External Interventions For Disaster Risk Reduction: Imon Chowdhooree Shams Mansoor Ghani Editors

Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements
Imon Chowdhooree
Shams Mansoor Ghani Editors
External
Interventions
for Disaster
Risk Reduction
Impacts on Local Communities
Series Editor
Bharat Dahiya, College of Interdisciplinary Studies, Thammasat University,
Bangkok, Thailand
Editorial Board
Andrew Kirby, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA
Erhard Friedberg, Sciences Po-Paris, France
Rana P. B. Singh, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
Kongjian Yu, Peking University, Beijing, China
Mohamed El Sioufi, Monash University, Australia
Tim Campbell, Woodrow Wilson Center, USA
Yoshitsugu Hayashi, Chubu University, Kasugai, Japan
Xuemei Bai, Australian National University, Australia
Dagmar Haase, Humboldt University, Germany
Indexed by SCOPUS
This Series focuses on the entire spectrum of human settlements—from rural to
urban, in different regions of the world, with questions such as: What factors cause
and guide the process of change in human settlements from rural to urban in
character, from hamlets and villages to towns, cities and megacities? Is this process
different across time and space, how and why? Is there a future for rural life? Is it
possible or not to have industrial development in rural settlements, and how? Why
does ‘urban shrinkage’ occur? Are the rural areas urbanizing or is that urban areas
are undergoing ‘ruralisation’ (in form of underserviced slums)? What are the
challenges faced by ‘mega urban regions’, and how they can be/are being
addressed? What drives economic dynamism in human settlements? Is the
urban-based economic growth paradigm the only answer to the quest for
sustainable development, or is there an urgent need to balance between economic
growth on one hand and ecosystem restoration and conservation on the other—for
the future sustainability of human habitats? How and what new technology is
helping to achieve sustainable development in human settlements? What sort of
changes in the current planning, management and governance of human settlements
are needed to face the changing environment including the climate and increasing
disaster risks? What is the uniqueness of the new ‘socio-cultural spaces’ that
emerge in human settlements, and how they change over time? As rural settlements
become urban, are the new ‘urban spaces’ resulting in the loss of rural life and
‘socio-cultural spaces’? What is leading the preservation of rural ‘socio-cultural
spaces’ within the urbanizing world, and how? What is the emerging nature of the
rural-urban interface, and what factors influence it? What are the emerging
perspectives that help understand the human-environment-culture complex through
the study of human settlements and the related ecosystems, and how do they
transform our understanding of cultural landscapes and ‘waterscapes’ in the 21st
Century? What else is and/or likely to be new vis-à-vis human settlements—now
and in the future? The Series, therefore, welcomes contributions with fresh
cognitive perspectives to understand the new and emerging realities of the 21st
Century human settlements. Such perspectives will include a multidisciplinary
analysis, constituting of the demographic, spatio-economic, environmental, tech-
nological, and planning, management and governance lenses.
If you are interested in submitting a proposal for this series, please contact the
Series Editor, or the Publishing Editor:
Bharat Dahiya (bharatdahiya@gmail.com) or
Loyola D’Silva (loyola.dsilva@springer.com)
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13196

Imon Chowdhooree Shams Mansoor Ghani
•
Editors
External Interventions
for Disaster Risk Reduction
Impacts on Local Communities
123
Editors
Imon Chowdhooree Shams Mansoor Ghani
Department of Architecture Department of Architecture
BRAC University BRAC University
Dhaka, Bangladesh Dhaka, Bangladesh
ISSN 2198-2546 ISSN 2198-2554 (electronic)

ISBN 978-981-15-4947-2 ISBN 978-981-15-4948-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4948-9
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Foreword
External Interventions for Disaster Risk Reduction: Impacts on Local Communities,

edited by Imon Chowdhooree and Shams Mansoor Ghani, is a welcome addition to
the literature on sustainable development in general and that on the impacts of
external interventions on local communities vis-à-vis disaster risk reduction in
particular. The core idea of this edited volume, and the main thread that ties all its
chapters, is that the involvement of external agencies, as multifarious stakeholders,
is important to achieving sustainable development targets through risk reduction
and adaptation at the local level.
Governments, donor agencies, academic and research institutions, civil society
organisations (including non-governmental organisations) or any other stakeholders
often appear as external bodies to assist local communities through implementing
their projects that tend to be aligned with the various global development agendas.
Time and again, such external interventions are allied with local development and
planning strategies that focus on achieving economic growth, poverty reduction,
urban development and environmental sustainability. This kind of interventions,
however, may follow the ‘top-down process’ wherein the beneficiary communities
may or may not get enough opportunities to actively participate in their own
development.
Alternatively, there are cases where community participation, along with their
traditional practices and indigenous knowledge, is properly utilized. Depending on
the nature and process of overseas development assistance—that may be available
at regional, national, programmatic or project levels, the outcomes or consequences
of external interventions may widely vary from project to project and from context
to context. The reactions of local communities towards these interventions may also
vary. The beneficiary communities who experience the external development
interventions can portray the true pictures of the projects through their conscious
evaluation.
Studies or evaluations of external development projects often fall short of
capturing their real impacts on local communities. This tends to happen as such
evaluations are either conducted remotely—sometimes merely based on desktop
v
vi Foreword
research—or fail to take into account community experiences with external

development projects. Having said that, there have been some limited discussions
on community perceptions about development. The editors are confident that this
book will play an important role to fill this research gap in the current literature.
The Context
Disaster risk reduction is an essential strategy that requires the practice of a sys-
tematic process of capacity development by incorporating both structural and
non-structural mitigation measures, and targeting affected communities’ vulnera-
bilities to natural hazards, impacts of changed climatic variabilities and humani-
tarian crisis. With its main focus on disaster risk reduction, the various chapters
present cases of disaster responses, recovery, relocation, reconstruction, rehabili-
tation, climate change adaptation and urban area development. In doing so, it
supports the five global agendas that were adopted during 2015–2016: (i) the
Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 that lays down the
global roadmap for developing safe and resilient communities (see UNDRR 2015);
(ii) the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on financing for development is a global
framework which seeks to align financing flows and policies vis-à-vis economic,
social and environmental priorities (see United Nations 2015a); (iii) the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development outlines 17 Sustainable Development Goals
to target and tackle poverty and other deprivations by improving health and edu-
cation, reducing inequality, spurring economic growth and promoting environ-
mental sustainability (see United Nations 2015b); (iv) the Paris Agreement aims at
decreasing global warming by strengthening the ability of countries to deal with and
adapt to the impacts of climate change inter alia by fostering climate resilience and
low greenhouse gas emissions development (see UNFCCC 2015); and (v) the New
Urban Agenda advocates well planned and managed urbanisation as a powerful
tool for sustainable urban and territorial development (see United Nations 2017;
Dahiya and Das 2020; Das and Dahiya 2020).
Thematic Foci
This edited volume contributes to a wide spectrum of thematic foci including disaster
response and recovery, relocation, reconstruction and rehabilitation, resilient urban
area development, climate change adaptation, roles of non-governmental organisa-
tions, public–private partnerships and multi-stakeholder partnerships, planning
paradigms and models and policy analysis for disaster management and disaster risk
reduction. The introductory chapter by Imon Chowdhooree elaborates the concept of
‘political ecology’ (see Simsik 2007; Robbins 2004; Paulson et al. 2003) as a
Foreword vii
theoretical concept that helps in understanding the social and environmental

dimensions vis-a-vis enhancing community resilience. Disaster response, recovery,
reconstruction and rehabilitation as responses to any disaster event get priority in the
field of disaster management with the aim to develop the affected communities,
enhance their resilience and reduce future risks. The cases from Sri Lanka (Chapters
“Lessons Learned from Interventions of External Organizations in Disaster
Management: A Case Study of Floods in Kalutara, Sri Lanka” and “Sustainable
Development Through Post-Disaster Reconstruction: A Unique Example in
Sri Lanka”), Bangladesh (Chapters “Traditional Practices, Communities’
Aspirations, and Reconstructed End Products: Analyzing the Post-Sidr
Reconstruction in the Coastal Region of Bangladesh” and “Small Changes with
Big Impacts: Mitigating Fire Risks Through Small Interventions in Informal
Settlements of Dhaka City, Bangladesh”), and Pakistan (Chapter “Public and Private
Sector Interventions in Post-disaster Resettlement: A Case Study of Model Villages
in Pakistan”) cover these thematic areas by analysing the consequences of the
actions and community reactions towards those actions.
Informal settlements or slums in urban areas deserve special attention with regard
to targeting the marginalized urban populations, mitigating urban risks and
enhancing urban resilience. Cases from Dhaka, Lagos, Nairobi and Port au Prince
(Chapters “Small Changes with Big Impacts: Mitigating Fire Risks Through
Small Interventions in Informal Settlements of Dhaka City, Bangladesh” and
“A Complexity Approach for Reducing Disaster Risks for Marginalized Urban
Populations: Comparing DRR Interventions Across Four Cities”) address these
issues by investigating the complexity of disaster risk reduction interventions in
urban slums. Analysing the planning paradigms and polices along with design and
implementation of different approaches are some of the key thematic foci of planning
theories. Development practice involves the application of established planning
models and methods. The outcomes of such application are often evaluated,
appreciated and/or criticized in respective areas. The discussion in Chapters
“External Interventions for Enhancing Community Resilience: An Overview of
Planning Paradigms”, “Lessons Learned from Interventions of External
Organizations in Disaster Management: A Case Study of Floods in Kalutara,
Sri Lanka”, “Disaster Risk Reduction in Cities: Towards a New Normal”,
“Adaptation and Development for Mitigating Impacts of Climate Change and
Climate Extremes in Urban Areas” and “Local Community Engagement for
Adaptation to Future Challenges in the Pilot Flood Detention Area of Thailand”
particularly focuses on planning paradigms and models as well as evaluating the
scope of active participation and contribution of communities.
In view of the changing climatic variabilities and extreme weather events that
have affected communities around the world, development and adaptation have
received focused attention in recent knowledge production on disaster risk reduc-
tion. Cases from Thailand (Chapter “Local Community Engagement for Adaptation
to Future Challenges in the Pilot Flood Detention Area of Thailand”), Pakistan
viii Foreword
(Chapter “Public and Private Sector Interventions in Post-disaster Resettlement:

A Case Study of Model Villages in Pakistan”) and Jamaica (Chapter “To ‘Float’ or
‘Not’: Cases of Amphibious Housing and Their Impacts on Vulnerable
Communities of Jamaica”) cover the thematic area of reconstruction and rehabili-
tation especially for climate change adaptation. Training as an essential part of
adaptation is discussed in Chapter “Effectiveness of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)
and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) Training Programs: Views and Voices from
Barisal Division, a Coastal Region in Bangladesh”, which presents a case from the
coastal area of Bangladesh, a country that is perhaps the most affected by climate
change and sea level rise.
Non-governmental organisations are active in sustainable development pro-
grammes and projects especially in least developed and developing countries. Their
roles and contributions towards reducing disaster risks, adapting to climatic
extremes and assisting local and national governments to achieve development
goals are widely discussed in the literature. Participation of public sector, private
sector, donors, local communities and other relevant stakeholders is discussed as
multi-stakeholder participation and, where applicable, as multi-stakeholder part-
nerships (see Dahiya and Okitasari 2018; Okitasari et al. 2018). Cases presented
from Sri Lanka (Chapters “Lessons Learned from Interventions of External
Organizations in Disaster Management: A Case Study of Floods in Kalutara,
Sri Lanka” and “Sustainable Development Through Post-Disaster Reconstruction:
A Unique Example in Sri Lanka”), Bangladesh (Chapters “Dependency on External
Supports: An Addition to Community Vulnerability”, “Traditional Practices,
Communities’ Aspirations, and Reconstructed End Products: Analyzing the Post-
Sidr Reconstruction in the Coastal Region of Bangladesh”, “Designing Spaces with
Victims of Humanitarian Crisis: Action Research on Spaces for Children at
Rohingya Camps in Bangladesh” and “Small Changes with Big Impacts: Mitigating
Fire Risks Through Small Interventions in Informal Settlements of Dhaka City,
Bangladesh”), Nigeria (Chapter “A Complexity Approach for Reducing Disaster
Risks for Marginalized Urban Populations: Comparing DRR Interventions Across
Four Cities”), Thailand (Chapter “Local Community Engagement for Adaptation to
Future Challenges in the Pilot Flood Detention Area of Thailand”), Pakistan
(Chapter “Public and Private Sector Interventions in Post-disaster Resettlement: A
Case Study of Model Villages in Pakistan”) and Jamaica (Chapter “To ‘Float’ or
‘Not’: Cases of Amphibious Housing and Their Impacts on Vulnerable
Communities of Jamaica”) analyse the roles of various stakeholders along with
identifying the positive as well as negative impacts. The involvement of research or
educational institutions as external stakeholders is also discussed in Chapters
“Designing Spaces with Victims of Humanitarian Crisis: Action Research on
Spaces for Children at Rohingya Camps in Bangladesh” and “Effectiveness of
Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) Training
Programs: Views and Voices from Barisal Division, a Coastal Region in
Bangladesh” that present cases from Bangladesh in different contexts.
Foreword ix
Takeaways
The book has a number of takeaways. First, the consequences of any intervention for
disaster risk reduction can be either positive or negative and these are generated due to
the approach or paradigm or model that is followed in the planning process. Second,
the expert-driven planning approach often relies on the hard-empirical data of how,
when, where and what scale hazards are likely to occur and creates over-expectations
as well as dependency on external supports, hindering a community’s in-built resi-
lience. Third, non-governmental organisations are often considered as a key stake-
holder and an alternative development partner (other than the government); however,
their involvement for an extended period of time may entrap the community into a
cycle of support dependency and thus exacerbate their vulnerabilities. Fourth, tra-
ditional wisdom, local cultural practices and indigenous knowledge are often ignored
by the development partners and decision makers within the structure of top-down
expert-driven approach; quite often, this kind of practice flaws the decision-making
process, which consequently fails to involve local communities and make any sig-
nificant improvement. Fifth, there are multiple risks of ignoring local community’s
aspirations and perceptions. Empowering the local community to be in the leading
role requires creating space and scope within the current power structure in order to
accommodate community’s decisions and feedback. Sixth, the core agenda of
enhancing community resilience faces the politics of top-down versus bottom-up
approaches, professionals’ knowledge versus traditional knowledge and structural
versus non-structural mitigation measures. Moreover, the politics related to
socio-economic issues and the ever-changing environmental context demand the
practice of a rational mix of multiple paradigms, exploring available options, learning
about challenges and opportunities with each new event in order to incrementally
enhance resilience. Seventh, building resilience in regard to changing climatic con-
ditions as well as extreme weather events requires a new perspective of looking at
‘adaptation as development’ (Ayers and Dodman 2010). Compared to the
‘stand-alone’ or ‘adaptation plus development’ approaches—where adaptation is
considered as ‘additional’ to baseline development needs, the ‘adaptation as devel-
opment’ approach is argued to be more effective in addressing the vulnerabilities
of the various marginalized groups in the changing socio-political and ecological
contexts. Eighth, urban areas present complex challenges related to disaster risk
reduction. Given the complexity of social, economic, environmental and living
conditions in urban areas, a diversity of institutions provides infrastructure and basic
services. The living conditions of the various groups of people are often different and
so are their vulnerabilities as well as needs for disaster risk reduction measures. All
these factors compound the process of decision making for disaster risk reduction.
Therefore, innovative approaches involving multi-stakeholder partnerships and
participation, advocacy and broad reforms across the urban environment targeted at
mitigating risks are essential for successful disaster risk reduction in cities and towns.
Finally, in the case of resettlement and rehabilitation, the concept ‘build back better’
is helpful in making positive impacts in the lives and livelihoods of local community.
x Foreword
The long-term commitment to ‘build back better’ needs to be supported by a wide

range of inputs including community infrastructure and facilities, livelihood devel-
opment and local capacity building.
In sum, this rich collection of essays adds fresh perspectives and knowledge on
how to better guide strategies for reducing future risks in diverse contexts and to
update the current systems of planning, management and governance of human
settlements. The editors and authors have done commendable work in presenting
the well-researched cases that will benefit local, national and international stake-
holders involved in disaster risk reduction and adaptation interventions around the
world.
Bharat Dahiya
Director
Research Center for Integrated
Sustainable Development
College of Interdisciplinary Studies
Thammasat University
Bangkok, Thailand
References
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Preface
Mainstreaming disaster risk reduction along with mitigating climate change impacts
allows various external bodies to provide assistance and supports, according to the
operational scopes, to marginalized and/or affected communities. These external
bodies can be governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations
(NGOs), donor agencies, academic and research institutes, civil societies, armed
forces or any other group which is not composed of members from beneficiary
communities and run by a formal procedure. Communities are identified here as
compositions of built, natural, social and economic environments that influence one
another in complex ways; typically, they are entitled within geographic boundaries,
as settlements and face challenges and share benefits collectively. Along with
the impacts of natural and human-induced hazards, communities’ vulnerabilities are
shaped by social, economic, cultural and political conditions. In the twenty-first
century, human settlements and related ecosystems are frequently intervened by
external bodies, generating cognitive perspectives, based on new and/or emerging
risks. The external bodies usually play their respective roles in pre- and
post-disaster conditions with the broader objective of enhancing community resi-
lience and reducing risks of future disasters. The consequences or end results of
external interventions vary in different conditions, and these need to be evaluated
for the future sustainability of human settlements. Practices, eliciting good
responses, should be rewarded for promoting certain behaviors that are acceptable.
These acceptable behaviors can be entitled as resilience that allows to ‘be’ and ‘do’,
to ‘function’ and to ‘achieve’ desirable outcomes.
This book aims to present case studies’ based analysis of the consequences of
external interventions, wherein such consequences will be critically evaluated from
community perspectives. Communities, from rural to urban, in different regions
of the world, living with conditions of experiencing disasters and changes in cli-
matic variables, obviously perceive risks and can evaluate the impacts of inter-
ventions on them. Community perspectives, including their perceptions, concerns,
awareness, realizations, reactions and expectations are shaped and modified due to
impacts of external interventions. Case-based analysis of impacts on communities
will provide a ‘means of learning’ from the experience of others, and thus
xiii
xiv Preface
expanding professionals’ experiential knowledge base. Through structured and

critical analysis of case studies, professionals can enhance their understanding of
different aspects of disaster mitigation and climate change adaptation practices in
varied settings.
The content of these book is divided into three parts: Enhancing Community
Resilience; Addressing Urban Risks; and Adapting with Climate Change Impacts.
We are thankful to the eminent authors who were able to write chapters based on
their personal as well as organizations’ research despite their busy schedule. All
statements and opinions made in the chapters are those of the authors and editors,
and these will not be counted as official statements of any organization. We are also
thankful to the reviewers who were kind enough to manage time to review the
manuscripts assigned to them.
This book generates new knowledge to guide the disaster risk reduction and
climate change adaptation of innovative changes in the current planning, man-
agement and governance of human settlements for facing future challenges of
changing environment in the twenty-first century. The students, young researchers
and professionals as well as organizations will find this book useful and relevant to
their works.
Dhaka, Bangladesh Imon Chowdhooree, Ph.D.

Shams Mansoor Ghani
List of Reviewers
1. David Sanderson, Ph.D., Inaugural Judith Neilson Chair, Built Environment,

University of New South Wales, Australia
2. Fuad Hasan Mallick, Ph.D., Dean and Professor, School of Architecture and
Design, BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
3. Gideon Jacobus Wentink, Junior Subject Specialist, African Centre for Disaster
Studies, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa
4. Graham Marsh, Ph.D., Visiting Research Fellow in Disaster Management,
School of Energy, Construction and Environment, Coventry University, UK
5. Huraera Jabeen, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Architecture,
BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
6. Iftekhar Ahmed, Ph.D., Associate Professor, School of Architecture and Built
Environment, University of Newcastle, Australia
7. Iftekhar Ahmed, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Architecture,
8. Irfan Ahmad Rana, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Urban and
Regional Planning (URP), National University of Sciences and Technology
(NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan
9. Jason von Meding, Ph.D., HDR Director and Senior Lecturer, Disaster Risk
Reduction (Construction Management Discipline), School of Architecture and
Built Environment, University of Newcastle, Australia
10. Quazi Azizul Mowla, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Architecture,
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh
11. Les Dawes, Ph.D., Professor, Civil and Environmental, Science and
Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
12. Md. Humayun Kabir, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Geography and
Environment, Dhaka University, Bangladesh
13. Mohammad Faruk, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Architecture,
14. Mohammad Habib Reza, Associate Professor, Department of Architecture,
xv
xvi List of Reviewers
15. Mohammed Mahbubur Rahman, Ph.D., President and CEO, SEARCH Inc.,
Calgary, Canada
16. Rajib Shaw, Ph.D., Professor, Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio
University, Japan
17. Saiful Momen, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental
Science and Management, North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
18. Sajid Bin Doza, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Head, Department of
Architecture, State University of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
19. Sharif Shams Imon, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Institute for Tourism Studies,
Macao, China
20. Zainab Faruqui Ali, Professor and Chairperson, Department of Architecture,
Contents
Enhancing Community Resilience

External Interventions for Enhancing Community Resilience:
An Overview of Planning Paradigms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Imon Chowdhooree
Lessons Learned from Interventions of External Organizations
in Disaster Management: A Case Study of Floods in Kalutara,
Sri Lanka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
W. K. D. Rathnayake and Chandana Siriwardana
Dependency on External Supports: An Addition to Community
Vulnerability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Imon Chowdhooree, Les Dawes, and Mellini Sloan
Sustainable Development Through Post-Disaster Reconstruction:
A Unique Example in Sri Lanka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Iftekhar Ahmed
Traditional Practices, Communities’ Aspirations, and Reconstructed
End Products: Analyzing the Post-Sidr Reconstruction in the Coastal
Region of Bangladesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Shams Mansoor Ghani
Designing Spaces with Victims of Humanitarian Crisis: Action
Research on Spaces for Children at Rohingya Camps
in Bangladesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Emerald Upoma Baidya, Farah Mahboob, Fatiha Polin,
and Imon Chowdhooree
xvii
xviii Contents
Addressing Urban Risks

Disaster Risk Reduction in Cities: Towards a New Normal . . . . . . . . . . 123
Aaron Clark-Ginsberg, Jonathan S. Blake, and Karishma Patel
Small Changes with Big Impacts: Mitigating Fire Risks Through
Small Interventions in Informal Settlements of Dhaka City,
Bangladesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Afroza Ahmed and Sadia Subrina
Rethinking Roles of Local Non-governmental Organizations (LNGO)
in Managing Disaster Risks in Historic Neighborhoods: Experiences
from the City of Lagos, Nigeria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Olufemi Samson Adetunji, Oluwatosin Samuel Owolabi,
and Samson Olaoluwa Faboye
A Complexity Approach for Reducing Disaster Risks for Marginalized
Urban Populations: Comparing DRR Interventions Across
Four Cities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Aaron Clark-Ginsberg
Adapting with Climate Change Impacts

Adaptation and Development for Mitigating Impacts of Climate
Change and Climate Extremes in Urban Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Huraera Jabeen
Local Community Engagement for Adaptation to Future Challenges
in the Pilot Flood Detention Area of Thailand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Phaothai Sin-ampol, Tawee Chaipimonplin, and Supawadee Songka
Public and Private Sector Interventions in Post-disaster Resettlement:
A Case Study of Model Villages in Pakistan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Ali Jamshed, Irfan Ahmad Rana, and Usman Maqsood Mirza
Effectiveness of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change
Adaptation (CCA) Training Programs: Views and Voices from Barisal
Division, a Coastal Region in Bangladesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Sharmin Nahar Nipa, Jarin Tasneem Oyshi, and Istiak Ibne Rouf
To ‘Float’ or ‘Not’: Cases of Amphibious Housing and Their Impacts
on Vulnerable Communities of Jamaica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Iftekhar Ahmed
About the Editors
Dr. Imon Chowdhooree Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture,

BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. chowdhooree@gmail.com; imonch@bracu.
ac.bd
Dr. Chowdhooree has been employed as an Assistant Professor in the
Postgraduate Programs in Disaster Management and in the Department of
Architecture of BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. As an academic with
interests in disaster risk reduction and architecture, he teaches courses on disaster
preparedness, emergency response and recovery, humanitarian assistance, building
for disaster and building technologies. In 2018, he has received the degree of Doctor
of Philosophy from Queensland University of Technology, Australia, for the thesis
entitled ‘Impacts of Structural Mitigation Measures on Perceptions of Community
Flood Resilience: Experiences from Haor Communities of Bangladesh’. He acquired
the degree of Master of Urban and Regional Planning and as well as his professional
degree in Architecture from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.
He also received the Master of Urban and Regional Planning degree from the
University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2010. From the same university, he finished the
graduate certificate program in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance.
He was recognized as a Young Scientist involved in disaster management research
by Irrigated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) in 2017. He has worked as an intern
at the head office of UNISDR in New York and as a visiting faculty in the
Department of Architecture of University of Evora, Portugal. He has also served as a
sessional academic staff in the Science and Engineering Faculty of Queensland
University of Technology, Australia. His research work is focused on community
resilience and its association with built environment, development policies and
sustainable lifestyle. He is active in community-based research, sustainable design
and planning and serves as a reviewer in multiple international journals and con-
ferences. He also provides advices for disaster mitigation and urban development
projects in the national level as means of transferring knowledge from the academia
to practice. He is the author of many conference and journal articles and has been a
member for urban planning projects in Palau and Vietnam.
xix
xx About the Editors
Mr. Shams Mansoor Ghani Senior Lecturer, Department of Architecture,

BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. shams.ghani@bracu.ac.bd
Mr. Ghani is employed as a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Architecture
and the Postgraduate Programms in Disaster Management, BRAC University and
at present is working as a member of its Postgraduate Programmes in Disaster
Management board. He completed his Bachelor of Architecture degree from
Bangladesh University of Engineering Technology specializing on urban mixed-use
developments. He has served as architectural consultant for numerous building and
interior design projects all over Bangladesh. He was also part of post-cyclone
reconstruction projects for rural communities. Before joining BRAC University, he
served as a faculty at Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology, Dhaka.
His master's research, done at BRAC University, was on post-disaster reconstruc-
tion. His research interests include culturally appropriate interventions, risk
reduction and development, sustainable urbanism and housing, housing and
context, heritage and cultural landscapes at risk, etc.
Enhancing Community Resilience
External Interventions for Enhancing
Community Resilience: An Overview
of Planning Paradigms
Imon Chowdhooree
Abstract In any disaster context development may appear as adaptation through

adopting mitigation measures for enhancing community resilience. Though the
popular discourse of development always includes economic growth, in the context
of resilience, this ‘development’ merges with the process of adaptation. But the plan-
ning process of conducting this ‘development’ as well as ‘adaptation’ requires more
concerns while the process is intervened by external bodies, like governmental, non-
governmental and donor organizations. This chapter provides an overview of plan-
ning paradigms for enhancing community resilience in a given political and ecolog-
ical context, based on existing literature. The ‘adaptation’ and ‘resilience’ literature
primarily express concerns for enhancing resilience through infrastructure-based
engineered solutions and alterations of natural surroundings mostly in the top-down
manner. The involvements of externals as well as professionals usually follow the
rational planning paradigm that asks experts to select the ‘best’ solution, identifying
and defining the problem, fixing goals and objectives, preparing lists of all possible
options to solve the problem, evaluating possible consequences of every option. For
ensuring the involvement of local communities, the professional-oriented top-down
rational planning approach can be replaced by its opposite: bottom-up planning
approach which is time consuming, expensive and simple rhetoric and quite impos-
sible to apply in cases where external bodies are involved for development. The post
positivist planning paradigm may support the ideas of active and incremental partic-
ipation of community members within the structure of rational top-down approach
through the lens of political ecology which has been developed as an interdisciplinary
approach to investigate complex human environment interactions, especially those
related to economic development of the third world.
Keywords Development · Adaptation · External intervention · Planning

paradigm · Political ecology · Resilience
I. Chowdhooree (B)
Department of Architecture, BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
e-mail: chowdhooree@gmail.com; imonch@bracu.ac.bd
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 3

I. Chowdhooree and S. M. Ghani (eds.), External Interventions
for Disaster Risk Reduction, Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4948-9_1
4 I. Chowdhooree
1 Introduction
Enhancing community resilience is a prime objective for contemporary disaster risk

management planning (Schelfaut et al. 2011; Klein et al. 2003; Geis 2000) that
requires a systematic process of capacity building through incorporating both struc-
tural and non-structural mitigation measures (Bosher et al. 2007) so that a community
can return to its usual state without external assistance, following an incident. The
process is also termed as adaptation which is considered as the adjustment in ecolog-
ical, social and economic systems in response to actual climatic stimuli and their
adverse impacts on communities (Arizona State University 2007). It involves adjust-
ments in socio-economic political context to reduce chances of facing damages due to
uncertainties of climatic events (in some cases human-induced events), which have
chances to turn into disasters. Reducing the risk of probable disaster has become
a major global development agenda (Rashid and Khan 2013), where development
strategies and activities are intended to align with the concept of disaster risk manage-
ment, enabling communities to cope with uncertainties and challenges within a
given political and ecological context. It meets the target of enhancing commu-
nity resilience which is considered as the prime objective of contemporary disaster
risk reduction planning (Schelfaut et al. 2011; Klein et al. 2003; Geis 2000). The
Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction: 2015–2030 enforces to strengthen
disaster resilience (UNISDR 2015). Strengthening disaster resilience is necessary to
eliminate the risk factors, which define community vulnerabilities, but scholars have
different opinions about defining the properties of resilience and ways of developing
or enhancing community resilience to deal with any kind of disaster incident.
Governmental, non-governmental and donor organizations usually appear as
external bodies, aiming to conduct some interventions for development where their
development policies may target to develop adaptive capacities (or community
resilience) among the vulnerable communities of less-developed countries (Cannon
and Muller-Mahn 2010). Though the popular discourse of development always
includes economic growth and external interventions, conducted by governmental,
non-governmental and donor organizations often prefers to address immediate needs
for poverty reduction, such as health, water and food security, and hesitate to invest in
disaster risk reduction where immediate development outcomes are not clear (Rashid
and Khan 2013). The cost of disaster in terms of instant economic and life-losses
as well as investments for relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction, is significant
and the concept of disaster risk reduction through adaptation establish the associ-
ation between ‘development’ and ‘adaptation’ in a given political and ecological
context. The trend of partnership among governmental organizations, nongovern-
mental organizations and donors is widely practiced to address unsolvable challenges
of marginalized communities (Brinkerhoff 2003). This kind of external involvements
for developments often focuses on standard practices, applying a top-down, techno-
cratic rational paradigm. The rational paradigm asks the experts or planners to iden-
tify and define a problem, to fix goals, and objectives, to prepare a list of all possible
External Interventions for Enhancing Community Resilience: An … 5
ways to solve the problem, to find all possible consequences for each policy alterna-
tive with a probability of occurrence, to compare consequences and finally to select
the ‘best’ solution (Berke and Beatley 1992). Understanding all risks adequately,
predicting all events reliably and evaluating responses objectively using accurate
assessments of costs and benefits is hard to achieve (Heazle et al. 2013). More-
over, the rational paradigm generates dependency on prescribed measures, as well
as actions taken by authorities (or external bodies). Enhancing community resilience
demands local community participating in the bottom-up process and owning the
power of decision making to incorporate their views, ideas and concerns according
to their perceptions. The bottom-up process of participatory planning as an important
means to expand democracy and improve the quality of decision-making (Monno
and Khakee 2012) can engage local communities, where communities take respon-
sibility for their own welfare and develop a capacity to contribute to individual as
well as community development (Oakley and Marsden 1987).
In the case of disaster risk reduction, development planning requires enhance-
ment of community resilience under conditions of high uncertainty, unequal power
dynamics, limitations of rational and participatory planning paradigms and prospects
of adaptation, community participation, empowerment and partnership between
external bodies and local communities. This chapter provides an overview of planning
paradigms for enhancing community resilience in a given political and ecological
context, based on existing literature. It reviews literature on ‘community resilience’,
‘adaptation’, ‘political ecology’, ‘development’ and ‘planning paradigms’, where
various types of planning paradigms are evaluated to discover their nature of
application in the development field.
2 Understanding Views of Community Resilience

and Adaptation
Resilience is considered as a distinct policy objective (Barret and Constas 2014) and
requires a theoretical explanation for better understanding of this concept. In general,
resilience is identified as an ability or capacity for recovering from and/or adapting to
disturbance, stress or adversity. In physics, it is referred to as the ability to get back to
the original state, other disciplines conceptualize it as adaptability, which allows for
many possible desirable states (Gunderson 2000), rather than as stability. Ganor and
Ben-Lavy (2003) more specifically identify ‘community resilience’ as a combination
of two kinds of abilities; one is the individual ability and other is the communal
ability to deal with a state of long-term stress. Whereas for an individual human
being, resilience is identified as ‘the capacity of the person to deal with adversities,
community resilience is the capacity of that community to take collective actions
for successful adaptation, positive functioning, or competence to deal with high-risk
status, chronic stress, or following prolonged or severe trauma (Pfefferbaum et al.
2005; Egeland et al. 1993). The concept of community resilience, especially in the
6 I. Chowdhooree
case of disaster mitigation or adaptation to hazards, is explored and explained by

various authors (Borrero et al. 2013; Schelfaut et al. 2011; Norris et al. 2008; Coles
and Buckle 2004; Godschalk 2003; Masten and Reed 2002; Geis 2000).
Multiple scholars, including Chowdhooree and Islam (2018), Schelfaut and
colleagues (2011), Coles and Buckle (2004) and Godschalk (2003) define natural
hazards or disasters as problems or adverse conditions for which we need to enhance
resilience so that a community can deal with the situation in a better way in future.
The concept of ‘disaster’ is associated with the term ‘hazard’. A hazard is a potential
natural or manmade source which may cause damages and harms in many ways
(Burton et al. 1993; Cutter 2001). Hazards (mostly natural hazards) are probabilistic
events that, while expected, are cannot be manipulated. A hazard can turn into a
disaster while the affected community cannot survive or get back its original condi-
tion without external assistance. While disaster cannot be possible without hazard,
without vulnerability, hazard is also nil (Blaikie1994), where vulnerability can be
identified as limitations in the characteristics and capabilities of a community, system
or asset that make it susceptible to suffer due to hazards (Chowdhooree and Islam
2018; UNISDR 2009). These are combinations of socio-economic as well as phys-
ical limitations that puts people at risk of hazards (Wisner et al. 2004; Bankoff et al.
2004; Cannon 2008).
Vulnerability literature often relies mostly on the ‘realism’ of the natural science,
ignoring the social constructivist view (Füssel and Klein 2006; O’Brien et al. 2007,
Cardona 2012) that asks to analyze society through lenses shaped by history, politics
and culture, along with relying on natural reality (Jasanoff 1999; Ribot 1995; Watts
and Bohle 1993). Rashid and Khan (2013) posit two analytical models for explaining
vulnerability, where one associates root causes of hazards with unsafe conditions of
victim communities in a progression of vulnerability and other evaluates resources
and capabilities of households to investigate why some are more vulnerable than
others. Concerns for understanding vulnerabilities through evaluating social and
communities’ physical conditions lead scholars to define properties of community
resilience and to investigate ways of developing or enhancing community resilience
to deal with any kind of disaster incident. Norris et al. (2008) explain ‘resilience’
as the disaster readiness and, to achieve this resilience, a community will reduce
exposures to risks (threats of hazards) and resource inequities, engage local people
in mitigation, create organizational linkages, and increase and protect social support
based on an overall plan.
These specifically identified factors as a forward-looking concept, may help to
explore policy options for dealing with uncertainties and changes (Berkes 2007).
These factors help to facilitate communications between and across different disci-
plines (Brand and Jax 2007) and hence contribute to stimulate discussions between
different communities (e.g. between climate change and natural hazard affected
communities) (Klein et al. 2003). This policy leads to prepare plans that require
flexibility, decision-making skills of locals and trusted sources of information to
deal with unknown situations. These qualities of a community facilitate to innovate
and to deal with unknown situations. This innovation includes social ingenuity with
old institutions and social arrangements reform into a new one, along with technical
ingenuity of new technology (Homer-Dixon 2000). Innovations usually occur on

many scales. Smaller scale innovations as small refinements occur relatively contin-
uously (Dale et al. 2010). This trend of innovation can be fostered with repeated
experiences of disasters and the process of adopting innovations can be identified as
adaptation.
Tanner and Mitchell (2008) classify the whole process of adaptation in two cate-
gories—responsive adaptation and anticipatory adaptation. The responsive adapta-
tion is spontaneous and basically what people always do in everyday practice, and
the anticipatory adaptation takes on the challenges of involving a high degree of
risk, because conditions to which an adaptation is sought are more or less unknown
(Cannon and Muller-Mahn 2010; Tanner and Mitchell 2008). Usually, in a disaster
context, these anticipated adaptations are ‘more or less unknown’, as the conditions
to which an anticipated adaptation is applied are uncertain (Cannon and Muller-
Mahn 2010). On the other hand, responsive adaptation, as the spontaneous everyday
practice of any community, may reveal community perceptions as the expression
of its priorities for dealing with potential or regularly experienced disasters. Either
anticipated or responsive adaptation brings changes to the life of a community and
its surrounding environment. In this way, the ‘adaptation’ and ‘resilience’ literature
primarily express concerns for reducing vulnerabilities through infrastructure-based
engineered solutions and managing of changes in surroundings.
3 Understanding the Political and Ecological Context
The phrase ‘political ecology’ combines the concerns of ecology and a broadly defined
political economy. Together these encompasses the constantly shifting dialectic between
societies and land-based resources, and also within classes and groups within society itself.
(Blaikie and Brookfield 1987, p. 17)
Political ecology as an interdisciplinary concept, seeks to understand human soci-

eties and their relationship to nature. Considering environmental issues as increas-
ingly prominent in local struggles, national debates and international policies and
programs, political ecologists pay more attention to conventional local and global
politics, as well as to more broadly defined relations of power and differences in
the interactions between human groups and their bio-physical environments. The
term ‘political ecology’ has been widely used in the context of human geography
and human ecology since long but with no real systematic definition (Simsik 2007)
until Wolf’s (1972) work. In 1970s a variety of different intellectuals—journalist
Alexander Cockburn, anthropologist Eric Wolf and environmental scientist Grahame
Beakhust conceptualized the idea to explain the relations between political economy
and nature in the context of an increasing environmental concerns (Keil and Faucett
1998; Watts 1983). It generated questions about the roles of politics in environ-
mental scholarship. However, the term can be traced back to have been used in 1935
by Thone (1935).
8 I. Chowdhooree
Political ecology has been developed as an interdisciplinary approach to investi-

gate complex human environment interactions, especially those related to economic
development of the third world. It applies the basic toolkit of political economy that
questions about the social relations of production and about access and control over
resources, to understand forms of environmental disturbance and degradation and
to develop models for environmental rehabilitation, conservation, and environmen-
tally sustainable alternatives (Paulson et al. 2003). A primary objective of political
ecology has been to understand the underlying causes of human and environmental
crises and identify ways to ameliorate or eliminate them (Simsik 2007). The concept
of environment includes not only bio-physical phenomena, but also human knowl-
edge and practice. Concerns for marginal social groups and issues of social justice
(Martinez-Alier 2002) lead the basic amalgamation of political economy and cultural
ecology through research, analysis and practice across disciplines including anthro-
pology, biology, geography and political sciences (Paulson et al. 2003). Robbins
(2004) identifies important differences in emphasis after carefully reviewing the term
‘political ecology’ since its known early use till the most recent. Despite the differ-
ences, Robbins (2004) underscores a set of common elements in political ecology,
one of which is that it works from a common set of assumptions and that it employs
a reasonable consistent mode of explanation. Political ecology research has demon-
strated or attempted to demonstrate four general theses as elaborated in the Table 1
(Robbins 2004).
Early studies of political ecologies, focused on the “land manager” considering
its relationship with nature in a “historical, political and economic context” (Blaikie
and Brookfield 1987, p. 239). Gradually, a variety of political ecology approaches
Table 1 Political ecology’s attempts to explain issues

Thesis What is explained Relevance
Degradation and Environmental change: why and Land degradation, long
marginalization how? blamed on marginal people, is
put in its larger political and
economic context
Environmental conflict Environmental access: who and Environmental conflicts are
why shown to be part of larger
gendered, classed, and raced
struggles and vice versa
Conservation and control Conservation failures and Usually viewed as benign,
political/economic exclusion: efforts at environmental
why and how? conservation are shown to
have pernicious effects, and
sometimes fail as a result
Environmental identity and Social upheaval: who, where, Political and social struggles
social movement and how are shown to be linked to
basic issues of livelihood and
environmental protection
Source Robbins (2004), p. 14
were evolved around a shared set of concepts. Local political ecology, for recog-
nizing the context, sharply focus towards local decision-making (Warren et al. 2001).
Ecological anthropology, as a stream of political ecology, proposed by anthropologist
Steward (1972), that introduced new possibilities for comparative analysis of the rela-
tionships between human and environment, through explaining cultural similarities
considering similar environments, subsistent patterns and economic arrangement.
Ecosystems-cybernetics, closely linked to cultural ecology, stems from important
connections between community ecology and new explorations of cybernetics and
system theories, which derived from the theory of machines and from artificial intelli-
gence developed particularly during second world war (Bateson 1972; Odum 1971).
Another approach led scholars to realize that disaster prevention, preparations for
it, and response to it were highly political. During the post war development phase,
sociologists and geographers conducted survey research, cognitive studies and behav-
ioral investigations to understand why individual misperceived, ignored or responded
in diverse ways to environmental threats—tornadoes, earthquakes, floods and other
kinds of natural hazards. (Watts 2002). Much of these works, drew on organic analo-
gies of adaptation and response, but it was also sensitive to cultural perceptions and
to questions of organizational capacity and access and availability of information.
Since 1990s, issues like, ethnic identities, gender roles and relations, involvement of
institutions, governance apparatuses, political involvement, and other social factors
have been started to consider within the scope of political ecology for developing
knowledge and analyzing decisions and actions (Paulson et al. 2003).
Being an interdisciplinary academic field, political ecology is a powerful tool that
can link social changes with environment and development. Especially one of its
approaches responses to disaster as a highly political issue. It shows how disasters
are neither natural nor neutral (Huber et al. 2017). Emphasizing the social part of a
disaster, it demands a discourse on the co-production of society and nature that needs
to look closer at how disparities of power and knowledge shape this socio-natural
nexus (Nixon 2014). It allows to understand why individual misperceived, ignored or
responded in diverse ways to environmental threats—tornadoes, earthquakes, floods
and other kinds of natural hazards (Watts 2002).
4 Understanding Planning Paradigms in the Disaster

Context
Disaster can be identified as the failure of mainstream ‘development’ (Rashid and

Khan 2013), where genuine development is considered as much more than a matter of
economic progress only (Slim 1995). The ‘development’ as ‘external actors’ initiative
triggers the process of adaptation for achieving resilience (Cannon and Muller-Mahn
2010), as the ultimate target. Development, in this view, is the process of adaptation
that expands human freedoms, and the assessment of development has to be informed
10 I. Chowdhooree
by this consideration. Sen (1984) not only expected to acquire freedom from poverty,
rather it was expected to ‘be’ and ‘do’, to ‘function’, to achieve desirable outcomes.
Addressing the risk of disasters in any national development planning agenda has
become a global commitment. The Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005–2015
(UNISDR 2005), adopted by 168 nations and international organizations, highlighted
the mainstreaming of disaster risk reduction (Khailani and Perera 2013). Similarly,
the Sendai Framework of Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030,
aims to prevent new and reduce existing disaster risk through the implementation of integrated
and inclusive economic, structural, legal, social, health, cultural, educational, environmental,
technological, political and institutional measures that prevent and reduce hazard exposure
and vulnerability to disaster, increase preparedness for response and recovery, and thus
strengthen resilience (UNISDR 2015, p. 12).
This means considering all possibilities of disasters in every development policy,

planning and project, so that the chances of disasters can be reduced and at the same
time, community resilience can be enhanced.
The systematic and practiced approaches of planning consider all types of disaster
as uncertain events and planning for natural disasters is broadly defined as ‘plan-
ning under uncertainty’ (Christensen 1985) or ‘planning for uncertainty’ (Kartez
and Lindell 1987). This concept is still valid for planning for disaster risk reduc-
tion, where planning offers a chance to overcome, or at least reduce uncertainty, by
matching planning processes to problem characteristics. It is not enough to assess
‘what planners do’, it requires an articulation of a rich political and inter-subjective
analysis of planners’ deliberative practices.
Until 1970, planning was used to follow the rational paradigm that asks experts
or planners to select the ‘best’ solution, identifying and defining the problem, fixing
goals and objectives, preparing lists of all possible options to solve the problem,
evaluating possible consequences of every option (Berke and Beatley 1992). Kartez
and Lindell (1987) define it as a good planning process to find out the best ‘choice’ for
addressing any uncertain event like a disaster, considering community experiences
as information for future planning. Improved disaster preparation results from both
experiences with disasters and from commitment to a good planning process (Kartez
and Lindell 1987). However, for managing disasters as uncertain events, Mileti (1999)
proposes a five-step strategy: assessing hazard vulnerabilities; examining possible
adjustments; determining the human perception and estimating hazards; analyzing
the decision-making process; and identifying the best adjustments, along with eval-
uating their effectiveness. This strategy is organized conceptually around the four-
stage-cycle of disaster risk management: Prevent, Prepare, Response and Recover
(PPRR). It is notable that Mileti (1999), suggests determining the human perception
as a step for planning for development activities to manage disaster risks.
The rational paradigm, also referred as the rational comprehensive model of plan-
ning, is criticized on the ground of thought process and reasoning of application
(e.g., Heazle et al. 2013; Birkmann and Teichman 2010; Hostovsky 2006; Campbell
and Fainstein 2003; Sandercock 1997; Baum 1996; Innes 1996; Alexander 1992;
Forester 1989; Faludi 1973, Altshuler 1965a, b). For example, Altshuler (1965a, b)
argues that comprehensive planning is not practically feasible, nor politically viable
and comprehensive planners pose limited role, power and knowledge to prepare an
effective comprehensive plan. Sandercock (1997) identifies that the rational compre-
hensive model of planning appears with the heroic nature of giving correct decisions
in every aspect but fails to ask who is in control and with what consequences. Her
concerns are that planners appear as ‘the knower’ with their best solutions for the
public (Sandercock 1997). The rational paradigm is not only heroic in nature, but also
it requires such a level of knowledge, analysis and organizational coordination that it
is impossibly complex (Campbell and Fainstein 2003). It requires more knowledge
than any individual can grasp. Hostovsky (2006) argues that only theoretically the
rational paradigm may provide the ‘best’ solution for any planning problem, consid-
ering the widest variety of variables, but practically it is overly complex, redun-
dant, time-consuming, and expensive. A community has the perception that includes
information, ideas and interests for addressing any community problem. Without
organizing people, the paradigm only encourages planners to organize information
logically, as if the world consists of information only, without human beings. As a
result, rationalist planners may recommend interventions that do not fit to the social
conditions and harm people who might be helped (Baum 1996). Compatibly, Heazle
et al. (2013) claim that a rational approach in disaster risk management expects accu-
rate and sufficient information to successfully ‘prevent’ the disaster and ‘prepare’
for disaster, yet information is often missing or cannot be provided with the degree
of certainty. Moreover, the ‘predict and act’ process of rational paradigm creates
heavy dependency on hard empirical data of how, when, where and on what scale
natural disasters are likely to occur and engineering solutions for them, and as a result
it limits the scope for practicing adaptive institutional learning and nurturing other
flexible alternatives (Heazle et al. 2013). Correspondingly, Birkmann and Teichman
(2010) dispute that high expectations of resolving or reducing uncertainty issues to a
low order, removes incentives to explore alternative approaches that seek to manage
rather than reduce uncertainties.
At the end of 1970s and during the 1980s, as the result of shifts towards market-
led development, along with the rise of neo-liberal ideas, professional-oriented top-
down rational planning approach was replaced by its opposite: bottom-up planning
approach (Duménil and Lévy 2004; Campbell and Marshall 2000), suggesting to
engage local community groups in which the planner was the servant of the public
(Hall 2014). In this era, planning is expected to provide justice to everyone (Forester
2011; Leo and Forester 2017) in a given condition, where social, political, cultural
and economic differences matter in terms of power-relationships. It is commonly
identified as participatory planning (Monno and Khakee 2012; Hostovsky 2006)
as an important means to expand democracy and improve the quality of deci-
sion making (Monno and Khakee 2012) to value community perceptions and their
concerns. With the perspectives of agonistic-democracy and social mobilization,
the radical/insurgent model of participating advocates to empower the marginalized
groups so that the participatory process can work with conflict in productive ways
(Aylett 2010).
12 I. Chowdhooree
Scholars appreciate the concept of participatory planning for community develop-

