Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Adaptive and integrated disaster resilience'

Severe recovery deficits after post-disaster interventions have become the landscape seen globally. Humanitarian operations have struggled to find coherence between relief and recovery activities, which has resulted in a perceived operational gap between relief, recovery and development. This current dynamic has caused significant deficiencies within humanitarian programming, such as weak strategy, a lack of transition mechanisms, exit plans and effective recovery. A situation that stems from the current paradigm the humanitarian system operates under and the framework that has evolved around it. Supporting the development of adaptive resilience of a disaster-affected population, within the humanitarian sphere, has been theoretically posed to be fundamental for recovery; a programmatic consideration that could ensure former weak resilience would not hinder post-disaster recovery. Therefore, could a resilience building approach offer much needed solutions to the challenge of recovery within post-disaster contexts? This research aimed to understand whether resilience building within post-disaster environments could increase potential recovery of disaster affected populations and whether it is feasible to build individual/household (HH) level resilience through emergency response operations? The research looked specifically at adaptive resilience at the individual/HH level, clarifying the concept and understanding its modality in order to operationalise it within humanitarian programming. The common barriers to recovery experienced by individuals/HH in a crisis event were gauged, and the relationship between adaptive resilience and recovery determined. A unique singular case study was used to collect quantitative and qualitative data required to answer the key objectives of this research. The case study chosen was the 2010 Haiti earthquake response. Primary data was collected over a 7 months period through 37 semi-structured interviews and 31 online questionnaires with donors, government, INGOs, LNGOs and the private sector, that were operating within the Haiti response, and 18 disaster affected community members within a community discussion forum. Bringing a total participation of 86 individuals and organisations. An in-depth case study was developed in order to offer an evidence base for the proposed theory, that supporting adaptive resilience through emergency response programming has the ability to stimulate recovery. A new data collection tool was trialed within the community discussion forum, namely the Sociogram. This tool looked to assess the main components of adaptive resilience. Methodological rigour was introduced through the use of methodological and data triangulation to ensure validity and reliability of the research. The research successfully identified the main barriers to recovery, pinpointed the key components for adaptive resilience and the influence of emergency programming on the development of adaptive resilience, establishing the relationship between them. The role emergency response operations can play in the development of adaptive resilience was then explored. It has been demonstrated that to ensure recovery and allow for a more resilient society to evolve, adaptive resilience needs to be and can be supported and developed within emergency response operations. The research has been able to demonstrate, through the analysis of the Shelter and WASH response undertaken in Haiti, that developing resilience in the post-disaster environment is possible and an approach that is able to improve strategy within emergency response operations. Improvements would be seen in the provision of essential services within the response, a substantial increase in transitional and exit options and an increased capacity to proactively stimulate rapid recovery. This strategic approach to emergency response programming has the ability to offer the coherence needed between relief, recovery and development. Determining that a resilience building approach within emergency response operations could be the missing link or resolution to the perceived operational gap between relief, recovery and development. Pursuing a resilience building approach has the potential to bring much needed cultural change within the humanitarian sector that will shape operations for a more strategic and successful future.

The impacts and costs of natural disasters on people, properties and environment is often severe when they occur on a large scale or when not prepared for. Factors such as impacts of climate change, urban growth, poor planning to mention a few, have continued to significantly increase the frequencies and impacts of natural disasters across the world, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) inclusive. While the frequencies of natural disasters might not be controlled easily, the need for more effective early warning systems has become highly important. In recent years, existing researches and international organisations such as the United Nations (UN) have identified lack of Early Warning System (EWS) and the lack of integrated approach to disaster response as one of the reasons many deaths occur when natural disasters happen especially in developing countries. For instance, some communities in the (UAE) have suffered the impact of natural disasters in recent years due to lack of EWS deployment and lack of community knowledge of risks of natural disasters. These problems emphasises the importance of this research which aims to decrease the vulnerability of communities in the Emirates by developing a framework for integrated early warning systems in community in order to increase response capabilities against the risk of natural disasters in the United Arab Emirates. This research used case study, semi-structure interview and questionnaire techniques to investigate deployment of EWS and current practice of EWS in the emirates of Abu Dhabi and Fujairah. The effectiveness of the EWS in the UAE was evaluated international best practice in EWS and ten principles which guides EWS deployment in seven countries. While this influenced the collection of secondary data, it also influenced the collection of primary data through semi-structured interviews with 12 strategic officers from organisations involved emergency, crisis and disaster management in the UAE from the Emirates of Fujairah and Abu Dhabi. Questionnaires were also administered to a total of 1,080 respondents from the two emirates. The research outcomes show that EWS in Abu Dhabi and Fujairah lacked the essential elements of EWS. The results also emphasised the need to promptly develop the specific elements which are lacking and to improve the ones which were ineffective. The conclusion of this research have emphasised that community-centred EWS can be applied in the UAE, but can only be effectively applied by using the framework developed in this research which captures areas for further development and areas of improvement.

