This research concerns in a survey of natural disasters that happened in the municipality of Erechim / RS between the years 1986 to 2011.The main objectives are: to identify and quantify the disasters happened in the city over the past 25 years; to identify the seasonal year in which they occurred and the type of event that caused the largest number of disasters; to identify and map the neighborhoods that were most affected; to investigate events according to the triggering source: meteorological, hydrological and climatologically. As well as to update the existing data on the subject matter. The literature survey was the first stage of this work. After the collection of data on episodes of natural disasters in the municipality of Erechim during the timescale of this research was conducted. It was done using the following sources: the files of the county Civil Defense, which comprise the decrees of Emergency and Public Calamity, the collection of records of the Fire Department of the municipality and the local newspaper circulation. Softwares were used for mapping and field work as well. They were essential to assess the situation locus of affected sites. At the end of this research it can be concluded that in the period from 1996 to 2011 sixty-five events causing disaster happened in Erechim-RS. The majority of them are of meteorological origin as gales and hail gales or climatological as droughts. Most of these events occurred in the spring and summer. / A presente pesquisa baseia-se no levantamento dos desastres naturais que aconteceram no município de Erechim/RS entre os anos de 1986 a 2011, tendo como objetivos principais: identificar e quantificar os desastres ocorridos no município nos últimos 25 anos; identificar a época sazonal do ano em que ocorreram e tipo de evento que causou o maior número de desastres; identificar e cartografar os bairros que foram mais afetados; analisar os eventos de acordo com a sua origem desencadeadora: meteorológicos, climatológicos ou hidrológicos. Bem como, atualizar os dados já existentes sobre o assunto abordado. O levantamento bibliográfico consistiu na primeira etapa deste trabalho. Após, foi realizado o levantamento dos dados sobre os episódios de desastres naturais ocorridos no município de Erechim durante a escala temporal da presente pesquisa, utilizando as seguintes fontes de consulta: os arquivos da Defesa Civil do município, que compreendem os decretos de Situação de Emergência e de Calamidade Pública, o acervo de registros do Corpo de Bombeiros do município e os jornais de circulação local. Utilizaram-se softwares para elaboração de mapas, bem como trabalho de campo, que foi indispensável para se avaliar em lócus a situação dos locais mais afetados. Ao final dessa pesquisa pode-se concluir que no período de 1996 a 2011 ocorreram 65 eventos causadores de desastres em Erechim - RS sendo que a maioria deles são de origem meteorológica como vendavais e vendavais com granizo e climatológicos como estiagens. Grande parte destes eventos ocorreram na primavera e no verão.

Kyoto University (京都大学) / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第15363号 / 工博第3242号 / 新制||工||1488(附属図書館) / 27841 / 京都大学大学院工学研究科都市環境工学専攻 / (主査)教授 寶 馨, 准教授 山敷 庸亮, 准教授 立川 康人 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当

Understanding the Equity Risk Premium (ERP) and the factors affecting it is cardinal to financial economics, particularly to equity research analysts, domestic and international institutional investors and financial economist. Since the seminal work of Mehra and Prescott (1985) there has been an exponential rise in the research explaining the reasons for ERP puzzle. This review, systematically, investigates the literature related to ERP in four key dimensions. The first dimension is regarding the issues related to different techniques of estimating the ERP. The second dimension is regarding the studies that explain the reasons of existence of the ERP puzzle by making modifications to the preference structures. The third is regarding the macroeconomic variables that help in predicting ERP and the fourth deals with studies that are conducted in the international context. In addition to this, this review meticulously captures some important limitations of the existing literature regarding the estimation of ERP and identifies the domestic and international determinants of ERP, in particular the UK ERP and proposes novel future directions of research. These future research directions have two important implications for my PhD. The first is the academic contribution that predominantly comes from methodological contribution of estimating the ERP. The second is the practical contribution that comes mainly from identifying the unique set of variables (UK domestic and international), which are of prime importance to the domestic and foreign institutional investors because of the financial crisis of 2008-2009 and which should affect the UK ERP.

