Table Of ContentHazards and Disasters Series
Hazards, Risks, and
Disasters in Society
Volume Editors
Andrew E. Collins
Department of Geography/Disaster and Development Network (DDN),
Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK
Samantha Jones
Department of Geography/Disaster and Development Network (DDN),
Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK
Bernard Manyena
Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute (HCRI),
Manchester University, Manchester UK and Disaster and
Development Network (DDN), Newcastle, UK
Janaka Jayawickrama
Post-war Reconstruction and Development Unit (PRDU),
University of York, York, UK and Disaster and
Development Network (DDN), Newcastle, UK
Series Editor
John F. Shroder
Emeritus Professor of Geography and Geology,
Department of Geography and Geology,
University of Nebraska at Omaha,
Omaha, NE 68182
AMSTERDAMlBOSTONlHEIDELBERGlLONDONlNEWYORKlOXFORD
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Contributors
Supriya Akerkar, Centre for Development and Emergency Practice (CENDEP),
OxfordBrookesUniversity,Oxford,UK
David Alexander, Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction (IRDR), University
CollegeLondon,UK
Tomohide Atsumi, Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University, Osaka,
Japan
Per Becker, Centre for Societal Resilience and LUCRAM, Lund University, Stock-
holm,Sweden
SarahBradshaw,DepartmentofLawandPolitics,MiddlesexUniversity,London,UK
Andrew E. Collins, Department of Geography/Disaster and Development Network
(DDN),NorthumbriaUniversity,Newcastle, UK
John Devavaram, Resource Centre for Participatory Development Studies, Madurai,
India
MichaelEburn,ANUCollegeofLaw,TheAustralianNationalUniversity,Canberra,
ACT,Australia
RossEdgeworth,DisasterandDevelopmentNetwork(DDN),NorthumbriaUniversity,
Newcastle,UK
MaureenFordham,DepartmentofGeography/GenderandDisasterNetwork(GDN),
NorthumbriaUniversity,Newcastle, UK
Mohsen Ghafory-Ashtiany, International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and
Seismology(IIEES), Tehran,IslamicRepublic ofIran
SusannaM.Hoffman,Hoffman Consulting,Telluride,Colorado,USA
Maitland Hyslop, Disaster and Development Network (DDN), Northumbria Univer-
sity,Newcastle, UK
PeterJackson,UniversityofLeicester,Leicester,UK
JanakaJayawickrama,Post-warReconstructionandDevelopmentUnit,Universityof
York, York, UK; Disaster and Development Network (DDN), Northumbria
University,Newcastle, UK
Samantha Jones, Department of Geography/Disaster and Development Network
(DDN),NorthumbriaUniversity,Newcastle, UK
ElisabethKing,DepartmentofHumanitiesandSocialSciences,NewYorkUniversity,
NewYork,USA
JulieKoppelMaldonado,AmericanUniversity,WashingtonDC,USA
xiii
xiv Contributors
Fuad H. Mallick, Postgraduate Programs in Disaster Management (PPDM), BRAC
University,Dhaka,Bangladesh
Bernard Manyena, Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute, Manchester
University, Manchester, UK; Disaster and Development Network (DDN),
NorthumbriaUniversity,Newcastle, UK
Anthony Masys, Centre for Security Science (CSS), Defence R&D Canada, Ottawa,
ON,Canada
M. Shahjahan Mondal, Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM),
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka,
Bangladesh
Ryo Morimoto, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA; International Research
Institute of Disaster Science at Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan; Institute of
ComparativeCulture,SophiaUniversity,Tokyo,Japan
John C. Mutter, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and School of
InternationalandPublicAffairs, ColumbiaUniversity,NewYork,USA
GeoffO’Brien,Department ofGeography,NorthumbriaUniversity,Newcastle, UK
PhilO’Keefe,DepartmentofGeography,NorthumbriaUniversity,Newcastle, UK
Douglas Paton, School of Psychology, University of Tasmania, Launceston, TAS,
Australia
BrendaD.Phillips,OhioUniversityeChillicothe,OH,USA
M. Aminur Rahman, Postgraduate Programs in Disaster Management (PPDM),
BRACUniversity,Dhaka, Bangladesh
Mohammad Rezaur Rahman, Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM),
