Does post-disaster aid promote community resilience? Evidence from federal disaster programs

Climate- and weather-related disasters have become increasingly frequent and costly, resulting in substantial government spending on disaster assistance. Yet less is known about the effectiveness of disaster aid in enhancing community resilience to future disaster risks. This study examines multiple post-disaster aid programs implemented by the US federal government to support state and local governments as well as households and private businesses. Specifically, we estimate the risk-mitigating effects of these disaster-related programs by linking program spending with reported economic losses from flooding. Our empirical analysis utilizing panel data at the county level finds that low-interest disaster loans lead to the largest reduction in subsequent flooding damage, and grants targeting public infrastructure restoration and flood control measures also reduce future flooding losses. Results suggest a limited loss-mitigating effect of disaster cash aid given to private individuals. These findings provide important implications for federal disaster policy design and suggest that more efficiency gains could be realized by redistributing funds and streamlining processes across programs and agencies.

     

The impact of irrigation water supply rate on agricultural drought disaster risk: a case about maize based on EPIC in Baicheng City,China

This study presents a methodology for risk analysis, assessment, and combination of drought disasters under the different irrigational levels in Baicheng City, which is supported by run theory, copula functions, crop growth model, and technique of natural disaster risk assessment from the viewpoints of climatology, geography, hydrology, agricultural science, disaster science, environmental science, and so on. Along with the global warming, the occurrences of water-related disasters become more frequent and more serious. It is necessary to determine the laws of the relationship between irrigational ability and the loss caused by drought. Drought events were identified by using run theory; the drought frequency was calculated by using copula function; the loss of every drought event was simulated by using EPIC model; and the relationship curves under the different irrigational supply conditions between the drought frequency and the yield reduction rate of the drought event were fitted to assess the impact of irrigational supply rate on the loss caused by drought. The results show that in the range of crop water demand, the loss caused by drought decreases as the result of the increase in irrigational supply rate; however, their variations are not proportional. The loss caused by the certain frequency drought event under the certain irrigational supply condition could be calculated by the curve of drought disaster risk assessment constructed by this study. The results obtained from this study are specifically intended to support local and national governmental agencies on agricultural disaster management.     

Role of panchayat (Local self-government) in managing disaster in terms of reconstruction,crop protection,livestock management and health and sanitation measures

The Panchayati Raj Institution is a statutory body elected by the local people through a well defined democratic process with specific responsibilities and duties. It is the most appropriate institution from village to the district level. The role of Panchayats (local self governing institutions) is important in view of their proximity to the local community, universal coverage and enlisting people’s participation on an institutionalized basis. Panchayat and municipalities are local governing institutions in countries like India, have a constitutional mandate under the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments Act. Apart from the proper implementation of different ongoing developmental programmes, the panchayat system has to play pivotal roles in respect of natural as well as man-made disaster management. In India, Particularly in West Bengal the village level Disaster Management Committee is headed by ward members of gram panchayat. The Panchayati Raj Institutions provide adequate space to the weaker section of the communities at its three levels, i.e. village, block and district. Good governance can be an instrumental feature in poverty reduction. This study was undertaken in cyclone affected areas in West Bengal to assess the role of panchayat in disaster management. The empirical study revealed that main role performed by the panchayat in respect of disaster was reconstruction of damaged houses, crop protection measures, livestock management, health and sanitation measures. Besides these broad aspects, the panchayats officials also organized health camp, involved in rescue operation, arranging temporary shelters and so on as disaster management operation. Total 60 gram panchayat officials and 150 villagers were selected randomly as respondents for the present investigation. The data were analysed into mean score, rank position and spearman correlation coefficient to achieve the objectives. The findings of the study indicated that significant differences were observed on the opinion of the villagers and officials on reconstruction of houses and health and sanitation measures. The roles performed by the local self-government in disaster management were very poor. There was absolutely lack of involvement of people’s representative. Therefore, adequate supports are suggested on these aspects from the representatives in association with higher authorities.     

