Bibliographic details:

Caceres, R. M., Boano, C., & Abrassart, T. (2019). Urban Planning and Natural Hazard Governance. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Natural Hazard Science.

Abstract:

The establishment of effective linkages between institutional urban planning and disaster risk strategies remains a challenge for formal governance structures. For governments at all administrative scales, disaster resilience planning has required systemic capacities that rely on structures of governance, humanitarian frameworks, and budgetary capacities. However, with growing urbanization trends, humanitarian responses and Disaster Risk Management (DRM) frameworks have had to adapt their operations in contexts with high population density, complex infrastructure systems, informal dynamics, and a broader range of actors. Urban areas concentrate an array of different groups with the capability of contributing to urban responses and strategies to cope with disaster effects, including community groups, government agencies, international organizations and humanitarian practitioners. In addition, cities have running planning structures that support their administration and spatial organization, with instruments that supply constant information about population characteristics, infrastructure capacity and potential weaknesses. Processes and data ascribed to urban planning can provide vital knowledge to natural hazard governance frameworks, from technical resources to conceptual approaches towards spatial analysis. Authorities managing risk could improve their strategic objectives if they could access and integrate urban planning information. Furthermore, a collaborative hazard governance can provide equity to multiple urban actors that are usually left out of institutional DRM, including nongovernmental organizations, academia, and community groups. Traditional top-down models can operate in parallel with horizontal arrangements, giving voice to groups with limited access to political platforms but who are knowledgeable on urban space and social codes. Their still limited recognition is evidence that there is still a disconnect between the intentions of global frameworks for inclusive governance, and the co-production of an urban planning designed for inclusive resilience.

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WMO (World Meteorologycal Organization) (2020). WMO Statement on the State of the Global Climate in 2019.

Abstract:

Concentrations of greenhouse gases, particularly CO2, continue to rise. The year 2019 ended with a global average temperature of 1.1 °C above estimated pre-industrial averages, second only to the record set in 2016. Without the role of El Niño in the warming increase observed in 2016, 2019 would have been a record year.

Temperature is one indicator of the ongoing climate change. Also, sea levels are rising at an increasing pace, through greater warming of the oceans, on the surface and in the depths, and through the enhanced melting of Greenland’s ice and of glaciers, exposing coastal areas and islands to a greater risk of flooding and the submersion of low-lying areas.

Furthermore, in 2019, heatwaves, combined with long periods of drought, were linked to wildfires of unprecedented size. This was the case in Australia, where millions of hectares were set ablaze, and in Siberia and other Arctic regions hit by wildfires of record intensity.

Besides these powerful phenomena, there has been weather-related damage, such as the effects of multi-annual droughts on the internal and cross-border migration of populations, greater exposure of the world population to health hazards due to heat and pollution, and the reduction of economic growth, especially in developing economies, due to rising temperatures and weather extremes.

The results of this report demonstrate that climate change is already very visible in various ways. More ambitious climate mitigation efforts are needed to keep the warming below 2 °C by the end of the century.

Webpage: https://library.wmo.int/doc_num.php?explnum_id=10211

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Das S., Alexander J., Ishiwatari M., Komino T., Shaw R. (2020): “Lessons from Hagibis: Learning to Cope with Intensifying Disasters in the Age of New Normal”, CWS Japan, 24 pages, Tokyo, Japan

Abstract:

Typhoon Hagibis (meaning “speed” in Tagalog; also known as Reiwa 1 East Japan Typhoon or Japan Typhoon Number 19 of 2019) caused widespread destruction in Japan in October 2019. It was the strongest typhoon to strike mainland Japan in decades, and one of the largest typhoons ever recorded in terms of its diameter. It was also the costliest Pacific typhoon recorded in history, causing a total of 15 billion US dollars in financial damage. This report summarizes the key lessons from this typhoon with a hope that they will help other countries prepare for similar disasters, which may become more frequent with the changing climate.

Webpage: https://www.preventionweb.net/files/70765_70765hagibisreport.pdf

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lbris, K., Lauta, K.C. & Raju, E. Disaster Knowledge Gaps: Exploring the Interface Between Science and Policy for Disaster Risk Reduction in Europe. Int J Disaster Risk Sci 11, 1–12 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13753-020-00250-5

Abstract:

Expert scientific knowledge is fast becoming an integral part of disaster management, and, in the process, is changing the role of science for the reduction of disaster risks at the policy level. Yet science and policy operate in different domains between which there are often competing interests and modes of valuing knowledge. Based on research done as part of the research project Enhancing Synergies for Disaster Prevention in the European Union (ESPREssO), we discuss three major issues facing European Union member states with respect to the interface between science and policy for disaster risk reduction: knowledge transfer, disaster expertise, and risk awareness. In doing so, we hone in on three gaps: an epistemological gap, an institutional gap, and a strategic gap. We argue that these gaps can help explain underlying systematic challenges for the integration between science and policy for disaster risk reduction. These gaps need to be addressed by focusing on changes at the governance level.

Webpage: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs13753-020-00250-5

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Garfin, D. R., Silver, R. C., & Holman, E. A. (2020). The novel coronavirus (COVID-2019) outbreak: Amplification of public health consequences by media exposure. Health Psychology.