BangladeshUniversityofEngineeringandTechnology(BUET),Dhaka,Bangladesh
Nibedita S. Ray-Bennett, Civil Safety and Security Unit, University of Leicester,
Leicester,UK
HideyukiShiroshita,KansaiUniversity,Japan
Kees van der Geest, Institute for Environment and Human Security, United Nations
University,Bonn,Germany
Dewald van Niekerk, African Centre for Disaster Studies, North-West University,
Potchefstroom,South Africa
Sara Walsh, Department of Geography/Disaster and Development Network (DDN),
NorthumbriaUniversity,Newcastle, UK
Koko Warner, Institute for Environment and Human Security, United Nations
University,Bonn,Germany
Editorial
Foreword
General Hazards, Risks, and Disasters: Hazards are processes that produce
dangertohumanlifeandinfrastructure.Risksarethepotentialorpossibilities
thatsomethingbadwillhappenbecauseofthehazards.Disastersarethequite
unpleasantresultofthehazardoccurrencethatcauseddestructionoflivesand
infrastructure.Hazards,risks,anddisastershavebeencomingunderincreasing
strong scientific scrutiny in recent decades as a result of a combination of
numerous unfortunate factors, many of which are quite out of control as a
result of human actions. At the top of the list of exacerbating factors to any
hazard, of course, is the tragic exponential population growth that is clearly
notpossibletomaintainindefinitelyonafiniteEarth.Asourplanetiscovered
ever morewith humans, any natural or human-caused (unnatural?) hazardous
process is increasingly likely to adversely impact life and construction sys-
tems. The volumes on hazards, risks, and disasters that we present here are
thus an attempt to increase understandings about how to best deal with these
problems,evenwhileweallrecognizetheinherentdifficultiesofevenslowing
downtheratesofsuchprocessesasothercompoundingsituationsspiralonout
of control, such as exploding population growth and rampant environmental
degradation.
Some natural hazardous processes such as volcanos and earthquakes that
emanatefromdeepwithintheEarth’sinteriorareinnowayaffectedbyhuman
actions, but a number of others are closely related to factors affected or
controlled by humanity, even if however unwitting. Chief amongst these, of
course, are climate-controlling factors, and no small measure of these can be
exacerbatedbythenow-obviousongoingclimatechangeathand(Hay,2013).
Pervasive range fires and forest fires caused by human-enhanced or-induced
droughtsandfuelloadings,mega-floodingintosprawlingurbancomplexeson
floodplainsandcoastalcities,biologicalthreatsfromlocustplaguesandother
ecological disasters gone awry, all of these and many others are but a small
part of the potentials for catastrophic risk that loom at many different scales,
from the local to planet girdling.
Infact,thedenialofpossibleplanet-widecatastrophicrisk(Rees,2013)as
exaggerated jeremiadsinmedia landscapes saturated with sensational science
stories and end-of-the-world Hollywood productions is perhaps quite under-
standable, even if simplistically short sighted. The “end-of-days” tropes pro-
moted by the shaggy-minded prophets of doom have been with us for
centuries,mainlybecauseofBiblicalversewrittenintheearlyIronAgeduring
xv
xvi EditorialForeword
remarkably pacific times of only limited environmental change. Nowadays
however, the Armageddon enthusiasts appear to want the worst to validate
their death desires and prove their holy books. Unfortunately we are all
entering times when just a few individuals could actually trigger societal
breakdownbyerrororterror,ifMotherNaturedoesnotdoitforusfirst.Thus
we enter contemporaneous times of considerable peril that the present needs
for close attention.
Thesevolumes we address here about hazards, risks, and disasters are not
exhaustivedissertationsaboutallthedangerouspossibilitiesfacedbytheever-
burgeoninghumanpopulations,buttheydoaddressthemorecommonnatural
perilsthatpeopleface,evenwhileweleaveaside(fornow)thethinkingabout
higher level existential threats from such things as bio- or cybertechnologies,
artificial intelligence gone awry, ecological collapse, or runaway climate
catastrophes.
