Livelihoods, precarity, and disaster vulnerability: Nicaragua and Hurricane Mitch

Disasters ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 727-751 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Loebach
Keyword(s):  
Hurricane Mitch ◽  
Disaster Vulnerability

Legislation as Vulnerability Factor

2006 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-89
Author(s):  
Jorge Gavidia ◽  
Annalisa Crivellari
Keyword(s):  
Dominican Republic ◽  
Central America ◽  
Disaster Management ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Hurricane Mitch ◽  
Normative Framework ◽  
The Many ◽  
Civil Defence ◽  
Interconnected Structure ◽  
Made In

A study conducted in Central America in 2003 shows that in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch noticeable progress was made in introducing new legislation for disaster management, understood as covering the whole cycle from prevention, preparedness and relief, to reconstruction. The new legislation includes civil defence or disaster management laws and regulations to improve their effectiveness in responding to the threat of natural disasters. A similar situation can be observed in other countries like Cuba and the Dominican Republic. The study looks into existing urban and municipal laws, regulations and planning guidelines to assess the extent to which they respond to vulnerability reduction criteria. This paper focuses on aspects of prevention and risk reduction. An attempt was made to look into the complementarities and gaps between the two sets of regulations for disaster management and for municipal/urban management. It is found that despite the many elements of good practice included in them, the links between these instruments are weak or absent on issues ranging from planning to the actual supervision of interventions on the built environment. Thus, the main elements of the edifice were there, but they did not constitute a solid, interconnected, structure, therefore, bound to fail under the loads imposed by rapid urbanisation, speculation, emergencies and weak governance structures. Institutions are often left to fend themselves in discharging their tasks. Without a coherent normative framework, and the capacity to apply it, their work is primarily driven by institutional initiative, leading to problems of underperformance, overlaps, gaps, and non-constructive competition. Thus, the institutional setup and normative framework become important factors in increasing vulnerability, as real as a building with the wrong foundations. The article reviews the mentioned aspects drawing from the experience in Central America, Cuba and Dominican Republic.

Multidimensional research on agrometeorological disasters based on grey BP neural network

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bingjun Li ◽  
Shuhua Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Natural Disaster ◽  
Bp Neural Network ◽  
Henan Province ◽  
Assessment System ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Analysis And Evaluation ◽  
Grain Crops ◽  
Disaster Vulnerability

PurposeThe purpose of this study to provide a reference basis for effectively managing the risk of agrometeorological disasters in Henan Province, speeding up the establishment of a scientific and reasonable system of agrometeorological disasters prevention and reduction and guaranteeing grain security.Design/methodology/approachFirstly, according to the statistical data of areas covered by natural disaster, areas affected by natural disaster, sown area of grain crops and output of grain crops from 1979 to 2018 in Henan Province, China. We have constructed an agrometeorological disaster risk assessment system for Henan province, China, which is composed of indicators such as rate covered by natural disaster, rate affected by natural disaster, disaster coefficient of variation and disaster vulnerability. The variation characteristics of agrometeorological disasters in Henan Province and their effects on agricultural production are analyzed. Secondly, the grey relational analysis method is used to analyze the relation degree between the main agrometeorological disaster factors and the output of grain crops of Henan Province. Based on the grey BP neural network, the rate covered by various natural disaster and the rate affected by various natural disaster are simulated and predicted.FindingsThe results show that: (1) the freeze injury in the study period has a greater contingency, the intensity of the disaster is also greater, followed by floods. Droughts, windstorm and hail are Henan Province normal disasters. (2) According to the degree of disaster vulnerability, the ability to resist agricultural disasters in Henan Province is weak. (3) During the study period, drought and flood are the key agrometeorological disasters affecting the grain output of Henan Province, China.Practical implicationsThe systematic analysis and evaluation of agrometeorological disasters are conducive to the sustainable development of agriculture, and at the same time, it can provide appropriate and effective measures for the assessment and reduction of economic losses and risks.Originality/valueBy calculating and analyzing the rate covered by natural disaster, the rate affected by natural disaster, disaster coefficient of variation and disaster vulnerability of crops in Henan Province of China and using grey BP neural network simulation projections for the rate covered by various natural disaster and the rate affected by various natural disaster, the risk assessment system of agrometeorological disasters in Henan is constructed, which provides a scientific basis for systematic analysis and evaluation of agrometeorological disasters.

