scholarly journals Implementing Disaster Policy: Exploring Scale and Measurement Schemes for Disaster Resilience

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan L. Cutter ◽  
Sahar Derakhshan
Keyword(s):  
National Level ◽  
Community Resilience ◽  
Disaster Resilience ◽  
Geographic Scale ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Disaster Policy ◽  
Data Resolution ◽  
Measurement Tools ◽  
Spatial Differences ◽  
Resilience Indicators

Abstract Resilience measurement continues to be a meeting ground between policy makers and academics. However, there are inherent limitations in measuring disaster resilience. For example, resilience indicators produced by FEMA and one produced by an independent academic group (BRIC) measure community resilience by defining and quantifying community resilience at a national level, but they each have a different conceptual model of the resilience concept. The FEMA approach focuses on measuring resilience capacity based on preparedness capabilities embodied in the National Preparedness Goals at state and county scales. BRIC examines community (spatially defined as county) components (or capitals) that influence resilience and provides a baseline of pre-existing resilience in places to enable periodic updates to measure resilience improvements. Using these two approaches as examples, this paper examines the differences and similarities in these two approaches in terms of the conceptual framing, data resolution, and representation and the resultant statistical and spatial differences in outcomes. Users of resilience measurement tools need to be keenly aware of the conceptual framing, input data, and geographic scale of any schema before implementation as these parameters can and do make a difference in the outcome even when they claim to be measuring the same concept.

scholarly journals Twitter Use in Hurricane Isaac and Its Implications for Disaster Resilience

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 116
Author(s):  
Kejin Wang ◽  
Nina S. N. Lam ◽  
Lei Zou ◽  
Volodymyr Mihunov
Keyword(s):  
Census Data ◽  
Situational Awareness ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Community Resilience ◽  
Disaster Resilience ◽  
Positive Correlations ◽  
Social Environmental ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Resilience Indicators ◽  
Three Phases

Disaster resilience is the capacity of a community to “bounce back” from disastrous events. Most studies rely on traditional data such as census data to study community resilience. With increasing use of social media, new data sources such as Twitter could be utilized to monitor human response during different phases of disasters to better understand resilience. An important research question is: Does Twitter use correlate with disaster resilience? Specifically, will communities with more disaster-related Twitter uses be more resilient to disasters, presumably because they have better situational awareness? The underlying issue is that if there are social and geographical disparities in Twitter use, how will such disparities affect communities’ resilience to disasters? This study examines the relationship between Twitter use and community resilience during Hurricane Isaac, which hit Louisiana and Mississippi in August 2012. First, we applied the resilience inference measurement (RIM) model to calculate the resilience indices of 146 affected counties. Second, we analyzed Twitter use and their sentiment patterns through the three phases of Hurricane Isaac—preparedness, response, and recovery. Third, we correlated Twitter use density and sentiment scores with the resilience scores and major social–environmental variables to test whether significant geographical and social disparities in Twitter use existed through the three phases of disaster management. Significant positive correlations were found between Twitter use density and resilience indicators, confirming that communities with higher resilience capacity, which are characterized by better social–environmental conditions, tend to have higher Twitter use. These results imply that Twitter use during disasters could be improved to increase the resilience of affected communities. On the other hand, no significant correlations were found between sentiment scores and resilience indicators, suggesting that further research on sentiment analysis may be needed.

scholarly journals Is Urban Sprawl Decoupled from the Quality of Economic Growth? Evidence from Chinese Cities

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinhai Lu ◽  
Danling Chen ◽  
Yue Wang
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Urban Sprawl ◽  
Urban Policy ◽  
Urban Expansion ◽  
National Level ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Chinese Cities ◽  
Technological Efficiency ◽  
Spatial Differences

This paper investigates how urban sprawl and the quality of economic growth interact and further studies the spatial-temporal decoupling characteristics of both. To achieve this, a framework was developed to better explain both the different dimensional effects urban sprawl exerts on the quality of economic growth and their reverse feedback relation. A sample of 285 Chinese cities (2003 to 2016) were analyzed, employing both a decoupling model and spatial correlation analysis. The findings indicated that urban sprawl and the quality of economic growth are related via scale, structure, technological efficiency, and technological progress effects. In practice, with increasing quality of economic growth, the urban sprawl index decreases at the national level. At prefecture-city level, the types of decoupling between urban sprawl and the quality of economic growth showed clear periodical and unbalanced characteristics. Furthermore, decoupling showed a significant agglomeration effect in Chinese cities, which is mainly mediated by the types High-High and Low-Low. This study provides a significant contribution to the relevant acknowledge system by providing a comprehensive theoretical framework toward an understanding of how urban expansion interacts with the quality of economic growth. Furthermore, their decoupling types and spatial differences that are critical for the urban sustainable development have been identified, thus providing several important insights for both academics and urban policy makers.

