Assessing the ‘Hazards of Place’ Model of Vulnerability: A Case Study of Waterloo Region

This research project examines the Hazards of Place model of vulnerability (as developed by Cutter, 1996) to determine whether it is applicable in a Canadian context. An in-depth case study of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo was used to determine whether the model accurately describes: emergency and community practitioners understandings of vulnerability and vulnerable populations in Waterloo Region emergency and community practitioners perceptions of the variables that influence vulnerabilities mitigation and preparedness efforts that could be enhanced and/or implemented to reduce the vulnerability of individuals and groups in Waterloo Region To complete this study, in-depth interviews and surveys were conducted with a variety of emergency management practitioners and community organizations at the regional, as well lower-tier municipal levels. The results of the research indicate that the Hazards of Place model of vulnerability provides a reasonably accurate portrayal of emergency practitioners understanding of vulnerability, although some additional variables that influence vulnerability were introduced. Throughout this research, emphasis on building community and individual resilience was also promoted as a key factor in reducing the human and economic losses associated with disaster events. This led to an enhanced version of the ‘Hazards of Place’ model which recognized the layered and dynamic processes of vulnerability and resilience. Through this, a new understanding of the overall place resiliency was presented which merges the vulnerability and resilience literature to create a new understanding of the relationship between these two concepts

Resilient Disaster Recovery: A Critical Assessment of the 2006 Yogyakarta, Indonesia Earthquake using a Vulnerability, Resilience and Sustainable Livelihoods Framework

Since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami devastated coastal areas of several countries in South East Asia, there has been renewed interest in disaster recovery operations. Although governments and aid organizations have increasingly focused on improving living conditions and reducing vulnerability to future disaster events during the recovery period, there has been limited understanding of what effective disaster recovery entails, and a lack of empirical assessments of longer-term recovery initiatives. Researchers, governments and aid organizations alike have increasingly identified the need for a systematic, independent, and replicable framework and approach for monitoring, evaluating and measuring the longer-term relief and recovery operations of major disaster events. Within this context, the research contends that a conceptualization of effective disaster recovery, referred to as ‘resilient disaster recovery’, should be built upon the holistic concepts of vulnerability, resilience and sustainable livelihoods. Using the resilient disaster recovery framework, the research aimed to develop an evaluative strategy to holistically and critically assess disaster recovery efforts. Using a case study of the 2006 Yogyakarta, Indonesia earthquake event, the research examined one long-term recovery effort in order to develop and test the usefulness and applicability of the resilient disaster recovery conceptualization and assessment framework. The research results further contributed to disaster recovery knowledge and academic literature through a refined conceptualization of resilient disaster recovery and further understanding of recovery as a process. The research used qualitative research approaches to examine the opinions and experiences of impacted individuals, households, and communities, as well as key government, academic and humanitarian stakeholders, in order to understand their perceptions of the long-term recovery process. Using the resilient disaster recovery approach, the research found that the recovery programming after the 2006 Yogyakarta earthquake contributed to reductions in visible manifestations of vulnerability, although the root causes of vulnerability were not addressed, and many villagers suffer from ongoing lack of access to assets and resources. While some aspects of resilience were improved, particularly through earthquake-resistant housing structures, resilience in other forms remained the same or decreased. Furthermore, livelihood initiatives did not appear to be successful due to a lack of a holistic approach that matched the skill and capital levels of impacted populations. Using the evidence from the 2006 Yogyakarta recovery effort, the research furthered knowledge and understanding of disaster recovery as a complex and highly dynamic process. The roles of a variety of actors and stakeholders were explored, particularly highlighting the role of civil society and the private sector in facilitating response and recovery. Furthermore, issues of conflict, the context and characteristics of place and scale, and the impact of disasters on income equality were explored. Through this research, an improved understanding of disaster resilient recovery and long-term recovery processes has been highlighted in order to facilitate improved and resilient recovery for future disaster events

Reducing Vulnerability and Building Resilience in the Post-Disaster Context A Case Study of the 2006 Yogyakarta Earthquake Recovery Effort

The Post-Disaster Sustainable Livelihoods, Resilience and Vulnerability framework (PD-SLRV) was developed for analyzing, evaluating and monitoring disaster recovery using the concepts of vulnerability, resilience and sustainable livelihoods. Using the 2006 Yogyakarta, Indonesia earthquake as a case study, this paper explores how these concepts inform the disaster recovery process, as well as their usefulness in evaluating disaster recovery efforts. Through a detailed analysis of recovering communities, the complex and dynamic nature of resilience and vulnerability is revealed, indicating a multifaceted relationship dependent on scale, context and place. The paper focuses on the role of social networks, education and issues associated with livelihoods

Coastal cities at risk (CCaR) : building adaptive capacity for managing climate change in coastal megacities

The CCaR project has contributed significantly to the development of strategies and methodologies for climate change adaptation (CCA). In cities, assistance in the development of disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies based on knowledge generated from the project has been provided. In Vancouver region, information for adaptation planning in municipalities was provided; contributing to the flagship Adaptation Strategy formulated by the City of Vancouver and passed by Council. Working groups have been established in Vancouver and Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. In Metro Manila, systems thinking about climate change adaptation have been mainstreamed in national and local government processes through specific policy instruments in collaboration with the all-levels of government, the military, regional scientific groups like UNISDR-ASTAAG and private sector partners such as the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation and Partnerships for Climate and Disaster Resilience. The development of the City Resilience Systems Dynamic Model (CRS) over the course of the project is providing a new methodology for quantifying the relationships between climate impacts, socio-economic implications, and the development of adaptation strategies that will be applied to all case study cities, now and in future

Academic Entitlement in the Context of Learning Styles

This study explores the linkages between students’ sense of entitlement and their approaches to learning, based on survey research at a large public university in Canada.  Through literature review and pilot testing, a questionnaire instrument was developed that measures four constructs:  academic entitlement, deep learning, surface learning and strategic learning.  Survey responses (n=1=2116) suggest that students approach learning in mixed ways, and that approaches to learning intersect with students’ sense of entitlement in complex ways.  Overall, students’ scores on the sense of entitlement scale were found to be moderate, challenging some of the assertions about today’s students that have been made in the popular press.&nbsp

Non-standard neutrino interactions in IceCube

Non-standard neutrino interactions (NSI) may arise in various types of new physics. Their existence would change the potential that atmospheric neutrinos encounter when traversing Earth matter and hence alter their oscillation behavior. This imprint on coherent neutrino forward scattering can be probed using high-statistics neutrino experiments such as IceCube and its low-energy extension, DeepCore. Both provide extensive data samples that include all neutrino flavors, with oscillation baselines between tens of kilometers and the diameter of the Earth. DeepCore event energies reach from a few GeV up to the order of 100 GeV - which marks the lower threshold for higher energy IceCube atmospheric samples, ranging up to 10 TeV. In DeepCore data, the large sample size and energy range allow us to consider not only flavor-violating and flavor-nonuniversal NSI in the μ−τ sector, but also those involving electron flavor. The effective parameterization used in our analyses is independent of the underlying model and the new physics mass scale. In this way, competitive limits on several NSI parameters have been set in the past. The 8 years of data available now result in significantly improved sensitivities. This improvement stems not only from the increase in statistics but also from substantial improvement in the treatment of systematic uncertainties, background rejection and event reconstruction