ment in any sector including disaster risk management. Holcombe et al. (2004) distin-
guish ‘development’ as an expanding choice and for empowering the community
through building their capacities, it is required to be driven by the demand of those for
whom development is the goal. It means development should be planned according to
the demand (or priorities) of community in a participatory way. In a slightly different
way, Thomas (1999) suggests that development should be managed with the inten-
tion to develop the capacities of any community to do future tasks and to learn from
experiences. With a similar goal for local development, Forsyth (2013) promotes
the idea of Community-Based Adaptation (CBA), where ideally, a local community,
deliberating different sources of knowledge for more successful outcomes, becomes
able to determine its goals of development and identify suitable means of adaptation.
The success of CBA is difficult to achieve as the marginalized people cannot commu-
nicate in all required arenas; to overcome this problem, Forsyth (2013) advises the
use of participatory techniques for getting more successful outcomes. In the same
way, Alkire et al. (2001) recommend Community-driven Development (CDD) that
suggests to empower the community with necessary knowledge and resources so that
it can take control over the decision-making process. Norris et al. (2008) prioritize
the enhancement of community resilience based on an overall plan that incorporates
decision-making skills of locals to deal with an unknown situation. Involvement of
beneficiaries and wider communities in the process of development leads to more
sustainable outcomes (Cannon 2008). They can feel ownership of the development
process and can carry out the process later (Lawther 2009). This develops community
capacities as members’ ability to take collective, deliberate and meaningful actions
to solve problems through interpreting environment, intervening in the environment
and moving forward (Pfefferbaum et al. 2005). Ghimire and colleagues (2010) do
not support the trend of portraying poor people as victims, believing that with the
right support, they can take responsibilities to find out solutions. Science may help
them to understand themselves as part of the problems and as part of the solution
(Ghimire et al. 2010). Participation of community members in the planning process,
especially in the decision-making process, is the key concept of a bottom-up approach
of participatory planning and it promises to reflect the community perception about
community resilience in any disaster risk management planning activity.
There are criticisms about the participatory planning paradigm. Rose (1996) and
Hostovsky (2006) identify the participatory planning practice as time consuming,
expensive and simple rhetoric as this depoliticizing new way of oppression is able to
reproduce dominant hierarchies of power, embedded in a wide variety of neoliberal
political agendas (Kesby 2005; Rose 1996). These criticisms constrain the idea of
applying the participatory planning approach for disaster risk management. Along
with the radical/insurgent model of the participatory planning paradigm, there are
other forms of participatory paradigms, which intend to overcome their criticism,
such as communicative or collaborative planning, that engages different stakeholders
to engage in dialogue to discover goals and objectives in a collaborative way (Healey
2008, 1992), which often turns into a token of participation. The advocacy movement
of the 1970s resulted several approaches that allows effective participation of disad-
vantaged groups (Monno and Khakee 2012). The advocacy and equity model and
the social learning and communicative action model were evolved to have lessons
direct from the beneficiary groups. The equity planning model encourages plan-
ners to reconcile the conflicting goals of economic development, social justice,
and environmental protection (Sandercock 1997). Friedman (1987) argues that
various ways of engaging beneficiary groups (community members/disadvantaged
groups/marginalized groups) in the planning tradition intends to have social learning
to overcome the constrains between theory and practice or knowing and acting. He
also supports the idea of social mobilization as an ideology of the dispossession of
power, with the goal to empower those who have been systematically disempowered.
Empowerment is the final stage of participation; inclusion of community in develop-
ment process ultimately empowers them. Correspondingly, Holcombe et al. (2004)
think that development should be done with goals of empowerment and capacity
building, whereas power of decision making is a capacity. This power of deci-
sion making, originally belonging to planners or experts (in a top-down planning
approach), needs to be transferred (Moniruzzaman 2011) to the community people.
But in the context of externals’ interventions for development the involvement of
external actors like, planners or experts is unavoidable. Because of the static condi-
tion in power-relationship, Miraftab (2009) finds that, participatory planning often
fails to empower and emancipate the marginalized. On the other hand, the rational
paradigm is still not completely abandoned because of the presence of professionals,
their formal education system, the presence of institutions and their ways of practice
as external interventions (Baum 1996; Dalton 1986). The rational model is portrayed
as the tacit model of social relationships of hierarchy and it offers a ready, unconscious
defense against the diversity and messiness of the real world (Baum 1996).
Even in the case of involvement of non-governmental organizations (NGO) which
is usually considered as the source of alternative developments, follows a linear model
of rational planning (Thomas 2008). NGOs are often promoted as ‘magic bullets’,
with aid agencies and the governments of the industrialized West asserting that NGOs
are able to address the problems of the Third World (Vivian 1994). Where commu-
nities and local governmental organizations lack capacity to solve their problems
independently, NGOs may be able to assist, particularly as they may have access to
expert knowledge and experience in complex settings (Brinkerhoff 2003). However,
this external support tends to impose constraints on recipient communities, and NGOs
may be resistant to innovation in their practices because of the perseverance of the
traditional aid paradigm and thereby provide a ‘security blanket’ for current prac-
tice (Edward 2008). This applies to current components of aid reform, including the
modified version of Millennium Challenge Accounts, Poverty Reduction Strategy
Papers, and International Finance Facilities, as well as historic initiatives.
‘Democratic development paradigm’ as an alternative, followed by NGOs,
promotes the participation (from representation to empowerment) of marginalized
groups in such a way that can make these groups able to influence policy for making
it beneficial to their conditions, leading over time to poverty reduction and finally to
sustainable human development (Thomas 2008). In several cases NGOs operate their
14 I. Chowdhooree
projects of intervention in the Third World countries (Bebbington et al. 2008) who
have colonial pasts in Africa, Latin America, Oceania and Asia, prioritizing the fields
of democracy, rights, empowerment, participation, poverty and livelihoods (Craig
and Porter 2006). Similarly, consensus building, as a method of group deliberation,
ensures an environment where all are heard, and all concerns are taken seriously
for making decisions that approximate the public interest (Innes 1996 and 1995).
Collaborative rationally (Innes 2016), as another interpretation of communicative
rationally (Dryzek 1990; Innes 1995), is growing as a practice to ensure collabo-
rations among agencies, between government officials and community members,
among members of different interests and to seek ways to satisfy the significant
concerns of each member, based on both expert knowledge and community knowl-
edge (Innes 2016). Leo and Forester (2017) define it as a ‘practice-focused’ method
where experts and citizens shares their knowledge, practicing a mutual respect to each
other. The dichotomy of ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ planning is blurred here because
of mutual dependency and empowered positions of all stakeholders. This deliber-
ative practice promises to overcome the precariousness and vulnerabilities of trust
and relationship building, through anticipating and responding to every stakeholder’s
interpretations, biases, ideologies, and presumptions (Leo and Forester 2017). But
it requires a balanced power-relationship among stakeholders and does not provide
enough practical ideas to practice these concepts (consensus building, collaborative
planning, communicative rationally) where stakeholders are not having equal power
to make significant changes in decision and at some level where it is not possible to
include the actual beneficiaries to take any decision.
5 Conclusion
Enhancing community resilience is necessary to eliminate the vulnerability of risk

factors, but scholars have different opinions about defining the properties of commu-
nity resilience and ways of developing or enhancing community resilience to deal
with any kind of disaster incident. Community resilience is not only combina-
tions of tangible properties, but also includes intangible properties, like knowledge,
skills and experiences as well as socio-political, socio-cultural, and psychological
aspects. Along with getting the new dimension in their perceptions about community
resilience, a community also gets an idea about how this change in the environment
affects its resilience. The consequences (either positive or negative) of development
interventions are associated with approaches or paradigms, followed in the planning
process.
The rational planning paradigm with a realist view considers the hazard as some-
thing that may happen in the future and detailed information about this future event
can be availed easily. The structured planning curriculum, formed with both higher
education and professional development forums, follows the top-down, knowledge-
based rational model with a determination of managing the whole scenario with suit-
able structural (engineered infrastructures) and nonstructural (land-use and zoning
regulations, early warning system etc.) measures of mitigation. Because of the limi-
tation of hard empirical data of how, when, where and on what scale hazards are
likely to occur, and over-expectation about the performance level of engineered
infrastructures and ignorance about their negative impacts on nature, this approach
may indulge the population and thus expose them to great risks. Moreover, the high
expectations of reducing hazard impacts or eliminating the chance of hazard make
the local people dependent on the authority or external bodies and more vulnerable,
with fewer self-defense mechanisms.
The participatory planning paradigm attempts to include the local people into
the planning process, as the local people have practical experiences of dealing with
previous flood events and they are the ultimate beneficiaries of the planning outcome.
Ernstson et al. (2010), Wamsler (2004) and Godschalk (2003) have pointed out the
importance of a community participatory approach in planning and the utilization
of community perceptions for enhancing inherent resilience towards adversities.
The scholars have various observations about the level of inclusion or community
participation, especially with transferring power from the professionals to the local
(Moniruzzaman 2011). Ideally, this framework aims to empower the marginalized
groups, so that they can make decisions according to their priorities about their own
future and move on. But, in practice, it is hard for the institute and professionals to
operate in such a way where actual decision-making power transfers to locals and
when we are talking about transferring, it means the power originally belongs to the
professionals or external bodies. In some cases, the external bodies may provide a
niche for the local people to convey some opinions, or professionals may provide
some alternatives (along with their knowledge-based pros and cons) and local people
may get chance to select one. How the local people make decisions for their own
welfare is also a major concerned issue. The professionals go through a structured
academic process, follow prescribed guidelines, get ideas from empirical data and
compare events to make any decision. If these professionals work as facilitators to
facilitate the locals to make their decisions, there might be a chance of manipulation
and influence. Moreover, local people fail to consider the issues beyond their local
interest and may face difficulties to perceive the bigger picture of planning for national
growth or reducing negative environmental impacts.
Although the idea of ‘bottom up’ denies the rational paradigm, its persistence
puzzles the planners (Rocha 1997; Hoch 1994; Dalton 1986). To express the core of
the dilemma, Baum (1996) says:
Planners continue to endorse at least the spirit of the rational analytic model, not only because
it supports claims of professional status, but also because it emphasizes the fundamental
principles of guiding actions by knowledge. p. 133
Community resilience is linked to improve adaptive capacities of a commu-

nity or a process that is linked to dynamic changes over time, associated with
community learning and the willingness of communities to take responsibilities and
the control of their development pathways (Wilson 2010). Re-conceptualizing the
community perception shifts the pedagogical debate towards the rich engagement
multiple planning practices through an appropriate analytical lens. Here, the core
16 I. Chowdhooree
agenda of enhancing community resilience needs to face the politics of top-down

versus bottom-up approach, professionals’ knowledge versus traditional knowledge,
and structural versus non-structural mitigation measures, along with environmental
issues. The strong presence of socio-economic politics and concerns for environ-
ments supports the post-positivist concept of ‘political ecology’. The post-positivist
planning paradigms, like incrementalism, give up the quest for complete knowledge
as the basis of planning and will accept planners’ as well as beneficiaries’ inability
to know all about complex political and ecological issues. It demands to practice a
rational mix of multiple paradigms; Heazle and colleagues (2013) propose to deal
with disaster risk management in such a way that will
Explicitly recognize uncertainties; (ii) Address questions about what we realistically can
or do know about current and future hazards; and (iii) Explore the available options for
progressively enhancing resilience over the short to medium term. An adaptive approach,
therefore, should seek to learn about priorities and vulnerabilities progressively with each
new event in order to incrementally enhance resilience. p. 169
The planning approach is yet to mature in the disciplinary growth of disaster

management. The field is usually handled by UN agencies, INGOs, local NGOs
in partnership with the governmental wing. The ‘political ecology’ as a theoretical
concept significantly allows to understand the social dimension along with environ-
mental ones in case of enhancing community resilience. Community perceptions
of resilience and vulnerability are linked to condition of their surrounding environ-
ment and socio-economic conditions and colored by their awareness of both positive
and negative consequences of externally supported mitigation measures. Achieving
resilience requires communities to experience developments as adaptation which will
ultimately be able to reduce vulnerability. Such development will enhance resilience
through providing freedom, reducing sources of ‘unfreedom’, being those condi-
tions, which hinder aspects of desired lives. Prioritizing freedom should therefore
be prioritized in any development program as not only the end but also the means of
achieving resilience.
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disasters, 2nd edn. Routledge, London, UK
Wolf E (1972) Ownership and political ecology. Anthropol Q 45(3):201–205. https://doi.org/10.
2307/331653
Dr. Chowdhooree has been employed as an Assistant Professor in the Post Graduate Programs
in Disaster Management and in the Department of Architecture of BRAC University, Dhaka,
Bangladesh. As an academic with interests in disaster risk reduction and architecture, he teaches
courses on disaster preparedness, emergency response and recovery, humanitarian assistance,
building for disaster and building technologies. In 2018 he has received the degree of Doctor
of Philosophy from Queensland University of Technology, Australia. He acquired the degree of
Master of Urban and Regional Planning, as well as, his professional degree in Architecture from
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. He also received the Master of Urban
and Regional Planning degree from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2010. From the same
university he finished the graduate certificate program in Disaster Management and Humanitarian
Assistance. He was recognized as a Young Scientist involved in disaster management research by
Irrigated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) in 2017.
Lessons Learned from Interventions
of External Organizations in Disaster
Management: A Case Study of Floods
in Kalutara, Sri Lanka
W. K. D. Rathnayake and Chandana Siriwardana
Abstract In 2016, 2017 and 2018, Sri Lanka witnessed extreme rains that triggered
flooding in many districts. The number of victims of 2018 flood was around 150,000
which shows a significant decrease compared to the events of 2016 and 2017 where
the affected population were 340,000 and 700,000 respectively. Several external orga-
nizations provided their supports via funding, relief and rehabilitation mechanisms
during these consecutive disasters. It needs to evaluate current Disaster Manage-
ment Mechanisms, practiced in Sri Lanka, to investigate the involvement of external
organizations, as well as how well these organizations perform within the existing
mechanism. This research conducted a survey in Kalutara, a flood-prone area in the
Western province of Sri Lanka. Further, it explored the behaviour of local commu-
nities, using Hofstede insights, humanitarian involvement in disaster management
framework, involvement of external organizations, and then evaluated the effective-
ness of external organizations’ involvements in different disaster management stages.
This chapter finds that Sri Lanka does well in the emergency response stage within
the disaster management process, due to the involvement of external organizations,
even though their scopes of getting involved at the decision-making level is not
significant.
Keywords Emergency response · Flood · Sri Lanka · External organizations ·

Hofstede insights
1 Introduction
Sri Lanka, a tropical island situated between latitudes 5° and 10° N, and longi-
tudes 79° and 82° E in the Indian Ocean has a weather that is very sensitive to
changes in the Bay of Bengal. The climate of Sri Lanka is dominated by topographical
W. K. D. Rathnayake · C. Siriwardana (B)

Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka
e-mail: chaasi@uom.lk
W. K. D. Rathnayake
e-mail: kusaldanidu@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4948-9_2
24 W. K. D. Rathnayake and C. Siriwardana
features, as well as the Southwest (May—September) and Northeast (December—

February) monsoons. Other than those two monsoons, Sri Lanka experiences first
inter (March—April) and second inter (October—November) monsoon seasons. The
overall monsoonal wind patterns, as well as their changes depend on the behavior
pattern of the Bay of Bengal (Department of Meteorology—Sri Lanka 2016).
Most of Sri Lankan natural hazards are hydro-meteorological hazards, such as,
floods, high winds, landslides, etc.; among which flood is the most predominant.
Since 1965, due to floods, 224,760 houses have been damaged, whereas 128,705
houses have been damaged due to high winds and, 105,293 houses due to tsunami
and 14,761 houses due to landslides. Extenuation actions have been taken in recent
times by pertinent authorities to reduce flood risks (De Silva and Jayathilaka 2014).
The main reason of having floods in three consecutive years—2016, 2017 and
2018 is the heavy rainfall in May. Besides natural disasters like floods, Sri Lanka has
been suffered from a civil war which lasted for about thirty years. This long history of
communal disturbance and social unrest has influenced community relationships. It
is important to understand the nature of cultural behavior of Sri Lanka to understand
the involvement of different organizations (International SOS 2019). Human–Human
(H–H) interactions, as well as Human–Institution (H–I) interactions generate posi-
tive, as well as negative impacts on the disaster management process, depending
on the context. Sometimes organizations are formed within the affected community
and sometimes organizations are formed by the external bodies to assist affected
communities. These two types of organizations generate two different contexts of
interactions. This research identifies external elements as institutions, people or orga-
nizations that work as parts of the system only while the community is in a disturbed
condition, like, facing a flood. This research aims to deal with external organizations
which are non-governmental in nature and get involved in the disaster management
system.
A number research have been conducted in the areas of social networking
(Shehara et al. 2019), evacuation planning (Jayasiri 2018), coastal hazard mitiga-
tion (Jayasiri 2018), and community resilience measurement approach (Perera et al.
2018), to understand involvements of various organizations in the disaster manage-
ment process, evaluating the effectiveness of the process and identifying gaps within
the process. With similar notions, based on the flood 2018 at Kaluatara, Sri Lanka,
the current research intends to answer following research questions:
• Is the process capable to be benefitted by external organizations?
• How well do these external organizations perform within the disaster management
process?
2 Background
The background of this research is formed with four issues and a thorough literature
review is conducted to understand the issues
Lessons Learned from Interventions of External Organizations … 25
1. Assessing social and cultural dimensions of Sri Lanka that identify key facts
which influence the community relationships, regarding the formation and oper-
ation of external organizations in Sri Lanka. Hofstede insights (Hofstede et al.
2010; Hofstede 2001) on cultural dimensions are used to identify and compare
the situation of Sri Lanka.
2. Exploring Humanitarian involvements in disaster management.
3. Understanding Sri Lankan disaster management framework and policies
4. Exploring mechanisms of external organizations for responding towards disasters
The above-mentioned issues are comprehensively discussed in the following
sections.
1. Hofstede insights on social and cultural dimensions—Country Comparison
Hofstede insights (Hofstede et al. 2010; Hofstede 2001) are employed to understand
the cultural behaviour of Sri Lanka. Hofstede insights are comprised of six dimen-
sions: Power distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty avoidance, Long term
orientation, and Indulgence. There is currently no value for measuring the Indulgence
of Sri Lanka. Hence other five values of Sri Lanka are illustrated and analysed by
comparing against three other nations: India, Japan, and Indonesia (Regional coun-
tries with frequent hazard profiles) (Fig. 1). Sri Lanka has a higher power distance
(80) which indicates a structured hierarchical society which has distinct social norms
for each social stratum. Hence, usually the power is centralized, and it is expected
to dictate the lower levels in all aspects. During the case study, it is observed how
the communities usually perceive the managing recovery phase of disasters (like,
floods) as a responsibility of the government, where they expect that the government
will aid to build back and recover in the long term.
Collectivist social behaviour of the community is indicated by a low score of 35, in
the individualism dimension. It indicates that everyone takes care of each other within
Fig. 1 Hofstede Insights compare values of Sri Lankan culture in five dimensions with those values
of Indonesia, India and Japan. (Geert Hofstede et al. 2010; Geert Hofstede 2001)
a community. The masculine culture is focused on values such as money, success

and competition for dominance and power, whereas a feminine society is focused
on being (Hofstede 2001). The very low score of masculinity indicates the society
as a feminine society that is supportive, caring and leadership oriented. With a score
of 45, Sri Lanka does not indicate a strong preference in the uncertainty avoidance
dimension which means, the drive for long term planning and implementation is low.
These dimensions indicate the strong connection between people and community and
identify the society as a highly hierarchical collectivist society.
2. Humanitarian involvements in disaster management
Since 1950s, the frequency of either natural or man-made hazards has been increased
exponentially and the capability position issue has become the desired tactic for
coordinating with emergency humanitarian logistical complications. Chawis and
colleagues (2017) propose a precise and experiential process to overcome this chal-
lenge. It surveys the capability location problem that is connected to emergency
humanitarian logistics, built on both data displaying types and problem types and
inspect the pre and post-disaster situations with admiration to facility location, such
as the location of delivery centres, warehouses, shelters, debris elimination sites and
health centres. Here an algorithm is developed to improve humanitarian logistical
supports. The survey examines four key problems: deterministic capacity location
difficulties, dynamic capacity location difficulties, stochastic capacity location diffi-
culties, and robust capacity location difficulties. For each difficulty, facility location
type, data demonstrating type, disaster type, conclusions, purposes, constraints, and
solution methods are evaluated and real-world applications and case studies are
offered.
Cavdur and colleagues (2016) measure the problem of brief disaster response
facility portion for the temporary or short-term disaster relief process, propose a
solution and demonstrate it with an earthquake case study in Turkey. A two-stage
stochastic platform is established for solving the problem of minimizing the total
distance travelled, the unmet claim and the total number of facilities (bearing in
mind the potential problems to contact the facilities), where facility allotment and
provision conclusions are performed in the first and second stages, correspondingly
(Cavdur et al. 2016). An earthquake case study established by the Prime Ministry
Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (typically mentioned as AFAD in
Turkey) was used to test their prototype. They castoff five different situations, each
demonstrating a dissimilar after-disaster state (i.e. time, traffic conditions etc.), with
its specific probability of occurrence, to model the mandate uncertainty for relief
supplies. They first solved the deterministic model for each scenario, and then, the
equivalent stochastic program. In addition to the demarcated objectives of the model,
the quality of each solution was analysed in terms of mediocre walking distance,
demand fulfilment rate and average facility consumption.
According to (Rajakaruna et al. 2017), logistic skills (the ability to arrange and
deliver necessary requirements) are the basic requirement for employment and career
development within the Humanitarian Logistics (HL) field. These skill-requirements
might be changed in terms of various logistic functions, groups and cultures. At the
same time, the increased amount of global disasters is adding to challenges that are
adversely affecting the HL supply chain. Skills of logisticians are therefore necessary
to effectively accomplish the supply chain in a disaster condition (Rajakaruna et al.
2017). In the Sri Lankan context, it is vital to study the area of HL, considering
issues like, unplanned relief distribution and organizational coordination gaps that
are being met afterwards the disasters. Several researches have been carried out to
find out skills of humanitarian logisticians at the global level. However, to date, there
has been a narrow discussion on the abilities of humanitarian logisticians in the Sri
Lankan humanitarian arena.
As Hofstde insights highlight, the collectivistic society of Sri Lankans usually
assist their fellow community members in case of any emergency. Therefore, every
time a disaster hits, during the emergency management phase, community members
naturally depend on each other to overcome their difficulties. On the other hand, they
expect the government to intervene during the disaster recovery phase. It is essential
to check whether this nature has been acknowledged in the policy and whether enough
assistance is provided accordingly or not.
3. Disaster management framework of Sri Lanka
There are several policies and legal frameworks that defines and facilitates the disaster
management process of Sri Lanka, which has been developed in the following
sequence.
• Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Fund Act, No. 48 of 1993: used to provide
reliefs and rehabilitations to victims.
• Disaster Management Act No. 13 of 2005: provides the institutional structure,
governs the disaster management structure and defines the National Council for
Disaster Management (NCDM) and Disaster Management Centre (DMC).
• National Disaster Management Policy: prepared in 2010 according to the Hyogo
Framework for Action.
• Ministry of Finance and Planning—Budget Circulars No. 152 (I) (II) and (III):
issued in 2013 and 2014: to mitigate the duplication of funding.
• National Disaster Management Plan: prepared for 2013–2015. Provides guidance
to the formulation of the disaster management plans in all levels of administration.
• National Emergency Operations Plan: provides guidelines for emergency
preparedness (2015).
• Sri Lanka Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme: the action plan for
2014–2018.
• National Adaptation Plan for Climate Change Impacts of Sri Lanka: prepared for
2018–2025 in line with United Nations Framework on Climate Change.
• Sri Lanka Disaster Management Plan: prepared in accordance with the Sendai
Framework for the years 2018–2030. (Jayasiri 2018; Siriwardana et al. 2018)
The National Council for Disaster Management was established as the supreme
body for managing disaster situations and was mandated from the 2005 Sri Lanka
Disaster Management Act.
Overall policies and institutional structures indicate the centralized and umbrella
behaviour of the disaster management framework (Shehara et al. 2019) (Figs. 2 and
3). But, the voluntary organizations and external organizations, which also work for
disaster management, are not accommodated within this governmental process.
4. Involvement of external organizations in disaster management
Though the disaster management process formally does not include external orga-
nizations, these organizations operate within the process in various ways. “Shra-
madana”, identified as a cultural behavior, is practiced in Sri Lanka and has significant
contributions for the operation of external organizations (Clark 2005). “Shramadana”
allows people to voluntarily work with full dedication for any public purpose. Dr. A.
T. Ariyaratne started a movement in Sri Lanka, named as “Sarvodaya Shramadana”
through establishing “Sarvodaya”, an organization where this practice of “Shra-
madana” was structured and institutionalized for its effective use. The first camp on
“shramadana” was conducted in 1958. At present “Sarvodaya” is the largest non-
governmental, locally funded organization in Sri Lanka, contributing in three sectors:
Growth and Development, Well trained workforce and Emergency relief (Perera
Fig. 2 Upstream institutional structure of the disaster management in Sri Lanka (MDM 2019)
DMC
Provincial Councils District Secretariats Line Departments
Local AuthoriƟes Grama Niladaries
Village Task
Fig. 3 DMC onwards disaster management structure in Sri Lanka (MDM 2019)
1995). Next to this well-established organization, there are organizations which

have been started by the youth of Sri Lanka. International Movement for Commu-
nity Development (IMCD) is one of such social service organizations, which was
started with local funds and now is working even in the international arena. Currently
1200 volunteers are working here; it is collaborating with 74,000 donors, including
corporate bodies and it has conducted 85 events from which 74,000 recipients were
benefitted (International Movement for Community Development 2019).
Some corporate business giants, including mass media operators, network
providers and apparel manufactures get involved in aid and relief distribution and
disaster risk reduction programs, as their corporate social responsibility (Dissanayake
et al. 2016; Ariyabandu and Hulangamuwa 2002). “Dialog”, a leading mobile
network, has funded several research programs, collaborated with the Disaster
Management Center (DMC) and invested to develop a mobile app, named DEWN
(Disaster Management Emergency Network) (DEWN 2019). It is the first mobile
based disaster alert mechanism of Sri Lanka. The University of Moratuwa is also
involved in this project as the research partner (Shehara et al. 2019). Other types of
external organizations are international donors, such as Asian Development Bank
(ADB), International Monitory fund and World Bank. Additionally, International
Red Cross works at the grass root level through providing expert knowledge, finance
and aids (Goonatilake 2006).
3 Methodology and Case Study Area
This research aims to identify involvement of external organizations within the

disaster management processes, considering its legal frameworks, institutional
involvement and impactful parameters with respect to floods, via a desk study-
based literature review (Fig. 4). A questionnaire survey is conducted to evaluate
the effectiveness of the disaster management framework.
Fig. 4 The research diagram

Fig. 5 Vulnerable population percentages of Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutara districts of Sri
Lanka (“Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka,” 2019)
For the administrative purposes, the land area of Sri Lanka is divided into 9
provinces where each of these provinces consists of few districts and in total there
are 25 districts. Based on severity, occurred due to the May flood recently, the
Western province was chosen to study. The Western province contains three districts:
Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutara. Figure 5 illustrates the percentage of victim popu-
lation of three districts. As the most affected district (38.54%), more specifically
Kalutara district was chosen for this study. Figure 6 illustrates the impact in terms of
proportions of victims of Kalutara district, based on District Secretariat (DS) divi-
sions (the smallest administrative unit). As indicated in Fig. 6, four DS divisions:
Madurwala, Palindanuwara, Dodangoda and Bulathsinhala had higher percentage of
victims, which was more than 50%. This research exertion focusses on those four DS
divisions as indicated in the Fig. 7. 40 respondents from each DS division participated
in the questionnaire survey.
The questionnaire survey is conducted based on the evaluation framework stated
in Table 1 (Rathnayake et al. 2018). The disaster condition is divided here into
three stages: Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) stage, Emergency Response stage and
Recovery stage (Piper 2017). Each stage compiles some facts and facts are affected
by identified attributes. Each attribute generates a tangible dimension for each fact,
mentioned in the table. From overall data, the effectiveness of each fact, as well as
the effectiveness of each stage is calculated (Rathnayake et al. 2018).
Fig. 6 Percentages of affected population from total population in each DS division of Kalutara
District: (Kalutara District Secretariat Office 2018)
4 Results
External organizations are non-governmental organizations, which get involved in the

disaster management system. In the case study area, through the questionnaire survey,
it is found that external organizations usually get involved in four areas: providing
humanitarian assistance (especially emergency aids), evacuation assistance, early
recovery assistance, and search and rescue services. Collected data are evaluated to
check the effectiveness of both governmental organizations and external organiza-
tions, in case of humanitarian involvement in each phase of disaster. Additionally, two
types of conditions are considered: with involvements of external organizations and
without involvements of external organizations. Following four sections describe
the parameters, used for evaluating four areas where external organizations were
involved.
1. Providing humanitarian assistance
This value was generated from the responses to questions: “Did any NGO (external
organization) or GO aid during floods?” and “Were the assistance you received Not
enough/Enough/Too much?” As per the Table 1, two questions evaluate the attributes
of “Involvement” and “Effectiveness” of the provision of humanitarian assistance.
From the collected responses, the effectiveness was calculated by giving a weightage
of 0.5 to both the attributes and combining the satisfaction levels of recipients. The
effectiveness of assistance of 93% was calculated using the above-mentioned process.
The overall weightages and the results are presented on Rathnayake et al. 2018.
Fig. 7 Sri Lanka and locations of the Survey—The focused DS divisions
Red Cross and Sarvodaya are two main nongovernmental external organizations
which provided humanitarian assistance in terms of providing aids. Mass media
operators were also involved within the disaster management system in the case study
area. Yet the highlighted and impactful contribution was from the aid’s coordination
mechanism from the District Secretariat Office. The coordination mechanism was
in place to combine the provision assistance from all involved organizations. This
result indicates that the external organizations such as Red Cross, Sarvodaya and
small scale community based organizations such as organizations based for small
scale loan schemes, funerals have a higher level of interaction at the grass root level,
through distributing aids and have a very little to no interaction in decision making
level for coordinating the aid-distribution. The governmental organizations play the
highest level of interactions in the decision-making level, as well as play roles at
the grass root level for distributing aids. These observations are used to develop the
conceptual illustration (Fig. 8) on the context of people and institutional behavior. A
comprehensive description of the Fig. 8 is provided in the findings section.
Table 1 Evaluation Framework to access the effectiveness of disaster management framework

(Rathnayake et al. 2018)
Stage Fact Attribute Question
DRR stage 1. Early warning Time How many days ahead were
you notified about the flood?
Mode Were any of the following
medias involved?
Newspaper/TV/Radio/Social
Media
Reliability Was the news you received
credible?
Accuracy In days, how accurate was the
news you received?
2. Information availability Past data By the time of the flood, did
you know the level of flood
during the 2017 May flood?
Geological By the time of the flood, did
knowledge you know the safe locations?
Physical By the time of the flood, did
structure you know the evacuation route
from the area?
Economic By the time of the flood, were
knowledge you aware about the unstable
structures in the area?
Health By the time of flood did you
knowledge had an idea about impact on
income method?
3. Capacity building Activities By the time of the flood, did
you know about the
health-related aspects of the
flood?
Physical Were any drills, seminars etc.
Development conducted after the May 2017
flood?
Exposure Were any development related
activities carried out on
drainage/water bodies around?
Emergency 4. Evacuation Necessity Was there an increment in
response stage area/people exposed to the
flood?
Time Was it required to evacuate
from your house during the
flood?
Assistance If yes, how long did it take to
evacuate?
(continued)
Table 1 (continued)
5. Search and rescue Requirement Was any assistance or
guidance given to you during
evacuation?
Involvement Were you able to evacuate by
yourself?
Time If No, did you receive any
outside help?
6. Leadership and CBOs How long did it take to get
coordination help?
Community Did you have a community
leader driven society to help each
other during the flood?
Guidance Have you experienced a
situational leader/s emerge
during the flood?
7. Provision of Involvement At any point during the flood,
humanitarian assistance did you receive instructions on
what to do next?
Effectiveness Did any NGO, GO help you
get provisions during the
flood?
8. Initial damage and needs Checking Provisions you received were,
assessment Not enough/Enough/To o
much
Effectiveness Did GN or a representative
gather information from you?
Recovery stage 9. Provision of early Financial Was there a follow-up on what
recovery assistance was acquired?
Knowledge After the disaster, did you
receive any compensation?
10. Temporary Requirement Was any assistance or
accommodation and guidance given to you on how
repair to recover?
Fulfillment Did you require any
temporary accommodation?
11. Rebuilding houses and Time If yes, how long did it take to
buildings find one?
Money How long did it take to rebuild
any household damages?
(continued)
Table 1 (continued)
12. Restoration of Water Was any
infrastructural services monetary/nonmonetary
support provided for
rebuilding?
Electricity How long did it take to access
drinking water without
provisions?
Accessibility How long did it take to get
uninterrupted electricity?
13. Re-establishment of Economic How long did it take to use the
sustainable livelihoods roads again?
Human How long did it take to get
back to your work/job after
the flood?
Physical Were any lives (Human +
Animal) lost due to the flood?
Fig. 8 People and institutional behavior and relations (Field-study 2019)
2. Evacuation
External organizations were involved in the evacuation process while the govern-
mental system failed to provide resources or run the system to assist local people
to evacuate. As indicated in Table 1, the evacuation process was evaluated using
three parameters: necessity, assistance and time of evacuation. External organiza-

tions employed their volunteers to assist locals to evacuate. From the survey it was
identified that 40% of the participants received the early warning and yet 74% of
them had the actual need to evacuate from their homes. But only 26% of those were
able to evacuate successfully in case of flash flood conditions.
3. Provision of early recovery assistance
Financial supports, as well as knowledge supports are necessary for providing early
recovery assistance. External organizations usually provide various supports in this
regard, like cleaning houses and wells, providing medical and health services, etc.
It was found that the involvement of external organizations was high at the grass
root level, whereas it was low at the decision-making level. As in the coordination
of humanitarian assistance the early recovery assistance coordination was done from
the Divisional Secretariat Office. The “Grama Niladhari” (Village Officer) conducted
the initiation of work and overall delegation of the funds and distribution happened.
The qualitative results from the survey highlighted the above-mentioned facts.
89% respondents expressed their satisfactions about the assistance they received
in case of early recovery. According to them, united efforts of external organizations
and government organizations made it possible to make the early recovery assistance
effective.
4. Search and rescue

Like evacuation when the governmental system failed to provide resources for search
and rescue activities, external organizations got involved. Search and rescue activi-
ties were evaluated employing three parameters: requirement, involvement and time
taken. Naval forces assisted in search and rescue activities. Even though Naval forces
aren’t empowered from the disaster management governing policies of Sri Lanka
(Hence they are an external organization) given that the importance of Naval forces
in the safety of the country they have an influence on the top levels of decision
making. This is a unique phenomenon observed from the survey.
With the above understanding on external organizations’ involvement in “pro-
viding humanitarian assistance”, “evacuation”, “provision of early recovery assis-
tance” and “search and rescue” the survey results were then analyzed to identify the
effectiveness of government organizations’ involvement.
• Effectiveness of involvement of Government Organizations
There are three major numerical results from the report form the Kalutara District
Secretariat Office about the government’s involvement in the disaster management
process. Government officials attached to the District Secretariat Office conducted
the post disaster evaluation, where 81% of affected community members were
surveyed. 43% of them participated in the follow up survey and 86% of them received
compensations, mainly for repairing their houses. (Kalutara District Secretariat
Office 2018)
From the survey conducted qualitatively observed that the governmental process
is more inclined to support the latter part of disaster management process. In this
scenario the government usually act as a facilitator of the system to neutralize the
condition and achieve its undisturbed state.
• Effectiveness of humanitarian involvement in each phase
The overall effectiveness of each stage management in the case study area was
recorded and calculated as follows. As mentioned in the methodology section
(Table 1), each stage has facts to record the insights of each stage and attributes of
each fact and the questionnaire survey result generates tangible quantitative records
of these stages. The weighted values are prearranged and analyzed to generate the
following effectiveness figures for each stage. A detailed presentation of the weighted
values, attribute percentages and fact percentages were discussed in the Rathnayake
et al. 2018. From the achieved fact percentages stage wise percentages calculated
and results were as follows.
• DRR Stage: 45.5%
• Emergency Response stage: 59%
• Recovery stage: 51%.
The results are further analyzed, where different facts contributing to the overall
effectiveness are removed from the data (where the hypothesis was to check the
system behavior without the selected factor). When the external organization involve-
ment factor is removed from the data following effectiveness figures for each stage
was generated. Exclusion method was used here on every primary data set. From
each of the data set any numerical illustration referred from external organizations to
attribute was removed. Then the same weightages were used, and same calculation
process was used as above. The results were as follows.
• DRR Stage: 45.5%
• Emergency Response Stage: 27%
• Recovery Stage: 42%.
Figure 9 illustrates the actual state and the figures, without involvements of
external organizations.
The overall effectiveness of the emergency response stage drops down from 59
to 27% when the external organization factor is removed from the data, whereas the
DRR stage remains same and the recovery stage drops down from 51 to 42% as
illustrated in Fig. 9.
In the emergency response stage, all primary facts (evacuation, search and rescue,
leadership and coordination, provision of humanitarian assistance), except Initial
needs and damage assessment had involvements from external organizations. The
drop in the numerical value proves the significance of involvements of external
organizations in this stage. Without involvements of external organization, this stage
would be less effective. The reason behind a drop in the recovery stage entirely
depends on the fact of providing early recovery assistance. Only in that aspect the
Fig. 9 Disaster Stage effectiveness (actual stage vs without involvements of external organizations)
(Field-study 2019)
external organization do generate much contribution. In other aspects related to the

recovery stage the external organizations’ involvement was minimum. Hence the
drop-in value is only 9%.
5 Findings
The major two findings are the conceptual illustration of people’s institutional
behavior and the effectiveness of external organizations in the disaster manage-
ment process of Sri Lanka. The conceptual illustration (Fig. 8), prepared based on
Hofstede insights on Sri Lanka indicates the context of people, institutional behavior
and their relations. Here the X axis indicates the level of interactions, the X–Z area
ratio indicates the human institutional power delegation (in the top higher institu-
tional area and lower human area shows minimum power delegation), the Y axis indi-
cates the level of influence/power and the red color cone indicates people, whereas
the outer transparent cone indicates the boundary of institutions. The slices (Green,
Yellow) indicates organizations, Green—community-based organizations, Yellow—
Government and governmental organizations. The width of a slice defines the level
of interactions with the people from that level. As discussed in the result section,
the illustration stages the nature of behavior, practiced in external and government
organizations.
Governmental organizations practice a higher level of interactions and influence
the system at its higher level, whereas external organizations contribute more at the
bottom level. It denotes that a community based voluntarily group like IMCD usually
has a higher level of interactions at the grass root level, whereas its interactions at
the decision-making level is insignificant. Similarly, the involvement of people and
communities also gets decreased along the Y axis. This illustration also assists to
understand the level of networking and the nature of coordination required among
institutions, and between institutions and human (HI and II).
From the effectiveness analysis calculation, it is evident that the involve-
ment of external organizations is focused on the emergency response stage. Its
success depends on the involvements of external organizations. As Rathnayake and
colleagues (2018) stated, Sri Lankan disaster management process is highly effective
in its emergency response stage and the credit goes to the external organizations.
6 Conclusions
Sri Lanka poses a defined process where the disaster management system depends
on its governmental administrative organogram. Organizations such as Red Cross,
Sarvodaya, Military tri forces, and the electronic and print media often get involved
at the grass-root level through collecting and distributing relief at the emergency
response stage. Though the involvement of all kinds of external organizations
including volunteering and corporate bodies is common, it is not structurally orga-
nized within the system nor the process consciously facilitates their involvement.
Their involvements within the system always content the risk of disturbing the
organized system and at the same time, their involvements are highly appreciated,
especially in the emergency response stage, by the community. As of the current
context of disaster management in Sri Lanka the emergency response stage stands
out effectively because of the external organizations. It can be concluded that stan-
dardizing and including more governing mechanisms to facilitate the involvement
of external organizations in Sri Lankan context can make the disaster management
process convenient as indicated in the emergency response stage.
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Mr. Kusal Rathnayake is a Graduate Research Assistant at the University of Peradeniya, Sri
Lanka. He obtained his bachelor’s degree from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka on Civil
Engineering. He is currently enrolled in the Master in Civil Engineering program at the University
of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. Disaster management, risk mitigation and systematic holistic approach
are key research areas of Mr. Rathnayake.
Dr. Siriwardana is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering, University of

Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering, with Project Manage-
ment specialization from the University of Calgary, Canada. He holds a master’s degree in
Civil Engineering, specialized in Coastal Engineering from the University of Tokyo, Japan
with Monbukagakusho Scholarship. He is involved in multiple international projects funded by
Erasmas+ (EU), EPSRC (UK) and GCRF (UK). Furthermore, he works with the Ministry of
Health of Sri Lankan Government for its “Safe Hospitals” initiative and developed construction
guidelines for controlling Dengue fever. He also works with multiple construction companies for
improving their construction performance and productivity.
Dependency on External Supports:
An Addition to Community Vulnerability
Imon Chowdhooree, Les Dawes, and Mellini Sloan
Abstract In developing countries Non-governmental organizations (NGO) often

get involved in development activities and provide supports for diminishing vulnera-
bility through improving community capacities. Considering the context of involve-
ment of NGOs, this research through studying two settlements in the Haor region
of Bangladesh investigates the community resilience status, more specifically their
current expectations from NGOs. Findings indicate that NGOs’ usual projects focus
mainly on enhancing food security and eliminating poverty, targeting socio-economic
and/or non-structural issues, whereas, communities from flood-prone Haor region
prefer to have infrastructure-based development for ensuring permanent protection
of their settlement from flood damages. NGOs’ regular projects or programs are
small in scale and usually don’t enable communities to act independently now or in
the future. Even after receiving external supports for extended periods, communities
expect to receive further external supports for further development or improvement
which can enhance their flood resilience level. In this way, the ‘incentive-induced
development’, as an outcome of organized forms (organizational, technological and
financial) of external supports, develops dependency on external supports among
these communities. Identifying dependency on external supports is a new addition
to community vulnerability. This research contributes to understanding risks and
questions the usual practices of providing NGO supports to vulnerable communities.
I. Chowdhooree (B)
L. Dawes
Civil & Environmental, Science and Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of Technology,
Brisbane, Australia
e-mail: l.dawes@qut.edu.au
M. Sloan
Urban & Regional Planning, Science and Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of
Technology, Brisbane, Australia
e-mail: mellini.sloan@qut.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4948-9_3
42 I. Chowdhooree et al.
Keywords Dependency · External supports · Incentive-induced development ·

Community vulnerability · Flood · Haor region · NGO
1 Introduction
The concept of ‘disaster’ is associated with the term ‘hazard’ and ‘vulnerability’.
A hazard turns into a disaster when a vulnerable community is severely affected by
it and cannot recover without external assistance (Shaw et al. 2013). Cannon and
Muller-Mahn (2010) posit that disasters are socially constructed events: the product
of the impact of a natural hazard on people whose vulnerability has been created
by social, economic and political conditions. Community resilience and community
vulnerability are inversely related (Chowdhooree and Islam 2018). Development of
disaster-resilient or disaster-resistant provides the safest possible community that
we have the knowledge to design and build in a natural hazard context through
minimizing its vulnerability (Chowdhooree and Islam 2018; Geis 2000).
Niekerk (2007), argues for an effective disaster risk management that requires the
participation of various sectors and disciplines of governance, the private sector, civil
society, non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations, research
institutions and institutions of higher learning. NGOs are usually considered as the
source of alternative developments. They intend to operate projects of intervention
in the Third World countries (Bebbington et al. 2008) who have colonial pasts in
Africa, Latin America, Oceania and Asia. In the development context, the growing
trend of partnership among government organizations (GO), non-government orga-
nizations (NGO) and donors successfully addresses seemingly unsolvable challenges
of development (Chowdhooree and Islam 2018; Brinkerhoff 2003). A community is
not always in a condition to solve its own problems, especially with the changing
nature of disasters. Local governmental organizations of developing countries also
usually face difficulties in dealing with disasters in general, due to inadequate knowl-
edge and capabilities (Kusumasari et al. 2010). Their capacity is limited by financial
and human resource scarcity (Pelling 2003). In that case, NGOs can fill the gap
of public service with their experts’ knowledge and experiences, into particularly
politically and socially difficult communities and regions (Chowdhooree and Islam
2018; Brinkerhoff 2003). The involvement of NGOs with their donor funded and
government-supported projects for flood risk management also promises to enhance
community flood resilience and community participation and empowerment is ideally
advised to be incorporated in the whole process of development This ultimately brings
a change in the life of a community and its surrounding environment. Considering
the context of involvement of NGOs, it is rational to investigate the consequences of
providing external supports to a community.
Considering flood as the hazard-context, this study explores disparities of power
and knowledge to understand the impacts of external supports on community vulner-
ability of the Haor region in Bangladesh. NGOs with their programs and projects
Dependency on External Supports: An Addition to Community … 43
have been playing roles in mitigating flood vulnerabilities and influencing commu-
nity perceptions of resilience and vulnerability in this region since early 1990s.
While NGOs have been active for more than two decades, it is valid to investigate
the communities’ condition after receiving continuous supports from NGOs over a
long period.
2 Context
Bangladesh, one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world (DMB 2010), is
vulnerable to climate stimuli (including both variability as well as extreme events)
because of its low economic strength, inadequate infrastructure, low level of social
development, lack of institutional capacity, and a higher dependency on natural
resources (MoEF 2005). Two-thirds of the country is less than 5 meters above sea
level, making Bangladesh one of the most flood-prone countries in the world (IFAD
2011), where some parts experience flood almost every year, causing considerable
damages (Alam 2000). The Haor region in north-eastern Bangladesh, covering more
than 24,000 km2 area, approximately 17% of the country’s land area (Alam and
Hasan 2010), lies within the floodplains of the river Meghna, along with its several
branches and tributaries (MoEF 2005). This tectonic depression contains permanent
water bodies (which are also termed as haor), rivers, channels and streams, season-
ally cultivable lands (locally known as beel) and artificial islands of settlements. The
whole Haor region is a mosaic of wetlands and seasonally inundated lands (MoWR
2010) and annually turns into an almost uninterrupted large but shallow (depth 1.8 m
to more than 3 m) waterbody (MoEF 2005).
12% area of the region accommodates over 19 million people (MoWR 2010)
in several artificially elevated, isolated, island-like settlements of 10–200 families
(anecdote). These settlements are at risk of being washed away or collapsing due
to the effects of base-erosion, flash flood, and strong waves of the vast water body
during the prolonged monsoon period (Anik and Khan 2012). Protecting the edges
of the elevated base-ground of settlements from wave attacks is the main chal-
lenge for the households. Traditional structural mitigation measures for protecting
edges, containing bamboo poles with layers of bamboo mat, filled with choila grass
(Hemarthria compressa), piles of sandbags or bags of water hyacinth (Ichhoornia
crassipes), planted or naturally grown vegetation boundary of mango-pine (Barring-
tonia acutangula) and karaj (Pongamnia pinnata) trees or any combination of these
systems (Fig. 1) have been found to be ineffective (Alam and Hasan 2010). Several
NGOs (e.g. Care Bangladesh, Concern Worldwide Bangladesh) provide financial and
technical support to fortify the settlements with non-traditional structural mitigation
measures; e.g. brick wall, concrete block wall (Fig. 2). Increased incidents of extreme
weather associated with change in climatic variables (Field et al. 2012), deforestation
of upstream areas, changes in cropping patterns (Alam and Hasan 2010) and gradual
Fig. 1 Examples of traditional structural mitigation measures for protecting settlement edges (Field
survey 2016)
Fig. 2 Examples of non-traditional mitigation measures for protecting settlement edges (Field
survey 2016)
sinking of this tectonic depression (IFAD 2011) have been increasing Haor commu-
nities’ flood vulnerability, modifying the frequency, intensity, duration, and timing of
flood events and thereby potentially compromising fortification infrastructures and
undermining community flood resilience.
3 Research Methodology
This research employed an explanatory single context, multiple case study approach
for studying settlements of the Haor region. Multiple settlements of this region have
experiences of both flooding and involvement of external bodies for their develop-
ment. Considering the objectives of this study and budget and time constraints, two
settlements were selected from the sub-district of Itna of Kishoreganj district within
the region: Nayahati of Sahila village and Nakusha-Dashkusha of Betegaon village
(Fig. 3). As the map shows, two settlements are in close proximity to one another,
although being on opposite sides of the river. These two settlements
• are representative of the physical environment, geographical location and flood
related vulnerabilities of the region;
• possess different kinds of structural flood mitigation measures (traditional and
non-traditional);
• are comparable with each other in terms of land area, physical shape and household
numbers;
• are experienced with working with similar types of NGOs and similar types of
projects and programs.
Fig. 3 GIS map showing the locations of tow case study settlements based on satellite images from
October 2014 (Apollo mapping 2014)
This research identified three NGOs which were active in the study area and
conducted the background study through reviewing their available documents
(project/program proposal report and project/program evaluation reports). Following
document review, representative officials from those NGOs were interviewed to
understand the engagement process with community members. The in situ data
collection was conducted in 2016, employed a range of participatory tools, which
included focus group discussions, transect walks, in-depth semi-structured inter-
views. As a second phase of data collection, the tool of pair-wise comparison was
employed in 2018.
4 Settlement Development Profile
4.1 Nayahati
While there is not a formal written history of the settlement, the research team
was able to reconstruct a loose narrative from the focus groups. The total land area
of 10471 m2 or 2.59 acres accommodates between 190 and 200 families (around
325 persons per acre). The researcher observed multiple types of flood protection
measures in place, including both traditional and non-traditional fortifications. Tradi-
tional measures included the use of piled sandbags reinforced with bamboo poles
and layers of bamboo mat, choila grass (Hemarthria compressa) and or bags of water
hyacinth (Ichhoornia crassipes). Community members reported that these measures
were generally re-installed every year in anticipation of the start of the flooding
season. Loose plantations of planted mango-pine (Barringtonia acutangula) and
karaj (Pongamnia pinnata) trees were also used for stabilization of soil to prevent
erosion during flood events. Participants acknowledged the insufficiency of the tradi-
tional measures and expressed frustration over the financial investment required for
the measures, especially as they failed repeatedly over multiple years. Participants
expressed an understanding of wave dynamics and their roles in the erosion of their
settlement, targeting the southern and eastern sides of their settlement for protection
based on observations of wave intensity and direction. Residents indicated that the
north side of the settlement has always been protected by the location of nearby
settlements and reported significant losses of homes on its southern and eastern
sides. Participants indicated that Nayahati has been in its present location for at least
100 years and dated the involvement of NGOs in the settlement to early 1990s. In
2011, CARE Bangladesh assisted to build protection walls of brick and mud-mortar
as a non-traditional structural mitigation measure on its east and south edges, after
reinstalling the sides which were the most prone to be damaged by unmitigated
wave activities. The participants identified it as a significant change for the built
environment of their settlement.
4.2 Nakusha-Dashkusha
Nakusha-Dashkusha can be identified as a combination of two islands where the

northern part is called Nakusha and the southern part is called Dashkusha. The
community identified that these two chunks of land were connected as a continuous
island and because of the regular soil erosion, these two became disconnected. The
current land area (8913.04 m2 or 2.2025 acres) accommodates between 240 and 250
families (around 477 persons per acre). The participants indicated that the Nakusha
part (old settlement), has been in its present location for at least 100 years. However,
Dashkusha, the southern part was built as an extension after one or two years of the
great flood of 1988. Here also NGOs started to operate their projects and programs
since early 1990s. It did not receive any assistance from NGOs to build non-traditional
structural measures to protect its vulnerable edges. As a result, they need to rely on
traditional measures only.
5 NGO Projects and Programs for the Haor Region
Three NGOs (CARE Bangladesh, Concern Bangladesh and People’s Oriented

