Culture and the psychological impacts of natural disasters: Implications for disaster management and disaster mental health

In recent decades, natural disasters have caused extensive losses and damages to human psychological wellbeing, economy, and society. It has been argued that cultural factors such as social values, traditions, and attachment to a location influence communities facing and responding to natural disasters. However, the issue of culture in disaster mental health seems to have received limited attention in policy and practice. This review highlights the importance of cultural background in the assessment of vulnerability to the psychological impacts of disasters, disaster preparedness, and provision of disaster mental health services. In particular, this paper suggests the importance of cultural competence in the planning and delivery of effective disaster mental health services. In order to address the varying circumstances of people with different cultural backgrounds, disaster mental health services must be developed in a culturally sensitive manner. Development of culturally competent disaster mental health services requires significant changes in policy making, administration, and direct service provisio

Long-term satisfaction of resettled communities: An assessment of physical performance of post-disaster housing

Sri Lanka experiences regular natural hazard-related disasters: flooding, landslides, cyclones and droughts. These events cause devastating effects in terms of human casualties, disturbing settlements and damaging properties. Besides human casualties, one of the most visible and striking effects of these disasters is the destruction of houses: as a result, there is a requirement for post-disaster housing reconstruction. Post-disaster housing delivery can be either assistance in rebuilding original dwellings or permanent relocation to resettlement schemes. Under any of these circumstances, implementation of relocation schemes must ensure that the beneficiaries are ultimately satisfied in order to safeguard performance of such construction initiatives in the long term. The purpose of this study is to quantitatively assess and compare the long-term satisfaction of the relocated communities in relation to physical performance of the housing reconstruction projects. In addition to a literature review carried out on key performance indicators (KPIs) to investigate the long-term performance of post-disaster housing reconstruction, a survey was carried out with the occupants of flood-, landslide- and tsunami-induced relocation projects in Sri Lanka. The empirical evidence revealed that resettled communities in all three case studies were mildly satisfied in the long term in terms of physical performance of the relocation. Furthermore, provision for alteration and expansion, orientation and layout of the house, the number of rooms, and lighting and ventilation were found to be important factors that require special attention with regard to planning and design for long-term physical performance of post-disaster housing because these were found to statistically correlate with overall satisfaction across the three case study projects

Climate change adaptation among female-led micro, small, and medium enterprises in semiarid areas: a case study from Kenya

This chapter contributes to the literature on private sector adaptation by empirically exploring how female-led micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSMEs) in Kenya’s semiarid lands (SALs) experience and respond to climate risk. The chapter argues that strong sociocultural orientations around gender roles and resource use and access not only confine female-led MSMEs to sectors that experience higher exposure to climate risk – most notably agriculture – but also trigger more pronounced barriers to building resilience within their businesses, including reduced access to land, capital, markets, new technology, and educational opportunities. Faced by these barriers, female entrepreneurs may pursue unsustainable forms of coping, as part of which business activity is scaled back through reduced profits, loss of business, and the sale of valuable business assets. Such strategies may help enterprises to cope in the short term but may undermine longer-term MSME adaptive capacity. Social networks, such as women’s groups and table banking initiatives, appear to be crucial adaptation tools. Additionally, a strong dependency exists between household resilience and business resilience, implying that building resilience at the household level could support adaptive capacity among female-led MSMEs. Supporting the adaptive capacity of women in business should be a policy priority

Risk perception and vulnerability of value: a study in the context of commercial property sector

© 2016 The Author(s). Published by Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU) Press, and Taylor & Francis. The research was developed linking the impact of flood risk on utility, desirability and marketability related to vulnerability of commercial property value. Likert style questionnaire survey was conducted to obtain data from flood affected and un-affected respondents across different designated flood risk zones on key business and perception variables among two groups of business property holders in England. The responses were analysed through a spatial vulnerability model to illustrate the distribution of the vulnerability of value of properties among flood plain business holders on a GIS platform. Majority of respondents perceived that utility of properties may be hampered by flooding and subsequently have an impact on value for property at risk. Those with flood experience gave greater weight to their specific business needs such as the prime location and expected income level than those without flood experience. The implication of the study lies in understanding that flood risk perceptions can shape actions of people at risk towards future increase in resilience having strategic impact on value of property saleability in the future

Theorizing construction industry practice within a disaster risk reduction setting: is it a panacea or an illusion?

Construction industry practice is strongly influenced by the culture surrounding its operations and, with the prevailing emphasis on achieving efficiency, there is a strong focus on outcome metrics such as profitability and employee productivity. With the recent increases in natural hazard events worldwide, and the likelihood that this will worsen still further with anticipated climate changes, the industry is increasingly contributing to building resilience within disaster-affected communities. Existing industry expertise, its educational approaches and the related theoretical frameworks, however, all require adjustment if these changing needs are to be fully addressed. Most importantly, an agenda shift is required from the philosophical side and a more pragmatic approach is needed if community resilience goals and objectives are to be met, rather than the narrower focus of the current metrics-driven management system. A synthesis of the current literature is therefore presented, along with relevant case histories illustrating how such an agenda shift within a disaster management context may influence the development of appropriate theory, as well as impacting upon grass-roots educational requirements. The research concludes by discussing how the ‘mainstreaming’ of disaster management within construction industry practice could drive forward developments in theorizing expertise and educational provisions across the constituent discipline

Assessing the value of intangible benefits of property level flood risk adaptation (PLFRA) measures

