Disaster management and insurance are of increasing significance in today’s world. Every year, natural disasters cause tens of thousands of deaths and tens of billions of dollars worth of losses. The figures available from international agencies such as the International Federation of Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies and from major transnational insurance and reinsurance corporations meeting in Davos every year under the World Economic Forum show that mortality rates have been fairly consistent, whilst the number of recognized catastrophic events, and even more, the size of economic losses, have rapidly increased. This research examines the difficult task to successfully mobilize the requisite financing for adaption. Traditionally, governments have endorsed ex-post financing instruments. This research argues that there is substantial value in shifting to a comprehensive disaster risk management strategy that stresses the combination of a broader distribution of risk and the implementation of ex-ante financing instruments as the most effective way to achieve coherent financial protection. This research analyzes the diversity of national disaster risk governance across East Asia from the comparative perspective of the national disaster management plans implemented by the governments of Taiwan, Japan and China to handle the rising costs of natural disasters. This research aims to provide a research platform to assist policy development design to increase government financial preparedness for catastrophe risks. Disaster management studies are not a discipline per se, but a field of study borrowing to several disciplines of social sciences from economics to geography. Since government responses to threatening disaster situations are what draw the attention of this research, it makes sense to consider problem-solving theories of political science as the most appropriate theoretical settings to locate this analysis. Therefore, the theoretical foundations of functionalism and disaster theory serve as a theoretical support. Using a descriptive approach, this research favors a qualitative type of methodology. The primary sources consulted during the fieldwork, as well as the information gathered as evidence, demonstrate that the governments of Taiwan, Japan and China have taken a series of measures and actions to tackle the financial costs of natural disasters, including the elaboration of legal frameworks, the enactment of budgetary rules and the development of local support and private participation. However, despite the efforts and policies adopted, these governments continue to bear the financial burden of handling the majority of economic losses, and to resort to post-disaster financing instruments to assume their financial responsibility. This research concludes that, given their exposure to natural disasters and the rising costs associated with these events, the governments of Taiwan, Japan and China have no choice but to shift towards effective national disaster risk governance that will promote private coverage and preserve public finances.

'Natural' disasters have traditionally been viewed as the result of an extreme physical environment. A radical backlash against this dominant view, in the nineteen seventies and eighties, moved the debate to the opposite extreme and in doing so replaced physical with social determinism. Vulnerability analysis is proposed as a methodology that bridges these extremes. It takes into account individual decision making, social milieu and physical hazard when describing human habitation in areas of volcanic activity. It is argued that vulnerability should be defined in terms of universal human needs in order to avoid it simply being a measure of the chance of death and injury or losing its meaning in the uncertainty of cultural relativism. Once vulnerability is identified it is important to explore why it has come to exist. A contextual theory of vulnerability change is presented. Vulnerability to volcanic activity was explored in the area around Mt. Etna in Sicily (Italy) and Furnas volcano San Miguel in the Azores (Portugal) using a case study methodology. This included: collecting data through interviews (semistructured and structured) and field surveying, utilising census and other secondary data sources, and examining historical documents and texts. The volcanic hazard on Mt. Etna is related to regular (4-7 years) effusive lava flows which threaten property and land rather than people. Living in a European state, it is likely that a victim of Mt. Etna will have their basic needs provided for in the long-term and therefore they are not vulnerable. In contrast the irregular explosive eruptions of Furnas, last eruption 1630, not only damage property and land but also endanger lives. The limited ability of individuals to protect themselves in the event of an eruption and organisations to aid them in this means that, in spite of state insurance, many around Furnas are vulnerable. The production of vulnerability around Etna and Furnas is strongly related to the socio-economic nature of the region and wider European and global contexts. Opportunities and constraints that exist across socio-physical space encourage behaviour and forms of life which, in tum, produce various levels of vulnerability. Individuals seem to cognitively diminish their perceptions of this threat within a context of social representations of low risk. They, and society as a whole, rarely seem to engage directly with the risk itself.