Program Implementation (POPI)) were selected for reviewing their publicly avail-
able documents on relevant programs/projects. Three programs/projects of these
NGOs were identified which are similar in nature. Under these programs/projects,
flood mitigation measures are implemented for protecting haor settlements. These
program/projects are:
• Food Security for Ultra-Poor-Haor (FSUP-H),
• Strengthening Household Abilities for Responding to Development Opportunities
(SHOUHARDO) and
• Haor Initiatives for Sustainable Alternative Livelihoods (HISAL).
Food Security for Ultra Poor-Haor (FSUP-H) project, launched by CARE
Bangladesh in 2008, aimed to improve food access and utilization and reduce vulnera-
bility for women and their dependents in ultra-poor households of three north-eastern
districts of Bangladesh (Kishoreganj is one of these districts). Within the extended
scope of reducing vulnerabilities against women, the FSUP-H project has provided
dredged soil to some settlements and built some village protection walls to save
the settlements from flood adversities. Building infrastructure, i.e., protection walls,
revetment, was never considered as an embedded component of the FSUP-H project.
Strengthening Household Abilities for Responding to Development Opportu-
nities (SHOUHARDO) program has been operating since 2004 for improving
availability/economic access to food, improving health and nutrition of partici-
pants, empowering women and assisting communities and institutes for mitigating
or responding to natural disasters. Among its five strategic objectives, the last one
was designed to progress in disaster preparedness and climate change adaptation,
aiming to build longer-term community resilience. For satisfying this objective, this
program ran projects of recruiting and training community disaster volunteers and
conducted community capacity analysis for guiding adaption plans, which targeted
improvement of agricultural technologies, early warning and forecasting systems
and to create and maintain disaster resistant infrastructure such as sanitary latrines,
embankment, wave protection walls etc.
Haor Initiatives for Sustainable Alternative Livelihoods (HISAL) (2006–2011),

implemented by Concern Bangladesh aimed to empower households through devel-
oping sustainable community organizations, improving livelihood options, building
effective and sustainable village protection (structural mitigation measures for
protecting settlements) and increasing government resources and services.
In all these cases, the programs start not only with a vision and a mission, but also
with multiple fixed goals or strategic issues. Though communities are approached
and asked to participate in the process of finalizing all operational details, the process
follows such a top-down process where definite scopes for communities to contribute
to redefine the goals or strategic issues are limited. The reports (TANGO 2015;
Whiteside 2012; Caldwell et al. 2011) find that though the non-traditional structural
mitigation measures (i.e., building protection wall) bring clear benefit to the local
people and locality, building such kind of structures did not get priority in these
projects (Whiteside 2012; TANGO 2015).
6 Responses from NGO Employees
All interviewees indicated that their organizations value the concerns of local commu-
nities and mainly work to enhance food security and improve the socio-economic
conditions. Some of their activities directly or indirectly address the issue of flood-
adversity through assisting to build structural mitigation measures, like service struc-
tures (source of safe water and sanitary latrines) and protection structures (e.g., wall,
revetment, and plantation) for mitigating flood damages. They agreed that protection
structures, which require more organizational and financial involvements, bring clear
benefits to local communities in terms of adaptation to flood. Their organizations
prefer not to get involved in this kind of project, though most of the communities
strongly seek or prefer to build protection structures. Strategically it is perceived
that infrastructure-based development has the risk of producing adverse impacts on
the environment and on the socio-economic cultural lifestyle of a community. As
the infrastructure-based development carries the chance of having negative impacts,
NGOs always prefer not to get involved with them.
Strategically, all projects ensure community involvement, which allow community
members to participate in the planning and implementation process. To ensure that, a
committee (e.g., village development committee, project implementation committee,
and community-based forum) is always formed with selected or nominated members
who are approached to identify the settlement’s problems, issues, especially where
it needs help, and to prepare a development plan for its settlement. All respondents
agreed that most of the community members usually demand for mega-projects,
like building non-traditional protection structures, heavy infrastructures to make
the whole region flood-free; connecting roads, bridges etc., which are not easy and
logical to fulfill. NGO officials need to make the communities aware of their socio-
economic problems which are necessary to focus on. Infrastructure based devel-
opment is usually discouraged from their perspective because of necessity of high
investment (in terms of financial, time and physical efforts) and concerns regarding
any possible adverse impacts on environments and communities. The informants
conveyed the message that active community participation is ensured in the imple-
mentation level, where community members get involved for ensuring the quality of
the project and providing feedback.
7 Community Responses
During the focus group discussion sessions, community members of both settlements
were approached to investigate their understanding about their capacities to deal
with flood adversities and experiences of involvements of NGOs. The participants
expressed their desire to get rid of the fear or threat of losing their lands/homes due
to floods. One of the participants said,
We want to live here without thinking of flood. We don’t want our houses to be damaged by
a flood. We will find us in the most gifted condition, when we will be able to be completely
tension free about the safety of our homestead.
The participants repeatedly expressed their concerns to improve the quality of their
settlements with structural mitigation measures to remain safe from flood adversities.
The participants of Nayahati expressed their satisfaction with protection walls which
were built on two edges of Nayahati settlement under the FSUP-H project of CARE
Bangladesh. Before building these walls, the community had to take regular initiatives
to protect edges with traditional structural measures. Even in current condition, this
community needs to protect the other two edges with traditional structural measures.
According to the participants, the protection walls on east and south edges, as an
effective structural measure for mitigating flood damages, positively contribute to
enhance their community flood resilience.
The participants of both settlements conveyed the message that though any local
community demands better structures (protection wall or revetment), not every NGO
sees it as the first priority. They often try to downplay the importance of having
infrastructure-based development, which also demands a large amount of financial
involvement. Nayahati has been receiving supports from NGOs since the early 1990s
and in 2011 they have received a protection wall, which protects the settlement
partially. Community responses state this protection directly and indirectly helps
them to enjoy the benefits of the regular supports, they usually receive from NGOs
through their regular programs. The regular supports usually received from NGOs
include receiving a small financial support for running any home-based business,
getting training on kitchen garden, building sanitary latrines, providing education
and others. As an example, in the current condition with protection walls, they may
have sanitary latrines that will last longer and even might be used during the monsoon
period; now they have space to rear calves to run small-scale dairy farms; now they
will have enough time and mental peace to acquire literacy and so on. It took a really
long time to get any support from NGO, which the participants really can value. One
of the participants commented,
We always told them (NGOs), you do not need to run any project other than building protec-
tion walls around our settlement. They (NGOs) repeatedly used to ignore our demand and
used to show more interest to run other projects, like, building sanitary latrines, providing
training on kitchen gardening, distributing a small amount of money for running small
business, distributing calves for running a small-scale dairy firm etc.
The participants think that, financial, technical and organizational capacities play
a vital role in decision making. NGOs have these capacities and the community,
not having these capacities, allows NGOs to impose their decisions. In community
meetings, participants always demand infrastructure-based developments, which are
usually ignored by NGOs. But they usually find themselves in a captive condition
while getting supports from NGOs. One of the participants commented,
We asked to build protection walls in other nearby settlements, with connecting roads…and
a bridge over the river so that we can be connected with the villages of the other side of
the river. Our children could use those bridges or roads to go to school…CARE did only
what they wanted to do. They always tried to convince us. They asked us to be satisfied with
whatever we got from them…We are sure that, again, any other NGO will come to run some
easy projects.
As participants conveyed, NGOs always come with pre-decided projects and have
meetings and training sessions to make the community feel that what they have
decided is necessary for the community. The participants appreciate the NGOs’
involvement for socio-economic development, i.e., making women financially strong
or solvent, stopping child-marriage, educating women, delivering power to women
to make decisions. The participants realized that, because of the activities of NGOs,
the position of a woman either in her family or in her community has been upgraded.
Besides doing these things, NGOs could contribute more effectively to mitigate
flood-adversities if they would prioritize community concerns and ideas.
Figure 4 diagrammatically explains the interactions between the community and
NGO while an NGO works in a community, based on community responses. Based on
participants’ opinions the NGO projects can be classified into two types: Projects, not
incorporating community priorities and Projects, incorporating community priorities.
The communities prefer to get supports for having infrastructure-based development
for ensuring structural protection of their settlement and in most of the cases they
don’t find NGOs are convinced to address their priorities. Though NGOs operate
their project through establishing community committees and ensuring community
Dependency on External Supports: An Addition to Community …
Fig. 4 Community experiences of working with NGOs (Field survey 2016)

51
involvement for addressing community problems in an organized way, in rare cases,

the process serves its intended purpose.
In the next step of collecting community responses, in-depth semi-structured
group interview sessions were conducted with community members to identify a
specific set of factors, which significantly contribute to enhance flood resilience.
In total, 12 factors were identified that contribute to enhance flood resilience.
These are:
Experience: Participants valued their experiences of living in the Haor region
and facing all its adversities. At the same time, the involvement of NGOs with their
various kinds of projects, mainly for protecting settlements, also has enriched them
with experience. Every experience makes them better prepared for the future and
more informed about possible necessities.
Awareness: Participants of all settlements identified themselves as very much
aware about the time and nature of flooding, as well as its associated wave activities.
They all try to get prepared before their settlement gets hit by floods. Participants also
described that they had received training from NGOs on what to do during severe
floods. By having volunteer teams for forecasting and rescuing, knowing where to
take shelter, from where to get safe water and saving it for the crisis season, every
community gets prepared to face the challenges.
Construction Knowledge and Skills: Participants expressed their dissatisfac-
tion in having limited knowledge and skills for constructing resilient settlements
and conveyed their understanding about the importance of appropriate construction
knowledge and skills for enhancing community flood resilience. The participants
of Nayahati, after having experience in constructing protection walls, found them-
selves in a better condition regarding knowledge and skill of brick and mud mortar
construction, as a technology which was new for them.
Favorable Location: If a settlement is far from active river channels and uninter-
rupted huge haor (permanent water body) basin and surrounded by other settlements,
the participants found it as a favorable location for any given settlement.
Vegetation: A dense plantation boundary around a settlement helps to absorb the
energy of waves. Multiple times, NGOs also provided seedlings of the local plants,
mainly mango-pine (Barringtonia acutangula) and karaj (Pongamnia pinnata) to
form an effective vegetation boundary around the case study settlements.
Interdependibility: Participants found it a positive attribute of the nature of their
settlement that everyone’s safety depends on the contribution of others. None can
save his/her house or land if his/her neighbor is not doing that. As a result, every
household works coherently to protect the edges in every possible and affordable
way.
Communal Unity: Participants appreciated the importance of having unity within
the community for making any big decision and executing it.
Self-Financial Capacity: Self-financial capacity means a community’s own
financial capability, with which a community can buy a suitable piece of land
and build mitigation structures or whatever they want to build. Participants of all
settlements desired a condition where their community would be so financially
independent that they would not need to wait for external assistance.
External Finance: All case study settlements have the experience of receiving
external finance, especially from NGOs, where that finance is provided for a specific
purpose with specific conditions. The protection walls were erected on two edges of
Nayahati with the financial support of CARE Bangladesh.
External Organizational Support: Besides financial support, the communi-
ties also receive organizational and technical support from NGOs. Participants of
Nayahati especially appreciated the organizational and technical supports they had
received during the construction of protection walls. Participants of both the settle-
ments conveyed the idea that, for a bigger project, like constructing any infrastructure,
an external organizational support is very much necessary to plan and implement
the whole process. Participants expressed their lack of confidence in planning and
implementing any such project without organizational support, even if the money
was provided.
Local Leadership: Participants indicated that local leaders can play roles for
taking decisions on behalf of the whole community and the community feels confident
while working under them. Participants recognized their capacity of working in a
group under local leadership as a positive quality for handling flood adversities.
Appropriate Structure: Wave activity places communities at significant risk and
participants indicated their desire to have an appropriate kind of infrastructure on
settlement edges, which can effectively ensure protection from flood adversities.
Pair-wise comparisons of resilience factors were conducted in two settlements
and Tables 1 and 2 show outcomes of two settlements along with aggregated score,
percentile score and ranked position of each factor. Community members, based on
their lived experiences and awareness, voted for each factor and the ranked position
of each factor provides the insights of community perceptions for considering each
factor’s contributing level for enhancing resilience. Based on lived experiences of
working with NGOs and consequences their projects, community responses varied
across the two settlements.
Whereas, the participants of Nayahati preferred the factor of ‘appropriate struc-
ture’ over all other factors, the participants of Nakusha-Dashkusha chose ‘external
finance’ as their first preference and ‘appropriate structure’ as their second prefer-
ence. This ‘appropriate structure’ was usually referred to as non-traditional struc-
tural mitigation measures, constructed with external financial and organizational
supports, received from NGOs. Because of having a similar kind of structure since
2011, the participants of Nayahati had experiences of consequences and impacts of
that structure, whereas, the participants of Nakusha-Dashkusha are still expecting to
have a similar kind of structure, for which (or for any other development) they felt
the necessity of having enough financial supports from NGOs. The participants of
Nayahati chose ‘favorable location’ as the second contributing factor and combina-
tion of ‘favorable location’ with ‘appropriate structure’ actually express their desire
for having a resilient built environment. The participants of Nakusha-Dashkusha did
not ignore the importance of favorable location, though it was rated the fourth most
important contributing factor along with the factor of ‘vegetation’, which is another
factor related to the built environment. The factor of ‘external organization support’
rated third in both cases, but the participants of Nayahati gave equal importance to
Table 1 Pair-wise comparison of factors for enhancing community resilience, conducted in

Nayahati settlement, where ‘←’ means factors mentioned in the left column won, ‘↑’ means factors
mentioned in the first row won and ‘≈’ means the tie between two factors (Field survey 2018)
External Organizational Support

Self-Financial Capacity
Appropriate Structure
Favorable Location
Aggregated Score
Knowledge & Skill
Local Leadership
Interdependibility
External Finance
Communal Unity
Percentile Score
Experience
Awareness
Vegetation
Factors for
Enhancing
Rank
Community
Resilience
Appropriate
Structure
Favorable
Location
Knowledge &
Skill
Communal
Unity
Experience
Self-Financial
Capacity
External
Finance
External
Organizational
Support
Vegetation
Interdependibility
Awareness
Local
Leadership
‘self-financial support’ and external finance’, whereas in case of Nakusha-Dashkusha

the factor of ‘self-financial capacity’ rated the fifth position. It is probably because of
the positive impacts of the appropriate structure, the community members of Nayahati
have started to consider their own financial capacity as an important factor for making
them more resilient, while not still ignoring the importance of external supports.
Whereas, in case of Nakusha-Dashkusha settlement, the combination of first three
factors (external finance, appropriate structure and external financial supports) shows
a trend of dependency on external supports, the combination of first three factors,
chosen by Nayahati community (which include features of built environment and
self-financial capacity) shows a slight improvement from the status of dependency
on external supports. Sole dependency on external supports can be interpreted as
a negative tendency for being resilient. Though the communities did not choose
self-financial capacity over external financial support, at least the participants of
Table 2 Pair-wise comparison of factors for enhancing community resilience, conducted in

Nakusha-Dashkusha settlement, where ‘←’ means factors mentioned in the left column won, ‘↑’
means factors mentioned in the first row won and ‘≈’ means the tie between two factors (Field
survey 2018)
External Organizational Support

Self-Financial Capacity
Appropriate Structure
Favorable Location
Aggregated Score
Knowledge & Skill
Local Leadership
Interdependibility
External Finance
Communal Unity
Percentile Score
Experience
Awareness
Vegetation
Factors for
Enhancing
Rank
Community
Resilience
Appropriate
Structure
Favorable
Location
Knowledge &
Skill
Communal Unity
Experience
Self-Financial
Capacity
External Finance
External
Organizational
Support
Vegetation
Interdependibility
Awareness
Local
Leadership
Nayahati gave equal priority to both which explains the reality that, to appreciate the
financially solvent condition, the communities need external supports for building a
resilient built environment so that they can gradually develop their condition.
8 Discussion
The reviewed NGO documents revealed the fact that the projects and programs are
designed with pre-determined goals and objectives, where the scope of commu-
nity participation is completely absent. While the haor communities identify saving
settlements from possible flood damages as their major concern, the projects are
primarily designed to address food insecurity and other socio-economic factors,
which are mostly guided by national or international development goals. From NGO
documents, as well as from key-informant interviews, it is clear that, for the haor
region, floods, as well as adversities associated with floods are not addressed as the
top priority of these projects and programs. Decisions about selecting settlements
as the beneficiary of the projects and programs are also made from the top level.
This phase is constrained with the limitation of including the community, which has
information, ideas and interests to address its problems.
NGOs, with their large group of development professionals, design, manage
and implement their various projects which are incentive-induced by nature. The
responses from community members and key-informants have clearly revealed that
the communities are always convinced or motivated to make the suggested deci-
sions for receiving incentives. The communities are usually advised on how they
should define their problems and the community participation ritual in most of the
cases undermines participation and disempowers ordinary people. This ‘right deci-
sion’ as a ‘suggested decision’ is defined by the NGO or donor according to their
pre-determined goals. Arnstein (1969) defined this situation as manipulation, where
the real objective is not to enable people to participate in planning or conducting
programs, but to enable powerholders to ‘educate’ or ‘cure’ the participants (Arnstein
1969). As a result, the community, in a captive condition, is forced to take suggested
decisions and it receives some therapies, masked as community participation, all of
which is identified as a dishonest and arrogant approach by Arnstein (1969). But
the studied communities appreciated the awareness and training they received from
NGOs especially on social and legal issues that have made a significant change in
their social values. However, manipulating communities through by-passing their
priority demands weakens the intension of real development.
In a bigger project, like constructing a protection wall (non-traditional structural
mitigation measure), the community gets chances to be an active partner, where half
of the work is funded and implemented by the community. Despite having certain
limitations, this project of building protection walls in Nayahati settlement has been
considered as a successful project by the participants from Nayahati settlement. The
project was conducted within the scope of the FSUP-H program, which is focused
to improve food access and utilization and reduce vulnerability for women and their
dependents in ultra-poor households. From the documents and key-informant inter-
views, it is clear that flood mitigation, especially infrastructure-based development
for flood mitigation is always considered as a distant component of this kind of
program, whereas the community members had always considered it as their prime
issue.
Based on the aims, objectives and nature of projects and their frequencies, all
projects can be categorized into two types:
• NGOs’ usual projects, which are run often or every year.
• NGOs’ unusual projects, which are run occasionally.
In the Haor region, NGOs’ usual projects mainly focus on enhancing food security
and eliminating poverty from that region and these also regularly address other socio-
economic and/or non-structural issues, i.e. education, sanitation, gender equality,
non-structural measures for flood mitigation and expanding scopes for household
income. NGO programs rarely initiate projects for building structural flood mitiga-
tion measures, i.e., protection walls, revetments. But they do these kinds of projects,
as least preferable components of their regular programs. These two types of projects,
usual and unusual, very distinctively denote the difference between community prior-
ities and NGO priorities. Whereas communities prefer to have infrastructure-based
development for ensuring permanent protection of their settlement, NGOs’ programs
focus towards food insecurity and elimination of poverty so that after some period,
the communities can independently solve their problems.
Though NGOs ensure community engagement in the whole process, the process
rarely allows community members to actively participate. As Derksen and Verhallen
(2008) state, ideally, ‘cooperation’, ‘partnership’ and ‘participation’ are supposed to
be practices, but, the external support chain is dominated by the top-down process
where the ‘upward accountability’ controls the development initiatives. These devel-
opment initiatives are dominated by the capitalist approach of providing incentives,
which exacerbate vulnerabilities as a “price for progress” and the beneficiaries need
to unwillingly pay for it.
For the haor communities, protecting their settlements from unmitigated waves
is the main challenge and they think, because of not addressing their main challenge,
they cannot get the desired benefit from the usual projects, run by NGOs. The process
works to a degree, where detailed donor requirements are transmitted to NGOs and
NGOs with their local partners, field facilitators and community committee members
implement pre-decided usual projects as a part of their agreements with donors.
NGOs had been running their projects in Nayahati settlement since the early
1990s. Even after almost two decades, the community needed NGO supports to
build their first protection wall, one which might ensure the permanent protection
of their settlement. The general impression of the community members indicate that
they really do not need any more support from NGOs after that, because, with the
assurance of permanent protection of significant portions of the settlement, they can
reduce the amount of investment for building temporary protections every year, can
work and earn during monsoon periods, have lands to create vegetable gardens and
can build necessary service structures (i.e., sanitary latrines). If NGOs’ previous
projects are effective to make communities capable enough, then after two decades
they could build the protection structures without any external support. But it has
not happened in that way. The difference between impacts after running the usual
projects for a long time and impacts after one unusual project is very clear in the case
of Nayahati settlement. The community of Nakusha-Dashkusha settlement is simi-
larly expecting external supports for building a protection wall, despite engagement
of NGOs with their usual projects on food security, eliminating poverty and other
NGOs’ preferable issues. Expectations for external supports express communities’
dependency on external supports.
The nature of ‘incentive-induced development’, as an outcome of an organized
form (organizational, technological and financial) of external support, develops or
diminishes dependency on external supports among the marginalized communities.
The condition of Nayahati community until 2011 and current conditions of Nakusha-
Dashkusha definitely depicts the communities’ dependency on external supports.
Dependency is the association between settings, actions, or tasks such that one setting,
action or task cannot be possible until one or more other settings, actions, or tasks
have occurred, begun, or been completed. In the current context, dependency is the
condition while the recipients are receiving external supports and for their further
development or improvement, they believe that they still need support, because, the
previous support failed to make recipients capable enough to improve or develop by
themselves without further external supports.
The case of Nayahati can explain the fact that, some supports help to create and
continue the dependency, while some other kinds of supports promise to make the
shift in the trend of dependency. After the great flood of 1988, during the early
nineties, several NGOs initiated programs to work in the Haor region. The haor
communities found these NGOs as the saviors who might have power and resources
to solve their problems. Even in that period, flood and flood-related vulnerabilities
due to weak built environment were the communities’ main challenges, which were
considered as essential to address by the communities. NGOs, through their programs
also make the communities aware of other issues about which they were not aware of,
i.e., education, gender inequality and other socio-legal issues. The NGOs’ process of
implementing programs and awareness development activities made the community
realize how powerless and unaware they are. NGOs through their programs and
process of activities gave promises to solve some of their problems and created hope
to solve all kinds of problems gradually. Their usual and unusual projects around the
vicinity influenced the communities to believe on their power and resources to solve
all problems. Communities’ major concerns were always about flood vulnerabilities
due to weak built environment and the demand for infrastructure-based development
that required higher investment. Most often, the projects run by NGOs are guided
not by the demands of the haor communities, but by the organizations’ preferences,
national/international goals and donor priorities. In this way, external supports can
be categorized into two ways:
• External supports, not incorporating community concerns (NGOs’ usual projects).
• External supports, incorporating community concerns (NGOs’ unusual projects).
The conceptual diagram Fig. 5 shows the relationship of these two types of external
supports with the community’s perceived level of flood resilience. The commu-
nity’s perceived level of flood resilience is a simplified expression of understanding
communities’ overall reactions towards their combined capacities to deal with flood
adversities. ‘External supports not incorporating community concerns’ are the usual
projects of NGOs that demand sustained intervention, which in a way justifies the
usefulness of NGO projects. These projects may slightly improve or not improve
the community resilience level and the communities always expect to get external
assistance to overcome their current condition and specially to address their main
concerns. On the other hand, external supports incorporating community concerns
indicates the diminishing needs for further external supports. These external supports
as per community concerns might require comparatively higher investment, but it can
promise to trigger a continuous enhancement in community resilience and lessen the
necessity of future external supports. External supports not incorporating community
Dependency on External Supports: An Addition to Community …
Fig. 5 Diagrams show the relationship between community’s perceived level of flood resilience and nature external supports, associated with financial
involvements
59
concerns exacerbate the level of vulnerability through making the community depen-
dent on external supports, whereas the initial higher investment for external supports
as per community concerns reduces or limits the communities from the dependency
trend. It leads towards the condition when the communities will not need any further
support and they will be able to solve their problems independently. The diminishing
need of external supports endorses the real enhancement in resilience level.
The dependency theory of economics analyses the unequal and exploitative rela-
tionship between different areas and examines inequality in exchange relations
(Lacher and Nepal 2010). In the NGO-initiated development context, the depen-
dency of communities on external support is different from that kind of depen-
dency and requires different interpretation. For explaining dependency on external
supports, it is necessary to analyze the nature of external supports regarding commu-
nity concerns and expectations. NGOs let communities to engage in the whole plan-
ning process, especially allowing them to express their concerns and demands, based
on their knowledge. But because of the NGOs’ pre-decided projects with ‘upward
accountability’ and limited funding, NGOs, most of the time, bypass communities’
major concerns and demands and ignore local knowledge and wisdom. Commu-
nity concerns, such as local knowledge, are often ignored, considering them as
uninformed and naive while a development solution entails the ‘growth of igno-
rance’ (Hobart 1993). The fact that vernacular knowledge tends to be regarded as
inferior by modern science is widely recognized in the literature (Escobar 1998;
Forsyth 2004). Developing dependency on external supports through ignoring local
concerns and priorities, as well as, providing hopes of solving all kinds of prob-
lems, actually hinders the process of enhancing resilience, consequently exacerbating
vulnerabilities. A dependent community cannot be resilient.
9 Conclusion
The empirical studies, conducted within haor communities, provided a suitable

context to explore impacts of external supports on community vulnerability, partic-
ularly where communities are isolated, marginalized, located in areas of significant
flood risk, have limited financial resources, affected by the political dynamics of
NGOs’ involvements and are generally dependent on NGO supports. The research
finds that communities’ perceptions of their vulnerability and resilience are highly
influenced by their experiences of working with NGOs and the consequences of
NGO-initiated incentive-induced and infrastructure-based development activities.
Community perceptions of flood resilience and vulnerability are linked to the condi-
tion of their built environment and colored by their awareness of both the positive
and negative impacts of structural flood mitigation measures.
This research primarily contributed to introduce the idea of support dependency,
which explains the reasons of prolonged underdeveloped condition of marginalized
communities and this condition is associated with external supports that communi-
ties receive from external bodies, mainly from NGOs. NGOs are often considered
as the alternative development partner, who can give ‘voice’ to the poor, encourage
public-private cooperation and participatory approaches and generate social capital
at the community level (Ditcher 1986). But NGOs’ involvement as providing external
supports is dominated by the top-down process, where the ‘upward accountability’
controls development initiatives and ignores community concerns and priorities.
NGOs are usually engaged with finding new and more effective poverty-reduction
strategies for ensuring the effective use of aids, which are targeted to achieve certain
goals, now embedded within the Millennium Development Goals (Bolinick 2008).
Derksen and Verhallen (2008) describe, because of the dispersion of scarce resources,
that often NGOs must plan and implement such projects or programs, which are small
in scale and usually ineffective and/or unsustainable. Moreover, the claims about
‘real’ needs based on science or expertise disregard the claims of local communi-
ties as lay perceptions (Jasanoff 1999; Baruah 2012). NGOs’ involvement for an
extended period with supports not as per community concerns, entraps the commu-
nity into a cycle of support dependency, whereas the prioritization of community
concerns through active community participation can guide to getting free from this
dependency cycle. This finding suggests the process of working with communities
in such a way should be modified so that it should not exacerbate their vulnerabilities
through making them dependent.
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Dr. Dawes is serving as the acting Head of School of Civil & Environmental Engineering. Dr.
Dawes focuses on four main research areas: STEM and Engineering Education; Initial Teacher
Education; Protection of Land and Water Resources; Protecting and Restoring Water Quality
and Sustainable Development. Dr. Dawes and his research colleagues continue to strive towards
improving the quality, relevance and performance of STEM and Engineering Education along with
the value of scholarship in Engineering Education. He received his PhD degree from Queens-
land University of Technology and BAppSc (Geology) degree from Queensland Inst. of Tech-
nology. From 2013 to 2017, he was the project leader of the Step-Up project, one of five projects
awarded a total of $12 million by the ETMST (Enhancing the Training of Mathematics and
Science Teachers Programme).
Ms. Sloan has been a Lecturer in the Department of Urban & Regional Planning of Queensland
University of Technology since May 2009. Prior to arriving in Queensland, she worked as an
environmental engineering consultant to local governments in Florida as well as state and federal
environmental agencies, advising clients on issues related to the interfaces between water and
the built environment, including options for water supply, storm water, and wastewater manage-
ment. Mellini’s current research examines the role of crises, communication, and prior actions in
decision-making processes and outcomes, specifically focusing on challenges for local councils
related to increasing community resilience to climate change.
Sustainable Development Through
Post-Disaster Reconstruction: A Unique
Example in Sri Lanka
Iftekhar Ahmed
Abstract Sri Lanka, with its extensive coastal communities, was among the most
severely impacted countries by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. The widespread
devastation and consequent displacement of coastal communities spurred many
reconstruction programs. The field of post-disaster reconstruction is characterized by
the demand for rapid rebuilding and repair of housing and infrastructure, with a multi-
tude of international and local agencies engaged over the immediate and short term in
response to this demand. After a level of recovery has been achieved, most agencies
move on elsewhere to address other priorities and rarely engage in strongly supporting
the transition from recovery to long-term sustainable development. The post-tsunami
reconstruction work in the village of Seenigama of a Sri Lankan local NGO, the
Foundation of Goodness (FoG), demonstrates a different paradigm by serving as a
vehicle for achieving long-term sustainable development by being embedded within
the community. The FoG project underscores the significance, and perhaps necessity,
of an integrated community development approach that caters to the various needs
of the community, representing a systematic approach where housing infrastructure,
services, facilities and livelihoods were all inter-linked. A key lesson is the long-term
support, provided to the community by the implementing agency. In this way, in addi-
tion to addressing the immediate post-disaster reconstruction needs, FoG was able
to cater to community needs that evolved and changed over time. This project was
implemented after a huge tsunami disaster in a developing country that was being
torn apart in a prolonged civil war, hence it also had it challenges. In the changing
context of Sri Lanka with various internal and external pressures, a transformative
narrative is likely to emerge in the future.
Keywords Foundation of goodness · Housing · Reconstruction · Sri Lanka ·

Tsunami
I. Ahmed (B)
School of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308,
Australia
e-mail: ifte.ahmed@newcastle.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4948-9_4
66 I. Ahmed
1 Introduction
One of the most massive disasters in recent history, the Indian Ocean Tsunami struck
on the morning of 26 December 2004. Gigantic waves of more than thirty meters
devastated coasts in fourteen countries, killing almost 230,000 people (USGS 2013).
Aftershocks reached as far away as Alaska (ADB 2005). Nearly US$14 billion was
donated from around the world for reconstruction (Cosgrave 2007).
The island nation Sri Lanka’s coastal communities were amongst the most severely
impacted by the tsunami, second only to Aceh province in Indonesia (PreventionWeb
2008). It affected more than a million people, killing more than 35,000 people,
and destroying or damaging more than 150,000 houses (Department of Census and
Statistics 2005). In response, a large number of housing reconstruction programs
were mounted by many international and national organizations. Together with the
large amount of temporary and transitional housing, about 120,000 permanent houses
were planned and built (RADA 2006).
Following the tsunami, the Sri Lankan government initiated a ‘buffer zone policy’,
restricting new construction in a 100-meter zone from the coastline. The width of the
buffer zone was subsequently revised to 35–55 meters according to location (Shaw
and Ahmed 2010). People who lost houses originally located in the buffer zone
were resettled in newly established inland settlements, termed as ‘donor-driven’
projects because they were funded and/or built by international donor agencies or
international non-governmental organizations (INGOs). Houses that were damaged
or destroyed outside the buffer zone were repaired or rebuilt with government funding
in an ‘owner-driven’ mode where the house-owners organized and managed the work
(Ratnayake and Rameezdeen 2008).
As the reconstruction process involved financial transactions, the progress of
donor-driven projects was slow, compounded by the problem of securing suitable
land (Ratnayake and Rameezdeen 2008). Consequently, the government gave donors
the option of implementing owner-driven projects. However, most donors did not
agree because of fears regarding quality, mismanagement and corruption. Thus,
most donor-driven projects were implemented by INGOs, using local consultants
and contracted labour. Sri Lankan non-governmental organizations (NGOs) played a
much lesser role compared to the plethora of INGOs that had implemented the bulk
of the post-tsunami recovery and reconstruction programs (Bennett et al. 2006; Silva
2009). However, the Foundation of Goodness (FoG), the case study of a local NGO
discussed below, was one of the few exceptions.
The post-disaster reconstruction was characterized by the demand for rapid
rebuilding and repair of housing and infrastructure, with a multitude of interna-
tional and local agencies active over the immediate and short term in response to this
demand. After a level of recovery was achieved, most agencies moved on elsewhere
to address other priorities and hardly any of them engaged in strongly supporting
the transition from recovery to long-term sustainable development. In this context,
sustainable development is reflected in the socio-economic well-being of a commu-
nity undeterred by shocks and stresses, in line with the aims of the UN’s Sustainable
Sustainable Development Through Post-Disaster … 67
Development Goals (UNDP undated). Related to that, the community’s resilience

is similarly reflected in the ability to prepare for, withstand and recover effectively
from disasters (drawn from a similar conception of resilience presented by UNDRR
2017). The literature widely points to post-disaster reconstruction offering a window
of opportunity to “build-back-better” and enabling community resilience and sustain-
able development (Haigh and Amaratunga 2011; Mayena 2013; Twigg 2015). Yet,
real-world examples of that paradigm are limited. To address this gap, the work of
FoG is discussed because it demonstrates an effort towards long-term sustainable
and resilient development.
2 Background
Following the 2004 tsunami, the author was involved in a number of studies on
post-disaster reconstruction in Sri Lanka and examined a wide range of projects in
the tsunami-affected southern coast (Charlesworth and Ahmed 2015; Ahmed and
Charlesworth 2014; Shaw and Ahmed 2010). While many positive achievements
were noted, one of the key issues was that after project completion, most of the
implementing agencies left or shifted their focus to other activities and areas. Partic-
ularly, after the long-drawn ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka ended in 2009, many agen-
cies became preoccupied with the demands of post-conflict recovery in the conflict-
affected eastern and northern regions of the countries, and the chapter of post-tsunami
reconstruction came to an end for them.
Recovery after a massive disaster, such as the tsunami, that results in relocation
and resettlement of impacted communities is a protracted process and it often requires
many years, if not decades, for communities to recover fully. In such a context, after a
wide investigation of a number of post-tsunami recovery projects, the work of FoG in
the village of Seenigama in southern Sri Lanka stood out as different in its approach
to becoming embedded within its beneficiary community and provide long-term
support. Thus, it was chosen to study the FoG project which primarily was continued
as a long-term approach to engage the beneficiary community, even after most other
agencies had folded-up operations after completion of their reconstruction projects.
3 Methodology
This chapter builds on an extensive set of literature reviews undertaken in the studies
mentioned in the preceding section. FoG’s newsletters and website (www.uncond
itional compassion.org) were also useful secondary information sources. The key
methodological approach followed here is to reflect on findings from field investiga-
tions on the FoG project in Seenigama. The main data collection methods were
stakeholder and key informant interviews, community meetings, transect walks,
68 I. Ahmed
observation, and photographic and audio-visual recordings. The data from the liter-
ature review and fieldwork was then analyzed through content analysis, which led
to grouping of themes, coding and cross-referencing to interpret and present the
findings of the analysis below. The recording of vignettes of FoG staff member and
experiences of the project beneficiaries about the tsunami and the reconstruction
initiative were also analyzed to assemble the narrative presented below.
4 Case Study: Foundation of Goodness (FoG)
FoG is based in the village of Seenigama in Sri Lanka’s southern Galle district.
After the devastation in the 2004 tsunami, FoG with support from a number of
national and international donors initiated post-disaster recovery efforts to rebuild
the community and implemented various projects, including the construction of 625
houses and repair of 401 houses in Seenigama and nearby villages. The case study
here discusses this project by FoG in Seenigama village.
The work of FoG is unique, because unlike the international agencies that under-
took the bulk of the post-tsunami reconstruction and were external to the beneficiary
communities, it is a local NGO established by Sri Lankan leadership and situated
within the community. In most reconstruction projects, even outside Sri Lanka in the
other tsunami-affected countries, most implementing agencies were external to the
country with their base elsewhere from the project location (Telford and Cosgrave
2007).
4.1 Project Roles
As revealed from field studies, Mr. Kushil Gunasekara, a Sri Lankan citizen, with his
roots in Seenigama, founded FoG in 1999, and became its Executive Director. Prior
to the 2004 tsunami, FoG provided community development services such as English
language and computer training, sports programs, a maternity clinic and organized
water and electricity supply from service providers to houses in the village. Together
with the emergency response and relief after the tsunami, FoG raised funds from
various sources to rebuild the devastated communities in Seenigama and nearby
villages. A narrative drawn from an interview of Mr. Kushil Gunasekara is given
below, explaining FoG’s approach to the post-tsunami reconstruction work:
Seenigama is my village and I have donated my ancestral home, which is now the FoG center.
After the tsunami, seeing that people were being relocated away from their birthplace, I
bought land in the village, so that housing could later be built for affected villagers here. We
were very careful in beneficiary selection so that people who were seriously affected were
selected, and we also checked if they had received a house from some other agency. All the
houses have a garden in addition to the public green areas. I wanted people to have greenery
around them and the children to grow up in a natural environment.
Four settlements, called “villages”, were funded by different donors and were built
by different contractors as part of the reconstruction project. Victoria Gardens, the
largest village, was built by Global Modular Housing Pty Ltd (GMH), an Australian
building products supplier contracted by the Victorian State Government of Australia
to design, develop, manage and deliver the project. Initially, GMH was commissioned
to engage design and construction consultants to plan the new settlement, and subse-
quently it became the managing contractor to deliver the project. The site plan for
Victoria Gardens was prepared by DPM Consultants, Sri Lanka, led by its Prin-
cipal Architect Jayantha Bandara. Various Sri Lankan-based architects, engineers
and sub-contractors were appointed throughout the project at its different stages.
4.2 Reconstruction Process
In the aftermath of the tsunami, land was purchased in Seenigama by FoG with
the intention of re-establishing settlements to prevent the migration and dispersal
of people from the community and thereby damaging its cohesiveness. Victoria
Gardens was funded by the state of Victoria, Australia, and GMH planned and built
the Victoria Gardens project, while other donors funded the other ‘villages’ and other
contractors managed their construction. Beneficiary selection was done by the Sri
Lankan government, together with FoG; almost all the households in Seenigama that
had lost their houses in the tsunami were selected.
FoG undertook a number of key activities during the reconstruction process
including helping the community to develop the designs for the housing and for
community infrastructures, such as the community center, which was an impor-
tant hub in the settlement. Importantly, the community decided on the allocation of
houses in the different estates, or “villages” discussed below; the households with
larger families were given priority for the two-storied houses. FoG provided addi-
tional supports through extra funding for training and livelihood development and
continued to undertake maintenance of public open areas in the settlements. The
organization continues to remain in the community as an active agency committed to
long-term community development beyond the reconstruction initiatives, and over
the years has begun to extend its experience beyond Seenigama by drawing on these
lessons gained from this experience.
4.3 Key Project Features
Four post-tsunami housing reconstruction projects, or ‘villages’, of varying sizes and

designs, were implemented by FoG in Seenigama:
AVIVA Village: This is a group of ten single-storied detached houses with a
community center, computer and English training center, library, maternity clinic and
70 I. Ahmed
playground. This village was funded by AVIVA-UK and WNS Customer Solutions-
Sri Lanka.
Perth Village: This is a cluster of nine single-storied detached houses next to the
AVIVA Village, benefiting from its community facilities. This village was funded by
the Perth City Council, Western Australia.
KPMG/LOLC Village: This is a group of fifty single-storied detached houses with
a community center, water supply tower, library and playground. Twenty-five houses
were funded by KPMG-UK and another twenty-five by LOLC-Sri Lanka (Fig. 1).
Victoria Gardens: This is a planned settlement of 84 two-storied duplexes laid out
around a central community area that includes a community center, water purification
plant, sewage treatment plant and playground (Figs. 2 and 3). This project was funded
by the State Government of Victoria, Australia. This was FoG’s largest reconstruction
project on newly acquired land to re-house tsunami-affected households that had lost
their coastal property and were not allowed to rebuild there by the government’s post-
tsunami coastal ‘buffer zone’ policy that restricted resettlement near the coast (Shaw
and Ahmed 2010).
Fig. 1 A house in the KPMG/LOLC village (Field Study 2009)

Fig. 2 Victoria Gardens consists of two-storey duplexes with variations in design (Field Study
2012)
5 Key Strengths
The strengths of this project is largely a result of the strong role played by FoG and
its long-term involvement with the community. While most of the strengths were
evident across the different settlements, they were pronounced in Victoria Gardens.
The key strengths are outlined below:
Integrated community development: Perhaps the most important strength of
the project, evident from interviews of both FoG staff and community members, was
its integrated community development approach. Clear understanding was evident
that only reconstructing houses was not enough; housing had to be supported and
sustained by a range of elements, both physical (roads, electricity, water, sanita-
tion, etc.) and social (education, capacity building, livelihoods, sports, etc.). The
FoG housing projects had been implemented with the necessary infrastructures and
services and had been complemented and sustained by a wide range of community
development activities. Based around the FoG headquarters in the village (Fig. 4),
such activities included computer and English language training, and additionally
other forms of business and vocational skills training. Projects also included pre-
schools, medical centers, libraries, scuba diving training centers and sales outlets
for products made by women with FoG’s support. Sport was viewed as an essen-
tial part of child and youth development, and a variety of sports opportunities were
72 I. Ahmed
Fig. 3 Victoria Gardens has a central open area with a playground, community centre and other
facilities (Field Study 2009)
Fig. 4 The FoG headquarters is embedded within the community in Seenigama (Field Study 2012)
provided within the Seenigama community. Even a swimming pool was built to
provide swimming lessons as well as sports events such as swimming competitions.
Rooted in the community: After the tsunami many international, and even local,
agencies had undertaken housing reconstruction projects in Sri Lanka, but in most
cases after the projects were completed, they discontinued their operations in the
locality and did not maintain any link with the project communities (Silva 2009).
On the other hand, FoG was rooted within the community from even before the
tsunami, and after implementing the post-tsunami housing reconstruction projects
had continued to support the community with a wide range of services. FoG was an
intrinsic part of the community in Seenigama.
Maintenance regime: Unlike most agencies that had implemented post-tsunami
housing reconstruction projects and then left the beneficiary community behind, FoG
continued to support the maintenance and upkeep of its housing projects. Communal
areas such as playgrounds and open green spaces were regularly maintained by
mowing the grass and trimming bushes; drains were cleaned, and roads repaired
as required; litter was collected and disposed. This sustained and contributed to
consolidating the resilience of the community and the settlements.
Infrastructure: The project went beyond only rebuilding disaster-impacted
housing to provision of essential community infrastructures and services, which
included: Paved roads within the sites; Reticulated power and street lighting; Reticu-
lated treated water supply from deep wells on site; Reticulated sewerage system and
on-site tertiary treatment plant in Victoria Gardens. Housing was thereby included
as part of a system of community infrastructure that supported important physical,
social and household needs of the community.
Structural integrity: In Victoria Gardens, the construction company, GMH,
applied a permanent formwork reinforced concrete wall building system where inte-
gral floor slabs were selected as being significantly superior to the more widespread
typical concrete block/concrete frame houses that were destroyed in the tsunami.
Certified Australian-made building materials were used in the wall construction
system and timber roof trusses. Following international quality standards, GMH
Middle East manufactured the roof trusses in Dubai and GMH Lanka manufactured
the wall systems in Colombo. They were designed to withstand the high impacts of
future hazards, as well as regular wear-and-tear.
Multiplicity of layout: All the four settlements have a unique character, with
a variety of approaches to clustering of houses. The site planning allowed for this
variety, even though in each settlement the same house plan was followed. In Victoria
Gardens, the duplexes have different orientations, external color schemes and roof
shapes, which resulted in variety in the layout of the settlement (Fig. 2). Four settle-
ments, in together, represent multiplicity responding to the different locations within
Seenigama village.
74 I. Ahmed
5.1 Vignettes from the Field
The experience of a FoG staff member, as a research participant, as narrated below,

illustrates the opportunity for upward social mobility the project brought to the
Seenigama community, and its capacity building aspect:
I started working at FoG as a cleaning and maintenance staff member in 2005 after the
tsunami. It helped me to learn many new skills, including using the computer and learning
English, and to eventually rise to the managerial position. The house designs here are based
on what beneficiaries would prefer. There was a lot of consultation with them. Together with
home-based income, FoG has helped people through larger livelihood support – safe coral
mining, brush factory, grocery shops, tuk-tuks, etc. In the future we will need to focus more
on local capacity building instead of giving so much stuff for free.
The narrative below of the experience of a female project beneficiary (research

participant) indicates satisfaction with the maintenance aspect of the project:
She lives with her husband and a child in Victoria Gardens. Before the tsunami she used to
live with her extended family in a house close to the ocean. The house was badly damaged
by the tsunami and part of it was repaired thereafter; her parents continued to live there after
she moved to Victoria Gardens. She heard that FoG was going to provide new houses and so
she and her husband approached FoG as there was hardly any space for them in the damaged
house. “I am happy to receive a house. I will always be thankful to FoG as they have given
us a place to live – a shelter,” she said.
The beneficiaries were very satisfied with the houses: The upper floor had a
ceiling, which kept the house cool; the bathroom was tiled and so could easily be kept
clean; the drains around the house kept the compound free of waterlogging. They
were also content with the open area outside the house, which had facilities such as
a playground, community center and shop.
The most successful aspect of the project for the beneficiaries was its regular
maintenance. “FoG employs someone who maintains the area, cutting the bushes and
grass, cleaning the drains and collecting litter from public areas”, another beneficiary
(research participant) explained. They were also happy about the different community
services offered by FoG: “Everyone here goes to the FoG center. If somebody wants
to swim, get computer and English training, they can get it there. My child is going
there for English and swimming lessons. I can get medical help there,” another
beneficiary (research participant) pointed out.
6 Key Challenges
The extensive field studies in Seenigama allowed gaining insights from interviews
of a range of stakeholders spanning from FoG staff to community members and
project beneficiaries. While the achievements of FoG were highlighted in a positive
light by most of the interview respondents, some challenges were also revealed. Sri
Lanka is after all a developing country, categorized by the World Bank as a “lower
middle-income country” (World Bank 2018), and at the time when the FoG project
was implemented, it was under extreme pressure from a long ongoing civil war. Thus,
despite the remarkable achievements of FoG, there were challenges, some of which
are discussed below.
Water supply and sanitation issues: Seenigama is a low-lying coastal area with
a high sub-soil water table, leading to overflow of septic tanks especially in the
rainy monsoons season in the AVIVA, Perth and KPMG/LOLC villages. As a result,
experts were commissioned by the Victorian Government of Australia that funded
Victoria Gardens to seek a remedy and they decided to build a sewage treatment plant
in Victoria Gardens (built after the other settlements) instead of septic tanks. Addi-
tionally, a water purification plant was built to address the problem of contamination
of ground water. However, it proved difficult to maintain these facilities over the
long term and consequently the residents discontinued paying for these services. In
response, a switch was made to conventional septic tanks and water supply, incurring
extra costs in the process.
Preference for two-storied houses, but not duplexes: Except for Victoria
Gardens, the other three settlements consisted of single-storied detached houses.
In interviews of some of the residents, it was found that they preferred a two-storied
house because they feared future tsunamis. Several house designs were offered to
prospective residents of Victoria Gardens and after significant discussions the design
selected consisted of two-storied, two-bedroom houses to be built as duplexes. This
design option gave the residents greater safety, as these are structurally strong with
concrete slabs and wall construction. Upper floor level is higher than the recent
tsunami water level, which may save its residents in a future tsunami of similar
attributes. Overall, although the project beneficiaries preferred the two-storied houses
in Victoria Gardens compared to the single-storied houses in the other settlements,
they did not prefer duplexes as built; they preferred detached houses for better privacy
and more space around the house. Nonetheless, duplexes allowed cost-effectiveness
and it was found that the residents were adapting to them as the community is grad-
ually growing in a more cohesive manner. It required long and intensive community
consultations to achieve agreement within the community for the allocation of the
different houses.
Location of service areas: Traditionally in Sri Lanka, especially in rural areas,
the kitchen is preferred to be located outside the house because of the practice of
cooking with wood fuel, which creates much smoke. However, during community
consultations when presented with the design of a house with an indoor kitchen,
prospective residents agreed to it, because they did not want to engage in arguments
with the consultants; they wanted to simply take what they were being offered.
Subsequently most households built a separate kitchen at the rear of the house (Fig. 5)
and the kitchen inside was hardly used or converted to other uses, such as a storeroom,
study, or even an extra bedroom. Nonetheless, in the case of the toilet, an outdoor
toilet was chosen by the community in line with the same preference of keeping
service areas detached from the main house, which was incorporated into the design.
76 I. Ahmed
Fig. 5 Residents of the FoG project built separate kitchens at the rear instead of using the indoor
kitchen, as seen here in Victoria Gardens (Field Study 2012)
7 Future Initiatives
Drawing on the Seenigama experience, gradually FoG began to expand beyond to

provide services to other localities by establishing “Village Heartbeat Empowerment
(VHE) Centres” as extension hubs; by 2018, ten such VHE Centres had been estab-
lished (Foundation of Goodness 2018). Importantly, after the end of the civil war
in 2009, FoG had been active in conflict-affected northern areas of Sri Lanka to
facilitate reconciliation and national unity. Thus, from its original roots as a small
NGO in a village, FoG had successfully upgraded its operations to the national level,
demonstrating a unique and effective model. Notwithstanding the many challenges
in such a process, the ability of FoG to sustain itself, grow and making widespread
impact signifies a model organization.
From its reports and newsletters (e.g. Foundation of Goodness 2018) it appears
that the focus of FoG was on sports and related activities, with the belief that this is an
essential part of child and youth development. Nonetheless, despite the organization’s
continuing contribution to other areas, for example water and sanitation, there was
scope to address a wider range of needs in many of the impoverished rural areas of Sri
Lanka. Additionally, the process of post-war reconciliation and rebuilding affected
communities would be a long-term process, requiring sustained engagement and
sensitivity in a delicate context.
8 Conclusion
FoG was a unique organization and many lessons can be gained from its work. The
post-tsunami reconstruction project in Seenigama underscored the importance, and
perhaps necessity, of an integrated community development approach catering to the
diverse needs of a community. This represented a systematic approach where housing
reconstruction was linked to infrastructure, services, facilities, livelihoods and sports
(as a key strategy for children and youth development). A key lesson is the long-
term support provided to the community by FoG, the implementing agency, being
located within the community, unlike most of the other agencies active after the 2004
Indian Ocean Tsunami. In this way, in addition to addressing the immediate post-
disaster reconstruction needs, FoG was able to address the needs of the community
that evolved and changed over time, serving as a stepping stone to establish similar
extension hubs embedded in other communities in different parts of the country.
This project also clearly highlighted how strong leadership could contribute towards
the effectiveness of the project. Without such leadership by the founder Mr. Kushil
Gunasekara, this project perhaps would not have been possible, at least in this form.
The key factor that gave FoG its uniqueness was its long-term commitment to
the development of the community it rehabilitated after the tsunami, and the multi-
faceted nature of its work where housing reconstruction was supported by a wide
range of inputs including community infrastructure and facilities, livelihood devel-
opment, local capacity building and focus on child and youth development. It should
be borne in mind that this project was implemented after a huge tsunami disaster in
a developing country that was being torn asunder in a protracted civil war. Thus, it
demonstrates that if there is sincere and focused commitment, even in such trying
circumstances positive impacts can be made.
It should be acknowledged that despite the long span of more than a decade after
the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, this case study nevertheless presents a snapshot
in time. Sri Lanka is confronted by a wide range of challenges, both internal and
external, that will have a bearing on the fate of FoG’s efforts in the future. Political
instability and a continued decline of the economy (The Business Standard 2019)
pose internal hurdles to the continuity of community development initiatives such
as FoG’s; external pressures of climate change and global trade frictions between
powerful nations will determine its long-term trajectory. Thus, perhaps a re-visit of
the FoG case study after a decade might elicit a transformative narrative shaped by
unforeseen demands and pressures.
Acknowledgements This paper draws partly from research conducted under an Australian
Research Council funded Future Fellowship project entitled “Architecture on the Edge: Designing
Sustainable Housing Systems for Vulnerable Communities” (Charlesworth and Ahmed 2015); and
also an Australian Research Council Linkage and AusAID (ex) funded project entitled “Rebuilding
Sustainable Communities: Assessing Post-Tsunami Resettlement Projects in Sri Lanka and India”
(Shaw and Ahmed 2010).
78 I. Ahmed
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(UK), pp 1067–1080
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studies from Sri Lanka and India (report). Monash Asia Institute, Clayton (Australia)
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J Geogr 63:61–72
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earthquake and tsunamis. Disasters 31(1):1–28
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Dr. Ahmed is Associate Professor and Program Convenor of the Master of Disaster Resilience
and Sustainable Development, University of Newcastle, Australia. He teaches on policy and social
aspects of disaster risk reduction, disaster resilience and management of the built environment
and sustainable development. His research interests include post-disaster housing, disaster risk
reduction, climate change adaptation and urbanisation in the Asia-Pacific. He has written several
books and many peer-reviewed publications, and serves widely as a consultant for international
development agencies. He completed his PhD at Oxford Brookes University, UK, master’s at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, and bachelor’s at Indian Institute of Technology,
India.
Traditional Practices, Communities’
Aspirations, and Reconstructed End
Products: Analyzing the Post-Sidr
Reconstruction in the Coastal Region
of Bangladesh
Shams Mansoor Ghani
Abstract Traditional practices derived from indigenous knowledge often fail to get
attention in the process of externally supported interventions in any community. This
chapter intends to investigate the reconstruction of houses as an external intervention,
conducted after the cyclone Sidr in the coastal area of Bangladesh. The usual response
from the Government as well as different non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
in a post-cyclone scenario is to aid with rebuilding or repairing houses following
a ‘built back better’ approach focusing on enhancing resilience and reducing risks.
Such a multi-agency intervention usually fails to appreciate the traditional practices
and indigenous knowledge of the communities and it possesses the risk of resulting
inappropriate settlements degrading coastal landscape and cultural heritage. This
chapter aims to analyze cultural elements of the affected coastal settlements in general
and evaluates the post-Sidr assisted reconstruction interventions in the backdrop
of the age-old culture of constructing houses and settlements. Sharankhola, a sub-
district in the south-western coastal region of Bangladeash and one of the most
intervened areas after the cyclone Sidr, is selected as the study area of this research.
Observations, focus group discussions, and household surveys in the study area
were conducted to investigate users’ feedback and consciousness about practicing
traditional culture and the outcome of reconstructed products. This chapter reaffirms
the fact that traditional wisdom and technologies are rarely considered, putting those
at risks of being degraded and lost.
Keywords Cyclone · Coastal region · Reconstruction · Traditional house form ·

