Bushfire and everyday life: Examining the awareness-action ‘gap’ in changing rural landscapes

In this paper we use the notion of ‘everyday life’ to critically examine an apparent ‘gap’ between bushfire risk awareness and preparedness amongst diverse landholders in rural landscapes affected by amenity-led in-migration in southeast Australia. Landholders were found to bring their own agency to bushfire preparedness in the relationships between everyday procedures, dilemmas, and tradeoffs. Consequently, regardless of landholders’ awareness levels, attitudes towards bushfire and natural resource management influence if, how, and to what extent landowners prepare for bushfires. We argue that not only is the ‘gap’ complex but also paradoxical in that it is both evident in, and constituted by, landholder attitudes and action and simultaneously dissolved in their practices and decision-making in everyday life. Three dilemmas of everyday life in particular were found to underpin these attitudes: costs (in terms of monetary and time values), gender roles, and priorities. Using a mixed-methods research approach, this simultaneous cultural construction and material nature of bushfire in everyday life is mapped out through landholders’ narratives and actions that embody living with fire on the land. The place of bushfire in landholders’ everyday life has direct relevance to recent international discussions of the vulnerability of the growing number of people living in bushfire-prone rural-urban interface areas.     

The missing link between flood risk awareness and preparedness: findings from case studies in an Alpine Region

The low risk awareness of the residents living in flood-prone areas is usually considered among the main causes of their low preparedness, which in turns generates inadequate response to natural disasters. In this paper, we challenge this assumption by reporting on the results of a sociological research in four communities exposed to flood risk in the Eastern Italian Alps. The research design included semi-structured interviews and focus groups with key local stakeholders and a standardized questionnaire submitted to 400 residents. Results revealed that residents felt both slightly worried about flood risk and slightly prepared to face an event. Considerable differences were found between the evaluations of individual subjects as opposed to overall communities. There was also a clear discrepancy between the actual adoption of household preparatory measures and the willingness to take self-protection actions. Overall, the risk awareness was significantly higher among those residents who had been personally affected by a flood in the past, were living in isolated (vs. urban) communities, in the most risky areas or had a lower level of trust in local authorities. The improvement of residents?? knowledge about their environment and the residual risk seemed to be crucial to increase risk awareness, and the same was true for the strengthening of local support networks to foster preparedness. The link between risk awareness and preparedness was not at all straightforward. Results revealed instead the complexity of residents?? perspectives, attitudes, behaviours and decisions about risk-related issues.     

What kind of countryside do the public want: community visions from Wales UK?

This paper assesses how far community led rural visions accord with the current thrust of rural planning policy delivery in the UK. Adapting conventional visioning methods, qualitative techniques were used on eight different communities across urban, exurban and rural Wales to elicit views relating to the kind of local countryside(s) that were desired. The results show that the communities’ visions reflect an emerging consensus around local countryside priorities: multifunctionality, integration, wider countryside protection, development based on need, and local distinctiveness according with the thrust of current planning policy at national and local levels. However, there is a clear dichotomy between this and the reality of what communities actually experienced in developments affecting their countryside. Here, universal criticism was encountered over the type, pace and scale of development, the lack of rural specificity and the failure to take account of local community needs and priorities. It is hypothesized that tensions between national and local politics and stakeholder power relations are playing a crucial role in distorting the delivery of town and country planning. It is recommended that rural policy delivery must become more “joined up” and rural proofed at national and local levels concomitant with a change in the operational culture of agencies at the forefront of rural delivery. Essentially, effective engagement of top down approaches synergising with bottom up community led ideas is long overdue.     