In contemplating existential risk (Rossbacher, 2013), we have lately come
to realize that the new existentialist philosophy is no longer the old sense of
disorientation or confusion at the apparently meaninglessness or hopelessly
absurd worlds of the past, but instead an increasing realization that serious
changesbyhumansappeartobeafootthateventhreatenalllifeontheplanet
(Kolbert,2014;Newitz,2013).InthegeologicaltimesoftheLateCretaceous
anasteroidcollisionwithEarthwipedoutthedinosaursandmuchotherlife;at
the present time by contrast, humanity itself appears to be the asteroid.
Misanthropicviewpointsaside,however,anincreasedunderstandingofall
levels and types of the more common natural hazards would seem a useful
endeavortoenhanceknowledgeaccessibility,evenwhileweattempttofigure
out how to extract ourselves and other life from the perils produced by the
strong climate change that is so obviously underway. Our intent in these
volumes is to show the latest good thinking about the more common endo-
geneticandexogeneticprocessesandtheirrolesasthreatstoeverydayhuman
existence. In this fashion, the chapter authors and volume editors have un-
dertakentoshowyouoverviewsandmorefocusedassessmentsofmanyofthe
chief obvious threats at hand that have been repeatedly shown on screen and
print media in recent years. As this century develops, we may come to wish
that these examples of hazards, risks, and disasters are not somehow eclipsed
bytrulyexistentialthreatsofamorepervasivenature.Thefuturealwayshangs
in the balance of opposing forces; the ever-lurking, butmindless threats from
an implacable nature, or heedless bureaucracies countered only sometimes in
small ways by the clumsy and often feeble attempts by individual humans to
improve our little lots in life. Only through improved education and under-
standingwillanyofushaveachanceagainstsuch strongodds;perhaps these
volumes will add some small measure of assistance in this regard.
SocialandCulturalAspectsofHazards,Risks,andDisasters:Thechapters
presentedinthisvolumerepresentsomenewandeclecticthinkingthatfollows
a path along a number of philosophical, social, cultural trends that may
EditorialForeword xvii
enlightenorirritatevariouspredispositions;butwhateverintellectualjourneys
one may make with them in pursuit of knowledge, the route can be fruitful.
The breadth of topics is impressive and is divided into three parts: from
viewpoints on natural hazards in society, to those concerning hazards of
technological, social, and economic change, to cross-disciplinary dealings
with disasters. Being better able to understand how to take in the frightful
death tolls in corrupt societies when shoddy construction allowed through
corruptionthatresultsinthedeathsofsomanyyoungchildrenintheirschools
does get one’s attention. That and varied relief measures viewed through the
eyes of different religions are equally enlightening. But those viewpoints are
just two among many others in this volume; a polemic on capitalism and
chapters on climate change and humanitarianism are food for thought. Also
included are various other chapters on such things as rights approaches in
disasters,perspectivesongenderinrisksanddisasters,simplehumandignity,
vulnerabilityandcopingbehaviors,relationstoviolentconflict,cyber-security
hazards, cultural aspects, and political responses. A great many other aspects
ofhazards,risks,anddisastersinsocietyarepresentedinthisvolumeaswell.
The diversity of these many chapters present expositions on a variety of
social topics that are rarely expressed in many treatments of natural hazards.
The resulting volume that Editor Andrew Collins has sought to put forward
willallowsomereaderstothinkaboutissuesthatarequitenewtothem,with
the result that some good would have been done in this world of increasing
complexity and many forms of danger that we must all face. Perhaps some
usefulchanges inbehaviorwilloccur, tothebenefit ofpeoplewhowouldnot
otherwise be so rewarded.
John (Jack) Shroder
Editor-in-Chief
July 14, 2014
REFERENCES
Hay,W.W.,2013.ExperimentingonaSmallPlanet:AScholarlyEntertainment.Springer-Verlag,
Berlin,983pp.
Kolbert, E., 2014. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. Henry Holt & Company, NY,
319pp.
Newitz,A.,2013.Scatter,Adapt,andRemember.Doubleday,NY,305pp.