Indigenous knowledge · Culture · ‘Built back better’ · Traditional wisdom
S. M. Ghani (B)
e-mail: shams.ghani@bracu.ac.bd

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4948-9_5
82 S. M. Ghani
1 Introduction
Traditional practices as outcomes of indigenous knowledge gradually evolve within

a community through the experiences of previous generations, as well as their obser-
vations, based on individual’s as well as a community’s surrounding natural environ-
ment and socio-cultural context (Chowdhooree 2019). Thus, this indigenous knowl-
edge, which is unique in nature (Magni 2017), provides the necessary means for
living, more specifically persisting in that context, ensuring similar lifestyle and
livelihood options for future generations (Magni 2017; McCall 1988). Due to its
strong connections with the natural environment, as well as socio-cultural context,
the local communities used to employ local mechanisms in every aspect of their lives
before getting exposed to the Western-Euro-centric notions of science and scientific
knowledge and technologies. Building houses and settlements is an aspect which
is highly influenced by the local geographical context, climate and climatic calami-
ties, and available local materials. On the other hand, the trend of modern devel-
opment which is usually conducted as external interventions by experts of external
bodies, trained in Western-Euro-centric knowledge and technologies, usually prefers
to take non-traditional measures due to pressure of industrialization, urbanization
and globalization, which ultimately causes undesirable consequences (Chowdhooree
2019; Al-Roubaie 2010). This chapter intends to investigate the reconstruction inter-
ventions which followed the ‘built back better’ approach after the cyclone Sidr in
Bangladesh to identify the scope of recognizing traditional practices and employing
local indigenous knowledge and also the impacts of the reconstruction process on
the aspirations of local communities.
Cyclones and associated storm surges are usually generated along the 710 km
long coast line of Bangladesh due to the geo-formation of Bay of Bengal, the usual
direction of monsoon wind, and the geographic location of Bangladesh. The overall
development of Bangladesh has been hampered due to these cyclones (Mallick and
Rahman 2008) and the poorest section of the population is the regular victim. The
frequency as well as the intensity of extreme events like cyclones is increasing
due to the impacts of changed climatic factors. Altered frequencies and intensi-
ties of extreme weather, together with sea level rise, are expected to have adverse
impacts on natural and human systems in future (IPCC 2018) and Bangladesh is
among the most vulnerable countries. The cyclone Sidr hit the south-western coastal
region of Bangladesh in the evening of 15 November 2007. The storm arrived as
a category-4 super cyclone with peak winds at 250 km/h (GoB 2008). An IFRC
report (2010) stated that approximately 1.5 million houses were damaged leaving
millions of people shelterless. Impacts of cyclone Sidr resulting in the destruction of
homestead happened in three ways: storm surge, flooding, and wind impact. A study
in the region showed 60% house damage occurred due to cyclonic wind, 22% due
to falling of trees and 17% due to storm surges (Moniruzzaman et al. 2013).
Traditional practices of building houses and settlements of Bangladesh is on the
decline due to rapid urbanisation, top-down development pressure, trends of glob-
alization, high population density (World Population Review 2020), transformation
Traditional Practices, Communities’ Aspirations, and … 83
of vernacular settings due to industrialization, impact of natural calamities, cultural

aggression, and lack of policy supports and awareness. The south-western coastal
region is much prone to tropical cyclones and as such, a potential location for major
reconstruction interventions. Two of the major cyclones of recent time, Sidr (in 2007)
and Aila (in 2009) have resulted such interventions, conducted by governmental and
non-governmental organizations. This research studies selected reconstruction inter-
ventions of Sharankhola sub-district of Bagerhat district of the coastal region of
Bangladesh for satisfying its objectives.
2 Background
2.1 External Interventions and Culture
The built environment has been a vivid product of culture and traditional prac-
tices, context, and indigenous knowledge, at least in rural or vernacular settings.
The following statement of Paul Oliver is very much relevant to this research as the
study area is rural as well as at the fringe.
Cultural traits and environmental contexts constituted the focus of vernacular traditions in
building, which have often existed for centuries. (Oliver 2006, p. xxiv)
Culture is one of the most complex word in English language, which is explained
by Throsby (2001) as a frequently used word which does not have a tangible or
generally agreed core meaning. But culture is vital for understanding a community,
their environment, and context (Rapoport 2005). Various aspects of a culture (i.e.
practices, rituals, values, traditions, beliefs, views, rules, and taboos) as outcomes
of indigenous knowledge (Magni 2017; AIPP et al. 2012; Dei 1993) act as the core
of socio-economic development and scientific and technological achievements of a
community (Magni 2017; Hoppers 2001).
Development is a necessity for poverty alleviation and the UNESCO (2012)
acknowledges that development activities as interventions need to be human-centered
and responsive to the cultural context and the particularities of a place and community.
Traditional practices of building houses and settlements are evolved through gener-
ations of trial and error and as such naturally are culture and context specific. Just
like any other development activities, the post-disaster reconstructed projects, due
to external influences, involvements of experts, and constrained timeframes, usually
do not allow local communities to employ their knowledge to maintain their rights
and traditions in a modified context (Magni 2017). The projects more often promote
borrowed cultures, influenced by the Western-Euro-centric knowledge (Gadgil et al.
1993). This modified context with borrowed cultures also influences communities’
aspiration, where aspiration means a strong desire to have or do something. An
inquiry into the aspiration of a community regarding the type of houses can hence
be an important indicator of cultural appropriateness of a certain built environment.
84 S. M. Ghani
Ideally, any reconstruction project needs to follow a process through which the final
product is achieved (Kabir 2009) and a look into this process answers questions on
how the product will be sustainable, culture specific and people centric.
The approach of ‘Build back better’ as it is delivered by external bodies (GOs,
NGOs, Donors) in the reconstruction phase are not necessarily always culture-
specific, active community participatory, and sustainable in nature (Nadiruzzaman
and Wrathall 2015). The importance of culture and heritage is often not in focus in
developing economies of countries like Bangladesh and pro-development arguments
in favor of lives and livelihood keeps the heritage discourse absent in reconstruction
phases. However, the scenario is changing fast in the backdrop of sustainable devel-
opment goals (SDGs) and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction where
roles of culture and heritage have been well recognized (UN General Assembly 2015;
UNISDR 2015). As Paul Oliver rightly stated
The embodied values of existing vernacular traditions should be recognized rather than
repressed, with respect for indigenous cultural norms and environmental knowledge. (Oliver
2006, p. 421)
2.2 Traditional Practices of Building Houses in the Coastal

Region of Bangladesh
The traditional housing typologies of Bangladesh include earthen hut with thatch
roof, wooden structure and corrugated sheet roof, and lastly brick and R.C.C build
structure with corrugated sheet roofs (Ahmed 2001a, b). The usual approach for
planning a homestead is found in the form of using pashchati, an outer encircling
group of spaces, surrounding a central core structure, usually of two storied. This
layout is found in both wooden and R.C.C structures (Rahman 2011; Haq 1999).
Local materials such as mud, bamboo, jute stick, straw, wood, bamboo mat (bera),
and corrugated sheets are commonly used (Alam et al. 2017). Upper stories (locally
called as matcha) are often used for storing valuables and in case of cyclones and
storm surges, family members and neighbors can take refuge there. These house
forms are found from Cox’s Bazar (Haq 1999) in the eastern coastal area to Satkhira
in the western coastal area (Rahman 2011), from the coast of Kuakata to inland
settlements of Uzirpur, Barishal (Fig. 1) where brick and wooden built houses are
built, following the paschati space planning.
Sharankhola upazilla (sub-district) is situated in the southern fringe of Bangladesh
adjacent to the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world. It takes a two
and half to three-hours’ journey from Bagerhat district town by road, combining bus,
bikes, and using a ferry to cross a river. From the capital city Dhaka, it is an eleven
to twelve hours’ journey by road including multiple ferry crossings. The sub-district
covers 756.61 km2 area with a population of 1,40,000 during the study period (as
per 2011 census data adding 0.42% growth) and a density of 157.42/ km2 (City
Population 2020). Historically the area was a part of the Sundarbans and as such is
rich in tree species. Every household is surrounded by thick vegetation.
Fig. 1 Prevailing house form of southern Bangladesh, Uzirpur, Barishal (Field study 2015)
The research reviewed available literature to form the conceptual background, to

survey the secondary sources on the housing traditions of coastal Bangladesh, and
to draw a picture of the overall reconstruction scenario in Bangladesh. Later it
conducted the qualitative field survey in September 2015 applying various methods
like observations, household semi-structured interviews, key informant (GO and
NGO employees) interviews and focus group discussions. A questionnaire was
prepared based on qualitative data and a survey was conducted based on that.
Randomly selected 200 households from three selected villages participated in the
survey. The information from various sources and research methods are compared
as triangulation to verify their authenticity and reliability.
Sharankhola sub-district of Bagerhat district was selected as the case for this
study due to extensive housing damages along with being the site for unprecedented
volume of reconstruction works. Among four unions of Sharankhola, the research
was limited to Rayenda and Dakshinkhali union (Fig. 2) as these two unions were
most hardly hit and experienced maximum interventions (Table 1).
Three villages were selected based on types of settlements and conveniences. The
villages are:
1. Kadamtala (specially for dense cluster type settlement and extensive in situ
reconstruction)
2. Chalrainda (specially for dense cluster of relocated settlement and a few scattered
in situ reconstructions)
3. Uttar Dakshinkhali for relocated scattered settlement.
86 S. M. Ghani
Fig. 2 The Map showing the study location (LGED Bangladesh 2020)
Table 1 Housing damage in Sharankhola by union (BRAC Sharankhola Branch 2015)

Union No. Union name Total damaged Fully damaged Partially damaged
household household household
1 Dhansagor 3170 1348 1822
2 Khontakata 5897 3078 2819
3 Rayenda 5766 3650 2116
4 Dakshinkhali 6519 5287 1232
4 The Process of Reconstruction Interventions After

the Cyclone Sidr
The affected people initiate to reconstruct or repair their houses and settlements
immediately after the disaster, with or without external assistance (Jha et al. 2010).
Usually the community comes forward aiding the victims. But without any external
assistance recovery becomes difficult and in cases of extensive losses and damages,
the recovery is almost impossible with limited local capacities. In the post-Sidr
scenario, after the initial immediate response period, characterized by search and
rescue, food, water and health care as well as emergency shelter assistance (which
was negligible in volume), the GOs and NGOs concentrated heavily on reconstruction
of houses and infrastructures.
According to Kabir (2009) hazard reduction measures in terms of house design,
construction practice and supervision, house extension and repair, household level
training, etc. were usually executed for the first time by selected agencies whilst
the rest followed their previous formulas and standard design practice of delivering
shelters as products from their past disaster response experiences. The latter trend
dominated in the study area of current research, as it was found in the study area.
The research participants and secondary sources delivered the information that
the Government of Bangladesh proposed to provide two possible ways of assistance:
building core shelters, and building demonstration model houses while supporting
a higher percentage of self-recovery. All member agencies agreed to build core
shelters or as per some agencies ‘transitional shelter’. There was a confusion of
using terminologies from the beginning. The government failed to enact any strict
policy for building structure and as a result of this, many agencies continued their
previous tradition of delivering shelters as relief products instead of following any
community participatory or self-help process.
Affected communities were primarily divided into two groups: land-less and
landowners. For selecting beneficiaries, the government relied on local GOs. NGOs
used their own sequence of delegation for explaining the process and formulated
their objectives synthesizing the government’s directives and donors’ requirements.
In order to provide speedy response, the GOs opted for pre-existing barrack style
row housing for land-less victims and resilient core shelters for landowners. Due to
obligations to donors, NGOs rarely got involved in rehabilitating the land-less house-
holds. Their main objective was to utilize donor funds through speedy provision of
88 S. M. Ghani
core/transitional shelters only for landowners on the sites of the damaged houses. The
local GOs were responsible for running projects for land-less households and deliv-
ering products, funded through public channel. At the same time, Shelter Clusters or
Shelter Working Group (SWG)s were formed with representatives from GOs, NGOs
and donor agencies to coordinated private sector activities. The SWG, under the
aegis of government has been monitoring the field performances of shelter strategies
since 2008 (GFDRR 2014). Figure 3 shows a diagram, explaining the construction
process.
The Shelter Cluster, with the help of Shelter Technical Working Group facili-
tated to establish minimum standards for the core shelter construction, which were
endorsed by the Government. These standards were acknowledged by several NGOs
as the main guideline for designing their reconstruction prototypes.
Minimum core size was set at 305 cm × 305 cm, although 305 cm × 610 cm was
preferable. Minimum corrugated sheet thickness was decided as 0.31 mm with a 30-°
Fig. 3 The diagram showing the post-Sidr reconstruction process. Yellow arrows annotate the flow
of fund, green arrows annotate influences and advices. The width of the arrows represents proportion
of the flow (Field study 2015)
optimum slope. Some details of joineries like J-bolts and anti-corrosive paint were
specified. All wooden structural joineries were suggested to have adequate double-
pinned lap joints. All frames were asked to have horizontal or diagonal bracings as
appropriate. Lap joints were decided to be without reduction of timber sections. Pre-
cast reinforced concrete pillars were decided to be cured for at least 14 days before
transportation and installation. The specifications for the RCC pillars were provided
in detail with minimum concrete strength of 3000 psi. Although these specifications
were fixed to ensure a degree of resilience, the literature review made it evident that
core sustainability issues like local knowledge, building traditions, and aspirations
of the community were not taken into consideration (Kabir 2009).
5 Findings from the Study Area
All four unions of Sharankhola sub-district are linked with the national highway up
to the Sundarbans range. The embankment along the bank of river Baleshwar acts
as a peripheral road for Dakshinkhali union. The settlement patterns of the villages
of Rayenda union can be divided in two typologies: households close to the main
road and near bazar areas are ‘highly dense clusters on artificially built mounds’
and households in other areas are ‘scattered and built on artificially raised lands’.
In Dakshinkhali union, most of the households follow the latter typology. Scattered
settlements on raised or unraised mounds were very common before the cyclone Sidr
in the areas which were not protected by the Baleshwar river embankment and these
were mostly built by landless population. Most of those houses were washed away
which caused many of the casualties during the cyclone Sidr.
The predominant local house form, found in field study, is in alignment with the
regional tradition, discussed earlier. Mud wall with palm leaves roof, and bamboo
frame, bamboo mat/corrugate iron (CI) sheet wall with palm leaves/thatch roof are
two types which are mostly used by landless population. Middle income to elite
land owners predominantly build single or two storied wooden houses with CI sheet
roof. These houses are locally called chou-chala or aat-chala (four roofs or eight
roofs respectively). However, several wooden houses are found to be accompanied
by temporary structures of bamboo frame and golpata (mangrove palm) or CI sheet
roofs, which are used as kitchen, store, cow-shed or toilet. A small portion of pre-Sidr
houses were brick built with CI sheet roofing. Flat roofed brick or R.C.C building were
rare inside residential clusters. Observations, household surveys and key-informant
interviews indicated that the gradual economic progress of a household is reflected
in the upgradation of the house form and materials from temporary and low-cost to
more permanent in nature, retaining the basic space arrangement, vertical layering,
and form. Some of the wooden houses also used extensive application of traditional
decorative motifs and colors. It was observed that landless population usually had
earthen huts with palm leaves or thatch roofs, bamboo framed huts with bamboo mat
walls or CI sheet roofs and huts with CI sheet walls and palm leaves/thatch roofs.
For the middle income to elite land owners, wooden houses were the first choice for
90 S. M. Ghani
the main living units of a homestead. Temporary structures of bamboo frames and
palm leaves or CI sheet roofs, are usually used as kitchen, store houses, cow-shed or
toilet in a homestead of land owners. A small portion of pre-Sidr houses were brick
built with CI sheet roofing. Flat roofed brick or R.C.C buildings were rare. Research
participants expressed their aspirations for having decorated wooden houses and
several respondents recognized these houses as their symbols of prestige. However,
a few respondents, especially from youth segment, seemed inclined to urban style
flat roofed buildings.
Chalrainda village: It is the southernmost village of Rayenda union ending with
Tafalbari canal and bordering with Dakshinkhali union in the South. Major projects
of relocated houses were built in densely planned manner here by NGOs.
Uttar Dakshinkhali village: Pre-Sidr state of Uttar Dakshinkhali was like Chal-
rainda, even more scattered at places except for few densely clustered households
near Tafalbari bazar. This village is bordered by the embankment of Baleshwar river,
beyond which a major destruction was caused by storm surges. As a result, several
families chose to relocate along the embankment, purchasing small pieces of lands
from their relatives and friends. Most of the houses of this village were provided by
the Government.
Kadamtala village: Kamatala village in Rayenda union is situated around a nodal
point of the main axial road towards Dakshinkhali. The housing clusters are dense
and most of the destroyed houses were reconstructed in their previous locations. A
significant percentage of intervention was done by NGOs. A large portion of pre-Sidr
decorated and two storied wooden houses survived the cyclone.
5.1 House Typologies of Reconstruction Projects
In total three reconstructed house typologies were identified in the study villages.
Among these two types were delivered by NGOs, i.e., BRAC and Muslim Aid and the
other one was delivered by the Government and it was supported by funds received
from the Government of Saudi Arabia. BRAC is identified as the largest international
NGO while Muslim Aid is a UK based Islamic charity NGO.
I. BRAC’s reconstruction work
The research participants delivered the information that BRAC built almost 1300
houses in total in all four unions of Sharankhola. The house typology contains a
core living unit of 305 cm × 457 cm with an access veranda of 152 cm wide along
the longer side of the core unit (Fig. 4). The unit is built with brick walls and CI
sheet sloped roof. The cement-plastered plinth is edged with bricks. Wooden posts
are used here to support the roof over the veranda. The veranda as an addition to
the core living unit is appreciated by the users and the quality of construction was at
satisfactory level. However, the house form is not aligned with the traditional house
types and settlement patterns and the users attempted to modify it (not with a lot of
success) to fit it into the paschati planning layout.
Fig. 4 Top: Plan of BRAC’s prototype; Bottom Left: View of BRAC’s prototype; Bottom right.
Modified version of that (Field study 2015)
II. Muslim Aid’s reconstruction work

The core living unit is here divided into two rooms of same size (305 cm × 305 cm)
and the both rooms are accessed through an elongated veranda of 183 cm width
(Fig. 5). RCC columns are used for the core unit whereas brick-columns are used
to support the CI sheet roof over the veranda. The walls are of brick and the mud-
plinth is edged with bricks. An additional small unit is attached at the rare side of
the living unit. The quality of construction was at satisfactory level. However, use of
traditional material in adaption or alteration seemed problematic and the users could
not properly add pashchati to the core as seen during household studies.
III. The Government Support Reconstruction
The core unit provided here is almost like a box of CI sheets with R. C. C. prefab-
ricated pillars, mud-plinth and access doors on both sides and without any veranda
which is considered as an essential space in a traditional house typology. The core
unit is 305 cm × 457 cm in size (Fig. 6). These shelters were much more inexpensive
compared to the previous two. The respondents frequently complained about heat
92 S. M. Ghani
Fig. 5 Top: Plan of Muslim Aid’s prototype; Bottom Left: View of Muslim Aid’s prototype; Bottom
right. Modified version of that (Field study 2015)
gain and discomfort. Although poor in construction quality and choice of materials,
the product adhered strictly to the concept of core shelter. The neutrality of form
and elevation, use of mud plinth and not providing a veranda, and lack of climatic
comfort generated substantial user adaptation in the form of pashchati (even deco-
rated at times) that made the houses evolve into products close to the traditional
house forms.
5.2 Reponses from Research Participants
In focus group discussions, research participants delivered the idea that the whole
process was suffered due to corrupted and bureaucratic process and lack of coordi-
nation among stakeholders. In some cases, standards were not maintained, and some
Fig. 6 Top: Plan of GO’s prototype; Bottom Left: View of GO’s prototype; Bottom right. Modified
version of that (Field study 2015)
non-member agencies got involved. However, major agencies were quite capable to
complete their tasks properly. It is briefly discussed below followed by a comparison
of minimum standards and users’ feedback.
• Selection of site: In case of both public and NGO assistance, most of the shelters
were constructed in their original locations of the destroyed houses. Landowner-
ship or secure tenure was a precondition for NGOs and only landowners received
assistance from NGOs. Local government was the major actor in providing some
assistance to landless families and they received a small portion of fallow land as
donations from the Government.
• Shelter options: Shelter providers either local GOs or NGOs were quite unsure
about the nature of shelters. They were in dilemma between transitional and core
housing, and temporary and permanent housing. The minimum standards were
not suitable for a lot of families and they preferred bigger units, especially when
they needed to invest a portion of their own fund. The NGOs opted for more
permanent solutions, adding verandas to the basic core units.
• Construction materials and methods: Getting quality building materials in large
quantity was not easy for either organizations or locals. To resolve this problem,
94 S. M. Ghani
NGOs manufactured and supervised their own supplies and sometimes collected
materials from far from the site. It was rarely attempted by GOs and NGOs to
improve local construction techniques and to train local masons for improving
their skills. Pre-cast concrete columns and steel rafters and purlins were used for
ensuring the durability of structures.
• Adherence to Shelter Cluster guidelines: The standard size of living unit, fixed
by the shelter cluster was considered as too small for many beneficiaries. NGOs
provided units which are bigger than the standards. The angle of roof inclination
is a critical detail which was needed to be fixed and maintained to make shelters
resilient to high wind speed. But it was not specified in the standards. As a result,
there were cases of variations and some houses exceeded the acceptable limit.
Use of thicker CI sheet was maintained by NGOs, but not by GOs. Because of the
unavailability of practical and photographic guidelines for making joineries and
details in the standards, the shelters were built with weak joineries and inappro-
priate details. Existing plinth height of several traditional houses were found as
higher than the standard guideline of two feet or 61 cm. However, in some cases
of reconstruction even the prescribed plinth heights were not maintained, while in
some other cases the existing plinths were not stabilized with brick-edging or with
cement layers, as it was prescribed in the standard. Using thinner CI sheet than
the prescribed standard was another alarming issue that has potentially increased
the risk in case of future cyclones.
A reconnaissance questionnaire survey was conducted in three studied villages
to quantitatively ascertain users’ perspectives about their culture, traditional house
forms and the way they evaluate agency-driven post-Sidr reconstruction in their
villages. In the pre-Sidr condition almost 30% of houses were built of CI sheets with
bamboo frames (Fig. 7). Data were collected to know the procedure of repairing or
rebuilding houses after the cyclone Sidr. In total 8 combinations of repairing and
rebuilding houses were identified, i.e.:
i. Houses were undamaged; it was not necessary to repair or rebuild
ii. Houses were rebuilt using own fund
iii. Houses were repaired using own fund
iv. The land was bought by the beneficiary and assistance was received from any
agency for building house there
v. Beneficiary received the house from an agency along with the land in a new
location
vi. Beneficiary received the house from an agency in the old location
vii. Beneficiary received cash-grants and/or materials for rebuilding the house
viii. Beneficiary received cash-grants and/or materials for repairing the house.
The diagram (Fig. 8) shows the highest number of beneficiaries received houses
from any agency on their owned lands in old locations.
Slightly more that 25% of beneficiaries were either satisfied or very satisfied
with the shelters received from either GOs or NGOs which means a big number of
households were not satisfied with the supports received from organizations (Fig. 9).
Fig. 7 The chart is showing percentage of pre-Sidr house types (Field survey 2015)
Fig. 8 The chart is showing percentage of combinations of repairing or rebuilding process (Field
survey 2015)
It was attempted to know the reasons of dissatisfactions. In total 10 reasons were

identified, i.e.:
i. Shelters look different from traditional houses
ii. Shelters are not aligned with the traditional pashchati planning approach
iii. Absence of upper story (matcha), used mostly for storing items
iv. Shelters are expensive to repair
v. Lack of options of modifying the shelters according to various needs (Not
adaptable)
96 S. M. Ghani
Fig. 9 The chart is showing percentage of satisfaction level (Field survey 2015)
vi. Inadequate unit sizes

vii. Delay in delivery
viii. Poor construction quality
ix. Shelters are not suitable enough to resist high wind-speed
x. Lack of thermal comfort.
Delay in delivering the shelter, poor construction quality and lack of possibilities
of modifying the shelters according to various needs were major three reasons for not
liking the agency-supported rebuilding process (Fig. 10). Traditionally, various types
Fig. 10 The chart is showing responses of reasons of lack of satisfaction (Field survey 2015)
Fig. 11 The chart is showing percentage of aspired house types (Field survey 2015)
of houses were there in the study area. GOs and NGOs provided some other kinds
of houses which were different from their traditional houses. Now the inhabitants
have more options for choosing a type as their aspired houses which may help to
understand the local preferences. A survey was conducted to know the house types
which are preferred by the households for future. In total 7 types of options were
given to them, i.e.:
i. Houses like local elites, which are double storied brick-wall flat roofed
structures.
ii. Brick walled-flat roofed house
iii. GoB style house
iv. BRAC style house
v. Muslim Aid style house
vi. Double storied wooden house
vii. Single storied wooden house.
The highest number of respondents (more than 45%) preferred double storied
wooden houses which are traditional in nature. Whereas not a single respondent
preferred houses like either GoB style or BRAC style (Fig. 11).
6 Analysis and Discussion
• Traditional Practices in Post-Sidr housing: Literature review shows that the

reconstruction process followed by both GOs and NGOs acknowledged traditional
practices and cultural appropriateness in their assessment and evaluation reports
98 S. M. Ghani
as a minor consideration. This is understandable, since the daunting task of emer-

gency response and rehabilitation rarely gives opportunity to think deep about
traditional practices and culture while bare necessities are prioritized. However,
some variables under the umbrella of traditional practices and culture have been
used as key consideration that could lead to culture-specific housing. The Shelter
Cluster formulated an indirect way to address this by focusing on a neutral core
shelter with ample scopes for adapting it according to users’ needs and choices.
Moreover, they stressed on beneficiaries’ participation in all stages of reconstruc-
tion through the framework of Owner Driven Housing Reconstruction (ODHR).
Following these two steps, even without understanding local culture, would have
resulted cultural responsiveness at an acceptable level. Unfortunately, the houses
provided by the Government, BRAC and Muslim Aid failed to conform with theses
steps and hence remained out of context in the traditional cultural landscape.
• Aspirations of Local Communities: It is difficult to ascertain local aspirations
regarding the built environment in an area that underwent significant external
interventions. The distressed population has been motivated in building resilient
houses employing modern technologies and advanced building materials. Since
elaborated research on traditional house forms and technologies is non-existent
in post-Sidr documents and reports, and since framed policy guidelines provided
vague directions on dealing with cultural issues and traditional practices, it can
be easily assumed that the local community has been made to believe in the
new designs accepting the agency advocated shortcomings of their traditional
houses. The case was somewhat different, as revealed in household survey and
focus group discussions. The wooden house is still aspired by a large portion
of households and the highest number of respondents aspired for double storied
wooden houses while only 15% respondents aspired for brick-walled flat roofed
double storied houses (Fig. 11). Moreover, it was observed in Dakshinkhali that
users’ adaptations in limited budget transformed core shelters into a houses which
are very close to the traditional practices.
• Level of satisfaction: Both household survey and focus group discussion showed
that a high number of beneficiaries are not satisfied with the assistance received
from either GOs or NGOs. On the other hand, those who were satisfied mentioned
the strength and permanency of the reconstructed houses as the key reasons of
appreciation.
• Settlement pattern and visual eclecticism: In situ reconstruction works are found
to be in harmony with existing settlement patterns. This gave way to easier habi-
tation and adaptation by the users and the eventual level of satisfaction. Relo-
cated projects are identified as imposed on the local context, threatening local
identity and traditional cultural landscape. Although all built houses that aimed
for a finished product failed to harmonize with the surrounding and to generate
appropriate user adaptation that could lead to a less eclectic visual scenario.
7 Conclusion
The geographical location of Bangladesh with respect to the shoreline of Myanmar

and India, in combination with the emerging reality of climate change and corre-
sponding sea level rise, has made it inevitable that the country will continue to expe-
rience cyclones and storm surges of greater intensity and scale in coming years.
Therefore, the vulnerable coastal region will continue to be devastated and the
surviving traditional practices and the associated local knowledge will continue
to lose foothold, unless the top-down expert-driven approach of risk reduction,
disaster response, rehabilitation, and reconstruction is altered. The realm of post-
disaster reconstruction is being flooded with well-intended publications from agen-
cies focusing on risk reduction, poverty alleviation, and development. However, the
issue of safeguarding heritage, traditional practices, culture, local knowledge, and
indigenous wisdom is not yet prioritized. The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk
Reduction (UNISDR 2015) suggests recognizing heritage and tradition as a part and
parcel of reconstruction discourse.
This chapter has revealed that the heritage of traditional practices is rarely consid-
ered while the saving of lives and reviving livelihood options get prioritized through
a top-down expert-driven process of development. Whereas the traditional wooden
house forms (found in the study area) are potentially more resilient to cyclones
and storm surges than most of the new house forms, proposed and constructed by
various agencies. The repeated top-down advocacy delivered from reconstruction
agencies has influenced and modified the aspiration of some households towards
masonry-built houses over traditional wooden ones. It shows how external interven-
tions, conducted without considering the context, can undermine traditional practices
and local knowledge and can demotivate the affected population to practice their
traditions. By ignoring traditional wisdom and indigenous knowledge, research insti-
tutions and decision-makers follow the top-down expert-driven approach, neglecting
a wealth of knowledge. This kind of practice flaws the decision-making process,
which consequently fails to involve local communities (Chowdhooree 2019; Hirsch
and Alam 2007).
It can be suggested that the post-disaster reconstruction regime of Bangladesh
should be open to include ideas from traditional practices, local knowledge, and local
masons and craftsmen following the guidelines of Sendai Framework for Disaster
Risk Reduction 2015–2030. Organizations working primarily in the field of heritage
conservation should get involved with local communities in reconstruction and reha-
bilitation projects. The terms like sustainable, people-centric, and owner-driven
should no longer remain popular risk reduction jargons, these should be applied
in accordance with what these concepts are destined to achieve.
100 S. M. Ghani
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Mr. Ghani is employed as a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Architecture, BRAC Univer-
sity and at present is working as a member of its Postgraduate Programs in Disaster Management
Board. He completed his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Bangladesh University of Engi-
neering and Technology specializing on urban mixed-use developments. He has served as archi-
tectural consultant for numerous building and interior design projects all over Bangladesh. He
was also part of post-cyclone reconstruction projects for rural communities. Before joining BRAC
University, he served as a faculty at Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology, Dhaka.
His master’s research, done at BRAC University, was on post-disaster reconstruction. His research
interests include culturally appropriate interventions, risk reduction and development, sustainable
urbanism and housing, and heritage and cultural landscapes at risk.
Designing Spaces with Victims
of Humanitarian Crisis: Action Research
on Spaces for Children at Rohingya
Camps in Bangladesh
Emerald Upoma Baidya, Farah Mahboob, Fatiha Polin,

and Imon Chowdhooree
Abstract The victims of humanitarian crisis, due to series of constraints, usually

need to evacuate from their native places and seek asylums in any safer location. The
temporary accommodation of displaced population, identifying as refugee camps
provide fragments of ‘bare life’, where children of the victim community rarely
get opportunities to have an environment suitable for their physical and mental
growth. This chapter studies the camps established in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh
for temporarily accommodating Rohingya population who were forced to migrate
from Myanmar. The child-friendly spaces developed as Humanitarian Play Labs
(HPL)s within the camp areas provided the scope for exploring an interactive and
community participatory design process for making the spaces culturally sensitive.
The pilot process of current research identified three features which were added to
existing HPLs: wall decoration (alpona), fabric-made drop ceiling (shamiyana) and
bamboo platforms. It was identified that the playful, creative and engaging environ-
ments helped children better to manage their traumatic condition, caused by humani-
tarian crisis experiences. Moreover, retaining their identity through adding traditional
features to HPLs was also identified as a crucial aspect of healing through tailored
and creative activities and spaces.
Keywords Child friendly space · Childhood development · Learning through

play · Co-creating spaces · Rohingya art and culture · Humanitarian crisis ·
Humanitarian play lab (HPL)
E. U. Baidya (B) · F. Mahboob

BRAC Institute of Education Development, Dhaka, Bangladesh
e-mail: emerald.upoma@gmail.com
F. Mahboob
e-mail: fmahboobarc@gmail.com
F. Polin
Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements, Dhaka, Bangladesh
e-mail: fatihapolin@gmail.com
I. Chowdhooree

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4948-9_6
104 E. U. Baidya et al.
1 Introduction
Humanitarian crisis is more accurately defined as ‘crime against humanity’ and the
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court has recognized a range of crimes
within this criteria that include murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation or
forcible transfer of population, imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical
liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law, torture, rape, sexual
slavery, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, enforced prostitution, or any other
form of sexual violence of comparable gravity, persecution against any identifiable
group, enforced disappearance of persons, apartheid crimes, inhumane acts that cause
great suffering or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health against any
civilian population as a part of widespread or systematic attack (UN 2014; Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court 1999).
In any such condition, irrespective of its nature and context, victims usually
face series of constraints which include physical and sexual violence, enslave-
ment, communicable diseases, imprisonment, losing homes, detachment from native
places, economic loss, emotional distress, food scarcity and associated other socio-
economic challenges. Being victims of humanitarian crises, they experience as well
as witness violence, loss of family members, get displaced from native places, and
face violations of human rights, along with experiencing a range of other socio-
economic challenges (Hermosilla et al. 2019; UN 2014; Hill 2004). Displacement of
a community from its native place, due to humanitarian crisis, forces them to seek
asylum in a safer location, where they are usually identified as refugees though all
displaced populations do not fall under the category of refugee definition. In some
cases, they are identified as stateless person as well as internally displaced person
(IDP). Refugees as recognized citizens of a particular country are identified as victims
of any humanitarian crisis who have crossed international boarder and need human-
itarian assistance (means all kinds of care and attention) from a host community as
well as from international communities for an interim period before going back to
their previous living condition. Stateless persons are not legally identified as citizens
of any recognized country and internally displaced people means they did not cross
an international boarder. The temporary accommodation of refugees, identifying as
refugee camps provide fragments of ‘bare life’, preparing its inhabitants to return to
‘normality’ (Chaux and Haugh 2018; Turner 2014, 2005, 2010). Media portrayals of
refugee camps emphasize the short-term and humanitarian nature of these camps—
usually depicting starving and injured refugees, desperately waiting for help in food
distribution queues and makeshift hospitals. In fact, the average length of stay is
nearly 20 years and for some refugees this represents their whole life to date (Chaux
and Haugh 2018; Milner and Loescher 2011). The wellbeing of victim children is
usually severely threatened by the risk of violent activities, abduction and abuse,
and the disruption of development (Hermosilla et al. 2019). Children in this condi-
tion, pursue a series of humanitarian needs to ensure their safety and security along
with maintaining every child right and promoting their psychosocial wellbeing. It
seeks a special attention towards the needs of children while designing spaces for
Designing Spaces with Victims of Humanitarian … 105
Fig. 1 View of a Rohingya camp, Cox’s Bazar (Field study 2018)
them within a refugee camp. The term “design” refers to the comprehensive array
of influencing factors, based on a single idea of serving a definite purpose, that not
only refers to what is created but also the organic nature of the creation and how it
will influence activity and thought (Feinberg and Keller 2010). Designing a space
solely for children within a refugee camp, referring as child-friendly space (CFS),
demands to conduct an action research, considering the socio-cultural context of the
beneficiary community and availability of necessary resources.
This chapter intends to narrate and evaluate the action research conducted by
the BRAC Institute of Educational Development for designing child-friendly spaces
(CFS) in Rohingya camps (Fig. 1), situated in Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh. The
Rohingya community is identified as an ethnic minority group of Myanmar, residing
mostly in its state of Rakhine and not enlisted as citizen of Myanmar. 8,30,000 of the
Rohingya people have crossed the international border and now residing in several
camps, established within the territory of neighboring country Bangladesh, after
being evicted from their place of residence due to crimes against humanity committed
by the government security forces, including mass atrocities, sexual violence, and
widespread arson (Human Rights Watch 2020).
2 Background
2.1 Child Friendly Spaces in Refugee Camps
Children of victim communities, due to humanitarian crises experience a broad range

of protection risks, where they get exposed to life-threatening and traumatic incidents
and severe risks of being separated from parents and other family members, being
displaced, neglected, sexually exploited and abducted. (Ager et al. 2011). Their
psychosocial wellbeing gets challenged due to exposure to traumatic events and
disruption of pre-existing patterns of lifestyle (Reed et al. 2011). These children
are brought to camps of displaced population along with their family members or
without their family members and reside there until the cause of their displacement
is resolved. According to the statistics of 2016, over 65 million persons as victims of
displacement are residing in camps (UNHCR 2016a) and the number is increasing.
The displaced population of any form can be identified as ‘matter out of place’
(Douglas 1966, pp. 48) in the ‘national order of things’ (Malkki 1995, pp. 495)
and their temporal accommodation (commonly refereed as refugee camps) as those
are planned (Chaux and Haugh 2018) become the containers that allow to maintain
fragments of ‘bare life’ and anomalous humanity (Turner 2005, 2010). Children
of this kind of sheltered community are being raised in that condition with scars
of crimes which they faced and witnessed. Refugee camps are usually located in
remote and thinly populated areas (Turner 2015) where outsiders are prevented from
entrance and refugees are prohibited from leaving unless to permanently return to
their home country (Chaux and Haugh 2018; Ramadan 2013; Turner 2005).
The host community as well as international communities usually runs develop-
ment programs along with providing care and maintenance in such a way so that after
the temporal condition they may go back to normality in a peaceful condition. Several
programs are conducted aiming to create a responsible and reasonable ‘community’
out of what they perceived as a traumatized, apathetic mass of refugees (Turner,
2005, 2010). Humanitarian responses often address the needs of victims through
psychosocial programming which also targets children so that they can recover from
threats against their overall wellbeing. Building Child Friendly Spaces (CFS) within
the camp area commonly seeks attention. Hermisilla and colleagues (2019) found
positive impacts of those spaces on the mental and physical growth of children of
camp areas. Child Friendly Spaces (CFS), primarily have been considered as a stan-
dard approach for supporting children’s psychosocial wellbeing and local facilitators
from host or international communities usually attempt to make resources available
to victims through conducting structured activities (Child Protection Working Group
2012; Save the children 2008; UNICEF 2011). CFSs aim to provide safe and comfort-
able environment in which children receive supports for their well-being in situations
of extreme adversity (UNICEF 2011, 2009) and these aid to build their personal
resources such as confidence, self-respect and emotional self-regulation as well as
broader coping strategies (Hermosilla et al. 2019). CFSs are usually created as scal-
able, adaptable and creative programs, involving games, fine and performing arts,
and interactive educational activities, which are effortlessly operable in challenging

contexts in a cost-effective manner (Ager et al. 2013; UNICEF 2009; Kostelny and
Wessells 2008). To make CFSs successful, special attention needs to be drawn to
take decisions for designing the space. Feinberg and Keller (2010) define the term
“design” as the comprehensive array of influencing factors based on a single idea and
deciding the mechanism of transforming that idea to reality to carry out the purpose.
Designing spaces for children needs to perceive the physical space (how patrons view
and use the space), as well as the intuitive space, considering the dynamics of daily
interactions that affect the space along with its enclosure, contents and habitation
(Feinberg and Keller 2010). This research focuses on the design dynamics of child
friendly spaces in refugee camps.
2.2 Involvement of BRAC Institute of Educational

Development in Rohingya Camps
The massive humanitarian crisis which was unfold in Myanmar’s Rakhine state,
forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people to cross the border into neigh-
boring Bangladesh. According to the UNICEF (2019) at present, around 919,000
Rohingyas are living in the southern Bangladesh, almost 700,000 of which arrived
following the violence of late August 2017. Instead of identifying them as refugees the
Government of Bangladesh prefers to identify them as forcibly displaced Rohingyas.
With the support of local communities, as well as, national and international organi-
zations, the Government of Bangladesh has been addressing this humanitarian crisis
through accommodating them in some designated camps which have been settled in
Cox’s Bazar district, close to the border with Myanmar (UNICEF 2019). Along with
other organizations, BRAC got involved here. BRAC is identified as the largest non-
governmental development organization in the world, working to empower people
and communities in situations of poverty, illiteracy, disease and social injustice
(BRAC 2020). BRAC intended to create opportunities to build skills and resilience
that are long-lasting and applicable in multiple contexts, for ensuring secure and
dignified repatriation of the displaced Rohingya population. Their programs include
learning opportunities for children, developing life skills of adolescents, and cash
for work for the adults (BRAC 2018).
Along with targeting this large-scale humanitarian crisis through providing basic
physical needs of food and water, hygiene and sanitation and protecting their funda-
mental rights, BRAC specially has developed a program, targeting children, as 55%
of total Rohingya population are children; many of whom were detached from their
families, and have faced serious issues related to psychological distress, vulnera-
bility and trauma (BRAC 2018). A need was felt to create child-friendly spaces
(CFS) within the camp areas, where children will be safe and protected and will take
part in creative activities incorporating elements of playing, through which healing
can be possible (BRAC 2020; Mariam et al. 2019). Child Friendly Spaces (CFS) are
considered as measures of emergency response to provide a safe space for children

in any crisis. Similar spaces for the Rohingya children were decided to build within
the camp area. The BRAC’s program for creating CFS is called Humanitarian Play
Lab (HPL) which is aimed to develop as the model of play-based solution, appli-
cable to help refugee children to learn and recover from trauma and it is supported
by research works where playing is identified as a tool for healing trauma (BRAC
2020). It recognizes the need for more structured interventions for long-term early
childhood development (ECD) strategies.
The LEGO Foundation, under Clinton Foundation, works to promote the impor-
tance of learning through play in the developing world through the BRAC Play Lab
Project in Bangladesh, Uganda and Tanzania (The LEGO Foundation 2020). Since
2015 through intending to promote playing as a learning tool, BRAC along with the
LEGO Foundation, has been developing and implementing the play model. The play
model as an instrument is designed to keep children engaged which may provide stim-
ulation for cognitive and social-emotional development and develop self-regulation
and resilience (Mariam et al. 2019). The model incorporates play-based learning in
its curriculum and is implemented over 300 play spaces across Dhaka, the capital of
Bangladesh. BRAC’s HPL model is an adaptation of the Play Model developed by
the LEGO Foundation. But at the beginning, this play model was developed for the
children of marginalized communities of urban areas, not for refugee children. The
BRAC Institute of Educational Development (BIED) on behalf of BRAC has been
running the Humanitarian Play Lab (HPL) curriculum for children aged 2–6 within
the framework of CFS. The main objective of HPL is to use play as a tool for healing
and learning. At HPLs, the everyday session includes different activities, i.e. reciting
kabbya (Rhymes), narrating kissa (stories), preparing visual arts and craft items, and
playing unique local games. The psychosocial aspect makes the model unique from
the other existing models. This institute officially got involved in September 2018,
with the slogan “Play to Heal, Play to Learn,” to explore the concept, in the low
resource and humanitarian settings of Rohingya camps (BRAC 2019). As Dr. Erum
Mariam, Executive Director of BRAC IED said,
The Humanitarian Play Lab model is a repurposing of the Science of Play for settings troubled
by humanitarian crisis. Learning through play portrays children as being empowered and
upholds their dignity. It provides them with comfort, happiness and pride as they play with
toys, engage in physical play, recite and chant (BRAC 2019)
By adapting the model to the highly contextualized settings within the Rohingya
community, BRAC intends to seek appropriate approaches for early childhood devel-
opment, child protection, and psychosocial well-being in a humanitarian setting. This
research is focused on the spatial design of HPLs of Rohingya camps.
3 Methodology
This research selected Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar as case study areas for
exploring the process of designing the play spaces, establishing its relationship with
traditional cultural practices of Rohingyas for generating a sense of ownership to
user groups. Building HPLs within the camp areas started through engaging the
community members (children along with their mothers/female guardians) in a the
multi-stakeholder decision-making process of building HPLs. The pilot process of
current research conducted in 2018 allowed the users (children along with their
mother/female guardians) to use the space and let them personalize the space and
simultaneously community reactions were observed and monitored for tracing feed-
backs on the process and final outcomes. HPLs of three camps at Kutupalong, Hakim-
para and Balukhali of Ukhia sub-district in Cox’s Bazar were selected to conduct
this research (Figs. 2 and 3).
Fig. 2 Map showing

locations of studied HPLs
(Field study 2018)
Fig. 3 HPL of Kutupalong camp (Field study 2018)
The multi-stakeholder team was formed in the first phase to get feedback from all
members who could contribute in the decision-making process. The main objective
of forming that multi-stakeholder team was to ensure the participation of the target
beneficiary group in an effective participatory way. The Initial meeting with the
camp authority allowed the BIED team to enter the camp areas and select suitable
participants. The community leaders were approached and interviewed in a semi-
structured manner to understand the process of building HPLs within the camp areas.
The BRAC HPL model, as a contextualized adaptation of the BRAC Play Lab model,
was primarily aimed to cater children aged from 2 to 6 years. But practically it has
potentials to become a space for children of all ages. Here, the targeted community
members were the Rohingya children of camp area, among whom some had lost their
parents and family members and came here along with their neighbors. For receiving
proper feedback from the user groups, children aged from 4 to 12 years (pre-teen)
were targeted and they were allowed to participate along with their mothers or female
guardians so that they feel comfortable to participate and in necessary cases, their
guardians can communicate on behalf of them.
The pilot process allowed the participants to use the space, participate in inter-
active sessions and provide personal touches through decorating or modifying the
interior and exterior spaces of the HPLs. The main objective of the process was
to allow the users to participate directly in creating their own spaces. The phase
initially employed focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews to know
their cultural practices and traditions for creating or decorating spaces, focusing on
children and later based on their feedback, interactive sessions were arranged where
children along with their guardians were encouraged to share their usual cultural
practices and exercise their traditions in terms of choosing colors, selecting deco-
rating items, preparing those items and decorating the whole space. The process also
allowed to engage parents and instructors (teachers) who work at HPLs to trace reac-
tions of participants towards the process and final outcomes through observations
and focus group discussions.
4 Designing Humanitarian Play-Labs
Initial surveys and focus group discussions conducted within the camps revealed
the fact that traditions and cultural norms used to play a strong role in the everyday
lives of Rohingya community members. These conversations became a journey of
cultural discoveries. The community leaders in the interviews delivered the idea that
the children used to use courtyards within their homesteads of their original place of
residence in Myanmar to play there. The courtyard used to serve as a multi-functional
space where the children used to spend most of their time through playing traditional
games. Their houses, as well as the courtyards used to be surrounded by tall betel nut
trees, serving the purpose of fencing the territory through allowing natural light and
ventilation, and maintaining privacy. In the current condition, the children usually
play with whatever little materials they can find around their vicinity. As playing is
an important activity for the children, the HPLs need to be able to serve that purpose
successfully. The guardians as well as the children wanted HPLs in their camps
to be like the courtyards which they used to have back in Myanmar. The process
of building HPLs employed tools like, transect walks and focus group discussions
to make major decisions about HPLs, which included selecting suitable location,
appropriate dimension, building materials and construction technology and func-
tional spaces. At that time, teams were formed with participants included members
from BIED (research tem), local building material and construction experts, staffs
from camp-managing authority and targeted community members.
Because of the high density in camp areas, practically it was not possible to provide
enough open outdoor spaces like courtyards for playing outdoor. Based on the site
availability and opinions of camp authorities, building and construction experts and
community participants it was decided to build HPLs as open and unrestricted indoor
spaces. Each HPL (Fig. 3) was planned to build as a rectangular open single space
with approximate dimensions of 3.6-m × 7.3-m. Because of available materials,
construction technology and budget, it was decided to build each HPL mostly as a
bamboo structure where structural loads are carried by bamboo columns and beams.
The upper portion of walls (above 122 cm from the ground) of the structure were made
of crisscross perforated bamboo fences (tiyara/tangrabera) to ensure natural lighting
and air circulation and the lower portions (up to 122 cm from the ground) were made
with corrugated iron sheet for waterproofing and security. The roofs were made of
tender bamboos and shaded with thatch, tarpaulin and bamboo net fencing. The sheet
of tarpaulin was decided to add on the roof for ensuring rain protection. Construction
materials and styles were mostly suggested by local experts and representatives of
camp authorities, considering budget and materials availability.
The pilot process of current research allowed the research participants to use the
space and they were encouraged to add elements or decorate the space according to
their traditional practices and past experiences. In the semi-structured interviews, it
was attempted to know children’s favorite color, usual practices of decorating homes,
sources of getting decorating items and let them prepare and use those items or ways
to decorate the spaces. The focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews
conducted at this stage, found out the information that children as well as adults love
to decorate their houses through drawing colorful floral motifs on walls and floors and
adding colorful fabric-made ceiling drops under the main roof. These floral motifs on
walls and floors are termed as Alpona and the ceiling drops are called as Shamiyanas.
Shamiyanas also help to control the indoor temperature, working as multi-layered
insulators.
It was decided to arrange interactive art workshops in HPLs for engaging partici-
pants into creating art works, remembering their past experiences. At first art mate-
rials like colors and papers were supplied to a group of 10–15 children of 4–12 years
old and they were encouraged to draw whatever they like. During the process, the
children sat in groups and shared the art supplies with everyone. At the beginning
some children were hesitating to draw on papers and were only observing others
who were very enthusiastically started to draw on papers. But later everyone started
to draw on papers. Children of age 4–5 picked basic colors to draw and mostly drew
elementary shapes (dots, lines, circles etc.) with color pencils. Children of age 6–8
drew mostly flowers, domestic animals, balls or other play materials, using variety
of colors. Girls of age 8–12 started to draw mostly floral motifs and later almost
everyone drew floral patterns with vibrant colors which were highly influenced from
their traditional alpona designs (Fig. 4). Based on the discussions, it was found that,
their favorite colors are red, green, yellow and white. Besides floral motifs, boys also
drew images of planes, cars, helicopters, and animals. Later the participants were
allowed to draw these motifs on the exterior and interior wall surfaces of the HPLs
with permanent colors (Fig. 5). Most of the children were not confident to draw on
the walls at first. Some children were not familiar with using liquid paint or brushes.
So, the participation was not spontaneous at the beginning. Eventually when one or
two children started drawing with paint on the walls, gradually other children started
to show their interests to create motifs on walls. It was a slow process at the begin-
ning, but once it started, children loved the process and eventually all the children
including outreach workers participated in it. Children of age 4–6 years wanted to
touch the paint as it was a new experience to them. They wanted to dab fingers in
the paint to draw on the wall or use thick brushes to draw lines or solid objects.
To make HPLs more culturally contextual it was decided to add the shamiyana
as drop-ceiling of the space (Fig. 6). Participating women played active roles to
add shamiyanas to these structures, as the Rohingya women used to prepare these
items with fabric and threads at home for their houses. They provided information
regarding all details of preparing these shamiyanas. After providing the materials
the women formed groups to prepare shamiyanas for all HPLs in their camps. At
Fig. 4 Floral motifs drawn on paper by participants (Field study 2018)
first, they made the design outline on paper and then transformed that idea into real
materials. Every participant became enthusiastic to contribute in that task. In the
Design process of shamiyana, adolescents and young mothers drew and decided the
motif to put on. Though shamiyanas were prepared by the adolescents and mothers;
Fig. 5 Participants are painting on wall surfaces (Field study 2018)
children had immense joy when it was installed in the center. Children celebrated
the installation in a festive way.
The information was also received that the Rohingya people living at the camps
usually add bamboo platforms (matcha) in front of their shelters (Fig. 7). Taking
inspirations from this pratice, participants also suggested to add bamboo platforms of
different sizes around the HPLs, so that children can use those as a transitional space
between the indoor and the outdoor areas. Following their ideas bamboo platforms
were added at different levels.
The pilot process of current research identified three features which were added
to existing HPLs: wall decoration (alpona), fabric-made drop ceiling (shamiyana)
and bamboo platforms.
Inviting the children, adolescents and community members into designing and
decorating the HPL provided a sense of familiarity and ownership within the commu-
nity regarding HPLs. Furthermore, this was also practicing to retain the Rohingya
culture. During the process, the participants were observed and approached to know
their reactions about the process of contextualizing HPLs. The adults expressed their
satisfactions regarding the location and environment of HPLs. They never thought
of having any space like HPL within a camp or emergency shelter area. The process
helped them as well as their children to get involved in creative activities, leaving
their traumatic experiences behind. The space is perceived as safe and their children
enjoys the time spending there. The instructors of HPLs provided the information
Fig. 6 A view of Shamiyana

