The role of social norms in climate adaptation: Mediating risk perception and flood insurance purchase

Flood insurance plays an important role in climate adaptation by recovering insured losses in the event of catastrophic flooding. Voluntary adoption of flood insurance has been seen as a function of risk perception that is shaped by social norms. This paper attempts to clarify the relationship between these factors. It is based on a household survey conducted in the eastern cities of Australia and involving a total of 501 randomly selected residents. Results of a path analysis show that the likelihood of having flood insurance cover was associated with perceived social norms, but not perceived flood risk. In addition, perceived norms and risk were statistically related to each other. It is concluded that social norms played a mediating role between insuring decision and risk perception. Risk perception might influence the insuring decision indirectly through shaping perception of social norms. This implies that adaptive behaviour is not necessarily a function of risk perception, but an outcome of its impacts upon the ways in which the individuals situate themselves in their social circles or the society. There is a feedback process in which individual perceptions of risk manifest as both a cause and effect, shaping and being shaped by the socio-cultural context.     

福建东山岛地质灾害特征与成因初探

海岛是海上陆地国土和人类开发海洋的远涉基地及前进支点。海岛大幅度地快速增长的开发活动与工程建设使脆弱的海岛生态环境正遭受到严重威胁。东山岛是福建第二大岛,近10年随着水产养殖与育苗、风电建设、环岛公路和房地产开发等海岛利用和开发强度的加大,海岛地质灾害及潜在风险陡增。基于现场调查和遥感影像解译,分析东山岛赋存的地质灾害类型及其分布,初步探究了主要地质灾害的诱因,为更有效地保护和可持续性开发东山岛,制定合理长效规划、防灾与减灾对策提供准确依据,并为福建及周边基岩岛的地质灾害调查与防治提供实测数据参考。     

Oil migration driven by exhumation of the Canol Formation oil shale: A new conceptual model for the Norman Wells oil field,northwestern Canada

Thermal history, petroleum system, structural, and tectonic constraints are reviewed and integrated in order to derive a new conceptual model for the Norman Wells oil field, and a new play type for tectonically active foreland regions. The thermal history recorded by Devonian rocks suggests that source rocks experienced peak thermal conditions in the Triassic–Jurassic, during which time oil was likely generated. After initial oil generation and expulsion, the Canol Formation oil shale retained a certain fraction of hydrocarbons. The shallow reservoir (650–350 m) is a Devonian carbonate bank overlain by the Canol Formation and resides within a hanging wall block of the Norman Range thrust fault. Both reservoir and source rocks are naturally fractured and have produced high API non-biodegraded oil. Thrust faults in the region formed after the Paleocene, and a structural cross-section of the field shows that the source and reservoir rocks at Norman Wells have been exhumed by over 1 km since then.The key proposition of the exhumation model is that as Canol Formation rocks underwent thrust-driven exhumation, they crossed a ductile–brittle transition zone and dip-oriented fractures formed sympathetic to the thrust fault. The combination of pore overpressure and new dip-directed subvertical fractures liberated oil from the Canol Formation and allowed for up-dip oil migration. Reservoir rocks were similarly fractured and improved permeability enhanced charging and pooling of oil. GPS and seismicity data indicate that strain transfer across the northern Cordillera is a response to accretion of the Yakutat terrane along the northern Pacific margin of North America, which is also the probable driving force for foreland shortening and rock exhumation at Norman Wells.     

曹县梁堤头地区第四系地裂缝成因及防治

鲁豫交界的曹县黄河故道地区,地势较高的自然堤堤缘区是地裂缝等地质灾害的高发区。地裂缝主要由地表厚粘土层干湿胀缩产生,有一定的隐蔽性,并受地形和大气影响。地下水动态变化对地裂缝影响不大。地表裂隙张力的直接作用、建筑物的非均质土地基不均匀沉陷等因素的存在共同导致了该区民房开裂。可以采取加固地基和搬迁避让等方法进行防治。     

