Resilience in the Caribbean - Natural Hazards Exposure Assessment and Areas for Future Work

10.1596/36408 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.E. Schweikert ◽  
G.L. L'her ◽  
L.G. Nield ◽  
S.W. Kerber ◽  
R.R. Flanagan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Exposure Assessment ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Future Work

scholarly journals Les catastrophes naturelles dans les romans caribéens d’expression française

Il Tolomeo ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessia Vignoli
Keyword(s):  
Native Americans ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Caribbean Literature ◽  
Common Origin ◽  
Caribbean Region ◽  
Common Features ◽  
African Slaves ◽  
European Colonization ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Caribbean

The notion of ‘disaster’ pervades the Caribbean thought. The common origin of the Caribbean region, the European colonization, caused two disasters: the extermination of Native Americans and the deportation of African slaves. The union between nature and the oppressed people against the oppressor resulted in the creation of an environmental conscience that the Caribbean literature has often expressed. This essay will investigate the common points shared by some Haitian, Martinican and Guadeloupean authors in the writing of natural hazards. It will show that, despite the diversity that marks the Caribbean, there is a repetition of common features that proves its geopoetic unity.

Natural Hazards Governance Practices and Key Natural Hazards in Latin America and the Caribbean

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivis García
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Volcanic Eruptions ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Governance Practices ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The Caribbean

Along with sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean is among the geographic regions most exposed and vulnerable to the occurrence of disasters. The vulnerability is explained by geography and climate, but also by prevailing poverty and inequality. Year after year, multiple disasters such as landslides, hurricanes, floods, rains, droughts, storms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis, among others, threaten the region. Natural disasters reveal the deficiencies of infrastructure and essential services. In particular, they highlight the lack of an institutional framework for effective governance with clearly defined goals of how to prevent, respond to, and reconstruct after a natural catastrophe. One of the priorities of governments in the region is to achieve resilience—that is, to strengthen the capacity to resist, adapt, and recover from the effects of natural disasters. To be able to accomplish this, governments need to prepare before a natural disaster strikes. Therefore, disaster risk management is critical. A fundamental element in the strategy of increasing resilience is good planning in general—that is, to reduce inequality, manage urbanization, and invest in necessary infrastructure such as energy, sewage, and water management. Because climate change increases the risk of disasters, it is generally understood that good governance practices can prevent further global warming. Governments might achieve this, for example, by investing in renewable energy and financing other environmentally friendly initiatives. Unfortunately, most current governance models in Latin America and the Caribbean are characterized by bureaucratic structures that are fragmented into different sectors and whose actors do not have much interaction between them. With technical assistance from organizations, such as the World Bank and the United Nations, stakeholders in Latin America and the Caribbean are learning how to develop plans that encourage the collaboration of multiple sectors (e.g., transportation, housing) and improve the working relationships between various institutions (e.g. local associations, NGOs, private and public organizations). To be adequately prepared for a disaster, it is necessary to establish a network of actors that can engage quickly in decision-making and coordinate effectively between local, regional, and national levels.

scholarly journals “I Will Show You My Faith by My Works”: Addressing the Nexus between Philosophical Theodicy and Human Suffering and Loss in Contexts of ‘Natural’ Disaster

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 213
Author(s):  
Roger Philip Abbott
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Natural Disaster ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Human Suffering ◽  
Middle Ground ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Catastrophic Earthquake ◽  
The Caribbean

As a practical theologian and researcher in the field of ‘natural’ disasters, as well as being a disaster responder chaplain, I am often confronted by, and have to confront, the nexus between theology/philosophy and “real life” in extremely traumatic contexts. The extreme suffering that is often the consequence of catastrophic natural disasters warrants solutions that can help vulnerable populations recover and adapt to live safely with natural hazards. For many practice-based responders, speculative theological/philosophical reflections around situations that are often human-caused seem predominantly vacuous exercises, potentially diverting attention away from the empiricism of causal human agency. In this article, I explore a middle ground involving a nuanced methodological approach to theodicy that is practical but no less intellectually demanding, that is theological more than philosophical, practical more than theoretical; a middle ground that also takes seriously the human culpability as causal for the human, and some would say the divine, suffering from disasters. I will include in this exploration my ethnographic fieldwork following the catastrophic earthquake to hit the Caribbean nation of Haiti in 2010.

