Natural disaster

About: Natural disaster is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 5456 publications have been published within this topic receiving 104808 citations. The topic is also known as: natural calamity & natural hazard.

Cultural Adaptation to Threatened Disaster

Abstract: Social and behavioral scientists have recently undertaken to describe and analyze human behavior under the extreme conditions of disaster, an interest with compelling practical and applied value that has attracted considerable research support, particularly through the former Committee on Disaster Studies of the National Academy of Sciences - National Research Council. In the resultant body of literature various problems and approaches have been identified and defined, usually couched in terms of the personal and social consequences of sudden, unexpected disasters. The archetype paradigm seeks to establish empirically in natural disasters laboratories modeled after projections of surprise attack and looks for classes of "disaster behavior" that can be predicted in such events. While it is generally conceded that the pre-impact situation (variously defined) has a bearing on emergent behavior in a disaster, relatively little of the effort has been devoted to conceptualizing and defining research problems wi...

Natural Disasters: Health and Mental Health Considerations

Abstract: The recent occurrence of the tsunami in southwest Asia heightened awareness of the devastating impact of natural disasters on human lives. What makes a natural disaster so devastating? The suddenness and magnitude of the occurrence renders the areas affected by natural disasters unable to respond effectively to the emergency because the devastation exceeds the capacity of the area's resources. By definition, a natural disaster is an ecological phenomenon that occurs suddenly and is of sufficient magnitude to require external assistance (World Health Organization, 1980). Noji (2000) identified the overall objectives of a public health response to disaster management as the following: 1. Assess the needs of disaster-affected populations; 2. Match available resources to those needs; 3. Prevent further adverse health affects; implement disease control strategies for well-defined problems; 4. Evaluate the effectiveness of disaster relief programs, and improve contingency plans for various types of future disasters. (p. 21) An effective public health response to natural disasters includes individual and community interventions that incorporate clinical, research, and community organization skills. Practitioners and authors have identified disaster response as a natural practice area for social workers given the crisis intervention and clinical orientation of the profession (Newhill & Sites, 2000). Much of the professional social work literature on natural disasters emphasizes the clinical aspect of social work intervention (Cohen & Ahearn, 1980; Kreuger & Stretch, 2003; Newhill & Sites; Puig & Glynn, 2003; Shah, 1985; Spitzer & Neely, 1992). Although social workers typically respond to disaster relief through clinical interventions, research and community responses also are needed to manage the disaster. A four-step approach to social work intervention incorporating research, administrative, community organization, and clinical practice elements provides a more complete approach to disaster relief efforts. Implementation of research protocols is a critical first step in responding to a disaster. Research intervention is important initially and at the end of the disaster relief effort to assess outcomes and the effectiveness of the response. As an initial intervention, Noji (2000) proposed that in the management of disaster relief workers connect data collection and analysis to disaster relief decision-making processes. Field surveillance data collection is important to reducing adverse health and mental health conditions and to rendering more effective the overall decision-making process related to the disaster response. Rapid disaster damage assessment techniques can be used to assess damage, define the nature and extent of the health and mental health problems, identify population groups at heightened risk, identify immediate health and mental health needs, assess resource needs, locate resources to meet identified needs, and assess the effect of the response to the disaster (Toole & Tailhades, 1991; World Health Organization, 1999). A sound management and community response is critical to the disaster relief effort. These responses should include an effective disaster plan and a system of communication including information about who is responsible for what and how to communicate if power lines and phone lines are damaged (Milsten, 2000). Coordination among provider networks and a developed response for how to gain access to resources are critical also. The management and community response must address the three phases of a disaster and what responses, services, and resources will be needed at each phase. The first phase--prewarning disaster preparation--emphasizes preparing for the disaster, which includes developing, reviewing, and revising disaster plans. Communities with predeveloped disaster plans will be better prepared to respond to the disaster as it occurs. …

Towards a science of past disasters

Abstract: It is widely recognised that natural disasters emerge in the interplay between extreme geophysical events and the human communities affected by them. Whilst detailed natural scientific knowledge of a given event is critical in understanding its impacts, an equally thorough understanding of the affected communities, their economies, ecologies, religious structures, and how all of these have developed over time is arguably as important. Many extreme events leave methodologically convenient traces in the geological and archaeological records in the form of discrete stratigraphic layers often associated with both accurate and precise dates. This paper focuses on volcanic eruptions and draws on matched case studies to illustrate the usefulness of a two-step, quasi case–control comparative method for examining vulnerability and impacts in the near- and far-fields of these eruptions. Although issues of data resolution often plague the study of past disasters, these limitations are counterbalanced by the access to unique long-term information on societies and their material expressions of livelihood, as well as a similarly long-term perspective on the critical magnitude/frequency relationship of the geophysical trigger(s) in question. By drawing together aspects of contemporary Disaster Risk Reduction research, archaeology, and volcanology, this paper sketches out a methodological roadmap for a science of past disasters that aims to be relevant for not only understanding vulnerabilities and impacts in the deep past, but for also better understanding vulnerability in the present.

Micro-level assessment of regional and local disaster impacts in tourist destinations

Abstract: The tourism sector faces severe challenges due to the economic impacts from changing natural environments as seen with the increased frequency of natural disasters. Therefore, analyses of disaster impacts models are necessary for managing successful tourism recovery. Typically, disaster assessments are conducted on a countrywide level, which can lead to imbalanced recovery processes, and a distorted distribution of recovery financing or subsidies. We address the challenges of recovery using the tourism disaster management framework by Faulkner. To calculate precise damage assessments, we develop a micro-level assessment model to analyze and understand disaster impacts at the micro-level supporting tourism recovery in an affected destination. We examine economic consequences of a disaster at a small regional scale arguing recovery from a natural disaster is more difficult in individual areas because of differences in geographic location or infrastructure development. The island of Dominica is chosen as an example for the model using statistical data from the tourism sector to outline and detail the consequences of a disaster specifically for communities. The results highlight the importance of damage assessments on a small-scale level, such as communities in order to distinguish between individual regions facing severe changes for resident livelihoods and the local tourism sector. We argue that only after identifying regional impacts it is possible to apply adequate governmental subsidies and development strategies for a country's tourism sector and residents in a continuously changing environment in the hopes of mitigating future financial losses and future climate change impacts.

The International Charter ‘Space and Major Disasters’

Abstract: Responding to catastrophic natural disasters requires critical information When lives and everyday activities are interrupted by crises such as earthquakes, landslides, volcanoes, hurricanes, and floods, timely satellite imagery and aerial photographs become invaluable tools in revealing post-disaster conditions and in aiding disaster response and recovery efforts An international group of satellite data providers manages a cooperative program to provide emergency response satellite data to communities affected by major natural and anthropogenic disasters The International Charter ‘Space and Major Disasters’ (“Charter”) draws on the capabilities and resources of fifteen space agencies and a number of cooperators to quickly provide imagery and supplemental information for relief efforts in response to major disasters Repeatedly, the Charter and its resources have provided valuable assets in assisting with global disaster recovery activities