Abstract:

The 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-2019) has led to a serious outbreak of often severe respiratory disease, which originated in China and has quickly become a global pandemic, with far-reaching consequences that are unprecedented in the modern era. As public health officials seek to contain the virus and mitigate the deleterious effects on worldwide population health, a related threat has emerged: global media exposure to the crisis. We review research suggesting that repeated media exposure to community crisis can lead to increased anxiety, heightened stress responses that can lead to downstream effects on health, and misplaced health-protective and help-seeking behaviors that can overburden health care facilities and tax available resources. We draw from work on previous public health crises (i.e., Ebola and H1N1 outbreaks) and other collective trauma (e.g., terrorist attacks) where media coverage of events had unintended consequences for those at relatively low risk for direct exposure, leading to potentially severe public health repercussions. We conclude with recommendations for individuals, researchers, and public health officials with respect to receiving and providing effective communications during a public health crisis.

Webpage: https://www.academia.edu/42343302/The_Novel_Coronavirus_COVID-2019_Outbreak_Amplification_of_Public_Health_Consequences_by_Media_Exposure

Bibliographic details:

Mika Aaltola (2020). Covid-19 – a trigger for global transformation? Political distancing, global decoupling and growing distrust in health governance. Finnish Institute of international affairs, FIIA working paper 2020.

Abstract:

Since late 2019, the world has sought – frantically at times – to appropriate policies for responding to the coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19). This Working Paper reviews the political significance of Covid-19 in order to understand the ways in which it challenges the existing domestic order, international health governance actors and, more fundamentally, the circulation-based modus operandi of the present world order. The analysis begins with the argument that contagious diseases should be regarded as complex open-ended phenomena with various features; they are not reducible to biology and epidemiology alone. In particular, politics and social reactions – in the form of panic and blamecasting, for example – are prominent features with clear historical patterns, and should not, for the sake of efficient health governance, be treated as aspects extraneous to the disease itself. The Working Paper further highlights that when a serious infectious disease spreads, a “threat” is very often externalized into a culturally meaningful “foreign” entity. Pandemics tend to be territorialized, nationalized, ethnicized, and racialized. This has also been the case with Covid-19.

Website: https://www.academia.edu/42294751/Covid-19_a_trigger_for_global_transformation_Political_distancing_global_decoupling_and_growing_distrust_in_health_governance

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United Nations Secretary General (2020) Shared responsibility, global solidarity: Responding to the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19. Report.

Abstract:

The new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is attacking societies at their core, claiming lives and people’s livelihoods. The potential longer-term effects on the global economy and those of individual countries are dire. This report calls on everyone to act together to address this impact and lessen the blow to people. The report describes the speed and scale of the outbreak, the severity of cases, and the societal and economic disruption of COVID-19.

Webpage: https://unsdg.un.org/sites/default/files/2020-03/SG-Report-Socio-Economic-Impact-of-Covid19.pdf

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Davidsson, Å. (2020). Disasters as an opportunity for improved environmental conditions. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 101590.

Abstract:

This paper presents case studies where disasters provided a window of opportunity for change that included social action with (potentially) positive effects on the environment. The research literature was screened for empirical cases in support of societal changes with a focus on environmental issues, and a more in-depth case study of the extensive tree felling after the storm Gudrun in Sweden 2005 was also conducted. The case study is explored through available research as well as “grey” literature to identify societal actions taken after the storm that had – or not – an effect on environmental conditions. With the help of the framework presented by Birkmann et al. (2010), the study aims to characterise the nature of these anthropic changes. The framework was modified to focus specifically on societal actions implemented because of an “open window”, and the environmental effects of the actions. This enabled identifying changes with a positive/negative and intended/unintended effect on the environment, as well as determining if a change was based on formal or informal decisions. Several cases identified in the literature provide empirical support for the theory that disasters can generate a window of opportunity for positive environmental change. However, open windows are not always exploited, as is apparent in the case of the storm Gudrun.

Webpage: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S****************#!

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Bailey, Laura E.; Wrobel, Robert. 2020. Peacebuilding and Recovery in the Culture in City Reconstruction and Recovery (CURE) Framework : Technical Notes (English). Washington, D.C. : World Bank Group.

Abstract:

In 2018, the World Bank and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) jointly issued a position paper on Culture in City Reconstruction and Recovery (CURE), reflecting the shared commitment of these two organizations to place culture at the forefront of the reconstruction and recovery of cities in post-conflict, post-disaster, and urban distress situations. The paper presented a new approach, the CURE Framework, intended to help practitioners integrate culture and cultural heritage into post-crisis recovery processes. The CURE Framework draws from existing frameworks and tools for reconstruction and recovery in urban settings. It seeks to knit together people-centered and place-based approaches to produce integrated policies that share a common cultural thread. This technical note provides background information, checklists, and entry points based on the relevant CURE guiding principles, of which the framework provides seven principles that are applied through the implementation of four phases.

Webpage: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/188951583401533818/pdf/Peacebuilding-and-Recovery-in-the-Culture-in-City-Reconstruction-and-Recovery-CURE-Framework-Technical-Notes.pdf

Bibliographic details:

Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) (2020). Disaster Recovery Framework Guide, Revised version, March 2020. World Bank Group.

Abstract:

A revised and updated version of the Disaster Recovery Framework (DRF) guide that was originally issued in 2015 has been published in March 2020. The guide is intended as a practice-based, results-focused tool to assist governments and partners in planning for resilient post-disaster recovery following a large-scale disaster. It provides key planning and decision-making processes for the development of recovery policies and programs. It is intended primarily for stakeholders involved with preparedness, planning and management of recovery and reconstruction activities within government systems. The updated DRF guide provides new and improved examples of recovery experience, focusing on results. Two new areas have been added, one focusing on the specificities of disaster recovery at the local level, and one on recovery in conflict and post-conflict contexts.

Webpage: https://www.gfdrr.org/sites/default/files/DRF%20Guide.pdf