Community-based participatory planning contribution to social capital for enhanced disaster resilience in rural Matobo, Zimbabwe

The infusion of participatory methodologies in Zimbabwe gained momentum across rural and urban development planning platforms in the past decades. Participatory approaches are envisaged to deepen grassroots involvement in local planning and strengthen social networks for enhanced disaster resilience against complex weather-related hazards such as droughts. This article examines how community-based participatory planning (CBPP) contributes to the cohesiveness of the vulnerable groups and harnesses local capacities in building social capital. The article is underpinned by the community capital framework in understanding the nexus between participatory planning and social capital. Primary evidence is drawn from the cross-sectional study that targeted different socio-economic groups (N = 120) drawn from the selected three wards out of the 10 where CBPPs were conducted in Matobo district in 2016. The sample size was informed by the Rao Soft sample size calculator, hence a total of (n = 90) socioeconomic groups were targeted for a semi-structured questionnaire. The semi-structured tool was complemented by 12 in-depth interviews and three focus group discussions. Primary data were systematised, cleaned and analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) V23. This was meant to probe and capture the benefits of CBPP and how it has strengthened the social capital of drought-prone communities in rural Matobo. Study results indicate improved inter- and intra-community networks post the CBPP processes in drought-prone Matobo as evidenced by the formation of community clubs, gender inclusive interventions and improved financial and material contributions towards community-driven projects. Furthermore, while women involvement is evident, their influence is less in productive livelihoods activities such as livestock rearing.

Contribution

The CBPP process has shown that inclusive planning improves the identification of risks and strengthens collective actions towards design and implementation of resilience building strategies such as water harvesting and health centres.

Integrating household survey with inoperability input-output model of critical infrastructure systems: A case study of Hurricane Sandy

Critical infrastructures are ubiquitous and their interdependencies have become more complex leading to their uncertain behaviors in the aftermath of disasters. The article develops an integrated economic input-output model that incorporates household-level survey data from Hurricane Sandy, which made its landfall in 2012. In this survey, 427 respondents who were living in the state of New Jersey during Hurricane Sandy were used in the study. The integration of their responses allowed us to show the probability and duration of various types of critical infrastructure failures due to a catastrophic hurricane event and estimate the economic losses across different sectors. The percentage of disruption and recovery period for various infrastructure systems were extracted from the survey, which were then utilized in the economic input-output model comprising of 71 economic sectors. Sectors were then ranked according to: (i) inoperability, the percentage in which a sector is disrupted relative to its ideal level, and (ii) economic loss, the monetary worth of business interruption caused by the disaster. With the combined infrastructure disruptions in the state of New Jersey, the model estimated an economic loss of $36 billion, which is consistent with published estimates. Results from this article can provide insights for future disaster preparedness and resilience planning.

Disasters and the education system: Cyclone Idai and schooling disruption in eastern Chimanimani, Zimbabwe

This article examined how the education system was impacted by the Cyclone ldai disaster in eastern Chimanimani District in 2019. In addition, this article discoursed the enrolment trends, pass rate patterns and general quality of education over the 2018-2019 study period. It assessed local and stakeholders' initiatives towards building a disaster-resilient education system. A mixed-methods approach integrated both quantitative and qualitative techniques to obtain in-depth narratives of lived experiences and quantitative aspects. A chi-square test provided sufficient ground to conclude that there were significant dropout patterns at a 95% confidence level. A paired t-test for the years 2018 (M = 64.59; SD = 12.61) and 2019 (M = 62; SD = 15.32) showed no significant difference (t [11] = 0.817, p = 0.432) at a 95% confidence interval. Concerted efforts are needed to avert the native pattern of school enrolment and academic results reflected in the study.

Contribution

We therefore recommend that a holistic integrative disaster resilience framework between school, community and stakeholders showed great potential for the future.

Resilience patterns of human mobility in response to extreme urban floods

Large-scale disasters can disproportionately impact different population groups, causing prominent disparity and inequality, especially for the vulnerable and marginalized. Here, we investigate the resilience of human mobility under the disturbance of the unprecedented '720' Zhengzhou flood in China in 2021 using records of 1.32 billion mobile phone signaling generated by 4.35 million people. We find that although pluvial floods can trigger mobility reductions, the overall structural dynamics of mobility networks remain relatively stable. We also find that the low levels of mobility resilience in female, adolescent and older adult groups are mainly due to their insufficient capabilities to maintain business-as-usual travel frequency during the flood. Most importantly, we reveal three types of counter-intuitive, yet widely existing, resilience patterns of human mobility (namely, 'reverse bathtub', 'ever-increasing' and 'ever-decreasing' patterns), and demonstrate a universal mechanism of disaster-avoidance response by further corroborating that those abnormal resilience patterns are not associated with people's gender or age. In view of the common association between travel behaviors and travelers' socio-demographic characteristics, our findings provide a caveat for scholars when disclosing disparities in human travel behaviors during flood-induced emergencies.