INFRASTRUCTURE AND COMMUNITY RESILIENCE METRICS: APPLICATION OF THE HOLISTIC METHOD WITHIN THE LATVIAN CONTEXT

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maksims Feofilovs ◽  
Francesco Romagnoli ◽  
Rasa Vaiškūnaitė
Keyword(s):  
Community Resilience ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Disaster Resilience ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Quantitative Metrics ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Resilience Index ◽  
Total List ◽  
Response And Recovery ◽  
Open Issues

Enhancing and building resilient cities represent a contemporary approach on which scientists and policy makers are strengthening cooperation; however, so far quantitative metrics and standards for measuring resilience are still open issues. This must be aimed toward diminishing society’s vulnerability and reducing the likelihood of disasters (both manmade and natural) and their possible effects. The evaluation of metrics within the crisis management should be able to provide a useful tool and enable stakeholders to assess the effectiveness of resilience strategies and their added value is a key factor for building resilient sound communities and infrastructures. Several frameworks and models have been created and proposed to assess and evaluate the resilience of critical infrastructures (CIs) as well as the evaluation of community resilience. Nevertheless, their application is limited to specific case studies, thus showing lack of a robust link with the decision making dimensions. This study examines infrastructure and community resilience to natural hazards in six regions of Latvia: Riga, around Riga region, Kurzeme, Vidzeme, Latgale and Zemgale. The aim of this study is to create a Community disaster resilience index (CDRI) with the application of a holistic indicatorbased model. Based on the literature-based research an initial total list of 86 indicators has been selected for a model representing social, economic, physical, human and environment capital (or resources to be potentially mobilized) and linked by their relevance to the main phases of the disaster resilience dynamics: mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.

scholarly journals What We Talk about When We Talk about Poverty: Culture and Welfare State Development in Britain, Denmark and France

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Cathie Martin ◽  
Tom Chevalier
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
National Level ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
Historical Case ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Fiction Writers ◽  
Welfare State Development ◽  
Political Agents ◽  
Cross National

Why did historical anti-poverty programs in Britain, Denmark and France differ so dramatically in their goals, beneficiaries and agents for addressing poverty? Different cultural views of poverty contributed to how policy makers envisioned anti-poverty reforms. Danish elites articulated social investments in peasants as necessary to economic growth, political stability and societal strength. British elites viewed the lower classes as a challenge to these goals. The French perceived the poor as an opportunity for Christian charity. Fiction writers are overlooked political agents who engage in policy struggles. Collectively, writers contribute to a country's distinctive ‘cultural constraint’, or symbols and narratives, which appears in the national-level aggregation of literature. To assess cross-national variations in cultural depictions of poverty, this article uses historical case studies and quantitative textual analyses of 562 British, 521 Danish and 498 French fictional works from 1770 to 1920.

scholarly journals Shared socioeconomic pathways for climate change research in Finland: co-developing extended SSP narratives for agriculture

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heikki S. Lehtonen ◽  
Jyrki Aakkula ◽  
Stefan Fronzek ◽  
Janne Helin ◽  
Mikael Hildén ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
National Level ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Change Scenario ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Climate Change Research ◽  
Food And Agriculture ◽  
Agriculture And Food ◽  
Farm Subsidies

