A common platform for both disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) has been sought around the world to reduce human vulnerability, enhance adaptive capacity and achieve other contemporary global targets. This policy framework at global and national level creates a challenge for local level implementation: climate change is a global risk predicted by scientists whereas disaster vulnerability is experienced by local people. To consider these circumstances, the thesis examines how DRR and CCA can be integrated at local level and what kind of governance and institutions are needed to ensure community participation in the whole process of local development. In order to address the research question, the thesis focuses on four inter-related themes: (i) redefining social vulnerability in a changing environment; (ii) understanding local knowledge, experiences and practices in terms of coping with climate induced disasters; (iii) investigating the DRR and CCA conundrum of implementing national policies at local level; and (iv) exploring the transformation of socio-cultural landscape of rural Bangladesh through external interventions at local level in a DRR–CCA context. The study has gone through an in-depth empirical data analysis of DRR and CCA processes both in flood prone Jamuna river basin and cyclone prone coastal areas in Bangladesh. Fieldwork involved qualitative approaches and methods, and some use of quantitative survey method; including 29 semi-structured in-depth interviews, varied participatory rural appraisal (PRA) tools applied in nine focus group discussions (FGDs) and a questionnaire survey conducted in three selected study villages. Respondents included local people, particularly disaster survivors, local level practitioners, national level professionals formally linked to disaster and climate issues and academics. The findings of the thesis show that local knowledge and practice, particularly through recent experiences of environmental crisis help communities to adapt to climate related disaster risks and that the survivors of floods have more distinct coping and adaptive capacity than those of cyclones. The research found that disaster management in Bangladesh is strong up to local level and that recent government and nongovernmental initiatives for DRR and CCA assist communities coping with extreme events. However, the whole system often fails to identify and understand localised disaster and climatic risks due to a lack of effective community inclusiveness in decision-making processes. The study argues that a ‘whole-of-society’ approach should be a pervasive aspect of internal and external interventions aiming to implement more integrated DRR–CCA at local level.

To address the growing frequency and intensity of disasters a global effort is underway to change the dominant approach to disaster policy from disaster response to integrating disaster risk reduction (DRR) throughout development activities. Research into how DRR policy progresses in a government context is lacking. Using a qualitative case-study approach this research examines how the global policy prescription of mainstreaming disaster risk reduction (DRR) is unfolding within the Government of Nepal. In particular, this research a) challenges the rhetoric of substantive policy change that underpins the concept of mainstreaming and b) questions its efficacy as a neoliberal post-New Public Management policy tool given that the disaster vulnerability literature implicates neoliberalism as a driver of disaster risk. Finding change to be the dominant theme throughout the research, it applies theories and frameworks from the policy paradigm change literatures (e.g. Advocacy Coalition Framework, social learning and paradigm policy change) to explain what was found in the Nepal case-study. Eight months of fieldwork took place throughout 2014-2016. In total, eighty-eight in-depth interviews were conducted with bureaucrats and political party members at the central, district, and local levels. This research advances the disaster vulnerability scholarship through its critique of neoliberal policy discourse and its application of policy change literature. It is argued that the concept of mainstreaming fits the criteria of a neoliberal buzzword; the findings of this research demonstrate why this is problematic. The lead ministry responsible for disaster management appropriated the global policy rhetoric of mainstreaming DRR in order to minimize any substantive policy change that the DRR agenda promotes. Despite this, evidence is also found of a growing awareness and advocacy of DRR within the Government of Nepal. This is suggestive of an advocacy coalition starting to develop, which is being built through social learning. The role of individual bureaucrats and political party members, rather than a centralised legalistic approach, is found to be fundamental to changing the disaster response policy paradigm. This research calls attention to the need to critically analyse how top-down global DRR policy prescriptions are interpreted by nation-states. Empty and hollow global policy buzzwords are easily translated into a rhetoric that does not match with the reality of the governing and the policy environment.

Disasters, both natural and human-made can have severe impacts on communities and infrastructure. The approach to minimising the impact of such events is Disaster Risk Reduction. This research looks at weather related disasters in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and methods used to reduce risk. The research was undertaken using a mixed methods approach. Some 200 people, both male and female, were sampled using questionnaires in four different provinces of the kingdom. The purpose was to gain an understanding of their knowledge of hazards and preparedness. Interviews were held with a number of key stakeholders in disaster management. Focus groups were conducted with religious leaders in order to gain an understanding of the role of Islam in risk reduction. The results showed that the majority of questionnaire respondents lacked knowledge and information about disasters in their places of residence. Further, they are not well prepared to face the risks of natural disasters and lacked knowledge of how to mitigate their risks. However, the majority of participants strongly believed they can minimize the risk of disasters and they were enthusiastic to participate in any efforts of disaster risk reduction in the kingdom. The Saudi government is building a disaster management system. However, it needs a greater focus on raising community awareness and preparedness. The research finds that the mosques has the opportunity to play an important role of in raising community awareness and preparedness. The Holy Quran teaches that protecting the environment and all creatures is part of Islamic worship. An extreme version of the fatalistic view of natural disasters is not fully supported in this study, which argues that natural disasters might have many other interpretations, such as a test from God, a natural process and a result of humankind’s negative intervention in nature. The role of the mosque, which has a special sacred place in the life of every Muslim, has been researched. The research shows that the mosque has a central role in the life of Muslims but this role seems to have declined recently. The strategic position of the mosque and its special status in the life of every Muslim make it a very important place for effective natural disaster risk reduction. This study suggested possible roles for the mosque to raise awareness and to help with preparedness. Some practical steps are suggested to integrate Islamic teachings into the policies and strategies of natural disaster risk reduction in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. These steps are based on previous research about the role of religion in disaster risk reduction and the findings of this research.