Rees,M.,2013.Denialofcatastrophicrisks.Science339(6124),1123.
Rossbacher, L.A., October 2013. Contemplating existential risk. Earth, Geologic Column
58 (10), 64.
Chapter 1
Introduction: Hazards, Risks,
and Disasters in Society
Andrew E. Collins1, Bernard Manyena2,4, Janaka Jayawickrama3,4
and Samantha Jones1
1DepartmentofGeography/DisasterandDevelopmentNetwork(DDN),NorthumbriaUniversity,
Newcastle,UK,2HumanitarianandConflictResponseInstitute,ManchesterUniversity,
Manchester,UK,3Post-warReconstructionandDevelopmentUnit,UniversityofYork,York,UK,
4DisasterandDevelopmentNetwork(DDN),NorthumbriaUniversity,Newcastle,UK
ABSTRACT
Thisintroductorychapteroutlineswhyitisimportanttoexploreinmoredepththere-
lationshipsbetweenenvironmentalhazards,risks,anddisastersinsociety.Itpresentsan
introductiontothechallengespresentedbymainstreamapproachestothehumansideof
disasterstudies,wherebyperspectivesonenvironmentalhazardsandhumandevelopment
meet policy and practice. This is informed by analyzing the influences of extreme
environmentaleventsonsociety,exposurefactors,andthenatureofemergentsystemsof
response.Inthisfield,peopleareconsideredasvulnerableandresilienttodisasterim-
pacts,suffering,orprosperingintimesofclimatechange,development,societalinsta-
bility,andgovernancescenariosthatcanbeunpredictableandoutofcontrol.Thisisin
partbalancedbyhopeintheemergenceofnew-foundawarenessandcapacity,tobeable
tolivewithhazardsandrisks,copewithdisaster,andprospersociallyandeconomically.
Achallengepresentedbyhazards,risks,anddisastersistoachievethecapacitytoboth
anticipate the unexpected and act on the known.Awealth of well-grounded emergent
knowledge and experience exists to facilitate this, some of the most enlightening and
innovativeofwhichisrevealedintheselectionofcontributionstothisvolume.
1.1 OPENING
Hazards,Risks,andDisastersinSocietypresentsanexplorationofhowpeople
interrelatewithenvironmentalchangesandshocksthatarevariouslywithinor
beyond their ability to alter. It includes accounts based on disaster prevention
and response approaches with reference to threats that have become increas-
ingly more prevalent. Risk of a disaster at individual or community level is
dependent onexposuretoemergentandresurgenthazardsandthecapacityto
avoid,adapt,absorb,orcontrolthem.Furthermore,despitearichdebateasto
Hazards,Risks,andDisastersinSociety.http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-396451-9.00001-9
Copyright©2015ElsevierInc.Allrightsreserved. 1
2 Hazards,Risks,andDisastersinSociety
what a disaster is (Quarentelli, 1998; Perry and Quarentelli, 2005), definition
and experience remain relative to the varied interpretations of heterogeneous
people. Consequently, the collection of contributions herein provides critical
comment from necessarily cross-disciplinary discussions about how best to
deal with hazards, risks, and disasters in society through the societal
perspective. We continue by outlining some relatively straightforward prin-
ciples of hazards, risks, and disasters in society, followed by an overview of
the chapter contributions that comprise thevolume. We then return to overall
emergent points in a concluding chapter.
Hazards,risks, anddisasters in society include environmentally relatedca-
tastropheswithinconcentrationsofhumandevelopmentthatcanbeinterpretedin
termsofhistorical,political,andeconomiccontexts.Assuch,onerationaleun-
derlyingthisvolume is that development largely determines theway in which
hazards impact on people, whereas disasters alter the scope of development.