Tibetan Buddhist belief and disaster resilience: a qualitative exploration of the Yushu area, China

The role of religious belief in disasters has attracted increased scholarly interest in recent years. This paper shows that religious belief can generate disaster resilience through the pathways of disaster framing, mental health, and disaster behaviours. Drawing on interviews conducted with Tibetan Buddhist believers in the Yushu earthquake area of China, this study indicates that notions of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as religious practices, helped locals to make sense of the 2010 event, obtain spiritual support in its aftermath, foster a sense of community, and develop a prosocial post-earthquake environment. These religious notions and practices also assisted in sustaining a faith-based network composed of two kinds of important local social relationships, layperson-layperson and layperson-monk, which increased local disaster resilience at the level of response behaviour. The findings enrich our understanding of the religious source of disaster resilience and yield insights into disaster risk reduction in religious regions, especially where Buddhist belief is prevalent.

Integration of knowledge and local wisdom for disaster resilience in Anak Krakatau volcano

Indonesia lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where most of the area is highly unstable, making it a site of numerous volcanoes and earthquakes, so it needs to enhance its social system through knowledge, awareness, and local wisdom to create disaster resilience. Previous research has discussed resilience through societal knowledge and awareness, but there is a gap in understanding the local wisdom. Therefore, this study aims to present how the resilience process concerns with the community based on the local wisdom and knowledge for the community in Anak Krakatau, Banten. This research employs observations on the conditions of facilities and infrastructure of access road, in-depth interviews with local people, and bibliometric review over the last 17 years. A total of 16 articles were selected and reviewed for this study, after comprehensive analysis from 2000 documents. It is stated that preparing for natural hazards requires the integration of knowledge and local knowledge. Prior to the occurrence of a natural calamity, knowledge is dependent on the structure of a home in order to create a resilient structure, while local lore relies on the omens of nature.

Contribution

The integration of knowledge and local wisdom can fulfil the resilience process in terms of preparedness and after effect of natural hazards. These integrations must be evaluated for disaster mitigation policies in order to develop and implement a comprehensive disaster mitigation plan for the community.

A Socio-Health Approach to Improve Local Disaster Resilience and Contain Secondary Crises: A Case Study in an Agricultural Community Exposed to Bushfires in Australia

Recent large-scale disasters have exposed the interconnected nature of modern societies, exacerbating the risk of cascading impacts. Examining elements of community health status, such as social determinants of health, their perceived health status, and how they relate to disaster resilience, can illuminate alternative actions for cost-effective disaster prevention and management. Moreover, agricultural communities are essential to food security and provide a working example of the importance of mitigation in escalation of crises. To that aim, this research examines perceptions of the relationship between disaster resilience and determinants of health, including health status. Participants also reported their views on perceived vulnerable groups in their community and proposed design characteristics of more effective community disaster plans.Here investigated are these elements in a small agricultural community of Western Australia previously exposed to bushfires. A questionnaire was used based on health elements from the Social Determinants of Health described by the World Health Organization (WHO) and compared this with quantitative data describing the community health status. A mixed methods approach combining qualitative (semi-structured interview) and quantitative (closed questions using a Likert scale) tools was undertaken with a small group of community members.It was found that community connection and social capital were perceived to provide knowledge and support that enhanced individual disaster risk awareness and preparedness and improved an individual's disaster resilience. Stress and social exclusion within a community were perceived to decrease an individual's resilience to disaster. Disaster resilience was reported to be a function of good physical and mental health. To achieve effective disaster planning, community partnership in the development, education, and testing of plans and robust communication were described as essential traits in community emergency plans.

Uneven Growth in Social Capital Organizations After Disasters by Pre-Disaster Conditions in the United States 2000-2014

INTRODUCTION

Community-level social capital organizations are critical pre-existing resources that can be leveraged in a disaster.

AIM

The study aimed to test the hypothesis that communities with larger pre-disaster stocks of social capital organizations would maintain pre-disaster levels or experience growth.

METHODOLOGY

An annual panel dataset of counties in the contiguous United States from 2000 to 2014 totaling 46620 county-years, including longitudinal data on disasters and social capital institutions was used to evaluate the effect of disaster on growth of social capital.

RESULTS

When a county experienced more months of disasters, social capital organizations increased a year later. These findings varied based on the baseline level of social capital organizations. For counties experiencing minor disaster impacts, growth in social capital organizations tends to occur in counties with more social capital organizations in 2000; this effect is a countervailing finding to that of major disasters, and effect sizes are larger.

