scholarly journals Challenges to disaster risk reduction: A study of stakeholders’ perspectives in Imizamo Yethu, South Africa

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann-Sofie Roth ◽  
Per Becker
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Scale Development ◽  
Urban Communities ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Western Cape

South Africa is a complex and dynamic society, with overwhelming and increasing problems with disaster risk in the vulnerable urban communities in and around its rapidly growing metropolitan centres. The purpose of this study is to improve the understanding of the challenges for disaster risk reduction in such communities. It focuses on the case of Imizamo Yethu, in the Western Cape, in order to build theory that is grounded in the empirical realities of stakeholders involved in disaster risk reduction there. The result points towards five interrelated key challenges, which must be concurrently addressed through large-scale development efforts. Without such investments, it is unlikely that disaster risks can be reduced to tolerable levels.

Disaster risk reduction initiatives in South Africa

2004 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 555-574 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaco Vermaak ◽  
Dewald van Niekerk
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
Disaster Risk

scholarly journals Towards improved public awareness for climate related disaster risk reduction in South Africa: A Participatory Development Communication perspective

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tigere Chagutah
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Disaster Management ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Participatory Development ◽  
Development Communication ◽  
Communication Campaigns

Southern Africa has frequently been struck by damaging climate hazards which increasingly continue to threaten sustainable development efforts. Ominously, climate models predict that the incidence of major ‘wet’ events, such as floods and cyclones will increase in frequency against the background of a changing climate. Unfortunately, local mechanisms for communicating and raising public awareness of the consequent risks and appropriate risk reduction options remain weak. At the core of policy responses to the threat posed by climate related hazards, the South African government has adopted a disaster risk reduction approach to disaster management. This article details how, among many other measures to limit the adverse impacts of natural hazards, South Africa’s National Disaster Management Framework calls for the implementation of effective public awareness activities to increase the knowledge among communities of the risks they face and what risk-minimising actions they can take. Emphasis is laid on the importance of information provision and knowledge building among at-risk communities. Citing established theories and strategies, the author proposes a participatory development communication approach through Development Support Communication strategies for the provision of disaster risk reduction public awareness activities by government and other disaster risk reduction role-players in South Africa. By way of a review of completed studies and literature, the article provides guidance on the planning and execution of successful public communication campaigns and also discusses the constraints of communication campaigns as an intervention for comprehensive disaster risk reduction.

Special Issue on NIED Frontier Research on Science and Technology for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience 2020

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 675-675
Author(s):  
Haruo Hayashi ◽  
Ryohei Misumi
Keyword(s):  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
The United States ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Risk Information ◽  
Shaking Table ◽  
Scale Model ◽  
Special Issue

We are very pleased to publish the Special Issue on NIED Frontier Research on Science and Technology for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience 2020. There are nine papers in this issue. The first two papers concern hazard and risk information systems: Sano et al. constructed a real-time risk information map for flood and landslide disasters, and Hirashima et al. created an alert system for snow removal from rooftops. These systems are already in use on the NIED website. The next three papers are case studies of recent storm disasters in Japan and the United States: Cui et al. analyzed the time variation in the distribution of damage reports in the headquarters for heavy-rainfall disaster control in Fukuoka, Shakti et al. studied flood disasters caused by Typhoon Hagibis (2019), and Iizuka and Sakai conducted a meteorological analysis of Hurricane Harvey (2017). Regarding volcanic disasters, Tanada and Nakamura reported the results of an electromagnetic survey of Mt. Nasudake. This special issue also includes three papers on large-scale model experimentation: Danjo and Ishizawa studied the rainfall infiltration process using NIED’s Large-Scale Rainfall Simulator, Kawamata and Nakazawa conducted experiments concerning liquefaction, and Nakazawa et al. reported the results of experiments on seismic retrofits for road embankments. The experiments used E-Defense, the world’s largest three-dimensional shaking table. We hope this issue will provide useful information for all readers studying natural disasters.

scholarly journals Mapping Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation: progress in South Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Judith M. Storie
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
Content Management ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Mate Change

Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) strategies in Africa are on the increase. South Africa is no different, and a number of strategies have seen the light in aid of reducing disaster risk and adapting to cli-mate change. The DRR and CCA processes include the mapping of location and extent of known and potential hazards, vulnerable communities and environments, and opportunities that may exist to manage these risks. However, the mapping of often fast-changing urban and rural spaces in a standardized manner presents challenges that relate to processes, scales of data capture, level of detail recorded, software and compatibility related to data formats and net-works, human resources skills and understanding, as well as differences in approaches to the nature in which the map-ping processes are executed and spatial data is managed. As a result, projects and implementation of strategies that re-late to the use of such data is affected, and the success of activities based on the data may therefore be uncertain. This paper investigates data custodianship and data categories that is processed and managed across South Africa. It explores the process and content management of disaster risk and climate change related information and defines the challenges that exist in terms of governance. The paper also comments on the challenges and potential solutions for the situation as it gives rise to varying degrees of accuracy, effectiveness for use, and applicability of the spatial data available to affect DRR and improve the value of CCA programmes in the region.

scholarly journals Disaster risk reduction compliance framework for public private partnership (PPP) port projects

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Champika Liyanage ◽  
Felix Villalba-Romero
Keyword(s):  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Screening Process ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Expert Opinions ◽  
Need To Evaluate