scholarly journals Digital inventory of landslides and related deposits in Honduras triggered by Hurricane Mitch

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwin L. Harp ◽  
Kirk W. Hagaman ◽  
Matthew D. Held ◽  
Jonathan P. McKenna
Keyword(s):  
Hurricane Mitch

scholarly journals Spatial distribution of slums and its association with disaster vulnerability in Yogyakarta City

2020 ◽  
Vol 200 ◽  
pp. 03011
Author(s):  
Djaka Marwasta ◽  
Theresia D. K. Rahayu
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
Gis Mapping ◽  
Population Census ◽  
Disaster Vulnerability ◽  
Data Survey ◽  
Quantitative Descriptive ◽  
Yogyakarta City

Slums commonly distributed in susceptible environment or in location that occupied by low economic household, especially in urban areas. Empirically, in Indonesia, the data about distribution and total area of slums is quite hard to be acquired, since slums indicators is not standardized yet. This study aimed to (1) identify the distribution of slums in Yogyakarta City, based on multi-sources data; and (2) elaborate the linkage between slums location and disaster vulnerability in research area. This research uses a mixed methods, i.e utilization of secondary data, survey method, and GIS mapping. Analysis units of this research are “Kelurahan”, where all “Kelurahan” which have slums are chosen as members of population (census technique). Indepth interview conducted in order to collect disaster vulnerability data in each “Kelurahan”. Informant that chosen as representative person in each “Kelurahan” are “Lurah” or “Secretary of Lurah”. All of the data are analyzed by qualitative and quantitative descriptive method. Conclusion of this study are: (1) Slums in Yogyakarta City distributed mainly along three main rivers, and (2) There are very closed association between slums area and disaster vulnerable zones.

scholarly journals Quantitative Vulnerability Assessment: An Approach to Reduce Biases in Disaster Vulnerability Assessment

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 383-399
Author(s):  
Shikha Karmokar ◽  
Md. Mintu Mohin ◽  
Molla Karimul Islam ◽  
Md. Rezaul Alam ◽  
Mohammad Mahfuzur Rahman
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Vulnerability Assessment ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Disaster Vulnerability ◽  
Quantitative Form ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
Agreed Framework ◽  
Vulnerability Score

The cyclone vulnerability of women is much higher than men due to their poverty, social norms and marginal position in the social structure. Reducing women’s vulnerability is, therefore, imperative to improve the situation. However, the present practices of vulnerability assessment have several limitations. As an alternative, this study proposed and tested a weighted framework to assess the vulnerability in a quantitative form. The proposed framework considers 18 indicators carefully adapted from vulnerability literature. The indicator statuses were defined based on their vulnerability potentials and assigned an integer value. The higher the status value the greater the vulnerability potentials. The indicator’s status values were standardized, and their weights were estimated. The vulnerability scores for every indicator thereafter estimated by multiplying its status value by its weight. Finally, an individual’s vulnerability score was calculated by taking the average vulnerability scores of all the indicators. The framework was tested on 140 randomly selected cyclone-affected women from ten coastal villages of Bangladesh. The proposed scores-based vulnerability expresses the vulnerability status with an integer value easier to understand and allows spatial comparability. This framework could be improved further preferably through stakeholder consultations about the appropriateness of the indicators, indicator statuses, and their weights. An improved and well-agreed framework would assist in integrative policy formulation to reduce women’s vulnerability to cyclone disaster. Moreover, this approach could be adopted in vulnerability ranking/mapping for other disasters.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document