Emergency Management and Tourism Stakeholder Responses to Crises: A Global Survey

This paper examines the contested area of the responsibility for destinations and tourists, within emergency settings. It incorporates a Delphi-Scenario technique to facilitate a structured discussion of emergency management for different destination stakeholders. The Delphi exercise engaged 123 senior international stakeholders, from 9 different industry sectors, across 34 countries to provide a global perspective. The study’s principal focus is on the notion of emergency management, to identify the challenges that stakeholders would face within a disaster scenario. The exercise asked stakeholders to identify with whom the responsibility rests for 18 distinct disaster-related activities. The study proposes a responsibility allocation building-block framework which could help speed up the emergency management responses by ”knowing who is going to do what” with a particular focus on dealing with international tourists as a community in a disaster zone

Catastrophe insurance market in the Caribbean Region : market failures and recommendations for public sector interventions

The Caribbean region suffers from a high degree of economic volatility. A history of repeated external and domestic shocks has made economic insecurity a major concern across the region. Of particular concern to all households, especially the poorest segments of the population, is the exposure to shocks that are generated by catastrophic events or natural disasters. The author develops a conceptual framework for risk management and shows that the insurance market for catastrophic risk in the Caribbean region remains a"thin"market characterized by"high"prices and"low"transfer of risk. He analyzes the possible market failures which could explain the lack of development of the catastrophe insurance market. Finally he outlines a set of recommendations for public sector interventions.Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Non Bank Financial Institutions,Insurance&Risk Mitigation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Insurance&Risk Mitigation,Hazard Risk Management,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Economics&Finance,Non Bank Financial Institutions

Comprehensive Security Research to Contribute to Critical Infrastructure Protection Contributions to Security Governance in Disaster Risk Reduction

Critical infrastructure protection (CIP) has become a major issue in civil security, emergency management and natural hazard management. The all-hazard approach has gained ground on the international scale, and the “comprehensive approach” in security policies and security research has been advanced in order to meet current and future threats based on better integrated information, assessment, policies and capabilities. This paper aims to showcase this “comprehensive approach”, highlighting its character and cross-links to CI and natural hazard and disaster management. The paper also contributes to a broader perspective on CIP by addressing current European political concepts and socio-cultural conditions, as well as possible future EU roles. A focus is put on international critical infrastructure (CI) risks, and results from an Integrated Risk Taxonomy are presented. The paper concludes with proposing socio-cultural aspects for future research topics related to CI risks and security governance

Education and Disaster Vulnerability in Southeast Asia: Evidence and Policy Implications

This article summarizes the growing theoretical and empirical literature on the impact of education on disaster vulnerability with a focus on Southeast Asia. Education and learning can take place in different environments in more or less formalized ways. They can influence disaster vulnerability as the capacity to anticipate, cope with, resist, and recover from natural hazard in direct and indirect ways. Directly, through education and learning, individuals acquire knowledge, abilities, skills and perceptions that allow them to effectively prepare for and cope with the consequences of disaster shocks. Indirectly, education gives individuals and households access to material, informational and social resources, which can help reducing disaster vulnerability. We highlight central concepts and terminologies and discuss the different theoretical mechanisms through which education may have an impact. Supportive empirical evidence is presented and discussed with a particular focus on the role of inclusiveness in education and challenges in achieving universal access to high-quality education. Based on situation analysis and best practice cases, policy implications are derived that can inform the design and implementation of education and learning-based disaster risk reduction efforts in the region

The Survival of Small Businesses in Northeastern Florida After a Natural Disaster

Many small business owners lack strategies needed to prevent permanent business closure in the wake of extreme natural disaster situations. After a natural disaster, small businesses suffer financial losses in millions of dollars related to damage and destruction that disrupt their lives, families, and communities. This multiple case study explored strategies that 5 small business owners in northeastern Florida used to avoid permanent business closure in the aftermath of a natural disaster. The theory of planned behavior and vested interest theory were the conceptual frameworks used in this multiple case study. In-depth interviews with purposively selected small business owners were supplemented with a review of documentation from archival records. Yin\u27s 5-step analysis guided the coding process of participants\u27 responses, and member checking was used to validate the transcribed data. The major themes of the study revealed the owners\u27 strategies relating to flood barriers, maintaining adequate insurance coverage, damage and destruction aftermath, and experience with natural disasters. This study\u27s implications for social change include contributing to social stability and continuing economic growth by benefitting small business owners without a natural disaster plan or a plan that needs updating, new small business owners, and community organizations. This study may benefit small businesses by providing lessons learned on how to survive natural disasters

Managing the Next Deluge: A Tax System Approach to Flood Insurance

The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) has fallen short in fulfilling its promise as a social safety net for flood loss victims. In place of the NFIP, this Article proposes a mandatory social insurance plan that would harness the strengths of the federal taxing authority to provide basic relief for flood losses occurring at an individual’s primary residence. Any plan for addressing flood loss must navigate hotly debated, competing views about government intervention, redistribution, private markets, environmental protection, and property rights. This Article argues that government intervention in flood loss relief is inevitable, at least in the foreseeable future, and that the focus of that intervention should be on the ex ante provision of a social safety net. The program proposed in this Article is also intended to provide additional levers for addressing the complexities of flood loss, including the reduction of negative environmental externalities, and to provide the impetus needed for harmonizing existing tax provisions and grant programs

Managing the Next Deluge: A Tax System Approach to Flood Insurance

This Article critiques the National Flood Insurance Program and proposes an alternative insurance plan that would use the strengths of the federal tax system to address the complexities of flood loss and provide basic coverage for all individuals. The Article also discusses the current tax rules applicable to flood loss and proposes methods for harmonizing such rules with the proposed program

Managing the Next Deluge: A Tax System Approach to Flood Insurance

This Article critiques the National Flood Insurance Program and proposes an alternative insurance plan that would use the strengths of the federal tax system to address the complexities of flood loss and provide basic coverage for all individuals. The Article also discusses the current tax rules applicable to flood loss and proposes methods for harmonizing such rules with the proposed program

Developing a systems approach for multi-agency co-ordination and community engagement in disaster recovery

This research is concerned with natural disasters located in developing countries. Designing a structured capability to properly and fully respond to such disasters is its principle remit. For many developing countries, the relative impact that a disaster has depends on the response offered. Therefore, the first focus of the research was to determine, through consultations with experienced disaster response professionals, where they believe the management of disaster responses can best be enhanced. Their answer was two-fold: multi-agency co-ordination, as literally thousands of governmental and non-governmental agencies can be involved in large-scale disaster responses; and community engagement, as too often it is the case that disaster response agencies cause new problems by imposing solutions on local people instead of working in partnership with them.To develop an appreciation of how multi-agency co-ordination and community engagement could be integrated into a new model of disaster response, a systems approach was adopted. Systems approaches seek to develop multi-faceted understandings of problematic situations in order to propose more holistic solutions or ways forward than might be possible through a more traditional ‘command and control’ management philosophy. Taking advice from the disaster response professionals involved in the study, the research focused on developing an ideal ‘blueprint’ for a new organisation, to be located within the United Nations, with the authority to co-ordinate disaster response activities. The Viable System Model (a systems approach to organisational design) was used to develop the blueprint, and this was used, not only to demonstrate how multiple agencies could be co-ordinated, but also to show how community engagement could be integrated into the co-ordination efforts.The contribution to knowledge of this thesis is therefore to both systems methodology (showing how the VSM could be utilised for the integration of multi-agency coordination and community engagement) as well as, potentially, to future deliberations among governments and aid agencies wanting to improve the delivery of international disaster response efforts