(Field study 2018)
that they noticed positive changes among the children after getting engaged in the
pilot process of decorating HPLs. According to them, the HPL is getting the success
as it provides a safe platform and integrates traditional cultural practices with the
healing process through engaging the children into physical and creative activities.
Within a very short time the active engagement worked as a therapeutic process and
the designed environment proved its successes as a curative tool to address children’s
behavioral and psychological issues. The children feel free coming here, not real-
izing that they are not allowed to leave the camp area. The traditionally significant
arts and crafts, as elements of nostalgia allow the children as well as adults to feel
a homely environment as if the original home is not very far away.
5 Discussion and Conclusion
At first glance, refugee camps are most commonly portrayed as prisons or mental
hospitals in which social stability is maintained through coercion (Chaux and Haugh
2018; Berk 1966; Thomas 1984). Goffman (1961), interested in organizations such
Fig. 7 Children are playing on bamboo platforms attached to their housing unit (Field study 2018)
as prisons, mental hospitals, boarding schools, and monasteries, terms these orga-
nizations as the total institution, where many like-situated individuals reside, work
and live an enclosed, formally administered round, detached from the wider society.
Refugee camps are similar places for accommodating refugees and displaced popu-
lation. These are sometimes even identified as cities (Agier 2002) and the authority
actively negotiates the camp, creating new identities. Refugees are not only passive
victims of the history, but they are temporarily identified as remaining outside the
history while they are living in camps, hoping to get back to their previous lifestyle.
They also create a parallel history, where their lives have been stopped at certain
period. In this captive condition, the prevailing emotions of camp-dwellers are usually
extreme boredom and frustration, as once refugees enter a camp, they relinquish their
autonomy and are not allowed to work or move freely outside the camp, unless to
return home. The refugee camps are ideally expected to keep the enthusiasm among
its dwellers so that they can get hopes for living better and can get back to ‘normality’.
Violence and displacement had created exceptional conditions, and it was the task
of the camp leadership to prepare the refugees in such a way so that they may live a
normal life in a camp environment, at the same time, they may get ready to go back
to their original lifestyle.
The HPL, with its special features and scopes for engaging children and adults
contributes positively to the camp environment. Those have provided the platform for
healing through play, using traditional games, rhymes and activities and fostered a
sense of community among displaced peoples by creating a supportive environment

for mothers and children. The designed environment of HPLs allowed to run the
play therapy which is used as a curative tool to address children’s behavioral and
psychological issues. The uninterrupted courtyard-like space of an HPL, alponas on
its walls and scopes for drawing and painting on walls, scopes of playing on, with
and around bamboo platforms and spending time under colorful shamiyanas help
the children to learn, develop and understand the world around them. These were
identified as therapeutic, as these helped children to express their feelings. This was
especially important for children in fragile settings, where they were exposed to
violence and poverty. It was communicated that the playful creative and engaging
environments helped such children better to manage their traumatic condition, caused
by their experiences. Moreover, retaining their identity was also considered as a
crucial aspect of healing and the process deliberately attempted to integrate cultural
and traditional practices in the play model through tailored and creative activities and
spaces. The spaces have been designed with arts and crafts, elements of nostalgia for
the old home. The BRAC IED team, women, adolescents and children have worked
together to design the spaces with culturally significant artworks, floral patterns and
motifs. Their reactions, which were overwhelmed in nature, also encourage to explore
scopes to conduct further research, using a playfulness scale to assess quantitatively
the recovery level of children and impacts of design elements on the healing process
of children.
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Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology in 2014 and is currently perusing her Master
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Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements since the beginning of the institute in
2015. She received her Bachelor in Architecture degree from Ahsanullah University of Science
and Technology in 2007 and recently completed her Master in Disaster Management degree from
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conferences across the globe.
Addressing Urban Risks
Disaster Risk Reduction in Cities:
Towards a New Normal
Aaron Clark-Ginsberg, Jonathan S. Blake, and Karishma Patel
Abstract This chapter introduces some of the key issues facing scholars and
practitioners of disaster risk reduction (DRR) in urban areas, which are now home
to over half of the global population. After a brief introduction, the chapter defines
cities as socio-technical systems distinguished not only by their large populations
but by containing a diversity and concentration of institutional structures, cultures,
and industries. There is much variety among cities as well as within them, with wide
ranges on many factors, including size, governance type and quality, and wealth. The
next section explores the risks that exist in cities. The authors argue that many of
the aspects of risks are the results of human decisions. This includes decisions that
increase potential exposure to hazards and people’s vulnerabilities to them, such as
land use policies, natural resource management, building regulations, and the provi-
sion of social services. The result of such decisions often leaves poor and marginal-
ized people more exposed and more vulnerable to the wide spectrum of hazards
that impact cities. These hazards generally fall into three categories: natural hazards
(e.g., earthquakes and floods), human-caused yet unintentional hazards (e.g., trans-
portation accidents and industrial accidents), and intentional human-caused hazards
(e.g., war and terrorism). But the line between these types are often unclear, as neglect,
negligence, corruption, poor planning, and lax enforcement raise questions of human
culpability in the production of disasters triggered by seemingly natural hazards. The
next section discusses potential solutions for addressing urban risks. The authors
warn, however, that the interaction of hazards, vulnerabilities, and capacities in every
city is unique, which means that there is no single ‘formula’ for successful urban
DRR. With this caveat in mind, the authors raise exciting paths forward for DRR
A. Clark-Ginsberg (B) · J. S. Blake · K. Patel

RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, USA
e-mail: clarkginsberga@gmail.com
J. S. Blake
e-mail: jblake@rand.org
K. Patel
e-mail: karishma@rand.org

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4948-9_7
124 A. Clark-Ginsberg et al.
based on complexity approaches, climate change adaptation, governance, technology,

and a focus on equity.
Keywords Urban environment · Urban risks · Disaster risk reduction · Urban

population
1 Introduction
Urbanization has been a profound trend that has changed the character of the world
over the past decades and is expected to continue well into the future. In 1950, only
29% of people lived in cities. Today, over 50% of people are city dwellers, a number
that is expected to grow to 68% by 2050 (UN DESA Population Division 2018).
As people have urbanized, so too have disaster risks. NGOs, government agencies,
communities, and private sector organizations, consequently, must address the many
risks found in cities. The urban environment, however, poses distinct challenges that
create unique risks either not found or found far less frequently or severely in other
settings. This means that disaster risk reduction (DRR) in cities requires different
approaches to be effective. The chapters in this section provide a range of views as to
how this can be done. As a prelude to those contributions, this chapter offers a brief
overview of DRR in cities, touching on the urban environment, the urban riskscape,
and promising solutions for urban DRR.
2 The Urban Environment
Before examining risks and risk reduction in cities, it is important to understand what
is meant by a city. While they are home to large numbers of people, cities are not
defined merely as agglomerations of people. In addition to being large human settle-
ments, cities entail a diversity and concentration of institutional structures, cultures,
and industries. Heterogeneous and complex, they vary across different dimensions,
including population, geography, housing and infrastructure, economics, and patterns
of development, as well as within these dimensions over time and across space.
Recognizing the different cultural, economic, and social dimensions and how they
interact with one another can help identify what a city truly is: a sociotechnical system
“consist[ing] not only of hardware, but of legal, corporate, and political-economic
elements” (Edwards 2003, p. 199).
Cities often vary dramatically along these lines. They can differ in size, from
small cities such as boroughs with relatively small municipal governments to large
cities to huge ‘megacities’ of over 10 million residents. Governance properties can
vary within similarly sized cities. For instance, mega-regions, or clusters of multiple
cities with millions of people each, can range from highly integrated with hierar-
chical governance structures, to loosely integrated megacities with decentralized or
Disaster Risk Reduction in Cities: Towards a New Normal 125
polycentric structures of governance. Governance may also be influenced by the

state power, as some cities have highly formalized state-centric governance struc-
tures while others have highly informal ones, even to the extent that most residents
live in informal settlements and work in informal jobs in some cities (Myers 2010).
Economically, cities can be described as wealthy or poor along different dimen-
sions, including aggregate assets, residential wealth, poverty rates, metropolitan
productivity, employment, and government revenue and spending.
Differences in size, density, governance, and economics exist not only between
cities but within cities as well. For example, in many cities’ extreme poverty in
the form of slums and homeless populations offers a stark contrast to the opulence
of wealthier neighborhoods. Access to goods and services, as well as their quality
and reliability, can vary dramatically within cities, with some neighborhoods well
serviced and others lacking in even the necessities. Variation within cities continues
to grow, particularly in cities facing high rates of unregulated urban growth, adding
to factors related to poverty, unemployment, informality, and backlogs in public
services and creating cities comprised of ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ living side by side
(Williams et al. 2019).
3 The Urban Riskscape
Risk is the product of the magnitude and frequency of a hazard coupled with the
degree of vulnerability of people and their exposure to hazards (UNISDR 2017).
Hazards are events that have the potential to cause negative impacts such as loss of life,
property damage, disruptions to the economy, and environmental degradation. On its
own, a hazard is not a disaster. For a disaster to occur, people must be exposed to the
hazard and vulnerable to losses. Exposure refers to the situation of people or situations
located in hazard-prone areas. Vulnerability is characterized by physical, social,
economic, and geographic constraints that reduce one’s ability to prepare for or cope
with the impacts of hazards. Exposure and vulnerability are both deeply influenced by
human decisions. Many decisions related to urban life shape vulnerability, including
those related to land use, natural resource management, building regulations, and
the provision of social services such as education and healthcare. These decisions,
to be sure, are often severely constrained, making some people more vulnerable and
exposed to hazards than others: poverty, marginalization, discrimination, and lack
of access to services mean that some populations have far less choice than others
as to where to live, the services they can access, and the jobs they can get. They
often instead suffer from the decisions of those that are better off, who prosper from
activities that often create risks elsewhere (Lewis and Kelman 2012).
Given the diversity of the urban environment and its inhabitants, it can be difficult
to characterize the ‘typical’ risks in cities. Risks are not evenly distributed within
urban areas nor across them. For example, the poor are often exposed to more risks
and have less access to resources than those with higher incomes and assets. This lack
of access to resources means that they are more vulnerable when a hazard occurs. The
most vulnerable often reside on the streets, in slums, or in other informal settlements,
which are often labeled as illegal and deprived of amenities and public services. Risks
also vary between cities, depending on factors like geography, topography, climate,
wealth, service provision, and regulations. For instance, relative to other cities, large
coastal cities are more directly vulnerable to storm surges, rising sea levels, flooding,
and local and regional land subsidence (Hoegh-Guldberg et al. 2019), while cities
on fault lines can face earthquake-related hazards. Disproportionately constrained
by resources, cities in the Global South tend to be more vulnerable than cities in the
Global North so frequently face greater risk.
Although each city has a unique risk profile, there are certain hazards common
to nearly all of them. First, natural hazards exist in all cities, even if their frequency
and severity vary greatly. Depending on their climate and geographic location, cities
can be exposed to the full gamut of natural hazards: earthquakes, tsunamis/cyclones,
floods, landslides, blizzards, tornados, and tidal surges, to name but a few. Second,
cities face human-caused yet unintentional hazards, such as transportation accidents,
fires, industrial accidents, and building collapse. The quality of the built environment
plays a major factor in the magnitude and frequency of these hazards; as it improves,
these hazards decrease. And third, cities face intentional human-caused hazards, such
as war, terrorism, riots, cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, and other acts of large-
scale disruption. Social, political, and economic relations shape these intentional
hazards, including the extent of their frequency.
The line between natural hazards, unintentional human hazards, and intentional
human hazards, however, is not always clear. Neglect, negligence, corruption, poor
planning, and lax enforcement raise questions of human culpability in the production
of disasters triggered by seemingly natural hazards. While the destruction of a house,
or even entire community, may be proximately caused by a natural hazard such as a
river flooding or landslide, it was intentional human decisions, including building in a
hazardous location, neglecting infrastructural improvements, and not keeping build-
ings up to code, that are the underlying cause of the disaster. Indeed, policymakers
are increasingly recognizing that natural and human-caused intentional hazards are
linked in important ways and are making efforts to integrate their management, such
as through the integration of disaster risk reduction and peacebuilding in conflict
situations (Peters et al. 2019). Because human decisions are at the heart of all disas-
ters, including those caused by natural hazards, no disaster is truly ‘natural’ but is
rather the manifestation of human decisions (Wisner et al. 2004).
All the types of hazards just described are found in non-urban environments as
well, but certain characteristics of cities make those more likely and more severe. The
basic fact of being spaces of concentrated populations means that high-impact, low-
frequency ‘intensive’ risks are likely: the impact of the same magnitude earthquake
will be much greater in a highly populated city compared to a less populated rural
area. What is more, cities’ high heterogeneity of people and systems means that the
low-severity, high-frequency ‘extensive’ risks are a feature of everyday life (Dodman
et al. 2017). Cumulatively, the impact of these disparate floods, fires, diseases, acts
of violence, and other extensive risks are disasters that rival any intensive disaster.
Finally, cities are reliant on large, complex socio-technical infrastructure systems,
which are vulnerable to technological hazards ranging from intentional or foreseen

to unintentional or unforeseen. Although vulnerable, stakeholders can form highly-
reliable networked structures from these systems that they can use to address many
of the risks that appear in cities (Berthod et al. 2017, Forthcoming).
Risks are not static but evolve based on the decisions of people and interactions
of components that make up or influence a city. Many actions create risks, such as
corruption, discrimination, and denial of access to resources (Lewis and Kelman
2012). And often, the actors creating the risks are not the ones who suffer when
disaster strikes (Wisner and Lavell 2017). For instance, the risks of harm from climate
change are disproportionately caused by the wealthy but felt by the poor. It is this
realization that leads Wisner and Lavell (2017) to call for moving beyond reactive
DRR efforts that focus on mitigating existing hazards to a more proactive agenda of
‘resisting disaster risk creation’ that targets preventing new hazards from arising.
Governance and urban planning play a critical role in shaping risk in cities
(Adelekan et al. 2015; Dodman et al. 2017). The outlook of a city in the present
has emerged out of the many choices that city managers have intentionally or unin-
tentionally made over the years, decades, and centuries (Knowles and Loeb, forth-
coming; Oliver-Smith 2012), and the outlook of a city in the future will emerge out
of choices made in the present that were built on the past. One choice, such as a
failure to regulate development or provide new settlements with services, can lead
to unchecked growth in informal settlements, which can exacerbate existing hazards
and create zones of high-risk. Another choice, formal planning processes that reject
informal, community-led practices, can exacerbate and create risks. Nairobi, Lagos,
and Bangkok are among cities that have witnessed large slum-clearing projects
that, despite being motivated towards risk reduction, ultimately introduced new
fragilities and reshaped risk by undermining informal governance structures that
had innately developed in response to local vulnerabilities and hazards. Alterna-
tively, city managers might try to geographically or temporally push risks outside
a city, reducing risks for here and for now. However, as the city continues to grow
or develop, these risks can re-emerge in the long-term, sometimes more severe. For
instance, Mexico City has historically imported its water from surrounding areas, but
as its metropolitan area has grown to include over 22 million people and absorbed
neighboring areas, its demand for water has been increased. This has led to ground-
water overexploitation, which has increased rates of land subsidence, flooding, and
landslides in these new parts of the city (Oswald Spring 2011; Tellman et al. 2018).
Socioeconomic factors, such as marginalization, poverty, and unequal economic
development also shape urban risks. Given the heavy dependence on markets for
securing basic necessities including housing, health services, and food and water,
poverty is often a major risk driver in cities: without strong livelihoods that provide
a steady source of income, the poor face near-constant threats related to factors such
as eviction, food insecurity, and lack of healthcare. Globalization influences many of
these threats and represents both an opportunity and challenge for people in cities.
For instance, the globalization of food supply chains has reduced chances of locally-
driven food shortages but has created a potential for global food crises—such as the
food crisis caused in part by international food trading that struck the world in the
2008 (Christiaensen 2009).
Climate change also contributes to disaster risk in cities. It does so in three main
ways. First, climate change directly affects storms, hurricanes, typhoons, wildfires,
floods, droughts, and other weather-related hazards adding uncertainty and altering
their frequency, intensity, duration, and complexity (IPCC 2014). The increase in
hazards frequency, duration, and intensity means that more people living in cities
are exposed to hazards while the additional uncertainty makes DRR planning more
difficult. Second, the changing climate can pose a challenge to existing social and
physical systems in cities, which have been developed for previous climate regimes.
For example, sea levels have boosted the magnitude of storm surges and flooding in
coastal cities during hurricanes and typhoons, overpowering existing infrastructure
and infiltrating areas further inland than before. Because, DRR systems have not been
developed for these new climate regimes, they are often not designed to deal with
the growing threats that climate change creates. Third, climate change exasperates
existing social vulnerabilities by undermining individuals’ abilities to cope with
the changes (Sanchez-Rodriguez 2009). For example, in India, changing seasonal
monsoon patterns are making it harder for farmers to reliably grow crops, impacting
their livelihoods (Taraz 2017). Linkages between rural and urban economic and social
systems means that such changes in crop production can impact cities, by for instance
compromising urban economic sectors dependent on agriculture and exacerbating
rural to urban migration.
The interactions between hazards, vulnerabilities, and risk management is
complex, requiring efforts to understand interdependencies and interactions between
multiple stakeholders. For instance, natural hazards can have synergistic effects
and interact with vulnerabilities and capacities in ways that increase or decrease
risks (Clark-Ginsberg et al. 2018): drought conditions and associated hot temper-
atures increase the potential for fires. In turn, fire-stricken lands are less able to
absorb surface water, which increases the chances of flooding. When people with
few resources are exposed to a multiplicity of hazards they can turn to negative
coping strategies that increase vulnerability, laying the groundwork for future disaster
(Clark-Ginsberg 2017).
4 Promising Solutions for Urban Disaster Risk Reduction
Addressing risks in cities involves utilizing the various capacities that can be found
in urban spaces to minimize hazards, reduce exposure, and improve vulnerability.
Given each city is its own unique socio-technical system, coming up with suitable
DRR practices that can work across cities is difficult. The unique interaction of
hazards, vulnerabilities, and capacities in cities, driven by a city’s hardware, legal,
corporate, and political-economic elements, means that there is no single ‘formula’
or ‘recipe’ for urban DRR; approaches that work in one location or context may not be
appropriate for another. Furthermore, interventions often have outcomes that can be
difficult to predict, meaning that an intervention designed to reduce risks in one area
may create it in another. Understanding how to improve DRR thus presents a signifi-
cant challenge for decision makers. However, given some of the overarching features
of the urban risk landscape, there are promising approaches, including complexity
orientations, enhancing governance, and leveraging new technology, that can be
deployed to reduce risks.
Working with complexity is one solution for urban DRR. DRR processes have
to encompass many constituent elements and ensure their harmonization within the
complex urban socio-technical systems. They must include bottom-up interventions
that are cognizant of localized differences and top-down interventions that respond
to national and global processes of shaping risks. Since vulnerability is often created
through everyday decisions, risk management is not just an activity undertaken by
specialized DRM agencies but is a crosscutting issue to be dealt with by all members
of the society, with the effectiveness of interventions as a product of how they shape
broader processes. Assessing how urban systems function and how they can be shaped
is not a trivial task, but several approaches show promises. The NGO GOAL is devel-
oping Resilience for Systems (R4S) approach (GOAL, n.d.) that aims to improve the
understanding of how systems function and how they react to shocks and stresses. To
do so R4S conceptualizes systems from a socio-technical perspective and draws on
techniques such as fuzzy cognitive mapping to show how system components relate.
GOAL has successfully applied R4S in Tegucigalpa, Honduras and other cities like
it to better understand the riskscape and where and how to reduce risks. Likewise,
techniques like Social Network Analysis (SNA) can be useful for understanding
how various stakeholders interact. Organizations such as the International Rescue
Committee have developed guidelines showing how to use SNA for development
interventions (International Rescue Committee 2016), and SNA has been used to
map out and analyze the risk reduction stakeholder networks in several cities (Clark-
Ginsberg 2020). Together these techniques and others like them can be used to help
understand risks in cities and identify for risk reduction cognizant of complexity.
Climate change adaptation is another example of how complexity approaches can
be deployed to address hazards and hazard drivers in cities. As a highly complex
‘wicked problem’, climate change lacks straightforward and widely-agreed upon
planning solutions (Levin et al. 2012). Instead, climate change adaptation seeks to
minimize climate change-related risk through a process of continual adjustments,
either incremental or transformational (IPCC 2014). Incremental adaptations are
adaptations that extend existing mechanisms aimed at reducing negative impacts
of climate change-related hazards (Kates et al. 2012). Constructing a seawall in
response to an increase in storm surges is an example of an incremental adaptation:
the seawall reduces the impact of storm surges through an intervention targeted at
a single, localized, system component. Transformational adaptations aim at large-
scale changes that create lasting shifts in how risks are structured in a system (Kates
et al. 2012). A transformational adaptation to storm surge would do more than merely
protect what exists but would rather combine natural and man-made infrastructures
to fundamentally change the ecosystem, introduce new coastal land uses, and change
how humans and natural systems interact. While truly and sustainably addressing
climate change-related hazards requires transformational adaptation, engaging in

transformational adaptation is often hindered by high costs for investment, institu-
tional and behavioral norms that lean toward the status quo, and the uncertainties in
climate risks (Kates et al. 2012). Transformational adaptations are often said to be
more feasible during certain windows of opportunity, such as after a disaster when
people are supposedly willing to ‘build back better’ to reduce future risks (Folke et al.
2010; Folke 2006). Yet transformation is rarely realized in these moments: following
the 2010 Haiti earthquake, efforts were made to rebuild the city of Port au Prince
better and stronger than before, both to earthquakes and to climate change-related
hazards like hurricanes. Yet on the 10-year anniversary of the earthquake the city is
arguably worse off than it was before the earthquake (Collodi et al 2019).
As the primary mechanism for capitalizing on the existing resources provided
by many and harnessing them towards a common objective, improving governance
is critical for reducing risks in cities. However, governance in and around urban
areas is often much more complex compared to rural areas. Not only are the concen-
trations of people higher, but urban areas tend to be more ethnically, socially, and
economically diverse, which makes coming to consensus over governance trajec-
tories difficult. Rapid growth due to in-migration from rural areas can also disrupt
social networks and the forms of rule and control that depend on those networks.
Finally, cities often contain multiple, overlapping systems of governance, ranging
from the national government to the municipal government to local power brokers
and neighborhood associations. These characteristics of urbans areas amount to a
“distinct environment characterized by great social and institutional complexity,”
which makes the provision of effective governance even more challenging (Auer-
bach et al. 2018, p. 263). This complexity can be seen in what have often emerged
as hybrid governance structures of cities, or governance structures shaped by both
state and non-state actors (Post et al. 2017). Risks in cities are often shaped by these
hybrid governance structures, in some cases with positive outcomes and in others
negative (Blake et al. 2019). Attempts to reduce the risks of disasters in urban areas
must pay attention to these multiple, at times cooperating and other times competing,
sources of governance, and work within this complex landscape.
Technological changes, while creating potential for new hazards such as those
related to cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, can also provide many tools for DRR.
New technologies for surveillance—such as the crowdsourced platform Ushahidi
(2018) can help identify and respond to emerging risks more quickly and more accu-
rately, before they become disasters. Ridesharing and mobility platforms such as
Uber and Lyft can be deployed to improve transportation, including during emer-
gencies. Mobile phones can connect people to each other and to institutions that
play roles in mitigating risks, such as banks for emergency cash transfers, and emer-
gency services and health departments. In Kenya, humanitarian organizations used
the mobile banking platform M-PESA to provide critical cash transfers in response
to the disasters caused by the 2008 post-election violence to great effect (Datta et al.
2008). If utilized correctly, some of these technologies have the potential to even
circumvent the need to develop more centrally planned and expensive infrastructure
systems, resulting in a new transformational adaptation that is easier to implement

than previous adaptations.
While some issues related to complexity, governance, and technology offer unique
advantages for cities, they also fall within usual overarching DRR practices of
risk analysis, preparedness, and mitigation. For instance, improving early warning
systems by utilizing new technologies can be a preparedness activity to facili-
tate early and rapid response in cities. Leveraging hybrid governance structures to
increase access education can reduce vulnerability by helping populations access
employment opportunities and social services. Since these interventions are broad,
they often fall outside the remit of agencies dedicated specifically to disaster manage-
ment, instead requiring broad support from a variety of agencies such as those focused
on health, environment, and social issues. Thus, like DRR interventions elsewhere,
this means that DRR is as much a broader developmental issue than an issue specific
to emergency management (Thomalla et al. 2018; Wisner et al. 2004).
Although managing risk in cities can be daunting given the scale of cities and
their vast risks, implementing DRR in urban environments also has advantages. As
concentrated bodies of people, institutional structures, physical and environmental
infrastructure, and social capacities, cities contain many resources that can be used
to reduce urban risks. Such resources mean that it is rarely the absolute scarcity of
resources that are creating risks, but rather the (in)equitability of how those resources
are being distributed. Cities are places of risk because the ‘have nots’ do not have the
same ability to access the broader resources of the city that the ‘haves’ do. Because
of this, risk reduction in cities is often about more effectively and more equitably
harnessing existing resources and using them to reduce risks.
Many different actors are working to advance the knowledge and practice of
urban DRR. At municipal level different stakeholders are coming together to address
the spectrum of urban-related risks. In the United States, the Greater Washington
Board of Trade is bringing together private sector companies, government officials,
nonprofit organizations, and researchers to attempt to collectively leverage smart
city technology to minimize risks and enhance opportunities that strengthen urban
resilience across the Washington, D.C., metropolitan region (Board of Trade, n.d.).
The Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre is using action-based research to enhance
capacities and knowledge for improving residents’ wellbeing in informal settle-
ments across the city of Freetown, Sierra Leone (SLURC, n.d.). Beyond municipal
level, research initiatives like ALNAP’s urban humanitarian Community of Prac-
tice (ALNAP, n.d.), University College Dublin’s Preparedness and Resilience to
address Urban Vulnerability Project (PRUV, n.d.), and Harvard University’s Urban-
ization and Resilience Program (Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, n.d.) are devel-
oping evidence-based solutions to address urban vulnerability and hazards. NGOs,
such as the Resilient Cities Catalyst (Resilient Cities Catalyst, n.d.), a continuation
of the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities Initiative, are taking those solu-
tions and using them to reduce risks in cities across the world. These efforts are
supported by global policy processes such the United Nation’s New Urban Agenda
(United Nations 2017), a global action plan for sustainable urban development, and
its Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (United Nations 2015) which
provides a global policy framework for DRR.
5 Conclusion: Towards a New Normal of DRR in Cities
Cities are complex socio-technical systems, with risks arising from multifaceted
system interactions. Reducing risk requires engaging with all of the components of
these systems. But such efforts, to be truly impactful, must put issues of equity front
and center. A commitment to addressing inequalities in exposure and vulnerability
to hazards among and within cities carries the potential for reducing disaster risks
for everyone. If risks are managed smartly and with an eye toward equity, our new
urban world can be one of safety and prosperity for all.
Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to Krishna Kumar for support and guidance and the
Pardee Initiative for Global Human Progress at the Pardee RAND Graduate School for funding.
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on projects sponsored by USAID, NASA, and the French Red Cross, developing collaborative
strategies, building partnerships, and conducting evaluations to support global programs and local
projects in countries across Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean. Karishma holds a Master in Public
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national Studies from UNC-Chapel Hill. She was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guyana.
Small Changes with Big Impacts:
Mitigating Fire Risks Through Small
Interventions in Informal Settlements
of Dhaka City, Bangladesh
Afroza Ahmed and Sadia Subrina
Abstract Fire Service and Civil Defense of Bangladesh reported 170 fire incidences
in informal settlements of Bangladesh in 2016 (Rabbi , 2018). In fact, this is a recur-
ring incident in the slums over the years, which makes “slum” and “fire” synonymous
in Bangladesh. Two devastating fires broke out in the slums of Karail and Saattola
in December 2016, which destroyed almost 700 houses. Unfortunately, these types
of hazards draw very little attention from both public and private sectors. Although
some international and national nongovernmental and private organizations provide
post hazard assistances, their interventions are usually limited to the infrastructural
level because of unspecified land tenure and low property rights of slum dwellers.
This also discourages the engagement of built environment related professionals in
mitigating the risks or upgrading the slums through spatial design solutions. Ques-
tioning this trend of attitude, as a part of social responsibility, the research team
(including a volunteer group of architects, planners, engineers and students from
different universities in Bangladesh) conducted a pilot project to support fire affected
people of Karail and Saattola slums with the principle of “Build Back Better.” This
chapter shares the experiences and insights of this slum reconstruction process after
fire hazards. It focuses on providing guidelines for housing reconstruction, and a
master plan with improved road network to alleviate risks of the highly dense slum
settlements and upgrade the slum environment to make it fire-resilient.
Keywords Slum · Fire · Karail slum · Saattola slum · Reconstruction
A. Ahmed
J. A. Architects Ltd.; State University of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
e-mail: afroza.ahmed@jaarchitects.com.bd
S. Subrina (B)
Department of Architecture, Military Institute of Science and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh
e-mail: sadiasubrina@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4948-9_8
136 A. Ahmed and S. Subrina
1 Introduction
Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, has a population of 17.598 million (IndexMundi

2018). This has been increased from 6 to 12 million during the period from 1990 to
2005. According to the U.N., Dhaka will be the home to more than 20 million people
by 2025 (German and Pyne n.d.). Every day almost 2000 people (The Guardian
2018) migrate to this megacity. Population growth in Dhaka city during the period of
2001–2011 was 3.96% per annum (Rajuk 2015). Up to now, about 63% of the total
growth of Dhaka’s population has been due to internal migration. The migrant people
usually find their shelters in slums which are marginal settlements with substan-
dard facilities, inadequate infrastructures, and services. Insufficient infrastructures,
overcrowded and unhealthy environment and poor living quality characterize these
slums. At present (2019) about 646 thousand people are living in almost 3394 slums
of Dhaka (The Daily Star 2019); the situation is predicted to be deteriorated after
a decade, if proper measures are not implemented. Lack of urban amenities and
safe living conditions make these slums more vulnerable to incidences like fire inci-
dents, water logging, as well as threats of eviction. Since the dwellings are mostly of
improvised or temporary structures, these show least resilience towards any kind of
hazard. Although cyclones and floods have overshadowed the threat of fire hazard,
fires cause substantial impairment in Bangladesh. Accidental fire and arson are the
most recurring occurrences in the slum areas. Huge number of slum inhabitants in
Bangladesh are in a constant state of fear of fire hazard as it may destroy their assets
and leave them as homeless. Frequent fire incidents in Karail slum are usual scenes
in slum dwellers’ life—media covers the news, there are some quick reactions, then
usually nothing happens, life goes on and slum dwellers live the same life, having
almost zero impact for long term improvement. Though fire occurrences in the Saat-
tola slum is not that frequent; yet all the victims face almost the same fate. How the
fire starts or who initiates arson is never fully investigated, but it is apparent that the
influential people use fire as a tool to vacate the land to increase the rent or to change
the land use for greater benefits in future (Field survey 2019). But, in most of the
cases, the poor slum inhabitants suffer the most. The objectives of this book chapter
are to investigate the challenges and scopes of working on post-fire hazard slum
settlements and to provide fire-resilient guidelines for slum upgradation, generated
from hands-on experiences in the context of two slums areas in Dhaka-Karail and
Sattola.
2 Literature Review
There are a plenty of research works on slum that have addressed a vast range of
issues. Some studies focus on the intensity of slum problem whereas some research
investigate eviction of slums and violation of human rights in Bangladesh. Further-
more, a few studies document the innovative initiatives or approaches, mostly adopted
Small Changes with Big Impacts: Mitigating Fire … 137
by different government and non-government organizations, to overcome service

deficiencies and improve living conditions of the slum dwellers (Mohit 2012). But
the discussion on reconstruction experiences in any post hazard context and guide-
lines on spatial features to improve the living quality of slums is a less explored field.
Available studies on the post hazard situation mostly focus on issues, like, loss of
lives and resources and struggles of slum dwellers.
Cities Alliance (2006) identifies slums as neglected chunks of cities where housing
and living environments are terribly poor. In alignment with the UN-Habitat’s defi-
nition of slum, this study state slum in its operational terms. According to the UN-
habitat, a slum lacks one or more of the following indicators: a durable housing
structure, access to basic services like clean water, proper sanitation; adequate living
space and secure tenure. These are the conventional indicators of slums, though
the last one is not currently used in the slum measurement (UN-Habitat 2003). In
literature, the debate prevails regarding the use of terms ‘slum’ and ‘informal settle-
ments’. Some use the terms interchangeably, whereas some argue that there is a
discrete difference between a slum and an informal settlement (Mahabir et al. 2016).
This chapter embraces the perspective that slums, and informal settlements are same
and, can be treated as one.
In his paper, written based on a pilot project on “Building Resilience in Urban
Slum Settlements” executed in the Talab Camp in Mirpur, Dhaka, during 2012–2013,
Ahmed (2016) shares the key lessons learnt for enhancing community resilience
towards multiple hazards in urban slum settlements from the project which was
conducted through community participation and architects’ consultation. As a similar
approach, this research attempts to fill the gap of existing literature through presenting
the case of involving a professional team in the reconstruction process of two
slums, after fire incidents, to improve the living environment, acknowledging the
UN-Habitat’s description of slum.
3 Background of the Study
Immediately after the disaster, occurred on December 4, 2016 in Karail slum, BRAC,
a non-governmental organization (NGO) made a need assessment and a list of
affected people. Karail, the largest slum area of Dhaka (Choudhoury et al. 2016), is
in Mohakhali and more precisely it is situated adjacent two affluent localities of the
city: Gulshan and Banani (Fig. 1), next to Gulshan-Banani Lake. At least 100,000
inhabitants, who are predominantly migrant people, live in Karail slum (Huq 2017).
They usually find jobs in diverse informal sectors in neighboring areas. The slum
is sprawled over a land area of 100 acres (BRAC 2017), which is legally owned by
various government authorities such as Bangladesh Telephone and Telegraph Board
(T&T), Ministry of Public Works and Housing, and the Ministry of Science and Tech-
nology. Numerous eviction attempts and fire incidences could not stop the prolifera-
tion of this slum over the time. Upon the request of BRAC, a self-motivated group of
architects, planners and engineers together with student volunteers under the platform
Fig. 1 Left: location of Gulshan, Banani, Mohakhali, Karail and Saattola slum in blow-up map;
Right: Location of Karail and Saattola slums in the map of Dhaka
of Urban Support System, along with JA Architects Limited, a local architectural

consulting firm spontaneously participated in the reconstruction process.
While the group of professionals and volunteers were working on the reconstruc-
tion of Karail slum, another fire engulfed the nearby Saattola slum on December 11,
2016. Shattola slum is also located in Mohakhali (Fig. 1). The land legally belongs
to the Public Health Department of Government of Bangladesh and following the
liberation war in 1971, grade 3 and 4 employees of the department started to live there
informally. The place eventually transformed into an illegal slum as the primary resi-
dents started to build shanty houses and rent it out to lower income people to increase
their household income. Over the period the whole area turned into a large slum with
one storied semi-permanent structures mostly. The slum is informally controlled and
managed primarily by the employees, their families, several local musclemen and
politicians. The same team voluntarily took up to support the victims of Saattola slum
too. The socio-economic condition of victims and land-house ownership pattern were
needed to be considered for the reconstruction process. The victims usually own the
houses but not the land. Such an ownership pattern guided to consider accessible
and effective as well as less expensive solutions for improving the living quality. The
design principle of “Build Back Better” was aimed to follow throughout the process,
considering the idea that “small actions can have big effects” (Gibson-Graham et al.
2013, p. xxiv). As Hawken stated, “small and seemingly inconsequential actions
took place that eventually changed the world” (Hawken 2007).
4 Methodology
The pilot research was conducted in two slums: Karail slum and Saattola slum of
Dhaka city (Fig. 1), Bangladesh. The study part employed qualitative approaches
(i.e.) to have a better reflection of community’s voice in proposing reconstruction
guideline. Participatory approach helped to explore the opinions and experiences
of slum dwellers who were directly affected by the fire and to gather factual and
contextual data. Primary data were collected through focus group discussions, semi-
structured group interviews, transect walks, key informant’s interviews (KIIs) with
local government institutions and NGO representatives, digital site survey, area
mapping, and social mapping. The core design team was formed by J. A. Archi-
tects Ltd. and teachers from the department of Architecture of BRAC University
and State University of Bangladesh (SUB). More than 20 volunteers from different
public and private universities were also involved in the initiative. The project was
supported by ward councilors (local government representatives) and funded by the
Dhaka North City Corporation, as the areas are located within that city corporation
area. A professional survey agency was hired by J. A. Architects Limited to conduct
the detail physical survey of the fire-affected areas.
The process was started with focus group discussion sessions with all owners
of affected houses to know their ideas, needs, and expectations. Later the social
mapping was conducted, using quantitative data like number of affected houses,
number of damaged belongings, and possible costs of reconstruction. Eventually a
spatial design proposal was developed, employing participants’ feedback and the
proposal was validated by the participants in the presence of ward commissioner
(local leader). It took almost 5 days to initiate the reconstruction process in Karail
slum, whereas it took only 1 day in Sattola slum as the area was small and the team
gained experiences while working in Karail slum. Secondary data were collected
through reviewing relevant national and international reports, media news, research
papers and various slum development proposals. The Guidelines for Planning, Design
and Construction of Pro-Poor Slums Integration Project (PPSIP) prepared by the
National Housing Authority in 2015 were also reviewed to assist the project.
5 Interventions and Reconstruction Process
According to the study participants, the fire incident of December 4, 2016 in Karail
slum, forced the victims to live under the open sky in the winter. It was sourced from
the kitchen of a restaurant inside the slum area. A blanket and pillow shop adjacent
to the restaurant triggered the fast spreading of fire that eventually destroyed almost
500 houses. It also affected some road-side shops. To prevent the spreading of fire,
40 houses were dismantled by the local people. In Sattola slum, the fire was initiated
from a primary school, situated adjacent to the main access road; but the main reason
of it remained unknown. Fortunately, the spreading of fire was interrupted by the
surrounding 6–8 feet wide streets and it saved some parts of the slum from being
affected. Community people also dismantled some houses to limit the spreading of
fire. This fire burnt down a housing block with 115 houses, affecting about 29 house
owners. Walls and roofs of these shanty houses were made of corrugated iron (CI)
sheets which made the structures more vulnerable to fire.
The proposal prepared for Karail slum included detail housing layout and wider
road network. The houses were arranged horizontally through a narrow access road
from the main road. Additionally, a parallel pedestrian road from the main approach
road was introduced to create intimate places for women and children. The proposal
prepared for Saattola slum also included detail housing layout and wider road
network, especially considering the affected housing cluster. Previously, the single
storied houses were arranged in a cluster in a very compact manner without allowing
enough natural ventilation and day light. The housing clusters were proposed to
make double storied through staking one unit above another, allowing to clear up
some space at the ground level for providing better natural ventilation and daylight
inside the houses. Table 1 mentions contributions received from key team-members.
The whole process was phased into following five steps:
• Step 1: Getting to know victims and major stakeholders
To know the affected house owners and tenants, the team conducted focus group
discussion sessions and transect walks with the affected people and met the house
owners and the Ward Councilor. Information on family size and economic condition,
household income, existing condition of the affected people, monthly house rent, etc.
were collected through talking to them and visiting the sites with them.
• Step 2: Understanding pre-fire conditions
To understand pre-fire condition of the slums, in-depth group interviews were

conducted with all the affected house owners and tenants. Information on amount
of land occupied by the beneficiaries, existing housing situation, proposed housing
needs, location of services (kitchen, water supply, latrine etc.), poverty level and
other social aspects were collected during the social mapping exercise. House owners
helped the team to draw the house layout with the use of match sticks. At this stage
the hired professional survey agency also conducted the detail physical survey of the
fire-affected areas.
• Step 3: Developing considerations for site planning
Through excessive discussions with the house owners, representatives from DNCC
and ward councilors (local government representative) and based on the 2015 “Guide-
lines for Planning, Design and Construction of PPSIP Settlements” of the National
Table 1 Name, category and contributions of key team-members

Team-members Type of members Contributions
J. A. Architects Ltd., Core design team and Assessing housing needs of the
Academics and students of volunteers community
BRAC University, State Studying existing housing
University of Bangladesh conditions and patterns
(SUB), Preparing proposals based on of
Bangladesh University of site visits and feedback received
Engineering and Technology from community participants
(BUET), North South University Preparing model of the housing
(NSU), Shahjalal University of reconstruction
Science and Technology (SUST)
J. A. Architects Limited Architectural Leading and guiding the design
consulting firm team
Raising fund for the project
Estimating cost for housing
reconstruction
Dhaka North City Corporation Municipal corporation Generating fund and providing
(DNCC) building materials
Ward Councilor Local government Providing moral supports
representative Convincing and managing the
local community
BRAC NGO Initiating the pilot project
Preparing the list of affected
people
Distributing id card for relief
distribution
Generating the fund and
providing building materials
Housing Authority, the following design considerations were developed for Karail
and Saattola slums reconstruction:
i. Amount of land occupied by the house owners should remain the same as
before fire hazard.
ii. Neighbors of the houses within a cluster should be the same as before.
iii. The number of houses should be the same as before.
iv. Roads should be wider than before.
v. All the rooms facing the primary street should have options for commercial
uses.
vi. Open spaces should be kept for tree plantation and social gathering.
vii. Services like kitchen, water supply, toilets, etc. should be shared and strategi-
cally located
viii. Standard room size should be followed
ix. Proper ventilation and sunlight should be ensured
x. Sustainable building materials should be used
Fig. 2 Proposed house layout for Saattola slum (left) and Korail slum (right)
• Step 4: Developing the master plan with details (Fig. 2)
Initially a draft of house layout for Karail and Saattola slum was proposed based on
feedback received from the community participants. The draft proposal was presented
to the community participants as well as ward councilors and representatives from
DNCC and BRAC. After that the proposal was finalized with following details:
i. The usual street-width was identified as too narrow—approximately 60–90 cm,
hardly allowing 2 persons to pass side by side. Even the slum dwellers were aware
of the importance of wider streets for ensuring access to houses, evacuating from
houses and providing gaps to prevent the fire to spread. The fire hazard of Saattola
slum was an evidence of this. In Saattola slum, only one block was damaged by
the fire as comparatively wider streets around the block prevented the fire from
spreading to adjacent blocks and thus streets helped to minimize the damage.
On the other hand, in Karail slum, the narrow streets could not prevent the fire
to spread quickly from one block to another and could not let any vehicle to
go inside to put off the fire. Considering these facts, it was mutually decided to
make main access roads at least 260 cm wide and internal streets at least 183 cm
wide. This will allow to have enough distance between blocks and let the fire
vehicles to access in the future.
ii. Aside from these primary and secondary roads, the proposal suggested to have
small open spaces that would act as courtyards within the housing clusters for
allowing to have well-ventilated and naturally lighted indoor environment and
working as an assemble point in any emergency condition. It is expected that
these spaces will eventually work as social spaces for the dwellers. Additionally,
north-south orientation of the houses was maintained so that a proper cross

ventilation can be ensured, which is preferable in a tropical climatic condition.
iii. The in-depth study of the lifestyle of research participants, existing room sizes,
site area and number of households (inhabitants) guided to design a module of
244 cm X 244 cm to accommodate a residential unit within it. The proposal also
suggested to have at least two windows to allow cross ventilation, whereas the
previous houses did not have any window.
iv. It was a challenge to accommodate all households in the proposed master plan
with wider roads/streets and bigger units. To accommodate the adequate number
of units in the given site, in some cases, double storied structures were proposed
(Fig. 3).
v. It was found that previously, in frequent cases the communal kitchen and toilets
(including shower areas) were very close to each other, which was not desired
by the inhabitants and at that same time it used to possess the risk of getting
contaminated easily. Some dwellers used to wash their dishes and food items
inside the toilets. The proposed master plan allowed to have adequate washing
areas inside the kitchens, and these were kept apart from communal toilets.
vi. Though there was a target to ensure enough natural light and air inside the
units and common spaces, sometimes it was difficult to achieve that quality. To
overcome the challenge in some cases different building materials and features
were introduced which allowed to have natural ventilation and lighting. For
Fig. 3 Double storey structure with wider road (field survey, 2016)
Fig. 4 Use of wire mesh in common spaces to bring light and air (field survey, 2016)
example, double-loaded corridors were proposed to be covered with transparent

materials. In areas where penetration of rainwater could be allowed, wire meshes
(screens) were proposed to be used (Fig. 4).
The implementation of the proposed master plan was quite difficult as the house
owners were not very willing to leave spaces to have wider roads and streets, court-
yards, bigger kitchen areas and bigger residential units though they were aware of the
necessity of having those design features. They were more interested to have more
small residential units so that those can be rented out to more tenants. Design team,
ward councilor and representatives from DNCC and BRAC had to meet the house
owners for several times to convince them to follow the proposals. The problem was
gradually overcome with the help of some affirmative house owners and the ward
councilor.
However, it was not possible to make all internal streets at least 183 cm wide.
Finally, it was decided to make the primary roads 260 cm wide and immediate
secondary roads 183 cm wide. As the house owners were not interested to sacrifice
spaces, all other internal roads remained as narrow as before. Nonetheless, after
executing the proposal, community people were happy to have a wider access to
the clusters that allows any smaller vehicle like, 3-wheelers (van) to run. Initially, a
reduction in the number of rooms caused by the increased room size and provision
of courtyards made the dwellers disappointed. However, in order to keep the number
of houses intact, double storied structures were proposed. The community people
were satisfied with the solution as the upper floors can get more light and air.
The City Corporation and BRAC distributed pre-cast concrete columns for
constructing ground floors, bamboo/timber posts for constructing upper floors and
CI sheet for walls and roofs. However, the design team was not allowed to participate
in the material selection process.
6 Findings and Analysis
While working in these informal settlements, fixing the nature, extent and the process
of architects’ professional contribution to the slum dwellers was the first challenge.
Another important issue was the readiness and capability of the slum dwellers to
afford these changes. While providing spatial design solutions with a hope to mini-
mize the fire risk and improve the living quality in the slums, the design team
found some new insights into the way slum dwellers adapt the design interventions.
Community often rejects expensive and long-term design solutions whereas they are
very willing to adopt cost effective short-term solutions. They also prefer interven-
tions which will not affect their economic benefits. Since most of the dwellers were
not the legal owners of the land, they were under a constant fear of being evicted. This
made them reluctant to extensively build or extend and modify the houses. Usually
they do not want to build permanent structures as they do not want to invest for it,
though they are aware of the need for the better living environment with accessibility,
open space and healthy amenities.
Reducing the number of rooms was a dilemma; one less room could render one
family homeless and reduce income for the owner. As a result, the living quality
faces stiff resistance by economic constrains. However, this was also true that small
modifications like widening the alleys, small adjustments in room size, windows,
hygienic toilets, slightly bigger kitchens, and community spaces, could bring a huge
improvement in their life style. These small changes not only improve the dweller’s
living standard, but also save their lives. A bit wider road allows fire vehicles and
ambulances to access. In the words of a local resident, ‘After replacing the CI wall
with wire mesh in the corridor, the space is full of light and air and it’s really nice’.
Thus, easy and small changes make senses. Small interventions have huge potentials
and great impacts on the safety and quality of informal settlements. The context of
Karail and Saattola slums depicts that such small measures minimize the adverse
impacts of fire and other associated hazards.
7 Challenges
Reconstruction activities in Karail and Saattola slums encountered various challenges

and limitations during the rebuilding process. Following are the key challenges:
• Controversy over the involvement of architects on illegally occupied land: As

most of the inhabitants of slum settlements have no land right, engagement of
built environment related professionals like architects, in mitigating hazard risks
as well as upgrading its environment through spatial design proposals has always
been neglected. Moreover, involving architects in reconstructing slums also does
not happen frequently. The main challenge was to work with house owners as well
as powerful musclemen , who don’t have any legal tenure right over the land. They
have been living in these slums for last 30–40 years and providing housing to poor
migrated people in return of rent. The intervention got appreciations from different
parts of the society; but contributions to illegal occupants raised controversies as
well.
• Constraint of time: Like other post disaster context, there was a pressure of severe
time constraint for preparing the master plan as the victims were living in very
temporary and rudimentary shelters, and in some cases without any kind of shelter.
Some dwellers had already started to rebuild their houses by themselves before
any proposal was provided. Therefore, the target was to prepare the proposal as
well as implement it as soon as possible.
• Encroachment of Gulshan-Banani Lake: During the rebuilding process, slum
dwellers encroached some parts of the adjacent Gulshan-Banani Lake to extend
their residential units. They filled up the water body partially with garbage and
other materials and constructed a few units there due to insufficient monitoring
by the authority.
• Difficulties to motivate house owners to sacrifice partial lands: Owners were
always interested to maximize the number of residential units and thus the rental
income rather than giving away some lands for having community space, set
back, wider roads, etc. However, wider access road and courtyards ensure long
term benefits such as better safety, light, ventilation and better health. Though
the inhabitants could not deny the long-term benefits of improved built environ-
ment, most of the house owners were reluctant to sacrifice parts of their lands for
widening the access roads and building some open spaces or courtyards.
• Lack of commitment and comprehensive initiatives from the top-level service
providers: Lack of sincere efforts to reconstruct the fire affected slum areas is
evident among the top-level decision makers. Authorities usually do not have any
vision or plan for informal settlements in urban areas. For example, in the cases of
Karail and Saattola slums, though the contributors (DNCC and BRAC) distributed
some building materials, there was lacking in coordination and monitoring among
the organizations and/or the service providers to supervise the reconstruction
process.
8 Conclusion
The pilot project, narrated here, assisted the fire affected community for rebuilding
their houses, following the bottom up approach in an active participatory manner.
A master plan with some detail design proposals (such as widening roads, creating
courtyards, using fiber glass for covering corridor-roofs, using wire mesh for the
veranda, planting vegetables, etc.) were provided and finally those were implemented
in a minor altered manner. These small interventions created a visibly safer and
improved living condition in the slum areas. The intension of this pilot project was
to create a model for slum rebuilding in Bangladesh. From this participatory expe-
rience, it is found that an effective intervention in the slums to reduce risks can
be initiated with small steps. Imposing design solutions out of what professionals
think slum dwellers need without understanding their everyday practices and chal-
lenges, may fail. An intervention through a bottom up approach instead of top down
approach gives scopes to explore the reality, to understand the inner dynamics of
informal settlements, how the slum functions, and the aspirations of slum dwellers
for their future shelters, before proposing any design dream. Architects as well as
planners should reconcile their knowledge with slum dwellers’ perceptions to satisfy
community-needs. The process of working with beneficiaries leads to be focused
towards affordable and practical options rather than ambitious utopian ideas. Inhab-
itant’s financial desires often overpower their realizations for better environment
which needs to be managed by the authority in a very influential manner without
imposing any decision. Changes which are small in scale are usually get accepted
easily as these do not alter the current lifestyle drastically but make positive impacts
for alleviating risks. The successful intervention which has been stated in this chapter
may inspire to replicate the process in any other hazard-prone location for eliminating
their risks.
Acknowledgements This paper is based on the voluntary work of a group of architects, planner,
engineers (academics) from J. A. Architects, BRAC University, State University of Bangladesh
(SUB), Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), together with architecture
students from BUET, North South University (NSU), SUB, Shahjalal University of Science and
Technology (SUST) to support both Karail slum community and Saattola slum community after
two devastating fire hazards in December, 2016 upon request by the Urban Development Program
of BRAC.
References
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UK: United Nations Human Settlements Programme
Dr. Ahmed has been working in different capacities, sometime as Architect, Shelter Specialist,
Land Use Planning Expert, Water and Environmental Sanitation Specialist, Urban Planner and
Urban Infrastructure Development Specialist for United Nations and other reputed international
development agencies, during the last 30 years. She has experiences of working in Bangladesh,
Indonesia, Pakistan, Sierra Leone and Timor Leste. As the Chairperson of J. A. Architects Ltd.,
a reputed consultancy firm in Bangladesh, she got involved in designing various social devel-
opment facilities. Dr. Ahmed has also been actively involved in different research activities and
projects, particularly, in low cost housing upgradation, slum reconstruction, and land tenure issues.
Currently, she is also serving as an Associate Professor at State University of Bangladesh (SUB).
She obtained her Ph.D. degree in 2011 from the Civil and Building Engineering Dept. of Lough-
borough University, UK. She completed her Master in Urban and Regional Planning degree
from the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, BUET in 1990 and obtained Bachelor of
Architecture degree from the same university in 1987.
Architect Subrina is serving as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture of Mili-

tary Institute of Science and Technology (MIST), Bangladesh. She completed her Bachelor of
Architecture degree in 2010 from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET),
Bangladesh and Master of Human Settlements from K U Leuven, Belgium in 2015. She also
worked as an Assistant Architect in a renowned architectural firm ‘Saif Ul Haque Sthapati’ to
acquire practical experience. Her undergraduate thesis on deprived tea-plantation workers and
master’s program on ‘Human Settlements’ have accelerated her interest in the trajectory of phil-
anthropic architecture, settlements, and urbanism. Her interest in humanitarian contribution made
her active in various outreach programs like re-building the Korail slum and Sattola slums for the
fire hazard victims, campaign on gender and public space, heritage conservation of Old Dhaka,
etc.
Rethinking Roles of Local
Non-governmental Organizations
(LNGO) in Managing Disaster Risks
in Historic Neighborhoods: Experiences
from the City of Lagos, Nigeria
Olufemi Samson Adetunji, Oluwatosin Samuel Owolabi,

and Samson Olaoluwa Faboye
Abstract Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are taking up an increasing

role in the management of disaster risks within historic neighborhoods; yet, loss
of historic sites due to disasters is increasing. Local Non-Governmental Organiza-
tions (LNGOs) usually collaborate with international Non-Governmental Organiza-
tions (INGOs) and the government to conduct post-disaster interventions within the
‘affected’ neighborhoods. In this context, the question arises that how LNGOs can
contribute to making the neighborhoods around historic sites prepared to face any
disaster. This chapter, therefore, examines the participation of LNGOs in addressing
disaster risks before, during and after disaster events, especially flooding and coastal
storm within historic neighborhoods focusing on Lagos, one of the vulnerable cities
in Nigeria and where diverse historic sites are located. A quantitative survey of
LNGO staffs and local community leaders was conducted to collect data and infor-
mation, focusing on disaster risk reduction interventions and community percep-
tion towards LNGO interventions. The analysis focused mainly on the strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the interventions implemented by the
LNGOs. The chapter finds that interventions of LNGOs focused primarily on post-
disaster responses rather than pre-disaster planning to address the vulnerabilities
of the historic sites and neighborhoods to avert the future damages. The preserva-
tion of historic sites within the settlement requires community-driven interventions
addressing the concerns of the local people. The chapter concludes that LNGOs need
O. S. Adetunji (B)
School of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Newcastle, New South Wales,
Australia
e-mail: olufemi.adetunji@uon.edu.au
O. S. Owolabi
Department of Architectural Technology, Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa, Nigeria
e-mail: tosinowolabing@gmail.com
S. O. Faboye
School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
e-mail: sfaboye@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4948-9_9
150 O. S. Adetunji et al.
to rethink and refocus their roles and interventions in planning and mitigating risks
and assisting communities in preparing for disaster events.
Keywords Cultural heritage · Disaster · Historic neighborhoods ·