CONCLUSION

Given the growing frequency of smaller-scale disasters and the considerable number of communities that experienced these disasters, the findings suggest that small scale events create the most common and potentially broadest impact opportunity for intervention to lessen disparities in organizational growth.

Healthcare Workers' Resilience Toolkit for Disaster Management and Climate Change Adaptation

Climate change has been recognised as a multiplier of risk factors affecting public health. Disruptions caused by natural disasters and other climate-driven impacts are placing increasing demands on healthcare systems. These, in turn, impact the wellness and performance of healthcare workers (HCWs) and hinder the accessibility, functionality and safety of healthcare systems. This study explored factors influencing HCWs' disaster management capabilities with the aim of improving their resilience and adaptive capacity in the face of climate change. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with thirteen HCWs who dealt with disasters within two hospitals in Queensland, Australia. Analysis of the results identified two significant themes, HCWs' disaster education and HCWs' wellness and needs. The latter comprised five subthemes: HCWs' fear and vulnerability, doubts and uncertainty, competing priorities, resilience and adaptation, and needs assessment. This study developed an 'HCWs Resilience Toolkit', which encourages mindfulness amongst leaders, managers and policymakers about supporting four priority HCWs' needs: 'Wellness', 'Education', 'Resources' and 'Communication'. The authors focused on the 'Education' component to detail recommended training for each of the pre-disaster, mid-disaster and post-disaster phases. The authors conclude the significance of the toolkit, which provides a timely contribution to the healthcare sector amidst ongoing adversity.

Spatial-Temporal Characteristics of Multi-Hazard Resilience in Ecologically Fragile Areas of Southwest China: A Case Study in Aba

Aba's topography, weather, and climate make it prone to landslides, mudslides, and other natural disasters, which limit economic and social growth. Assessing and improving regional resilience is important to mitigate natural disasters and achieve sustainable development. In this paper, the entropy weight method is used to calculate the resilience of Aba under multi-hazard stress from 2010 to 2018 by combining the existing framework with the disaster resilience of the place (DROP) model. Then spatial-temporal characteristics are analyzed based on the coefficient of variation and exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA). Finally, partial least squares (PLS) regression is used to identify the key influences on disaster resilience. The results show that (1) the disaster resilience in Aba increased from 2010 to 2018 but dropped in 2013 and 2017 due to large-scale disasters. (2) There are temporal and spatial differences in the level of development in each of the Aba counties. From 2010 to 2016, disaster resilience shows a significant positive spatial association and high-high (HH) aggregation in the east and low-low (LL) aggregation in the west. Then the spatial aggregation weakened after 2017. This paper proposes integrating regional development, strengthening the development level building, and emphasizing disaster management for Aba.

The role of Nature-based Solutions in disaster resilience in coastal Jamaica: current and potential applications for 'building back better'

Jamaica, like most Small Island Developing States around the world, is at high risk of coastal hazards due to its exposure to tropical storms, high levels of coastal development, vulnerable coastal communities, and the predicted impacts of climate change. Environmental degradation has been linked to increased vulnerability to disasters. Nature-based Solutions, although not formally present in the literature, are being implemented at various scales in Jamaica. This paper presents an overview of three marine and coastal Nature-based Solutions being utilised in the country: protected area management (Special Fishery Conservation Areas); mangrove restoration; and coral restoration. The paper briefly reviews their current application in Jamaica before arguing that these conservation projects that traditionally focused on biodiversity have co-benefits as Nature-based Solutions for disaster resilience. The paper closes by outlining several research objectives that should be explored in the future to further the implementation of Nature-based Solutions for disaster resilience in Jamaica.

Toward data-driven, dynamical complex systems approaches to disaster resilience

With rapid urbanization and increasing climate risks, enhancing the resilience of urban systems has never been more important. Despite the availability of massive datasets of human behavior (e.g., mobile phone data, satellite imagery), studies on disaster resilience have been limited to using static measures as proxies for resilience. However, static metrics have significant drawbacks such as their inability to capture the effects of compounding and accumulating disaster shocks; dynamic interdependencies of social, economic, and infrastructure systems; and critical transitions and regime shifts, which are essential components of the complex disaster resilience process. In this article, we argue that the disaster resilience literature needs to take the opportunities of big data and move toward a different research direction, which is to develop data-driven, dynamical complex systems models of disaster resilience. Data-driven complex systems modeling approaches could overcome the drawbacks of static measures and allow us to quantitatively model the dynamic recovery trajectories and intrinsic resilience characteristics of communities in a generic manner by leveraging large-scale and granular observations. This approach brings a paradigm shift in modeling the disaster resilience process and its linkage with the recovery process, paving the way to answering important questions for policy applications via counterfactual analysis and simulations.