The intensifying nature and extent of disasters together with the associated devastation and astronomical costs required to manage the rippling effects of disasters, enunciates the national and international focus on disaster risk reduction. Further the ever evolving and complex dynamics of risk as the decisive contributor to disasters has heightened the urgency to pursue effective disaster risk assessment as a prerequisite to inform the disaster risk management planning and disaster risk reduction intervention processes. A structured and systematic approach to disaster risk assessment assists in maintaining rigour thus promoting the quality and validity of the process and its outcomes. Appropriate models serve as valuable tools in enabling this methodological perspective to undertake disaster risk assessment. The nonexistence of an appropriate disaster risk assessment model in South Africa has initiated the emphasis and purpose of this study thereby underscoring the critical need for the development of an effective, holistic and integrated disaster risk assessment model for local government in South Africa. In spear heading the process towards the development of an appropriate disaster risk assessment model, the research commenced with establishing and asserting the fundamental link between disaster risk assessment and disaster risk reduction as an avenue to contextualise and ground the key issues in effective disaster risk reduction. The exploratory analysis engaged in presenting a theoretical construct of disaster risk assessment examined the core components informing the disaster risk assessment process. This discussion led to the comparative review of three disaster risk assessment models viz the Community-Wide Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment (CVCA) Model, the Community-Based Risk Reduction Model and the South African Disaster Risk Assessment Model interrogating the significant characteristics, structure and application of the models. The results of the comparison of the above three models provided the necessary insight for the development of the disaster risk assessment model for local government in South Africa. Further influenced by the outcomes of the applied research on the critical analysis of the current disaster risk assessment practice within the four selected municipalities representing local government in South Africa; viz eThekwini Metropolitan, Ekurhuleni Metropolitan, Bojanala District and Stellenbosch local Municipalities. Through the data coding, classification and interpretive process, constructive and correlated research findings were immanent guiding the final development of the integrated disaster risk assessment model for local government in South Africa.
Thesis (Ph.D. (Public Management and Administration))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

In the face of future uncertainties, many places are struggling with decisions about how to prepare for and adapt to climate change. The purpose of this research is to shed light on the concept of resilience, and uncover lessons for resilience-building exposed by a past disaster, Hurricane Wilma. The dissertation begins with an introduction (Chapter 1) detailing the research problem, key terms and overall research design. The study was conducted in three distinct phases. The first phase (Chapter 2), explored the concept of resilience to understand how it was defined in three South Florida communities. Content analyses of city and county documents were conducted to extract explicit definitions of resilience as well as implicit definitions based on carefully selected keywords. Results showed the engineering resilience concept was most prevalent across all three study areas. Furthermore, keywords related to the dimension of the built environment were most common in Broward and Lee Counties. While this may indicate a need for communities to shift toward more progressive, social-ecological conceptualizations of resilience, a more central conclusion was that local applications of resilience frameworks need to be more explicit about how they define resilience, and what resilience-building looks like in that particular context. Phase two (Chapter 3) explored the interplay between specified resilience, addressing resistance to known disturbances, and general resilience, addressing a system's capacity to deal with less predictable shocks. This phase entailed a content analysis of 172 Sun-Sentinel newspaper articles about Hurricane Wilma. Prominent themes that emerged included distribution of benefits and risks, social learning and memory, cross-scale issues, vulnerability and social networks. This chapter concludes with four specific recommendations for Broward County to enhance resilience to future storms and less predictable disturbances, like climate change and sea level rise. During the third phase (Chapter 4) a modified resilience activation framework was applied to analyze social factors that may limit or promote adaptive capacity in South Florida. Focus groups with homeowners were used to gain insight about past experiences with Hurricane Wilma, as well as perceptions and expectations regarding local climate adaptation efforts. Results showed that risk perceptions, insurance practices, and social networks may influence the willingness and ability of individuals to prepare for and adapt to disasters. Social limits to adaptation among participants included inaccurate risk perceptions based on past experiences and feelings of helplessness, and a lack of political trust at the state level. Social resources that can be leveraged to enhance adaptive capacity included knowledge reserves of long-term residents, strong bonding capital, and trust in local, non-elected government employees. Results from each phase of research were synthesized to create a novel procedural roadmap to guide how communities integrate resiliency into their planning documents.

Despite shifts toward a more collaborative approach to emergency management, little scholarly attention has focused on the roles of local public organizations and nonprofits that do not have explicit emergency management missions in disaster response. Scholars and government officials call for identifying key local actors and developing a more collaborative emergency preparedness approaches prior to disaster situations. In practice, emergency officials seldom recognize post-disaster efforts of these local actors. Efforts to anticipate the potential decisions and actions of organizations that do not routinely deal with disasters necessitate a better understanding of how managers perceive their post-disaster related roles and what may account for such perceptions. Focusing on public libraries in the U.S., this study draws on information gathered through surveys and semi-structured interviews with library managers and directors operating in Hampton Roads, Virginia. To further investigate variations in willingness to engage in emergency response among local jurisdictions, the study explores context-related characteristics such as organizational arrangements and features of the policy environment in which library managers operate as well as factors related to individual managerial practices. The study finds that library officials' perceptions vary across libraries. Variations range from a more defensive approach to a more proactive approach. Efforts to account for the extent to which officials would be willing to engage in a more proactive approach should consider both the emergence of individual-managers' entrepreneurial spirit and their involvement in community-based disaster planning.
Ph. D.