Multi-agent-based data exchange platform for bridge disaster prevention: a case study in Taiwan

Geographic location and natural environment expose Taiwan to an elevated risk of natural disasters that severely damage human life and national infrastructure. Currently, disaster information is handled through distributed systems maintained by different management agencies. Gleaning critical information from disparate Web sites is a difficult and labor-intensive task that makes consolidating disaster information impractical. Lack of such integration delays alerts notification from being disseminated to relevant administrative agencies in a timely manner, stalling necessary decision making and magnifying the disaster. This research developed a data exchange platform to integrate and exchange data between distributed systems using software agent techniques. Such techniques were designed to exchange data automatically. Agents become active at the onset of a disaster event and compile data from various resources to report on the current state of bridges. Also, action recommendations delivered by the system can assist bridge managers make appropriate decisions.     

Community resilience,latent resources and resource scarcity after an earthquake: Is society really three meals away from anarchy?

Immediately after an earthquake event, how long people survive in place using their limited resources is relatively unknown, as is the behavioural response to resource scarcity. Computer-aided personal interviews were conducted with 172 householders to examine how many days people believed they were able to shelter in place without official aid in a simulated earthquake event, taking into account not only the water, food and medicine they had stockpiled, but also the availability of less obvious sources (such as water in the hot water cylinder or food from gardens). Based on recommended daily resource allowances, after a 3-day period without aid, 46 % of people had run out of at least one of these necessary resources and this increased to 90 % of people after 7 days. After a 7-day period without official aid, there is an increase in people’s perceived willingness to (1) ask for assistance from neighbours (but a reduction in people’s willingness to offer aid to others), (2) commit less socially acceptable acts (such as breaking into an empty house to take food and water) and (3) commit unsafe acts (such as drinking unpurified water). The results are discussed with regard to particular post-disaster social behaviours and how social norms shift as people adapt to survive.     

Household migration in disaster impact analysis: incorporating behavioural responses to risk

Detailed estimates of economy-wide disaster losses provide important inputs for disaster risk management. The most common models used to estimate losses are input–output (IO) and computable general equilibrium (CGE) models. A key strength of these models is their ability to capture the ripple effects, whereby the impacts of a disaster are transmitted to regions and sectors that are not directly affected by the event. One important transmission channel is household migration. Changes in the spatial distribution of people are likely to have substantial impacts on local labour and housing markets. In this paper, we argue that IO and CGE models suffer from limitations in representing household migration under disaster risk. We suggest combining IO and CGE models with agent-based models to improve the representation of migration in disaster impact analysis.     

Integrated risk assessment of flood disaster based on improved set pair analysis and the variable fuzzy set theory in central Liaoning Province,China

This study presents the methodology and procedure for risk assessment of flood disasters in central Liaoning Province, which was supported by geographical information systems (GIS) and technology of natural disaster risk assessment. On the basis of the standard formulation of natural disaster risk and flood disaster risk index, of which weights were developed using combined weights of entropy, the relative membership degree functions of variable fuzzy set (VFS) theory were calculated using improved set pair analysis, while level values were calculated using VFSs, including hazard levels, exposure levels, vulnerability levels and restorability levels, and the flood risk level for each assessment unit was obtained using the natural disaster index method. Consequently, integrated flood risk map was carried out by GIS spatial analysis technique. The results show that the southwestern and central parts of the study area possess higher risk, while the northwestern and southeastern parts possess lower risk. The results got by the assessment model fits the area of historical flood data; this study offer new insights and possibility to carry out an efficient way for flood disaster prevention and mitigation. The study also provides scientific reference in flood risk management for local and national governmental agencies.     

Bridging the gaps: the role of local government capability and the management of a natural disaster in Bantul, Indonesia

This paper examines local government capability in managing pre-, during and post-natural disaster in Indonesia. The case study is the Bantul local government which had experience in managing the 2006 earthquake. Bantul is located in the most densely populated area of Java, where 1,500 people per square km square, and the earthquake destroyed domestic industries that had become the main resource of the Bantul local government. The capability of local government and the requirement to manage a disaster are very important issues for exploring the important role of local government in mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery disaster management activities, particularly in regard to the characteristics of local government in developing countries. In this paper, capability of local government in managing a disaster is defined as a function of institutions, human resources, policy for effective implementation, financial, technical resources and leadership. The capability requirement of each stage of disaster management has also been explained from the point of view of state and non-state actors and institutions. Finally, the paper integrates the capability requirement and reality in order to bridge these gaps.     