Resilience Dividends and Resilience Windfalls: Narratives That Tie Disaster Resilience Co-Benefits to Long-Term Sustainability

The need for increased disaster resilience planning, especially at the community level, as well as the need to address sustainability are clear; these dual objectives have been deemed national priorities in a number of recent US Executive Orders. Major global climate agreements, (i.e., the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, Paris Climate Agreement, and the Sustainable Development Goals) all emphasize the need to integrate disaster resilience and climate risks with continued sustainable development concerns. Current ways of assessing synergies and trade-offs across planning for disaster resilience and sustainability in investment projects that impact communities are limited. The driving research question in this paper is how researchers and practitioners may better express relative categories of co-benefits to meet this need. We draw upon the categorization of some co-benefits as contributing to the resilience dividend, which has helped communication across fields and created bridges from research to practical on-the-ground planning in recent years. Furthermore, we leverage the growing focus on the need to recognize the role of narratives in driving decisions about how and where to invest, which elucidates the inherent value of archetypes that resonate across stakeholders and disciplines to describe investments that may meet multiple objectives. We introduce the concept of a resilience windfall as an unexpected or sudden gain or advantage of resilience planning to be conceptualized alongside resilience dividends. We then assess the practicality of decerning resilience windfalls across various projects that have aspects of both resilience and sustainability. We recount five narrative vignettes that demonstrate disaster resilience interventions and associated resilience dividends and windfalls. This effort highlights the importance of considering resilience dividends and resilience windfalls during the planning, execution, and evaluation phases of disaster resilience projects. These typologies provide an important contribution to the integration agenda between disaster resilience, climate risks, and sustainable development. There are policy implications of framing incentives for interventions that address both disaster resilience and long-term sustainability objectives as well as encouraging robust tracking of both resilience dividends and windfalls.

The Disaster Adaptation and Resilience Scale: development and validation of an individual-level protection measure

Given the increasing threat of disasters in the United States and elsewhere around the world, well-tested assessment tools that operationalise specific protective factors associated with adaptation and resilience to such events are needed. Consequently, the authors proposed, developed, and validated the Disaster Adaptation and Resilience Scale (DARS) to measure five domains found to support adaptive responses in individuals exposed to disasters: physical resources; social resources; problem-solving; distress regulation; and optimism. The development and validation processes of DARS occurred across two studies: the first comprised construct development, item generation, and expert review, whereas the second involved a full validation evaluation of the psychometric properties of the scale in a sample of adults exposed to a disaster in the US (N=625). The results revealed that DARS had psychometric properties that support its use among adults experiencing a disaster. A discussion is presented on how the scale can be employed in both research and practice.

How Do Non-Catastrophic Natural Disasters Impact Middle-Aged-to-Older Persons? Using Baseline Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging Data to Explore Psychological Outcomes Associated with the 2013 Calgary Flood

The objective of this study was to identify group-level health outcomes associated with the 2013 Calgary flood on Calgary participants (45-85 years of age) in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA). We compared baseline CLSA data collected on Calgary participants during the 6 months prior to and following the flood. Logistic regression models were created to explore whether select psychological outcomes were associated with the flood for participants categorized by evacuation status. Participants living in evacuated communities pre-flood had significantly lower levels of a diagnosed anxiety disorder than non-evacuated communities, which disappeared post-flood. Participants with higher household income were less likely to have post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, worse self-rated mental health, and lower life satisfaction post-flood. Living alone reduced and female gender increased levels of perceived functional social support post-flood. Although natural disasters can shape research findings, the scope of the data being collected and the representativeness of impacted groups may challenge the ability to detect subtle impacts.

A Concept Analysis on Disaster Resilience in Rescue Workers: The Psychological Perspective

OBJECTIVE

The term disaster resilience has not been well defined. The purpose of this article is to scrutinize the concept of disaster resilience in rescue workers.

METHODS

A systematic search was conducted of the PsychInfo, PubMed, ISI Web of Science, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Embase, and Scopus databases using the key terms. The framework from Walker and Avant was used to analyze the concept of disaster resilience.

RESULTS

A total of 26 papers was included in this analysis. The attributes of disaster resilience have been identified from the literature as including personality, perceived control, self-efficacy, coping strategies, and social support. The antecedents of disaster resilience are disastrous events and preparedness for disaster. The consequences of disaster resilience are psychological well-being, posttraumatic growth, and enhanced work engagement.