This thesis improves the understanding of adaptive water governance in the policy process, and draws lessons of policy relevance for flood management. Scholars using the concept of adaptive water governance posit that factors influencing the governing activities of social actors are of critical importance to improve society’s capacity to better respond to the on-going water crisis. They developed a set of principles for adaptive water governance, in particular the need for polycentric forms of governance, where power over decision-making is not held by a single social actor but distributed across society, and the use of participatory processes, promoting collective action and enhancing collective reflection. Empirical evidence on the validity of these principles remains sparse, in particular in public policy processes.The thesis uses established research on the policy process to better conceptualise the governance of complex water problems. It examines empirically the emergence of integrated, ecosystem-based flood management in Scotland, a typical Western democracy though characterised by an interesting history of institutional design and flood policy dynamics. First, factors influencing the formulation and integration of the approach in national environmental policies are identified, drawing on an inductive, thematic and historical analysis of documents and interviews with key policy actors. Second, factors influencing the implementation of the approach, in particular the role of policy instruments and public participation, are then identified in the Eddleston and Bowmont-Glen catchments. A combination of documentary analysis, interviews with local actors, and Q Methodology are used. The thesis supports the general principle that polycentric governance can improve the adaptability of governance systems. Horizontally, multiple actors with decision-making power may encourage greater reflexivity in the policy process. Having multiple policy regimes may also foster innovative interventions. Vertically, significant autonomy between governance levels may help better adapt policies to the appropriate scale of intervention. The devolution of legislative powers from the British to the Scottish level is presented as an example. At a more local level, providing greater autonomy to implementers can enhance their capacity to enforce policies. The thesis also provides evidence for critics of polycentric governance. In particular, polycentric governance may result in a lack of coherence between policy regimes, heterogeneous implementation, and potentially status-quo, rather than change. The thesis supports the idea that a strong participatory approach may help overcome the limitations of polycentric governance. Findings indicate that critical factors for success are the institutional context in which it occurs, its inclusive nature, adequate resourcing, time available, and the willingness of participants to reach compromise and learn. Individual entrepreneurship is clearly fundamental to increase the adaptability of governance systems.Overall, the thesis shows that attention to the public policy process is an important analytical approach to the study of adaptive governance. Past research on the policy process provides constructive theories to explore principles of adaptive governance in an empirical context. Main policy recommendations, for Scotland and beyond, include, amongst others, a call for strong governance arrangements to accompany the work of multi-actor groups for policy integration, the use of instrument mixes across policy regimes to influence land managers, and greater support for non-governmental catchment organisations to foster local collaboration and improve policy implementation.

Climate change is already having a powerful effect on many areas through superstorms and flooding events. The flooding from tropical storm Irene in 2011 took Vermont by surprise, sparking momentum for change. While adaptive capacity as a response to climate change is vital, in many cases it may not be enough. This thesis developed an analytical framework for assessing transformative capacities from a linked social-ecological system perspective. By combining the literatures of transition management and resilience transformations, a cohesive framework emerged, with a scope incorporating multiple interacting scales and phases of transformation.  The findings suggest a multiplicity of capacities are activated in a post-disaster setting, with networks, bridging organizations, and leaders as primary for restorative, adaptive, and transformative capacity activation, while innovation and obstacle negotiating as primary foci for informal networks and experimentation. Broadly, the framework when applied spatially (multi-scale) and temporally (multi-phase) was effective in uncovering dynamics of change processes. Additionally, a foundation of social, economic, and cultural aspects was shown to be influential in the development and mobilization of capacities, including community resilience, place attachment, and the long-term viability of the economic sector. This study makes a theoretical contribution by linking transitions and transformations literatures in a single framework, which can be tested in further studies.

The ability to recover from the effects of climate change among communities is acknowledged in previous research, where focus is laid on disaster recovery through adaptive capacities and resilience. The objective of this study was to investigate a rural community’s ability to cope with natural disasters in in the aftermath of Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston, by using the case of Mudu Village in Koro Island, Fiji. The data was based on observations through an ethnographically inspired approach, as well as 20 semistructured interviews with residents in Mudu Village and other relevant stakeholders. The study was based upon the characteristics of the concept of community resilience, which allowed for deeper understanding of disaster recovery and coping mechanisms among rural communities exposed to natural disasters. The result of the thesis has showed that disaster preparedness and social support systems within the community has increased due to the experience from past recovery processes. By using the concept of community resilience, it has further become clear that the dependence on natural resources has decreased the capacity to cope with and recover from natural disasters in Mudu Village, which thus constitutes the main hindrance to community resilience.