The ecology of hazardousness,the experience of South America

In many parts of South America, the socio-economic condition of the population is such that in many respects the people, because of their vulnerable state, are a disaster waiting to occur. The triggering action of the disaster will be an extreme physical or biophysical event. If any advance is to be made in natural hazard management, then the focus must be upon people first. Halt the process of underdevelopment in South American societies and you have taken a major step forward in natural hazard management. The major concern of this paper is not so much with the competition for first place in hazard proneness in South America, but rather the elaboration of the total ecology of what we commonly designate as disasters, which ordinarily occur at the interface of extreme natural phenomena and vulnerable settlement patterns, and which should be seen, as the extreme situation which is implicit in the everyday condition of the population. Vulnerability is the key concept in this relationship. South American nations vary greatly in their hazard proneness, in the vulnerability of sectors in their societies, in the losses and general repercussions of hazardous events, and in their ability to cope effectively with the post-disaster situation, either alone or with international aid.     

Disease Aftershocks—The Health Effects of Natural Disasters

While the initial activity of a natural disaster event may directly injure or kill a number of people, it is possible that a significant number of individuals will be affected by disease outbreaks that occur after the first effects of the disaster have passed. Coupling the epidemiologist's knowledge of disease outbreaks with geographic information systems and remote sensing technology could help natural disaster relief workers to prevent additional victims from disease aftershocks.     

Land degradation,natural resources and local knowledge in the sahel zone of Burkina Faso

This paper proposes a conceptual model that integrates physical and ecological aspects with human aspects of land degradation through a multidisciplinary approach. The model was applied at the local level in a case study in northern Burkina Faso. Assessments of the degradation of the vegetation cover from aerial photographs and a satellite image were analysed in the framework of the model. Another input to the model was results from interviews and field visits with peasants living in the area.The local knowledge of the physical symptoms of land degradation and of the physical variables, eg rainfall and wind, is very close to the scientific logic. However, people do not generally see the links between these variables and the symptoms. Likewise, they do not perceive land degradation to be influenced in any way by human actions. Instead, the cause of land degradation is attributed to God, Allah. Thus, an important field of intervention for governments and development agencies should be to make people aware of their role in land management.     

Climate disaster resilience of the education sector in Thua Thien Hue Province, Central Vietnam

Recognizing the importance of building disaster resilience for education sector, this study aims to develop a methodology to measure the level of educational resilience to cope with natural disasters and is then applied in Central Vietnam. The assessment tool in this paper is developed through a combination of climate disaster resilience indexes and the 16 tasks of Hyogo framework for action designed for education sector. It looks at five dimensions namely physical conditions, human resources, institutional issues, external relationships, and natural conditions, with each dimension characterized by three parameters and five variables. Findings from this study provide important insights into enhancing resilience of the education system in Thua Thien Hue at the provincial, local, and school levels. By giving the overall resilience situation, it can help policy-makers and practitioners in developing an effective plan to increase the level of educational resilience. In addition, it provides the School Management Board with a means to assess the school??s resilience level and set out priorities that need to be focused on with regard to the improvement of school safety and disaster risk reduction education.     

Analysis of the Sanchung inundation during Typhoon Aere, 2004

Typhoon Aere swept over Taiwan with heavy rain, which induced huge discharge in the Danshuei River in August 2004. The flood in the Danshuei River intruded Sanchung through a culvert that was under construction. The deluge inundated thousands of premises and resulted in severe damage. This study reconstructs the event scenario using hydrologic and hydraulic methods to analyse the causes of the disaster. We integrated the radar rainfall estimations and rain gauge observations to recreate the temporal and spatial varied precipitation inputs; estimated the influent volume from the culvert using hydrologic equations; and simulated the flood dynamic within the study area during the event with a coupled overland and sewer flow model. The evidence showed that both the rainfall and the culvert flow contributed similar flood volume to the study area, but culvert discharge concentrated at single location within short time period such that the local drainage system could not cope with and notable damage was incurred.     