Purpose This paper aims to identify success factors and resilience measures (RM) that contribute to disaster risk reduction (DRR) in public private partnerships (PPP) port projects in Asia. Significant losses have been associated with large-scale natural hazards, such as earthquakes, tsunami, cyclones and other extreme weather events, and thus, ports need to evaluate their resilience level and adopt relevant DRR strategies to improve it. Design/methodology/approach A step-by-step methodology, based on literature review, port cases analysis, questionnaire survey and expert opinions, was followed. Findings The paper provides a research instrument extracted from a large list of measures and factors after a combined screening process was carried out. This instrument offers policymakers and researchers a tool applicable to PPP port projects in Asian countries to evaluate the level of resilience. Research limitations/implications Relevant RM for some specific projects may have not been considered to obtain a standardised instrument. Originality/value This paper fulfils an identified need to evaluate resilient port infrastructures and the output is a resilience framework to be used in PPP port projects in Asia.

Natural Hazards Governance in the Philippines

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kanako Iuchi ◽  
Yasuhito Jibiki ◽  
Renato Solidum ◽  
Ramon Santiago
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Volcanic Eruptions ◽  
Governance Structure ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
The Philippines

Located in the Pacific Ring of Fire and the typhoon belt, the Philippines is one of the most hazard prone countries in the world. The country faces different types of natural hazards including geophysical disturbances such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, meteorological and hydrological events such as typhoons and floods, and slow-onset disasters such as droughts. Together with rapidly increasing population growth and urbanization, large-scale natural phenomena have resulted in unprecedented scales of devastation. In the early 21st century alone, the country experienced some of the most destructive and costliest disasters in its history including Typhoon Yolanda (2013), Typhoon Pablo (2012), and the Bohol Earthquake (2013). Recurrent natural disasters have prompted the Philippine government to develop disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) strategies to better prepare, respond, and recover, as well as to be more resilient in the face of natural disasters. Since the early 1940s, the governing structure has undergone several revisions through legal and institutional arrangements. Historical natural disasters and seismic risks have affected and continue to threaten the National Capital Region (NCR) and the surrounding administrative areas; these were key factors in advancing DRRM laws and regulations, as well as in restructuring its governing bodies. The current DRRM structure was instituted under Republic Act no. 10121 (RA10121) in 2010 and was implemented to shift from responsive to proactive governance by better engaging local governments (LGUs), communities, and the private sector to reduce long-term disaster risk. This Republic Act established a national disaster risk reduction and management council (NDRRMC) to develop strategies that manage and reduce risk. Typhoon Yolanda in 2013 was the most significant test of this revised governance structure and related strategies. The typhoon revealed drawbacks of the current council-led governing structure to advancing resilience. Salient topics include how to respond better to disaster realities, how to efficiently coordinate among relevant agencies, and how to be more inclusive of relevant actors. Together with other issues, such as the way to co-exist with climate change efforts, a thorough examination of RA 10121 by the national government and advocates for DRRM is underway. Some of the most important discourse to date focuses on ways to institute a powerful governing body that enables more efficient DRRM with administrative and financial power. The hope is that by instituting a governing system that can thoroughly lead all phases of preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery, the country can withstand future—and likely more frequent—mega-disasters.

scholarly journals Risk, Transformation and Adaptation: Ideas for Reframing Approaches to Disaster Risk Reduction

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (14) ◽  
pp. 2594 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Paton ◽  
Petra Buergelt
Keyword(s):  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Preliminary Model ◽  
Adaptive Processes ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Increasing Risk ◽  
Risk Transformation

Recognition of projected increases in exposure to large-scale hazard events over the coming decades has identified a need to develop how disaster risk reduction and recovery are conceptualized and enacted. This paper discusses some strategies for pursing this goal in both disaster recovery and preparedness settings. The approaches discussed include understanding how communities learn from their hazardous experiences and transform these lessons into beliefs, relationships and capabilities that build future adaptive capacity. The paper draws on examples of transformative learning that illustrate how people can make fundamental shifts in how they think about, prepare for and respond to environmental challenge and change. Regarding transformation in pre-event settings, the paper first discusses why the addition of transformative strategies to disaster risk reduction programs is required. These include a need for rethinking socio-environmental relationships, increasing risk acceptance in the context of evolving hazardscapes, and countering beliefs regarding not preparing. The paper then offers strategies for motivating transformation and consolidating the outcomes of transformation in pre-event disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies. A preliminary model that could inform the development of research questions on the development of transformative outcomes and their consolidation in enduring adaptive processes is presented.

Disaster Resilience: Where It All Comes Together

Futureproof ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 198-226
Author(s):  
Jon Coaffee
Keyword(s):  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
First Century ◽  
Disaster Resilience ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Great Transition ◽  
Twenty First Century

This chapter discusses disaster resilience. Recent major disasters and serious disruptions have put increased emphasis on how quickly an area can recover following a large-scale shock and have meant that disaster risk reduction or disaster resilience has grown in prominence. When we look at how to interpret the great transition from risk towards resilience in the early twenty-first century, then we can look to disasters for many explanations. Whether in terms of the relatively simple characterisation that sees risk viewed differently as the modern passes into the postmodern era, or how we get to grips with reframing disaster as a complex human-induced process rather than something that is ‘natural’ or divine, disasters illuminate many reasons why we need to invest in resilience as an urgent futureproofing strategy. Responses to disasters can also teach us lessons about a darker and more unethical side of resilience that needs to be surfaced.

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