Rationale – Climate disasters represent a significant and growing proportion of the humanitarian burden and are a key factor in increasing poverty and insecurity. A myriad of studies demonstrate that aid delivered in an ex-ante fashion can be effective in mitigating losses of life, assets and livelihoods associated with climate hazards. This inquiry supplements the nascent body of research and empirical evidence base pertaining to the building of anticipatory capacity into large-scale national systems, namely via linking a Forecast-based Financing mechanism to an existing social protection system. Research question – Using the case of flood disasters in Bardiya district, Nepal, the research inquired the following: How can social protection be combined with Forecast-based Financing in order to optimise anticipatory humanitarian relief for climate-related disasters? Sub-questions – Research sub-questions guided the inquiry: (1) To what extent are current social protection beneficiaries exposed to climate-related disasters? (2) What is the specific climate vulnerability of social protection beneficiaries? (3) What are the anticipatory relief needs of climate vulnerable social protection beneficiaries? Methodology – Grounded in empirical research via the conduct of a qualitative single case study, the inquiry adopted a conceptual perspective and an exploratory design. A remote data collection strategy was applied, which included (1) a thorough desk review of key scientific literature and secondary data provided by in-field humanitarian organisations; and (2) semi-structured interviews with key informants. Key findings – The data demonstrated that the exposure of social protection beneficiaries to flood hazards is comparable to the general population. Nevertheless, an elevated climate vulnerability is evident secondary to an increased sensitivity and diminished adaptive capacity. The flood anticipatory relief needs/preferences identified include cash-based assistance, food provisions, evacuation assistance and/or enhanced Early Warning Systems. Conclusion – The research supports the utilisation of the proposed conceptual model for an integrated social protection and Forecast-based Financing mechanism, inclusive of vertical and horizontal expansion, in order to effectively identify the most climate vulnerable groups and to guide the provision of targeted anticipatory actions. The mechanism is optimised when a people-centred approach is utilised, with reference to the idiosyncratic, lifecycle and corresponding intersectional vulnerabilities of the targeted population. These findings will contribute to prospective programming in Nepal; additionally, the extent to which they can be generalised will be informed by future applied efficacy studies and comparative analyses with research from differing contexts.

Mestrado em Desenvolvimento e Cooperação Internacional
Nas últimas décadas tem-se verificado um aumento considerável na frequência e intensidade de desastres naturais. A preocupação daí consequente reflectiu-se na intensificação, desde os anos 70, de reflexões académicas e publicações, resultantes de encontros e conferências, de âmbito nacional e internacional - como as conferências mundiais sobre prevenção de desastres. Nos anos 90, decretada a Década Internacional para a Prevenção de Desastres, deu-se uma transição de paradigma em relação aos desastres naturais: de uma cultura de reacção a uma cultura de prevenção. A cultura de prevenção, através da gestão de desastres, enfatiza a identificação de ameaças e vulnerabilidades, tendo ainda em consideração o nível de capacidade de resposta à redução do risco de desastres (RRD), para medir o impacto de um desastre. Neste quadro encontram-se inseridos programas de redução do risco de desastres a nível mundial, que obtêm financiamento através do programa de preparação de desastres, da Comissão Europeia, designado DIPECHO. A Oikos - Cooperação e Desenvolvimento, a partir de três DIPECHO implementados na micro-região sul, centro e norte de Auachapán (El Salvador), visa promover a consciencialização, responsabilização e comprometimento - tanto a nível político como das comunidades e entidades relativamente à redução do risco de desastres (RRD).
In the last decades there has been a considerable increase in what concerns about frequency and intensification of natural disasters. Such concern consequence of that reality has been reflected in the intensification, since the 70's, of academic reflections and publications, as a result of meetings and conferences, both national and international - such as the world conferences of natural disasters' prevention. In the 90's - the International Decade for Disasters' Prevention - there was a change in the paradigm related to natural disasters: from a reaction culture to a prevention one. The last one, through the management of disasters, emphasizes the threats and vulnerabilities identification, as well as it takes into account the level of ability to respond to the disaster risk reduction (DRR), in order to measure its impact. In this context, there has been included several disaster risk reduction programs, at a global level, which obtain financing from the Disasters Preparation, of the European Commission - the DIPECHO. Oikos - Cooperação e Desenvolvimento, through three DIPECHO programs implemented in the southern, centre and northern micro-regions of Auachapán (El Salvador), aims to promote the awareness, responsability, and commitment, both at political and community levels, relative to the RRD.

