Table Of ContentDisaster Risk
The text offers a comprehensive and unique perspective on disaster
risk associated with natural hazards. It covers a wide range of topics,
reflecting the most recent debates but also older and pioneering
discussions in the academic field of disaster studies as well as in the
policy and practical areas of disaster risk reduction (DRR). This
book will be of particular interest to undergraduate students studying
geography and environmental studies/science. It will also be of relevance
to students/professionals from a wide range of social and physical
science disciplines, including public health and public policy, psychology,
sociology, anthropology, political science, geomorphology and geology.
Irasema Alcántara-Ayala is former Director and current Professor and
Researcher at the Institute of Geography of the National Autonomous
University of Mexico (UNAM). Her research seeks to understand the
root causes and drivers of disaster risk through forensic investigations
of disasters, and to promote integrated research on disaster risk. She
is particularly interested in bridging the gap between science and
policymaking and practice in the developing world.
Christopher Gomez was born in France and, after holding several
academic positions in different countries, he took on the Professorship of
Sediment Hazards and Disaster Risk (Sabo) at Kobe University in Japan,
where he leads the Sabo laboratory. He also holds a research professor
position at the Geography Department of Universitas Gadjah Mada
in Indonesia, as he is geographically focusing on the Indonesian and
Japanese archipelago. His works focus on sediment transfer processes,
related hazards as well as the philosophy and ethics of science and
scientific research related to hazards and disaster risk.
Ksenia Chmutina is Reader in Sustainable and Resilience Urbanism at
Loughborough University, UK. Her research focuses on the processes of
urban disaster risk creation and systemic implications of sustainability
and resilience in the context of neoliberalism. Ksenia uses her work
to draw attention to the fact that disasters are not natural. Ksenia is
Co-Host of a popular podcast Disasters: Deconstructed.
Dewald van Niekerk is Professor in Geography and Founder and Head
of the African Centre for Disaster Studies at North-West University.
He is Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Jàmbá: Journal of
Disaster Risk Studies. His research interests include resilience thinking,
complexity, anticipation and disaster risk governance. Dewald is a South
African B3 NRF-rated researcher.
Emmanuel Raju is Director of the Copenhagen Centre for Disaster
Research (COPE) and Associate Professor of Disaster Risk Management
at the Global Health Section at the University of Copenhagen. He is
also Extraordinary Associate Professor at North-West University, South
Africa. His research interests include urban disaster risk creation, disaster
recovery processes, and the intersections of disaster risk reduction and
climate change adaptation. Emmanuel is also Co-Editor of Disaster
Prevention and Management journal.
Victor Marchezini has studied the sociology of disasters in Latin America
and Caribbean since 2004 (https://victormarchezini.weebly.com/). He
worked as Disaster Risk Analyst in the monitoring room of the Brazilian
Warning Center (Cemaden) (2012–2014). Since 2014, he has worked as
Researcher at Cemaden, bridging scientists, practitioners, communities
and policymakers. One result of this collective effort was the free e-book
entitled Reduction of Vulnerability to Disasters: From Knowledge to
Action. Victor is also Professor at the Doctorate Program on Earth
System Science at the National Institute for Space Research (CCST/INPE)
and at the Postgraduate Program on Disaster Science (ICT/UNESP).
Twitter account: @VMarchezini.
Jake Rom Cadag is Professorial Lecturer at the Department of
Geography of the University of the Philippines Diliman, Philippines.
His specialties and research interests include disaster risk reduction
and management, climate change adaptation and spatial mapping
(i.e. cartography and geographic information system). He is skilled
in community work and conduct of participatory methods and tools
involving different stakeholders and community members, particularly
marginalised sectors (i.e. gender and ethnic minorities, older people,
children and people with disabilities, amongst others).
JC Gaillard is Ahorangi/Professor of Geography at Waipapa Taumata
Rau/The University of Auckland. His work focuses on power and
inclusion in disaster and disaster studies. It includes developing
participatory tools for engaging minority groups in disaster risk
reduction with an emphasis on ethnic and gender minorities,
prisoners, children and homeless people. More details: https://jc
gaillard.wordpress.com.
Disaster Risk
Irasema Alcántara-Ayala,
Christopher Gomez, Ksenia
Chmutina, Dewald van Niekerk,
Emmanuel Raju, Victor Marchezini,
Jake Rom Cadag and JC Gaillard
First published 2023
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Irasema Alcántara-Ayala, Christopher Gomez, Ksenia Chmutina,
Dewald van Niekerk, Emmanuel Raju, Victor Marchezini, Jake Rom Cadag
and JC Gaillard
The right of Irasema Alcántara-Ayala, Christopher Gomez, Ksenia Chmutina,
Dewald van Niekerk, Emmanuel Raju, Victor Marchezini, Jake Rom Cadag and
JC Gaillard to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Alcántara, Irasema, author. | Gomez, Christopher, author. | Chmutina,
Ksenia, author.
