Community resilience to flooding: key personal attributes of social responsibility

Recent extreme weather events and their tremendous impacts on highly interconnected modern world have called on individuals to work together to enhance resilience of community where they live. Despite well-documented evidence of the potential physical impacts of flooding, the research has so far neglected to fully investigate the manner by which decision making at community level could influence the extent of damage and the resilience to flooding. A research is currently being conducted to investigate this gap in knowledge by exploring ways in which a better understanding of the perceptions of social responsibility could potentially increase community resilience. These perceptions may affect people’s behaviour towards the issues of climate change and extreme flooding events. This paper presents some initial findings of an investigation of social responsibility in three communities (Selly Park, Witton and Digbeth) in Birmingham, United Kingdom. A questionnaire survey of householders, managers of local businesses and policy makers yielded 343 completed responses, which were then subjected to Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to better understanding the underlying constructs of social responsibility. The finding suggests two personal attributes, namely ‘societal duty’ and ‘powerlessness’, which are believed to be significant antecedents of resilience-enhancing behaviours for preparation and mitigation of flooding at community level. This finding indicates that any attempt to enhance community resilience should encompass appropriate strategies, measures and activities that higher the level of ‘societal duty’ and lower the level of ‘powerlessness’. The finding will be of interest to community leaders and provide considerations for professionals embarking on the development of resilience measures. Future research includes validating the measures and developing a tool for facilitating joined-up thinking amongst members of community

Investigating the relationship between perceptions of social responsibility and community resilience to flooding: a definition, context and methodology

Despite well-documented evidence of the potential physical impacts of flooding, research has so far neglected to fully investigate the manner by which different aspects of decision making at community level could influence resilience to flooding. This research attempts to investigate this gap in knowledge by exploring ways in which a better understanding of the expectations associated with social responsibility could potentially increase community resilience. There is particular emphasis upon the interrelationships between social responsibility and the decision making process. This paper sets the context for this investigation and proposes a methodology that attempts to not only understand how key community groups perceive their own levels of social responsibility to the community, but also what level of social responsibility they believe the other groups should have. It is argued that community groups may not even be aware that they are failing to meet their expected level of social responsibility. Therefore, the gaps discovered by this methodology between a group’s own perception and how they are perceived by others would highlight barriers to community resilience. An argument for research to better understand resilience at the level of the community by exploring the individual and interconnected decision making of householders, small businesses and policy makers, is further elaborated. The arguments presented here will be of interest to community leaders and provide considerations for built environment professionals embarking on the development of resilience measures, with considerations suggested for future research within this field

Enhancing community resilience through social responsibility: a case of preparedness to flooding

It is recognised that elements of modern society are closely inter-connected, and the issues of security and resilience are becoming more important. It is argued that one way to enhance resilience is through greater understanding and the promotion of social responsibility in the community. This paper describes an on-going research project to investigate how the concept of social responsibility is being perceived and enacted amongst three community groups (householders, small businesses and policy makers) in relation to their preparedness to flooding as a threat to the well-being of a community. This research explores ways in which a better understanding of the expectations associated with social responsibility could potentially increase community resilience. There is particular emphasis upon the interrelationships between social responsibility and the decision making process. This paper sets the context for this investigation and proposes a methodology that attempts to not only understand how key community groups perceive their own levels of social responsibility to the community, but also what level of social responsibility they believe the other groups should have. It is argued that community groups may not even be aware that they are failing to meet their expected level of social responsibility. Therefore, the gaps discovered by this methodology between a group’s own perception and how they are perceived by others would highlight barriers to community resilience. An argument for research to better understand resilience at the level of the community by exploring the individual and interconnected decision making of householders, small businesses and policy makers, is further elaborated. The arguments presented here will be of interest to community leaders and provide considerations for built environment professionals embarking on the development of resilience measures, with considerations suggested for future research within this field. The applicability of the concept of social responsibility for different threats and contexts is also emphasised

Age-based spatial distribution of workers is resilient to worker loss in a subterranean termite

Elaborate task allocation is key to the ecological success of eusocial insects. Termite colonies are known for exhibiting age polyethism, with older instars more likely to depart the reproductive center to access food. However, it remains unknown how termites retain this spatial structure against external disturbances. Here we show that a subterranean termite Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki combines age polyethism and behavioral flexibility to maintain a constant worker proportion at the food area. Since this termite inhabits multiple wood pieces by connecting them through underground tunnels, disastrous colony splitting events can result in the loss of colony members. We simulated this via weekly removal of all individuals at the food area. Our results showed that termites maintained a worker proportion of ~ 20% at the food area regardless of changes in total colony size and demographic composition, where younger workers replaced food acquisition functions to maintain a constant worker proportion at the food area. Food consumption analysis revealed that the per-capita food consumption rate decreased with younger workers, but the colony did not compensate for the deficiency by increasing the proportion of workers at the feeding site. These results suggest that termite colonies prioritize risk management of colony fragmentation while maintaining suitable food acquisition efficiency with the next available workers in the colony, highlighting the importance of task allocation for colony resiliency under fluctuating environments

The perceptions of social responsibility for community resilience to flooding: the impact of past experience, age, gender and ethnicity

Community resilience to flooding depends, to a large extent, on the participation of community members to take more responsibility for enhancing their own resilience. The perception of social responsibility (SR) which is argued to be one of the antecedents influencing individual’s willingness to undertake resilient behaviours can significantly contribute to community resilience through individual and collective actions. Understanding of factors influencing the perceptions of SR of individuals within community might help with developing strategies to increase the perceptions of SR. This research explores perceptions of SR in relation to flooding for householders and local businesses and establishes their relationships with experience of flooding and demographic factors of age, gender and ethnicity. The data were obtained via a questionnaire survey of three communities in Birmingham and one community in South East London, UK, three with experience of flooding and one without. A total of 414 responses were received and used in the multiple regression analysis. The analysis identified ‘experience of flooding’, ‘age’ and ‘South Asian’ ethnic group as significant variables, suggesting that older individuals from South Asian ethnic groups with previous experience of flooding are likely to be more socially responsible than others without these attributes

Genomic insights to SAR86, an abundant and uncultivated marine bacterial lineage

Bacteria in the 16S rRNA clade SAR86 are among the most abundant uncultivated constituents of microbial assemblages in the surface ocean for which little genomic information is currently available. Bioinformatic techniques were used to assemble two nearly complete genomes from marine metagenomes and single-cell sequencing provided two more partial genomes. Recruitment of metagenomic data shows that these SAR86 genomes substantially increase our knowledge of non-photosynthetic bacteria in the surface ocean. Phylogenomic analyses establish SAR86 as a basal and divergent lineage of γ-proteobacteria, and the individual genomes display a temperature-dependent distribution. Modestly sized at 1.25–1.7 Mbp, the SAR86 genomes lack several pathways for amino-acid and vitamin synthesis as well as sulfate reduction, trends commonly observed in other abundant marine microbes. SAR86 appears to be an aerobic chemoheterotroph with the potential for proteorhodopsin-based ATP generation, though the apparent lack of a retinal biosynthesis pathway may require it to scavenge exogenously-derived pigments to utilize proteorhodopsin. The genomes contain an expanded capacity for the degradation of lipids and carbohydrates acquired using a wealth of tonB-dependent outer membrane receptors. Like the abundant planktonic marine bacterial clade SAR11, SAR86 exhibits metabolic streamlining, but also a distinct carbon compound specialization, possibly avoiding competition