Mestrado em Desenvolvimento e Cooperação Internacional
Nas últimas décadas tem-se verificado um aumento considerável na frequência e intensidade de desastres naturais. A preocupação daí consequente reflectiu-se na intensificação, desde os anos 70, de reflexões académicas e publicações, resultantes de encontros e conferências, de âmbito nacional e internacional - como as conferências mundiais sobre prevenção de desastres. Nos anos 90, decretada a Década Internacional para a Prevenção de Desastres, deu-se uma transição de paradigma em relação aos desastres naturais: de uma cultura de reacção a uma cultura de prevenção. A cultura de prevenção, através da gestão de desastres, enfatiza a identificação de ameaças e vulnerabilidades, tendo ainda em consideração o nível de capacidade de resposta à redução do risco de desastres (RRD), para medir o impacto de um desastre. Neste quadro encontram-se inseridos programas de redução do risco de desastres a nível mundial, que obtêm financiamento através do programa de preparação de desastres, da Comissão Europeia, designado DIPECHO. A Oikos - Cooperação e Desenvolvimento, a partir de três DIPECHO implementados na micro-região sul, centro e norte de Auachapán (El Salvador), visa promover a consciencialização, responsabilização e comprometimento - tanto a nível político como das comunidades e entidades relativamente à redução do risco de desastres (RRD).
In the last decades there has been a considerable increase in what concerns about frequency and intensification of natural disasters. Such concern consequence of that reality has been reflected in the intensification, since the 70's, of academic reflections and publications, as a result of meetings and conferences, both national and international - such as the world conferences of natural disasters - prevention. In the 90?s ? the International Decade for Disasters "Prevention" there was a change in the paradigm related to natural disasters: from a reaction culture to a prevention one. The last one, through the management of disasters, emphasizes the threats and vulnerabilities identification, as well as it takes into account the level of ability to respond to the disaster risk reduction (DRR), in order to measure its impact. In this context, there has been included several disaster risk reduction programs, at a global level, which obtain financing from the Disasters Preparation, of the European Commission' the DIPECHO. Oikos - Cooperação e Desenvolvimento, through three DIPECHO programs implemented in the southern, centre and northern micro-regions of Auachapán (El Salvador), aims to promote the awareness, responsability, and commitment, both at political and community levels, relative to the RRD.

This thesis investigates the resilience of street children in Manila, the Philippines, who are exposed to multiple natural disasters. Despite their longstanding presence and high visibility in urban areas, street children have attracted little scholarly attention. However, a surge of interest in the global street child phenomenon spurred by the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child seeks to produce more nuanced contextual analysis of the social, economic and political processes that affect the demography of street children in a specific geographic area. Despite such efforts, the street child discourse continues to be dominated by contrasting, and at times competing, government and civil society interests, while academic inquiry remains stifled by typological, methodological and ethical dilemmas. The following study contributes to addressing that void by exploring these research challenges and investigating them with a mixed method examination of street children and their health, education and resilience in Manila, the Philippines. While most academic inquiry has been limited to investigating the children’s vulnerability, this study applies a strengths-based, adaptive capacity framework to examine the resilience of Manila’s street children in spite of the multiple stressors of street life and frequent natural disasters. Manila, home to an estimated 50,000 street children, is prone to frequent natural hazards including floods, typhoons, and landslides. Disaster vulnerability in Manila is exacerbated by political corruption and socio-economic inequalities, which provide a particularly dynamic lens through which to examine the influence of governance and civil society on the adaptive capacity of this population. While adaptive capacity is generally studied at a systems scale, this research explores how street children's adaptive capacity may vary spatially by the resources available to them and their cognitive social capital, defined here as their perceptions of trust and belonging to a community. In addition to the exploration of the children’s adaptive capacity, this study seeks to identify and analyse current strategies, methodologies, and gaps in the research on street children to provide guidance for future studies. Understanding and fostering the capacity of this highly adaptive population of street children may prove invaluable to generating the larger scale transformations necessary for residents of Manila to better adapt to natural disasters and other stressors in the future.

碩士
朝陽科技大學
資訊管理系
107
When an ultra large disaster occurs, communication networks would be severely disconnected by the damages of network nodes. In the early stage of a disaster, disaster information such as life safety and evacuation shelters becomes extremely important for the people. For the sake of such situations, Never Die Network (NDN) is one of the resilient network approaches. The Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) has attracted significant attentions recently due to its features of infrastructure less, quick deployment and automatic adaptation to changes in topology. In the real world, the military takes advantage of highly mobility of MANET to communicate, emergency disaster rescue operation, and law enforcement. Therefore, the NDN must be considered in order to address the impact of the isolation of the area caused by the damage caused by the damage caused by the network and infrastructure. In this study, an Adaptive Hybrid Routing Protocol (AHRP) for MANET-based NDN is proposed to improve the disaster resilience. In AHRP, the features of proactive (table driven) routing protocol and reactive (on-demand driven) routing protocol of MANET are combined to achieve a NDN environment. Also combined with energy perception and motion detection to determine whether a disaster occurs, in order to respond to the network needs before and after the disaster, to build a Never Die Network, improve the ability of disaster recovery. Finally, this study uses earthquakes as an example to present experimental hypotheses. The examples and results show that the proposed protocol can implement the Never Die Network.

