Livelihood Vulnerability of Char Land Communities to Climate Change and Natural Hazards in Bangladesh: An Application of Livelihood Vulnerability Index

Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change in the world. In general, Charland (Riverine Island) communities are frequently affected by floods, riverbank erosion, and other climatic hazards, which cause many to lose their sources of livelihoods and properties and making them more vulnerable. Using survey data of 262 rural households, this study investigates the extent of livelihood vulnerability to climate change and natural hazards of the Charland communities by applying the climate change vulnerability index (CVI) (i.e. UN-IPCC vulnerability framework) and the livelihood vulnerability index (LVI) to develop context-specific interventions for building climate and livelihood resilience. The two approaches of vulnerability assessment were modified to incorporate local contexts and indigenous knowledge into 41 sub-components. The result shows that LVI and CVI values are different between Charland communities. The LVI index shows that households in Char Jotindro-Narayan (0.148) are more vulnerable than Char Kulaghat (0.139). The CVI values for Char Jotindro-Narayan (0.633) are slightly lower than for Char Kulaghat (0.639). The major vulnerability factors were identified as the social networks, food self-sufficiency, natural disasters, and climatic variability. The study also indicates that flood, riverbank erosion, unemployment, and access to communication, market, and basic service opportunities are the major biophysical and socioeconomic factors determining livelihood vulnerability. The context-specific sustainable policies and development initiatives are required to improve the adaptive capacity of Charland communities across Bangladesh and thereby building their climate and livelihood resilience.

Humanitarian assistance and disaster relief in the perspective of Indonesia Defense Policy

The development and progression in humankind’s understanding of the world and life, ensured a continuous evolution in the response to events threatening our livelihoods. Humankind also developed techniques to deal with natural hazards, either by aiming to contain the forces of nature, or by altering human own behavior. The humanitarian assistance and disaster relief are crucially important in order to protect the nations. This research employed literature review method. The results showed that every nation should prepare and manage their capabilities in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR), both in protection for own countries or in providing aids for the others. Military Operation Other Than War (MOOTW) does not involve the use or threat of violence but prioritizes the provision of HADR. In MOOTW, military forces synergize with other institutions/organizations, especially those related to diplomacy, economy, government, even politics and religion. Moreover, in handling disasters, especially in Indonesia, the combination between civilians and the military is crucial in realizing Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMIC) and Civil-Military Coordination (CMCoord). Under certain mechanism, the military power is only used to support civilian institution in HADR.

Multi-risk assessment in a historical city

Natural hazards pose a significant threat to historical cities which have an authentic and universal value for mankind. This study aims at codifying a multi-risk workflow for seismic and flood hazards, for site-scale applications in historical cities, which provides the Average Annual Loss for buildings within a coherent multi-exposure and multi-vulnerability framework. The proposed methodology includes a multi-risk correlation and joint probability analysis to identify the role of urban development in re-shaping risk components in historical contexts. The workflow is unified by exposure modelling which adopts the same assumptions and parameters. Seismic vulnerability is modelled through an empirical approach by assigning to each building a vulnerability value depending on the European Macroseismic Scale (EMS-98) and modifiers available in literature. Flood vulnerability is modelled by means of stage-damage curves developed for the study area and validated against ex-post damage claims. The method is applied to the city centre of Florence (Italy) listed as UNESCO World Heritage site since 1982. Direct multi-hazard, multi-vulnerability losses are modelled for four probabilistic scenarios. A multi-risk of 3.15 M€/year is estimated for the current situation. In case of adoption of local mitigation measures like floodproofing of basements and installation of steel tie rods, multi-risk reduces to 1.55 M€/yr. The analysis of multi-risk correlation and joint probability distribution shows that the historical evolution of the city centre, from the roman castrum followed by rebuilding in the Middle Ages, the late XIX century and the post WWII, has significantly affected multi-risk in the area. Three identified portions of the study area with a different multi-risk spatial probability distribution highlight that the urban development of the historical city influenced the flood hazard and the seismic vulnerability. The presented multi-risk workflow could be applied to other historical cities and further extended to other natural hazards.