A summative overview of the more recent state of this perspective is already
outlined in some detail in Disaster and Development (Collins, 2009), among
other sources. The collection of chapter contributions in Hazards, Risks, and
DisastersinSocietyreflectshowpersonalandcorporateexposurefactors,short-
termreactions,andlongertermresponsesmediatethemannerinwhichpeople
get understood as vulnerable, resilient, or otherwise. Societies that strengthen
themselvesorarestrengthenedmitigatedeclineandresultantfurtherexposureto
whatarelargelyhuman-inducedcyclesofenvironmental,social,andeconomic
change.Inasimpledelineation,thischangemaybeexperiencedasimprovement
by billions of people in economically advantaged societies who become more
abletoprotectagainstenvironmentalhazards,butasdeteriorationforbillionsof
otherpeoplewhoareexposedtoincreasedrisks.Thedelineationbetweenthose
moreorlessatriskofdisasterhasbeenthefocusofalongtraditionofstudiesof
disastervulnerability(O’Keefeetal.,1976;Blaikieetal.,1994;Cannon,1994;
Lewis,1999;Wisneretal.,2004;Bankhoffetal.,2004;Gaillard,2010;Lewis,
2014). Moreover, in addition totheabove, multiple origins occur intheemer-
gence of vulnerability studies through specific hazard and risk categories. For
example, it has been central to studies of health risk reduction toview human
susceptibilityasinteractingwithsocioeconomicvulnerabilityinrelationtoboth
disease hazard and context (Doyal, 1987; Honari and Boleyn, 1999; Collins,
1993,1996,1998,2001,2003).
Although the rationale of the vulnerability approaches to environmental
hazards has become more mainstream discourse in recent years, it remains
evidentthatexposuretoriskanddisasterremainsfarfrombeingaddressedin
practice. An implicit argument is that it is not inevitable that major disasters
willoccursomuchasitispossibleforgovernments,communities,individuals,
and industries to choose to affect change toward safer and more resilient
societies. For a background to the use of resilience discourse and conceptu-
alization in disaster studies, see, for example, Pelling (2003), IFRC (2004),
UNISDR (2005), Paton and Johnston (2006), Manyena (2006), and
Chapterj1 Introduction:Hazards,Risks,andDisastersinSociety 3
Sudmeier-Rieux (2014). A concern for the field of vulnerability analysis and
disaster risk is that it is notoriously subject to cultural leanings and critique,
wherebyderivativenotionsofresiliencebecomeworryinglyminimalist,overly
accepting of crises, and are not much help for those vulnerable or extremely
poor. It is therefore not surprising that following a decade of progress in the
Strategy to Build the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters
(UNISDR,2005),theaspirationremainstoachieveawarenessandcapacityfor
what lies beyond resilience. This volume aims to not repeat the well-trodden
groundofvulnerabilityandresiliencestudiesinrelationtohazardandrisk,but
insteadcompileschaptercontributionsthattendtobringtotheforenewdetail
and innovative ideas, also exposing some of the associated future challenges
and opportunities.
Although such a volume is necessarily inductive and eclectic, an intro-
ductoryandindicativeanalyticalframeworkforthevolumecannonethelessbe
represented through reference to individual environmental hazards. For
example, here we refer to the case of flood risk that can be considered a
function of (1) environmental change, (2) people’s exposure, and (3) preven-
tionandresponsesystems.Thesearecoredriversoffloodriskanalysisthatlie
behind identifying improved flood risk management. Some of the consequent
analytical and practical challenges in approaching integrated flood risk
management would therefore be as outlined in Table 1.1.
The analytical challenges presented in Table 1.1 suggest inherent
complexitytofloodriskmanagement,requiringindividualanalysesatthelevel
TABLE1.1 AnalyticalandPracticalChallenges inIntegratedFloodRisk
Management
DomainofFloodRisk AnalyticalChallenge
Environmentalchange Predictability/uncertainty,opportunityfor
precautionaryactions,“natural”versusbuilt
approachesdhardandsoftcatchment,riverand
coastalmanagement,methodsoflong-term
maintenance
People’sexposure Perception,socioeconomicenablement,
tofloodrisk information,communication,expectation,risk
culture,age,gender,andotherformsofsocial
differentiation
Preventionandresponse Politicalwill,marketforces,capacity,connectedness
systems withproximateandunderlyingcauses,learning
cycles,adaptivecapacity,rolemanagement,
centralization/decentralization,hard/softcatchment
management(upstream/downstream),maintenance
responsibility,insurance
