Over the past two decades, public organizations have been encouraged and, at times, required to incorporate evidence in their decision-making processes. Evidence broadly refers to data and or knowledge that is gathered, analyzed, and used to generate a conclusion. Despite arguments and the intrinsic assumption that using evidence to inform decisions will improve organizational performance, there is limited empirical research to support this assertion. The proposed study addresses this gap in research and others in the context of local flood risk management. Specifically, using primary data gathered from local floodplain managers and secondary data from the US Census and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), this study seeks to determine (1) the extent to which organizations responsible for managing flood risks exhibit a culture that uses evidence to inform decision making; (2) the predictors of an organization exhibiting a culture that uses evidence to inform decision making; (3) whether organizations exhibiting a culture that uses evidence to inform decision making experience better flood risk management performance outputs (e.g., implementation of mitigation measures) and outcomes (e.g., increased flood resilience); (4) the types of evidence organizations use to manage flood risks; (5) the type of evidence that is associated with better flood risk management performance outputs and outcomes; and (6) whether knowledge of an effective flood risk management program for improving organizations' ability to deal with potential climate change impacts influences an organization's decision to adopt the program. Data gathered from an online survey of 342 floodplain managers in Florida and Texas provided insights into these six research aims. First, respondents reported their organization moderately uses evidence to inform decision making. Additionally, the main factors impacting an organization's culture of evidence usage was if the community had experienced more presidential disaster declarations and if the floodplain manager identified as male and had obtained the Certified Floodplain Manager (CFM) licensure. Results also indicated that an organization's culture of evidence usage had not statistical effect on flood risk management performance outputs and outcomes. Rather, the main factors impacting flood risk management performance outputs and outcomes include perceptions of flood risk, participation in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Community Rating System (CRS) program, employee capacity to use evidence, and organizational capacity to manage flood risks. Respondents reported a slightly higher usage of professional evidence compared to scientific evidence; however, neither type of evidence were associated with better flood risk management performance outputs and outcomes. Finally, knowledge of an effective flood risk management program for improving organizations' ability to deal with potential climate change impacts did not appear to influence an organization's decision to adopt the program.

The recent increase in the number of disasters and complexities surrounding existing emergency management efforts necessitate cross-sector collaboration and coordinated response. While previous scholarly works have discussed emergency management efforts from a collaborative perspective, little consideration has been paid to the role public-private-nonprofit partnerships (PPPs) play in emergency management and disaster response. Understanding the outcomes of PPP can be particularly important for emergency managers who make decisions under uncertain conditions and complex situations. The purpose of this study is to operationalize emergency management PPPs and assess the role of these networks on three outcomes organizational resilience, PPP institutionalization, and PPP effectiveness. To this end, this study developed an interdisciplinary conceptual framework using literature from public administration, emergency management, and health management disciplines. Using the proposed conceptual framework, this study designed a web survey for emergency managers and operators (i.e., practitioners) in public, private, and nonprofit sectors in Florida. The findings of this study can help emergency managers across multiple sectors and policymakers to better understand the factors that contribute to successful PPPs in emergency management and assist them in planning for, managing, and utilizing their resources when collaborating with other organizations in response to disasters. This study also provides policy and practical implications for federal agencies, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as well as local emergency management offices from public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

