Willingness to pay for improved residential waste management in a developing country

In most developing countries policies and frameworks that govern solid waste management strategies have often been directed at the waste management service providers and less attention is often given to the demand side of the problem. This paper reports a study regarding householders’ willingness to pay for improved residential solid waste management. The data for the study originated from a contingent valuation survey that was conducted in 236 households in Ilorin city in Kwara State, Nigeria. A binary logit model was used to account for some factors influencing the respondents’ willingness to pay. The results show that more than 80 % of the respondents were in support of the residential waste management. The respondents were willing to pay an average of 3,660 Nigerian Naira (US $24) each year. Income, education, dwelling type and whether the respondent is satisfied with private sector participation in provision of waste management service positively influenced the respondents’ willingness to pay. The price, gender, household size and activities of sanitary inspectors had negative influence. The findings from this study could contribute to the knowledge regarding the design of a more sustainable residential waste management strategy in Nigeria and other countries that have similar conditions.     

Integrated methodology for flood risk assessment and application in urban communities of Pakistan

Flood disasters and its consequent damages are on the rise globally. Pakistan has been experiencing an increase in flood frequency and severity along with resultant damages in the past. In addition to the regular practices of loss and damage estimation, current focus is on risk assessment of hazard-prone communities. Risk measurement is complex as scholars engaged in disaster science and management use different quantitative models with diverse interpretations. This study tries to provide clarity in conceptualizing disaster risk and proposes a risk assessment methodology with constituent components such as hazard, vulnerability (exposure and sensitivity) and coping/adaptive capacity. Three communities from different urban centers in Pakistan have been selected based on high flood frequency and intensity. A primary survey was conducted in selected urban communities to capture data on a number of variables relating to flood hazard, vulnerability and capacity to compute flood risk index. Households were categorized into different risk levels, such as can manage risk, can survive and cope, and cannot cope. It was found that risk levels varied significantly across the households of the three communities. Metropolitan city was found to be highly vulnerable as compared to smaller cities due to weak capacity. Households living in medium town had devised coping mechanisms to manage risk. The proposed methodology is tested and found operational for risk assessment of flood-prone areas and communities irrespective of locations and countries.     

Flood risk perceptions and spatial multi-criteria analysis: an exploratory research for hazard mitigation

The conventional method of risk analysis (with risk as a product of probability and consequences) does not allow for a pluralistic approach that includes the various risk perceptions of stakeholders or lay people within a given social system. This article introduces a methodology that combines the virtues of three different methods: the quantifiable conventional approach to risk; the taxonomic analysis of perceived risk; and the analytical framework of a spatial multi-criteria analysis. This combination of methods is applied to the case study ‘Ebro Delta’ in Spain as part of the European sixth framework project ‘Floodsite’. First, a typology for flood hazards is developed based on individual and/or stakeholders’ judgements. Awareness, worry and preparedness are the three characteristics that typify a community to reflect various levels of ignorance, perceived security, perceived control or desired risk reduction. Applying ‘worry’ as the central characteristic, a trade-off is hypothesized between Worry and the benefits groups in society receive from a risky situation. Second, this trade-off is applied in Spatial Multi-Criteria Analysis (SMCA). MCA is the vehicle that often accompanies participatory processes, where governmental bodies have to decide on issues in which local stakeholders have a say. By using risk perception-scores as weights in a standard MCA procedure a new decision framework for risk assessment is developed. Finally, the case of sea-level rise in the Ebro Delta in Spain serves as an illustration of the applied methodology. Risk perception information has been collected with help of an on-site survey. Risk perception enters the multi-criteria analysis as complementary weights for the criteria risk and benefit. The results of the survey are applied to a set of scenarios representing both sea-level rise and land subsidence for a time span of 50 years. Land use alternatives have been presented to stakeholders in order to provide the regional decision maker with societal preferences for handling risk. Even with limited resources a characteristic ‘risk profile’ could be drawn that enables the decision maker to develop a suitable land use policy.     