scholarly journals The WorldRiskIndex 2016: Reveals the Necessity for Regional Cooperation in Vulnerability Reduction

2016 ◽  
Vol 03 (02) ◽  
pp. 1650005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joern Birkmann ◽  
Torsten Welle
Keyword(s):  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Extreme Events ◽  
Regional Cooperation ◽  
National Level ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Brunei Darussalam ◽  
Key Drivers ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Sub Saharan

Extreme events do not necessarily trigger extreme impacts. Exposure and vulnerability levels often decide whether hazards and extreme events lead to disasters or severe suffering or not. Measuring and assessing different levels of exposure, vulnerability and risk is therefore crucial in order to inform decision making and to provide guidance for defining priorities for risk reduction and adaptation. The WorldRiskIndex (WRI) is an approach to assess global exposure, vulnerability and risk patterns based on national scale resolution data. The new results of the WRI 2016 underscore that risk of natural hazards and climate change is particularly high in Oceania, Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean as well as Central America. The assessment for 171 countries reveals important improvements in some countries, such as Namibia, however, in other countries such as Brunei, Darussalam and Serbia risk has increased, particularly due to higher susceptibility and lower coping and adaptive capacities to deal with extreme events and natural hazards. The analysis of global patterns of risk shows that not only the physical exposure to extreme events or natural phenomena but also the societal context conditions in countries like Vanuatu, Niger, Haiti and Afghanistan are key drivers of risk and therefore efforts for risk reduction and adaptation at the local and national level need to also address aspects such as poverty and corruption. The persistence of high risk in various countries in Africa and Oceania also suggests that it is likely that these countries might not be able to effectively reduce risks solely on their own but rather need regional approaches and institutions for risk reduction and adaptation.

scholarly journals Coat of many colours—DNA reveals polymorphism of mantle patterns and colouration in CaribbeanCyphomaRöding, 1798 (Gastropoda, Ovulidae)

PeerJ ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. e3018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bastian T. Reijnen ◽  
Sancia E.T. van der Meij
Keyword(s):  
Model Organism ◽  
Incipient Speciation ◽  
Defence Mechanisms ◽  
Balanced Polymorphism ◽  
Reef Degradation ◽  
Rapid Divergence ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Morphological Differences ◽  
Physical Defence ◽  
Future Work

The iconic gastropod genusCyphomais commonly observed in the Caribbean, where it lives in association with various octocorallian hosts. Each species in the genusCyphomahas a unique, characteristic mantle pattern and colouration, which separates the valid taxa. Because of its abundance and recognisabilityCyphoma gibbosumhas been used as a model organism in several studies concerning allelochemicals, reef degradation, and physical defence mechanisms. Molecular analyses based on four molecular markers (COI, 16S, H3 and 28S) for threeCyphomaspecies (C. gibbosum,C. mcgintyi,C. signatum) and an unidentified black morph, collected from three localities in the Caribbean, show that they represent morphological varieties of a single, genetically homogeneous species. This outcome is in agreement with previous anatomical studies. As a resultC. mcgintyiandC. signatumare synonymised withC. gibbosum, which is a key result for future work usingC. gibbosumas a model organism. The striking morphological differences in mantle pattern and colouration are hypothesised to be the result of one of three possible scenarios: rapid divergence, supergenes (including balanced polymorphism), or incipient speciation.

The Caribbean Strong Summit: Building Resilience With Equity

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-157
Author(s):  
Leslie Maas Cortés ◽  
Melanie Z. Rodriguez-Rivera ◽  
James J. James ◽  
José F Cordero
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Disaster Preparedness ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Caribbean Region ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Resilient Communities ◽  
Response And Recovery ◽  
Complete Set ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Future Work

ABSTRACTThe objective of the Caribbean Strong Summit was to plan an intersectoral summit to address the equity of community health and resilience for disaster preparedness, response and recovery and develop a set of integrated and actionable recommendations for Puerto Rico and the Caribbean Region post Hurricanes Irma and Maria. A three-day meeting was convened with a wide range of community, organizational and private sector leaders along with representatives from Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, the Americas, and global experts to generate recommendations for enhanced resilience based upon lessons learned and evidence-based approaches. More than 500 participants from the region gave 104 presentations with recommendations for resilience. Over 150 recommendations were generated and ranked for importance and actionability by participants. A representative sample of these are presented along with five major themes for building health resilient communities in the Caribbean. This summit was successful in compiling a set of integrated recommendations from more than 19 diverse sectors and in defining five major thematic areas for future work to enhance resilience for all types of future disasters. A follow-up meeting should be planned to continue this discussion and to showcase work that has been accomplished in these areas. A complete set of the recommendations from the Caribbean Strong Summit and their analysis and compilation would be published and should serve as a foundational effort to enhance preparedness and resiliency towards future disasters in the Caribbean.

