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)

This photovoice study explored the lived experiences of nine Puerto Rican mental health professionals who provided postdisaster counseling services to children. Due to the complex and multilayered experiences of Puerto Rican mental health professionals, this study used intersectionality as the theoretical lens to facilitate thematic analysis of the data. Results from coresearchers' narratives and photographs generated seven major themes: (a) la politiquería of disasters; (b) the impact of compounding disasters; (c) Puerto Rico se levanta: strategies for collective healing; (d) impact of disasters on children; (e) experiences with clients; (f) awareness, action, change; and (g) supporting, connecting, and transforming. The results and discussion provide awareness into the experiences of Puerto Rican clinicians who formed part of disaster response efforts in their own community. Clinical, educational, and research implications are drawn from coresearchers' narratives and insight.

Bakgrund: Naturkatastrofer har omfattande konsekvenser för miljö, samhälle och människors hälsa.Sjuksköterskor har en viktig roll i omhändertagandet av utsatta och sårbara individer drabbade avkatastrofer. För att vara förberedda på katastrofmiljön och att effektivt kunna tillgodose dedrabbades omvårdnadsbehov är det nödvändigt att sjuksköterskor har relevant kunskap ochkompetens i ämnet. Syfte: Syftet var att beskriva sjuksköterskors erfarenheter av att arbeta och vårda vid en plötslignaturkatastrof. Metod: Litteraturstudie där elva originalartiklar analyserats med kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultat: Analysen resulterade i de två kategorierna miljö och vårdande. Subkategorier inom miljö varyttre förhållanden och säkerhet, resursbrist och vårdmiljö samt katastrofmiljön och sjuksköterskanspsykiska hälsa. Subkategorier inom vårdande var skadehantering och bedömning, etiska dilemman,psykologiskt stöd samt personlig kompetens. Slutsats: Resultatet påvisade att sjuksköterskor möter utmaningar i katastrofmiljön och känslomässigpåverkan relaterat till den höga arbetsbelastningen och patienternas lidande. Det ställs höga krav påsjuksköteterskans kompetens och förmågor vid vård av katastrofoffer. För att säkerställa attsjuksköterskor har en god beredskap för arbete i katastrofer eller andra kriser behövs mer utbildning iämnet.Nyckelord: Erfarenheter, / Background: Natural disasters have extensive consequences for the environment, society, and humanhealth. Nurses have a significant role in caring for the vulnerable disaster victims. To be prepared forthe disaster environment and to be able to cater for the patients’ nursing needs, nurses need to haverelevant knowledge and competence. Purpose: To describe nurses’ experiences of working and providing care during a sudden onset naturaldisaster. Method: A general literature review where 11 original articles were analysed using qualitativecontent analysis. Results: The analysis resulted in the main categories environment and caregiving. Subcategories wereexternal conditions and safety, lack of resources and care environment, the disaster environment andnurses’ mental health, injury management and assessment, ethical dilemmas, psychological support, andpersonal competence. Conclusion: In natural disasters nurses are challenged by the disaster environment and affectedemotionally by the high workload and the suffering of the patients. There are high demands on thenurses’ competence and abilities in caring for disaster victims. To ensure that nurses are well preparedfor working in disasters or other crises, more education is needed.

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Disasters, whether natural or man-made have become an issue of mounting concern all over the world. Natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, landslides, cyclones, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions are yearly phenomena that have devastating effect on infrastructure and property and in most cases, results in the loss of human life. Floods are amongst the most prevalent natural disasters. The frequency with which floods occur, their magnitude, extent and the cost of damage are escalating all around the globe. Accra, the capital city of Ghana experiences the occurrence of flooding events annually with dire consequences. Past studies demonstrated that remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) are very useful and effective tools in flood risk assessment and management.  This thesis research seeks to demarcate flood risk areas and create a flood risk map for the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area using remote sensing and Geographic information system. Multi Criteria Analysis (MCA) is used to carry out the flood risk assessment and Sentinel-1A SAR images are used to map flood extend and to ascertain whether the resulting map from the MCA process is a close representation of the flood prone areas in the study area.  The results show that the multi-criteria analysis approach could effectively combine several criteria including elevation, slope, rainfall, drainage, land cover and soil geology to produce a flood risk map. The resulting map indicates that over 50 percent of the study area is likely to experience a high level of flood.  For SAR-based flood extent mapping, the results show that SAR data acquired immediately after the flooding event could better map flooding extent than the SAR data acquired 9 days after.  This highlights the importance of near real-time acquisition of SAR data for mapping flooding extent and damages.  All parts under the study area experience some level of flooding. The urban land cover experiences very high, and high levels of flooding and the MCA process produces a risk map that is a close depiction of flooding in the study area.  Real time flood disaster monitoring, early warning and rapid damage appraisal have greatly improved due to ameliorations in the remote sensing technology and the Geographic Information Systems.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(地球環境学) / 甲第24858号 / 地環博第241号 / 新制||地環||47(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院地球環境学舎地球環境学専攻 / (主査)教授 星野, 敏, 准教授 鬼塚, 健一郎, 准教授 落合, 知帆 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Global Environmental Studies / Kyoto University / DGAM

This thesis explores how traumatic memories of the Tangshan earthquake have been constructed in literature, documentary works, and films. Through analyzing the narrative construction of the Tangshan earthquake in the form of film and literature, this thesis studies the relationship between state power and individual agency in the representation of this natural disaster. It argues that the cultural representation of this natural disaster reflects a subtle shift: one from the dominant nationalistic narrative to the narrative centering on individuals’ psychological trauma. It suggests the high degree of state control and politicization is what is similar between a natural disaster such as the Tangshan earthquake and other political events. To some extent, the Tangshan earthquake has become a political event to promote the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) propaganda. Therefore, this thesis engages existing scholarship on political traumas to research the Tangshan earthquake. It is indicating a subtle shift because it is a slow-changing process and there is no mark to signal a radical departure from the earlier nationalism accounts. There also exists more interlaces and interconnections between the state and individual in the range of sources I have examined. And the overlay of the different narratives reflects the complexity of reality and history.

Yes / ¿Part 1: The congestion of humanitarian space¿, assesses what affect the rapid proliferation of the international aid community¿s presence in Sri Lanka has had on local level relationships and emergency response capacities. It contends that the burgeoning presence of aid agencies resulted in humanitarian assistance becoming a hotly contested and competitive activity. It goes on to identify the possible factors that have contributed to the rapid congestion of this space in suggesting an explanation of why the humanitarian communities¿ normative standards appear to have failed.