Non-governmental organisation · Vulnerability
1 Introduction
Over the last four decades, concerns on the rate of destruction of historic neighbor-
hoods and loss of places that express cultural values and identity of the people to
disasters in Nigeria are increasing (Adewumi 2018; Chidozie and Ayibainewoufini
2014). Various scholars (Nkwunonwo 2016; Ohiole et al. 2016; Elias and Omojola
2015) ascribed this to the changes in climate, sea level rise, rapid urbanization, poor
infrastructure and poor disaster awareness. Hazards remain the primary cause of
damages, destructions and loss of historic sites and neighborhoods (Gandini et al.
2018; Spennemann 1999). Importantly, whenever disaster occurs, cultural and histor-
ical assets which are regarded as valuable and irreplaceable are destroyed resulting in
environmental and social harm (Taboroff 2000). Also, the lack of ownership and care
for historical sites is another factor that contributes to their vulnerability to hazards.
Meutia and colleagues (2018) also added that the materials of the historic sites are
often highly susceptible to damage, deterioration and destruction caused by climate
change and sea level rise.
In Lagos, Nigeria, for instance, climate change induced disasters are critical,
affecting various historical neighborhoods (such as Badagry, Ikorodu, and Iganmu).
With a history of disasters in Lagos, more than sixty historical sites were partially or
wholly destroyed between 1985 and 2014 (Adetunji et al. 2018; Abolade et al. 2013).
While efforts by stakeholders to address the disaster risks of the historic sites and
neighborhoods living around these historic sites have not yielded satisfactory results.
However, a few Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are making efforts to
integrate economic, social and political aspects in response to disaster events mainly
through relief interventions in affected neighborhoods. Ohiole and colleagues (2016)
characterized the efforts as ad hoc, reactive, not focused, and poorly coordinated and
managed.
However, in the light of the successes, recorded by NGOs in disaster risk manage-
ment in other countries (such as Australia, France, USA and UK), many concerned
stakeholders in developing countries (such as Ghana, Nigeria, Indonesia and Philip-
pines) are establishing NGOs to address impacts of disasters and protect cultural
identity and significance of historic sites (Adewumi 2018; Elias and Omojola 2015).
The community needs tangible evidences of the past as reminders for the present and
future, and existence of historic sites provides a familiar environment and improve
quality of life (Spennemann 1999). Based on the assertion of Forbes (2018), the goal
of preserving and protecting historic sites is enshrined in the purpose that historic
sites express the ‘social meaning of life within the community’, which are revealed in
Rethinking Roles of Local Non-governmental Organizations (LNGO) … 151
the beliefs, morals, custom and law, creative expressions such as music, dance, litera-
ture, songs, landscapes and buildings. Historic sites embody the sense of connection
and cultural diversity of a community. Yuan and colleagues (2018) also admitted
that the community needs to play a key role in addressing various risks and hazards,
facing by the places of historic significance to maintain the connection between the
historic sites and their neighborhoods.
This chapter therefore contributes to existing knowledge relating to disaster risks
in Nigeria and respond to the crucial question of how local non-governmental orga-
nizations (LNGOs) can contribute to the preparedness of neighborhoods around
historic sites for mitigating disaster (especially flooding and coastal storm) risks. In
the view of this, focusing on neighborhoods around historic sites in Lagos, the study
assesses evidences of disasters in historic sites and examines the capacity of LNGOs
in responding and managing disasters. The importance of LNGOs in planning and
mainstreaming disaster risk mitigation, preparedness and adaptation is emphasized
as well.
2 Background
2.1 Understanding Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs)
NGOs are widely recognized as an important stakeholder in mitigating disaster risks

within human settlements (Shaw and Izumi 2014). However, there is an ongoing
debate regarding the meaning, roles and extent of involvements of NGOs in miti-
gating disasters risk of historic sites, as well as communities since the ‘Yokohama
Plan of Action for Safer World’ recognized the roles of communities and NGOs
in disaster risk management approaches (Izumi and Shaw 2014). But, it is widely
agreed amidst scholars that NGOs play diverse and significant roles due to the close
relationships that exist between the NGOs and the community (Komino 2014). NGOs
are sometimes referred to as civil society organizations, voluntary organizations or
community-based organizations while their precise definitions vary based on func-
tions and the country of operation. For instance, the term ‘non-profit organization’
(NPO) is frequently used in the USA compared to the UK where they are referred to
as ‘voluntary/charity organization’ (Shaw and Izumi 2014). In the seminal work of
Lewis (2010), civil society organizations (CSO) is described as organizations func-
tioning within the community and independent of government control at federal,
state and local levels. Shaw and Izumi (2014) added that ‘NGO’ is most used about
international and national development actions in developing countries.
However, Söderbaum (2007) and Kasfir (1998) classified NGOs into local and
international. The local non-governmental organizations (LNGOs) are established
out of people’s initiatives and mainly involved and managed by people living within
the community(ies); while international non-governmental organizations (INGOs)
are the NGOs that transcend country boundaries such as Rockefeller Foundations,
OXFAM, USAID and IFRC. The Commonwealth Foundation (2004) further states
that most of the times, LNGOs engage in fundraising, implementing development
initiatives and acquiring supports (such as, expertise and funds) from INGOs. Impor-
tantly, the wide-ranged functions of NGOs can be categorized into three compo-
nents: to implement development initiatives in provision of goods and services to
the people, to catalyze social transformation and development, and to partner and
integrate economic, social and political actors for development (Lewis 2004). These
three functions are evident in disaster response and relief activities, but Kasfir (1998)
and Komino (2014) noted that many NGOs in developing countries focus more on
implementing development initiatives than other functions due to inadequate exper-
tise and a poor understanding of social development and transformation landscape
within their communities of operation.
In this context, local non-governmental organizations (LNGO) cater for a broad
range of community-based groups to meet their needs and demands through initi-
ating development activities. LNGOs are expected to be voluntary, non-profit (Kasfir
1998), free from government’s involvements (Shaw and Izumi 2014) and have
following features:
i. implement activities to improve quality of life through providing reliefs, recog-
nizing interests of the poor, protecting the environment, providing essen-
tial social services, participating in major decision-making and undertaking
community development activities;
ii. enjoy freedom from external control in case of fulfilling their aims and
objectives;
iii. practice democracy, flexibility and non-sectarian, horizontally structured and
short lines of communication;
iv. commit to address root causes of challenges faced by the communities; and
v. have awareness about the particularities (social, cultural, economic etc.) of their
area of operation.
However, various LNGOs often establish relationships with the government to
gain legitimacy (Söderbaum 2007) where they may oppose, complement or reform
any governmental decision instead of ignoring it (Clark 1991). In many countries
such as Nigeria, Ghana, and Bangladesh, the government enforces registration of
NGOs and regulate their activities (Söderbaum 2007; Clark 1991) and attitudes of
the government towards NGOs vary across countries, regions and local areas. The
government sometimes exercises active hostility or intervene in the affairs of NGOs
(Paul 2000). There are evidences where the government, especially in developing
countries, exercises its powers to ban, delist or de-register NGOs with or without
good causes (Kasfir 1998). On the other hand, many NGOs successfully collaborate
with the government and receive its supports and favors (Bhandari 2014).
Also, some scholars (such as Shaw and Izumi 2014; Söderbaum 2007; Lewis
2004) critiqued the roles of NGOs as overreaching in taking up the responsibilities of
governmental organizations. The overlaps in roles of NGOs and governmental orga-
nizations contribute to the attention shift from the government institutions towards
less accountable private organizations (Tvedt 2002). Lewis (2010) and Kasfir (1998)
revealed the fact that many government organizations have resolved to ‘outsourcing’
their responsibilities to NGOs. As Lewis (2004, p. 45) describes that
NGOs contributes to facilitation of neoliberal policy change either by participating in de
facto privatization or by taking responsibility for clearing up the clutters of neoliberal policies
which disproportionately disadvantaged the marginal population.
2.2 Disaster Risks in Historic Neighborhood
Heritage—natural and cultural, tangible and intangible, fixed and movable—is

increasingly at risk of disasters. The increase in frequency and severity of disas-
ters, in some cases, creates various forms of impacts such as displacement, annihi-
lation, loss of identity, meanings and association with places of cultural and histor-
ical significance, especially within historic neighborhoods. According to Taboroff
(2000), historic sites and their neighborhoods in low-income countries are at risk
of disasters. In support of this revelation, Rico (2014) finds that the impact of
disasters further increases due to the absence of risk estimation, evaluation, mini-
mization and preparedness measures. However, Martins and colleagues (2018) posit
that armed conflict, urbanization and lack of community ownership of historic sites
are contributing to increase vulnerabilities of historic sites. The 1966 devastating
floods of Venice (Italy) and 2016 earthquake in Artrice (Italy), 2016 earthquakes in
Christchurch (New Zealand) and Kathmandu (Nepal) and the armed conflict in Syria
are few examples of disasters that affected historic sites as well as communities living
around these sites (Forbes 2018; Martins et al. 2018). Concerning the Amatrice earth-
quake, Formisano and colleagues (2017) found that archeological sites of prehistoric
period, especially streets of these sites were destroyed. Also, the Christchurch earth-
quake resulted into an immense impact on the built heritage, particularly the masonry
buildings of early nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Forbes 2018).
Any disaster cannot occur without having a ‘marker’ and a cause (Gandini et al.
2018). Disaster risk is the product of hazard and vulnerability; while hazard is the
phenomenon (such as earthquake, storm and flood) which has the potential to cause
disruption or damage to historic sites (Martins et al. 2018). Vulnerability refers to the
susceptibility or exposure of historic properties to hazards (Shaw and Izumi 2014).
Hazard is the external source of disaster while vulnerability is the inherent weak-
ness of historic sites to withstand the impacts of hazards (Formisano et al. 2017).
In response to these schools of thoughts, UNESCO and ICOMOS (2010) submits
that hazards can be natural or human-induced (Table 1); where natural hazards refer
to phenomenon caused by natural factors with adverse impacts on individuals and
communities, while human-induced hazards refers to threats with elements of human
intents, negligence, error and involving failure of a system. However, these two
categories have the potential to cause secondary hazards that will further disrupt
system within any community. Within the scope of heritage management, it’s vital
to find out the association of disasters, disaster risks, and hazards with vulnerabili-
ties of historic sites and their neighborhoods (Meutia et al. 2018; Rico 2014; Dilley
Table 1 Categories of hazards (UNESCO and ICOMOS 2010)

Natural hazards Human-induced hazards Secondary hazards
Meteorological Hurricane, lightning, Flooding
heavy precipitation (coastal/rivers), fire
Hydrological Flash floods, landslide, Hydrological Disease epidemic,
volcanic ash, storm infrastructure failure pollution
surge (dams, reservoirs,
drainage system failure),
coastal protection failure
(sea walls)
Volcanic Lava flows, pyroclastic Mining-induced (e.g. mud Mudflows, landslides,
flows, ash and block volcano) tsunami, fire
falls, gases
Seismic Faulting, transient Dam- and Mass movement, fire,
shaking, permanent reservoir-induced mass flood
deformation (e.g. movement,
folds), induced mining-induced explosion
movement (liquefaction
and mass movement)
Biological Epidemics (human,
animal or plant and
human-animal
transferable diseases),
pest infestation/attack,
algal blooms, coral
bleaching events,
weed/nuisance plant
spreading
Climate change Sea-level rise, rainfall Drainage system failure,
pattern change,
increased storm
severity, desertification
Others Fire, pollution, violence
et al. 2005). Various scholars (Adewumi 2018; Formisano et al. 2017; Rico 2014)
agrees that disasters may cause severe disruption of the functioning of commu-
nity, causing widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses, while
the community fails to cope with the condition using its available resources and
capacities.
Disaster risks to historic sites and neighborhoods are results of both external
and internal factors (UNESCO and ICOMOS 2010). External factors are the distur-
bances or damages caused by various hazards such as earthquakes, flood or military
conflicts, while internal factors consist of intrinsic fragility and sensitivity of places
of historic significance to the surrounding environment (Maio et al. 2018). Gibson
and colleagues (2018) and Meutia and colleagues (2018) also admit that mitiga-
tion and preparedness measures are essential in addressing disaster risks to historic
sites and neighborhoods. The measures are to be implemented through collabora-

tion among government, non-governmental organizations, the community and other
stakeholders such as heritage professionals (Meutia et al. 2018; Maio et al. 2018).
Based on this, LNGOs need to prioritize prevention, mitigation and preparedness
measures. But, the inability of governmental organizationds especially in developing
countries to implement such measures constitute a barrier to the protection of values
and significance of historic sites (Gibson et al. 2018). This is mainly due to the lack of
disaster risk management plan (DRMP) geared towards historic sites and neighbor-
hoods. The report of UNESCO and ICOMOS (2010) finds that DRMP provides clear,
flexible and practical guidance to stakeholders and community on actions to take to
prepare, prevent or reduce the negative impacts of disasters. DRMP also improves the
capacity of stakeholders to implement and enforce heritage management regulations
and policies (UNESCO and ICOMOS 2010).
3 Methodology
This research focuses on Lagos, Nigeria which is historically one of the early settle-
ments in West Africa, where various historical sites of Nigeria are located (Douglas
2017; Abolade et al. 2013; Zubairu et al. 2012). In addition, major proportion of
LNGOs, operating in Lagos, focus on different developmental issues such as educa-
tion, energy and infrastructure (Onwuemele 2018). Data and information on the
roles and impacts of interventions of LNGOs were collected from two sources—(1)
LNGO staffs (paid and volunteer) and (2) community leaders—of surveyed neigh-
borhoods. At first, an operational profile of LNGOs operating in Lagos, Nigeria (n
= 686) was developed, using secondary sources to know their year of establishment,
staff population, and operation focus (aims and objectives). 29 LNGOs were selected
from the profile based on three different criteria. Two paid and four volunteers, who
are above 18 years of age were randomly selected from each of the 29 LNGOs
for the questionnaire survey. Also, profiles of historic sites and neighborhoods in
Lagos were developed to understand the spread of historic sites in Lagos (Table 2).
Other details, contained in the profile are social structure, community governance
and demographics. The community profile provides details on the key actors in the
decision-making process of the community. According to Nix (1977), community
profiling is a strategy, useful to develop an understanding of the people within a
community of interest. The strategy helps to illustrate detail social and economic
characteristics, and the groups and networks within the community (McCauley et al.
2015). This strategy was also described by Burt (1981), as an efficient method of
collecting data and information from a sample of actors (decision makers) and deter-
mining the networks used in the community power structure and decision-making
process.
Later, the community leaders (key decision makers) were identified through a
combination of positional and reputational approaches. Here, the positional approach
was used to identify leaders within the selected neighborhoods who are in positions of
Table 2 Historic neighborhoods in Lagos, Nigeria (Lagos State Government 2011; Legacy 1999)
Historic neighborhoods Places of historical significance
Lagos Island Tinubu Square, Independence building, Colonial building, Massey
Children Hospital, Independence bridge, Popo Aguda, Abari
cemetery, Shitta-Bay Mosque, Site of First Tap water, Glover
Memorial Hall, King’s College, Holy Cross Cathedral, Christ Church
Cathedral, Motherless Babies Home, Lagos Yacht Club, Tafawa
Balewa Square, National Museum, Lagos Central Mosque, Lumpkin
House, Muson Centre, Iga Idunganran, Da Rocha Water House
Marina Lagos House, Governor-General House
Iganmu National Theatre building
Alausa Round House (within Lagos State Secretariat), State House
Badagry Agorin Beach, Site of fallen Agia tree, Gberefu building, Badagry
Heritage Museum, Palace of the Akran, Early Missionaries Cemetery,
First Storey building in Nigeria, Mobee Compound Boekoh Quarters,
Old Oba Akran’s Palace
Oworonsoki Georgios Cole House
Ipaja Ijon village, Port De Young
Ikorodu Palace of the Ayangburen
Lekki Awolowo Detention Camp, Lekki Conservation Centre
Ebute Metta Jackel House
Epe Sungbo Eredo
Eti Osa Oba Ojomu Palace
authority, while reputational approach helped to identify the well-informed members

of the selected neighborhoods that influence how and what the neighborhoods do in
response to disasters (Warner and Galindo-Gonzalez 2014). Similarly, McCauley
and colleagues (2015) suggest that for identifying crucial decision makers (commu-
nity leaders), it is advisable to understand their interconnections and influences on
disaster interventions. In total 142 community leaders were identified and 38 were
randomly selected across the neighborhoods from the three geo-political zones of
Lagos (Fig. 1). 2 sets of questions were used for conducting the questionnaire survey:
i. LNGO-A for paid and volunteer staff of LNGOs, and
ii. LNGO-B for community leaders.
Respondents were requested to rate their responses through a 4-point likert scale
of 1 to 4 denoting level of agreement (1 = Strongly disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 =
Agree, 4 = Strongly agree) and level of concern (1 = Not concerned, 2 = Not very
concerned, 3 = Somewhat concerned, 4 = Very concerned). LNGO-A focused on
three sections:
i. capacity of the LNGOs
ii. evaluation of programs and
iii. interventions.
Rethinking Roles of Local Non-governmental Organizations (LNGO) …
Fig. 1 Geo-political zones and historic neighbourhoods in Lagos (adapted from Ajibade et al. 2013)
157
LNGO-B covers the needs and perception of the neighborhoods towards the
initiatives and interventions of the LNGOs.
4 Context
Lagos is regarded as ‘A City state’ with an estimated population of 17.5 million,

one of the fastest growing cities in the world (Elias and Omojola 2015). The city is
located in the coastal area of Atlantic Ocean within latitudes from 6° 22 7 to 6°
42 36 N and longitudes from 2° 42 22 to 4° 18 0 E. Lagos, as one of the oldest
kingdoms in West Africa, was established in the fourteenth century by the Awori
Tribe of Yoruba people in Southwestern Nigeria (Davis and Kalu-Nwiwu 2001). In
1967, the city became the state capital and served as the host to various economic
and bureaucratic establishments of Lagos State. Barnes (2018) describes the city as
the most diversified with more than 250 ethnic groups, including the Hausa, Igbo,
and Yoruba. A small number of Americans, Chinese, Greeks, White Zimbabweans,
Afro-Brazilian and Afro-Cuban also reside in the city.
Historically, in the 1760 s, Portuguese merchants settled in the city and made use
of the city as a port for the slave trade. For instance, Badagry community is described
as the epicenter of the slave trade in Lagos from where slaves were exported through
the creeks and lagoons in the seventeenth century. The settlement of the Portuguese
and other Europeans, in later years, influences the nature and styles of tangible (such
as buildings, monuments and landscapes) and intangible (such as folklore, music,
tradition and language) heritage of the city. Prucnal-Ogunsote (2002) argues that
from the eighteenth century, architectures of international style, employing flat roofs
and rectilinear forms, became popular, mainly due to the settlement of Europeans
in Lagos. Historic neighborhoods are identified primarily by the places of historic
significance within the city (Zubairu et al. 2012). For instance, the National Theatre
building in Iganmu, Lagos (Fig. 2) serves as a symbol of the emerging cultural awak-
ening and civilization of African culture (Enohoro 1977). Apter (1993) describes the
theatre building as the ‘rallying point for people from various cultural backgrounds
in Nigeria’. Table 2 provides the list of historic neighborhoods in Lagos and the
places of historic significances located within the neighborhoods.
Due to the influence of the Atlantic ocean, Lagos experiences rainfall of various
amount all year round, reaching the highest between May and September (Israel
2017), contributing to the high vulnerability of the city to coastal flooding and
erosion (Ponte 2016). At the same time, seasonal temperatures exhibit high vari-
ability, which contributes to the debate of managing impacts of climate extremes
manifested through disasters such as flooding, heat waves and coastal storms. Various
scholars (Israel 2017; Elias and Omojola 2015; Ajibade et al. 2013), working on
vulnerabilities of Lagos to hazards suggest that floods and storm surges are the
paramount natural hazards affecting the city. Based on the available flood data of
cities in Nigeria between 1985 and 2014 and investigations conducted by Aderogba
(2012), Nkwunonwo (2016) and Ajibade and colleagues (2013), Lagos is identified
Fig. 2 Aerial view of National Theatre Building, Iganmu, Lagos
as the highest hit city amidst 25 cities in Nigeria (Table 3) (National Theatre Nigeria,
2019).
4.1 Respondents’ Characteristics
The survey includes a broadly representative sample of LNGOs staffs and community
leaders in terms of age distribution and gender composition. The mean age is 44 years
for the LNGO staff, and 56 years for the community leaders (Table 4). Also, all the
respondents have attained minimum educational attainment of secondary or technical
school certificates. 87.26% of the respondents achieved minimum of bachelor or
diploma degrees with 8.96% having doctorate degrees in various fields. Finally, it is
worth noting that the community leaders represent fourteen historic neighborhoods
in Lagos (Table 5).
4.2 Exposure to Disasters
The study assessed the concern and perceptions of respondents regarding disaster
events that are recorded in databases (EM-DAT and Nigerian Ministry of Environ-
ment) and previous studies of disasters in Nigeria. Table 6 illustrates strong concerns
Table 3 Historical flood data of Nigerian cities (1985–2014) (Nkwunonwo 2016; Aderogba 2012)
Cities Mean width Highest Mean frequency Mean longest
(meters) experienced (per annum) durations ever
height (meters) lasted (days)
Asaba 125.00 7.88 6 10
Abuja 163.00 6.20 5 4
Abeokuta 115.05 7.32 6 8
Aba 235.00 7.54 5 15
Ibadan 521.45 9.20 3 7
Oweri 124.04 8.21 5 7
Warri 221.25 7.28 6 16
Benin city 198.00 8.90 8 12
Jalingo 115.00 7.37 4 5
Enugu 147.72 7.35 5 6
Lagos 747.00 11.88 10 25
Kano 110.00 9.72 3 8
Kaduna 128.00 9.53 5 12
Katsina 122.00 6.25 4 11
Sokoto 114.25 7.02 6 4
Port-Harcourt 121.21 8.12 4 18
Ondo 124.75 7.80 8 11
Ogbomoso 118.00 9.55 3 12
Osogbo 111.00 9.73 8 13
Onisha 128.00 7.65 4 4
Calabar 213.00 7.53 8 11
for disaster events amidst the community leaders while Fig. 3 shows the yearly occur-
rence rate of disasters within neighbourhoods in Lagos. However, data in Table 6 and
Fig. 3 focus on the entire Lagos as a state due to non-availability of disaster-specific
data of each neighbourhood. The concerns for flooding (3.86), windstorm (3.62), sea
erosion (3.74) and fire (3.78) within the neighbourhoods rank high, while concerns
for drought (1.82) and earthquake (1.66) ranks lowest within the neighbourhoods. In
Fig. 3, flooding has occurred once or more in the neighbourhoods, while a consid-
erable proportion of the respondents (92.11% and 81.58% respectively) revealed
that windstorms and fire-accidents had affected their neighbourhoods more than
once in a year. Overall, drought and earthquakes are the least occurring disaster in
neighbourhoods of Lagos.
Table 4 Characteristics of respondents’ categories

Categories and variables LNGO staff Community leader
Freq. Percent. Freq. Percent.
Gender
Male 87 50.0 19 50.0
Female 87 50.0 19 50.0
Age distribution
18–24 years 25 14.0 0 15.8
25–34 years 30 16.9 4 15.8
35–44 years 43 24.2 5 13.2
45–54 years 29 16.3 7 10.5
55–64 years 30 16.9 9 15.8
65 years and above 21 11.8 13 28.9
Level of education
Primary 0 0.0 – –
Secondary and technical certificate 6 3.4 – –
OND* 9 5.2 – –
Mono-techniques (Colleges of Education) 12 6.9 – –
HND** 38 21.8 6 15.8
Bachelor 73 42.0 16 42.1
Master 24 13.8 9 23.7
Doctorate 12 6.9 7 18.4
*Ordinary National Diploma; **Higher National Diploma
Table 5 Selected community leaders and their neighborhoods

Neighborhoods Frequency Percent Neighborhoods Frequency Percent
Marina 1 2.6 Eti Osa 2 5.3
Badagry 1 2.6 Popo Aguda 5 13.2
Epe 2 5.3 Ikoyi 2 5.3
Lagos Island 2 5.3 Oworonsoki 4 10.5
Onikan 2 5.3 Ipaja 5 13.2
Iganmu 3 7.9 Ebute meta 2 5.3
Ojo 2 5.3 Ikeja 5 13.2
Total 38 100
Table 6 Concern for disaster

Mean (n = 38) SD
amidst the community leaders
Flooding 3.86 1.13
Windstorm 3.62 1.24
Fire 3.78 1.12
Drought 1.82 0.97
Earthquakes 1.66 0.92
Landslides/Mudslides 2.86 1.29
Lightning strike 2.71 1.08
Thunderstorm 2.84 1.06
Sea erosion 3.74 1.05
Fig. 3 Yearly occurrence rate of disasters in neighbourhoods in Lagos
4.3 Disaster Intervention
Table 7 illustrates the perception of respondents to disaster interventions within

their neighbourhoods. Respondents (mean score of 1.60 for overall perception of
interventions, conducted before any disaster) agreed that their neighbourhoods are
less prepared for disaster events with poor drainage system, unprotected histor-
ical sites and lacking in necessary infrastructures. On the contrary, respondents
are more favourable to interventions, conducted as responses to disaster events.
According to them, places of historical significance within their neighbourhoods
usually get destroyed while disasters occur (mean score of 3.86) and various LNGOs
conducts disaster relief interventions within their neighbourhoods (mean score of
3.12). However, respondents indicated that community members were not involved
in the development of disaster management plans to prepare for future disaster events.
Table 7 Community perception of interventions before, during and after disastersa

Items Mean SD.
Before disaster
My community is aware of the potential disaster risks, the neighborhood may face 1.42 0.86
Community members often collaborate to address issues that can enhance 2.36 1.24
disaster risk cause disaster before disaster occurs
I am aware of disaster preparedness plan for my neighborhood 1.47 0.98
My neighborhood has a community warning system 1.24 1.03
People living within the neighborhood have access to learn and practice 1.29 0.84
evacuation plan
Drainages and other infrastructure are regularly monitored for avoiding 2.51 1.26
dysfunction
Drainages and other infrastructure within the neighborhood is in good condition 1.48 1.03
Disaster awareness events are conducted regularly for the community 1.37 1.01
Vulnerable places (such as historical buildings and sites) are protected against 1.42 1.28
disaster
Significant places and buildings are marked with warning signs and information 1.39 0.89
Overall perception of the activities before disasters 1.60 1.04
During disaster
Those with special needs (such as children, disabled, senior citizen) are provided 1.79 1.08
with guides and support during disaster events
There is support from the government for the community during any disaster 2.24 1.25
Historic sites are destroyed anytime disaster occur within their neighborhoods 3.86 1.28
NGOs provides emergency services during disaster events 2.24 1.14
Overall perception of the activities during disasters 2.53 1.19
After disaster
Government provides support for recovery after disaster 2.56 1.24
Various NGOs has implemented disaster relief interventions within my 3.12 1.29
community
Experiences from past disasters made the community to take actions to avoid 1.84 1.02
future disaster events
Community members are involved in development of disaster management plan 1.21 1.09
(DMP) to prepare for future events
Overall perception of the activities after disasters 2.18 1.16
a Reported scale ranges from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree)
LNGO staffs revealed the fact that membership fee is the primary source of funding
of their interventions. 35.63% respondents indicated that their LNGOs raised funds
through individual donations, which is higher than corporate donations (23.56%).
More than 50% of the respondents revealed that international NGOs support disaster
responses more than disaster preparedness interventions after disaster events. Overall
funding from government-related sources (15.62%) is considerably lower to the

financing from private sources (48.6%).
According to twenty-nine (76.32%) community leaders, LNGOs’ interventions
are not contributing significantly to the protection of historical sites within their
neighbourhoods. Twenty-one (55.26%) respondents also revealed that interventions
within their neighbourhoods intensified within last one year right after disaster inci-
dents, whereas, nominal activities have been conducted to train community members
to be prepared for future disasters. Among all respondents only 4 community leaders
have received trainings on disaster risk management; but the trainings were not
specific to their neighbourhoods. The leaders who did not receive any training,
expressed their inability to identify and implement appropriate measures to contribute
positively to protect historical sites within their neighbourhoods (Table 8).
Finally, responses on who should be responsible for taking actions to address
future disasters, notified the importance of LNGOs and heritage professionals in
disaster risk management. 65.79% of community leaders expect LNGOs and heritage
professionals to implement interventions for disaster preparedness and protection of
Table 8 Barriers to disaster preparedness

Barriers Number of responses
Community leaders LNGO staff
Never participated in training for community members on 31 45
disaster risk management
Community members have little/no sense of ownership of 36 52
historic places
Participated in disaster risk management workshops but not 4 23
specific to my neighborhood
Local NGOs preferred to distribute disaster/emergency relief 21 42
material to affected neighborhoods
Many of the emergency services (Fire service, Civil Defense 15 21
Corps etc.) are not equipped to respond to disaster
The constitutional framework for emergency management in 11 74
Nigeria constitutes bottlenecks to prompt response of
emergency services to disaster
Government budgetary allocation for disaster risk 19 48
management is considerable low to address disaster
exposure of historic sites and their neighborhoods in Nigeria
Inadequate political will on the part of decision makers 16 31
Not aware of actions to take that can help prepare the places 28 37
of historic significance and my community in general for
disaster
My community/LNGO lacks experts/professionals in 16 41
disaster risk management
Cultural belief about disaster contribute the vulnerability of 18 35
historic sites and neighborhoods
Table 9 Initiating disaster preparedness and protection of historical sites

Items Community leaders (%) LNGO staff (%)
Community members 10.53 11.49
Government agencies (e.g. National Emergency 7.89 19.54
Management Agency)
Community leaders 10.53 14.37
LNGOs 42.11 27.59
Heritage professionals 23.68 17.82
International organizations 5.26 9.20
Total 100 100
historic sites (Table 9). Additionally, a significant portion of LNGO staffs agreed
that government agencies, LNGOs and heritage professionals have essential roles to
play for reducing disaster risks within neighbourhoods.
4.4 Communication of Disaster Information
The study explored the preference of community leaders on methods of disseminating

disaster information. These methods include different information and communica-
tion (ICT) tools such as mobile phone, emails and social media. Table 10 indi-
cates that 60.53% of the community leaders prefer to receive information related
to disaster through mobile phone, websites and social media. However, 21.05%
prefer employing community group meetings as avenues to disseminate disaster
information.
Table 10 Preference for receiving disaster information

Frequency Percent
Print media (fact sheet/brochure, Newspaper, poster, fliers etc.) 2 5.26
Electronic media (radio, television) 5 13.16
Mobile phone (phone call, SMS, MMS) 13 34.21
Websites and social media (emails, Facebook, WhatsApp etc.) 10 26.32
Community group meetings 8 21.05
Total 38 100
5 Discussion
Exposure to disasters is generally high across the historic sites and their neighbor-
hoods in Lagos, while the contribution of interventions of LNGOs before, during
and after disaster is less satisfactory. However, many of the interventions of LNGOs
address the needs of during and post- disaster conditions, instead of making commu-
nities prepared for disaster events. The level of knowledge related to disaster manage-
ment is also identified as considerably low across the neighborhoods. Scholars
(Forbes 2018; Martins et al. 2018) posit the importance of disaster preparedness
within historic neighborhoods, as historic sites are regarded as vital part of the
community denoting its identity and origin. According to Lidstone and Nielsen
(1998) the formal education is weakly linked with the amount of interventions
for reducing disaster risks within historic neighborhoods. Izadkhah and Hosseini
(2005) also note that disaster education, especially in developing countries, faces
challenges due to inadequate expertise and educational materials. Concerning expo-
sure of historic neighborhoods to disasters, this research analyzed the level of concern
of neighborhoods and the occurrence rate of disaster events. This research proves
the necessity to develop disaster education beyond the scope of formal education in
such a way so that it may raise awareness and increase understanding about disaster
risks and vulnerabilities of historic neighborhoods.
In Lagos, historical neighborhoods, increasingly threatened by flooding, coastal
storms, sea level rise, high temperature and high rainfall, demand responses from
governmental and non-governmental stakeholders (Elias 2018), whereas responses
from federal, state and local governments are identified as slow due to political,
legislative and fiscal constraints (Elias and Omojola 2015). The findings suggest a
positive perception of interventions of LNGOs during and after disaster compared to
the weak perception of LNGO interventions before the disaster. Moreover, given the
need for disaster preparedness within historic neighborhoods, Gibson and colleagues
(2018) suggest to change the non-inclusive reactive approach to the preparatory
approach where heritage professionals can expand their roles from regulators to
facilitators, and assist neighborhoods in protecting historic sites. But the research
found that most of the members of the historic neighborhoods have little or no
knowledge about disaster risk management, which needs to be improved. In this
case, rethinking and refocusing the roles of LNGOs may contribute positively to
overcome the barriers of disaster preparedness within historic neighborhoods. It also
stresses to address the gap among the government, heritage professionals and the
historic neighborhoods in addressing disaster risks. LNGOs with access to interna-
tional collaborations and networks contribute to empower historic neighborhoods
to protect historic sites within their neighborhoods. In particular, the collaboration
between LNGOs and INGOs will also contribute to encourage the active participation
of community members in disaster actions. This indicates that adopting multimodal
means of improving awareness and understanding of disaster risks may contribute
significantly to the protection of historic sites.
6 Conclusion
This study focuses on historic neighborhoods of Lagos, their exposures to disasters

and roles of LNGOs in addressing the impacts of disasters before, during and after
the events. The findings of the study contribute to current understanding of disaster
management in historic neighborhoods, but the contributions are limited based on
the unique location of Lagos, which is considered ideal for this study. In spite of
the limitations, the study illustrates conceptual connections between responses from
LNGOs and perceptions of community members to disaster risks and offers heritage
professionals’ vital roles in assessing historic sites to determine their exposures and
vulnerabilities to disasters. More broadly, the study reinforces the need to refocus the
roles of LNGOs from the reactive to responsive approach to disaster management.
Accordingly, the findings highlight the importance of community-based actions
to reduce disaster risks. Importantly, the community-based approach may include
targeted public awareness strategies and inclusion of disaster education contents in
school learning programs. This will contribute to encourage stronger involvements
of community members in the protection of places of historical significance within
their neighborhoods.
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Mr. Adetunji as a doctoral candidate at the School of Architecture and Built Environment of
the University of Newcastle, Australia is conducting a research on ‘Social Participation in Climate
Change Adaptation of Built Heritage in Nigeria’. He is also serving as a sessional academic staff
there. He is active in fields of climate change adaptation, disaster management and creativity
in cultural heritage. He is also one of the founding members of NERD Multi-concepts, an
entrepreneurial outfit seeking to improve creativity and entrepreneurship in culture, heritage and
art in Nigeria. He is a member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS)
in Australia and Nigeria. He completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture from
Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria. Between 2010 and 2014, he served as a project
architect for a series of conservation projects in Nigeria.
Mr. Owolabi is an emerging researcher passionate about global issues linking culture to sustain-
able development of human environment. He teaches at the department of Architectural Tech-
nology, Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa, Nasarawa State, Nigeria. He is one of the founding
members of NERD Multi-concepts, an entrepreneurial outfit seeking to improve the management
of cultural heritage in Nigeria through digital solutions. He is a graduate member of the Char-
tered Institute of Public Diplomacy and Management and an ambassador of the Green Campus
Initiative (GCI). He holds bachelor and master’s degrees in architecture from Federal University
of Technology, Akure, Nigeria.
Mr. Faboye is a Nigerian architect with research interests in urbanism and architectural heritage.
He holds a master’s degree in architecture from Federal University of Technology, Akure and
is currently working as a research associate at the International Institute for Policy Develop-
ment Strategies where he is a member of the Science, Environment, Engineering and Technology
Research Work Group. His work experience cuts across the implementation of MDGs/SDGs
projects in Nigeria’s Akwa Ibom, Benue, Enugu and Edo States.
A Complexity Approach for Reducing
Disaster Risks for Marginalized Urban
Populations: Comparing DRR
Interventions Across Four Cities
Aaron Clark-Ginsberg
Abstract The extreme poor increasingly reside in cities, often in high-risk settle-
ments such as slums. Unfortunately, the risk in cities is an incredibly complex product,
shaped by interactions between groups of people, natural and physical infrastruc-
tures, and different institutions. This chapter conceptualizes cities and their risks
as a complex adaptive system and examine the methods for risk reduction. To do
so, it reviews how the international NGO Concern Worldwide reduces risks for
the extreme poor living in four cities: Port au Prince, Haiti; Dhaka, Bangladesh;
Nairobi, Kenya; and Freetown, Sierra Leone. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in
these cities, this chapter finds that while many commonly used disaster management
techniques can be employed for risk reduction, the complex and dynamic nature of
urban systems creates unique challenges that must be accounted for. Risk reduction
can be enhanced by implementing a multiplicity of interventions spanning scales
and perspectives, structured along the lines of preparedness and response to crisis,
direct services provision, and enhancing social inclusion. To truly to escape crises,
these interventions must address not just the immediate symptoms of risk, but the
underlying macro processes creating hazards and vulnerabilities. From these results,
the argument is made that a complex system approach that is cognizant of inter-
connections among hazards, vulnerabilities, and forces of creating risks, is crucial
for addressing risks in cities. By introducing this complex system perspective and
providing a series of real-world examples of risk reduction in cities, this chapter
should be relevant for researchers and policymakers working to understand how
risks in an urban context can be managed in better ways.
1 Introduction
In 2010, a magnitude of 7 earthquake struck Port au Prince, Haiti, levelling much of