Present status of radio astrometry with baselines ≤ 35 km

1978 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 175-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. J. Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Present Status ◽  
Future Work

A summary of results for radio astrometry with baselines ≤ 35 km and priorities for future work are given.

Measuring “Language Access Profiles” in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children With the DHH Language Exposure Assessment Tool

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Matthew L. Hall ◽  
Stephanie De Anda
Keyword(s):  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
Exposure Assessment ◽  
Hard Of Hearing ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Communication Mode ◽  
Developmental Potential ◽  
Language Access ◽  
Retest Reliability ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
Test Retest Reliability

Purpose The purposes of this study were (a) to introduce “language access profiles” as a viable alternative construct to “communication mode” for describing experience with language input during early childhood for deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children; (b) to describe the development of a new tool for measuring DHH children's language access profiles during infancy and toddlerhood; and (c) to evaluate the novelty, reliability, and validity of this tool. Method We adapted an existing retrospective parent report measure of early language experience (the Language Exposure Assessment Tool) to make it suitable for use with DHH populations. We administered the adapted instrument (DHH Language Exposure Assessment Tool [D-LEAT]) to the caregivers of 105 DHH children aged 12 years and younger. To measure convergent validity, we also administered another novel instrument: the Language Access Profile Tool. To measure test–retest reliability, half of the participants were interviewed again after 1 month. We identified groups of children with similar language access profiles by using hierarchical cluster analysis. Results The D-LEAT revealed DHH children's diverse experiences with access to language during infancy and toddlerhood. Cluster analysis groupings were markedly different from those derived from more traditional grouping rules (e.g., communication modes). Test–retest reliability was good, especially for the same-interviewer condition. Content, convergent, and face validity were strong. Conclusions To optimize DHH children's developmental potential, stakeholders who work at the individual and population levels would benefit from replacing communication mode with language access profiles. The D-LEAT is the first tool that aims to measure this novel construct. Despite limitations that future work aims to address, the present results demonstrate that the D-LEAT represents progress over the status quo.

A Phonomotor Approach to Apraxia of Speech Treatment

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 2109-2130
Author(s):  
Lauren Bislick
Keyword(s):  
Phase I ◽  
Treatment Effects ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Motor Planning ◽  
The Other ◽  
Multimodal Approach ◽  
Apraxia Of Speech ◽  
Duration Of Treatment ◽  
Treatment Gains ◽  
Future Work

Purpose This study continued Phase I investigation of a modified Phonomotor Treatment (PMT) Program on motor planning in two individuals with apraxia of speech (AOS) and aphasia and, with support from prior work, refined Phase I methodology for treatment intensity and duration, a measure of communicative participation, and the use of effect size benchmarks specific to AOS. Method A single-case experimental design with multiple baselines across behaviors and participants was used to examine acquisition, generalization, and maintenance of treatment effects 8–10 weeks posttreatment. Treatment was distributed 3 days a week, and duration of treatment was specific to each participant (criterion based). Experimental stimuli consisted of target sounds or clusters embedded nonwords and real words, specific to each participants' deficit. Results Findings show improved repetition accuracy for targets in trained nonwords, generalization to targets in untrained nonwords and real words, and maintenance of treatment effects at 10 weeks posttreatment for one participant and more variable outcomes for the other participant. Conclusions Results indicate that a modified version of PMT can promote generalization and maintenance of treatment gains for trained speech targets via a multimodal approach emphasizing repeated exposure and practice. While these results are promising, the frequent co-occurrence of AOS and aphasia warrants a treatment that addresses both motor planning and linguistic deficits. Thus, the application of traditional PMT with participant-specific modifications for AOS embedded into the treatment program may be a more effective approach. Future work will continue to examine and maximize improvements in motor planning, while also treating anomia in aphasia.

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