Understanding Good and Bad Resilience: The Case of Greek Cities in the Economic Crisis Era

Government debt crisis and recession in Greece cause decline of the welfare state. This has been the result of the attempt of the Greek Government to reduce fiscal and macro-economic vulnerability to debt crisis through dismissals of public employees, cutting wages and pensions, shrinking social welfare public provisions. The state’s adaptation however caused increase of human and social vulnerability and (re)activation of historical and new social risks. On their side, vulnerable people, urban level institutions and social organizations employed novel resilience attitudes to manage the unexpected risks of everyday life and amplified vulnerability, all caused by the crisis. This type resilience at the urban level sometimes is widely beneficial, but other times harmful to the most vulnerable, the environment and the wider public interest, currently or in the future

With Contributions From

framework of the ESPON 2013 Programme, partly financed by the European Regional Development Fund. The partnership behind the ESPON Programme consists of the EU Commission and the Member States of the EU27, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. Each partner is represented in the ESPON Monitoring Committee. This report does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the members of the Monitoring Committee. Information on the ESPON Programme and projects can be found on www.espon.eu The web site provides the possibility t

Rapid urbanisation and security: Holistic approach to enhancing security of urban spaces

Rapid urbanisation, particularly driven by rural-urban migration, can pose a wide range of security challenges in the global south and global north. The management of such a transition, in terms of the provision of social goods and quality of life raises significant challenges. Security of contemporary urban environments has become more complex due to a greater range of risk drivers, many of which can be exacerbated by the observed and portended impacts of climate change. This chapter outlines the phenomena underlying the transition to urbanisation - and the security challenges that have been exacerbated by these transitions. In doing so this work a holistic approach to security and highlights a gradual trend in the increased securitisation of issues (such as climate change) that in the past were not considered part of typical ‘security’ dialogues. It also introduces a decision support framework that can aid a broad range of stakeholders in making decisions about the enhancement of security of urban spaces in a context of multiple threats exacerbated by these new security challenges

Risk Mitigation, Vulnerability Management, and Resilience under Disasters

The present Special Issue is devoted to vulnerability management and resilience-building as cornerstones of disaster risk mitigation [...

Crisis Communication after Earthquakes in Greece and Japan: Effects on Seismic Disaster Management

The communication of emergency information shortly before or after the manifestation of seismic hazards is a crucial part of disaster management. Crisis communication aims to protect, support and guide the public and emergency services throughout the response and recovery phase. In the case of seismic events, a fundamental query refers to how the information to be released to the public immediately after/before the seismic event affects disaster impacts and management. This paper addresses the uncertainty involved in emergency seismic information, identifies the sources, means, content and mode of emergency communication and points to the effects of different models of crisis communication on public perceptions, on emergency responses and, hence, on disaster management. A review of past experiences of seismic crisis communication strategies in earthquake-prone countries, namely Greece and Japan, reveals successes and failures in managing uncertainty, and in building public trust and improving response capacities. The findings include the importance of crisis communication in seismic disaster management, the levels/layers of uncertainty involved in emergency seismic information and how they impact risk perceptions, the public trust/mistrust effect on scientific and management institutions as well as some recommendations for seismic crisis communication strategies to minimize uncertainty and improve emergency responses

Coping with chronic and extreme risks in contemporary Athens: confrontation or resilience?

The present work attempts to address the main aspects of chronic and extreme risks in contemporary Athens. It focuses on two cases of acute chronic risk bedevilling the capital region, namely road accidents and noise pollution, and one case of extreme risk, namely seismic disasters. In all cases social vulnerability, seen as the attribute of social and economic entities that can serve to increase damage from given danger, is a basic determinant of risk level. This social vulnerability might be defined in terms of three constituent elements: exposure to, resistance against and resilience to danger impacts. The whole analysis seeks the generating causes of the relevant high risk levels; their distribution across the geographical and social space of the capital region; their impacts on citizens' lifestyle and awareness of unsustainability; the public policy actions to abate or mitigate them and the individuals' adaptive reactions or efforts to escape risks and finally the repercussions of individualized and governmental responses on future risk and vulnerability levels. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Drought risk, farmer communities’ perceptions and planning for resilience in rural Crete, Greece

Book of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017Drought incidents may originate from both, manmade and natural factors and are characterized by uncertainty. The present paper attempts to shed light on the interrelations between exposure, drought perceptions and the adaptive responses opted by agents attempting to cope with drought risk and to provide insights into the planning processes implemented at the levels of the individual agents and the water management authorities. The choice of personal versus collective resilience strategies is largely a function of risk perception and the availability of resilience assets, but it is also a matter of power relations and alliance forging. The farming communities and the local self-government authorities of Messara plain in rural Crete provide the testbed on which the authors have attempted to scrutinize their initial assumptions by using appropriate questionnaires and interviews with key-staff of planning authorities.Published versio

Climate Change Affecting Forest Fire and Flood Risk—Facts, Predictions, and Perceptions in Central and South Greece

Global Climate change (CC) is featured by long-term changes in the mean values of climatic parameters (predominantly mean temperature) and in the profile of extreme weather events (e.g., increase in frequency, intensity, lengthening, and persistence). These climatic changes are supposed to have a deterioration impact on forest fire and flood disasters. Greece, an east Mediterranean country, is featured by a wide variety of micro-climates due to its unique geographical diversity, including hot and dry summers in the eastern part of the country (where a large amount of precipitation falls in the form of showers and thunderstorms) and wet winters in the western part. The combination of certain climatic zones with unfavorable land use and land cover changing patterns has resulted in several regions being prone to flooding and forest fires. The authors, based on relevant records, consider central and south Greece as flood and forest fire hotspots and attempt to: (a) present scientific estimations of local climate changes; (b) outline recent trends in the number of respective disasters and the amount of losses in these regions; (c) address recent changes in local climatic factors that might have influenced flood and forest fire hazard and risk in these regions; and (d) study the perceptions of the lay public and management authorities regarding the accountability of CC for flood and forest fire risk and hazard changes. The results show the variability of climate changes between neighboring areas, which directly affect the risk of forest fires and floods. Especially since the beginning of the 21st century, central Greece has been experiencing dramatic increases in both risks, while in south Greece the latter remain relatively stable. With regard to the perceptions of citizens and management authorities, the mental connection of local CC with forest fires and floods is still weak if not totally missing. Since knowledge and perceptions of the local “history” of forest fires and floods and the interconnections with CC by region is very important for the local communities to take appropriate mitigation and adaptation measures, this paper outlines a methodological path for similar studies to be conducted also in other regions of the Mediterranean basin and beyond

A Risk-Based Approach to Development Planning

International audienc