scholarly journals Valuing disaster risk reduction neighborhood interventions in informal settlements of Latin American and the Caribbean

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. e0242409
Author(s):  
Alejandro Arrieta ◽  
Juan Pablo Sarmiento ◽  
Meenakshi Chabba ◽  
Weiwei Chen
Keyword(s):  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
Informal Settlements ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Community Empowerment ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Life Satisfaction Approach

This study assesses the dollar benefit of a neighborhood approach intervention on disaster risk reduction in small-sized, densely populated, and hazard-prone informal settlements across Latin American and Caribbean countries. We use a life satisfaction approach that assigns a dollar value to gains in wellbeing associated with the neighborhood approach intervention. Our primary data was a survey to a sample of 349 beneficiaries from small towns in Haiti, Guatemala, and Jamaica, and in major cities’ surrounded areas of Peru, Colombia, and Honduras. Out of 14 interventions, we found that community empowerment, physical works in public spaces and urban gardens/food approaches produced a gain of USD1,038 to USD1,241 to individual beneficiaries. Our study suggests a large benefit associated with the neighborhood approach intervention. It also shows that the life satisfaction approach is a promising method for the valuation of non-market and public goods, especially for countries where data on hazards and risks is not available to help monetize risk reductions.

scholarly journals Population vulnerability and disaster risk reduction: A situation analysis among the landslide affected communities in Kerala, India

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunil Damodaran Santha ◽  
Ratheeshkumar Kanjirathmkuzhiyil Sreedharan
Keyword(s):  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
The State ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Major Factors ◽  
Elected Representatives ◽  
Depth Interviews

Landslides affect at least 15% of the land area of India, exceeding 0.49 million km2. Taking the case of landslide affected communities in the state of Kerala in India, this paper demonstrates that the focus has seldom been placed on assessing and reducing vulnerability. From the perspective of political economy, this paper argues that vulnerability reduction has to be the main priority of any disaster risk reduction programme. This paper also demonstrates that the interactions between ecological and social systems are usually complex and non-linear in nature. In contrast, interventions to tackle landslide risks have followed a linear course, assuming that one hazard event acts independently of another. The key findings of the study show that lack of access to political power, decision making, and resources, insecure livelihoods,environmental degradation, and ine#ectiveness of the state approach to disaster risk reduction are some of the major factors that lead to increasing vulnerability. Qualitative in nature, the primary data were collected through in-depth interviews with people from different groups such as farmers affected by the landslides and secondary floods, men and women living in the temporary shelter, government representatives involved in relief activities, health authorities, and elected representatives.

scholarly journals The Relationship between Human Rights and Disaster Risk Reduction Revisited: Bringing the Legal Perspective into the Discussion

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen da Costa ◽  
Paulina Pospieszna
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Community Empowerment ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Legal Provisions ◽  
International Human ◽  
Human Rights Based Approach

This paper explores the link between human rights and disaster risk reduction. We revisit the notion of a human rights-based approach in the context of natural disasters, analyzing how this concept may contribute to greater accountability and empowerment of those involved in disaster risk reduction. To better understand the processes of empowering rights holders and holding duty bearers into account we adopt legal analytical lenses. By doing so we review four country case studies and their main regulations on disaster risk reduction, taking into account the extent to which they adopt a human rights-based approach. We argue that countries whose legal frameworks allow for community engagement point towards greater community empowerment. Similarly, countries whose legal provisions make possible for holding States accountable for their underperformance in disaster situations suggest greater levels of accountability. We also consider key international human rights instruments binding the four case studies in order to analyze whether and to what extent international human rights obligations may support advocacy and accountability in disaster risk reduction. Based on the analysis of these case studies we consider that empowerment and accountability processes in drr can reinforce each other, and that human rights may contribute to progress in these areas.

Exploring Network Analysis for Urban Planning and Disaster Risk Reduction in Informal Settlements

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-45
Author(s):  
Vicente Sandoval ◽  
Juan Pablo Sarmiento ◽  
Erick Alberto Mazariegos ◽  
Daniel Oviedo
Keyword(s):  
Network Analysis ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
Informal Settlements ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Centrality Measures ◽  
Analysis Tool ◽  
Urban Resilience ◽  
Street Networks

The work explores the use of street network analysis on informal settlements and discusses the potential and limitations of this methodology to advance disaster risk reduction and urban resilience. The urban network analysis tool is used to conduct graph analysis measures on street networks in three informal settlements in the LAC region: Portmore, Jamaica; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; and Lima, Peru. Authors incorporate risk variables identified by these communities and combine them with prospective scenarios in which street networks are strategically intervened to improve performance. Authors also compute one graph index named Reach centrality. Results are presented spatially through thematic maps, and statistically by plotting cumulative distributions. Findings show that centrality measures of settlements' networks helped identify key nodes or roads that may be critical for people's daily life after disasters, and strategic to improve accessibility. The proposed methodology shows potential to inform decisions on urban planning and disaster risk reduction.