The process of building resilience to hazards encounters complex challenges of gaps and overlaps among government and non-government stakeholders involved in decision-making for and practice of Disaster Risk Reduction, Climate Change Adaptation, Disaster Management and resilience-related Sustainable Development. Networked governance appears to be an appropriate system for the development of decision-making and decision-implementation to address the complexities of resilience-building in Small Island Developing States. The networked disaster governance system of Vanuatu served as a case study to analyse key factors affecting resiliencebuilding, such as high multi-hazard exposure, geographic and ideological distance between decision-makers and aid recipients, and the complexity of the coexistence of local, national, regional and international powers. The use of both qualitative and quantitative methodologies – Earth System Governance framework, Social Network Analysis and Qualitative Comparative Analysis – identified governance structures supporting the development of resilience. An extensive literature review, data collection and analysis contributed to the development of a conceptual framework to assess the potential of a networked disaster governance system. This framework consists of four pillars: Government–non-government Networking, Cross-sectoral Networking, Networked Leadership and Networked Learning. The Government–non-government and Cross-sectoral Networking pillars focused on the networking structures and processes that promote cooperative resilience-building. Networking structures included the configuration of institutionalised networks while the networking processes included social networking between individuals, organisations and their networks. The development of a complex set of networks patterned with paired formal and informal ties between the different stakeholders involved in resilience-building resulted in complementary governance configurations (flexible/stable, adaptive/reliable, fragmented/integrated, expertise building /comprehensive approach development). The Networked Leadership pillar considered whether the legal and formal institutional structure supported shared decision-making and decision-implementation, and how influence was distributed across the system. Social Networking Analysis data and stakeholders’ perceptions were used to determine the influence of networks, which highlighted the main strengths of such a system, namely the recognition and promotion of inclusiveness of all levels, sectors and types of stakeholders in decision-making and decision-implementation, building an effective bottomup- top-down governance system. The Networked Learning pillar examined the availability and appropriateness of tools to share disaster and climate change-related information across all stakeholders, and their capacities to process this information into sustainable knowledge and appropriate decisions at the individual, organisational and whole system levels. Networked Learning, facilitated by Government–nongovernment and Cross-sectoral Networking and Networked Leadership, enabled the development of a culture of preparedness, building the level of resilience of communities to climate change and disaster risks. The occurrence of category five Cyclone Pam challenged the Vanuatu networked disaster governance system. Despite remaining weaknesses, its structure, leadership and processes developed in routine times showed significant potential to prepare communities and organisations for extreme events, and facilitate cooperation during emergencies. The analysis of the system in place in Vanuatu enhanced knowledge of the impact of networked governance to build a more credible, stable, inclusive, adaptive and capitalised system for more effective resilience-building in both routine and disaster times. More broadly, this thesis addressed the international and regional foci of Disaster Risk Reduction, Climate Change Adaptation and Sustainable Development by analysing how the concept of Networked Governance could support the current humanitarian goals of inclusiveness, integration, and consistency between science, policy and practice to build more effectively resilience to hazards.

Objective: The primary goal of this research is to identify social vulnerability and resilience to earthquake hazards within the Capital Regional District (CRD) and to generate recommendations for how the provincial health system and various local and regional government agencies can support the continued enhancement of disaster-resilient communities. Methods: Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were employed to evaluate social vulnerability and resilience. Quantitatively, the methodology developed by Cutter et al., was replicated to create a Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI). These data were supported by qualitative data obtained from focus group interviews in three communities in the CRD. Together, this mixed methods approach provided additional insights into the dimensions of social vulnerability, and resilience within the CRD. Results. From the SoVI, twenty-five census tracts (CTs) within the CRD exhibited ‘high social vulnerability’. These highly vulnerable CTs were most likely to be in more densely populated areas, whether they were in inner city neighbourhoods or suburbs of the City. The qualitative results suggest that a large scale seismic hazard will present substantial challenges for the CRD. The smaller, rural and remote communities of Sooke and Port Renfrew appeared to be more interested in emergency preparation than those in the City of Victoria, if judged by their participation rates. Conclusion. The information collected from research participants and the generation of the SoVI complements existing hazard maps and local knowledge well. Both have their place as tools for enhancing understanding of risk-assessment for the area.
Graduate