As social media platforms have become vital means of communications, it has become imperative for emergency managers and policy makers to understand how people are interacting with different agencies on these platforms for enhancing community response coordination during disasters. Although many public agencies have already adopted social media platforms for crisis communication purposes, empirical evidence on whether and how these agencies are effectively engaged on these platforms is lacking. This research aims to examine crisis communication activities of a variety of agencies on Twitter in response to Hurricane Irma in 2017. In this study, we analyzed 13,353 hurricane-related tweets posted by the local agencies from eight counties in East Central Florida as well as federal, state, and other levels of organizations during the hurricane response period. An engagement metric was applied on these tweets to determine which agencies were most active in disseminating information during Hurricane Irma. The results revealed the most engaged local agencies in Twitter during Hurricane Irma for crisis communications and the Emergency Support Functions (ESFs) associated with them in coordinating disaster response activities. We further investigated Twitter profiles and relevant attributes of these actively engaged agencies, and the contents of the hurricane-related tweets during Hurricane Irma. The study found that local agencies remain active and engaged in Twitter during a disaster compared to other levels of agencies. The ESF representing communication (ESF #2) was one of the most frequent ESFs associated with these active agencies. The results also provided insights on crisis communication performance of these agencies in terms of the three dimensions of social media engagement including popularity, commitment, and virality, which are correlated to the counts of like, reply, and retweet of each post, respectively. The study includes recommendations to local government and partner organizations and emergency managers to improve crisis communication in social media and suggests future research directions.

ABSTRACT South Africa faces increasing levels of disaster risk. The country and citizens are exposed to a wide range of weather hazards, including drought, cyclones and severe storms that can trigger widespread hardship and devastation. The country’s extensive coastline and proximity to shipping routes present further numerous marine and coastal threats. Despite ongoing progress to extend essential services to poor urban and rural communities, large numbers of people live in conditions of chronic disaster vulnerability. They are located-in underserved, ecologically fragile or marginal areas, where they face recurrent natural and other threats that range from drought to repeated informal settlement fires. Several literature on Disaster Risk Management identifies a number of risk factors that people can be exposed to. These include: · Proximity/exposure: people who occupy or, for their livelihoods depend on areas of high hazard’s risk, · Capacities and resources: people who have limited means and capacity to mobilise them in order to increase their defences against hazard and · Disadvantaged or marginalized people: people who are vulnerable due to gender, race, ethnicity and class. The assessment and evaluation of risk to a range of hazards therefore becomes a necessity as it provides a sound basis for planning and for allocation of financial and other resources, as well as designing interventions and future mitigation activities. Valid and systematic information on disasters and their impacts has, however, not been widely available within local development programmes. More often, information pertaining to disaster risks is not available, and where it is, it is in fragmentary bits usually derived from different sources and stored in different formats. These data shortcomings have been to the obvious detriment of effective relief and mitigation, both at international, national and local municipal levels. Alexandra Township, located to the north of Johannesburg is facing a problem of a usable and comprehensive disaster data inventory. In this research report, an initial disaster inventory for Alexandra Township has been undertaken. Available data on disasters that have occurred in Alexandra Township for over the decade (1991-Aug 2005) are collected. These data are drawn from various sources including newspaper clippings, community- based records, data from the Red Cross, data from the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality and others. The beginning of such an information gathering system is a basic requirement for a coherent disaster programme. While in no way as rigorous as the data capturing methods and systems as those adopted in LA RED, South America or in MANDISA (University of Cape Town), where the disaster capturing data systems are more advanced, this report begins to illustrate some of the preliminary results that can be used to begin to develop an effective data management system for Alexandra Township. Such data also should be able to determine the detection of trends, that can begin to inform a more systematic and rigorous identification of complex disaster risks in urban settings. Some of these preliminary trends are profiled in this report.

This thesis analyzes how the Central Government of India (GoI) frames and justifies the post-disaster recovery phase in the recovery chapters of its 2016 and 2019 National Disaster Management Plans using Constructivist Grounded Theory and Textual Analysis. My analysis of the National Disaster Management Policy of 2009 demonstrates how disaster management mainly focuses on pre-disaster activities and how, as a result, recovery activities are less explored. I observed the same results in the National Plans, justifying the relevance of my thesis. The most significant findings of this research include: first, the GoI uses both Plans to detail decentralized efforts in recovery activities. Second, the GoI successfully puts the needs of communities at the heart of both Plans but fails to address communities as stakeholders and lacks consistency concerning the most vulnerable sections of the communities. Third, the GoI highlights psychological needs similarly in both Plans but does not acknowledge how psychological recovery is a long and ongoing process when explaining the recovery process. Lastly, it overly uses the “Build Back Better” (BBB) term but does provide details about concrete ways to achieve it. Drawing on the concepts of “disaster” and “recovery”, I argue that the GoI focuses on recovery based on hazards and fails to address the underlying causes of disasters in the recovery chapters of its Plans. Moreover, I argue that it successfully harmonizes with the dominant discourse of the international community but uses some institutional concepts such as BBB as buzzwords. Finally, I argue that the Plans reflect the priorities of the Government and that the 2019 Plan is not more inclusive as it aspires to be.