A neglected issue: informal settlements, urban development, and disaster risk reduction in Latin America and the Caribbean

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 731-745
Author(s):  
Vicente Sandoval ◽  
Juan Pablo Sarmiento
Keyword(s):  
Urban Development ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
Informal Settlements ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Risk Governance ◽  
Disaster Resilience ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
New Urban Agenda

PurposeThis paper introduces the state of informal settlements in Latin America and the Caribbean, and it explores potential relationships between informal settlements and national policies on urban development and disaster risk reduction, especially on how risk governance and disaster resilience are conceived and practiced by governments.Design/methodology/approach17 Habitat III National Reports issued during the preparatory process toward the New Urban Agenda in 2016 are analyzed using statistics and qualitative methods. Some quantitative variables, such as access to drinking water and sewerage in the region, are combined with qualitative data from references to the Sendai Framework and national urban policies in the mentioned reports. Countries in the study include Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.FindingsResults show that the situation of informal settlements in the region is complex and presents two different realities that coexist: one group of countries in which provision of basic urban services poses great challenges for a significant proportion of the urban population, while the other group in which urban informality and precariousness persists despite better statistics. Risk governance and disaster resilience principles are scarcely articulated in existing urban development discourses in the region.Originality/valueThe preparatory process toward the New Urban Agenda allowed to conduct an original updated cross-country analysis and to identify cross-cutting issues on informality, risk reduction, and urban development in the region.

scholarly journals Barriers to Enhancing Disaster Risk Reduction and Community Resilience: Evidence from the L’Aquila Disaster

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 232-243
Author(s):  
Angelo Jonas Imperiale ◽  
Frank Vanclay
Keyword(s):  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Disaster Management ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Community Empowerment ◽  
Risk Governance ◽  
Civil Protection ◽  
Control Approach ◽  
Management Interventions

Building sustainable and resilient societies is a multidimensional challenge that affects achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In crises and disasters, civil protection authorities typically use emergency powers and a command-and-control approach to manage resources and to design and implement disaster management interventions. They centralise knowledge, technologies and responsibilities for prevention, mitigation and monitoring, while stifling the capacities of local communities to reduce disaster risks and impacts. The mechanism they enact leads to a poor understanding of the capacities of local people to learn and transform, and of how community wellbeing, vulnerabilities, and resilience influence disaster risks. The mechanism does not strengthen the role of local communities in disaster risk reduction. Instead, it facilitates disaster capitalism at all levels of society. Drawing on the disaster risk reduction and resilience paradigm and on our analysis of the disaster management interventions conducted before and after the 6 April 2009 earthquake in L’Aquila, Italy, we discuss the main constraints to implementing the four Priority Areas in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction: (1) Understanding risk in its multiple dimensions; (2) strengthening disaster risk governance; (3) investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience; and (4) enhancing preparedness and build back better in response, recovery and reconstruction. We discuss how top-down, emergency-centred civil protection approaches create second disasters, and fail in all four priorities. We suggest that shifts in paradigm and investment are required in disaster management and development practice from centralised civil protection systems to decentralised, socially sustainable community empowerment systems.

scholarly journals The Integration of Indigenous Knowledge for Disaster Risk Reduction Practices through Scientific Knowledge: Cases from Mentawai Islands, Indonesia

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Zulfadrim Zulfadrim ◽  
Yusuke Toyoda ◽  
Hidehiko Kanegae
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Mentawai Islands

This study explores the importance of indigenous knowledge for everyday practices of disaster risk reduction and response. Many existing studies have highlighted the need to integrate such knowledge with modern science. Based on ethnographic research in indigenous communities in the Mentawai Islands of Indonesia, this study explores the categorization of indigenous knowledge in the integration process. To that end, primary data were collected through in-depth interviews while secondary data were collected from relevant documents, including books, articles, websites and government and NGO reports. The findings indicate that indigenous knowledge is acquired through long observation and interaction with disasters. Although some of this knowledge is based on successes in other localities, some indigenous knowledge is completely local, homogenous and shared among community members. It was also established that indigenous knowledge can be meaningfully organized into a number of categories, and that indigenous knowledge of a technical nature is more likely to be integrated with scientific knowledge. The research was exploratory and approached indigenous knowledge issues from the point of view of indigenous communities themselves. This approach should be replicated and expanded in other indigenous communities.

