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.

Natural Disaster, Mitigation and Sustainability: The Case of Developing Countries

Abstract: The application of sustainable development principles to natural disaster mitigation in developing countries is examined. Three main and interrelated aspects are considered: land-use planning and policies; shelter design, building materials and construction methods; and institutional organization at local, provincial, national and international levels. These three aspects are illustrated on the basis of experiences of human settlements in specific disaster situations and of housing the poor in developing countries in general. Taking into consideration the scale of the problem and the variety of conditions, the most pressing issues are identified, along with the different remedies and the major areas for policy intervention. However, transferring these ideas into implementation strategies, in which creative combinations of solutions, priorities, timeframes and resources are to be identified, will depend on a particular disaster situation and obviously cannot be carried out without detailed examination of t...

Disaster by Design: corruption, construction and catastrophe

Abstract: An underlying assumption of this paper is that many ‘natural’ disasters are the direct outcome of ‘deviant’ political and economic decisions and actions by states. While focusing on three recent major earthquakes in Turkey, the paper explores the dynamic relationship between state power, corruption, corporate power and, to a limited extent, organized crime in the context of examining responsibility for earthquake-precipitated catastrophe. It documents the ‘network of responsibilities, opportunities and pressures’ which combine as state crime to create earthquake disasters involving mass human rights violations. The paper argues for a reinterpretation of natural disasters in terms of human rights violations, while developing themes around state culpability which first emerged in an Economic and Social Research Council-funded study undertaken by the author (with Al Hussaini and Curry) on the 1999 Marmara earthquake in Turkey.

Women in natural disasters: A case study from southern coastal region of Bangladesh

Abstract: Natural disasters are frequent phenomena in the coastal regions of Bangladesh, causing significant damage to the coastal community and environment. The present study was conducted in southern coastal region of Bangladesh with the aim to explore women׳s preparedness, risk and loss, cultural and conditional behaviour, adaptability and recovery capacity from the natural disasters. During disaster a kind of functional disorder gets created where women had to face challenges different from men. Women have to face loss of livelihood opportunities, deprivation from relief materials, sexual harassment and enjoy little scope of participation in any response or management activities. Likewise, they also suffer from inverse care law after disaster. Contrary to that, disaster also creates a condition to accrue diverse positive and constructive impacts including women׳s transformative role which often do not get reported. Disaster leads the planners to follow not merely the compensatory principle but also restoration and augmentation principles which give more benefits to the low income group of the coast. Nevertheless, in the coast the higher is the loss of property, the lower is the tendency among the dwellers to invest which has a long-lasting effect on capital formation and social development.