Implementing a trans-boundary flood risk management plan: a method for determining willingness to cooperate and case study for the Scheldt estuary

In this paper, I applied statistical, econometric, and mathematical methodologies to evaluate the conditions required for implementing a publicly supported trans-boundary flood risk management plan in accordance with the EU Floods Directive (2007/60/EU). Although this paper adopts a focus on the methodology rather than on solving a specific problem, the Scheldt estuary is used to provide an illustrative case study of this approach. I showed that, apart from some expected minor differences, the Belgians and the Dutch can be considered a relatively homogeneous population. Moreover, I estimated the main determinants of both perceived flood risk (PFR) and willingness to pay (WTP) for a compensation fund by using a linear model and an ordered probit model (based on a double-bounded dichotomous-choice approach), respectively. Some policies appear to be potentially effective: a campaign to inform the general public about evacuation and trauma management could increase WTP by 19 and 21 %, respectively; an information campaign focused on young women could reduce PFR; and a campaign to inform the general public about flood strategies and the need to disregard flood events in the press could reduce PFR by 56 and 54 %, respectively. Finally, I showed that, apart from some expected differences between the values at risk in Belgium and the Netherlands, both individual rationality and overall feasibility conditions are met. Thus, if information campaigns and other measures are designed to account for differences between the Belgians and the Dutch, a publicly supported trans-boundary flood risk management plan can be successfully implemented.     

Design and implementation of a voluntary collective earthquake insurance policy to cover low-income homeowners in a developing country

Understanding and evaluating disaster risk due to natural hazard events such as earthquakes creates powerful incentives for countries to develop planning options and tools to reduce potential damages. The use of models for earthquake risk evaluation allows obtaining outputs such as the loss exceedance curve, the expected annual loss and the probable maximum loss, which are probabilistic metrics useful for risk analyses, for designing strategies for risk reduction and mitigation, for emergency response strategies and for risk financing. This article presents, based on probabilistic risk models, the design and implementation of a risk transfer instrument to cover the private buildings of the city of Manizales, Colombia. This voluntary collective instrument provides financial protection to both, the estate tax payers and the low-income homeowners through a cross-subsidy strategy; besides, it promotes not only the insurance culture but also the solidarity of the community. The city administration and the insurance industry are promoting this program using the mechanism of the property tax payment. This collective insurance helps the government to access key resources for low-income householders recovery and improve disaster risk management at local level.     

雨水滞蓄措施在城区减洪之水文机制及容量研究

针对雨水滞蓄设施在城区减洪之设置方式及容量计算,以就地消减雨洪(On-site Control)及分散配置原则提出设置规划流程与容量计算方式。对于雨水滞蓄措施之减洪机制进行水文分析,并选择台湾台北县汐止地区为算例进行规划。与目前以减少开发增加洪峰量为目的之滞洪设施规划方式相比,本研究提出之规划方式可同时减少开发增加径流峰值与体积,且所需设计容量较少。     

Individual willingness to prepare for disasters in a geological hazard risk area: an empirical study based on the protection motivation theory

Natural Hazards - Public participation in disaster preparedness and mitigation activities become an important part of disaster risk management. The impact of risk perception and protection...     

The Indus flood of 2010 in Pakistan: a perspective analysis using remote sensing data

The Indus flood in 2010 was one of the greatest river disasters in recent history, which affected more than 14 million people in Pakistan. Although excessive rainfall between July and September 2010 has been cited as the major causative factor for this disaster, the human interventions in the river system over the years made this disaster a catastrophe. Geomorphic analysis suggests that the Indus River has had a very dynamic regime in the past. However, the river has now been constrained by embankments on both sides, and several barrages have been constructed along the river. As a result, the river has been aggrading rapidly during the last few decades due to its exceptionally high sediment load particularly in reaches upstream of the barrages. This in turn has caused significant increase in cross-valley gradient leading to breaches upstream of the barrages and inundation of large areas. Our flow accumulation analysis using SRTM data not only supports this interpretation but also points out that there are several reaches along the Indus River, which are still vulnerable to such breaches and flooding. Even though the Indus flood in 2010 was characterized by exceptionally high discharges, our experience in working on Himalayan rivers and similar recent events in rivers in Nepal and India suggest that such events can occur at relatively low discharges. It is therefore of utmost importance to identify such areas and plan mitigation measures as soon as possible. We emphasize the role of geomorphology in flood analysis and management and urge the river managers to take urgent steps to incorporate the geomorphic understanding of Himalayan rivers in river management plans.     