This research focused on pre and post-disaster planning in Malaysia since the adoption of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005–2015 and national Vision 2020. A review of the existing research and practice in Malaysia including the structure and attitude of government officers at central and local authorities to risk was the starting point. The regulatory compliance to the Malaysia National Security Council MNSC Directive 20 programme is a key focus. The MNSC Directive 20 exists as the important core of disaster regulation in Malaysia but the implementation is not according to plan and regulatory compliance was low. Failures in regulation and compliance were identified as the key vulnerability and disaster causes in Malaysia. The beneficiaries were actually unaware of non-compliance that exposed them to hazard. In general, the more developed Asian economies, of which Malaysia is one, have not devoted much attention to pre-disaster planning despite a rapidly growing capital stock of buildings including public and private housing. Although the Asian Development Bank has provided templates for pre-disaster planning, the uptake has been slow. This Malaysian case study is an important example, not just for the country but the region. The aim of this research is to highlight shortfalls in provision, training and awareness, and to recommend ways of improvement. Gathered actors’ perspectives in the implementation of regulatory compliance in all level of emergency management system in Malaysia helps to explain the reason of regulatory compliance failures. Measuring their attitudes towards regulatory compliance reveals actual commitment because regulatory compliance would require making changes to existing barriers in the administrative environment. These changes would have to be based, to a large extent, on how actors’ perceived and judged the benefits of regulatory compliance implementation. The research uses both quantitative and qualitative methods together that involved 484 respondents. They have broadly negative general attitudes towards regulatory compliance, arguing that currently too many barriers are present in department levels to make regulatory compliance implementation straightforward. They need informative advice and guidance to enable them to see the very probable societal benefits that can lead towards regulatory compliance development. The research concludes by categorising obstacles that need to be overcome, to encourage actors to accept regulatory compliance and recommends changes to department structures, systems and practices prior to regulatory compliance implementation.

The study compares the total number of dwellings in Newcastle-upon-Tyne according to the 1991 Census and the local authority Housing Department. This is to assess whether the explanation of the differences at the local scale, can contribute to the understanding of Census underenumeration at the national scale. The significance of dwelling figures is established by reference to Census underenumeration, the Estimating with Confidence (EwC) project, housing need and government finance. The study also draws on literature about GIS in local government in order to highlight the need for the local analysis of dwelling figures for research and policy purposes, and to demonstrate the benefits of integrating Census and local authority data. The study describes the processes of data collection, integration and interpretation from both the Census and local authority sources. Total residential dwellings, occupied council stock and total vacant dwellings from both sources are compared and the differences are standardised. The standardised differences are then mapped (using z- scores) at the District scale and at Housing Area, Housing Neighbourhood, Ward and ED resolutions. Areas with large differences above or below the expected differences are highlighted and their characteristics are noted. The observed differences are then correlated with some of the characteristic of the areas in the form of dwelling structure, tenure, imputed residents and accommodation not used as main residence. These characteristics are then compared with those of areas with EwC non-response adjustment figures. The correlation analysis is carried out at two scales with the same resolution. This includes all the EDs in the City, then focuses on the EDs within Benwell and Scotswood Wards. This is to highlight the significant associations, specific to these Wards. Benwell and Scotswood are selected because of their patterns of vacancy differences, which are found to be in contrast to the city-wide pattern. The Census excess of vacancies in these Wards are also found to be greater than those in other Wards and greater (more than 1.4 standard deviations) than the city-wide expected average difference. The correlation analysis at the City scale finds that EDs with higher Census vacancy counts than the local authority data, share similar characteristics with EDs containing high EwC non-response adjustment figures. These are EDs with greater number of flats in residential buildings and local authority rented dwellings. In Benwell and Scotswood this pattern changes to greater number of flats in commercial buildings, converted flats and privately rented dwellings. The last stage of the study explains the differences in the selected variables using the individual property records (ED profiles). The study finds that at District (City) scale, the Census counts of total residential dwellings and occupied council stock are slightly higher than those from the local authority data. The Census vacancy figures however, are significantly less than local authority figures, mainly due to definitional differences and data collection methods used. The opposite pattern of higher Census vacancy figures is observed in Benwell and Scotswood. The reason for this is found to be due to vacant dwellings awaiting demolition, which were included in the 1991 Census vacancy figures but not in the local authority datasets. An example of how different definitions and data collection methods caused the observed differences. The study illustrates that the comparison of local authority and Census data can highlight areas with large differences (in vacant, occupied council stock or total residential dwelling counts) through data standardisation. The characteristics of these areas are found to be similar to those of areas reported as difficult to enumerate, in the national studies of Census underenumeration. The study also illustrates that these differences can be associated with Census non-response an...