Susceptibilidad a Deslizamiento de Ladera mediante el Sistema de Información Geográfica

El deslizamiento de ladera es considerado uno de los fenómenos geológicos con mayor destrucción que impactan a la humanidad, llegando a causar grandes pérdidas humanas y materiales. El objetivo del presente trabajo de investigación bibliográfico fue demostrar la eficacia de la aplicación de un sistema de información geográfica (SIG) para el estudio de la susceptibilidad a deslizamiento de laderas a través de mapas susceptibles, para lo cual se desarrolló un análisis sistemático de artículos científicos publicados en revistas científicas como Engineering Geology, Investigaciones Geográficas, TecnoLógicas, Geomorphology, Terra, Revista Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, Revista de Estudios Latinoamericanos sobre Reducción del Riesgo de Desastres, entre otras, ubicadas en bases de datos como SciELO, World Wide Science, Scopus, ScienceDirect, Elsevier, entre las principales. Entre los resultados se tiene, que con la aplicación de un SIG se determina el porcentaje y grado de áreas que presentaran susceptibilidad a deslizamiento a ladera, en la cual se laboró con la metodología empleada por el SIG, por tanto, se concluye que la ejecución de mapas de susceptibilidad a deslizamiento de ladera debería ser de trascendencia debido a que serviría como soporte en la organización de un territorio, asegurando la estabilidad pública y un futuro sostenible.

To which extent are socio-hydrology studies really integrative? The case of natural hazards and disaster research

Given the recent developments in socio-hydrology and its potential contributions to disaster risk reduction (DRR), we conducted a systematic literature review of socio-hydrological studies aiming to identify persisting gaps and discuss tractable approaches for tackling them. A total of 44 articles that address natural hazards or disasters were reviewed in detail. Our results indicated that: (i) 77.3 % of the studies addressed floods whereas there were very few research applications for droughts (11.4 %) and compound or multi-hazards (11.4 %); (ii) none of the articles investigated interactions across temporal and spatial scales; (iii) quantitative approaches were used more often (65.9 %) in comparison to mixed (22.7 %) and qualitative (11.4 %) approaches; (iv) monodisciplinary studies prevailed (61.4 %) over multi or interdisciplinary (9.1 %) ones, and (v) only 34.1 % of the articles involved stakeholder participation. In summary, we found that there is a fragmentation in the field, with a multitude of social and physical components, methods and data sources being used. Based on these findings, we point out potential ways of tackling the identified challenges to advance socio-hydrology, including studying multiple hazards in a joint framework and exploiting new methods for integrating results from qualitative and quantitative analyses to leverage on the strengths of different fields of knowledge. Addressing these challenges will improve our understanding of human-water interactions to support DRR.

Lessons learned about the importance of raising risk awareness in the Mediterranean region (north Morocco and west Sardinia, Italy)

In order to mitigate the potentially dramatic effects of natural hazards, risk management measures are critical. However, the lack of interdisciplinary indicators and adaptable governance frameworks highlights society's vulnerability in the particular context of global environmental and climate change. This interdisciplinary research aimed at identifying reliable risk indicators and societal responses regarding natural hazards and climate change impacts to provide a governance framework for disaster risk reduction. Different societies face diverse risks and do not necessarily have the same level of local awareness of these risk. To explore the diversity of risks, two sites were selected from the Mediterranean basin, one chosen from the south coast (north Morocco) and the other from the north coast (the Italian island of Sardinia). North Morocco, a region of multi-risks, is characterised by high demographic and economic pressures; west Sardinia has remarkable biodiversity of wetlands and is characterised by high environmental and agricultural pressures, which in both cases intensify the vulnerability of the coastal areas. Testing for the local population's preparedness for future financial protection allowed for discussing the importance of risk awareness sessions or activities as an indicator of risk management. The significance of risk awareness sessions is shown in a quantitative part of the study, and its importance is also discussed with local stakeholders in north Morocco in a qualitative part of the study. It is shown that, although risk awareness sessions are recognised as important in risk management, they are not necessarily implemented. Based on these findings, further ideas on a new series of less descriptive, more dynamic and more user-friendly indicators are suggested. How can risk sessions be a dynamic indicator of a resilient society? The obtained results could serve in future governance frameworks for the mitigation of natural hazards in the Mediterranean region and more widely. Finally, the urgent need for continuous work to overcome the communication gap between the scientific community, risk administrators, civil society and the general population is emphasised.