Title: Disaster risk / Irasema Alcantara-Ayala, Christopher Gomez, Ksenia
Chmutina, Dewald van Niekerk, Emmanuel Raju, Victor Marchezini, Jake Rom
Cadag and JC Galliard.
Description: 1 Edition. | New York, NY : Routledge, 2022. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022022292 (print) | LCCN 2022022293 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781138204331 (hardback) | ISBN 9781138204348 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781315469614 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Natural disasters. | Disasters. | Disaster relief. | Emergency
management.
Classification: LCC GB5014 .A433 2022 (print) | LCC GB5014 (ebook) |
DDC 363.34—dc23/eng/20220518
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022022292
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022022293
ISBN: 978-1-138-20433-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-20434-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-46961-4 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781315469614
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of figures ix
List of tables xv
List of boxes xvii
Why a textbook on disaster risk? 1
A growing field of scholarship 2
The state of the field 3
The emergence and growth of academic programmes on disaster risk 5
The need for a textbook 6
Structure of the book 7
References 9
Part I The nature and impact of disasters 11
1. Disaster risk 13
1.1 Introduction 13
1.2 The meaning of disaster risk: a departure point 15
1.3 The international agenda: a brief historical account 18
1.4 Understanding disaster risk: a journey through the academic perspective 25
1.5 Key strands and major paradigms in disaster risk 32
1.6 What on earth then is disaster risk? 38
1.7 Concluding remarks 46
Further suggested reading 50
References 50
2. Where and when disasters occur 64
2.1 Introduction 64
2.2 Urban and countryside disasters, and how one relates to the other 68
2.3 Centre-periphery and disasters 74
2.4 Hazard control over a disaster’s spatio-temporal realm 78
2.5 When disasters occur 83
2.6 Concluding remarks 91
Further suggested reading 92
References 93
3. The impact of disasters 95
3.1 Introduction 95
3.2 Thinking about the types of disasters and their impacts: everyday,
cascading and protracted typologies 97
3.3 Looking at types of damage and impacts in the short and long term 105
3.4 Concluding remarks 112
Further suggested reading 114
References 114
vi Contents
Part II Vulnerabilities and capacities 121
4. Why do disasters occur? 123
4.1 Why do disasters occur? 123
4.2 Underlying causes of disasters 126
4.3 Approaching vulnerability 140
4.4 Concluding remarks 149
Further suggested reading 151
References 151
5. People’s vulnerability 157
5.1 What is vulnerability and how do people become vulnerable? 157
5.2 Vulnerability and exposure 160
5.3 Who’s vulnerable? 163
5.4 Intersectionality 180
5.5 Concluding remarks 181
Note 184
Further suggested reading 184
References 185
6. People’s capacities 191
6.1 What is capacity? 191
6.2 Characteristics of capacity 195
6.3 Capacity and vulnerability 197
6.4 Capacities at a household/community level 198
6.5 Capacity at an institutional level 204
6.6 Assessing capacity 206
6.7 Harnessing capacities 207
6.8 Concluding remarks 215
Further suggested reading 217
References 218
Part III Natural and socio-natural hazards 223
7. Endogenous processes: Earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis 225
7.1 Introduction: the Earth’s internal engine and plate tectonic 225
7.2 Earthquake hazards 229
7.3 Volcanic hazards 241
7.4 Tsunamis 252
7.5 Concluding remarks 256
Further suggested reading 257
References 257
8. Gravity-driven natural exogenous processes 260
8.1 Introduction 260
8.2 Gravity-driven rock and sediment movements as a hazard 262
8.3 Landslides classification 266
8.4 Triggering mechanisms and causes of gravity-driven movements and flows 279
8.5 Mass movement soil mechanics for safety assessment 281
8.6 The usual suspects: data used for evaluating landslide hazards 284
8.7 Concluding remarks 289
Further suggested reading 290
References 290
9. Climatological and hydrometeorological hazards 293
9.1 Introduction 293
9.2 From atmospheric energy to water resource 294
9.3 Water in the atmosphere and acid rainfall hazards 295
Contents vii
9.4 Typhoons, hurricanes and tropical cyclones 297
9.5 Tornadoes and twisters 299
9.6 Floods from precipitations on land 300
9.7 Surface water and open-channel flood assessment parameters 304
9.8 Flood hazards 309
9.9 The interplay between river and coastal processes in generating
river floods 314
9.10 Dropping the temperature 317
9.11 Droughts and the lack of water 321
9.12 Concluding remarks 322
Further suggested reading 323
References 323
10. Socio-natural hazards 327
10.1 Introduction 327
10.2 Defining socio-natural hazards 332
10.3 Significant drivers of socio-natural hazards: key issues and information 334