Correction to: Social determinants in choice of shelter: an evidence-based analysis

Natural Hazards - The article was published with categories “80,000–10,999” and “≥?11,000” of the variable Family monthly income in Table 2 and...     

Identifying the determinants of access to agricultural credit in Southern Punjab of Pakistan

Based on the survey data of 250 farmers from the Multan district of Southern region of Punjab, Pakistan this study aims to empirically examine the determinants of access to agricultural credit. This study used the probit model to analyze the data. The results revealed that formal education, farm size, level of farm mechanization, farm revenue and landholding size positively and significantly influenced access to agricultural credit while the age of the farmer’s, distance, and off- farm income negatively and insignificantly influenced farmer’s accessibility to agricultural credit. The findings of the current study offer a policy guideline to streamline national policy on agricultural finance. This study also recommends that ZaraiTaraqiati Bank (ZTBL) and other Commercial Banks should improve their agricultural credit schemes to fulfil the diversified needs of small farm holders.

     

Correction to: Assessing real options in urban surface water flood risk management under climate change

Windblown dust originating in China and Mongolia causes health effects and agricultural damage in its source areas and causes Asian dust events in Japan. An early warning system that could be combined with weather forecasts would be helpful in preventing serious damage. However, it is difficult to specify source areas of dust with current dust modeling systems because land surface information, including vegetation coverage and land surface soil water content, is inadequate. To find and monitor dust source regions, a semi-real-time dust erodibility map was developed based on MODIS satellite data that focuses particularly on the threshold wind speed in a target area of northeast Asia including China and Mongolia (35°–50°N, 75°–120°E). The mapping system incorporates satellite data on snow cover, areas of frozen soil, surface soil water content, and vegetation cover.     

Multidimensional six-stage model for flood emergency response in schools: a case study of Pakistan

Natural Hazards - Children spend more than two-thirds of their total daytime in schools and becoming more persuasive in shielding them from potential hazards. Schools have a responsibility to...     

Quantitative methods for estimating flood fatalities: towards the introduction of loss-of-life estimation in the assessment of flood risk

Risk, including flood risk, can be defined as ??the combination of the probability of an event and its consequences??. Assessing and managing the risk from flooding should explicitly include the estimation of impacts to people. Extensive research is currently ongoing looking at both quantitative and qualitative approaches for assessing flood impacts on people. Although there is some literature available on such approaches, examples of methodological and routinely applications of these methodologies as part of flood risk assessments are rare. This paper focuses on quantitative approaches for estimating impacts of flooding to people, notably on methods for assessing fatality numbers associated with flooding. Three methods for assessing losses of life are discussed in detail. The methods discussed here constitute the forefront of research in Canada, UK and The Netherlands. These methods provide an assessment of the physical consequences of flooding on people and can be used to introduce the impacts to people as quantitative metric for the assessment of flood risk. In this paper, the three methodologies are discussed and applied in a UK case study reproducing the 1953 East Coast flood event. This study aims to provide a comprehensive comparison on both the reliability and the applicability of the methods. We analyse possible added values on using of these methods in systematic analyses, aiming to provide guidelines for applying these methods for flood fatality risk assessment.     

Risk analysis for flood-control structure under consideration of uncertainties in design flood

This study presents a risk analysis model to evaluate the failure risk for the flood-control structures in the Keelung River due to the uncertainties in the hydrological and hydraulic analysis, including hydrologic, hydraulic, and geomorphologic uncertainty factors. This study defines failure risk as the overtopping probability of the maximum water level exceeding the levee crown, and the proposed risk analysis model integrates with the advanced first-order and second-moment (AFOSM) method to calculate the overtopping probability of levee system. The proposed model is used to evaluate the effects of the freeboard and flood-diversion channel on the flood-control ability of the levees in the Keelung River, which were designed based on the 3-day, 200-year design rainfall event. The numerical experiments indicate that the hydrologic uncertainty factors have more effect on the estimated maximum water level than hydraulic and geomorphologic uncertainty factors. In addition, the freeboard and the flood-diversion channel can effectively reduce the overtopping probability so as to significantly enhance the flood-control capacity of the levee system in the Keelung River. Eventually, the proposed risk analysis successfully quantifies the overtopping risk of the levee system under a scenario, the increase in the average 200-year rainfall amount due to climate change, and the results could be useful when planning to upgrade the existing levee system.     