The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between an individual's perceptions of the attributes of food storage and his adoption of food storage practices. Food storage is defined as the practice of preserving and storing basic food commodities as a reserve supply. This practice is encouraged as a preparatory measure to provide security for families in the midst of emergencies, whether physical, economic, or social in nature. It becomes especially appropriate in developing areas where physical disasters (such as earthquakes and floods) coupled with social and economic instability, individually and on a national scale, pose constant threats to family security. This study was conducted in one such country, Guatemala.

This study examined the dynamics of an inter-organizational national disaster management organization (NDO) in the Caribbean. It sought to provide a better understanding of network structure, functions, and member relations, which provided a foundation for understanding member roles and leadership styles. This dissertation's primary research question was: How do members participate in the national disaster management network in the Caribbean? In personal interviews, network members identified the NDO as a semi-open network system, incorporating both hierarchical and collaborative characteristics. This analysis argued the network constitutes a dynamic system that shifts its governance structure to adapt to circumstances confronted during the disaster management cycle. This study also found network structure affects member positions and those views reciprocally affect how the NDO is organized. One participant clearly claimed a central network position and served as "network broker," while several other members formed two high density groups within the NDO. Network members played a range of formal and informal roles in the collaboration, including coach and coordinator. The central NDO member played several primary roles: fundraiser, change agent, manager, and informer. This analysis also suggested leadership styles shaped the network's hybrid governance structure: some members employed a directive or delegative style, while others relied upon a participatory approach. This mix of styles underscored the importance of shared leadership in a disaster context. The Saint Lucia government has endeavored to engage citizens in disaster management planning through an extensive NDO committee structure. This study yielded insights into that decentralized decision-making structure and process. The NDO, as a public policy network, has served as a "new governance" form of government action. At the national level, non-governmental organizations have used the structure to work to frame disaster management issues, while citizens active at the grassroots levels have participated in the nation's disaster preparedness and response planning processes. This new governance mechanism may be deemed participatory but not yet representative democracy. Overall, however, Saint Lucia's networked and engaged approach to disaster response and mitigation has encouraged deeper mutual awareness of shared challenges among government units, participating third sector organizations, for-profit entities, and the nation's citizens. / Ph. D.

Disasters are responsible for main disruptions in individuals and communities' lives, affecting their prosperity. The research on this topic is motivated by the increasing number of natural hazards deteriorating into catastrophic events as a result of antropogenic factors. By focusing on how institutions, their decision-making processes, and procedural arrangements, affect multi-actor coordination in international and national disasters, with a three-paper structure, this work represents a systematic investigation of the role of institutions in disaster operations. The second chapter investigates the decision-making process of the United Nations (UN) Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) about the strategy of coordination to adopt when civilians and militaries are involved in humanitarian operations in disaster-affected countries. The results of the archival research, content, analysis, and interviews, show that in insecure settings, such as where the disaster affected-country has low state capacity, civilians and militaries are more likely to merely coexist in the field rather than cooperating. The third and fourth chapters explore the role of political representation and electoral competition in the United States (US) and how differences in the political status between States and Territories can affect their emergency management capabilities in the preparedness, response, and recovery phases. Chapter three investigates political representation via content analysis and interviews, showing how the limited representation and no voting rights at the Congress can prevent Territories in advocating for emergency management legislation and budgeting. Chapter four investigates electoral competion via statistical and spatial analysis, showing how being a State or a Territory, does not matter when it comes to the federal public assistance, and what it does is the electoral competitiveness of the county/municipality and whether it hosts government's offices.