This dissertation examines questions of citizenship and risk after the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan. I argue that for sectors of the population concerned with the health effects of radiation exposure, the disaster motivated them to reconsider their relationship to the Japanese state. I introduce the concept of scientific citizenship to explore the dynamics whereby ordinary people amassed enough knowledge to critically assess expert advice and form conclusions about the intentions and ability of the state to safeguard them. Crucially, citizenship in this context is not a mode of engagement with the state where citizens seek its protection, but rather a way of circumventing it to ensure the health of future generations. It is inscribed in the decision to find alternative modes of ensuring the basic rights to life and health above and beyond the work of the state. Based on two years of in-depth fieldwork in the aftermath of the disaster, I explore ethnographically the work of groups of mothers, farmers and experts who came together to share and disseminate knowledge about radiation in an effort to protect their own and each other's children from radiation. / Anthropology

This research takes a social constructivist approach to investigate the relationship between people’s perceptions of disaster risk and their responses in disaster-prone cities of the Global South. This is important because the effects of risk perceptions on the ways that people respond to disaster risk remains unclear and has been labelled ‘weak’ within the disaster studies literature. Furthermore, this lack of clarity has contributed to the marginalisation of people at risk from contributing to interventions that address disaster risk, which this research finds problematic. Therefore, a better understanding of how people perceive their risk and how this shapes their responses would help inform more effective and multi-scalar interventions to address disaster risk. The research takes place in three adjacent neighbourhoods of Cochabamba city, Bolivia. Within this ‘case site’, the house is used as a methodological tool to investigate how people’s risk perceptions shape their responses to disaster risk. In particular, the research explores how risk perceptions influence the way people design and construct self-build houses in order to reduce their risk of a disaster. The focus on housing construction represents a novel way of exploring the relationship between risk perceptions and disaster risk-reduction behaviour. The research takes place in the context of persistent, low-intensity natural hazards that are linked to disaster risk which incrementally increases over time. This marks a shift away from the many studies that investigate rapid-onset, extreme hazards that quickly overwhelm people’s capabilities and which are associated with crisis and urgency. Additionally, the research is concerned with small-scale disasters, which again marks a shift away from the disaster studies literature which principally focuses on large-scale disasters that result in many casualties, large economic loss and which affect a large geographical area. The research ultimately shows that whether a risk perception is high or low is not the most important factor; rather, it is an individual’s awareness and understanding of disaster risk that encourages long-term and anticipatory strategies that require significant investments in the house. Furthermore, the research argues that research which describes the relationship between risk perceptions and responses as ‘weak’ forecloses the nuances and complexity of human behaviour in disaster-prone contexts because it does not capture the subtle yet important ways that risk perceptions shape responses.

A study of local context has revealed that universal relief strategies are failing to meet the needs of those who have just lived through the traumatic experience of losing their primary dwelling. Where as conventional ‘donor’ structures may economically shelter the body, they neglect to address issues of home and belonging. The hypothesis argues that shelter after disaster is not just a temporary solution but rather a ‘starter kit’ with the potential of becoming a home. Hence shelter is the beginning of a process, that involves first a sign of the event of dwelling before it can host a more complex scope of concerns. While acknowledging that the design cannot be site specific, the proposal responds to regional disasters within greater Tshwane region, through a comprehensive investigation of context, climate and selected case studies. Set within the reality of monotonous modular design the project seeks to provide a flexible and innovative shelter typology that can remain on site, providing a period of grace. Thus enabling the displaced to focus on rebuilding their homes without living with the fear of their tent being reclaimed. The project conducts a critical investigation into rapidly deployable structure. The object of the study is to highlight the potential of cardboard as an alternative building material. Copyright / Dissertation (MInt(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Architecture / unrestricted