AbstractShared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs), developed at global scale, comprise narrative descriptions and quantifications of future world developments that are intended for climate change scenario analysis. However, their extension to national and regional scales can be challenging. Here, we present SSP narratives co-developed with stakeholders for the agriculture and food sector in Finland. These are derived from intensive discussions at a workshop attended by approximately 39 participants offering a range of sectoral perspectives. Using general background descriptions of the SSPs for Europe, facilitated discussions were held in parallel for each of four SSPs reflecting very different contexts for the development of the sector up to 2050 and beyond. Discussions focused on five themes from the perspectives of consumers, producers and policy-makers, included a joint final session and allowed for post-workshop feedback. Results reflect careful sector-based, national-level interpretations of the global SSPs from which we have constructed consensus narratives. Our results also show important critical remarks and minority viewpoints. Interesting features of the Finnish narratives compared to the global SSP narratives include greater emphasis on environmental quality; significant land abandonment in SSPs with reduced livestock production and increased plant-based diets; continued need for some farm subsidies across all SSPs and opportunities for diversifying domestic production under scenarios of restricted trade. Our results can contribute to the development of more detailed national long-term scenarios for food and agriculture that are both relevant for local stakeholders and researchers as well as being consistent with global scenarios being applied internationally.

scholarly journals National and regional trends in MRI utilization in the face of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Osnat Luxenburg ◽  
Mor Saban ◽  
Vicki Myers ◽  
Sharona Vaknin ◽  
Noga Boldor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Waiting Times ◽  
National Level ◽  
Metropolitan Region ◽  
Third Wave ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Elective Surgical Procedures ◽  
Regional Trends ◽  
The Face ◽  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging Mri

Abstract Background and purpose Marked reductions in imaging exams have been documented during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study aimed to examine the effect of the two waves of COVID-19 on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) utilization at the national and regional level. Materials and methods A retrospective-archive study was conducted in Israel, comparing March–December 2020 with March–December 2018 and 2019. Data on MRI utilization were obtained from the national MRI registry, while data on confirmed COVID-19 cases, by place of residence, were obtained from the Israeli Ministry of Health open COVID-19 database. Results The number and rate of MRI examinations decreased during the first COVID-19 wave, with the steepest drop in April 2020: 47.5% relative decrease compared to April 2019, and 42.2% compared to 2018. This was followed by a compensatory increase between the waves and a return to almost pre-pandemic levels of use, with just a modest decrease, during the second, more intense COVID wave, compared with the previous year. Existing differences between regions increased during the pandemic. The rate ratio of MRI exams between Tel-Aviv and the Northern periphery increased from 2.89 in April 2019 to 3.94 in April 2020. Jerusalem metropolitan region, with the largest burden of COVID disease, demonstrated only a modest decrease (1%) in MRI utilization during the first 10 months of the pandemic. Conclusions At the national level, time trends in reduced MRI utilization followed the first wave of COVID-19, and were accompanied by increased regional disparities. These changes were not explained by differences in the burden of COVID-19 disease but might be explained by unequal distribution of MRI scanners among regions. Reduced utilization was not evident during the second wave, nor at the beginning of the third wave, despite higher COVID-19 case load, demonstrating adaptation to the new normal. Patterns of MRI utilization might help policy-makers and healthcare managers predict the behavior of imaging as well as other sectors, such as elective surgical procedures, during an ongoing pandemic. This forecast might help to manage the lasting effects of the pandemic, including extended waiting times, in the months and years following its remission. In preparation for future national emergencies, timely and detailed data on MRI utilization can serve as a “sensor” for a wide array of diagnostic and interventional medical activities, providing policy-makers with an updated snapshot to guide their response at the regional and national levels.

scholarly journals Az esélyegyenlőség és a fogyatékkal élők helyzetének területi különbségei Magyarországon

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 39-43
Author(s):  
Szabolcs Fabula
Keyword(s):  
Regional Scale ◽  
People With Disabilities ◽  
Great Plain ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Marginal Groups ◽  
Short Summary ◽  
The People ◽  
Spatial Differences

People with disabilities is one of the most marginal groups in today's society so ensur-ing their rights and needs is a great challenge for policy makers and planners. This paper reviews the most important agreements and laws about disability in the European Union and Hungary, as well as the New Hungary Development Plan. Later the paper also reveals the spatial differences of the people with disabilities in Hungary on the regional scale and presents relationship between the state of development and the ratio of disabled people. In comparing the data of the country and the South Great Plain the charasteristics of the dis-abled population in age, qualification and employment are also highlighted. Finally there is a short summary of the accessible and non-accessible public buildings in Békés County and Békéscsaba.

scholarly journals EVALUASI KEBIJAKAN PENDIRIAN BADAN USAHA MILIK DESA

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 182
Author(s):  
Tatang Sudrajat
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
State Government ◽  
National Level ◽  
The State ◽  
Economic Welfare ◽  
Government Regulations ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Hierarchical Relationship ◽  
The Village