BACKGROUND: The World Bank report warns that the poor living in informal settlements and slum conditions are the most likely to be killed or harmed by extreme weather. They are morevulnerable to disasters often due to clogged drains, land subsidence, heat waves, and increased health risks. Disaster management (DM) in slums is part of a larger development problem in developing countries. However, analytical literature on the exact link and nature of problemsfaced by slum dwellers due to climate change and disasters is scarce. More research is needed to address the gap in literature between increasing urbanisation and the implications for the urban poor in disaster management plans (DMPs). METHODOLOGY: This research was granted approval by the Hamilton Health Sciences ResearchEthics Board on May 28, 2014. In June 2014, semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted, including 24 interviews and 9 focus groups with community members (CMs), 12 interviews with key informants from organisations in the civil society (CSOs), and 3 interviews with Government officials (GOs). The interviews and focus groups were transcribed verbatim (to the extent possible) and imported into NVivo 10 (QSR International) for qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: Five key points were made by participants in the focus groups and interviews: 1.) Some physical and non-physical infrastructure needs were not considered by GOs and CSOs for slum upgrading, such as the repair of shelter roofs and the creation of self-formed slum groups, 2.) Bottom-up participation and citizen engagement needed to be improved during the design and implementation of DMPs, 3.) Communication was pertinent during all phases of the DM cycle, including multisectorial involvement from all three stakeholder groups, 4.) Different barrierswere raised, including urbanization and planning, which affected the required participation and communication in DM, and 5.) Even substantial levels of water in the home at 3-4 inches high were described as waterlogging rather than flooding, suggesting that disasters were being normalised. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: By describing different measures and approaches that are used for and by the urban poor, new DM strategies are suggested (such as scaling up and including new components in Slum Upgrading Programs). Several recommendations were made to improve DM planning, including the need to overcome several barriers and the potential of formulating contextual DMPs (such as an Earthquake Action Plan). A novel finding was the apparent normalisation of disasters. This raises important questions about how disasters are framed in Ahmedabad and the policy solutions that result from it. Climate change was seldom noted, even though it is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of future disasters. These findings can be considered for policy makers in megacities around the world and in the post-2015 Millennium Development Goals and Hyogo Framework of Action. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / The occurrence of disasters around the world has in the past few decades increased at an alarming rate, which has necessitated an urgent need for mitigation strategies. As part of its planning and precautionary measures in responding to disasters, the City of Cape Town(CoCT) established a Disaster Risk Management Centre (DRMC) to co-ordinate such occurrences. This study is focused on investigating to what extent the CoCT’s DRMC has prepared individuals and communities to stay resilient.South Africa lies within a region of Southern Africa that has a semi-arid to arid climate,thereby making most parts of the country vulnerable to numerous disasters. Given the prevalence of the localised disasters in the country, they have the potential to overwhelm the capacity of any affected community. Furthermore, in 2011, the CoCT was approached by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives(ICLEI) to sign up as a Role Model City for the “Making Cities Resilient--My City is Getting Ready’’ Campaign, in collaboration with UNISDR. It became the first in South African City to be granted “Role Model City’’ status, becoming the second African city to be designated as a ‘‘Role Model City’’.The findings of this study indicate that the CoCT, through its DRMC, has tried to heighten awareness in communities to prepare them against disasters. Another important finding is that there is inadequate involvement of communities in CoCT training programmes. Poorer communities, which are mostly affected by disasters, barely receive any form of capacity building, that is, through training. In addition, the language of communication used in brochures, leaflets and other forms of media is mostly in English and Afrikaans, while the majority of people living in informal settlements speak isiXhosa. The study provides an insight into the need to consolidate strategies to address disaster management