On August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall near New Orleans, LA, causing catastrophic damage to the metropolitan area. The hurricane also exposed many of the racial, ethnic, and class-based vulnerabilities experienced by many New Orleanians. However, as is typically the case, gender was ignored in most media accounts in the aftermath of the disaster. This project examines the gendered dimensions of the disaster experience using New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina as a case study. Evidence from University of New Orleans Survey Research data indicates various gender differences from the initial response to the recovery efforts months later. Few gender differences were found regarding physical loss and displacement after the storm; however, psychological effects did often differ along gender lines, with women more likely than men to experience psychological symptoms directly after the storm, while men were likely than women to be affected approximately one year later. Interestingly, gender differences in evacuation plans and behavior varied according to whether or not a disaster had recently occurred. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, women were more likely than men to report having evacuated for Hurricane Georges, though no other variable was statistically significant. After Katrina, men were more likely than women to have an evacuation plan in place, while women were more likely than men to report a willingness to evacuate when recommended by local level officials, which they did when Hurricane Rita threatened the area. Public policy implications are discussed.

This thesis discusses the occurrence and evolution of natural disasters in the world and in the Czech republic. More detail it deals with floods in the Czech republic, the causes of their formation, climate changes and especially tools of coverage the damage caused by them on property of individuals. In addition to prevention, commercial insurance, public and private sources are also considered the instruments of capital market. The interest is focused on barriers of commercial insurance that reduce the level of insurance protection. Finally, this work deals also with storms in the Czech republic.

[pt] Este estudo investiga o papel do design frente a desastres naturais e parte do princípio que o design deve se ocupar de problemas complexos. Seus principais interlocutores foram Jorge Frascara - autor do livro Diseño Grafico para la gente, que defende que o fruto da atuação do design deve ser a transformação de realidades existentes em outras mais desejáveis –, Ulrich Beck – que, em seu livro Risk Society, apresenta a globalização dos riscos na sociedade contemporânea – e Adam Smith, que discorre sobre a importância da empatia nas relações humanas em obra intitulada A teoria dos sentimentos morais. Esta dissertação traz um panorama sobre desastres naturais e seus impactos sobre populações vulneráveis. Relata, também, estudo de caso realizado em lugares atingidos por catástrofes, como Nova Friburgo, região serrana do Estado do Rio de Janeiro e em Santiago de Cuba. Ao final, identifica as principais ações que precisam ser desenvolvidas antes, durante e depois fenômenos naturais de grandes proporções, apresenta meios pelos quais o design pode agir afim de minimizar os efeitos dos desastres e conclui que a sua atuação frente a esses eventos pode ser literalmente vital. Este trabalho teve como inspiração os Médicos sem Fronteiras – organização humanitária internacional comprometida com a prestação de socorro a populações em perigo e vítimas de catástrofes e conflitos, estando entre seus desdobramentos, a realização de workshops internacionais de design com foco em problemas complexos para voluntários em parceria com organizações como a Yunus Social Business e a própria MSF. / [en] This study investigates the role of design against natural disasters and assumes that design must deal with complex problems. It s main interlocutors are Jorge Frascara – author of Diseño Grafico para la gente, which argues that the objective of the design practice must be the transformation of existing realities into other ones more desirable – Ulrich Beck – who, in his book Risk society, presents the globalization of risks in contemporary society – and Adam Smith, who defends the importance of empathy in human relations in his work entitled The theory of moral sentiments. This dissertation provides an overview of natural disasters and their impact on vulnerable