A model of household preparedness for earthquakes: how individuals make meaning of earthquake information and how this influences preparedness

One way to reduce the risk from earthquakes is for individuals to undertake preparations for earthquakes at home. Common preparation measures include gathering together survival items, undertaking mitigation actions, developing a household emergency plan, gaining survival skills or participating in wider social preparedness actions. While current earthquake education programmes advocate that people undertake a variety of these activities, actual household preparedness remains at modest levels. Effective earthquake education is inhibited by an incomplete understanding of how the preparedness process works. Previous research has focused on understanding the influence individual cognitive processes have on the earthquake preparedness process but has been limited in identifying other influences posed by the wider social contextual environment. This project used a symbolic interactionism perspective to explore the earthquake preparedness process through a series of qualitative interviews with householders in three New Zealand urban locations. It investigated earthquake information that individuals are exposed to, how people make meaning of this information and how this relates to undertaking actual preparedness measures. During the study, the relative influence of cognitive, emotive and societal factors on the preparedness process was explored and the interactions between these identified. A model of the preparedness process based on the interviews was developed and is presented in this paper.     

Use of quantitative landslide hazard and risk information for local disaster risk reduction along a transportation corridor: a case study from Nilgiri district, India

The objective of analyzing hazard and risk in an area is to utilize the result in selecting appropriate landslide risk reduction strategies. However, this does not happen always, and most often results of the hazard and risk analysis remain at an academic level. The under or non-utilization of results in pre-disaster planning could be due to several reasons, including difficulties in understanding the scientific content/meaning of the models, and lack of information on the practical significance and utility of the models. In this study, an attempt is made to highlight the uses of hazard and risk information in different landslide risk reduction strategies along a transportation corridor in Nilgiri, India. At first, a quantitative analysis of landslide hazard and risk was made. The obtained information was then incorporated in risk reduction options such as land use zoning, engineering solutions, and emergency preparedness. For emergency preparedness, the perception of the local Nilgiri communities toward landslide risk was evaluated and simplified maps were generated for the benefit and understanding of end users. A rainfall threshold-based early warning system was presented, which could be used in risk awareness programs involving public participation. The use of quantitative risk information in the cost-benefit analysis for the planning of structural measures to protect the road and railway alignments was also highlighted, and examples were shown how the transport organizations could implement these measures. Finally, the study provided examples of the utility of hazard and risk information for spatial planning and zoning, indicating areas where the landslide hazard is too high for planning future developments.     

Regionalism as resistance: Governance and identity in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt

Extensive rural regions are facing major socio-economic, political and environmental change from the dual effects of agricultural restructuring and environmental degradation. While central governments often rely on regional level policy responses, local actors, such as rural local governments may resist these ‘top-down’ initiatives. This paper examines the oppositional response of 34 rural local governments to state-led regionalisation for economic development and natural resource management in the extensive and sparely populated Wheatbelt region of Western Australia. The analysis explores how state threats of amalgamation; shifting national policy empathies in rural development; and, local preferences for horizontal rather than vertical forms of cooperation are influential in catalysing a brand of defensive regionalism amongst local government actors. Adopting this defensive posture allowed local actors to both buffer state intervention and improve the effectiveness of their own cooperative planning and management activities for sustainable development. These observations are interpreted through concepts of collective identity formation, providing an analytical perspective that is sensitive to the inter-scalar politics in rural governance.     

The effects of a large destructive local earthquake on earthquake preparedness as assessed by an earthquake preparedness scale

A multi-act scale for measuring the earthquake preparedness of individuals and small businesses was developed and used to assess the earthquake preparedness and the perceived difficulty of becoming prepared for earthquakes of 291 University of Southern California undergraduate students approximately 3 weeks prior to the 5.9 magnitude Whittier Narrows earthquake on 1 October 1987. These data were then compared with similar information collected over a 2 1/2 month period following the earthquake from randomly selected samples of subjects that had participated in the original survey. In one case, levels of preparedness of a single group were measured at approximately 2 week intervals (the repeated measures study). In a second case, this information was collected at different points in time following the earthquake from different groups of subjects (the between groups study). Results indicated an initial increase in earthquake preparedness which was significant for subjects in the repeated measures group and which approached significance for subjects in the between groups. This increase in preparedness was maintained for subjects in the repeated measure study but gradually declined to pre-earthquake levels for subjects in the between subjects study. Subjects in the repeated measures study also perceived earthquake preparedness as a significantly less difficult task following the earthquake. Level of perceived difficulty continued to decline over the 2 1/2 month study period. Declines in perceived difficulty for the between subjects study were more erratic, and were only approximately 1/3 of that for the repeated measures group at the end of 2 1/2 months.     

