Magister Commercii (Information Management) - MCom(IM) / This thesis examines what a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) should comprise off, as well as the difference between a BCP and a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) and the key elements of an effective BCP as well as the different types of disasters. It also investigates why companies that have BCP in place and conducts testing of their plan on a regular basis, either quarterly or bi-annually, still experience prolonged downtime during a disaster resulting in Service Level Agreements (SLA) not being met or major financial loses. It also inspects acceptable processes within a BCP to determine whether there are ways of improving these processes to prevent companies from experiencing prolonged downtime. The objective of this research is to determine and understand: • Why organisations within the Western Cape experience prolonged downtimes during a disaster event • The potential deficiencies in a BCP and how they can be amended.

Magister Commercii (Information Management) - MCom(IM) / This thesis examines what a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) should comprise off, as well as the difference between a BCP and a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) and the key elements of an effective BCP as well as the different types of disasters. It also investigates why companies that have BCP in place and conducts testing of their plan on a regular basis, either quarterly or bi-annually, still experience prolonged downtime during a disaster resulting in Service Level Agreements (SLA) not being met or major financial loses. It also inspects acceptable processes within a BCP to determine whether there are ways of improving these processes to prevent companies from experiencing prolonged downtime. The objective of this research is to determine and understand: Why organisations within the Western Cape experience prolonged downtimes during a disaster event. The potential deficiencies in a BCP and how they can be amended. A case study of four companies based in the Western Cape was conducted. These companies were chosen because each of them has a BCP in place and each have experienced prolonged downtime during a disaster. Qualitative interviews with the aid of an open-ended questionnaire were used to interview the BCP or Risk Manager of each company. The data was analysed to determine what the causes of their prolonged downtime were during a disaster. In the analysis and findings process each company is presented as a separate case study. The intension with this research study is to add an additional concept to the Common BCP Process that was identified within this study and that formed the basis for the Conceptual Framework, thereby reducing the downtime during a disaster for the companies that formed part of the research.

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / Community participation and awareness in disaster risk management is widely recognized as a cornerstone for disaster risk reduction and effective response and recovery strategies. This goes parallel with the world paradigm shift form relief and response to prevention and mitigation. There is gradually increase of fire and floods in informal settlements and Khayelitsha TR- Section in particular. “From 1995-2005 more than 8554 informal dwelling fire incidents occurred in Cape Town alone, affecting 40 558 households and around 160 000 peoples" (DiMP, 2008). And in 2007 alone floods affected 8,000 households and 38 residents in the Cape Town informal settlement of Khayelitsha; Bongani TR-Section and Phillippi; Phola park (Bouchard et al, 2007). This study analyzed community participation and awareness mechanisms in disaster risk management, its implementation, practice and effectiveness, following the promulgation of the Disaster Management Act No 57 of 2002, taking Khayelitsha TR- Section as a case study. In order to achieve the stated objectives, the researcher employed a combination of both qualitative and quantitative research paradigms. In qualitative context semi-structured interviews were conducted with the key informants disaster management officials and Khayelitsha TR-Section ward structure officials. Quantitative method, 100 structured questionnaires were distributed to Khayelitsha TR-Section residents. Using Khayelitsha TR- Section as a case study the thesis argues that despite the enabling policy and resource allocation for community participation and awareness its implementation proved to be a failure. Most of the mechanisms directed by the act are not implemented and those implemented its practice is not effective to achieve its stated objectives of risk reduction and effective response and recovery to disaster incidents. The study reviewed literature and theories of community participation and awareness in disaster risk management. It reviewed and outlined a policy framework and institutional arrangement for community participation and awareness in disaster risk management in accordance with the Disaster Management Act (No 57 of 2002). It further determined the level of community participation and awareness mechanism implementation. Records the level of community awareness and understanding, it determines the effectiveness of community participation and awareness mechanisms and finally based on the empirical results, literature reviews and theories, the study provides a number of recommendations to enhance and improved of community participation and awareness to disaster risk management officials and policy makers.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第22056号 / 工博第4637号 / 新制||工||1723(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院工学研究科都市社会工学専攻 / (主査)教授 CRUZ Ana Maria , 教授 山田 忠史, 准教授 松島 格也 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) / Kyoto University / DFAM