populations. Also reports case studies conducted in places affected by disasters such as Nova Friburgo, mountainous region in the State of Rio de Janeiro and Santiago de Cuba. At the end, identifies key actions that need to be undertaken before, during and after natural disasters, presents ways in which design can act in order to minimize the effects of disasters and concludes that it s action against these events can literally be vital. This work was inspired by the Doctors without Borders – international humanitarian organization which provides assistance to populations in distress and victims of disasters and conflicts, and among its consequences are the development of international design workshops for complex problems, in partnership with organizations such as Yunus Social Business and the DWB itself.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, School of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg, October, 2017. / The purpose of this study was to examine how subsistence farmers in the Delta State of Nigeria employed their asset portfolios i.e. human, financial, social, natural and physical capitals to build their adaptive capacity and resilience to climate variability and change. The study was also interested in understanding the extent to which climate change risk communication facilitated the protection and adaptation of subsistence farmer’s assets in the face of extreme weather warnings. Primary data were obtained using the Participatory Climate Change Adaptation Appraisal (PCCAA), which comprises both the asset vulnerability analytical and the asset-based adaptation operational frameworks. The systems thinking approach, together with the asset vulnerability analytical framework were also used as an operational vulnerability framework to highlight the myriad factors undermining the rural poor from maximising their asset portfolios during food production. Focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews facilitated the use of the PCCAA tools. Meteorological data reinforced subsistence farmer’s perception (62%) that there has been an increase in temperature within the last decade, which have adversely affected on groundnut production. The farmers (92%) also listed heavy rainfall event and flooding as a climatic variable that impede their ability to produce cassava throughout the year. This is because their farmlands, which are generally low-lying, are always inundated for approximately four months every year. Nonetheless, the farmers still engaged in cassava production annually by adopting a strategy indigenously referred to as elelame (follow-water-go). It is important to mention that in spite of the rapidly changing climate, the subsistence farmers did not rely on Seasonal Climate Forecast (SCF) in order to determine the appropriate time to grow their food. Instead, they relied on their Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) not limited to cloud observations, croaking of frogs and peculiar sounds made by the swamp chickens. However, the farmers acknowledged that their IKS have not been as reliable as it has always been in the past decades. Nonetheless, the farmers underlined being misled by an inaccurate scientific forecast in 2013 and, a lack of trust in the source of the forecast are some of the reasons they continue to rely primarily on IKS. With climate change expected to continue occurring at unprecedented levels in Nigeria, it is crucial to build subsistence farmers trust in SCF while simultaneously not undermining the value of their IKS. This is because there is growing consensus that if subsistence farmers continue to rely on IKS alone, the key assets that play a huge role in food production will likely be eroded. This will adversely hamper households’ ability to continue obtaining the livelihood they aggressively pursue. Thus, a useful starting point will be to generate a “unified” forecast whereby SCF compensates for the limitations of farmer’s IKS. However, for the unified forecast to make meaningful contributions to the ways in which farmers produce their food and protect their assets in anticipation of an extreme weather forecast, it must be communicated through the various mediums that the farmers rely upon to receive vital pieces of information. Keywords: Indigenous knowledge systems, seasonal climate forecast, climate change risk communication, Delta State, Nigeria. / LG2018