the city and killing over 200,000 residents (Doocy et al. 2013). A few weeks later
A. Clark-Ginsberg (B)
RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, USA
e-mail: clarkginsberga@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4948-9_10
172 A. Clark-Ginsberg
a magnitude of 8.8 earthquake with energy 500 times greater than the Haiti earth-
quake struck the Chilean city of Concepción. Fortunately, the damage was minimal
and only 562 deaths were recorded (CRED 2019). Such differences provide a stark
illustration of the crucial importance of disaster risk reduction (DRR) capacities of
cities. Concepción fared better because it had made significant investments in its
emergency response systems, it had strong and well-enforced building codes and
its population and government had more resources to address the disaster (Kovacs
2010).
Urban disaster risk reduction is becoming increasingly critical as the world urban-
izes, particularly for the extreme poor. Today well over 50% of the world’s population
lives in cities, compared to 20% of the world’s population in 1900 (United Nations
2018). As locations with concentrations of services, jobs, and other resources are
necessary for a productive and meaningful life, living in cities often affords tremen-
dous advantages. However, cities also house substantial risks, particularly for poorer
and more marginalized populations, including natural hazards such as landslides
and floods, technological hazards like building collapse, diseases and environmental
health risks, and social hazards like violence and insecurity. Furthermore, poverty
and marginalization is urbanizing as the world urbanizes, with cities housing greater
and greater numbers of extreme poor, often in highly risky locations with few basic
services such as slums (Ravallion et al. 2007).
Although a crucial part of urban poverty reduction and sustainable development,
there are several challenges associated with reducing risks in cities. First, urban liveli-
hood patterns, community structures, and political dynamics are different than rural
ones, meaning DRR needs to be approached in different ways. Instead of agricul-
tural based livelihoods, livelihoods often revolve around manufacturing and services;
instead of chieftain-based governance, governance operates through mayoral struc-
tures. Thus, certain factors such as rapid urbanization, concentrated poverty, income
and social inequality, and policies and justice deficits, can contribute to risk for the
extreme poor in cities (de Boer et al. 2016). NGOs, however, have historically focused
on rural areas, and are still relatively new to DRR in cities. Second, complexities in
these environments can be overwhelming: cities have large and heterogeneous popu-
lation, numerous administrative bodies, a mixture of economic systems, and many
interconnected infrastructures, which can make it difficult to understand how risks
are created and how those can be reduced. Even targeting poorer and at risk popula-
tion can be challenging since, while the extreme poor are sometimes concentrated in
locations like slums, there can be high variation in poverty within and between slums
as well as extreme poverty outside slums (Montgomery and Hewett 2004). Third,
the socially constructed nature of risks (Oliver-Smith 2016; Wisner et al. 2004) is
highly apparent in cities, with often clear and direct links between the actions of one
person and the risks of another. NGOs must navigate potentially contentious political
environments if they are to address risk.
Conceptualizing urban areas and their risks as a complex adaptive system can help
to understand how to reduce risks in cities. Complex adaptive systems (CAS) are
systems comprised of numerous interacting parts, whose interactions create nonlinear
outcomes affecting the system as a whole (Holland 1995). With their dense mix of
A Complexity Approach for Reducing Disaster … 173
people, infrastructure, and institutions, cities are the quintessential complex systems
(McHale et al. 2015; Rydin et al. 2012) with risks arising out of the interactions
between system components. While it is unclear whether it is possible to govern
complex adaptive systems, employing a CAS perspective can help identify some
of the features of how risks emerge and might be managed (Duit and Galaz 2008;
Ramalingam 2013). For instance, this perspective acknowledges that when certain
system thresholds are reached, systems can destabilize and lead to a rapid cascade of
changes (Clark-Ginsberg et al. 2018). By highlighting issues like cascades in cities,
a CAS perspective can help identify how and where to engage in activities to reduce
risks.
This chapter uses the CAS perspective to understand how to reduce risks for
the extreme poor living in urban areas. It is designed to provide researchers and
policymakers working to reduce risks in cities with a way to conceptualize urban
DRR and show how different interventions can be employed to reduce risks. To do
so, it examines how one international NGO, Concern Worldwide, reduces risks of the
extreme poor living in urban areas. Concern has been implementing DRR in cities
since the early 2000s (Clark-Ginsberg 2015), so reviewing Concern’s works can help
to gain insights into how to reduce risks in cities. In what follows, the chapter next
provides a brief review of the literature before describing the methodology. Following
this, a comparison is made of Concern’s DRR activities across four cities, Freetown,
Sierra Leone; Dhaka, Bangladesh; Nairobi, Kenya, and Port au Prince, Haiti. Drawing
on primary research conducted in each of these cities a typology of interventions for
DRR in cities is developed, before examining how these interventions did—and did
not—address risks. In the discussion and conclusion, these cases are used to identify
processes for addressing complex risks in cities.
2 Cities, Complexity, and Disaster Risk Reduction
Urban areas are often described in contrast to rural areas by their settlement density
(high), population size (large), institutional and administrative systems (complex),
and cultural association and identity (cosmopolitan) (Parnell and Oldfield 2014).
Urban and rural areas can be viewed as part of a continuum: settlements can be
urban in some ways (e.g. an urban economy focused on industry and services) and
rural in others (a simple administrative system). Rural and urban areas are also
closely interlinked, with frequent exchange of people, services, information, and
income, between urban and rural areas is common and long-standing, and should be
thought of as parts of the same system (McHale et al. 2015; Jones and Corbridge
2010). Interconnections create conjoined spaces of risks and poverty, such as in
Namibia, where drought can lead to urban migration and create in spikes in urban
unemployment (Jakobsone 2013).
Urban environments demonstrate what the risk researcher Charles Perrow (1984)
identifies as two significant features of risks in complex systems: complexity, a
heterogeneous mix of interacting components, and tight coupling, a lack of slack or
give between components. Cities are places of compressed spaces. People live in close
vicinity to each other, and institutional, economic, and infrastructural structures are
often adjacent, making complexity and coupling common. Systems can be coupled in
numerous ways, e.g. geographically by being located in the same area, economically
by being part of the same supply chain, or environmentally by being dependent
on the same environmental services. Tight coupling affords tremendous efficiencies
since it reduces frictions between system components, but those efficiencies can also
create risks if activities in one system (e.g. industrial production) create negative
externalities (e.g. pollution) for another, or if they lead to dependencies that create
systemic risks (e.g. economic downturn from industry collapse).
In cities, as is the case elsewhere (Wisner et al. 2004), the extreme poor tend to be
at the receiving end of complexity induced disasters. Hazards in urban areas include
human derived hazards such as criminality, gang warfare, conflict related to discrimi-
nation and marginalization, price spikes, contagious disease, floods, fires, unemploy-
ment, and building collapse, and natural hazards such as earthquakes, floods, land-
slides, and hurricanes. The poor are more likely to live in areas disproportionately
exposed to these hazards (Wisner et al. 2004; LaVeist and Wallace 2000; Morello-
Frosch et al. 2001); this tight geographic coupling means that they are often the first
to experience these hazards. They also tend to have less access to crucial services
such as schools and roads (Thomas and Quinn 2008; Hewett and Montgomery 2001),
either because, services are privatized or because those are only available in wealthier
neighborhoods. Indeed, although cities are typically economic, cultural, and admin-
istrative centers, the unequal connections between residents and resources mean that
cities are structured in ways that allow for pronounced inequalities and highly “splin-
tered” access to resources and exposure to risk (Marks and Elinoff 2019; Graham
and Marvin 2002).
Slums, heavily populated informal settlements with substandard housing, few if
any public amenities, high prevalence of hazards, and high levels of unemployment,
are some clearest manifestations of extreme poverty (Kinyanjui 2010). Slums often
occupy large swathes of urban areas in developing countries, to the extent that around
one third of people living in urban areas live in slums (World Bank 2018). Slums,
however, are not the only place where the poor can be found; poor can be scattered
in richer neighborhoods, either on the streets as homeless or in shoddy housing.
This loose coupling with resources makes it difficult to access many of benefits of
the urban environment. When coupled with repeated hazard exposures, the poor are
often forced to resort to negative coping strategies like taking out loans and skipping
meals, placing them in a further position of vulnerability and creating a vicious
poverty and vulnerability trap (Clark-Ginsberg 2017).
Certain DRR strategies appear to be useful for reducing risks in cities. Disaster
risk reduction refers to activities aimed to reduce the damage caused by hazards,
and includes activities related to preparedness, mitigation, prevention, and early
response (UNISDR 2018). Approaches to DRR in urban areas can be divided into
two general categories: those treating disaster risk as a negative externality attributed
to nature to be controlled via technocratic measures, commonly known as the hazard
paradigm, and those understanding disaster risk as an product society’s actions known
as the vulnerability paradigm (De Milliano et al. 2015; Hewitt 1983). Disaster risk is
increasingly being conceptualized as part of the vulnerability paradigm, as a product
of human activities, the result of inequitable access to resources and exposure to
risks with efforts focused on addressing risks through social, political, and economic
interventions (De Milliano et al. 2015; Hewitt 1983). In urban areas the vulnera-
bility focused approach is particularly appropriate, as the risk is primarily a distribu-
tional issue. Within this paradigm, it is increasingly recognized that efforts to control
damages are being outweighed by the processes generating new risks, leading to
call to focus on preventing new risks from being created (Gaillard 2019; Wisner and
Lavell 2017; Lewis and Kelman 2012).
Along with supporting certain paradigms, complexity also has implications for
the ways that risks are managed in cities. Highly complex and tightly coupled can
produce ‘system’ or ‘normal’ accidents that emerge from unexpected interactions
between system components and rapidly cascade across tightly coupled systems
(Perrow 1984). Mechanisms for managing these risks include working to reduce
complexity and coupling, abandoning systems whose potential for catastrophe is
too great, reacting to new risks as they emerge, utilizing system approaches to risk
management, intervening across jurisdictional boundaries, and creating high relia-
bility on organizational structures that can respond rapidly with appropriate resources
(Ansell et al. 2010; Boin 2009; Sutcliffe and Weick 2006; Roberts 1990; Perrow
1984). In practice, interventions that focus on continual learning and evaluation and
take a systemic approach to governance that is cognizant of interactions among inter-
ventions, focusing on rapid adaptation to emergent processes, and engaging in many
of the principles found under the banner of resilience all fare well for reducing risks in
complex adaptive systems (Clark-Ginsberg et al. 2018; Duit and Galaz 2008; Perrow
1984).
However, in many cases, disasters are not ‘system’ or ‘normal’ in their origins,
and do not arise because they have been obfuscated by layers of complexity and
occur too quickly to intervene (Wisner et al. 2004; Perrow 1984). Instead, disasters
often arise when risks are known well in advance and there is ample time to inter-
vene. Rather than being the unavoidable outcomes of a complex and tightly coupled
system these disasters are instead the byproduct of systems that provides limited
access to power, structures, and resources, reinforced by discriminatory political and
economic ideologies (Wisner et al. 2004). They arise out of a lack of political will
to reduce risks, inequitable institutional structures which put marginal population
in hazardous environments and give them few resources to reduce vulnerabilities
or cope with disasters when those occur. For these situations, risk reduction is less
about managing the complexity and more about addressing the underlying struc-
tures creating risks, giving those at risk the means to mitigate and recover from
disasters when those emerge, and decoupling the poor and vulnerable from the risks
being produced by broader systems. Such decoupling cannot just be a community
level endeavor; Communities are nested within their broader environment, and both
shape and are shaped by that environment (Pescaroli and Alexander 2015; Gunderson
2001). These interconnections mean that, lower level systems such as communities
are likely to return to their previous condition if those higher level systems remain
intact (Gunderson 2001).
3 Methodology
This study utilized a comparative case study method, comparing Concern’s DRR
practices in four cities, Port au Prince, Haiti; Dhaka, Bangladesh; Nairobi, Kenya;
and Freetown, Sierra Leone. Case studies are particularly useful in researching issues
that are complex, vague, or otherwise difficult to easily quantify, while comparative
cases strike a balance between single detailed cases and large-N statistical analysis,
so are useful for understanding a complex phenomenon but when theory-testing
and generalizability is desired (Zucker 2009; Lijphart 1971). Cases were selected to
represent a broad mix of cities in developing countries. While each city is urban in all
senses of the word—from their high population densities, large population sizes, and
diverse population types, to their industry and service dominated economies, complex
administrative structures, and urban cultural association and identity—specific city
profiles differed, including their hazards, geographic locations, and levels and types
of poverty and vulnerability.
The research presented in this chapter is part of a larger project with Concern
Worldwide designed to understand and document how Concern reduces risk in the
communities in which it works. Concern is an international NGO focused on the elim-
ination of extreme poverty. It operates in approximately 20 countries with a mixture
of emergency response and development, including many interventions designed to
reduce risks. To understand how Concern reduces risks, the researcher undertook
a two-year project between 2013 and 2014 examining and documenting Concern’s
DRR activities in different contexts. This included visiting 10 countries to review
projects and talk with staffs and partners, government agencies, and beneficiaries
about the organization’s DRR practices. Each visit followed a similar structure and
included a desk review of country-level programming documents, followed by indi-
vidual and group interviews with Concern staffs, government officials, partners, and
beneficiaries to discuss the projects, and field visits to observe and review the projects.
To guide the interviews a semi-structured interview protocol was developed based
on the OECD-DAC evaluation criteria, an evaluation criteria designed to provide
a standardized approach to evaluating development interventions through criteria
focused on relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact, and sustainability of a project
(Chianca 2008). Interviews varied in length, lasting anywhere from 30 minutes to
over 4 hours, and in focus, depending on the area of expertise of the respondent.
Notes were taken throughout and were analyzed along with documents to develop
findings.
4 Risks in Nairobi, Port Au Prince, Freetown, and Dhaka
The poor living in Nairobi, Port au Prince, Freetown, and Dhaka face remark-
ably similar challenges, including privatization of services and high cost of living;
marginalization, discrimination, and exploitation; high levels of unemployment and
lack of a steady income; and exposure to human derived hazards including violence,
eviction, price shocks, disease, and to various natural hazards depending on the
geography. High cost of living and marginalization are major and tightly coupled
challenges: high costs make it difficult to secure basic access and incentivize the
active exploitation of the poor in the name of profit.
4.1 Port Au Prince, Haiti
Port au Prince is Haiti’s rapidly growing capital, home to about three million people
(CIA 2019). Port au Prince is a port city, exposed to tropical storms and hurricanes;
it is mountainous, facing landslides, floods, and erosion; and it is located in an active
earthquake area, placing it at the risk of earthquakes and tsunami. Many of Port au
Prince’s poorer residents reside in slums and are exposed to these natural hazards
as well as derived hazards and hazard drivers such as corruption, widespread gang
violence, limited service access, high levels of marginal employment and unemploy-
ment, unplanned growth, and unclear systems of land tenure (Clark-Ginsberg 2015).
On average, the poor in these areas spend over half of their income on food, and over
a quarter of their income on education (Clark-Ginsberg 2015). Concern works in
two centrally located slums in Port au Prince, St. Martin and Martissant, and focuses
on water, sanitation, and hygiene, livelihoods, health, education, and emergency
response. DRR interventions include strengthening community disaster manage-
ment committees, peacebuilding, infrastructure improvements, and small business
development.
4.2 Freetown, Sierra Leone
Freetown, like Port au Prince, also is a port city with mountainous terrain, a rapidly
growing population, and several slums whose residents face natural and human
derived hazards (including storm surges, landslides, floods, disease, fires, and pollu-
tion), and high levels of vulnerability. They also have limited access to basic services,
with low police presence, poor waste and sanitation facilities, limited access of
electricity (often only accessible illegally), and limited road access (Clark-Ginsberg
2017). Many residents describe an activity designed to reduce risks—mandatory
relocation from higher to lower risk locations—as one of the main risks in the slums,
since relocation would remove residents from many of the city’s services and liveli-
hood options (Clark-Ginsberg 2017). While the government has not been able to
relocate residents, it has implemented construction bans across many of the slums
that it considers risky in an effort to disincentive settlement. Concern works in six
slums in Freetown, mainly in water and sanitation, with specific activities including
strengthening community level disaster management committees, improving local
health systems, small-scale mitigation, and emergency response.
4.3 Dhaka, Bangladesh
In Dhaka, Bangladesh’s burgeoning capital, Concern works with one of the city’s
poorest and most vulnerable populations, pavement dwellers, long-term homeless
who live on the streets, often in semi-permanent settlement locations. Pavement
dwellers spend an average of six years living on the streets, exposed to natural hazards
and facing threats of eviction from their settlements. They often face violence, kidnap-
ping, prostitution, protection racketeering, and other forms of exploitation (Clark-
Ginsberg and Hunt 2017). They tend to work low paying jobs such as petty trading
and day laboring. Many lack official government birth registration and national iden-
tification cards since both require a permanent address, so often cannot access govern-
ment services like schools and health centers or secure formal employment. They
are, at best, ‘invisible poor’, ignored by other residents of the city; at worse, they
face structural and direct violence. To reduce risks for this population, Concern
focuses on improving livelihoods while changing the broader institutional environ-
ment, including through the creation of pavement dweller centers, special facilities
that provide pavement dwellers with basic services including shelter, water, security,
health, and livelihood support, as well as city-level and national level advocacy.
4.4 Nairobi, Kenya
Nairobi has eight main slums, which are where many of the poorest residents of
the city live. Population densities in these slums are high—they house 50% of the
city’s total population, but only occupy 5% of its residential land (Bird et al. 2017). In
these slums services, including water, sanitation, health and education are limited and
mostly privatized. Rates of joblessness and marginal employment are high. They tend
to be located in hazardous areas such as along the banks of rivers or by waste facilities;
natural hazards like flooding and erosion, as well as human derived hazards such as
violence, criminality, and pollution, are rampant (Bird et al. 2017). Concern focuses
on improving access to and the delivery of services, including health, education, and
solid waste disposal, and livelihood improvements such as cash grants and skills
training.
5 Disaster Risk Reduction Programs in Port Au Prince

Freetown, Dhaka, and Nairobi
Table 1 is a list of the activities that Concern engages in to address risks in each of
these cities. Some are local and target an at risk population directly mainly using
community-based disaster risk reduction techniques, while others are regional and
national and focus on how stakeholders at different levels address risks. In response
to the diverse impacts of disasters and causes of hazards and vulnerability, these inter-
ventions also cover different sectors such as livelihoods, health, and environmental
services.
Figure 1 shows a framework for DRR in urban areas, developed by grouping
this array of interventions into categories of related activities. The framework shows
that DRR is a combination of risk assessment, preparedness and response to crisis,
service provision, and building social inclusion. In all cases, urban DRR starts with
a risk assessment to understand hazards, vulnerability, and capacity of the target
community. Some interventions focus on providing people in dire situations with
basic support that save lives and reduces negative coping—activities that fall under
the category of preparedness and response to crisis. To reduce the chances of crises
occurring, longer-term interventions are required to mitigate risks. This includes
provision of basic services, such as electricity, roads, schools, and improving liveli-
hoods, designed to address unsafe conditions and drivers of risks. These interventions
Table 1 List of DRR

Context analysis (Haiti, Private sector engagement
interventions in Freetown,
Bangladesh, Sierra Leone) (Haiti, Kenya, Sierra Leone)
Dhaka, Nairobi, and Port au
Prince (Field-survey 2019) Participatory risk assessment Emergency cash transfer (all)
(Sierra Leone, Kenya)
Surveillance systems (Kenya) Participatory urban planning
(Haiti)
Cholera tracking (Sierra Pavement dweller centers
Leone) (Bangladesh)
Peacebuilding (Haiti) Small business development
(Haiti, Bangladesh, Kenya)
Conflict sensitivity (Haiti) Physical mitigation (Sierra
Leone, Haiti)
Disaster management Natural resource management
committees (Sierra Leone, (Haiti, Sierra Leone)
Haiti)
Community conversations Solid waste management
(Kenya) (Haiti, Kenya, Sierra Leone)
Peacebuilding committees Improving water access (Haiti
(Haiti) and Bangladesh)
Policy advocacy (all) Livelihood training
(Bangladesh, Haiti, Kenya)
Fig. 1 Urban DRR framework (Field-survey 2019)
are often implemented at community level over a medium term. It also includes what
is often longer term and macro level activities such as peacebuilding, community
conversations, and policy change designed to bring about fundamental long-term
changes in the status quo and address the drivers and root causes of crises.
The framework illustrates some of the key activities required to address risks
in complex adaptive systems. These activities reduce coupling from hazards and
increase coupling with productive services that eliminate vulnerability. Risk assess-
ments improve knowledge, which is important for facilitating adaptation and
addressing emergent dimensions of CAS. Shorter term preparedness and response
can also be a way to react to emergence quickly, reducing the chances of threats
creating longer term impacts or larger cascades. Service provision and building social
inclusion can address the underlying conditions creating risks, ultimately resulting
in an environment that is more robust and less likely to be affected when hazards
strike. The move from individual to community to systems level of focus also reflect
the multi-tiered sites of the risk, which interact with each other in ways that often
replicate processes of risk creation or risk reduction (Pescaroli and Alexander 2015;
Gunderson 2001). Since these levels interrelate, changing complex systems require
sets of activities that engage across levels, making this multi-tiered approach a crucial
part of risk reduction. The next section describes in greater detail the ways that
Concern implemented these sets of activities across each of these four cities.
5.1 Risk Assessment
Risk assessment involves the systematic determination of the nature and extent of
disaster risk by assessing hazard exposures and vulnerabilities (UNISDR 2017).
Concern uses two primary strategies for assessing risk in these cities, a context
analysis to establish a high-level picture of the poverty and risk dynamics of each
city, and participatory assessments designed to provide a detailed risk profile for a
specific area. While risk assessment is a crucial part of reducing risks in cities, the
complex and changing nature of urban systems can make it difficult to assess risks.
Concern conducted contextual analyses in Dhaka and Port au Prince. To do so, it
held an initial workshop and reviewed secondary data, and collected and analyzed
quantitative primary data, including interviews and focus group discussions with
government officials, vulnerable populations, and staffs of other NGOs, to develop
findings of who the poor are, where they are living, and why they are poor, including
the risks they face. Results from this analysis show how poverty and risks are highly
place-based, contingent upon the unique makeup of hazards, vulnerabilities, and
capacities of an area (Norris et al. 2008). For instance, in Dhaka poverty and vulner-
ability were mainly organized geographically, with homeless pavement dwellers
the poorest and other groups, including slum dwellers, less poor, while in Port au
Prince there were differences in poverty within the slums, with marginal informal
sector workers, female headed households without a stable source of income, and
households whose heads are unable to work as more poor than other slum residents.
Concern adapted many participatory assessment techniques (Chambers 1997) to
gain a more detailed working knowledge of the specific hazards with high impacts
on communities. These techniques included hazard mapping, historical reviews of
disasters, and seasonal calendars, and were often targeted at marginal populations
and implemented with the support of community partners with a strong knowledge
of the context. Community based data collection is useful for addressing what is
often a lack of data on the poor, and for revealing hidden poverty masked by broader
city-level statistics that do not capture localized inequalities. By focusing on the
community as locus of analysis, community techniques are also a way of capturing
specific and unique place-based dynamics of risk and resilience, which is necessary
for risk management in complex contexts. Community representatives also noted that
these approaches recognized communities’ knowledge and agency of the area and
argued that such techniques were useful for both understanding risks and acting on
risks, since that enhanced risk awareness and could be a first step towards galvanizing
communities into action.
The use of these two assessment techniques indicates that risk analysis processes
used in non-urban contexts can work for assessing risks in cities, but also require
several modifications. First, the distinctions between natural and human derived
hazards are not clear in cities, since cities contain heavy concentrations of human
processes such as physical infrastructure and economic systems, which can influence
and create natural hazards. Given this and the fact that human derived hazards like
violence and eviction often outweigh natural hazards, risk assessment should focus
on the cacophony of hazards that the poor face rather than be limited to hazards
that are purely natural in origin. Second, power dynamics and multiple stakeholders
often characterize urban contexts, so a robust institutional and power analysis must
be included in urban risk analysis. The most vulnerable group does not necessarily
follow ‘typical’ lines (such as women, the elderly or disabled) but may instead be
more about livelihood types. Third, extreme poverty that exists in such urban areas is
often ‘masked’ within broader level statistics, so city-level assessments may mask the
complex nature of complexity. Rather than taking a city-level geographic perspective
to risk analysis, it is therefore better in urban areas to take a group-based perspective
on risk, understanding that often communities are based on interest (for example,
church, youth, or football associations) or livelihood types (as garbage pickers or
factory workers) as much as those are geographic. Finally, the dynamic nature of
risk in urban areas reinforces the importance of updating risk analysis on a regular
basis. Cities and their hazards are constantly evolving; reducing risk requires a robust
risk assessment focused on understanding how cities are evolving and addressing
changes in ways those mitigate risks.
5.2 Preparedness and Response to Crisis
Poor urban households often already live on the brink of disaster, so when a hazard
strikes, they quickly turn to negative coping strategies to survive, which in turn can
further exacerbate the crisis. Providing emergency support in a timely manner, ideally
early in or even before a crisis to prevent people falling into negative coping strate-
gies, and reducing the loss of life and economic, cultural, and environmental damages
from disasters are ways of reducing the negative impacts of disasters. Improving
preparedness at community levels by strengthening early warning systems and estab-
lishing risk surveillance systems, developing contingency plans, improving commu-
nity response capacities, and transferring assets, including cash, goods, and services,
are all ways of preparing and responding to crisis in cities.
Concern works to strengthen local governmental and nongovernmental commu-
nity disaster management committees (DMCs) to improve preparedness, providing
them with training, skills, and resources to respond to emergencies and, when those
structures are around, linking them to higher governance structures. While these
DMCs can provide rapid response, most DMCs are volunteers and require external
supports for disasters where responses are highly technical and when post-disaster
reconstructions are necessary. These supports can be difficult to secure, however,
as there are often both financial limitations and political barriers (e.g. not wanting
to provide incentives for settling in a marginal area) hampering response. Concern
also works to establish intermediary between local and national disaster management
structures, such as in Freetown, where it established a community-based organiza-
tion to act as coordinating body for DMCs and has a mandate focused on disaster
management. This linking and bridging function is crucial because it allows the DMC
to access knowledge and resources at higher levels and translate it to lower levels;
a mechanism that improves risk reduction coupling and decreases the chances of
negative risk cascades.
Surveillance systems are the tools for monitoring and sharing information as a
disaster unfolds. This tracking helps agencies to respond to disasters quickly, making
it a useful component of preparedness. Using a surveillance system as an early
warning system is only appropriate for slow onset disasters, since thresholds indicate
a worsening situation which can be used before it turns into a major disaster. Many
surveillance systems that Concern has implemented are simple and mainly consist
of reporting disasters of a certain scale as those occur, but it also has an advanced
surveillance system in Nairobi, Indicator Development for Surveillance of Urban
Emergencies, designed to provide detailed information for a wide variety of stresses
(Patel et al. 2017).
Urban-specific surveillance systems are necessary for three reasons. First, many
key indicators of crisis differ between urban and rural contexts. For instance, food
security surveillance systems designed for rural uses (such as the Famine Early
Warning Systems) tend to focus on the agricultural dimensions of food security,
using meteorological and ecosystem data to identify potential for crop and livestock
failures. Since urban populations mostly engage with markets and services for liveli-
hoods, agricultural-focused surveillance systems provide little information that can
be used to understand urban food security. Instead, urban focused indicators are
necessary for food security. Second, because of their large population sizes, different
thresholds are needed for surveillance systems in urban areas. If populations are large,
even a small relative change in food security may necessitate a large response that
could easily overwhelm emergency systems. Thus, in order to not overwhelm emer-
gency response capacities, urban surveillance systems need to be sensitive, precise,
focused on early detection, and have clear response thresholds set at appropriate
levels. Third, since digital surveillance techniques are typically more efficient than
non-digital techniques, they are often useful for urban areas, particularly to identify
certain dispersed shocks that in aggregate can be disasters.
Both reporting and acting on surveillance system information is challenging. For
instance, DMCs in Freetown do not have a standardized format for reporting disasters,
and government officials note that information does not always reach them. As a
result, when emergency information is collected, it is not always acted upon. Because
of this issue, in Nairobi Concern is working to standardize response by developing
response thresholds with triggers. However, since response is necessitated on both
technical capacity and political will, thresholds need to be developed in a way that
secures buy-in from all stakeholders, including members of the government, local
community members, and NGOs.
Emergency asset transfers are interventions to provide households with the mate-
rial necessary to survive. The asset transfers Concern provides can be categorized
based on whether assets are cash based or non-cash based and whether they are
provided conditionally or unconditionally. When markets are functioning well and
populations are very poor, as is the case in many urban areas, cash based uncondi-
tional transfers tend to work well. Partnering with private sector companies can be
a way of improving asset transfers: in Kenya Concern has partnered with the cell
phone company MPesa to provide cash to residents facing food crisis transferred to
them through their mobile phones, which can be used to safely transfer money in a
way that is less expensive and more secure than paper ones (Datta et al. 2008). This
can be particularly useful for urban areas where crime rates tend to be high.
These interventions show how vital it is to invest in establishing the right institu-
tions for preparedness and response, through activities like training, providing access
to emergency response materials, and establishing surveillance systems. Prepared-

ness needs to be urban specific, requiring a more localized and precise set of early
warning and surveillance indicators based on urban livelihood systems, and engaging
actors such as private sector companies with presence in cities and unique resources
for risk reduction. However technological interventions are predicated on addressing
power relations that favor inertia rather than preparedness and response.
5.3 Service Provision
Poor and vulnerable city dwellers often do not have access to basic services, which
makes it difficult to react to and recover from crises. Concern provides critical services
that can mitigate risks, including to health (waste management and water sanita-
tion) and to livelihoods, often through business development and skills training, and
implements direct mitigation interventions through natural resource management,
structural engineering, service centers, and sensitization campaigns.
In Dhaka, Concern provides services through pavement development centers,
buildings it has established where pavement dwellers can cook, rest, bathe, store
valuables, receive training, and access services such as daycare and healthcare.
The daycare service allows families to work while children learn, women and chil-
dren can stay at the centers at night and escape potential violence associated with
sleeping in the open, and the centers can be used as a permanent address for govern-
ment registration forms, which are necessary to access many government services.
These services thus address many of the daily risks associated with living on the
streets, such as sexual violence, kidnapping, cold snaps, and theft, both by reducing
hazard exposure and by reducing vulnerability.
Improving the built environment also reduces risks, often within a specific
geographic area. For instance, riverine erosion is a problem for many residents living
in the slums of Port au Prince. While driven by many factors including rapid deforesta-
tion and increase in non-permeable surfaces, erosion can be mitigated via structural
interventions at river level, such as the two check-dams that Concern has constructed
out of gabions to slow the flow of water and reduce erosion. Larger watershed level
activities can also help mitigate erosion: in Freetown, Concern helps communities
to plant trees, which reduces flood and erosion risks. Volunteers grow trees from
seeds in their backyards, which they plant in higher risk areas, typically areas with
steep slopes. Communities in Freetown have built small walls out of rocks, tires, and
waste to protect from storm surges and erosion; while these examples of community-
built ‘do it yourself DRR’ provide some protection, they are under-designed for the
hazards, so their protection is limited. They are, however, in some cases the only
option because of the government’s ban on constructing physical mitigation, which
is designed to disincentive settling in higher risk areas.
Waste and water related risks are a manifestation of many of the challenges associ-
ated with mitigation in complex urban environments. Clean water and waste disposal
facilities are limited across many slums; as populations are concentrated in these
areas, this leads to major environmental health problems that are challenging polit-
ically and socially. For instance, in Freetown much of the city’s waste ends up in
its rivers, which reduces water flow and contributes to flooding in low-lying slums
on floodplains. While voluntary cleanup programs could be implemented to miti-
gate waste disposal in rural areas, voluntary approaches are ineffective in Freetown
due to lower levels of community cohesion and a market driven economy coupled
with the continued production of waste upstream. Instead, changes are needed to
prevent waste from being dumped and eventually ending up in Freetown’s rivers.
However, such reforms are incredibly difficult, requiring systemic reforms across
the city. Similarly, Korogocho slum in Nairobi is located near a 30-acre open land-
fill, which leaches pollution into the surrounding soil, water, and air, exposing over
200,000 people to contaminants (Concern Worldwide 2012). Residents, however, are
opposed to shutting down or relocating the dumpsite since 10,000 people work as
waste pickers—a dangerous job that leads to infections, respiratory disease (which
affects 53% of children at the dumpsite) injuries from scrap metals and toxic waste,
and lead in the bloodstream (Concern Worldwide 2012). Concern has implemented
livelihood supports and vocational trainings to reduce dependence on the waste, but
many residents still choose to work as waste pickers, exchanging physical health
for economic survival. Gang violence overlays issues of health and sanitation in the
slums of Port au Prince. Water in the slums is privatized, and in one of the slums, the
Grand Ravine area, gangs control one of the only sources of clean, potable water,
and charge residents for using it. To address this, Concern is providing trainings to
help gang members work as waste removers, an alternative livelihood, in exchange
for giving the water point to a neutral public body that can ensure equitable access.
Since costs are high and services are often privatized, strong livelihoods are crit-
ical for managing risks in cities. Because the causes of poverty are multifaceted,
improving livelihoods often requires a multitude of interventions. In Dhaka, Concern
supports livelihoods by providing pavement dwellers with small grants and liveli-
hood trainings, a place to save money, day-care and shower facilities, and assists
with securing governmental registration cards. The support helps pavement dwellers
to engage in the economy of the city, which can be a way out of poverty. Govern-
ment registration is particularly important since many businesses will not employ
people who have national identification cards. In Nairobi, most residents partici-
pate in ‘merry go rounds’, informal savings groups between friends and neighbors.
Members will save a small amount per month, often around 10–20 Kenyan shillings
(around 10–20 cents USD), the sum of which is then given on a rotational basis to a
member of the group to purchase larger items that would otherwise be unaffordable.
Although Nairobi residents can also access credit through local lenders, most do not
want to risk falling into debt so only use credit as a last resort.
Services, direct mitigation, and improving livelihoods can reduce risks in cities,
however the urban environment has complexities that pose challenges for risk reduc-
tion. Livelihood related issues both reflect and enforce broader issues that create
risks. In Port au Prince, high rates of unemployment, high costs of living, lack of
services, and insecurity combines to make it extremely hard for slum residents to
escape from poverty. In turn, poverty creates desperation and gives rise to crime and
gang warfare. Thus, peacebuilding initiatives must focus on developing economic

pathways away from poverty and violence.
As Concern’s attempts to reduce the impact of waste through localized cleanups
in Freetown demonstrate, exposure to hazards and inadequate mitigation are often
symptoms of larger and more systemic issues, that, if not addressed, can overwhelm
the localized mitigation actions. Creating win-win mitigation strategies—by for
instance developing markets for recycling and other forms of waste management—
and working with multiple stakeholders at higher levels can address some of these
issues; however, broader systemic change is incredibly difficult. Within this envi-
ronment, poorer residents make complex tradeoffs between risk types, for instance
by exchanging greater exposure to waste for livelihoods or by sacrificing access to
credit to avoid risks associated with debt. In some cases, Concern can change the
calculation by providing access to services that would otherwise not be available and
working to address the broader system shaping risk, but Concern is often underfi-
nanced relative to the scale of the risk at hand. As a result, maintenance issues can
lead to the gradual degradation of infrastructure, waste issues are not addressed so
residents are exposed to toxins that lead to diseases, and the processes of violence
can gradually return.
5.4 Building Social Inclusion
Urban areas are rife with inequality, and building social inclusion is critical to DRR.
Communities need to be able to engage with stakeholders outside of their community,
however the extreme poor often have limited access to broader governance systems.
Furthermore, communities are not homogenous (Titz et al. 2018), meaning that there
can be inequality and differential inclusion within communities. Improving inclusion
and tackling the root causes of risk can be challenging, yet it is necessary to reduce
the impacts of disasters. Depending on the context, Concern engages in different
activities to build social inclusion, including community conversations, pavement
dweller centers, peacebuilding, and disaster management committees.
In Nairobi, Concern’s inclusivity work focuses on community conversations,
long-term community-level meetings that use participatory tools to engage in
dialogue. Community conversations are designed to empower communities to act
to address issues that they can address on their own, while also providing a vehicle
for demanding changes from risk creators and engaging in government planning
processes. They are long-term interventions built on the voluntary support from
communities. As a result, residents are often initially reticent to engage in community
conversations and only do so after months of initial discussions.
In Port au Prince, Concern focuses on peacebuilding to reduce gang violence and
address the root causes of conflicts. As in Nairobi, activities tend to focus on changes
through dialogue processes, but Concern also provides small funds to enact projects
that reduce poverty and other factors that contribute to violence. Project partici-
pants, including members of community-based organizations and former combatants,
described dialogue processes as a powerful tool for reducing violence, but also noted
that to be successful dialogue process needs to occur over the space of years rather
than weeks or months. Residents described how safety had improved in the slums
where Concern works, which made it easier to engage in livelihoods and for outside
organizations to provide services. Private sector actors also participated in some of
these projects and provided small services (like installing street lights) in the slums.
Along with improving the slums, involvement in these projects had economic benefits
for these companies: during the 2008 food riots, for example, numerous businesses
were attacked, but not those engaged in peacebuilding. Although useful for building
piece, dialogue programs were hampered by an inability to address larger systemic
issues contributing to conflict. Many believed that the organization needed to focus
more on economic development and education, which were cited as driving conflict.
Others noted the need to engage with higher level national stakeholders—who were
purported to use gangs to maintain political control over slums.
In Dhaka, Concern works to help pavement dwellers become recognized as citi-
zens of Bangladesh and reducing stigma and discrimination associated with living on
streets. Its activities occur at local, municipal, and national levels. At the local level,
Concern works with local authorities (e.g. police, hospital, and school officials) to
help them to improve relations with pavement dwellers. At the municipality level,
it has lobbied the Dhaka city municipality to provide pavement dwellers specific
services and secure a budget line for pavement dweller support. At national level
it has worked with members of the media and held press conferences and rallies
to raise the national profile of pavement dweller issues and has hosted journalists
and ministry officials to visit pavement dwellers. Some of these activities have been
successful: as part of Concern’s lobbying efforts, pavement dwelling centers can now
be used as an address for birth registration and national identification and there is now
a non-partisan parliamentary issue-based group with a focus on pavement dwellers
that has published a book on pavement dweller needs entitled Pavement Dwellers’
Right to Survive (Shil 2013).
The multitude of stakeholders and institutional systems operating in urban envi-
ronments creates an incredibly complex environment that is difficult to change and
requires long-term and systemic interventions that can be implemented flexibly as
situations evolve. While Concern recognizes the necessity of a long term and flex-
ible approach to building social inclusion, such approaches are antithetical to the
often shorter term and tightly focused interventions that donors provide funding for.
Indeed, staff noted that at times they found it difficult to convince donors to provide
longer term and more flexible funding options. Despite donor desires for shorter
term interventions, trust can take a long time to develop, and interventions need to
be far reaching and include elements that do not always directly match the direct
causes of crisis. As multi-level and multi-sectoral issues those also require involve-
ment from multiple stakeholders—whose values can be significantly different. Long
term engagement can be a way of aligning values toward a common and agreed upon
outcome. There are also additional questions on whether an international NGO-driven
approach to DRR an appropriate vehicle in this environment is, given the need for
systemic changes and the often more localized scale of operational presence and
impact that NGOs can provide. While NGOs are often involved in country-level
DRR fora and are increasingly entering into consortia as ways of operating at scale
and magnifying voices to affect systemic change, their ability to operate at national
and international level remains questionable given their often a small footprint and
limited scale of influence.
6 Discussion and Conclusion
Cities are the quintessential complex adaptive systems. As this chapter shows,
conceptualizing cities as complex adaptive systems helps to understand risk forma-
tion and develop strategies for risk reduction. The poor are often tightly coupled
to hazards and only loosely coupled to opportunities, meaning that hazards can
have dramatic effects on poverty and vulnerability. The urban spaces structuring this
coupling are themselves a dense amalgamation of physical and social infrastructure,
with their own interdependencies and risks. Organizations attempting to reduce risks
therefore need to be cognizant of interconnections, work across levels and sectors,
and be able to adapt rapidly to changes.
The differences between urban and rural areas require different ways of doing
DRR, such as development of new urban specific surveillance systems or the adap-
tation and expansion of existing community based DRR techniques. Taking as wide
a possible definition of hazards and not limiting DRR merely to natural hazards is
important for urban areas since many of the risks, such as violence, conflict, and
waste, are human in origin. The human orientation of risk also points to a greater
need for activities such as peacebuilding that build social inclusion in cities, or activ-
ities focused on service improvement designed to reduce the inequitable, “splin-
tered” (Marks and Elinoff 2019; Graham and Marvin 2002) nature of the cityscape.
However, the specific mix interventions necessary to reduce risks differs across
contexts depending on the unique placed based makeup of the stakeholder and insti-
tutional environments: gang violence is an overriding factor in Port au Prince, for
example, while the threat of eviction and restrictions on slum development are over-
riding factors in Freetown. Urban slums also show a range of wealth levels, ethnicities
and allegiances, and even richer areas have pockets of poverty within them. Cities
are not homogenous in their challenges, and interventions need to be designed to
reflect differences.
Concern’s work shows how a broad scope of activities, from risk assessments, to
preparedness, service provision, and building inclusion can help to reduce risks in
urban areas. Through these activities, Concern can reduce the short-term impact of
urban hazards and address some of the longer- term factors creating risks. These
all fall under the ‘standard’ set of DRR activities—risk analysis, preparedness,
mitigation, and advocacy—but are adapted to the urban specific contexts.
Concern’s work also reveals some of the challenges associated with working
in urban contexts. The often-wide gap between the ‘have’ and have-nots’ of city
dwellers leads to inequitable vulnerability and hazard profiles and creates incentives
to maintain the status quo. As part of this, pressures from politicians to either ignore
or relocate slums, make it difficult to ensure that slum conditions are adequate for safe
and dignified lives. The market-oriented nature of urban spaces is well recognized,
but livelihood support has proven difficult to improve, which is perhaps not surprising
seeing as those living in slums devote most of their time to improving their livelihoods
but find it difficult to remove the many barriers in their ways. Urban areas are a
maze of diverse institutions that are both challenging to navigate and sometimes
contradictory.
This complex environment makes risk reduction difficult, but also makes it clear
that multi-stakeholder approaches, advocacy, and broad reforms across the cityscape
targeted at preventing disaster risk creation are fundamental for successful urban
DRR. Examples of the need to make broad reforms include the importance of
improving waste disposal across Freetown, addressing upstream deforestation for
reducing downstream flooding in Port au Prince, and improving industry and employ-
ment in Nairobi. Concern has focused its work within certain neighborhoods like
slums rather than outside of the targeted slum area at a larger scale. Although neces-
sary for long term and sustainable change, there is a question of whether Concern,
and NGOs like it, are able to successfully operate and intervene at this larger scale.
The successes and challenges associated with Concern’s work in these cities
show that while many interventions can be enacted to reduce negative coupling and
improve positive, Concern and other organizations are still learning how to navigate
the complex risk environments of cities. Continuing to build knowledge on urban
specific forms of DRR can improve risk reduction in cities and add to the knowledge
on how to govern risks under conditions of complexity. Unfortunately, since urban
environments contain high levels of complexity and coupling and contain create
tradeoffs in risks that are not possible to circumvent, it may not be possible to fully
address risks in cities, even with improved practices. However, while urban envi-
ronments may have the features necessary for normal accidents to arise, many of
the current disasters that poor face are avoidable products of lack of political will,
inequality, and institutional structures that marginalize the poor and vulnerable in
the name of efficiency and profit. Interventions designed to address marginaliza-
tion, reduce poverty, and prevent disaster risk creation, can go far in reducing these
disasters.
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disaster risk creation’ (DRR > RDRC). In: Dealing with disasters conference. University of
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Dr. Clark-Ginsberg is an associate social scientist at the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit nonpar-
tisan institution that helps to improve policy and decision-making across the world through
research and analysis. A disaster researcher by training, Dr. Clark-Ginsberg’s research focuses on
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ical infrastructure protection. Dr. Clark-Ginsberg works with both researchers and policymakers
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migration.
Adapting with Climate Change Impacts
Adaptation and Development for
Mitigating Impacts of Climate Change
and Climate Extremes in Urban Areas
Huraera Jabeen
Abstract Adaptation is essential to reduce increased risks and repetitive disasters

from climate change that limit opportunities for development. Thus, ‘adaptation
as development’ as an approach perceives development as the basis for, and in
some cases synonymous with, adaptation. Different groups of population become
vulnerable to the impacts of climate change for being in geographic space—where
vulnerable people and places are located; or social place/position—who in those
places is the most vulnerable. However, adaptation in the built environment has to
consider climate variables that impact on various financial, physical and human capi-
tals. Recognizing diversity within a society along with associated opportunities and
challenges helps in recognizing the diverse adaptive capacities of different groups as
well as addresses the problematic issues of agency, power-relations and negotiation
of inhabiting the built environment in urban areas.
Keywords Adaptation · Adaptive capacity · Agency · Built environment ·

Development
1 Introduction
Climate change impacts are experienced by different groups of population in different

manners. Exploration of adaptations to climate change are driven by four key ques-
tions: what to adapt to, who or what adapts, how does adaptation occur and what
are the limitations to adaptation (Pelling 2010). Until very recently ‘climate change’
as a definition remained concerned with visible, dramatic and large impacts causing
disasters; while considerations of ‘climate extremes’ brings in the often unnoticed,
less dramatic, repetitive, and incrementally developing scenarios. It also emphasizes
the need to address both extreme and non-extreme impacts affecting human well-
being. Similarly, considering both exposure and vulnerability as key determinants of
H. Jabeen (B)
e-mail: huraera@bracu.ac.bd

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4948-9_11
196 H. Jabeen
risks and impacts in the definition expands the premise of analysis to social organiza-
tions, governance systems, national and international politics along with individual
behaviour, in other words, development.
This chapter aims to discuss adaptation and development for mitigating impacts
of climate change and climate extremes. The following section examines the rela-
tionship between adaptation and development which leads the brief discussion on
impacts of climate change. The exploration of vulnerability to climate change in
the next section summarize from different authors’ works. The discussions on the
built environment and differential vulnerability helps to arrive at concluding notes
on which approaches can lead to sustainable mitigation of the impacts of climate
change and climate extremes.
2 Adaptation and Development
Adaptation is considered as a ‘desirable outcome’ of any initiatives to reduce vulner-

abilities arising from climate change and climate extremes in recent research and
policy discussions. The simple logic behind such an argument is that, human beings
have managed to survive and flourish while adapting to changing environments. As
such, societies make adaptation a natural process that has always taken place, and
is likely to continue (Adger et al. 2009). Nevertheless, the disproportionate changes
in climate in recent history have exposed the less resilient communities and more
vulnerable individuals to be severely affected by changes. These changes are now
associated with increasing risk of disaster, and are far more visible than incremental
changes in climate (Schipper and Burton 2009). The increased risks and repetitive
disasters are limiting the opportunities for development for the most vulnerable popu-
lation. Hence, adaptation has been increasingly associated with development issues
to reach the most vulnerable.
Adaptation has been associated with development in three different forms (Ayers
and Dodman 2010). The first two forms—‘stand-alone adaptation’ and ‘adaptation
plus development’—treat adaptation in a narrow sense. They see adaptation as ‘addi-
tional’ to baseline development needs, or the development activities need to become
‘climate proofed’ through screening for climate change vulnerabilities and then
action being needed to address them (Ayers and Dodman 2010). Conversely, the third
approach—‘adaptation as development’—perceives development as the basis for,
and in some cases synonymous with, adaptation. It involves making progress against
development indicators considering climate change, including reducing poverty,
providing general education and health benefits, improving living conditions and
providing access to financial markets and technologies (Ayers and Dodman 2010).
In an urban environment, one of the key development indicators is the living condi-
tion depicted by housing, infrastructure and how people act on them—in other words
the built environment.
Adaptation and Development for Mitigating Impacts of Climate … 197
3 Impacts of Climate Change
Climate change impacts can be direct and indirect in how they affect nature and well-
being of human. The direct impacts include increased and untimely rainfall; flooding;
increased heat or acute winter; and a potential rise in sea level. The possible indirect
impacts, among others, include water clogging and landslide; water shortage; heat
islands; saline intrusion; disruption of livelihoods and incomes; loss of assets and
infrastructure; increased disease and increased migration etc.
Considering these impacts, Hunt and Watkiss (2011) identified the following
sectors in the urban context that are likely to be most affected by any change in
climate:
• Effects of extreme events on the built infrastructure;
• Effects on health;
• Effects on energy use;
• Effects on water availability and resources; and
• Effects of a sea level rise on coastal cities.
These effects are not uniform: they vary among different groups living in urban
areas.
4 Vulnerability to Climate Change
Vulnerability can be conceptualized in three categories (Cutter 2006). They are:

a) vulnerability as the risk/hazard exposure (distribution of hazardous condition,
occupancy of hazardous zone and distribution of structural losses in the built
environment);
b) vulnerability as social response (societal resistance and resilience to hazards);
and
c) vulnerability as hazard of place.
Vulnerability as a ‘hazard of place’ combines the concepts of both bio physical
and social response, but within a specific area or geographical domain. This can
be geographic space—where vulnerable people and places are located; or social
place/position—who in those places is the most vulnerable. For example, in urban
areas vulnerability is greatly influenced by the extent and quality of the infrastructure
and public services; yet access to services by vulnerable populations are not only
a physical issue but rather encompass the political aspect where the most affected
usually have least influence on decision making (Satterthwaite et al. 2009). Thus,
urban poor communities or women may be considered more vulnerable to climate
change in urban areas.
However, Kelly and Adger (2000) explained that the definition of vulnerability
varies considerably, with assessment focusing on either the start or end of appraisal.
198 H. Jabeen
As an end point, the appraisal represents the net impact of climate change to determine
the extent of the problems, thus, determine the cost of climate change (O’Brien and
Wolf 2010). On the contrary Kelly and Adger (2000) advocate considering vulner-
ability as a starting point to understand how impacts will be distributed in order to
identify how they can be reduced. This approach accepts that multiple environmental
and social factors that influence vulnerability are exacerbated by climate change; and
thus, measures vulnerability from a multi-dimensional perspective.
For example exposure, sensitivity and the adaptive capacity of an individual or
community can be measured by factors of physical hazards, social relations and indi-
viduals (Wisner et al. 2004). Exposure to physical hazards is measured by proximity
to the source of threats, incident frequency, and probability, magnitude, duration
or spatial impact. Social impacts are measured by threats to lifelines, or infrastruc-
ture to support basic needs, poverty/wealth indicators, gender, race, social relations,
political power, food aid and international aid. In these discussions often the quality
of settlements and the built environment are not assessed adequately. Nevertheless,
their qualities influence potential economic losses, injuries and fatalities from natural
hazards for an individual or community (Cutter 2006).
Taking the interrelationship of these factors into consideration, Hulme (2009)
suggests viewing the nature of hazard events as a social construct rather than a
biophysical condition. He suggests defining climate change as a ‘wicked problem’;
‘solutions of such are difficult to recognise because of complex interdependencies
in the system affected’. Accordingly, he argues that ‘one aspect of a wicked problem
often reveals or creates other, even more complex problems that demand further
solutions’ (Hulme 2009, pp. 334).
5 Built Environment and Differential Vulnerability
The literature on climate change illustrates that the built environment is exposed to
both severe weather conditions and extreme climate events. Researchers also imply
that adaptation in the built environment addresses diversified features of climate
variables—their frequency, intensity, spatial extent, duration, and timing that cause
severe weather conditions or extreme climate events. Furthermore, the direct impact
of differentials of temperature and rainfall are equally as significant as their indirect
impacts, for example—water clogging, landslide, flooding, wind storms and storm
surge. For cities located in coastal areas, the potential sea-level rise and storm surges
require significant considerations that may not be the case in other cities in different
locations. In addition, adaptation in the built environment has to deal with issues
like access to water and energy, livelihood, living conditions affecting human health
that are indirectly influenced by physical forms and spaces, how they are planned,
constructed and maintained. In other words, adaptation in the built environment
must consider climate variables that impact on various financial, physical and human
capitals.
Drawing on these discussions, therefore, it can be seen that the scale and purpose
of adaptation will vary widely between macro and micro scales in an urban area. For
example, on a micro-scale in the built environment the key purpose of adaptation
will be to reduce the impact of physical hazards. These include taking on struc-
tural measures, i.e. constructing better drainage that stops heavy rainstorms creating
floods; or reducing people’s exposure to hazards, for example, working with those
who live in areas at risk of flooding to improve their housing or to move to safer
locations (Satterthwaite et al. 2009). Such adaptations in the built environment in
urban areas are concerned more with the access to and the quality of the housing and
infrastructure.
On a macro scale for example at the city level, adaptation is perceived as a social
and political process—associated with justice, responsibility and obligation issues.
Adger and colleagues (2009, p. 2) argue that
if human activities are driving climate change, then adaptation involves issues such as
compensation and liability.
Similarly, Pelling and Wisner (2009, p. 8) argue that the emerging crisis in envi-
ronmental risk and human security is ‘a failure in the social contract’. Adaptation
can be seen as an integral part of development because building resilience and adap-
tive capacity are argued to promote flexibility; encourage learning from grass-root
coping strategies (Jabeen et al. 2010); emphasize the need to support generic adaptive
capacity along with hazard specific response capacity (Schipper and Pelling 2006);
and increase access to resources and empowerment of marginal groups (Wisner et al.
2004).
If adaptation is taken to be a development problem this may lead to an assump-
tion that poverty-reducing responses will similarly reduce climate vulnerability
– but these are not identical problems. Eriksen and O’Brien (2007) suggest that
such assumptions may lead to policies and programmes that create contradictory
outcomes. Accordingly, the authors suggested three types of measure to effectively
target this interface:
(a) measures that target the risk posed by climate change to the poor (e.g.
deterioration of water and social infrastructure);
(b) measures that aim to strengthen the capacity to cope with and adapt to climate
stress (e.g. engaging in alternative sources of income); and
(c) measures that address the causes of vulnerability (e.g. poor social and physical
infrastructure) (Eriksen and O’Brien 2007, pp. 348).
Nevertheless, in most of these approaches, adaptation remains in the policy
domain. Alternatively, Pelling (2010, pp. 168) proposed a ‘resilience-transition-
transformation framework’ to move from the policy domain to one that also accepts
adaptation as an activity and aspiration that cuts across all development activities;
hence accepting the reality of ‘adapting with climate change’. He preferred the
‘transformative’ nature of adaptation over ‘resilience’ or ‘transition’. The latter two
arguably allow unsustainable or socially unjust practices to persist under existing
200 H. Jabeen
political and governance regimes (Pelling 2010, pp. 170). Conversely, ‘transforma-
tive’ adaptation creates possibilities to revise and reform or replace existing social
contracts and modes of development, as well as defending social gains already won.
Pelling (2010) asserts that it is a ‘call to tackle the causes of vulnerability at their
roots’, rather than addressing the symptoms of vulnerability.
However, this transformation will need to occur on different spatial and societal
scales; hence, it will be influenced by livelihood, community structures, social groups,
household, gender, age, ethnicity, historical time and physical/psychological health
(Pelling 2003). Again, societal processes of consent and the ability of individuals,
groups, or organizations to take direct action govern the ability to make decisions for
change (Adger et al. 2005). For example, women may be constrained by social and
cultural structures that place them in inferior social positions limiting their access
to income, education, a public voice, and survival mechanisms (AfDB et al. 2003).
Therefore, recognizing diversity within society along with associated opportunities
and challenges will help in recognizing the diverse adaptive capacities of different
groups in any urban area.
6 Conclusion
Planning to maximize resilience of any marginalized group of population requires

tackling the root causes, rather than addressing the symptoms of vulnerabilities.
In that respect considering the reality better conceptualizing adapting with climate
extremes may be preferable than adapting to climate extremes for capturing the
reality better (Pelling 2010:164). With this approach perception of climate extremes
as an external threat of development will move to ‘accepting that it is both a product
and driver of development’ (Pelling 2010). The concept also highlights the proactive
nature of adaptation activities in comparison with reactive measures. Furthermore,
it follows the ‘adaptation as development’ approach that is argued to become more
sustainable to address the vulnerabilities of the marginalized groups, in compar-
ison with the ‘stand-alone’ or ‘adaptation plus development’ approaches (Ayers and
Dodman 2010).
External intervention in adaptation, in most cases, are focused on the socio-
economic development. Development programs claim success based on economic
empowerment of members of the marginalized groups. However, if critically exam-
ined the reasons behind why many of the success stories erode after some time,
especially after a climate induced disaster or extreme event, the examination leads
to the ‘space’ or the ‘built environment’ where the economic activities take place.
Inequality in inhabiting space is one of the underlying causes of differential climate
resilience in urban areas (Jabeen 2019). As a consequence, building resilience of
marginalized groups to climate change and climate extremes remain ambiguous;
seldom the interventions address the problematic issues of agency, power-relations
and negotiation of inhabiting the built environment in urban areas.
References
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Satterthwaite D, Huq S, Hannah R, Pelling M, Lanko PR (2009) Adapting to climate change in
urban areas: the possibilities and constraints in low- and middle-income nations’. In: Bicknell J,
Dodman D, Satterthwaite D (eds) Adapting cities to climate change: understanding and addressing
the development challenges. Earthscan, London, pp 3–50
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London, pp 1–10
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Wisner B, Wisner B, Cannon T, Blackford J, Blaike P (2004) At risk: natural hazards, people’s
vulnerability, and disasters, 2nd edn. Routledge, London
Dr. Jabeen, is an academic and development professional with 20 years of experience in urban
resilience, gender, and the built environment, with a specific focus on the intersection of gender
and climate change in cities. She sustained academic contribution to the discipline of architec-
ture and global urban development with contribution to the enhancement of student s learning
via pedagogic innovation and change. Her scholarly research experiences on climate change
202 H. Jabeen
adaptation and risk reduction of urban households are contributing to her emerging international
profile from presenting and publishing for academics, professionals and policymakers. She has
wide experiences of working with civil society organizations, donor organizations and community
members. Dr. Jabeen re-joined BRAC university after working as a post-doctoral Research Fellow
in the Population Council, New York, USA till 2015 after completing her PhD in International
Development and Policy Management from the University of Manchester, UK in 2013.
Local Community Engagement
for Adaptation to Future Challenges
in the Pilot Flood Detention Area
of Thailand
Phaothai Sin-ampol, Tawee Chaipimonplin, and Supawadee Songka
Abstract Designating flood detention areas is one of the flood risk management
policies that has been implemented in the Lower Yom River Basin of Thailand
since 2017. Spatial and temporal components in relation to agriculture and liveli-
hood of people have been adjusted to fit with the policy, including rescheduling
water allocation and growing seasons, as well as promoting fishing and additional
jobs during the period of seasonal floods. The forcasted flood risk model and house-
holds’ perceptions regarding the land use, identified these adjustments as responsible
to increase challenges for managing flood risks. This chapter explores the potential of
local community engagement in reducing risks of flooding under the flood detention
area policy focusing on social vulnerability. Data was gathered during 2017–2018
including five interviews of the representatives from irrigation and disaster preven-
tion agencies, which are all state organizations, and 11 local community leaders, as
well as the questionnaires from 206 households, living in the flood detention area.
The results showed that social vulnerability, in this context, is induced by several root
causes including unequal power relations in establishing flood risk adaptation strate-
gies, variable ‘monoculture’ policies in economic development with fewer concerns
in diversification, as well as lacking future recognition and knowledge for context-
based adaptation. Apart from irrigation agencies, which have been leading agen-
cies in flood risk management, households and communities need to be encouraged
as active stakeholders in developing stronger collaboration both within communi-
ties and across sectors for their own living with the awareness of future changes.
Future adaptation strategies that are more suitable to different spatio-temporal and
P. Sin-ampol (B) · T. Chaipimonplin · S. Songka

