{"title":"The secret history of natural disaster","authors":"Ted Steinberg","doi":"10.1016/S1464-2867(01)00016-X","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/S1464-2867(01)00016-X","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper explores the failure of historians to properly engage the study of natural hazards. It argues that by focusing mainly on individual calamities, historians have overlooked the larger social and economic forces that have shaped the response to natural disaster over the last century. Two important trends, real estate capitalism and the entry of the state into the political economy of hazards after World War II, are singled out as crucial for understanding US society's response to natural disaster. As a result of these historical forces, risk became a commodity, with harmful environmental consequences.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100587,"journal":{"name":"Global Environmental Change Part B: Environmental Hazards","volume":"3 1","pages":"Pages 31-35"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1016/S1464-2867(01)00016-X","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134686307","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"What women do: gendered labor in the Red River Valley flood","authors":"Elaine Enarson","doi":"10.1016/S1464-2867(01)00009-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/S1464-2867(01)00009-2","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Findings are reported from a qualitative case study of women's work in the 1997 Red River Valley flood in the Upper Midwestern US. Drawing on narrative accounts from 115 informants in 14 group interviews, the paper explores women's disaster work at home, in the workplace, and in the community. A typology of ten forms of disaster work was developed to analyze the findings and encourage comparative research. Women's physical and socioemotional work in the household materially contributed to mitigation and reconstruction. Women were also “backstage” emergency responders in their professional roles in female-dominated occupations. These activities led some to collective and individual protest of social inequities arising during the flood. The findings were used to develop practical guidelines for more inclusive emergency planning and practice.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100587,"journal":{"name":"Global Environmental Change Part B: Environmental Hazards","volume":"3 1","pages":"Pages 1-18"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1016/S1464-2867(01)00009-2","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134842803","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Improving flood warnings in Europe: a research and policy agenda","authors":"John Handmer","doi":"10.1016/S1464-2867(01)00010-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/S1464-2867(01)00010-9","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Warnings and emergency planning for flooding are based on the reality that no matter how thorough our investigations and flood prevention efforts through engineered structural works or land use management, some risk will always remain. This paper examines recent experience with flood warnings in the UK and continental Europe. It combines this experience with an overview of the relevant literature to identify lessons for incorporation into policy, and problem areas which would most obviously benefit from additional research. Throughout, the emphasis is on the non-engineering aspects of warning systems. Results indicate that much is being achieved in terms of the detail of warning design, but the broader issues seem to be largely ignored by both the research literature and practice. First among these broader issues is the failure, by those charged with warning system development and operation, to conceptualise the warning task as one based explicitly on the needs of those at risk. Making this happen will require the development of processes to build the necessary culture of cooperation and learning among the many organisations involved.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100587,"journal":{"name":"Global Environmental Change Part B: Environmental Hazards","volume":"3 1","pages":"Pages 19-28"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1016/S1464-2867(01)00010-9","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134842802","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"What women do: gendered labor in the Red River Valley flood","authors":"E. Enarson","doi":"10.3763/ehaz.2001.0301","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3763/ehaz.2001.0301","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Findings are reported from a qualitative case study of women's work in the 1997 Red River Valley flood in the Upper Midwestern US. Drawing on narrative accounts from 115 informants in 14 group interviews, the paper explores women's disaster work at home, in the workplace, and in the community. A typology of ten forms of disaster work was developed to analyze the findings and encourage comparative research. Women's physical and socioemotional work in the household materially contributed to mitigation and reconstruction. Women were also “backstage” emergency responders in their professional roles in female-dominated occupations. These activities led some to collective and individual protest of social inequities arising during the flood. The findings were used to develop practical guidelines for more inclusive emergency planning and practice.","PeriodicalId":100587,"journal":{"name":"Global Environmental Change Part B: Environmental Hazards","volume":"77 1","pages":"1 - 18"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89839685","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Are floods getting worse in the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna basins?","authors":"M. Mirza, R. Warrick, Neil J. Ericksen, G. Kenny","doi":"10.3763/ehaz.2001.0305","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3763/ehaz.2001.0305","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna/Barak rivers are lifelines for millions of people in South Asia in Nepal, India, Bhutan and Bangladesh. They supply water for food and fibre production and for industrial and domestic purposes. They are also sources of disastrous floods that cause substantial damage to agriculture and infrastructure in these countries. There are claims that flood discharges, areal extent, and damage-costs are getting worse in