Dam-break risk analysis of the Attabad landslide dam in Pakistan and emergency countermeasures

The Attabad landslide dam caused significant property losses and many human casualties in Pakistan, and also greatly affected the operation of the China-Pakistan Karakoram Highway (KKH). This paper discusses the risk of dam breach and hazards to the KKH project construction site following a dam breach. The paper examines the following three topics. (1) The geomorphologic dimensionless blockage index (DBI) and the analogy method were used to analyze the stability of the Attabad landslide dam. The long-term behaviors of landslide dams downstream of the Attabad landslide dam indicate that the risk of a dam breach exists, but the probability of a total dam failure is low. (2) The peak discharge of a potential breach of the Attabad landslide dam was calculated for scenarios in which 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, and total failure of the dam was breached. The potential breach discharge decreases with the downstream distance. (3) The potential impacts of the landslide dam breach on the KKH project construction site were analyzed. Based on the composition of the landslide dam, the probability of a 1/3 dam breach is high. To ensure the safety of downstream areas, disaster preparedness plans that correspond to the 1/2 dam breach scenario should be developed. Based on experience in addressing the landslide dam that was caused by the Wenchuan Earthquake, artificial controlled drainage measures are suggested and provide a technical reference for addressing the Attabad landslide dam and achieving recovery and normal operation of KKH.     

Climate change and increased risk for the insurance sector: a global perspective and an assessment for the Netherlands

Climate change is projected to increase the frequency and severity of extreme weather events. As a consequence, economic losses caused by natural catastrophes could increase significantly. This will have considerable consequences for the insurance sector. On the one hand, increased risk from weather extremes requires assessing expected changes in damage and including adequate climate change projections in risk management. On the other hand, climate change can also bring new business opportunities for insurers. This paper gives an overview of the consequences of climate change for the insurance sector and discusses several strategies to cope with and adapt to increased risks. The particular focus is on the Dutch insurance sector, as the Netherlands is extremely vulnerable to climate change, especially with regard to extreme precipitation and flooding. Current risk sharing arrangements for weather risks are examined while potential new business opportunities, adaptation strategies, and public–private partnerships are identified.     

Integrating the effects of flood experience on risk perception with responses to changing climate risk

Flood management decision-makers face significant challenges as the climate changes. The perceptions of those affected by floods are critical to the successful implementation of adaptation responses; risk perceptions are affected by how information is communicated and, in turn, perceptions influence expectations on flood risk managers to respond. The links between flood experience, risk perception, and responses by individual households were examined in the Hutt Valley, New Zealand, through a household survey, a workshop and interviews with local government practitioners. Two propositions were tested: (1) that flood experience can influence flood risk perceptions; and (2) that flood experience can stimulate increased risk reduction and adaptation actions where changing climate risk is likely. Perceptions of responsibility for flood management were also examined. The study found that previous flood experience contributes to heightened perception of risk, increased preparedness of households, greater willingness to make household-level changes, greater communication with councils, and more advocacy for spatial planning to complement existing structural protection. Flood-affected households had a stronger preference for central government and communities having flood risk responsibilities, in addition to local government. Those who lacked experience were more likely to be normalised to their prior benign experiences and thus optimistic about flood consequences. These results suggest that harnessing positive aspects of experience and communication of changing risk through engagement strategies could help shift the focus from citizens’ expectation that governments will always provide protection, to a citizen–local government–central government dialogue about the changing character of flood risk and its implications, and build a ‘risk conscious’ society in which ‘sharing and bearing’ is considered desirable.     

Correction to: Discrete dynamical Pareto optimization model in the risk portfolio for natural disaster insurance in China

Natural Hazards - The original article, Discrete dynamical Pareto optimization model in the risk portfolio for natural disaster insurance in China, in Natural Hazards (2018) 90: 445–460, was...