abstract: Disasters represent disruptions to stability and offer lessons about how climate adaptation is negotiated and acted on. Viewing adaptation as a negotiation helps understand recovery not just as actions taken to minimize harm, but a reflection of values and motivations surrounding adaptation. This research elicits these perspectives and considers them as part of an ongoing agreement for disaster recovery and adaptation in Puerto Rico. Previous research has characterized recovery as an opportunity for rethinking societal arrangements for climate adaptation and highlights the importance of how adaptation is conceptualized across actors. This study builds on past research by using distinct perspectives to understand recovery as an adaptation process and a co-production of a new ‘social contract’ after Hurricane Maria. Community interviews and government documents are analyzed to understand who is involved, where change is happening, and what resources are necessary for success. The purpose of this is to consider distinct framings of recovery and adaptation, and what these contribute to long-term change. Community interviews give a perspective of local stability and show capacities for immediate and long-term recovery. Similarly, government documents discuss managing foundational vulnerabilities like infrastructure, while navigating recovery given geographical and economic obstacles. Findings show that self-organization and harnessing social capital are crucial components of recovery in the Corcovada community after Maria. They rely on bonding and bridging social capital to mobilize resources and reduce vulnerabilities for future threats. This transformative approach was also present in official recovery documents, though political and economic change were stressed as necessary for stability, along with modernizing infrastructure. While recovery documents suggest connecting physical and social resilience, community residents have cultivated this connection long before Maria. Unlike in Corcovada, the government of Puerto Rico is only starting to view disruptions as windows of opportunity and therefore mention plans for transformation but don’t present actions taken. Further, the reality of vulnerable infrastructural, political and economic systems greatly affects recovery both in Corcovada and across the island. Both perspectives will likely affect actions taken in Puerto Rico and recognizing these unique framings of stability can help design transformative, adaptive social contracts for facing future threats.
Dissertation/Thesis
Masters Thesis Sustainability 2019

People and the surrounding environment are affected by development. In striving to improve their livelihoods, people have through their development activities and exploitation of natural resources contributed to the degradation of the environment. The environment is seen as the totality of the biosphere within which anthropological and ecological activities take place. These activities are influenced by forces of nature, and in some events referred to as hazards, which can cause disruption, injury and loss of life. This premise forms the basic concept of disaster, to which people and the environment react from a position of vulnerability. Vulnerability is multi-faceted construct that is primarily associated with social conditions. It relates to concepts of development planning and environmental management from a causal as well as a preventative perspective. Since disaster risk reduction has become the key focus of mankind’s reaction to disasters, the concept of vulnerability has also become a key focus for research, and has linked various research communities, particularly those involved in disaster risk management, climate change adaption and development research in a multi-disciplinary research environment. Socio-economic developments inspired mainly by the Second World War have since the 1940s focused research attention on development planning and disaster risk management. Hazards-based research made way for a focus on vulnerability research so as to reduce disaster risk. At the same time, an increased focus on development planning triggered a shift in philosophy away from a procedural rational planning approach to strategic, communicative planning. Disaster risk reduction along the lines of development planning has seen the emergence of a multi-disciplinary approach to vulnerability research. An apparent increase in disaster-related losses and environmental degradation has nonetheless changed people’s thoughts and alerted them to the unsustainability of the course of development. With the introduction of the Bruntland Report in 1987, the concept of sustainable development was introduced as a long-term environmental strategy. Sustainable development objectives have created a focus on the human–environment system and an understanding of relationships between anthropological and ecological entities. A special interest in spatial patterning and the geographic distribution of organisms has led to the development of landscape ecology as a study of spatial patterns and ecological processes. A need to capture environmental criteria in a computerised spatial database emerged in the 1960s, and gave rise to the development of geographic information systems (GIS) technology. GIS-based thinking about how the real world can be presented in various conceptualisations of data structures, led to the development of GIS science (GIScience). The latter was based on research by Michael Goodchild who seeks to redefine geographic concepts and their use in the context of geographic information systems. Hence GIS should be defined as a data-processing tool, as opposed to the popular view of a map-making tool. By approaching GIS from an information system perspective that includes the development of conceptual, logical and physical data models, a platform is provided for the integration of spatial-based disciplines such as development planning, environmental management and disaster risk management. A synthesis of the theoretical foundation of these three disciplines shows commonalities in terms of a multi-disciplinary approach, as well as a concern for the environment and for social upliftment based on sustainable development principles. They also share a strong spatial orientation, which provides for GIS technology to serve as an entry point for the integration of these disciplines. The aim of the current research was therefore to develop a GIS-based data model that would address the landscape-based relationships between spatial entities from a database design point of view. The model is founded on the principles of database design, specifically the concept of entity-relationship modelling. It also incorporates basic Boolean logic to identify the functioning of an entity in its landscape setting as either acceptable or unacceptable. This concept supports the analysis of environmental sensitivity and disaster risk from the level of small geographic units, thereby enabling vulnerability reduction efforts at a local scale. The research in hand was useful to define and investigate the theoretical grounding of development management, environmental management, disaster risk reduction and geographic information systems, as well as to identify their common focus areas. An analysis of GIS technology and the development of a data model provided a focus on database development as the key for providing an information-based entry point and integration of development management, environmental management, disaster risk management. A case study for an area near Richards Bay, where development affected a wetland by increased vulnerability to flooding, has proven the GIS-based data model to be valuable as a tool that can be implemented to reduce vulnerability through informed and improved planning practices.
PhD (Development and Management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus. 2015