v anglickém jazyce The study of sources related to the folk provenance is often in terms of the Czech historiography a neglected issue. Especially the research of folk chronicles has reached the utmost boom in the middle of the nineteenth century and then also in the interwar years. Nowadays, the study does not attract much attention. Therefore, the aim of this work is to capture and systematize the existing knowledge on this subject. Moreover, it is necessary to emphasize and show some other possibilities of dealing with these particular sources because they are valuable work for contemporary historiographical studies such as microhistorical and cultural anthropological research. Although one might think that these annals have rather a small informative value for the traditional political historical events, they offer an interesting insight into everyday life of ordinary people living in the countryside those days. This fact can definitely help one understand traditions as it also represents tendencies and trends in attitudes and behaviour of the rural society those days. The main purpose of the thesis is to consider what motivated folk authors to note down their stories and experience in chronicles. The alarming fact is that the post-war historiography has caused a lot of confusion over the true...

The thesis deals with coverage of natural disaster damages by commercial insurance. A description of natural disasters and their possible occurrence mainly in our territory in association with climate changes as the factor causing increase in their number serve as an introduction. Starting from the impact on the world and the Czech insurance sector, where the thesis deals especially with floods in 1997 and 2002, it is getting on to the analysis of the offers presented by three largest Czech insurance companies. The analysis studies the floods in 1997 and 2002 in perspective with different high-risk flood areas specified in our country. The conclusion of the thesis proposes the ways describing how to deal with risks differently, without using the insurance. The proposal advises an insurer to use such methods as reinsurance or alternative risk transfer instruments.

This thesis deals by natural disasters and solutions through commercial insurance. The introduction explains the concept of natural disaster and subsequently there are closer specified individual natural hazards. Then, the work focuses on the development of catastrophic events in the world in recent years, the consequences of their formation, their effects and the impact on these events on the world and Czech insurance. Due to the high frequency of floods in the Czech Republic in recent years, the work also addresses the issue of floods, their insurability and changes on the Czech insurance market reacting to the increased occurrence of floods. The thesis focuses on commercial property insurance products of individuals given to individual areas of different risk in terms of flooding. The analysis shows that insurers evaluate the individual risk zones in different ways and the most risk area of insurance excluded. At the end, there are evaluate the scope of insurance risk transfer to other entities, its importance and possibilities of alternative risk transfer.

Natural disasters in Argentina and Chile played a significant role in the state-formation and nation-building process (1822-1939). This dissertation explores state and society responses to earthquakes by studying public and private relief efforts reconstruction plans, crime and disorder, religious interpretations of catastrophes, national and transnational cultures of disaster, science and technology, and popular politics. Although Argentina and Chile share a political border and geological boundary, the two countries provide contrasting examples of state formation. Most disaster relief and reconstruction efforts emanated from the centralized Chilean state in Santiago. In Argentina, provincial officials made the majority of decisions in a catastrophe’s aftermath. Patriotic citizens raised money and collected clothing for survivors that helped to weave divergent regions together into a nation. The shared experience of earthquakes in all regions of Chile created a national disaster culture. Similarly, common disaster experiences, reciprocal relief efforts, and aid commissions linked Chileans with Western Argentine societies and generated a transnational disaster culture. Political leaders viewed reconstruction as opportunities to implement their visions for the nation on the urban landscape. These rebuilding projects threatened existing social hierarchies and often failed to come to fruition. Rebuilding brought new technologies from Europe to the Southern Cone. New building materials and systems, however, had to be adapted to the South American economic and natural environment. In a catastrophe’s aftermath, newspapers projected images of disorder and the authorities feared lawlessness and social unrest. Judicial and criminal records, however, show that crime often decreased after a disaster. Finally, nineteenth-century earthquakes heightened antagonism and conflict between the Catholic Church and the state. Conservative clergy asserted that disasters were divine punishments for the state’s anti-clerical measures and later railed against scientific explanations of earthquakes.