How Accurate are Disaster Loss Data? The Case of U.S. Flood Damage

Policy makers need accurate disaster loss data for decisions about disaster assistance, policy evaluation, and scientific research priorities. But loss estimation is difficult in a disaster situation, and initial loss estimates are seldom evaluated in comparison with actual costs. This paper uses the example of historical flood damage data in the U.S. to evaluate disaster loss data. It evaluates the accuracy of historical flood damage estimates from two federal agencies. The U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) has compiled annual flood loss estimates for each state since 1955. Comparison of the NWS data with similar estimates from five state emergency management agencies reveals substantial disagreement between estimates from different sources. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) began in the 1990s to systematically collect damage estimates and cost data associated with its disaster assistance programs. Comparison of early damage estimates with actual expenditures in a California flood disaster reveals large errors in some estimates for individual counties, but no statistically significant tendency to underestimate or overestimate. Positive and negative errors tend to average out and the total damage estimate for the state approximates the final expenditures. Both comparisons indicate that damage estimates for small events or local jurisdictions often are extremely inaccurate. On the other hand, estimates aggregated over large areas or long time periods appear to be reasonably reliable; that is, this study finds that independent estimates for events with losses greater than $500 million disagree by less than 40. The paper suggests ways of interpreting and using such loss estimates to reduce the likelihood of misinterpretation.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.     

Organisations in Disaster

In the event of a disaster, communities become the targets of specialist organisations and a concentration of activities. The complex unstructured activities and routines of daily life are disrupted and even totally overwhelmed by a single catastrophic event that requires a redirection of priorities, resources and people to deal with all aspects of the disaster impact as rapidly as possible. The whole community must be mobilised to restore functions and meet needs, to return to the normality of the pre-disaster state. This latter purpose is least likely to be achieved, as the destroyed community can seldom rebuild to the same complex, but randomly haphazard state that existed before the disaster. The mobilisation of the whole community to the single purpose of recovery requires a high level of organisation. Response to a disaster demands that there be purposeful organisations ready to provide leadership and action. Emergency management is predicated for the existence of such purposeful organisations. However, while organisations are at the core of emergency management response and recovery, they are by no means simple or singular. Disaster generates a plethora of organisations, which interact with the community rather than simply organising disaster response. The community also organises itself, re-assigning priorities and using existing organisations and networks.     

Integrated risk zoning of drought and waterlogging disasters based on fuzzy comprehensive evaluation in Anhui Province,China

This study presents a methodology for risk analysis, assessment, combination, and regionalization of integrated drought and waterlogging disasters in Anhui Province, which is supported by geographical information systems (GIS) and technique of natural disaster risk assessment from the viewpoints of climatology, geography, disaster science, environmental science, and so on. Along with the global warming, the occurrences of water-related disasters become more frequent and serious. It is necessary to determine the mode of spatial distribution of water-related disaster risk. Based on the principle of natural disaster risk, natural conditions, and socioeconomic situation, drought and waterlogging disaster risk index, which combined hazard, exposure, vulnerability, and restorability, was developed by using combined weights, entropy, and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method. Drought and waterlogging disaster risk zoning map was made out by using GIS spatial analysis technique and gridding GIS technique. It was used for comparing the relative risk of economic and life losses in different grids of Anhui Province. It can also be used to compare the situation of different levels of drought and waterlogging disaster combination risk in a similar place. The result shows that the northwestern and central parts of Anhui Province possess higher risk, while the southwestern and northeastern parts possess lower risk. The information obtained from statistical offices and remote sensing data in relation to results compiled were statistically evaluated. The results obtained from this study are specifically intended to support local and national governmental agencies on water-related disaster management.     

Landslide disaster risk awareness in Mexico: community access to mapping at local scale

Recent investigations have sought to understand the spatial-temporal distribution of landslides in Teziutlán, Puebla, a municipality historically affected by landslides. The latest initiative, under the umbrella of the ICL-IPL Project “Landslide disaster risk communication in mountain areas,” was the publication of a book of Atlas type comprising a collection of 142 maps and their corresponding explanatory texts that included a context analysis of landslide disaster risk drivers at various scales, from regional to local. This paper aims to recognise and address the necessity to further enhance the guiding principle of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction to focus on the understanding of disaster risk drivers at local level, for the determination of measures to reduce disaster risk. We present an initial contribution to promote landslide disaster risk awareness in the urban area of Teziutlán by providing to the community direct access to maps of landslide disaster risk at local scale; this is a first step towards the establishment of a robust strategy to communicate landslide risk in the long term. Effective implementation calls for decreasing vulnerability and exposure. Beyond contexts of vulnerability reflected by social, economic, cultural, political, and institutional conditions, it may be difficult to picture the spatial interactions of exposure of communities, assets, and the environment because the means of analysing spatial relationships between society and nature are not commonly available in mountain areas. Therefore, for people to better understand risk, maps of landslide susceptibility and risk exposure present a good way for the inhabitants to familiarise themselves with the spatial context of the dynamics in which they are immersed.     