abstract: Design is a fundamental human activity through which we attempt to navigate and manipulate the world around us for our survival, pleasure, and benefit. As human society has evolved, so too has the complexity and impact of our design activities on the environment. Now clearly intertwined as a complex social-ecological system at the global scale, we struggle in our ability to understand, design, implement, and manage solutions to complex global issues such as climate change, water scarcity, food security, and natural disasters. Some have asserted that this is because complex adaptive systems, like these, are moving targets that are only partially designed and partially emergent and self-organizing. Furthermore, these types of systems are difficult to understand and control due to the inherent dynamics of "wicked problems", such as: uncertainty, social dilemmas, inequities, and trade-offs involving multiple feedback loops that sometimes cause both the problems and their potential solutions to shift and evolve together. These problems do not, however, negate our collective need to effectively design, produce, and implement strategies that allow us to appropriate, distribute, manage and sustain the resources on which we depend. Design, however, is not well understood in the context of complex adaptive systems involving common-pool resources. In addition, the relationship between our attempts at control and performance at the system-level over time is not well understood either. This research contributes to our understanding of design in common-pool resource systems by using a multi-methods approach to investigate longitudinal data on an innovative participatory design intervention implemented in nineteen small-scale, farmer-managed irrigation systems in the Indrawati River Basin of Nepal over the last three decades. The intervention was intended as an experiment in using participatory planning, design and construction processes to increase food security and strengthen the self-sufficiency and self-governing capacity of resource user groups within the poorest district in Nepal. This work is the first time that theories of participatory design-processes have been empirically tested against longitudinal data on a number of small-scale, locally managed common-pool resource systems. It clarifies and helps to develop a theory of design in this setting for both scientific and practical purposes.
Dissertation/Thesis
Doctoral Dissertation Environmental Social Science 2018

Les changements climatiques impactent de plus en plus la vie, le développement et la vulnérabilité de plusieurs communautés à travers le monde, lesquelles devant de plus en plus mitiger les risques naturels. Au Québec, la gestion des risques présente une philosophie de « retour à la normale » qui se penche davantage sur les dimensions d’intervention et de rétablissement. Cependant, à la lumière des incertitudes amenées par les changements climatiques, il est impératif que les communautés québécoises aient les capacités d’augmenter leur résilience face aux risques naturels qui s’accentuent rapidement. Ainsi, la capacité d’adaptation doit se retrouver au cœur de la gestion des risques. Cela dit, il existe peu d’outils d’évaluation de la capacité d’adaptation au Québec, entendue comme l’ensemble des ressources dynamiques disponibles et accessibles qui permettent une augmentation de la résilience et une diminution de la vulnérabilité en transformant positivement une communauté et son environnement. La présente recherche vise ainsi à développer une méthode d’analyse de la capacité d’adaptation des individus et des communautés québécoises touchées par les inondations à l’aide de systèmes d’information géographique (SIG), en utilisant la Ville de Saint-Raymond de Portneuf comme étude de cas. Ce projet se base principalement sur les concepts de vulnérabilité, de résilience et d’adaptation pour recenser des indicateurs pouvant servir à caractériser et évaluer la capacité des personnes et municipalités exposées aux inondations à mobiliser les ressources nécessaires pour non seulement atténuer les risques lors de tels événements, mais aussi mieux les prévenir et s’en préparer. Des données socioéconomiques et d’aménagement du territoire sont notamment mises à profit pour des fins d’analyse de même que des données issues d’un sondage effectué en 2014 à la suite d’une inondation majeure par la CAPSA, l’organisme de bassin versant de la région de Portneuf, en collaboration avec le comité Rivière de la Ville de Saint-Raymond.
Global climate change is increasingly impacting the well-being, development and vulnerability of communities across the world, whom must further mitigate disaster risk. In Québec, disaster risk management presents a “return to normal” philosophy that focuses primarily on intervention and short-term recovery. However, with the many uncertainties brought forth by global climate change, it is imperative that local communities in the province have the capacities to improve their resilience to natural hazards, which are becoming more devastating. Hence, the capacity to adapt must find itself at the heart of disaster risk management and sustainable development. That said, there are few tools that exist that enable decision-makers to assess adaptive capacity in Québec, which is understood as the dynamic resources that are available and accessible that increase resilience and reduce vulnerability by positively transforming a community and its environment. The present research seeks then to develop a method to evaluate the local citizens’ and their community’s adaptive capacity to flood risk with the help of GIS tools, using Saint-Raymond de Portneuf as a case study. This research founds itself on vulnerability, resilience et adaptation literature to elaborate indicators that could characterize and assess local capacities to mobilize the proper resources to not only cope with a flood event but also to better prevent and prepare for them in the long-term. Socio-economic et planning data are notably used as well as data taken from a survey conducted in 2014 following a major flood event by the CAPSA, the watershed organization in the Portneuf region, in collaboration with the Comité Rivière in the city of Saint-Raymond