<p><em>The state has provided a lot of welfare to the citizens of rural communities, who make up the largest part of this nation. Socio-economic welfare as a public interest has been pursued by the state with its authority, including in the form of a policy to establish Village Owned Enterprises (BUM Desa). The issuance of Law Number 6 of 2014, PP Number 43 of 2014 and the Village Regulation of PDTT Number 4 of 2015 relating to the interests of the village community, became a strong foundation for the establishment of BUM Desa. In Karawang Regency, this was followed up with the issuance of Regional Regulation Number 4 of 2019 and Perbup Number 35 of 2020. One of the problems when public policy was implemented started from the substance of policies that were bad policy, unclear, not operational/incomplete, ambiguous, and contradictory.</em><em> </em><em>The research uses normative juridical methods and literature review. The results of the study indicate that the issue of welfare of rural communities is embodied in various state/government regulations. There is a relationship between the local government as an operational policy maker and the policy environment as well as a hierarchical relationship with policy makers regarding BUM Desa at the national level. There are several policy substances that are considered bad policies, because they are unclear, not operational/incomplete, ambiguous and contradictory. This will have implications for the ineffective implementation of BUM Desa policies by implementers at the lowest level of government.</em></p><p><strong><em>Keywords</em></strong><em> : evaluation, public policy, village-owned enterprises</em></p>

scholarly journals Perceived determinants of implementation success of the neglected tropical diseases programme in Ghana: a qualitative study among programme officers

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Desmond Dzidzornu Otoo ◽  
Nana Nimo Appiah-Agyekum ◽  
Francis Anderson Adzei
Keyword(s):  
Neglected Tropical Diseases ◽  
National Level ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Tropical Diseases ◽  
Snowball Sampling ◽  
Programme Implementation ◽  
Enabling Factors ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Health Policy Implementation

Abstract Background The importance of health policy implementation cannot be overemphasized in contemporary public health. Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) have negatively impacted society, affect quality of life and make the poor societies poorer. Several policies and strategies have been put in place across the world including the neglected tropical diseases programme in Ghana. Though chalked many successes, the programme continues to lag behind in the full attainment of various objectives. Several factors exist that determine how effective a programme is implemented. Identification of these factors on every programme is essential to determine where more programme resources need to be channelled. This study assessed the determinants of successful implementation of the neglected tropical diseases programme in Ghana. Methods A qualitative approach with the case study design was employed. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used to identify key programme officers at the national, regional and district levels of programme implementation. Eighteen (18) Key informant interviews were conducted at all the three levels of the Ghana Health Service NTDs programme. Data were thematically analysed and presented. Results Findings from the study revealed that determinants that influenced the successful implementation of the NTDs programme include donor support, education and training, partnerships, reliability of the health structure, integrative nature of the programme and management commitment. These determining factors cut across the inner settings of the implementing agency and the external environment. Conclusion Neglected tropical diseases continuously affect Ghanaians, especially the poor. It is important for both policy makers and implementers to identify the factors that ensure the success of the programme in the Ghanaian context. Though the factors are independently sufficient, they synergistically lead to improved programme implementation. Empowering all units involved (local to national level) and maximizing the enabling factors identified to would improve upon implementation and ensure sustainability.

scholarly journals Witness protection in the criminal justice system of the Baham

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-194
Author(s):  
David Baxter Bakibinga
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
National Level ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
The Bahamas ◽  
Protection Measures ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Criminal Justice Systems ◽  
The Government ◽  
Aid Policy

Witness protection is now firmly entrenched in the modern criminal justice systems especially in jurisdictions dealing with organized and violent crime. The decision by the government of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas to enact legislation in respect to procedural and non-procedural measures for protection of witnesses is commendable, given that violent and organized crime is rife in the country. This article highlights the basic tenets of witness protection and the legal framework, both at the international and national level. It also addresses the role of key duty bearers in the process of witness protection. Furthermore the procedural and non-procedural measures taken by law enforcement officers in The Bahamas are explored. And lastly, the challenges encountered in the implementation of the witness protection measures in The Bahamas are examined. This is intended to aid policy makers, advisers and those entrusted with decision making, like parliamentarians, to devise means and ways to eradicate and/or mitigate challenges faced in the implementation of witness protection measures in The Bahamas.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document