CONCLUSION

This concept analysis presents a definition of the concept of disaster resilience that could contribute to the development of a standardized screening or assessment tool and tailored training programs to strengthen disaster resilience among those who are willing to be deployed to engage in disaster rescue work and those who have been involved in such work.

Delivering the Promise of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Contexts (FCAC): A Case Study of the NGO GOAL's Response to the Syria Conflict

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) has helped to reduce global disaster risk, but there has been a lack of progress in disaster risk reduction (DRR) for people living in fragile and conflict affected contexts (FCAC). Given the mounting evidence that DRR cannot be implemented through conventional approaches in FCAC, serious efforts must be made to understand how to meet SFDRR's goals. This paper offers a case study of international non-governmental organization GOAL's programming that responds to the protracted crisis in Syria, with critical discussion on SFDRR and how to adapt humanitarian relief and disaster resilience.

An IoE and Big Multimedia Data Approach for Urban Transport System Resilience Management in Smart Cities

Today, the complexity of urban systems combined with existing and emerging threats constrains administrations to consider smart technologies and related huge amounts of data generated as a means to take timely and informed decisions. The smart city needs to be prepared for both expected and unexpected situations, and the possibility to mitigate the effect of the uncertainty behind the causes of disruptions through the analysis of all the possible data generated by the city open new possibility for resilience operationalization. This article aims at introducing a new conceptualization for resilience and presenting an innovative full stack solution to exploit Internet of Everything (IoE) and big multimedia data in smart cities to manage resilience of urban transport systems (UTS), which is one of the most critical infrastructures of the city. The approach is based on a novel data driven approach to resilience engineering and functional resonance analysis method (FRAM), to understand and model an UTS in the context of smart cities and to support evidence driven decision making. The paper proposes an architecture taking into account: (a) different kinds of available data generated in the smart city, (b) big data collection and semantic aggregation and enrichment; (c) data sense-making process composed by analytics of different data sources like social media, communication networks, IoT, user behavior; (d) tools for knowledge driven decisions able to combine different information generated by analytics, experience, and structural information of the city into a comprehensive and evidence driven decision model. The solution has been applied in Florence metropolitan city in the context of RESOLUTE H2020 research project of the European Commission.

Characteristics of Resilience Among Disaster Rescue Workers: A Systematic Review

Disasters can cause long-lasting damage to survivors and rescue workers. Some rescue workers suffer negative physical and psychological consequences, while others do not. Thus, it is of value to fully understand the characteristics of rescuers who have not been affected by rescue activities. Resilience refers to the ability or capacity to cope with adversity. The aim of this review is to explore and identify the characteristics of resilience among rescue workers. A systematic literature search was conducted of seven electronic databases from inception to May 2019, using keywords and medical subject heading terms related to the resilience of rescuers. Hand searches and searches of leading authors were also performed. A total of 31 articles were eligible for review. Six domains were identified to characterize the resilience of rescuers namely, demographic and physical characteristics, personality traits, coping strategies, perceived resources, being equipped with special skills for disaster rescue, and having less adverse consequences from exposure to disaster. Researchers and disaster managers can take note of these characteristics to comprehensively understand the 'positive concept' of resilience. This enhanced understanding of 'positive resilience' can in turn be used to develop a framework to assess and establish interventions, and consequently to improve the psychological wellbeing of rescuers after disaster rescue efforts.

Building disaster resilience using social messaging networks: the WeChat community in Houston, Texas, during Hurricane Harvey

Analyses of disaster resilience have focused increasingly on the role of social capital and online social networks in recovery. This study complements this field of work by investigating three key issues. First, it examines how a social messaging application, WeChat, helped individuals to access and to mobilise three types of social capital-bonding, bridging, and linking-during Hurricane Harvey, a Category 4 storm that made landfall in Louisiana and Texas in the United States in August 2017, resulting in significant flooding and loss of life. Second, it pinpoints and assesses quantitatively how individuals' WeChat group usage and social capital influenced their post-disaster well-being. Third, it demonstrates how a minority and immigrant community in Houston, Texas, overcame the disadvantages commonly observed in other disaster research through the utilisation of social media. The findings of this study should aid governmental and community efforts to foster resilience in the face of natural and human-induced hazards.