A presente pesquisa apresenta uma análise da dinâmica espacial e temporal dos eventos intensos de precipitação na bacia hidrográfica do rio Piracicaba, no período de 1981 a 2010, com dados de 51 postos pluviométricos mantidos na região pelo Departamento de Águas e Energia Elétrica (DAEE) e pela Agência Nacional de Águas (ANA) e a Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). A partir do limiar de 94 mm em 24 horas, obtido por meio da adaptação do método box plot, foi possível estabelecer áreas de maior ocorrência de eventos e buscar possíveis relações com outros elementos climáticos e geomorfológicos. Verificou-se que o setor centro-leste da bacia hidrográfica recebeu a maior quantidade de chuvas intensas no período estudado. Através do mapa de ocorrência desses fenômenos pode-se perceber a influência do relevo nessa dinâmica já que se trata do início do planalto Atlântico com altitudes de aproximadamente 1800 metros. Suscetíveis a grande quantidade de sistemas frontais e ZCAS, podemos atribuir a variabilidade desses eventos, em sua maioria, a esses sistemas já que predominaram no verão e primavera, justamente o maior período de ocorrência desses fenômenos. Posteriormente buscou-se verificar possíveis associações entre as características pluviométricas do local e a metodologia dos anos padrão. Após a análise desses elementos, pode-se perceber que existe uma boa relação entre os períodos considerados chuvosos e habituais e os eventos de chuva intensa, já que nesses anos obtivemos grande quantidade de precipitações intensas. Por fim, foi realizado o estudo de caso de dois eventos de precipitação que tiveram grande magnitude horária. As consequências em superfície, ficaram evidentes como por exemplo, inundações e alagamentos, representadas por meio de recortes de notícias de jornal de dias posteriores ao evento. / This research presents an analysis of the dynamics of intense precipitation events in the basin of Piracicaba river in the period from 1981 to 2010 with data from 50 rain gauges in the region maintained by the Department of Water and Power (DAEE), the National Water Agency (ANA) and Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ) . Through the method of integrated analysis, it was the spatiality and variability of events in the study area, looking for possible explanations for the occurrence of these phenomena. From the threshold of 94 mm in 24 hours, obtained by adapting the box plot method, it was possible to establish areas of higher incidence of events and seek possible relationships with other climatic and geomorphological elements. It was found that the central-eastern sector of the basin received the highest amount of heavy rains during the study period. Through the occurrence of these phenomena map one can see the influence of relief in this dynamic since it is the beginning of the Atlantic plateau with altitudes of about 1800 meters. Susceptible to large amount of frontal systems and ZCAS, we can attribute the variability of these events, for the most part, these systems since prevailed in the summer and spring, just the greatest period of occurrence of these systems. Later he sought to investigate possible associations with rainfall characteristics of the site with the methodology of standard years. After analyzing these elements, one can see that there is a good relationship between rainy periods considered and intense rainfall events, since in those years got lots of heavy rainfall. Finally, the study was conducted in the case of two intense precipitation events that had great hourly magnitude. The consequences surface, were evident such as floods and flooding, represented through newspaper news clippings of days after the event.

O crescimento desordenado das grandes cidades brasileiras, com a ocupação de várzeas, canalização de córregos e impermeabilização do solo, tem afetado o micro clima urbano, aumentando a incidência de fortes chuvas, que causam desastres, associados à chuvas extremas. Este trabalho apresenta um índice de vulnerabilidade urbana a alagamentos e deslizamentos de terra, em função de eventos extremos de precipitação, como instrumento de gestão urbana a estes desastres. / The unruly growth of large Brazilian cities resulting from the occupation of floodplains, channeling of rivers, and impermeabilization of the soil, has affected the urban microclimate, increasing heavy rains, which cause disasters associated to extreme weather events. This thesis presents a index of urban vulnerability to floods and landslides, according to extreme precipitation events, as an instrument of urban management to these disasters.