Comparison of two large earthquakes in China: the 2008 Sichuan Wenchuan Earthquake and the 2013 Sichuan Lushan Earthquake

Over a period of 5 years, two large earthquakes struck Sichuan Wenchuan and Lushan successively. The two main seismic zones are only 87 km apart along the same seismic belt on the Longmenshan fault. Although there was only one magnitude of difference between the two great quakes, losses from the 2013 Lushan Earthquake were much lower than that of 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake. This study compares these disasters in terms of preparation and response in order to develop effective ways to reduce casualty and economic loss in future earthquakes. By determining what was done right after the Wenchuan Earthquake, we can better understand how to reduce future losses. This study focuses on seven factors: basic information, preparedness, government response, local residents’ responses, medical rescue teams’ work, earthquake-induced secondary effects, and injury character. We also recommend that three major actions should be emphasized to facilitate the most effective course of disaster planning and action. First, sufficient preparedness and strict preventive measures form the foundation to minimize damage and reduce casualties. Once the disaster had occurred, a single, well-run headquarters increases efficiency in rescue efforts. Finally, local rescue strength of both professional staff and citizens is the most critical factor to lower disaster casualties.     

Study on indirect economic impacts and their causes of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake

In terms of events that undermine economic growth, the impact of natural disasters is huge and inevitable. Taking the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake as the research object, and based on the country-year data for 181 counties in Sichuan Province from 1999 to 2018, this paper uses the dynamic difference-in-difference method to investigate the indirect impact of this event on the economy. The main findings are as follows: Even though the central government has introduced reconstruction policies and invested a lot of reconstruction funds, in 2018, the per capita income in the extremely and relatively severe disaster areas was still significantly lower than the counterfactual by 21.96% and 7.61%, respectively. There is heterogeneity in the long-term indirect impacts in areas with different disaster levels, and the economies of the extremely severe disaster areas may form a "poverty trap," while the economies of the relatively severe disaster areas are still in a slow recovery state. It was further found that the assistance of central government’s reconstruction funds and the increase in local government expenditure are the reasons for the rapid economic recovery in the short term, and the insufficient level of total demand caused by the investment and consumption is the main reasons for the negative indirect impact on the economy in the disaster areas.

     

Household response to cyclone and induced surge in coastal Bangladesh: coping strategies and explanatory variables

The purpose of this research is to explore indigenous coping strategies and identify underlying demographic, socio-economic and other relevant variables that influence the adoption of coping strategies in three distinct cyclone-prone coastal villages of Bangladesh. The study finds that cyclones and induced surges are a recurrent phenomenon in coastal Bangladesh; hence people are used to adjusting their lifestyle and adopting their own coping strategies intelligently. Adoption of a particular set of coping strategies depends not only on the magnitude, intensity and potential impacts of the cyclone and induced surge, but also age, gender, social class, dissemination of early warning information, locational exposure, external assistance, social protection and informal risk sharing mechanisms within the community. Indigenous cyclone disaster prevention and mitigation strategies significantly minimize the vulnerability of the people. Under extreme situations, when such disasters surpass the shock-bearing capacity of the victims, informal risk sharing mechanisms through social bonding and social safety-nets become vital for short-term survival and long-term livelihood security. Therefore, proper monitoring and understanding of local indigenous coping strategies are essential in order to target the most vulnerable groups exposed to disasters. Additionally, proper dissemination of early warning and government and non-government partnerships for relief and rehabilitation activities should be prioritized to ensure pro-poor disaster management activities. The study also recommends effective monitoring of the impact of aid to ensure corrective measures to avoid the development of relief dependency by disaster victims.