Applying an Innovative Model of Disaster Resilience at the Neighborhood Level : The COPEWELL New York City Experience

Community resilience is a community's ability to maintain functioning (ie, delivery of services) during and after a disaster event. The Composite of Post-Event Well-Being (COPEWELL) is a system dynamics model of community resilience that predicts a community's disaster-specific functioning over time. We explored COPEWELL's usefulness as a practice-based tool for understanding community resilience and to engage partners in identifying resilience-strengthening strategies. In 2014, along with academic partners, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene organized an interdisciplinary work group that used COPEWELL to advance cross-sector engagement, design approaches to understand and strengthen community resilience, and identify local data to explore COPEWELL implementation at neighborhood levels. The authors conducted participant interviews and collected shared experiences to capture information on lessons learned. The COPEWELL model led to an improved understanding of community resilience among agency members and community partners. Integration and enhanced alignment of efforts among preparedness, disaster resilience, and community development emerged. The work group identified strategies to strengthen resilience. Searches of neighborhood-level data sets and mapping helped prioritize communities that are vulnerable to disasters (eg, medically vulnerable, socially isolated, low income). These actions increased understanding of available data, identified data gaps, and generated ideas for future data collection. The COPEWELL model can be used to drive an understanding of resilience, identify key geographic areas at risk during and after a disaster, spur efforts to build on local metrics, and result in innovative interventions that integrate and align efforts among emergency preparedness, community development, and broader public health initiatives.

Understanding post-disaster population recovery patterns

Despite the rising importance of enhancing community resilience to disasters, our understandings on when, how and why communities are able to recover from such extreme events are limited. Here, we study the macroscopic population recovery patterns in disaster affected regions, by observing human mobility trajectories of over 1.9 million mobile phone users across three countries before, during and after five major disasters. We find that, despite the diversity in socio-economic characteristics among the affected regions and the types of hazards, population recovery trends after significant displacement resemble similar patterns after all five disasters. Moreover, the heterogeneity in initial and long-term displacement rates across communities in the three countries were explained by a set of key common factors, including the community's median income level, population, housing damage rates and the connectedness to other cities. Such insights discovered from large-scale empirical data could assist policymaking in various disciplines for developing community resilience to disasters.

"For this one, let me take the risk": why surgical staff continued to perform caesarean sections during the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone

Introduction

Routine health service provision decreased during the 2014–2016 Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in Sierra Leone, while caesarean section (CS) rates at public hospitals did not. It is unknown what made staff provide CS despite the risks of contracting EVD. This study explores Sierra Leonean health worker perspectives of why they continued to provide CS.

Methods

This qualitative study documents the experiences of 15 CS providers who worked during the EVD outbreak. We interviewed surgical and non-surgical CS providers who worked at public hospitals that either increased or decreased CS volumes during the outbreak. Hospitals in all four administrative areas of Sierra Leone were included. Semistructured interviews averaged 97 min and healthcare experience 21 years. Transcripts were analysed by modified framework analysis in the NVivo V.11.4.1 software.

Results

We identified two themes that may explain why providers performed CS despite EVD risks: (1) clinical adaptability and (2) overcoming the moral dilemmas. CS providers reported being overworked and exposed to infection hazards. However, they developed clinical workarounds to the lack of surgical materials, protective equipment and standard operating procedures until the broader international response introduced formal personal protective equipment and infection prevention and control practices. CS providers reported that dutifulness and sense of responsibility for one’s community increased during EVD, which helped them justify taking the risk of being infected. Although most surgical activities were reduced to minimise staff exposure to EVD, staff at public hospitals tended to prioritise performing CS surgery for women with acute obstetric complications.

Conclusion

This study found that CS surgery during EVD in Sierra Leone may be explained by remarkable decisions by individual CS providers at public hospitals. They adapted practically to material limitations exacerbated by the outbreak and overcame the moral dilemmas of performing CS despite the risk of being infected with EVD.

The association between social cohesion and community disaster resilience: A cross-sectional study

A cross-sectional study design was created, using the Index of Perceived Community Resilience (IPCR) and Buckner's Index of Cohesion (BIC) to survey 386 flood evacuees from six communities in Kelantan, Malaysia, in 2015. The respondents were mostly female (54.7%); lived in basic housing (95.6%); average income (55.9%); secondary level schooling (81.1%); not involved with community organisations (95.1%), volunteering activities (91.2%), or emergency teams (96.9%); inexperience with injury during flooding (94%); experienced the emergency disaster (61.6%); and their mean age was 49 years old. Overall, respondents scored a high level of community disaster resilience (CDR) (mean 3.9) and social cohesion (mean 3.79). Also, respondents' housing type, event of injury during disaster, volunteering in post-disaster activities, and emergency team participation were significantly associated with CDR (p = 0.001-0.002), organisational involvement (p = 0.016), and emergency disaster experience (p = 0.028) were significantly associated with social cohesion. The Pearson correlation coefficient results mostly showing a moderate, weak, and one with a strong relationship. There is a strong relationship between community participation (CDR) in events and BIC variables (r = 0.529, p = 0.001). Other analysis shows a moderate but significant relationship with BIC; is open to ideas (r = 0.332, p = 0.001); community has similar values/ideas (r = 0.421, p = 0.001); sense of pride (r = 0.389, p = 0.001); strong leadership (r = 0.339, p = 0.001); positive change (r = 0.484, p = 0.001); and able to handle problems (r = 0.454, p = 0.001). Overall, the results show that respondents had high levels of CDR and social cohesion, while the demographic characteristics show the impact of CDR and social cohesion. In conclusion, the data gives original insight into the level of association between social cohesion and disaster resilience, which could be used as a building block in sustainable disaster recovery. There is a need to explore this further on programmes designed to improve social cohesion across communities.