Disasters often result in severe socio-economic losses, although there is significant progress in dealing with the social aspect, economic aspect is addressed relatively insufficiently. Therefore, the capabilities of organisations in managing disasters need to be improved, and there should be a way of assessing these capabilities. Hence, this study used capability maturity model (CMM) methodology to develop an assessment method that identifies the built environment flood resilience capabilities of micro, small and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs). Towards achieving the aim of the study, a conceptual model was developed using the capability areas identified from the literature. The model was then verified and refined by an expert forum. The conceptual model was further improved in case studies, applied in case organisations and after that validated; this resulted in the final model. This study identified 19 capability areas for enhancing built environment flood resilience and developed a capability maturity model that contains maturity level definitions ranging from level 1 (Ad hoc) to level 5 (Optimising). The outcome of this study provides both theoretical and practical contributions to knowledge. Among the theoretical contributions are the identified and verified built environment flood resilience capability areas for MSMEs. The capability areas can be adopted for use in subsequent studies. Also, the application of capability maturity modelling (CMM) in disaster resilience of the built environment is novel, this has expanded the boundary of CMM application. The practical contributions of the study include the identified capability areas, the capability level definitions and the capability maturity model for profiling MSMEs and benchmarking the capabilities of businesses for built environment flood resilience. The model indicates what needs to be carried out to achieve a higher capability maturity level for flood resilience.

The Wealden ghyll woodlands are associated with unique plant assemblages that include nationally rare bryophyte species with oceanic affiliations. The identification and monitoring of this type of 'priority' habitat, recognised as important in terms of regional and national biodiversity, is a central facet of the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (UKBAP). Despite the acknowledged importance of ghyll woodlands for non-vascular plant species, previous studies attempting to examine and characterise the ghyll woodlands have neglected to include these bryophyte communities. This research identifies and characterises the Wealden ghyll woodlands through an examination of the spatial and temporal distributions of bryophyte and flowering plant species. The research also seeks to provide baseline data against which biodiversity levels can monitored. In order to identify and contextualise the importance of ghyll woodland in terms of regional biodiversity, survey data was collected from other types of ancient woodland throughout the region for comparative analysis. The study involved the collection of species and environmental data from a total of 1440 random quad rats from 60 survey sites situated throughout the Weald, as well as the use of archive survey data collected during two 20 year periods (1951-1970 and 1976-1995). A number of statistical approaches including general linear modelling, ANOSIM, MannWhitney U and Spearman rank correlation analysis were used to identify the environmental correlates of spatial and temporal changes in species distributions. Spatial analysis indicated that ghyll woodland is restricted to the stream valleys themselves which were significantly richer in bryophyte and flowering plant species than the surrounding woodlands. NVC classifications assigned to the ghylls indicated the presence of 'oceanic' plant communities that are associated with damp, humid microclimatic conditions. A number of authors have explained the presence of oceanic bryophytes within the ghylls as being the result of a damp, humid microclimate present within the stream valleys. However, the study found no significant differences between climatic conditions within the ghyll valleys and those in the surrounding ancient woodlands. ANOSIM analysis indicated that community composition was influenced by site substrate, with clay and sandstone ghyll woodlands containing significantly different plant communities. Chi-squared analysis identified a temporal increase in the ratio of oceanic bryophytes and ancient woodland indicator flowering plant species during the study period. Analysis of Ellenberg indicator values indicated a move towards more shadetolerant plant communities within the ghyll woodlands. The patchily distributed ghyll woodlands were examined for signs of habitat fragmentation through genetic analysis of the bryophyte Conocephalum conicum (Great Scented Liverwort) using the random amplification polymorphic DNA technique (RAPD). Wright's fixation index (FST) and Nei 's coefficient of gene variation (GST) both indicated a loss of genetic diversity characteristic of genetic isolation. A Mantel test based on Nei 's genetic distance values indicated that the genetic isolation observed was not correlated with the geographical distance between populations. The study indicated that temporal changes are occurring in the composition of ghyll woodland plant communities and that bryophyte populations are displaying symptoms of genetic isolation. The study illustrates the importance of some form of monitoring program if the biodiversity value of these sites is to be maintained.

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