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.

The political economy of natural disaster damage

Abstract: Economic damage from natural hazards can sometimes be prevented and always mitigated. However, private individuals tend to underinvest in such measures due to problems of collective action, information asymmetry and myopic behavior. Governments, which can in principle correct these market failures, themselves face incentives to underinvest in costly disaster prevention policies and damage mitigation regulations. Yet, disaster damage varies greatly across countries. We argue that rational actors will invest more in trying to prevent and mitigate damage the larger a country's propensity to experience frequent and strong natural hazards. Accordingly, economic loss from an actually occurring disaster will be smaller the larger a country's disaster propensity - holding everything else equal, such as hazard magnitude, the country's total wealth and per capita income. At the same time, damage is not entirely preventable and smaller losses tend to be random. Disaster propensity will therefore have a larger marginal effect on larger predicted damages than on smaller ones. We employ quantile regression analysis in a global sample to test these predictions, focusing on the three disaster types causing the vast majority of damage worldwide: earthquakes, floods and tropical cyclones.

Globalization of disaster: trends, problems and dilemmas.

Abstract: After the Indian Ocean tsunami of 26 December 2004 donor countries subscribed to post-disaster relief appeals so copiously that all the money could not be spent quickly enough to justify the reasons for which it was donated. For other contemporary disasters, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, there was an alarming dearth of funds and a general failure to respond to international relief appeals. This paradox neither illustrates that the world is becoming more generous nor demonstrates the opposite. It does, however, highlight one of the many contrasts inherent in current approaches to disaster. As worldwide involvement in the relief and mitigation of catastrophe deepens and becomes more complex, so the approach becomes more fragmentary in some respects, particularly those that relate to global security strategies, and more uniform in others, especially in terms of where the international political system directs its limited attention. Over the last half-century the massive growth of worldwide travel and telecommunications has brought what were once essentially regional and local problems onto the world stage. In considering such momentous changes, this article surveys the global pattern of catastrophes and offers an analysis of modern systems of emergency preparedness and processes of disaster relief, with particular attention to the problems of creating resilience and the moral and practical dilemmas of prevention and response. First it examines the global impact of disasters with respect to changes in societal vulnerability and growing imbalances in economic development. Next, it considers mass communications in relation to the symbolic significance of disasters and the patterns of donation to relief appeals. It then looks critically at the logistical and organizational aspects of humanitarian relief, with particular attention to major events, such as the Atlantic hurricanes of September 2005 and South Asia earthquake of October 2005, and what they reveal about the international community's policies and practices regarding aid. Subsequently, the article considers disaster mitigation in relation to world economic trends and the changing structure of global financial power. It then examines the current international policy frameworks for catastrophe mitigation and the prospects for achieving positive change in the future. THE GLOBALIZATION OF MODERN DISASTERS In physical terms global disasters have been a recurrent and integral part of Earth history, as periodic mass extinctions have resulted from the "global winter" caused by gigantic volcanic eruptions or the impact of large extraterrestrial bodies. But because the geological timescale on which such events occur is so much longer than the one on which human lives are measured, these events are too rare to fall under the remit of an article about the globalization of disaster. (1) Moreover, it has taken the better part of two and a half millennia to appreciate the significance of major cataclysmic natural events. First, the form of the earth as a celestial globe had to be understood; second, the laws of modern physics had to be established, especially regarding the force of gravity; third, the age of the Earth had to be rolled back far enough to permit some understanding of the magnitude and frequency of exceptional events; and finally a robust geophysical explanation of seismicity, volcanism and the general circulation had to be worked out. Hence a proper understanding of the physical underpinnings of natural disaster only emerged in the mid 20th century. (2) It has contributed immeasurably to worldwide consciousness of major natural disasters, but much less to understanding of the key problem of vulnerability, which some scholars regard as a far greater determinant of disaster risk than the existence of hazards themselves. (3) In terms of human perception, prior to the 20th century the event closest to a global disaster was probably the Portuguese earthquake of 1755. …

International perspectives on gender and disaster: differences and possibilities

Abstract: This article provides an introduction and assessment of the English and Spanish literatures on gender relations in disaster contexts. We analyze regional patterns of differences and similarities in women’s disaster experiences and the differing research questions raised by these patterns in the scholarly and practice‐based literature. The analysis supports the claim that how gender is theorized makes a difference in public policy and practical approaches to disaster risk management. We propose new directions in the field of disaster social science and contribute a current bibliography in the emerging gender and disaster field.

Developing a resilience index towards natural disasters in Indonesia

Abstract: Most areas in Indonesia are prone to natural disasters, such as earthquakes, tsunami and volcano eruptions. In order to minimize the disaster impacts and shorten the recovery period, the resilience of a disaster-prone area is required to be assessed. This paper aims to develop a framework to assess the resilience of disaster-prone areas in Indonesia towards natural disasters, by establishing an index. In the framework, resilience is defined as the ratio between preparedness and vulnerability. The dimensions for preparedness are social, economic, community capacity, institutional and infrastructure. Similar dimensions applied for the vulnerability with additional dimension of hazard, come up with an index that is scaled from 0 to 1. The framework is applied to assess the resilience of Cilacap regency (in Central Java province) and the city of Padang (in West Sumatra province). The results show that both areas are resilient towards natural disasters, although certain improvements still can be made to further increase the resilience of both areas.

Disaster and Development

Abstract: Development to a large extent determines the way in which hazards impact on people. Meanwhile the occurrence of disasters alters the scope of development. Whilst a notion of the association of disaster and development is as old as development studies itself, recent decades have produced an intensifying demand for a fuller understanding. Evidence of disaster and development progressing together has attracted increased institutional attention. This engaging and accessible text illuminates the complexity of the relationship between disaster and development; it opens with an assessment of the scope of contemporary disaster and development studies, highlighting the rationale for looking at the two issues as part of the same topic. The second and third chapters detail development perspectives of disaster, and the influence of disaster on development. The fourth chapter exemplifies how human health is both a cause and consequence of disaster and development and the following chapter illustrates some of the learning and planning processes in disaster and development oriented practice. Early warning, risk management, mitigation, response and recovery actions provide the focus for the sixth and seventh chapters. The final chapter indicates some of the likely future contribution and challenges of combined disaster and development approaches. With an emphasis on putting people at the centre of disaster and development, the book avoids confronting readers with "no hope" representations, instead highlighting disaster reduction opportunities.