Community Resilience Learning Collaborative and Research Network (C-LEARN): Study Protocol with Participatory Planning for a Randomized, Comparative Effectiveness Trial

This manuscript presents the protocol and participatory planning process for implementing the Community Resilience Learning Collaborative and Research Network (C-LEARN) study. C-LEARN is designed to determine how to build a service program and individual client capacity to improve mental health-related quality of life among individuals at risk for depression, with exposure to social risk factors or concerns about environmental hazards in areas of Southern Louisiana at risk for events such as hurricanes and storms. The study uses a Community Partnered Participatory Research (CPPR) framework to incorporate community priorities into study design and implementation. The first phase of C-LEARN is assessment of community priorities, assets, and opportunities for building resilience through key informant interviews and community agency outreach. Findings from this phase will inform the implementation of a two-level (program-level and individual client level) randomized study in up to four South Louisiana communities. Within communities, health and social-community service programs will be randomized to Community Engagement and Planning (CEP) for multi-sector coalition support or Technical Assistance (TA) for individual program support to implement evidence-based and community-prioritized intervention toolkits, including an expanded version of depression collaborative care and resources (referrals, manuals) to address social risk factors such as financial or housing instability and for a community resilience approach to disaster preparedness and response. Within each arm, the study will randomize individual adult clients to one of two mobile applications that provide informational resources on services for depression, social risk factors, and disaster response or also provide psychoeducation on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to enhance coping with stress and mood. Planned data collection includes baseline, six-month and brief monthly surveys for clients, and baseline and 12-month surveys for administrators and staff.

Analysing news media coverage of the 2015 Nepal earthquake using a community capitals lens: implications for disaster resilience

South Asia is one of the regions of the world most vulnerable to natural disasters. Although news media analyses of disasters have been conducted frequently in various settings globally, there is little research on populous South Asia. This paper begins to fill this gap by evaluating local and foreign news media coverage of the earthquake in Nepal on 25 April 2015. It broadens the examination of news media coverage of disaster response beyond traditional framing theory, utilising community capitals (built, cultural, financial, human, natural, political, and social) lens to perform a thematic content analysis of 405 news items. Overall, financial and natural capital received the most and the least emphasis respectively. Statistically significant differences between local and foreign news media were detected vis-à-vis built, financial, and political capital. The paper concludes with a discussion of the social utility of news media analysis using the community capitals framework to inform disaster resilience.

Assessing community resilience: A CART survey application in an impoverished urban community

This article describes an application of the Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit (CART) Assessment Survey which has been recognized as an important community tool to assist communities in their resilience-building efforts. Developed to assist communities in assessing their resilience to disasters and other adversities, the CART survey can be used to obtain baseline information about a community, to identify relative community strengths and challenges, and to re-examine a community after a disaster or post intervention. This article, which describes an application of the survey in a community of 5 poverty neighborhoods, illustrates the use of the instrument, explicates aspects of community resilience, and provides possible explanations for the results. The paper also demonstrates how a community agency that serves many of the functions of a broker organization can enhance community resilience. Survey results suggest various dimensions of community resilience (as represented by core CART community resilience items and CART domains) and potential predictors. Correlates included homeownership, engagement with local entities/activities, prior experience with a personal emergency or crisis while living in the neighborhood, and involvement with a community organization that focuses on building safe and caring communities through personal relationships. In addition to influencing residents' perceptions of their community, it is likely that the community organization, which served as a sponsor for this application, contributes directly to community resilience through programs and initiatives that enhance social capital and resource acquisition and mobilization.

Defining disaster resilience: comparisons from key stakeholders involved in emergency management in Victoria, Australia

Three years after the introduction of the National Strategy for Disaster Resilience there remains no unanimously adopted definition of disaster resilience within Australia's emergency management sector. The aim of this study is to determine what the concept means to key stakeholders in the emergency management sector in the Australian State of Victoria, and how these conceptualisations overlap and diverge. Via an online survey, 113 people were asked how they define disaster resilience in their work in the emergency management sector. A data mining software tool, Leximancer, was employed to uncover the relationships between the definitions provided. The findings show that stakeholders see resilience as an 'ability' that encompasses emergency management activities and personal responsibility. However, the findings also highlight some possible points of conflict between stakeholders. In addition, the paper outlines and discusses a number of potential consequences for the implementation and the success of the resilience-based approach in Australia.