This is the first longitudinal, retrospective, qualitative, descriptive and multi-case study of hurricanes in Puerto Rico, from 1899 to 1956, researching for planning purposes the key lessons from the disaster management changes that happened during the transition of Puerto Rico from a Spanish colony to a Commonwealth of the United States. The selected time period is crucial to grasp the foundations of modern disaster management, development and planning processes. Disasters are potent lenses through which inspect realpolitik in historical and current times, and grasp legacies that persist today, germane planning tasks. Moreover, Puerto Rico is an exemplary case; it has been an experimental laboratory for policies later promoted by the US abroad, and it embodies key common conditions to develop my research interface between urban planning and design, meteorology, hydrology, sociology, political science, culture and social history. After introducing the dissertation, I present a literature review of the emergence of the secular characterization of disasters and a recent paradigm shift for understanding what a disaster is, its causes and how to respond. Next, I summarize the multidisciplinary research and policy knowledge concerning Puerto Rican hurricanes. Subsequently, I explain my methodological sequential data analysis, beginning with three case studies, followed by cross-case comparisons and assessments, ending in answer, recommendations and conclusions. I implemented a version of Grounded Theory, combining deductive and inductive thinking, with a phenomenologist standpoint that valued people's experiences and interpretations of the world. I aimed to denaturalize so-called ‘natural disasters’, exposing with a political economy lens the political character of public decision-making before, during and after a disaster; and grasp how politics impacted the society under study. My research methods were archival research in the field and online, visual sociology and case study. Based on information-oriented sampling, I chose the destructive hurricanes San Ciriaco (1899), San Felipe (1928) and Santa Clara (1956), which occurred at critical historical junctures. I examined three themes: characterization, causation, and relief. Those themes divided into six sub-questions and thirty-eight variables, summarized later. Answer: Disaster management vastly improved mirroring shifting ideas of God, nature, knowledge and humanity; always influenced by the dependent position of the island. Historically, citizens tried to handle hurricanes through mythological beliefs, empirical observations, rituals and material practices; some of which endured colonization and modernization into the mid 20th century. Disaster management emerged haphazardly; at first it was ineffective and improvised relief, without much preventive or reconstructive policy-making. The official perception of hurricanes changed from being essentially uncontrollable religious or natural events, to natural events that could be tamed with technology, physical changes and policies. Yet, it was a more nuanced confluence of environmental, economic, social, cultural, and political factors that enabled storms to become destructive disasters affecting the Puerto Rican economy, environment and society. The social groups that experienced higher resilience or vulnerability during a disaster respectively corresponded to the groups that were best and least served during relief and who could or could not produce public transcripts and policies. Such division resulted from entrenched social and political arrangements, including citizens’ rights, colonial administrative policies, social hierarchy that merged local and external power dynamics, and notions of habitus . Eventually, the growing understanding of citizens’ rights was critical to reduce hurricane casualties and the worst forms of vulnerability through New Deal and Commonwealth developmental projects. By also including contentious aims though, they created other forms of underdevelopment and dependency from the US; whilst technology and modernity paradigms bolstered new risks that would become rather costly. Simultaneously, disaster management became a federal responsibility, which reached Puerto Rico; but it was the unplanned intersection of a hodge-podge of disciplines, approaches and institutions, centered on physical interventions and neglecting the role of culture and the political economy of disasters with negative lasting impacts. Although improvised, contradictory and controversial; the main factors enabling the rise of disaster management were increased governmental leadership, knowledge construction, public awareness, planning and investment in hard and soft infrastructure, and relief provision. My dissertation contributes to Puerto Rican Studies and to emerging planning discussions about the Circum-Caribbean. Also, it contributes to disaster management, an area of academic and practice-oriented literature relevant for planning, fastly growing given the rising frequency and intensity of multiple disasters; and which is usually focused on contemporary events, prospective forecasting and proposal-making. Contrastingly, my dissertation’s strengths reside in being a critical and exhaustive historical study of hurricanes that proposes an option to the customary deleterious disciplinary fragmentation of disaster studies and management, and to the emphasis on physical change that remain standards in most countries.