© 2015, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. Studies in the UK and elsewhere have identified that flooding can result in diverse impacts, ranging from significant financial costs (tangible) to social (intangible) impacts on households. At the same time, it is now clear that large-scale flood defence schemes are not the panacea to flood risk, and there is an increasing responsibility on property owners to protect their own properties. Hence, there is an emerging expectation for homeowners to take action in the form of investing in property level flood risk adaptation (PLFRA) measures to protect their properties. However, hitherto the level of uptake of such measures remains very low. The tangible financial benefits of investing in PLFRA measures are generally well understood and have been demonstrated to be cost beneficial for many properties at risk from frequent flooding. Importantly, these estimates tend to take little account of the value of the intangible benefits of PLFRA measures and therefore may be under estimating their full benefits. There remains a need to develop an improved understanding of these intangible benefits, and this research sets out to bridge this knowledge gap. Based on a synthesis of the literature, the contingent valuation method was selected as a means to value intangible impacts of flooding on households. A questionnaire survey of homeowners affected in the 2007 flooding was employed to elicit willingness to pay (WTP) values to avoid the intangible impacts of flooding on their households. The analysis of the questionnaire survey data revealed that the average WTP per household per year to avoid intangible flood impacts was £653. This therefore represents the value of the intangible benefits of investing in PLFRA measures and is significantly higher than previously estimated. This research builds on previous research in suggesting a higher value to the intangible impacts of flooding on households by assessing wider range of intangible impacts and focussing on more experienced individuals. Furthermore, the research indicates that factors which influence the WTP values were principally stress of flood, worrying about loss of house values, worrying about future flooding and age of respondents, with income showing a weak correlation. The establishment of a new value for the intangible impacts of flooding on households in the UK is helpful in the domain of flood risk management when evaluating the total benefits (tangible and intangible) of investing in flood protection measures, thus providing a robust assessment for decision-making on flood adaptation measures at an individual property level

Lessons from natural disasters, a case study based on rehabilitation and re-establishment of Tsunami affected small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) in Sri Lanka

The main objective of this paper is to identify some of key issues encountered by Tsunami affected I SMEs in the process of rehabilitation and re-establishment in Sri Lanka. Second objective is to assess how far these affected industries are received various benefits and supports from various bodies such as government, private sector, donors and NGOs to get back into business. Final objective is to recommend some policies and strategies to develop this Tsunami affected SMEs in self-sustaining manner within a certain time period. The main data base for this research is obtained from the Industrial Development Board conducted survey covering 4,389 Tsunami affected Micro and SMEs. In addition to this various state organizations and NGOs based information sources used. This paper identify main issues related to Tsunami affected SMEs ranging from basic infrastructure provision up to finance, marketing, machinery, technology, training, product identification/development and etc. Actually this shows no any significant difference from issues faced by normal SMEs and Tsunami affected SMEs in addition to a sudden disaster (tidal wave). Therefore these issues can be generalized as issues relevant to SMEs in Sri Lanka as a whole. However, under the flood and rain of local and foreign assistance, most are pledges and promises, still Tsunami affected SMEs got a little support and assistance to recover and no any records can be found where these colossal amount of foreign assistance received gone. Finally this paper recommends various types of business incubator centers and entrepreneurial enhancing skill programmes for the revamping of Tsunami affected SMEs in addition to normal disaster risk management plan

Digital Twin Smart Cities for Disaster Risk Management: A Review of Evolving Concepts

Peer reviewed: TrueNatural hazard-induced disasters have caused catastrophic damage and loss to buildings, infrastructure, and the affected communities as a whole during the recent decades and their impact is expected to further escalate in the future. Thus, there is a huge demand for disaster risk management using digitalisation as a key enabler for effective and efficient disaster risk management systems. It is widely accepted that digital and intelligence technologies can help solve key aspects of disaster risk management such as disaster prevention and mitigation, and rescue and recovery. Digital Twin (DT) is one of the most promising technologies for multi-stage management which offers significant potential to advance disaster resilience. Smart Cities (SCs) use pervasive information and communications technology to monitor activities in the city. With increasingly large applications of DTs combined with big data generated from sensors in a SC, it is now possible to create Digital Twin Smart Cities (DTSCs). Despite the increasing prevalence of DTSC technologies and their profound impact on disaster risk management, a systematic and longitudinal view of the evolution to the current status of DTSC for disaster risk management does not exist. This review analyses 312 titles and abstracts and 72 full papers. To begin with, a scientific review of DT and SC is undertaken, where the evolution of DTSCs is reviewed. In addition, the intelligence technologies used in DTSCs for disaster risk management are assessed and their benefits are evaluated. Furthermore, the evolution and technical feasibility of DTSC-driven disaster risk management is evaluated by assessing current applications of DTSCs in disaster risk management. It was found that despite the significant potential benefits offered by DTSCs, they also add a new layer of complexities and challenges inherent to these technologies to the already complex web of complexities involved in disaster risk management. These challenges can be addressed by understanding how the process of utilising DTSCs in disaster risk reduction and sustainability is designed, which is essential for comprehending what DTSCs may offer, how it is implemented, and what it means to all involved stakeholders. This paper contributes to the knowledge by improving the understanding of the current status of DTSC technologies and their impact on disaster risk management, and articulating the challenges in implementing DTSC, which inspires the professional community to advance these technologies to address them in future research.</jats:p