Can Community Social Cohesion Prevent Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in the Aftermath of a Disaster? A Natural Experiment From the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami

In the aftermath of a disaster, the risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is high. We sought to examine whether the predisaster level of community social cohesion was associated with a lower risk of PTSD after the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku, Japan, on March 11, 2011. The baseline for our natural experiment was established in a survey of older community-dwelling adults who lived 80 kilometers west of the epicenter 7 months before the earthquake and tsunami. A follow-up survey was conducted approximately 2.5 years after the disaster. We used a spatial Durbin model to examine the association of community-level social cohesion with the individual risk of PTSD. Among our analytic sample (n = 3,567), 11.4% of respondents reported severe PTSD symptoms. In the spatial Durbin model, individual- and community-level social cohesion before the disaster were significantly associated with lower risks of PTSD symptoms (odds ratio = 0.87, 95% confidence interval: 0.77, 0.98 and odds ratio = 0.75, 95% confidence interval: 0.63, 0.90, respectively), even after adjustment for depression symptoms at baseline and experiences during the disaster (including loss of loved ones, housing damage, and interruption of access to health care). Community-level social cohesion strengthens the resilience of community residents in the aftermath of a disaster.

Response to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami disaster

We revisited the lessons of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake Tsunami disaster specifically on the response and impact, and discussed the paradigm shift of Japan's tsunami disaster management policies and the perspectives for reconstruction. Revisiting the modern histories of Tohoku tsunami disasters and pre-2011 tsunami countermeasures, we clarified how Japan's coastal communities have prepared for tsunamis. The discussion mainly focuses on structural measures such as seawalls and breakwaters and non-structural measures of hazard map and evacuation. The responses to the 2011 event are discussed specifically on the tsunami warning system and efforts to identify the tsunami impacts. The nation-wide post-tsunami survey results shed light on the mechanisms of structural destruction, tsunami loads and structural vulnerability to inform structural rehabilitation measures and land-use planning. Remarkable paradigm shifts in designing coastal protection and disaster mitigation measures were introduced, leading with a new concept of potential tsunami levels: Prevention (Level 1) and Mitigation (Level 2) levels according to the level of 'protection'. The seawall is designed with reference to Level 1 tsunami scenario, while comprehensive disaster management measures should refer to Level 2 tsunami for protection of human lives and reducing potential losses and damage. Throughout the case study in Sendai city, the proposed reconstruction plan was evaluated from the tsunami engineering point of view to discuss how the post 2011 paradigm was implemented in coastal communities for future disaster mitigation. The analysis revealed that Sendai city's multiple protection measures for Level 2 tsunami will contribute to a substantial reduction of the tsunami inundation zone and potential losses, combined with an effective tsunami evacuation plan.

Post-Ike economic resilience along the Texas coast

The economic devastation resulting from recent natural disasters has spawned intense interest in programmes that promote regional resilience. The economic impacts of Hurricane Ike (September 2008) endured long beyond the storm's landfall, compounded by a national recession. This study analyses the pattern of post-Ike industrial growth in eight coastal counties of Texas, United States, and identifies sources of resilience and potential drivers of recovery. The results indicate that post-disaster growth patterns differ from established growth patterns. Levels of resilience vary across industrial sectors, and service sectors tend to lead a recovery. The resilience of the hotel and restaurant sector, for instance, suggests that the presence of relief workers might immunise certain sectors against a post-disaster economic downturn. Besides the sectors that are generally resilient, each county has its own distinct sectors that, depending on the extent of the damage suffered, tend to perform strongly after a disaster, owing to the characteristics of the respective county's economy.

The barriers to environmental sustainability in post-disaster settings: a case study of transitional shelter implementation in Haiti

Disaster recovery operations that do not account for environmental sustainability (ES) risk exacerbating the impact of the disaster and hindering long-term recovery efforts. Yet aid agencies do not always consider ES. This research is a case study of the recovery that followed the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Using timber and concrete procurement as proxies for broader post-disaster operations, research examined perceptions of ES as well as attempts at and barriers to incorporating it into programming. Identified barriers can be grouped into two categories: (1) prioritisations and perceptions within the disaster response sector that resulted in limited enthusiasm for incorporating ES into programming, and (2) structural and organisational barriers within the disaster response framework that impeded ES attempts and served as a further disincentive to incorporating ES into programming. As a result of those barriers, incorporation of ES was sporadic and inconsistent and often depended on the capacity and motivation of specific implementers.