A dissertação apresenta um estudo das chuvas extremas relacionadas a quatro desastres naturais ocorridos no Brasil: as inundações do Vale do Itajaí SC, em novembro de 2008, a inundação histórica de São Luís do Paraitinga - SP, em janeiro de 2010, as inundações ocorridas no Vale do Mundaú AL, em junho de 2010 e as inundações e escorregamentos da Região Serrana - RJ, em janeiro de 2011. As chuvas catastróficas foram analisadas através de estatísticas básicas dos dados dos pluviômetros localizados nas regiões. No Vale do Itajaí, as chuvas registradas nos dias 23 e 24 de novembro foram elevadas, atingindo valores acima de 250 mm. Na estação Blumenau, choveu 243,5 mm e 250,9 mm nesses. Na estação localizada em São Luís do Paraitinga, choveu apenas 64,7 mm no dia 1 de janeiro de 2010, quando ocorreu a inundação. Porém, foram observados 205,7 mm em uma das estações localizadas em Cunha. Nesse caso, o elevado volume precipitado na cabeceira da bacia deflagrou as inundações observadas nos dois municípios. No Vale do Mundaú e Paraíba, choveu cerca de 200 mm no dia 5 de junho, em duas das seis estações analisadas. O elevado volume precipitado no dia 5, combinado com as chuvas ocorridas no período de 17 a 19, pode ter causado as inundações observadas no dia 19 nessas bacias. Os dados indicaram que, na Região Serrana do RJ, as inundações e escorregamentos foram causados pela chuva extrema ocorrida nos dias 11 e 12 de janeiro de 2011, que ultrapassou 270 mm no intervalo de 24 h em uma das estações. As chuvas acumuladas nos meses que antecedem os eventos e a alta declividade contribuíram para a saturação do solo e posteriores escorregamentos. Os eventos pluviométricos, classificados através do SPI resultaram, na maioria das estações, chuvas severas ou chuvas extremas A vulnerabilidade das regiões, onde inúmeras habitações estão localizadas em áreas de risco, também foi determinante para que os desastres acontecessem. Outros eventos de magnitude elevada foram observados anteriormente, o que indica que estes eventos são característicos das regiões estudadas. Constatou-se que as regiões analisadas estão sujeitas a chuvas extremas com frequência relativamente alta, muito embora tenha sido observado, em alguns casos, certo grau de raridade nesses eventos. Portanto, nessas áreas devem ser adotadas medidas regionais no sentido de disciplinar o uso e ocupação do solo e reduzir os riscos dos desastres. É fundamental buscar medidas de adaptação da ocupação dessas áreas, considerando o regime hidrológico dessas regiões. / The paper presents a study of extreme rainfall related to four natural disasters occurring in Brazil: the floods in Itajaí Valley, state of Santa Catarina, in November, 2008; the historic flood in São Luís do Paraitinga, state of São Paulo, in January, 2010; the floods in Mundaú Valley, state of Alagoas, in June, 2010; and the floods and landslides in the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro in January, 2011. The catastrophic rains were analyzed through basic statistical data collected from rain gauges located in those regions. In Itajaí Valley, extremely high rainfalls exceeding 250 mm were recorded on November 23 and 24. In Blumenau, it rained 243.5 mm and 250.9 mm on the same days. At the station located in São Luís do Paraitinga, it rained just 64.7 mm on January 1, 2010, when the flood occurred. However, 205.7 mm were observed in one of the stations located in Cunha. In this case, the high volume of rainfall at the headwater of the basin triggered flooding observed in these two cities. In the valleys of Mundaú and Paraíba, it rained nearly 200 mm on June 5, in two of the six stations analyzed. The high volume of rainfall on June 5, combined with the rains from the 17th to the 19th, may have led to the floods in these basins on June 19. The data indicated that, in the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro, the flooding and landslides were caused by massive rainfall on January 11 and 12, 2011, which exceeded 270 mm within a period of 24 hours in one of the stations. The rainfall accumulated in the months prior to the events and the high sloping land contributed to soil saturation and subsequent landslides. The rainfall events, sorted through the SPI, resulted in severe or extreme rains in most of the stations. The vulnerability of the regions, which include many homes located in hazardous areas, was also crucial for the disasters to happen. Other major events were previously observed, which indicates that these events are characteristic of the studied regions. It was noted that the analyzed regions are subject to extreme rains with a relatively high frequency, although in some cases these events have demonstrated to be somewhat rare. Therefore, in these areas, region-based measures should be adopted with a view to regulating the use and occupation of the soil and reducing risk of disasters. It is essential to seek adaptation measures of occupation of these areas, considering their hydrological regime.