Development in Disaster-Prone Places

by Lewis, James

• ISBN13: 9781853394720
• ISBN10: 1853394726
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-10-01
• Publisher: Practical Action Pub

Summary

This book addresses the long-overdue imbalance in disaster management: an over-emphasis on post-disaster assistance and a lack of attention to vulnerability reduction. It answers the fundamental question in this debate: how can we mould pre-disaster development initiatives to become the most appropriate means for vulnerability reduction? The book reasserts and reapplies some of the basic concepts and issues that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, with the message that development is a prime medium both of vulnerability and its reduction. The author examines requirements for long-term change so that conditions that have become the context for catastrophe can be modified. By focusing on longer-term policies and activities now, emergency relief efforts will have a positive context within which to contribute to development and the likelihood of recurrence will be reduced. The book contains case-studies from Sri Lanka, the Caribbean and the South Pacific and focuses on hazards of all kinds, setting out to redress the balance between large-scale disasters of global significance and small-scale disasters that are a matter of everyday existence.

Table of Contents

Foreword	viii
Preface	ix
Acknowledgements	x
Introduction	xi
PART ONE: VULNERABILITY	1	(42)
The meaning of vulnerability	3	(9)
National and local vulnerability	3	(1)
The meaning of vulnerability	4	(8)
Vulnerability and risk	8	(4)
The observation, perception and identification of vulnerability	12	(11)
Observation of vulnerability	12	(1)
Perception of vulnerability	12	(2)
Identification of vulnerability	14	(9)
Movement of populations	16	(2)
Historical studies	18	(1)
Small countries and island states	18	(2)
Climate change and sea level rise	20	(3)
The experience of vulnerability	23	(4)
Dependency	23	(1)
National vulnerability	23	(1)
Social vulnerability	24	(1)
Institutional, military and systems vulnerability	24	(1)
Economic vulnerability	25	(1)
Environmental vulnerability	26	(1)
The making of vulnerability	27	(9)
Population displacement	27	(1)
Commercial agriculture	27	(2)
Erosion and flooding	28	(1)
Urban shanty settlements	29	(1)
Coastal tourism	29	(1)
Disasters as agents of future vulnerability	30	(2)
Conflict and vulnerability	32	(4)
Algeria	32	(1)
Papua New Guinea	33	(1)
Ethiopia	34	(2)
Survival -- vulnerability and development	36	(7)
Survival; a neglected issue	36	(1)
Post-disaster assistance and vulnerability	37	(2)
Vulnerability and development	39	(4)
PART TWO: STUDIES OF VULNERABILITY	43	(82)
Vulnerability and the analysis of context	45	(9)
The reporting of disasters	45	(1)
Prevailing conditions and characteristics	46	(1)
Island places	47	(1)
Recurring themes	48	(1)
The incumbent and the creator of vulnerability	48	(1)
Massive proportional impacts and small-scale responses	48	(2)
Recurrence	50	(1)
Interrelationships	51	(1)
Mutual protection	51	(1)
Maintenance	51	(1)
The Case-studies	52	(2)
Case-studies
Volcano in Tonga	54	(6)
Some perspectives on natural disaster vulnerability in Tonga	60	(14)
A multi-hazard history of Antigua	74	(13)
Vulnerability to a cyclone: Damage distribution in Sri Lanka	87	(22)
Change, and vulnerability to a natural hazard: Chiswell, Dorset	109	(16)
PART THREE: A PATTERN FOR DEVELOPMENT	125	(39)
Development and disasters	127	(10)
A brief history	127	(2)
A cyclical concept	129	(2)
Institutions and policies	131	(2)
Management for comprehensive development	133	(4)
Equitable preventive development	137	(8)
Equitable practice	137	(1)
Decentralization and accessibility	138	(3)
Survival and recovery	141	(1)
Vulnerability and sustainability	142	(3)
Vulnerability reduction in development	145	(8)
A review	145	(1)
Disasters--the monitor of development	146	(1)
Urban and rural balance	146	(1)
Preventive development	147	(3)
Project identification	150	(1)
Reconstruction and implementation	151	(2)
Strategic development for vulnerability reduction	153	(9)
Insider assessments	156	(1)
Recurrence	157	(1)
Survival, equitability, sustainability--and interrelatedness	157	(1)
Populations	158	(1)
Social infrastructure	158	(1)
Physical and other infrastructure	159	(1)
Emergency assistance	159	(1)
Policy and administration	159	(3)
The next ten years and more	162	(2)
References	164	(6)
Index	170