Bibliographic details:
Eshel, Y., Kimhi, S., & Marciano, H. (2019). Proximal and distal determinants of community resilience under threats of terror. Journal of community psychology.
Abstract:
Community resilience (CR) is a positive trajectory of adaptation of a commune after a disturbance, stress, or adversity. Previous studies have successfully predicted CR in times of stress by distal factors, such as demographic characteristics of the community members and by their psychological attributes. We submit that since all these variables are distal predictors, which are not directly related to the actual stressful condition, CR would be predicted more readily by proximal factors, which portray people’s responses to the investigated adversity (i.e., trust in the community emergency team). A sample of 1,515 adults, living in terror‐stricken border communities in northern Israel has been examined. Their perceived CR has been predicted concurrently by distal and by proximal factors. Results have supported the research hypotheses, indicating the importance of proximal variables in determining and promoting CR.

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Oddsdóttir, F., Lucas, B., & Combaz, É. (2013). Measuring disaster resilience. UK: GSDRC University of Birmingham

Abstract:

Several agencies have developed guidance for measuring disaster resilience. One of the mostcomprehensive and widely-cited frameworks isTwigg’s (2009) ‘characteristics of resilience’ framework.Based on five dimensions of resilience identified in the Hyogo Framework for Action (governance, riskassessment, knowledge and education, risk management and vulnerability reduction, disasterpreparedness and response), it provides an extensive inventory of 28 components and 167 characteristicsor indicators.

DFID’s Multi-Hazard Risk Assessment Framework and Oxfam GB’s Multidimensional Approach for Measuring Resilience are two other frameworks with detailed recommendations for indicators. On the other hand, many agencies do not recommend standard sets of indicators, but instead emphasise the need to develop locally-relevant indicators through participatory methods involving local communities. These agencies provide strategies and tools for developing context-specific indicators and approaches to measuring resilience. There is a tension between the need for indicators to be both comparable and tailored to particular social groups and contexts (Castleden et al. 2011, 375; Turnbull et al. 2013, 40; Twigg 2009). Moreover, Levine et al. (2012) warn that quantification can de-contextualise resilience, particularly where it fails to account for factors operating at multiple levels (household, national, international).The following report presents summaries of seven frameworks with different approaches to measuring resilience which were identified in the course of preparing the GSDRC topic guide on Disaster Resilience which is to be published in early 2014.

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Shlomo Mizrahi, Eran Vigoda-Gadot & Nissim Cohen (2019): Drivers of trust in emergency organizations networks: the role of readiness, threat perceptions and participation in decision making, Public Management Review, DOI: 10.1080/14719037.2019.1674367 

Abstract:

This paper explores the factors that influence public trust in public organizations responsible for providing services before, during and after emergencies. We develop a research framework and test it using a survey distributed among a representative sample of the Israeli population. The analysis develops the concept of an emergency network and explains its advantages as a mechanism for coordinating emergency services. It shows that trust in emergency organizations is related to trust in the public sector in general, the perceived level of readiness of emergency organizations and the degree to which people fear that an emergency situation will occur.

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Felsenstein D., Vernick M. and Israeli Y. (2018). Household Insurance Expenditure as an Indicator of Urban Resilience. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 31, 102- 111.

Abstract:

Demand for household insurance is intuitively perceived as contributing to household and community resilience. However the causality in this relationship is not clear. This paper examines household insurance expenditure and the generation of urban resilience as jointly determined. Potential endogeneity is purged by estimating this relationship as a system and using an instrumental variable approach. Empirical analysis based on aggregated Israeli household expenditure data is used. Results show that instrumenting makes a difference, that a distinction needs to be drawn between personal resilience and environmental resilience and that insurance coverage has an independent effect on resilience different to that of classic social (personal) and economic (property and placebased) characteristics. The policy context of the findings are discussed.

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Gesser-Edelsburg, A., Cohen, R., & Diamant, A. (n.d.). Experts’ Views on the Gaps in Public Health Emergency Preparedness in Israel: A Qualitative Case Study. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 1-8. doi:10.1017/dmp.2019.115

Abstract:

Background: Despite the significant improvement in all components of preparedness in the past decade, there are still gaps between the guidelines and the reality on the ground. The purpose of this study is to explore how Israeli public health and emergency medicine experts perceive the demands for health organization emergency preparedness and the actual practice.

Methods: Qualitative phenomenological research. We interviewed 22 Israeli public health and emergency medicine experts face-to-face and conducted a content analysis.

Results: The findings revealed barriers in the following areas: preparation and readiness of hospitals, preparedness and readiness in the community, connection between the community and the hospital, inter-agency coordination and interface, interdisciplinary integration, preparedness resources, postcrisis evaluation, assimilating smart technologies, information accessibility, and communication.

Conclusions: To reduce the gap between theory and practice, retrospective research and evaluation must be included to learn in depth what strategies and resources should be used during a health crisis. Likewise, profiles should be constructed and the community should be segmented in order to design resilience programs and accommodate information to subpopulations.

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Kafle, H. K., & Bruins, H. J. (2009). Climatic trends in Israel 1970–2002: warmer and increasing aridity inland. Climatic Change, 96(1-2), 63-77.

