapazitäten der einzelnen Kategorien von Akteuren; (3) Auswahl geeigneter Unterrichtsmethoden und Tools; (4) Gewährleisten der Wirksamkeit und Nachhaltigkeit der neu vorgeschlagenen Strategie. Diese Arbeit stammt aus einem dreijährigen Promotionsprojekt finanziert von der AXA Research Fund. Das Ziel der Arbeit ist der Vorschlag eines Awareness-Modells, das an dem kamerunischen Kontext angepasst ist, und das die Bildungstechnologie zur Stärkung der Kapazitäten und Kompetenzen der beteiligten Akteure des Klimawandels nutzt. Aus der Literatur sind vier Kategorien von Akteuren identifiziert worden: Die Regierung, Bildungseinrichtungen, nationale und internationale Organisationen, Gemeinschaften. Die Studie folgt einer Mixed-Method Forschung. Eine Stichprobe wurde aus jeder Kategorie von Akteuren mit Schneeballauswahl-Methode gezogen. Dann wurden Daten während einer 6-monatigen Studienreise in Kamerun gesammelt. Diese wurde in Begleitung mit semi-strukturierten Interview (McNamara, 1999), qualitativen Erhebung (Fowler, 2009), direkter Beobachtung (Bernard, 2006) und Gruppendiskussion (Krueger & Casey, 2009). Die Daten wurden analysiert mit Epi-info Software für quantitative Daten und MAXQDA Software für qualitative Daten. Die Ergebnisse zeigen Folgendes: - Die pädagogische Strategie ist nicht klar definiert - Mangel an angemessenen Infrastrukturen - Die verfügbaren Technologien sind nicht vorhanden und teilweise falsch eingesetzt. Sie sind entweder nicht gleichmäßig verwendet oder sie stimmen mit den Fähigkeiten der Lernenden nicht überein. - Qualitätskriterien für die Bewertung der bestehenden Ausbildungsstrategie sind nicht erfüllt Die vorgeschlagene konzeptionelle Lösung, die in dieser Arbeit verwendet wird, benutzt das Konzept der Learning Communities, insbesondere "Community of Practice" wie von Lave und Wenger (1991) beschrieben. Ziel ist es, ein Informations- und Wissensaustausch Community-System zur Förderung bewährter Verfahren im Sinne der Verbesserung der Gemeinschaft gegenüber Auswirkungen des Klimawandels zu schaffen. Diese Community of Practice wird offline mit einer ausgewählten Domäne, eine gut definierte und strukturierte Gemeinschaft, und eine gut gestaltete Praxis funktionieren. Ein unerwarteter Faktor, der bei der Bestimmung der angemessenen Technologie-Tools berücksichtigt werden müsste, ist die Wahrnehmung der Akteure oder besser gesagt die (Un-)Akzeptanz der "Neuen Technologien" durch die Akteure. Dies macht das Design des Instruktionsmodells zu einer richtigen Herausforderung