the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna/Barak basins. The validity of these claims was examined by applying four different statistical tests to the peak discharge time series and flooded areas. The results indicate that no conclusive changes have occurred over the last few decades. Reports of increased flood damage may be due to a combination of other factors, such as improved damage assessment techniques, and the expansion and intensification of settlement in flood-prone areas, but this was not tested in this paper and should be top priority for future research.","PeriodicalId":100587,"journal":{"name":"Global Environmental Change Part B: Environmental Hazards","volume":"19 1","pages":"37 - 48"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73207701","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Knowing better and losing even more: the use of knowledge in hazards management","authors":"G. F. White, R. Kates, I. Burton","doi":"10.3763/ehaz.2001.0308","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3763/ehaz.2001.0308","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Although loss of life from natural hazards has been declining, the property losses from those causes have been increasing. At the same time the volume of research on natural hazards and the books reviewing findings on the subject have also increased. Several major changes have occurred in the topics addressed. Emphasis has shifted from hazards to disasters. There has been increasing attention to vulnerability. Views of causation have changed. Four possible explanations are examined for the situation in which more is lost while more is known: (1) knowledge continues to be flawed by areas of ignorance; (2) knowledge is available but not used effectively; (3) knowledge is used effectively but takes a long time to have effect; and (4) knowledge is used effectively in some respects but is overwhelmed by increases in vulnerability and in population, wealth, and poverty.","PeriodicalId":100587,"journal":{"name":"Global Environmental Change Part B: Environmental Hazards","volume":"6 1","pages":"81 - 92"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79727456","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Quo vadis emergency preparedness?","authors":"D. Alexander","doi":"10.3763/ehaz.2001.0313","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3763/ehaz.2001.0313","url":null,"abstract":"The earthquakes that occurred in early 2001 in El Salvador and Gujarat (India) trained the spotlight once again on problems of disaster prevention and emergency preparedness. Such events, and the responses to them on the part of the world community, raise profoundly disquieting issues about the poor quality of data on catastrophe impacts, the slowness to develop professional standards, and the persistence of misassumptions about disaster. They highlight the need to strengthen democratic values when endeavoring to prevent disasters, and they demand that the profile of the emergency management profession be improved. I will begin by discussing the reliability of data.","PeriodicalId":100587,"journal":{"name":"Global Environmental Change Part B: Environmental Hazards","volume":"10 1","pages":"129 - 131"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87368894","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Small island developing states: natural disaster vulnerability and global change","authors":"M. Pelling, J. Uitto","doi":"10.3763/ehaz.2001.0306","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3763/ehaz.2001.0306","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper sets out an examination of natural disaster amongst small island developing states (SIDS), and presents a framework for assessing the interaction of global pressures and local dynamics in the production of human vulnerability. Change at the global level is found to be a source of new opportunities as well as constraints on building local resilience to natural disaster. Much depends on the orientation of the state in global economic and political systems. The United Nations is a key global actor with relevance to shaping vulnerabilityin island states, and the impact of the UN Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction is reviewed. It is concluded that this is a critical time for SIDS which must contend with ongoing developmental pressures in addition to growing pressures from risks associated with global environmental change and economic liberalisation that threaten their physical and economic security.","PeriodicalId":100587,"journal":{"name":"Global Environmental Change Part B: Environmental Hazards","volume":"54 60 1","pages":"49 - 62"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85131233","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The global distribution of human population and recent volcanism","authors":"C. Small, Terry R. Naumann","doi":"10.3763/ehaz.2001.0309","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3763/ehaz.2001.0309","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This study quantifies the spatial relationship between the global distribution of human population and recent volcanism. Using recently compiled databases of population and Holocene volcanoes, we estimate that almost 9% (455 × 106 people) of the world's 1990 population lived within 100km of an historically active volcano and 12% within 100km of a volcano believed to have been active during the last 10,000 years. The analysis also indicates that average population density generally decreases with distance from these volcanoes (within 200 km). In tropical areas, the elevation and fertile soils associated with volcanic regions can provide incentives for agrarian populations to settle close to potentially active volcanoes. In Southeast Asia and Central America higher population densities lie in closer proximity to volcanoes than in other volcanic regions. In Japan and Chile, population density tends to increase with distance from volcanoes. The current trends of rapid urbanization and sustained population growth in tropical developing countries, combined with agricultural intensification of fertile volcanic terrains could alter the relationship between humans and volcanoes so as to increase both local and global consequences of volcanic eruptions in the future.","PeriodicalId":100587,"journal":{"name":"Global Environmental Change Part B: Environmental Hazards","volume":"24 1","pages":"109 - 93"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74416667","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}