区域综合地质调查助力乡村振兴的关键内容、战略路径与未来对策

区域综合地质调查是助力乡村振兴的基础性工作和重要技术支撑。本研究基于地质视角解读乡村振兴,围绕乡村人地安全、产业发展、地质文化、环境保护等方面进行剖析,提出地质灾害调查、工程地质评价、水文地质调查、农业地质调查、旅游地质遗迹调查等区域综合地质调查助力乡村振兴的关键内容;为提高助力效率效果,需做好项目顶层设计、制定乡村地区区域地质调查技术要求等标准、构建服务地方工作机制、开展系统人才培训培养等战略路径。未来乡村发展中,应进一步解决区域统筹部署与重点发展村镇选择、综合地质调查与乡村规划建设空间尺度匹配、综合地质调查和纵向专业性调查配合使用、工程地质评价与乡村地下空间集约利用、地质文化村建设与乡村规划建设衔接等问题,不断提高区域综合地质调查技术方法的服务能力,为乡村可持续振兴提供解决思路和方案。     

Social vulnerability in the context of bushfire risk at the urban-bush interface in Sydney: a case study of the Blue Mountains and Ku-ring-gai local council areas

In the recent past, Australia has experienced several catastrophic hazard events and the frequency and intensity of such events is expected to increase in the future. Natural hazards can rarely be fully prevented, yet their losses can be minimized if the necessary preparedness and mitigation actions are taken before an event occurs. Identification of vulnerable groups is an important first step in any preparedness and emergency management planning process. Social vulnerability refers to population characteristics that influence the capacity of a community to prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters. Factors that contribute to social vulnerability are often hidden and difficult to capture. This study analyzes the relative levels of social vulnerability of communities at the urban?Cbush interface in the Blue Mountains and Ku-ring-gai local council areas in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. We tested whether a standardized social vulnerability index could be developed using a pre-existing set of indicators. We created an exploratory principle component analysis model using Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006 census data at the Census Collection District (CCD) level. We identified variables contributing to social vulnerability and used the component scores to develop a social vulnerability index. Finally, the social vulnerability index was mapped at the CCD level. Our results indicate that both contributors to and the level of social vulnerability differ between and within communities. In other words, they are spatially variable. They show different spatial patterns across the areas, which provides useful information for identifying communities that are most likely to experience negative disaster impacts due to their socio-demographic characteristics.     

Community readiness for a new tsunami warning system: quasi-experimental and benchmarking evaluation of a school education component

Youth preparedness for disasters is a growing area of research. However, studies to date have relied on cross-sectional, correlational research designs. The current study replicated aspects of the one other study to date that has used a quasi-experimental strategy to evaluate youth preparedness for disasters. This study evaluated whether children were more knowledgeable and prepared for hazards generally but also in more specific relation to the rollout of a new tsunami warning system. Using a pretest–posttest with benchmarking design, the study found that following a brief school education program, supplementing a larger community-wide effort, children reported significant gains in preparedness indicators including increased knowledge as well as increases in physical and psychosocial preparedness. Within group effect sizes compared favorably with those from the previous experimental study in this area used to benchmark current intervention-produced findings and produced hints that combining school education programs with larger community preparedness efforts can enhance preparedness. Given that this is only one of two experimentally-based studies in an area of research largely dominated by cross-sectional designs, future research should consider the use of experimental designs, including those that are pragmatic and fit with needs of the school. The current approach has limitations that need to be considered. However, it also has some real advantages, including being used more extensively in fieldwork studies that evaluate various types of interventions. Through increased use of experimental design strategies, researchers can then also have increased confidence that educational programs are the source of increases in disaster resilience in youth and their families.     