汶川5.12大地震地表次生灾害评价与分析

针对汶川5.12大地震,对由地震引起的地质次生灾害发生的坡度和坡向进行了统计,分析了地表破坏的易发坡度、坡向及其与震中的关系等。另外,分别以不同震中距为缓冲区、以平行中央断裂带的各级缓冲区、以等烈度区为缓冲区对地震引起的地表破坏的空间分布以及发生地表破坏的坡度在各级缓冲区中的变化进行了分析。结果表明:①地震引发的滑坡及滑坡群共5093个,总面积大约958km2;②在30°～44°坡度区间地表破坏发生的数量最大,42°坡度为地表破坏发生概率的拐点。主要的地表破坏发生在迎着地震波传播的坡向上;③随着震中距的增加,地表破坏的发生概率逐渐减小,震中距40km以内的速度减小非常迅速,40km以外则整体上缓慢减少,局部略有起伏。各缓冲区中发生地表破坏的平均坡度比缓冲区内的地形平均坡度大4°左右。④地震引发的地表破坏主要受到断裂带的控制,有64.17%的地表破坏发生在中央断裂带两侧10km范围内。⑤高地震烈度区域引发的地表破坏率远远大于低烈度区域,在烈度为Ⅺ度的区域内发生地表破坏率达到14.5%,而Ⅶ度烈度带上引发地表破坏率仅为0.01%。     

Natural disasters as the end of the insurance industry? Scalar competitive strategies, Alternative Risk Transfers, and the economic crisis

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has piqued interest in the insurance industry, and this scrutiny has led to assumptions that the industry has become unstable and unprofitable with the increased incidence of disasters in highly-insured regions of the world. This paper challenges that assumption by arguing that the insurance industry has responded by spreading risk through scaled and networked recovery schemes. We found that because of competitive strategies of risk-spreading and displacement arrangements, the industry has actually profited as a whole. Regional insurance companies have always relied on the higher financial scales of the reinsurance industry in Munich, Zurich, and London. But with claims reaching into the billions of dollars, the reinsurance industry itself has raised premiums, spread risk farther afield, and jumped scale by spreading risk to futures markets called Alternative Risk Transfers (ARTs). However, the recession beginning in 2008 has called into question the viability of using futures markets as insurance. It is shown through a media analysis of four major business publications (The Economist, The New York Times, The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal) how the industry responded to the costs of the 2004, 2005, and 2006 hurricane seasons. Because geography is rather new to this literature, this paper also offers a broad review of the insurance industry.     

Paper trails: The Outdoor Recreation Resource Review Commission and the rationalization of recreational resources

This article examines the history of the Outdoor Recreation Resource Review Commission (ORRRC) in the United States between 1955 and 1963 and efforts to make recreational resources legible for federal governance. By drawing on insights from Critical Resource Geography, I highlight the ways that the ORRRC systematically accounted for and categorized recreational resources, creating a “patchwork landscape” that zoned outdoor recreational resources and promoted efficient use and rational resource conservation. I argue that these efforts required a negotiation between abstraction and an awareness of the situated nature of recreational landscapes.     

西昌市地质灾害发育分布规律及防灾建议

西昌市地处川西的安宁河流域,区内地质条环境件复杂,生态环境脆弱,泥石流、滑坡等地质灾害发育,给当地居民生命财产安全及经济发展带来了较大影响。本文通过对西昌市目前发育的153处不同类型的地质灾害进行统计,总结了地质灾害在流域、高程、时段等方面的分布规律;对影响或控制西昌市地质灾害发育的地形地貌、构造、岩土体结构、地震、降雨及人类工程活动等因素进行了分析、总结;并针对西昌市的地质灾害类型及发育分布特征提出了适用于该地区的科学、合理的地质灾害防灾建议。     

云南东川新山含金剪切带型金矿

新山金矿属构造剪切带控制的典型金矿床,产于中元古界昆阳群美党组(Pt2m)中部变质石英砂板岩中。规模大、品位富、易采易选。矿区构造——含金剪切带与土壤地球化学金异常,是寻找该类金矿的重要标志。     

雅鲁藏布江大拐弯北段区域工程地质及其对地质灾害发育的影响

川藏公路然乌-鲁朗段位于雅鲁藏布江大拐弯北部,是地质灾害频发的地区,而地质灾害的发生受当地的地质、气候、水文、人类活动等多种因素的影响,其中地质条件是控制因素。研究区位于东喜马拉雅构造结北缘,是地质构造活动最强烈的地区。在地质构造上,东喜马拉雅构造结属于冈底斯、雅鲁藏布和喜马拉雅三个构造单元。区内构造的形成经历了3个时期7个阶段。川藏公路然乌-鲁朗段的地层属于冈底斯-念青唐古拉区中的拉萨-波密分区,第四纪冰碛发育。由于强烈的地质构造活动,区内断层、褶皱等构造发育,许多断裂仍在活动,尤其是嘉黎断裂。由于地质灾害的形成需要一定的条件,并受地质条件控制,因此区内地质灾害的分布具有明显的空间特征。