Local disaster risk reduction in Latin American urban areas

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 401-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorgelina Hardoy ◽  
Gustavo Pandiella ◽  
Luz Stella Velásquez Barrero
Keyword(s):  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
Disaster Risk

scholarly journals Disaster Risk On Review Scale And Spatial Planning Archipelago Region: The Risk Based Island Cluster In Moluccas Province

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 94-105
Author(s):  
Ferad Puturuhu ◽  
Restia Christianty
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Spatial Analysis ◽  
Engineering Education ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Spatial Planning ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Community Empowerment ◽  
Risk Level ◽  
Spatial Area

Disaster risk reduction (DRR) by taking into account the spatial planning in its implementation is not easy, for the Moluccas which has the characteristics of the region that has many cluster islands, and the accessibility are still low. Thus it requires special handling in the island-based disaster risk reduction, which will certainly be different from disaster risk reduction efforts that were undertaken in the continental region. The purpose of this research is to design the spatial area of the island cluster in Moluccas Province based on disaster risk. The method used is literature through spatial analysis of island risk-based groups. Based on the results of disaster risk assessment by the BPBD of Moluccas Province, it has been obtained that there are islands based on disaster risk (RB-islands cluster). The high disaster risk level was the island cluster on RB III and IX, the medium disaster risk level was the island cluster on RB I, IV, VI, and VIII, the low disaster risk level was the island cluster on RB II, V, and VII. The RB island cluster is a model for reaching areas with high disaster risk, can easily identify what causes it. It become an input to mitigate it through the spatial arrangements for achieving a sustainable archipelago development. The regional spatial arrangements aimed at reducing disaster risk in the RB-islands cluster in the Moluccas through spatial planning, structural handling/civil engineering, education, and community empowerment.

Analisis Longsor Cililin Dan Model Pengupayaan Kestabilan Lerengnya

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wisyanto
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Landslide Risk ◽  
West Java ◽  
Water Condition ◽  
Reduction Program ◽  
Landslide Risk Reduction

Landslides have occurred in various places in Indonesia. Likewise with West Java, there were many regions that has experienced repeated landslides. Having many experience of occurrences of landslides, we should have had a good landslide risk reduction program. Indeed, the incidence of landslides depends on many variables. Due to that condition, it may that a region would have different variable with another region. So it is impossible to generalize the implementation of a mitigation technology for all areas prone to landslides. Research of the Cililin's landslide is to anticipate the next disasters that may happen in around the area of 2013 Cililin Landslide. Through observation lithological conditions, water condition, land cover and landscape, as well as consideration of wide dimension of the building footing, the distance of building to the slopes and so forth, it has been determined some efforts of disaster risk reduction in the area around the landslide against the occurrence of potential landslide in the future.Bencana tanah longsor telah terjadi di berbagai tempat di Indonesia. Demikian halnya dengan Jawa Barat, tidak sedikit daerahnya telah berulang kali mengalami longsor. Seharusnya dengan telah banyaknya kejadian longsor, kita mampu mengupayakan program penurunan risiko longsor secara baik. Memang kejadian longsor bergantung pada banyak variabel, dimana dari satu daerah dengan daerah yang lain akan sangat memungkinkan mempunyai variabel yang berbeda, sehingga tidak mungkin kita membuat generalisasi penerapan suatu teknologi mitigasinya untuk semua daerah rawan longsor. Penelitian longsor di Cililin dilakukan untuk mengantisipasi terjadinya bencana di sekitar daerah Longsor Cililin 2013 yang lalu. Melalui pengamatan kondisi litologi, keairan, tutupan lahan dan bentang alam yang ada, serta pertimbangan akan dimensi luas pijakan bangunan, jarak batas bangunan dengan lereng dan lain sebagainya, telah ditentukan beberapa upaya penurunan risiko bencana di daerah sekitar longsor terhadap potensi kejadian longsor dimasa mendatang.Keywords: Landslide, risk reduction, footing of building, Cililin

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