Which households are most distant from health centers in rural China? Evidence from a GIS network analysis

In this paper we have two objectives—one empirical; one methodological. Although China’s leaders are beginning to pay attention to health care in rural China, there are still concerns about access to health services. To examine this issue, we use measures of travel distances to health services to examine the nature of coverage in Shaanxi Province, our case study. The mean distance by road to the nearest health center is still more than 6 km. When we use thresholds for access of 5 and 10 km we find that more than 40 (15) percent of the rural population lives outside of these 5 (10) kilometer service areas for health centers. The nature of the access differs by geographical region and demographic composition of the household. The methodological contribution of our paper originates from a key feature of our analysis in which we use Geographic Information System (GIS) network analysis methods to measure traveling distance along the road network. We compare these measures to straight-line distance measures. Road distances (produced by network analysis) produce measures (using means) that are nearly twice as great as straight-line distances. Moreover, the errors in the measures (that is, the difference between road distances and straight-line distances) are not random. Therefore, traditional econometric methods of ameliorating the effects of measurement errors, such as instrument variables regression, will not produce consistent results when used with straight-line distances.     

Hot spots of wetland vegetation reduction in relation to human accessibility: differentiating human impacts on natural ecosystems at multiple scales

Human activities have profoundly influenced natural ecosystems, especially wetlands. This study attempted to differentiate the impact of human activities on reductions in wetland vegetation in the Lixiahe wetlands, China, at multiple spatial scales. The reduction in wetland vegetation from 1988 to 2006 was quantified using Landsat data, and moving window analysis was used to detect hot spots of vegetation reduction in the wetlands at window sizes of 150, 1,000 and 2,500 m. Logistic regression was used to examine the influence on occurrence of the hot spots of landscape variables representing accessibility to human settlements and roads. Over the study period, wetland vegetation declined by 69%, which was largely attributable to aquaculture development. The hot spots of wetland vegetation reduction exhibited increasing patch size, but decreasing patch number with increasing window size. The occurrence probability of the hot spots rose significantly with increasing proximity to rural settlements and secondary roads, with only a minor response to the presence of towns. With increasing window size, however, the density of secondary roads and rural settlements were less influential, whereas the presence of major roads had more influence on hot spot occurrence. These trends are reasonable in that wetland use activities in the study area are directly associated with the settlements and roads in the rural areas at local scales, but are also indirectly associated with the major transportation network from a regional perspective. Overall, these results suggested that different human activities, as distinguished by their sources on the landscape, could have different environmental consequences at different scales for scale-dependent features.     

Disaster preparedness of local governments in Panay Island,Philippines

Disaster preparedness plans reduce future damages, but may lack testing to assess their effectiveness in operation. This study used the state-designed Local Government Unit Disaster Preparedness Journal: Checklist of Minimum Actions for Mayors in assessing the readiness to natural hazards of 92 profiled municipalities in central Philippines inhabited by 2.4 million people. Anchored on the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005–2015, it assessed their preparedness in 4 criteria—systems and structures, policies and plans, building competencies, and equipment and supplies. Data were analyzed using statistical package for social sciences, frequency count, percentage, and weighted mean. The local governments were found highly vulnerable to tropical cyclone and flood while vulnerable to earthquake, drought, and landslide. They were partially prepared regardless of profile, but the coastal, middle-earning, most populated, having the least number of villages, and middle-sized had higher levels of preparedness. Those highly vulnerable to earthquake and forest fire were prepared, yet only partially prepared to flood, storm surge, drought, tropical cyclone, tornado, tsunami and landslide. The diverse attitude of stakeholders, insufficient manpower, and poor database management were the major problems encountered in executing countermeasures. Appointing full-time disaster managers, developing a disaster information management system, massive information drive, organizing village-based volunteers, integrating disaster management into formal education, and mandatory trainings for officials, preparing for a possible major volcanic eruption and crafting a comprehensive plan against emerging emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic may lead to a 360° preparedness.

     

Satellite-based assessment of hailstorm-affected potato crop for insurance purpose

Natural Hazards - This paper aims to identify indicators of community preparedness for disasters and apply these indicators to a critical case study context, namely the local communities in two...     

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.     