The impacts from climate change is among the most pressing issues that the international community is currently faced with. Climate change makes that thousands of people all over the world are and will continue to be forced to flee from their homes, thus becoming displaced. Very little is written about this group of environmental IDP´s and their protection by national policies. This is especially problematic for less developed countries, where little focus is on the IDP´s but where their plight is even more dire. This is due to the fact that those countries to a greater extent lack resources to manage climate change disasters in effective ways. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the debate on IDP´s, and to address the need to involve IDP´s in national policies, in an effort to protect those groups. This research problem was examined through analysing two cases, i.e. the development countries, Cambodia and Papua New Guinea, which have been studied through a qualitative case study with the use of structured focused comparison.    The analytical framework used to analyse the findings retrieved from the cases was the Policy implementation process framework, which offered different variables to examine and guide the analysis. This was further complemented by the concept vulnerability, in order to get a more comprehensive picture on influencing variables.     The findings illustrate that both cases has managed to introduce extensive policy frameworks on the subject of climate change and environmental disasters, but only PNG explicitly incorporates IDP´s in their policy plan. The study further recognised the shared challenges for both cases on policy implementations. Insufficient human and financial resources due to lack of commitment and mainstreaming at government-levels are the main problems facing both Cambodia and Papua New Guinea. For future research it is therefore important to continue efforts of recognising the need for national protection for environmental IDP´s and to continue evaluating national frameworks.

Disasters such as major floods and heat waves are taking an increasing toll on societies. Like other pressing policy issues, they are complex and cut across sectors, jurisdictions, and professional fields. Addressing these problems requires interorganizational collaboration between heterogeneous organizations and thus, interactions between representatives who may have different professional views and identities. Successful collaboration partly hinges on their capacity to integrate perspectives and develop sustainable working relationships despite differences. This thesis aimed to improve our understanding of the role played by professional differences in perspectives and identities in public-sector interorganizational collaboration. Three specific objectives were pursued in a multilevel approach: 1) To document the role of professional diversity for interorganizational collaboration when considered outside of sectoral or jurisdictional differences; 2) To investigate how salient differences in professional identity affect perceptions and reactions following task disagreement; and 3) To investigate the cognitive and relational pathways by which emotions, conflict perceptions, and information processing can predict decision quality and relationship quality following disagreement. Study 1 examined the experience of interorganizational collaboration in disaster management based on qualitative interviews with professional- and executive-level public servants from relevant Canadian federal organizations. Findings suggested that professional diversity was not by itself a salient issue. The most disempowering type of diversity was differences in mandates, especially when combined with differences in expertise or identities. Study 2 examined whether group composition based on professional identity was associated with differential perception of and reaction to disagreement during interorganizational problem solving. It was based on a small sample of experienced senior risk managers involved in a quasi-experimental simulation. In terms of disagreement perception, nonparametric analyses indicated that interprofessional teams reported more disagreement than homogeneous ones even if observed disagreement did not differ. In terms of reaction, disagreement showed consistent negative associations with reported measures of effectiveness, performance, and relationship quality in homogeneous teams. In contrast, these associations were either positive or nonsignificant in interprofessional teams. Study 3 experimentally tested in a disciplinary-defined university sample whether salient group professional composition affected how people perceived and reacted to a scripted task disagreement. Findings indicated that after experiencing the exact same task disagreement, participants in interprofessional teams were significantly more satisfied with their team than those in homogeneous teams. Path analyses supported the two hypothesized pathways linking emotion following disagreement to integrative decision making and satisfaction: a) a cognitive pathway whereby surprise predicted beneficial outcomes through increased reported task conflict and increased information processing and b) a relational pathway whereby negative emotions predicted detrimental outcomes through increased reported relationship conflict and decreased information processing. As a whole, the thesis improves our understanding of the cognitive and relational roles played by professional diversity in interorganizational collaboration. It provides evidence on the beneficial effects of salient diversity for group cohesion in the face of disagreement. It documents intervening cognitive and relational processes predicting performance and relational quality following task disagreement. Finally, it proposes research avenues whereby social psychology can be leveraged to support the adaptation of public-sector organizations to contemporary challenges in public policy.