10.4 Socio-natural hazards: some examples 339
10.5 Concluding remarks 354
Further suggested reading 355
References 356
Part IV People’s response to and resilience during
and after disasters 365
11. People’s behaviour in times of disaster 367
11.1 Questioning the mainstream narrative 368
11.2 What is people’s behaviour? 370
11.3 People’s behaviour in times of disasters 373
11.4 Scientific rebuttals to myths about people’s behaviour in times of disasters 377
11.5 Reasserting the prosocial people’s behaviour in times of disasters 381
11.6 Explanations to people’s behaviour in times of disasters 387
11.7 Concluding remarks 391
Further suggested reading 394
References 395
12. People’s resilience 400
12.1 Introduction 401
12.2 Resilience and complexity 402
12.3 Coming to terms: defining resilience 404
12.4 Dimensions of resilience 407
12.5 Resilience and vulnerability 409
12.6 Characteristics of resilient systems 409
12.7 Resilience pivots 418
12.8 Resilience in complex systems: a conceptual model 421
12.9 Resilience for disaster risk reduction 427
12.10 Resilience following disasters: bouncing forward, or is it? 430
12.11 Concluding remarks 433
Further suggested reading 434
References 435
13 Moving towards disaster recovery 443
13.1 Introduction 443
13.2 Vision and leadership 446
13.3 Resources and organisation for recovery 448
13.4 Recovery is beyond physical reconstruction 449
13.5 Self-recovery 453
viii CONTENTS
13.6 Disaster recovery as a social process 455
13.7 Disaster recovery and the environment 456
13.8 Disaster recovery and the role of law 459
13.9 Voice in disaster recovery 461
13.10 Disaster memory and recovery 462
13.11 Recovery and local capacities 464
13.12 Concluding remarks 466
Further suggested reading 467
References 468
Part V Disaster risk reduction and management 475
14. Disaster risk reduction 477
14.1 Introduction 477
14.2 What is disaster risk reduction? 479
14.3 Development of disaster risk reduction 481
14.4 Disaster risk reduction at different scales 481
14.5 Disaster risk reduction through multisectoral and transdisciplinary
cooperation 490
14.6 Components of disaster risk management 494
14.7 Disaster risk reduction, sustainable development and climate
change adaptation 498
14.8 Concluding remarks 500
Further suggested reading 502
References 503
15. Disaster management 507
15.1 Introduction 507
15.2 From disaster preparedness to response 508
15.3 Disaster response and relief 520
15.4 Concluding remarks 528
Further suggested reading 529
References 530
16. Fostering disaster recovery 535
16.1 Introduction 536
16.2 Recovery coordination or collaboration? 537
16.3 Coordination: temporary or long term? 539
16.4 What is coordination? 540
16.5 Values and social interfaces in recovery 544
16.6 Interdependencies in disaster recovery 548
16.7 Recovery coordination and collaboration: a governance issue? 552
16.8 Concluding remarks 554
Further suggested reading 558
References 559
What do we know and need to know? 567
References 572
List of key concepts 573
Index 590
Figures
Why a textbook on disaster risk?
Fig 0.1 Yearly number of journal articles referring to ‘disaster’ between
1920 and 2018. 2
Chapter 1
Fig 1.1 The five senses, Anthropomorphic Landscape, 18th century. 13
Fig 1.2 Risk is perceived through different lenses. 15
Fig 1.3 The concept of disaster risk as a function of diverse types of
hazards and vulnerability of people. 16
Fig 1.4 IDNDR disaster mitigation matrix. 21
Fig 1.5 Timeline of the international agenda on disaster risk reduction. 24
Fig 1.6 Pressure and Release (PAR) model: the progression of vulnerability. 28
Fig 1.7 Key strands and major paradigms in disaster risk (time limits
are relative since paradigms can be parallel over time). 33
Fig 1.8 Key relationships and processes from the social construction of risk
to the social production of disaster. 37
Fig 1.9 Map of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and major
earthquakes that have affected Haiti in historical time. 42
Fig 1.10 Haiti stemmed from the interactions between vulnerability, exposure
and hazards. 44
Fig 1.11 The term ‘disaster risk’ conveys and involves myriad ideas,
interpretations and actions. 47
Fig 1.12 Chapter 1 QR code. 49
Chapter 2
Fig 2.1 Village in Gifu Prefecture. 64
Fig 2.2 Distribution of death for the period 1900–2018, over the
five continents (Antarctica is of little interest here), and divided
by types of hazards. 66
Fig 2.3 Photograph of Kesennuma in 2018, seven years after the 2011
Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. 70
Fig 2.4 The Sendai Plain photographed at the end of 2012. 71
Fig 2.5 Photograph in the Asakura area (North Kyushu) one year after the
heavy rainfall event that triggered the large landslide seen on the right
and the debris flow from which the fan can be seen underneath. 73
Fig 2.6 Forced development from outside impetus having little knowledge
of the reality of natural hazards. 86