A global model or a scaled-down version?: geographies of convergence and divergence in the Australian retail banking sector

Via the spread of financial liberalisation and deregulation across advanced industrialised societies over the past two decades, national banking sectors have come under increased competitive pressure. In Australia, this pressure has manifested itself in two main forms: an almost self-imposed nervousness over the growing scale and rapidity of bank mergers occurring at an international level; and the growth of new cut-price competitors in the domestic retail market. There is now growing evidence of convergence between national banking sectors in key areas. This paper employs four criteria to examine the degree of convergence between the Australian retail banking sector and its international counterparts: centralisation of services and operations; application of the `user pays' philosophy to services; a `flight to quality' in lending and service provision; and industrial relations practices. While considerable similarities can be found between the Australian retail banking sector and its international comparators at the macro-level of analysis, there is also substantial diversity evident at regional and local scales as new public- and private-sector agencies and institutions seek to meet the financial needs of those individuals and communities effectively disenfranchised from the banking system via the major banks' `world's best practice' management strategies. The paper argues that a critical and reflexive concept of scale is imperative in apprehending the increasingly complex ways in which financial service provision is being reconfigured by the strategies of reaction and resistance employed by financial consumers, urban and rural local governments, national and state media, financial consumer agencies and State and Federal Governments.     

Rural diversification in the Baltic countryside: a local perspective

Today “rural diversification” is high on the agenda in rural development. This article analyses rural diversification under conditions of post-socialist economic transition using case areas in Latvia and Estonia. The study shows that transition from centrally planned economy to market economy has had an enormous impact in the rural areas. Agricultural production and employment has decreased dramatically and rural unemployment is high. The conditions for rural diversification the first years after independence depended a lot on the local presence of non-farm activities before the split up of collective farming, in both production facilities but also in the skills and relations people had. Since independence, markets for traditional rural services and products have decreased. The extent to which local businesses find markets outside the local area and people have been able to integrate into the new labour market of service and construction jobs often in urban areas are essential for the diversification of the rural economy. Most rural inhabitants only have skills in large-scale agriculture and limited contacts to outside the local area which makes exploiting new opportunities difficult. The local capacity for withholding, developing and inducing new activities is weak. The challenge for rural development policy is to extend the possibilities of the rural inhabitants to exploit new opportunities.     

Predicting community earthquake preparedness: a cross-cultural comparison of Japan and New Zealand

This paper reports on a study investigating cross-cultural equivalence in predictors of earthquake preparedness. Data were collected from Napier (New Zealand) and Kyoto (Japan). These locations were selected because they face comparable levels of seismic risk but differ with respect to their cultural characteristics. This mix of hazard similarity and cultural differences provided an opportunity to assess the degree of cross-cultural equivalence in predictors of earthquake preparedness. Cross-cultural equivalence was examined by assessing the degree to which individual hazard beliefs (outcome expectancies) and social characteristics (community participation, collective efficacy, empowerment, trust) could explain levels of hazard preparedness in each location. Structural equation modelling analyses revealed similarity in the pattern of relationships between predictor variables and intention prepare in the Napier and Kyoto data. It is argued that this provides support for the existence of some universal, cross-cultural equivalence in how hazard beliefs and social characteristics interact to predict the degree to which people adopt earthquake preparedness measures. Differences between the data sets are discussed in the context of the fundamental cultural differences between Japan and New Zealand. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Social and environmental regulation in rural China: bringing the changing role of local government into focus

China’s rapid economic growth following the 1978 reforms has resulted in significant economic, social and environmental change. These reforms and their outcomes have been subjected to considerable scrutiny. However, relatively little research has been directed towards the relationship between the changing role of local government, which has itself been subject to substantial restructuring, and the local mediation of the social and environmental impacts of rapid economic growth. This paper investigates the local manifestation of social and environmental change in Zhejiang Province. In particular, it considers the changing role of local government in the regulatory process, and features a case study of Huzhou Municipality. A synthesis of the factual knowledge and perceptions of 48 key-informants from government and public institutions and rural industries is used as the platform for an analysis of the changing nature of local regulation with respect to the provision of key public services (health care and education) and environmental protection (water pollution control). The results reveal the ability of local government to selectively implement national and provincial policies in light of local priorities, which is taken as indicative of the emergence of local agency within local development processes. The case study suggests a need to re-evaluate conventional wisdom on the absence of autonomy at local levels of government in China, particularly as it relates to the continued devolution of administrative responsibility and the emergence of increasingly powerful economic interests.