Abstract:

Climatic trends in Israel during the period 1970–2002 were studied in detail on the basis of three parameters: average annual temperature, annual precipitation and the annual aridity (humidity) index P/PET (P = Precipitation; PET = Potential Evapotranspiration). Significant warming is evident in all 12 evaluated meteorological stations, situated in different parts of Israel. Along the Mediterranean coast, the average annual precipitation and P/PET values remained more or less at the same level. However, more inland, both eastward and southward, precipitation and P/PET trends are declining, indicating increased aridity. Eilat, Beer Sheva and Sedom Pans, situated in the desert, showed the most significant increase in aridity among the 12 meteorological stations we investigated. The relationship between changes in temperature and precipitation showed a negative correlation in all cases except for Eilat, the southernmost and driest part of Israel. The negative correlations for Negba, Kefar Blum, Har Kena’an, Beer Sheva and Sedom Pans are statistically significant. In conclusion, the climate in Israel has become more arid in most regions, except for the coastal plain.

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Inbar, M. O. S. H. E., & Bruins, H. J. (2004). Environmental impact of multi‐annual drought in the Jordan Kinneret watershed, Israel. Land Degradation & Development, 15(3), 243-256.

Abstract:

Floods and droughts are the most common of natural disasters, and the number of victims and the economic damage are both greater than those caused by other events such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The drought that affected Israel between 1998 and 2001 was of unusual climatic and hydrologic severity; the most serious in the last 125 years in northern Israel. The climatic drought affected the water flow of the Jordan River and the level of Lake Kinneret, which fell to −214·90 m (below sea‐level), the lowest lake level in historical periods. The annual flow of the Jordan River in the drought period was the lowest in the 50‐year hydrological record.

Human interference, water pumping and flow diversion, exacerbated the negative drought impact, causing land degradation such as the drying of wetlands and salinization of freshwater aquifers. The failure to introduce drought contingency planning and sustainable water resources management has so far affected agriculture and nature conservation.

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Bruins, H. J., & Bu, F. (2006). Food security in China and contingency planning: the significance of grain reserves. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 14(3), 114-124.

Abstract:

China is inhabited by ca 20 percent of the world population, but has only 7 percent of global arable land and only 6.6 percent of global freshwater resources. These unfavourable relationships between population size and the basic resources for food production – soil and water – require careful food security and contingency planning by the Chinese authorities. The country has been remarkably successful in raising its food production since 1949 at a faster rate (400 percent) than the increase in its population (240 percent). This has basically been achieved by increasing the yields per unit area with enhanced fertilizer use, as the total size of arable land has been decreasing in recent years. Though China attempts to be largely self‐sufficient in food grain production, two possible contingency scenarios are suggested that might cause grave problems: (1) severe multi‐annual drought; (2) reduced chemical fertilizer manufacturing. If Chinese food production would drop as a result by, say, 33 percent, famine, the dreaded scourge throughout Chinese history, might recur. A shortage of ca 150 million tons of food grains cannot easily be buffered by the volume of food grains annually traded on the world market, ca 240 million tons. Much of this amount tends to be committed already to traditional buyers, as most countries in the world have to import food grains. Cash reserves, therefore, may not guarantee food purchases, because global grain reserves are limited and declining. The formation and maintenance of large internal food grain reserves in China, common in its tradition and ancient history, seem the only realistic contingency planning strategy to avert famine in case of a severe decline in its food production in future crisis years.

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Bruins, H. J., & Lithwick, H. (Eds.). (2012). The arid frontier: Interactive management of environment and development (Vol. 41). Springer Science & Business Media.

Abstract:

The arid frontier has been a challenge for humanity from time immemorial. Drylands cover more than one-third of the global land surface, distributed over Africa, Asia, Australia, America and Southern Europe. Disasters may develop as a result of complex interactions between drought, desertification and society. Therefore, proactive planning and interactive management, including disaster-coping strategies, are essential in dealing with arid-frontier development.
This book presents a conceptual framework with case studies in dryland development and management. The option of a rational and ethical discourse for development that is beneficial for both the environment and society is emphasized, avoiding extreme environmentalism and human destructionism, combating both desertification and human livelihood insecurity. Such development has to be based on appropriate ethics, legislation, policy, proactive planning and interactive management. Excellent scholars address these issues, focusing on the principal interactions between people and dryland environments in terms of drought, food, land, water, renewable energy and housing.
Audience: This volume will be of great value to all those interested in Dryland Development and Management: professionals and policy-makers in governmental, international and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as researchers, lecturers and students in Geography, Environmental Management, Regional Studies, Development Anthropology, Hazard and Disaster Management, Agriculture and Pastoralism, Land and Water Use, African Studies, and Renewable Energy Resources.

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Heller, K., Alexander, D. B., Gatz, M., Knight, B. G., & Rose, T. (2005). Social and Personal Factors as Predictors of Earthquake Preparation: The Role of Support Provision, Network Discussion, Negative Affect, Age, and Education 1. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 35(2), 399-422.

Abstract:

Panel data collected in 1991 as part of the University of Southern California Longitudinal Study of Generations (LSOG) were used to predict reported preparation activities prior to and in response to the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake. In late 1994 and early 1995, 163 panelists (representing 107 multigenerational families) were interviewed by phone about their earthquake experiences. The best 1991 predictor of pre‐quake preparation was the extent of instrumental support respondents provided to network members. Earthquake preparation activities undertaken after the quake were associated with the amount and cost of damage experienced during the quake, 1991 neuroticism scores, age (inversely), and having preparedness encouraged by multiple network sources. The results highlight the importance of social roles (e.g., support provision) and discussion by informal network sources in the adoption of public health and safety messages.

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