This study aims to explore if learning through policy change is possible after natural disastersoccur. Previous studies are divided concerning if natural disasters in fact lead to learning or policy change taking place. Thomas Birkland and his theory on “event related learning” suggest that it is possible for learning to take place after a ”focusing event” has occurred, which in turn forces policy to change. Through an operationalization of Birkland’s concept of learning, this study seeks to explore how learning can be understood to have occurred, due to and during the 10 years after the earthquake struck Haiti in 2010. The study concludes that there are many different indicators through multiple different sectors that suggest both learning and policy change has taken place on Haiti, due to the earthquake that occurred in 2010, viewed through Birkland’s theory of learning.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第22758号 / 工博第4757号 / 新制||工||1744(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院工学研究科都市社会工学専攻 / (主査)教授 CRUZ Ana Maria , 教授 堀 智晴, 准教授 横松 宗太 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) / Kyoto University / DFAM

Global policies in disaster management have radically changed since 1990s, shifting the previously entrenched emphasis on emergency management, towards new applications of risk management. A series of international declarations expressed the determination and principles to reduce risks at every level, which were followed by many national governments. The disaster management system in Turkey seems to tend towards this approach, not necessarily based on an awareness of the global trends, but due to the severe impacts of the 1999 events. Since no understanding and political commitment for disaster mitigation prevails in Turkey, risk mitigation planning at every level is yet far from being effective. This claim constitutes the basic working hypothesis of the study. Verification of the hypothesis is based on a comparative analysis of the organizational structures of the selected countries, and a survey of recent local performance. The framework developed by the Kobe Conference is employed in both analyses. The former analysis indicated that despite the new institutional developments like &lsquo / construction supervision&rsquo / and &lsquo / obligatory insurance&rsquo / , Turkey in its disaster policy is still far from a comprehensive mitigation approach in terms of the Kobe criteria. Although the laws of local administrations now contain new tasks of city-level disaster management, not only confusions between pre-disaster and post-disaster responsibilities prevail, but no operational guidance is given for the fulfillment these responsibilities. A whole range of activities are therefore in need of being streamlined into the tasks of urban planning in the reduction of disaster risks. With the amendment of laws, modification of the professional practice and the training of planners are expected.

Chronic seismic hazards and resulting secondary impacts are due to the geological conditions of Turkey and the nature of current response mechanisms. Local know-how of building and settlement that evolved over centuries eroded with the growth in population, and the introduction of reinforced concrete building economics. This makes cities the most vulnerable geographical and social entities in Turkey. A basic formal reference of disaster management is the National Seismic Hazard Map indicating zones of hazard probabilities which are directly related to different measures in construction. This is hardly a sufficient disaster policy tool however, as cities may have very different risk profiles independent from the hazard probabilities. City level risk variations are not considered in the Seismic Hazard Map. This study intends to establish indicators for different risk levels in urban areas other then those implied by the National Seismic Hazard Map. Apart from local morphological and geological conditions, attributes of building stock, rates of unauthorized buildings and social conditions represent vulnerability indicators and could be effective in the determination of local risk levels. One specific description of risk levels is available in the obligatory reporting of the local authorities about the &quot / most likely level of disaster losses&quot / . This information, as an obligatory task of the governorates represents a local assessment of the most likely disaster losses and it is available from the GDDA. The city-level statistics of building stock on the other hand are available from the Turkish Statistical Institute. Correlation and Regression analyses are employed to determine what combinations of the independent variables might best denote city-level risks, and these may vary independently from their positions in the Hazard Map. The research may thus generate information for a more effective disaster policy.