Department of Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai,
Thailand
e-mail: phaothai.s@cmu.ac.th
T. Chaipimonplin
e-mail: tawee.c@cmu.ac.th
S. Songka
e-mail: supawadeesongka@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4948-9_12
204 P. Sin-ampol et al.
socio-economic contexts of flooded communities in the river basin, need to be intro-

duced. The strategies include flood prevention mechanisms, multi-level knowledge
exchange for adaptation, and transformation to alternative job opportunities.
Keywords Local community engagement · Flood adaptation · Social

vulnerability · Pressure and release model (Par) · Flood detention area · Thailand
1 Introduction
The likelihood and intensity of flooding impacts due to climate change have threat-
ened many regions throughout the world and are expected to be more severe in the
twenty-first century (IPCC 2014). Heavier rainfalls and unpredictable patterns of
floods are expected to be experienced in the Asia-Pacific region, where Thailand
as a country of this region is exposed to damages and losses due to flood events.
The 2011 flood of Thailand is considered as one of the most devastating events of
the recent history which caused at least 45–46.5 billion US dollars of economic loss
(UNESCAP 2015; Kundzewicz et al. 2013). Although the state has formulated several
flood prevention policies since the era of constructing dams in last three decades,
the policies have rarely reduced the risks and consequences of monsoonal (August-
November) floods of the country, particularly in its northern tributaries (Chantawong
2002; Boonkrob 2002). The failure of flood risk management policies of the state
has resulted the redundancy of tasks of agencies and conflicts of interests and lack of
coordination among agencies (Marks and Lebel 2016), exacerbating the challenges
faced by local communities.
A gradual change in flood risk management policies for the Yom river basin
of Thailand has been initiated since 2011, considering local protests against
dam constructions. Even though engineered infrastructures as structural mitigation
measures were constructed in earlier years, these have not been successful in many
cases (Choudhury et al. 2004; Schanze et al. 2008; Schelfaut et al. 2011; Katyal and
Petrisor 2011). Alternatively, the pilot participatory model for flood detention has
been designed as an integrative approach and primarily it has been applied in Bang
Rakam district of Phitsanulok province at the Lower Yom river watershed under
a triad of collaborative management—called the Bang Rakam Model. This model,
primarily engages irrigation agencies to enhance their infrastructural capacities in
order to increase the draining capacity and to control flood water at the optimum level,
fulfilling local demands. Partner organizations from different task groups have helped
local communities to find out a path to convert their rice fields to ‘fish ponds’ during
the flooding season, and to shift the rice cultivation season through rescheduling
the irrigation system. Additionally, necessary information about future scenario and
flood forecasts from multiple sources have been utilized to alleviate risks in daily
lives and occupations during the flooding season. Since 2017, the Royal Irrigation
Department (RID), as the leading organization of the pilot project, has collaborated
with both public stakeholders and education institutions for minimizing risks and
Local Community Engagement for Adaptation to Future … 205
providing better livelihood opportunities to local people. For example, additional

jobs apart from fishing during the flooding season, market security program for
local farmers, and the improvement of rice cultivation technologies were introduced
(Yom Nan Operation and Maintenance Office 2017). It intends to meet the target of
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through eliminating poverty, food and social
insecurity, environmental degradation, as well as promoting resilient settlement in
the climate change era (Griggs et al. 2014; Kreimer and Arnold 2000). Although the
Thai government has applied inclusive policies for water resource management in
the Lower Yom river basin, the analysis of place-based projected risk of seasonal
flooding in the Bang Rakam district (that tends to be severe after 2035) (Chaipimon-
plin and Sin-ampol 2019), as well as institutional arrangements for mitigating flood
risks are being considered as essential to understand community risk perceptions and
social vulnerabilities of the communities. Communities, living with unsafe condi-
tions and limited capacities, are often manipulated in case of accessing resources for
adaptation (Wisner et al. 2004; Oulahen 2016). In this context, the past experiences
of using resources and adapting with adverse conditions may assist (Lei et al. 2014;
Smithers and Smit 1997) to formulate both short and long-term planning strategies,
allowing enough flexibility and practicing a collaborative decision making process
to include relevant stakeholders, particularly from the local level (Cinner et al. 2018;
IPCC 2007, 2012; Adger et al. 2004).
This research, therefore, employed the results, derived from the forecasted flood
risk model of the Lower Yom river basin and Bang Rakam district [analyzed by the
Artificial Neural Network model (ANN)] to figure out potentials of active engage-
ments of local communities in the pilot flood detention policy for reducing flood
risks. It worked with households to understand the complex trade-offs of flooding in
the socio-economic and spatial context in selected local communities and explored
previous and current attitudes and practices of the local people in adapting their
livings according to the policy in order to portray unsafe conditions and offer a
guideline for the local communities and related stakeholders for overcoming future
challenges. In this case, the pressure-and-release (PAR) model was chosen as an
effective scheme to uncover social vulnerability and configure tailor-made practices
for adaptation.
2 Conceptual Background: Social Vulnerability Analysis

in Flooding Contexts for Community Based Adaptation
A well-known relationship of risk is weighted between vulnerability and hazard inten-

sity, with the likelihood of occurring a hazard. Dealing with vulnerability requires
social agents to increase adaptive capacities. In this research context, the future
flooding intensity and likelihood as potential physical hazards have already been
proven by the future flood model using the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model
(Chaipimonplin and Sin-ampol 2019). Following this model, it very limitedly investi-
gated issues of vulnerability and adaptation. The behavior-oriented approach explains
adaptation to disasters as a process of individual decision-making with both rational
and arbitrary influences. Collective interactions to the landscape, participation of
social groups, socio-economic background, and perceptions about surrounding envi-
ronments are also counted as factors that influence individual decision-making. Each
decision-making, either likely or not likely leads to adapt, depending on the self-
evaluation mechanism at a particular moment of time (Amedeo et al. 2009; Burton
et al. 1978; Golledge and Stimson 1987; Walmsley and Lewis 1984). As human
beings cannot be separated from their built environments, the adaptation process,
thus conveys a sense of finding strategies from previous experiences to let them
sustain better in the same environment and landscape, even under negative impacts
of future climatic hazards (Lei et al. 2014; Smithers and Smit 1997). Thus, adap-
tion requires to enhance capacities in mobilizing natural, human, social, physical,
and financial resources and assets to advance risk and vulnerability reduction for
individuals, households, and communities (Dazé et al. 2009).
Even though a social agency can access and possess capitals, it does not always
ensure an effective adaptation when the flexibility is not considered. Flexibility in
adaptation can be derived from the knowledge sharing across stakeholders, collab-
orative practices, local community empowerment, and learning about future vari-
abilities (Cinner et al. 2018). In terms of future challenges, IPCC (2012) recognizes
the importance of long-term adaptation in reducing community vulnerabilities to
climate change impacts by fostering three mechanisms: anticipatory/proactive adap-
tation, autonomous adaptation, and planned adaptation. Anticipatory/proactive adap-
tation creates practical guidelines for people prior to damages. Autonomous adapta-
tion promotes spontaneous actions in living with multiple challenges from climatic
stimuli and socio-ecological pressures. Planned adaptation, in addition, encourages
the society to set up and accomplish essential goals in a decision-making process.
Basically, effective adaptive capacities in practice should focus on applying both
security in resource possession and proper tailor-made decision making (IPCC 2012).
Impacts of riverine flooding illustrate the complexity of adaptation in practice
and can explain the behavioral skepticism of why each decision-making is, or is
not, enacted by individuals, households, and communities. Singh (2014) and Wisner
and colleagues (2004) describe the complex trade-offs in flooding between positive
outcomes of sedimentation that benefit agriculture and attracts settlements, industrial
and commercial development to locate in a specific place, and negative consequences
which have potentials to obstruct economic development in that area. It, hence, is
necessary to investigate whether flooding is being perceived and interpreted due
to different social contexts, rather than portraying it as only a hazard. In addition,
unequal opportunities for accessing physical, financial, social, and political resources
of social units need to be investigated, understanding the dynamic of a society. In
this regard, the Pressure-and-Release Model (PAR) (Sayers et al. 2018; Klijn et al.
2015; Marks 2015; Porio 2011; Walker and Burningham 2011; Abramovitz 2001)
can be used as an important tool to uncover social vulnerabilities by analyzing three
components including:
• Root causes: represent limitations to access energy, infrastructures, resources,

power, ideologies, and beliefs that affect resource distribution and allocation
across social groups. Root causes also indicate troubles in adapting regulatory
mechanism that might control mindset and practices of people in each area.
Unequal power relations among classes and areas, in a flooding perspective,
generate the stratification of protection strategies, leading to flood disadvantages.
• Dynamic pressures: show the process based on root causes that bring unsafe
conditions to a particular place, such as, lack of knowledge and appropriate skills,
investment, and market, changes in population structures, resource degradation,
global environmental change, and so on.
• Unsafe conditions: reveal the specific pattern of risky condition that differentiate
wellbeing of households and individuals, depending on physical environment (e.g.
low quality of infrastructure and irrigation), local economy (e.g. inequalities due
to social stratification, income distribution, gender, etc.), state implementation
(e.g. lack of willingness to response, insufficient roles of the state), as well as
exclusion and marginalization in an ethnic perspective (Sayers et al. 2018; Klijn
et al. 2015; Marks 2015; Porio 2011; Walker and Burningham 2011; Abramovitz
2001).
These factors have potentials to cause illness, interruption of livelihood and
employment capacity, loss of financial capital and other assets (e.g. land, livestock,
etc.), and loss of income due to flood incidents. Adjusting social conditions and
empowering local livelihood become key factors in social protection and flood
precautions with structural mitigation, detention area, land zoning, flood warning
system, and effective message delivery system. Balancing structural-technological
mitigation with coordination among social groups and knowledge exchange across
disciplines could overcome pitfalls in flood risk management (Richert et al. 2017;
Klijn et al. 2015; Manuta et al. 2006; Abramovitz 2001).
Community adaptation planning should recognize the capacity in living with
climate changes and socio-economic transformation (Dazé et al. 2009). Community
culture in living with socio-ecological variabilities can be readjusted and reinvented
to facilitate interdependency, membership, and participation within a social group
and determine success in achieving shared values of adaptation in a local context
by integrating traditional practices and modern technologies. However, applying a
role model in different areas without contextualizing problems and solutions is not
considered as reasonable. Each community, therefore, demands to be empowered to
understand climate change impacts on their situations, as well as the dynamic of social
identity and available options for adaptation (Ensor and Berger 2009). In terms of
policy making, cross-sectional policy integration with critical concerns in uncertain-
ties of biophysical and socioeconomic factors and knowledge co-production from
various stakeholders, particularly local communities, could help to strengthen the
adaptation policy (Dovers and Hezri 2010) and avoid one-size-fits-all policy imple-
mentation (Hussey et al. 2013). Several promising options of sustainable livelihoods
for communities, in the context of flooding, include income diversification, mobility,
communal pooling, and storage of essential assets and basic needs (Agrawal and
Perrin 2009). State, private sector, and civil society have the potential to create
the external intervention programs, while local community should have rights to
configure these interventions based on current and future pressures at multiple levels
of society (Agrawal and Perrin 2009).
To make a judgment in this case, establishing the mechanism to empower commu-
nity in driving self-regulatory mechanism for adaptation requires an appropriate
platform. The right platform would help identifying several constraints in relation to
flood risk management policies and responses. The most explicit advantage of the
PAR model, compared with other theories, is the capability in fulfilling the analysis
of socio-economic risk and vulnerability. Any physical modelling can only identify
how flooding hazards are anticipated to happen in terms of time and intensity. The
PAR model can directly stress the interplay of power and ideology among multiple
authorities that affect social vulnerability of individuals and communities, which have
been frequently illustrated in flood risk management of Thailand. More importantly,
this model allows to make use of local practices and attitudes in designing bottom-
up and tailor-made strategies in engaging adaptation to future multiple challenges,
particularly in socio-economic development and future climate variability.
3 Methodology
This research applied mixed methods—both qualitative and quantitative approach—

to analyze and envisage local community engagement for adaptation to future chal-
lenges under the main theoretical model—PAR. From the qualitative side, triangula-
tion across diverse opinions from government agencies, local leaders, and responses
from some open-ended questions of household questionnaire survey were employed
to show complex trade-offs in flooding and previous adaptation actions. This anal-
ysis provides several suitable cutting-edge adaptation strategies, both short and long
term, for the whole community. Quantitative analysis was carried out to support the
argument of the future adaptation pathways under multiple pressures. Descriptive
statistics such as ratio and likert scale ranking, as well as Pearson’s correlation were
used to represent attitudes and practices in adaptation to current and future circum-
stances of affected households. As a social and field survey research, a significance
level of 0.01 and 0.05 is acceptable and reasonable for this study in order to avoid Type
I error in hypothesis testing and guarantee both rigorous and general applicability of
statistical results (Lavrakas 2008). Several relationships in statistical analysis were
selected including:
(1) Household perception of previous and current flooding patterns with current
household attitudes in adaptation to flood, household collaboration to flood
adaptation at the community level, and effectiveness of government agency
management. This research expected that planned and anticipatory attitudes,
active collaboration from households, and high effectiveness from govern-

ment agencies management could decrease household perception about flooding
impacts in spatial, temporal, and intensity dimensions.
(2) Future practices in adaptation to flood with household perceptions of previous
and current flooding patterns, current household attitudes in adaptation to floods,
and household collaboration to flood adaptation at a community level. In this
sense, self-regulatory practices in adaptation would be motivated if greater
flooding impacts, sense of being more active in adaptation, and expansive
collaboration within a community were investigated.
This chapter studies selected communities of the Lower Yom catchment area
in Bang Rakam district of Phitsanulok province, Thailand, using the ANN model
that generated future flood forecasting analysis to extract the current and future
circumstances and constraints for adapting through multiple layers of biophys-
ical and socioeconomic influences in relation to flooding and livelihood perspec-
tives. The temparature and rainfall changes of this area are projected for thirty
years (2035–2064), using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF-ECHAM5)
regional climate model (Chaipimonplin and Sin-ampol 2019; Chotamonsak et al.
2011; Chotamonsak 2011). This district is a core area of participatory flood risk
management scheme which has been firstly implemented in 2017 by the Royal Irri-
gation Department (RID) and other state allies. This model estimates the future
flooding trends (which will be flooded every year and intensified in terms of higher
water level) (Fig. 12.1) and portrays the coverage area which will be affected by the
highest flooding in 2041 (Fig. 12.2) (10.59 m, or +3.31 m above the river bank level).
The Digital Elevation Model (DEM), using remotely sensed data has simulated that
4 out of 11 sub-districts (Tha Nang Ngam, Bang Rakam, Wang Ithok, and Bo thong
sub-districts) will be highly affected due to this extreme flooding. Apart from consid-
ering flood risk in a future scenario, this research also considered the total damages,
occurred due to the latest major flood of 2011. Besides, the topography and contri-
butions to a pilot flood detention scheme (Bang Rakam Model) were counted as an
external policy intervention from the state level that influenced the decision-making
process of selecting the study area for exploring local community engagement for
adaptation.
Considering above mentioned reasons, Tha Nang Ngam sub-district, among 4
severely affected sub-districts of Bang Rakam district, was selected for conducting
this research. This area was severely affected due to the 2011 flood. Along with the
Yom river, other adjacent rivers were also responsible for flooding Tha Nang Ngam
sub-district. Additionally, this sub-district is located within a main detention area
of the Bang Rakam model and 6 out of 11 villages of this sub-district are included
within this pilot model.
This study targeted to understand the previous (prior to 2011) and current policies
and projects (during 2011–2018) for flood risk management of Bang Rakam district.
The information was needed to gather from multiple levels and sectors to figure out
different viewpoints of current potentials and constraints in adaptation under social
vulnerability analysis. In that case, semi-structured interviews were conducted to get
Fig. 12.1 Prediction of average river water level of flooding seasons during 2035–2064 the analysis
of artificial neural network under the future scenario of climate change (Chaipimonplin and Sin-
ampol 2019)
information from five local governmental organizations of sub-district and district

levels which are engaged in irrigation, disaster prevention and mitigation. Local
leaders of 11 villages of Tha Nang Ngam sub-district were also interviewed indi-
vidually to get information about flood risk patterns, advantages and disadvantages
of each community for adapting to flood, and future adaptation strategies antici-
pated by themselves and other community members. Most importantly, this research
conducted a questionnaire survey to get information from household-level about
their adaptation attitudes and strategies towards current and future flood adaptation.
206 households were selected for this survey which is approximately 10% of total
number of households of Tha Nang Ngam sub-district. Using the quota sampling
method, the required number of samples were selected from 11 villages, ensuring
proportional representations of 11 villages.
Fig. 12.2 Coverage area of the most extreme flooding event in 2041 from future flood prediction
(Chaipimonplin and Sin-ampol 2019)
4 Complex Trade-Offs in Flooding of the Lower Yom River

Basin
Trade-offs in flooding is likely to be fluid and complicated depending on various

changes in social, economic, and political influences from national to local levels.
Primarily, the ancestors who have settled down in this floodplain area for almost
a century ago, can be illustrated as authentic water folks and their lifestyle can
be described in three ways—residence, transportation, and land use. This area had
a tradition of building houses on stilts (approximate 2–3 m high) near the main
canal, which used to allow its inhabitants to live there even in a flooded condition.
Each household used to have a small gondola (light flat-bottomed boat) for regular
transportation during normal and flooding condition. They used to use their boats for
fishing all over the year, considering fishing as an alternative option for earning.
Rice plantation was their main occupation and lands were used to be used for rice
cultivation for 5–6 months in a year. Rice fields used to be flooded for 2–3 months
every year and most of the villagers used to apply their traditional wisdom for fishing,
using local fishing tools along with the gondola. The nature of riverine flood used to
be predictable and quite stable. Local people in the past used not to be much worried
about the intensity and depth of flooding.
A gradual transformation in spatial and socioeconomic contexts of the commu-
nity in recent three decades, however, has started to challenge the principles of living
with floods among villagers. The rapid expansion of transportation infrastructure and
automobile vehicles has influenced many settlements to reside next to main roads,
the level of which are higher than the level of major water channels. This situation,
accompanied with changing in housing materials and modern styles of accommo-
dation, has partially influenced at least half of total households in this community
to adjust and build single or double-storied houses without leaving the ground floor
open or not on stilts. In addition, around 17% population (Field survey 2019) are iden-
tified as new settlers who have migrated from adjacent communities and provinces,
and mostly do not prefer to build houses on stilts, following the local tradition and
wisdom. The gondola, as a main vehicle for local transportation, has been replaced by
motorcycles and cars, though some households still use gondolas during the flooding
season. At the same time, rice cultivation has been intensified due to commercializa-
tion by adopting short-term dry-season rice varieties and agricultural technologies to
plant and cultivate in winter and summer seasons, and cash crops (like, sugar cane,
cassava) have been introduced to the community. Due to these changes, locals rarely
get involved in fishing, using traditional wisdom (Field survey 2019).
The emergence of commercial agriculture, as well as modern transportation
systems and settlement pattern, due to the rapid economic growth era of Thailand
(from 1990s to 2000s), strongly demanded an effective irrigation system for control-
ling flood water and allocating adequate water to farm lands even in dry seasons.
The flood risk of downstream metropolitan region was started to be managed by
draining out water from floodplains area without allowing to store the water in local
water bodies. As a result of it, local farmers get affected by both early flooding
in harvesting seasons and water shortage in dry seasons. Both disasters, due to the
modern scheme of flood risk management threaten the livelihood security of local
farmers and consume the biggest share of government budget for compensating the
losses and rehabilitating the victims. Even though such losses are usually observed
in most of flooding occurrences, anticipatory planning for context-based adaptation
is not yet considered. Besides, only rice plantation got prioritized by the state policy,
ignoring the necessity of income diversification.
After the 2011 major flood, the government adopted the principle of disaster risk
management (2P2R—prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery) to imple-
ment in an annual and centralized manner. Structural development and improvement
of irrigation infrastructures and budget allocation for compensating flood-victims are
started to practice as the main pathway for mitigating flood damages. This policy,
however, was hardly applicable to the Yom river basin, as the locals were protesting
dam construction in the upstream and it forced the government to implement ‘soft
strategies’ for dealing with their conditions. In the same time, the rice mortgage
policy was also issued to subsidize rice farmers by giving a surplus to the yield
price so that lands can be extremely used for productions. Other than constructing
few engineered small and medium scaled irrigation structures, substantial changes in
livelihood adjustment was not been happened within next three years. Few empirical
outcomes from 2P2R policy, however, were helpful for managing flood risks. Fiscal
failure from the rice mortgage policy with the coup d’etat in 2014 resulted in the
insecurity of financial capital for most of the farmers in that area. But the outstanding
inheritance during the era of the ‘Bang Rakam 2P2R’ policy was the establishment of
Yom Nan Operation and Maintenance Office (YNOMO) in 2013. This organization
is responsible for designing the drainage network across the Yom and Nan rivers,
surveying the remaining water channels, and developing irrigation infrastructures
for flood relief and protection in the northern city and the downstream metropolitan
region.
Four years later, in 2017, a significant amount of initiatives were taken for
managing flood risks in the Lower Yom catchment area. Basically, the RID, collabo-
rating with the YNOMO, the 3rd Army Area, Ministry of Agriculture and Coopera-
tives, Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, local administrative organi-
zations, local leaders, water users’ groups, and local farmers, developed a detention
area for the flooding season, establishing inter-basin water transfer network and
adjusting livelihood patterns according to a suitable irrigation calendar. This pilot
model, as a community-based participatory water management program in Bang
Rakam detention area, was titled as the ‘Bang Rakam model’, covering approx-
imately 60,800-ha lands that include 6 villages of Tha Nang Ngam sub-district.
Major concepts of the pilot flood detention area are:
• Infrastructure development—aims to increase drainage capacity within and
between river basins to control flood water and enhance capacities for providing
enough waters to farmlands during dry seasons.
• Adaptation of local communities—asks for collaboration among local communi-
ties in the pilot model in making a commitment to detain the flood water during
August to November in an acceptable level which will not disrupt daily livings.
Several supplementary jobs, provided by the state—such as fishing and local
industry (which were traditional ways of utilizing opportunities during flooding),
vegetable planting, and other tasks—are recognized as alternative sources of
income during the floods. Many facilitation programs, including supply chain
management for the local yields, fish handling supports, and the introduction of
new rice varieties were introduced to the detention area. The rice plantation is
planned to be rescheduled according to the new irrigation schedule. Farmers will
be able to grow rice for two times (rainy season crop during mid-April to July,
and dry season crop during December—March) using floodwater, as well as water
from the major dams of Nan river basin during dry seasons. Compensation will
be guaranteed if any damages occur prior to the flood detention duration.
• Information for forecasting—is another essential scheme to support the early

warning system and integrate the network of river basins flowing from the
upstream to the metropolitan region.
According to the dynamic revolution of flood risk management and other socioe-
conomic development policies, riverine flood events in the detention area tend to be
interpreted under a complex equation of trade-offs between advantages and disadvan-
tages the flood used to be considered as a part of living before the trend of agricultural
commercialization and rapid economic growth. Local wisdoms of living with floods,
however, are now dissociated from many households, relying on state policies of
flood risk management. But the local farmers who are living nearby the river and
main canals (the majority population inside the pilot model area) still consider the
riverine flooding as a normal natural phenomenon which is better than a drought
condition; as many participants said, ‘having a lot of water is much better than no
water for farming’.
Current trade-offs of floods among social groups are stated in Table 1. For the
ancestors and their successors, floods may provide several opportunities of sustaining
livelihoods which the government agencies need to recognize in order to legitimate
as parts of the context-based adaptation policy of the pilot model. Floods can main-
tain fertility and eliminate weeds and pests from the farmlands. Farmers also use
floodwater for cultivation. Local fishing is also an alternative source of income for
this group of people; however, not every household can do it, particularly the new
settlers, non-farm employees, and households outside the pilot model area. Yet, they
might get compensations during floods and can get more choices to grow cash crops
due to lower physical exposure to floods.
Different trade-offs among social groups due to external policy implementation
have fundamental impacts on social vulnerability. Six among 11 villages of Tha Nang
Ngam sub-district are parts of this pilot model, while the others are not included.
The communities within the pilot model are secured due to the agreement between
Table 1 Current trade-offs of floods among social groups (Field survey 2019)
Social groups Advantages of trade-offs Disadvantages of trade-offs
Ancestors, successors, and - Maintain fertility - Interrupt children’s education
rice farmers - Reduce weeds and pests when schools get flooded
- Grow new rice varieties, - Elderly people encounter
using flood water difficulties in accessing
- Engage in fishing healthcare services
- Early flooding causes damages
in agriculture and settlement
New settlers, non-farm - Receive compensations - Excessive drainage from the
employee, and households - More choices to grow cash pilot model area causes floods
outside the pilot model area crops due to low intensity of - Inconvenience for daily living
flooding and commuting to work
-Engage in fishing as a
non-suitable choice
the government sector and local people. Heavy rainfall in the upstream area and
high river water level may flood rice fields outside the model area before the regular
season. Attitudes and practices of households and communities in adapting to flood
are essential to indicate how social vulnerability is induced only by the inclusion in
the pilot model, occupation, and settlement.
5 Results and Discussions
5.1 Attitudes and Practices in Flood Risk Adaptation
• Current attitudes and practices
Households in 11 villages were asked to describe their perceptions about previous

and current flooding events, as well as reflect their attitudes toward three aspects—
knowledge provision about causes and effects of flooding, collaborations among
communities, and future planning and prevention by using 5-score likert scale system.
The relationship between attitudes and practices towards flood risk adaptation, both in
current and future events, was analyzed with the perceptions of previous and current
flooding patterns in Table 2. The analysis aimed to reveal how planned and antici-
patory attitudes, active collaborations among households, and high effectiveness of
governmental management shape community perceptions about spatial, temporal,
and intensity dimensions of floods. It is empirical that if the intensity is perceived as
severe, local people tend to realize causes and effects, attempt to mitigate damages,
make future plans, spread local knowledge and help each other to adapting to floods.
High reliability on the efficiency of state and local leaders and active collaborations
among stakeholders for managing flood risks, make them reluctant to perceive the
severity of flood risks.
According to the survey, local people did not perceive any significant changes
in intensity, spatial, and temporal dimensions of flooding in their area, except some
extreme events that usually occur once in every 4–7 years. Although local people
assessed current flooding as a normal situation, they highly recognized the impor-
tance of self-preparedness (4.19 out of 5) and strong collaboration across households
within a community (4.00 out of 5). More than 65% participants have relatively high
motivation to employ short-term prevention and preparedness measures. Knowledge
exchange within a household and future planning for mitigating floods were ranked
as neutral, even though one-third of the households agreed to drive these factors in
practice. Only 28% households could identify the link between climate variabili-
ties and flood-impacts. Land -use changes within a community were not recognized
as a leading factor for enhancing flood risks. Attitudes among households of Tha
Nang Ngam sub-district were quite similar whether each village is located within
the pilot model or not. Yet, government sectors and local leaders expressed their
basic understanding regarding roles of climatic variabilities and land-use changes
216
Table 2 Relationship between perception to flooding patterns and attitude, efficiency in flood risk management, and collaboration of household in community
adaptation (Field survey 2019)
Influential factors to perception Perception to flooding patterns Rating score (out of 5)
Intensity Areal extent Temporal dimensions
Frequency Duration Speed of onset Variability
Attitude Realizing causes and 0.201** 0.179* 0.159* 3.36
effects of floods
Mitigating flood 0.202** 4.19
damages
Planning to adapt to 0.166* 0.233** 0.267** 0.180* 0.213** 0.107* 3.60
future flood events
Disseminating 0.227** 0.202** 3.63
knowledge
Helping each other to 0.164* 4.00
mitigate and adapt
Efficiency in flood Local irrigation office −0.216** −0.180* 3.62
risk management Local leaders −0.282** −0.161* −0.160* 3.68
Collaboration across Community participation −0.179* 2.99
households within a in policymaking
community Exchanging information 0.155* 0.163* 3.62
about flooding within
communities
*Represent a significance level at 0.05
**Represent a significance level at 0.01
P. Sin-ampol et al.
for threatening adaptation strategies of local people. It, consequently, could repre-
sent inadequate risk communication about future challenges from the state to local
people, even though more than 75% participants stated that they accessed credible
flooding news and information from local leaders.
After launching the participatory flood risk management in 2017, local house-
holds, particularly within the pilot model, expressed their satisfactions with the effi-
ciency of local irrigation office (YNOMO) (3.62 out of 5) and their local leaders (3.68
out of 5). The early warning system was also appreciated as effective. Local irrigation
offices also surveyed flood-damages of some households and implemented several
structural mitigation measures such as developing new water channels, improving
drainage capacities in small waterways, repairing embankments, and so on. However,
in terms of collaboration among stakeholders within a community for reducing flood
risks, government agencies and local leaders were not able to effectively collaborate
with households. Households did not actively engage both in planning and practicing
during critical periods (2.91 and 2.99 out of 5). Instead, they just followed general
practices commanded by state agencies and local leaders, as well as, followed tradi-
tional cultures (3.98) and exchanged information with other neighbors (3.62). Some
participants, both from within the pilot model and outside pilot area, identified weak
leadership of local leaders as the main cause of making problems, since the leaders
failed to collaborate properly with households, to provide continuous supports for
additional income sources, and had lower trust on financially vulnerable households.
• Future adaptation strategies
Each household expressed opinions on 10 future adaptation strategies. Seven out
of ten strategies represented close relationships to the perceptions of flooding patterns
(Table 3); so, these factors were selected for further analysis. In current situation,
participants from all communities disagreed to migrate to different but safer loca-
tions (1.64 out of 5). As a result, in situ adaptation strategies were prioritized for the
future, recognizing the relatively high importance of community solidarity (3.76 out
of 5). Local viewpoints about future adaptation choices were also found as corre-
lated with the perceptions of flooding patterns. Local people who have experienced
the impacts of floods (particularly in areal extent, frequency, and variability) did not
anticipate practicing strategies even though the relationships were statistically signif-
icant, and these might potentially advocate many future adaptation strategies. They
might participate with a community in policy making (3.44 out of 5), learn more
about future trends of flooding (3.25 out of 5), or physically adjust residences, farm
lands, and community landscape to be safe from floods. Adopting supplementary
jobs to secure income was also quite acceptable (3.12 out of 5); but it is not going to
permanently change their occupations (2.58 out of 5). In addition, purchasing tools
to prevent flooding at the household level was not preferred as a choice to practice
in future.
The responses showed that household attitudes towards flood adaptation primarily
foster effective in situ adaptation strategies, due to statistically significant rela-
tionships (both at 0.01 and 0.05 significance level). Six factors in relation to atti-
tudes, including future planning of households, disseminating knowledge about
Table 3 Relationship between future adaptation strategies and perception of flooding patterns
(Field survey 2019)
Future Perception of flooding patterns Rating
adaptation Intensity Areal Temporal dimensions score
strategies extent (out of
Frequency Duration Speed of Variability 5)
onset
Community 0.151* 0.189* 0.172* 0.243** 0.164* 3.44
participation in
policy making
Knowing 0.271** 3.25
future trends of
flooding
Adjusting 0.162* 0.191* 3.18
residences and
farm lands
Helping 0.172* 0.162* 0.159* 3.12
community to
build
infrastructures
for flood
prevention
Engaging to 0.134* 3.12
supplementary
job options
Switching to 0.253** 0.166* 2.58
more secure
jobs
Purchasing 0.322** 0.261** 0.181* 0.186* 2.42
tools for flood
prevention
*Represent a significance level at 0.05
**Represent a significance level at 0.01
flooding among household members, readiness to mitigate flood-damages and adapt

to flooding impacts, collaborative assistance across households within a commu-
nity, local leadership, and community preparedness. Continuous practices in active
household collaboration to flood adaptation at the community level (flood preven-
tion in a critical period and participation to planning) showed a close relationship
(at 0.01 significance level) to practice in situ adaptation strategies in future. In
terms of passive collaboration—exchanging information with local people within the
community and following rules and commands during flooding, relatively supported
economy-related options for in situ future adaptation (at 0.01 significance level)
which includes income diversification through finding supplementary jobs, switching
to new occupations, adjusting residences and farm lands, and accumulating tools to
prevent floods.
Although current attitudes and practices for flood adaptation at the household
level among communities are not much different, future adaptation strategies seem
to be diverse. Communities, which are comparatively less exposed to floods and not
included within the Bang Rakam model, do not find supplementary jobs for practicing
income diversification and fail to adjust residences and farm lands to cope with floods.
Households, located in four communities within the pilot model, have problems in
social cohesion and knowledge exchange and did not show enthusiasm for future
planning, collaborating with their communities, learning future trends of flooding,
and helping their communities to build and improve flood prevention infrastructures.
Some communities are facing challenges to practice self-regulatory measures for
adapting to future challenges, because of the barriers in accessing social and human
capitals, due to weak social cohesion and local leadership, as well as insufficient
knowledge and scopes for exchanging information.
5.2 Social Vulnerability Analysis
The PAR model is adopted for this research, as a core scheme for analyzing social
vulnerabilities, based on previous experiences, actions in dealing with flooding
impacts, and future adaptation choices at the household level. Figure 12.3 illus-
trates three underlying causes that trigger unsafe conditions among vulnerable social
groups, using the PAR model.
• Unequal power relations in case of establishing flood risk adaptation strategies
Unequal power relations among the state, communities, and households exac-
erbate the social vulnerability. Each community primiralily needs effective local
leadership and leaders’ social relationship with households and other stakeholders.
Fig. 12.3 The pressure model of Tha Nang Ngam sub-district (Field survey 2019)
Lacking in social cohesion and limited scopes for community participation in plan-
ning and practicing measures for reducing risks limit to maintaining adaptive capac-
ities. Isolated households fail to explore effective adaptation practices which allow
them not to avail assistance from external stakeholders and to face losses and damages
in terms of assets, savings, residences and properties. Secondly, the communities
within pilot model get opportunities to eliminate social vulnerabilities at certain
level, but it does not totally protect the community if it and its households do not
collectively satisfy basic needs. Thirdly, unequal power relations can be illustrated
through basic infrastructure development deficit, particularly in cases of road and
irrigation systems. Thus, it can be firmly argued that social cohesion and leader-
ship of local leaders can encourage the community and households to sustain under
flood risk conditions, even though a particular community is not located within the
pilot model and/or could not access the benefits of adequate infrastructures. Simi-
larly, continuous supports from the pilot model with well-prepared infrastructures
and good social relations and cohesions of local leaders with government agencies
might not guarantee the efficiency of local flood risk management practices. Instead,
it could cause damages to local people, if the households do not pay attention or not
being invited to participate in practicing and planning adaption measures.
The pressure model identifies the unequal power relation as a significant pitfall
for causing disadvantages in flood management among households and communities
of different locations (Sayers et al. 2018; Marks 2015; Klijn et al. 2015; Porio 2011;
Walker and Burningham 2011; Abramovitz 2001). For example, lack of basic infras-
tructure development and inclusion to the pilot model can create inequality in spatial
dimension. This situation can also reflect in partial authority of the state for encom-
passing policies and decision making at a certain level (Wisner et al. 2004). Besides,
the results from Tha Nang Ngam sub-district do not clearly state that whether the
social class influences differences in vulnerabilities or not. However, these inequali-
ties might not generate disadvantages in flood management, if the local leadership and
social cohesion are strong enough to share benefits among households in a commu-
nity. It is not the only necessary to identify flood as a disaster, but it also needs to
shed the light to have concerns about its trade-offs, especially for the people who
apply traditional practices for living with floods.
• ‘Monoculture’ in economic development policy
Because of the local tradition and land topography, local people prefer to get
involved in rice-cultivation and the policy that promotes only rice production as
the monoculture in economic development, is eliminating the scopes of alternative
employments. The transformation from rice mortgage policy to current subsidiza-
tion of production factors in last five years has also decreased income security from
rice production. Local fishing trends would be the best available option, but not all
have skills to be engaged in fishing. Single direction of development rarely leaves
the scope for livelihood diversification. Many local leaders and households reported
instability in skills development program and intermittent linkage of local products
to the market, as fundamental schemes for distributing risks and opening new oppor-
tunities for more sustainable livelihoods. This root cause is an obvious answer to
identify why local households were not much interested in using supplementary
jobs or applying for a new occupation to lessen future risks. The ‘monoculture’
with fluctuated rice production policies lessens household autonomous capacities
for adaptation and this may cause low income, lack of savings, and sustained debt,
as well as financial deficit in flood prevention.
• Lack of future recognition and knowledge for context-based adaptation
Although flood is quite normal and becomes a part of local living, concerns about
future risks were not much noticed among participants, resulting (1) relatively low
awareness about climate change impacts on changing patterns of floods; (2) ineffi-
ciency of long-term forecasting, risk communication, and accuracy at the community
level; (3) different risk perception levels; and (4) partial inclusion of the pilot model,
which diminishes the opportunities of communities, located outside the model for
accessing the information. It is noticed that several households, as well as their
communities were not enthusiast enough for planning for mitigating future risks.
The lack of future recognition and knowledge about context-based adaptation have
created uncertainties and inflexible adaptation strategies, leading to live in unsafe
conditions. These include limited time for preparedness (that might make inappro-
priate responses to events) and inconveniences in daily life (especially of children
and elderly people). Staffs of local state agencies also have experienced too much
burdens in mobilizing budget and workforce for the prevention and preparedness
stages, instead of providing assistance during a critical period. This circumstance
can be termed as the ‘balloon effect’.
5.3 Improving Unsafe Conditions
The analysis of pressure-and-release (PAR) model illustrated that choices of adap-

tation among households are not something innate, but these are navigated by root
causes and dynamic pressures across time. Based on the results, derived from both
physical and social models, five vital issues were gathered from government agencies,
local leaders, and households to improve unsafe conditions and create opportunities
for local engagement for adapting to future challenges and ‘releasing’ the community
from risky conditions.
This research suggests that a complete relationship of risk analysis can be derived
from both physical and socioeconomic analysis. Integration of scientific and social
science research is a good choice to help communities to identify their problems.
Current practices of government agencies in implementing the pilot ‘Bang Rakam
model’ as a participatory scheme, endeavor to balance structural-technological
mitigation measures, allowing coordination among social groups and knowledge
exchange across disciplines to overcome pitfalls in flood risk management. This
action does not actually aim to reduce flood intensity and duration, but it is designed
as a mechanism to readjust social conditions and empower local livelihoods, ensuring
social protection. Exploring external policy interventions in relation to flood risk
Fig. 12.4 Release model of Tha Nang Ngam sub-district (Field survey 2019)
management must be inclusive. Various arenas of policy, including water resource

management, agriculture, disaster management, spatial planning, climate change,
and so on are essential to identify different aspects of social vulnerability and make
robust adaptation for addressing future challenges in a community.
Adaptation to future challenges requires flexibility and transformation from
knowledge sharing across stakeholders, collaborative practice, local community
empowerment, and learning of new information that tentatively identifies future vari-
abilities (Cinner et al. 2018; Dazé et al. 2009). Empirical findings of this research
mark the inefficiencies of these factors for formulating adaptation policy and imple-
menting strategies, based on the policy. Stages for improving unsafe conditions are
developed here in accordance with the ‘four stages of adaptation’ by transforming
root causes of pressures to achieve social resilience (Fig. 12.4). Basically, the govern-
ment is responsible for advancing mitigation and coping capacities of relevant stake-
holders. The early warning system is expected to be able to forecast weather condi-
tions and warn people. Information from the early warning system must be conve-
niently accessible to all so that everyone can be benefited through effective commands
and risk communications in any critical period. Each community needs to be able to
employ suitable strategies, under the principle of flexible adaptation. The importance
of developing structural mitigation measures, detention areas, flood warning system,
and effective message delivery system also cannot be undermined. However, land
zoning policy, which did not get priority in previous flood risk management scheme
of Thailand, needs to be further developed along with other strategies to have settle-
ments and economic developments in safer locations (Richert et al. 2017; Klijn et al.
2015; Manuta et al. 2006; Abramovitz 2001). It is needed to know the current condi-
tion of severely affected groups, so that they may participate in policy formulation
and implementation, developing trust with local leaders and state agencies.
Context or area-based adaptation needs to be accomplished through the estab-
lishment of household collaboration programs for social cohesion and community
robustness. Local leaders as key persons can play roles to disseminate knowledge
and information to households and to establish social cohesion within communi-
ties, undermining the hierarchical order. Local wisdom from various generations,
social groups, age, and gender need to be shared and configured as possible solu-
tions based on previous experiences, under the principles of planned and anticipatory
adaptation. Local leaders, furthermore, should focus on social networking activity to
connect with academic scholars, civil society groups, and private sectors in order to
enhance adaptive capacities in a holistic way. In general, it represents a clear illus-
tration of contextualizing social vulnerability, encompassing internal and external
conditions that each community encounter (Wisner et al. 2004). Selecting practices
for adaptation is navigated and constrained by the joint action of previous experi-
ences, capitals, and power relations at a particular moment in the landscape, rather
than only self-evaluation as described by scholars (Burton et al. 1978; Golledge and
Stimson 1987; Walmsley and Lewis 1984).
As most local people prefer in situ adaptation, it needs to be evolved in a proactive
way by encouraging local villagers to collectively plan and assist community tasks
under flood prevention and preparedness principles. In the meantime, state agencies
need to adjust economic development policy to implement diversified programs,
recognizing local livelihoods. For example, local fishing practices can be revived for
both daily living and commercial purposes. Alternative employment opportunities,
considering local contexts, community preferences, and market demand need to be
promoted. This will lead to autonomous adaptation. Ultimately, the transformation of
flood risk management from state-oriented to citizen-centered and community-based
adaptation will be able to reduce risks and vulnerabilities in long run. The government
needs to provide knowledge about climate change and socioeconomic challenges, as
well as to enhance the ability of local communities and households to recognize and
explore context-based problems by themselves with a sense of multi-level interac-
tion. It will help the community to be in the leadership position to initiate future plans
through collaborating with external stakeholders and exchanging knowledge. Local
livelihood options can be revived by integrating traditional practices with modern
technologies (Ensor and Berger 2009), but it is not often recognized as a sustain-
able readjustment. As a new community culture, adaptation must avoid the trend
of one-size-fits-all policy implementation (Hussey et al. 2013). The current research
identifies in situ options as preferred options, recognized by local people, particularly
for diversifying income generating options and accumulating social capital, which
are parts of adaptation strategies of sustainable livings, suggested by Agrawal and
Perrin (2009).
For policy recommendations, the inclusion of all communities to the pilot model
is necessary. The goal of successful adaptation under future challenges cannot be
achieved without community participation in a bottom-up process. State agencies,
as leading actors, need to encourage social cohesion and risk communication at the
local level, promote learning and adjusting livelihood conditions and integrating
climate and socio-economic concerns in flood-related adaptation policies. The next
stage of research, after exploring social vulnerability, should be directed to encourage
community-based adaptation through the Participatory Action Research (PAR) with
local communities and the pilot model partnership to foster better policy decision
making (Smit and Wandel 2006; Adger et al. 2005). Community-based research
may be a potential scheme to extract social identity of households and individuals
in making decision to adapt, directly assist vulnerable people and communities,
protect livelihood security in a place-based context, challenge traditional mindset of
flood risk management, welcome all local voices for policy making, and facilitate
networking and knowledge exchange platform across sectors (Reid 2016; Gogoi et al.
2014; Forsyth 2013; Ayers and Forsyth 2009).
6 Conclusion
This research was conducted in the context of adopting flood forecasting, using the
ANN model, to point out high-risk communities in terms of future flooding condi-
tions under climate change impacts. Even though it was found that floods will occur
every year in Bang Rakam district after 2035, knowledge is essential on how the local
community and related stakeholders could sustain better in the era of multiple future
challenges induced by climate change impacts, flood risk management strategies,
and development policy. In order to promote local community engagement for adap-
tation, the integration across disciplines together with the analysis of physical and
social settings are important to represent social vulnerabilities and future possibilities
in making tailor-made adaptation policies. This chapter finds that many households
and communities have attempted to mobilize resources and capitals to strengthen
their readiness for adaptation to current and future circumstances. However, three
major root causes have constrained local communities for initiating future planning,
gathering active collaboration at the household level, considering future risk aware-
ness particularly in climate change impacts, and adopting flexibility in adaptation
towards changing situations. These root causes include (1) unequal power relations
in establishing flood risk adaptation strategies; (2) variable ‘monoculture’ policies
in economic development with fewer concerns in diversification; and (3) lack of
future recognition and knowledge for context-based adaptation. In this sense, house-
holds and communities need to collaborate within communities and across sectors
for living with future changes. Future adaptation strategies need to be introduced to
the local communities based on various flooding conditions including flood preven-
tion mechanism and technology, multi-level knowledge exchange for adaptation, and
occupation transformation.
Acknowledgements This chapter is a part of the research project “The Application of an Artificial
Neural Network Model for Water Level Prediction in the Future from Climate Change and Commu-
nity Adaptation to Climate Change in Bang Rakam District”, funded by the Targeted Research Initia-
tives Program under the collaboration among the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT),
the Biodiversity-based Economic Development Office (BEDO), and the Chiang Mai University. The
research team is thankful to kind assistances from the Yom Nan Operation and Maintenance Office,
local state organizations, community leaders, and households in Bang Rakam District, Phitsanulok
Province. In addition, the contribution of Miss Nattaporn Luangpipat for editing the language for
this manuscript is highly appreciated.
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Model 2017). Yom Nan Operation and Maintenance Office, Phitsanulok (Thai)
Mr. Sin-ampol s expertise is related, but not limited to community-based adaptation to climate
change and flood, disaster risk management and resilience, multi-level environmental gover-
nance, geography and behavioral perspectives of individuals, and mobility/migration and rural
restructuring. He has been working as a Lecturer in the Department of Geography, Faculty of
Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University since 2015. He is currently a PhD candidate at Fenner
School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, and conducting a research
focusing on enhancing capacities of individuals of repeatedly flooded communities to partici-
pate in community-based adaptation in Thailand. He also acquired the degree of Master of Arts
in Social Science (Development Studies) from Chiang Mai University with the Excellent Thesis
Award in Humanities and Social Sciences for his thesis, entitled ‘Mobility of Fish Cage Farmers
in the Ping River Basin as an Adaptation to Climate-related and Socio-economic Risks’. He
has experienced in various research projects with government agencies, NGOs, and international
collaboration in order to foster adaptive capacity and resilience of local communities to multiple
stressors in relation to climate change, haze pollution, flooding, and water resources management.
Dr. Chaipimonplin received the BSc degree in Soil Science from Khon Kaen University, Thai-
land, the Master of Applied Science degree in Geospatial Information from RMIT University,
Melbourne, Australia and the PhD degree from the University of Leeds, UK. He has finished the
Certificate Program on Processing the Radar Data of Earth Surface Remote Sensing from NPO
Mashinostroyenia, Moscow, Russian Federation and the Certificate Program on GIS and Remote
Sensing for Natural Hazard and Risk Assessment from ITC, The Netherlands. He is serving as
an Assistant Professor at the Department of Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences, of Chiang

Mai University, Thailand. He is a member of the Regional Center for Climate and Environmental
Studies (RCCES). He focuses on research areas of artificial neural network model for natural
hazard, flood forecasting, air pollution, landslide mapping, and prediction of soil carbon stock.
Ms. Songka received the degree of Master of Science in Geography and Geoinformatics (Environ-
mental and Disaster Management) from the Department of Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences
of Chiang Mai University, Thailand. During the study program, she worked as a research assistant
in the project of predicting disaster and adaptation of local communities in flooded areas and in the
project entitled ‘Agriculture Management to Reduce the Impact and Cope with Climate Change’.
Her interests are related to disaster management and geospatial analysis of flooding hazards.
Public and Private Sector Interventions
in Post-disaster Resettlement: A Case
Study of Model Villages in Pakistan
Ali Jamshed, Irfan Ahmad Rana, and Usman Maqsood Mirza
Abstract Flooding is the most frequently occurring disaster in the world. In recent
decades, climate change has been shown to be linked to a higher frequency of flood
occurrences around the world. Every year, flooding displaces millions of people
worldwide resulting in escalating vulnerabilities of exposed populations. Pakistan,
in particular, is extremely vulnerable to climate change induced floods. It has seen
a growing trend of disastrous flooding events in recent decades. The extreme flood
event of 2010 (and similar events in the years since) have caused tremendous human
and material losses. The construction of ‘model villages’ as a mitigating strategy to
flooding has turned out to be an intervention of choice for both public and private
sectors for the resettlement of exposed and vulnerable population. This strategy
was initiated by the government, and then various non-government organizations
(NGOs) followed suit with their own planning and development approaches. More
than 200 model villages have been developed in Punjab province since the 2010
flood event. This book chapter revisits the model villages developed in 2011 to
evaluate public and private intervention in the aftermath of the flooding and assess
their resettlement approaches. For this purpose, four model villages were randomly
selected in severely flood-affected districts of Punjab province. Two of the studied
model villages were developed by NGOs, while the other two were developed by
the provincial government’s disaster management authority. Expert interviews, focus
group discussions, authors’ observations, and household surveys were conducted. A
total of 145 relocated households were surveyed using structured questionnaires.
A. Jamshed
Institute of Spatial and Regional Planning (IREUS), University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
e-mail: ali.jamshed@ireus.uni-stuttgart.de
I. A. Rana (B)
Department of Urban and Regional Planning (URP), School of Civil and Environmental
Engineering (SCEE), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad,
Pakistan
e-mail: irfanrana90@hotmail.com; iarana@nit.nust.edu.pk
U. M. Mirza
Otterbeck Architekten, (OA Office GmbH), Stuttgart, Germany
e-mail: usman.mirza@daad-alumni.de

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4948-9_13
230 A. Jamshed et al.
The analysis shows model villages designed and developed by NGOs were more
sustainable and resilient than the resettled communities in provincial government
backed projects. It was found that livelihood and skill-development programs based
on local markets, community mobilization, training, maintenance and operation of
community services, and young and adult literacy programs were the predominant
factors which made communities more resilient.
Keywords Rehabilitation · Disaster recovery · Community-based disaster risk

management · Rural communities · Climate change
1 Introduction
The impacts of flood events are devastating in developing countries due to their
limited coping capacity and adaptation to flooding. Interventions to reduce, miti-
gate and adapt to the risks of flooding—from private to public, local to interna-
tional—are carried out globally costing billions of US Dollars annually (Watson
et al. 2015; Shreve and Kelman 2014). These flood events have resulted in extensive
internal and external interventions in the form of relief, recovery and reconstruction
initiatives. Private and public ventures have tried to address reconstruction issues
in developing as well as developed countries. Public-private partnerships have also
been successful in provision of such disaster resettlements. However, recognition of
which type of intervention is the best is still debated. This book chapter examines
and compares external (public and private) interventions for post-disaster resettle-
ment in the context of rural flooding in Pakistan. It revisits the model villages devel-
oped in 2011 to evaluate interventions from the government-led external intervention
(which is considered as ‘public’), and NGO-led external intervention (considered as
‘private’).
Pakistan is a developing country in South Asia with a population of approximately
208 million. Its average GDP growth rate is 5.5% and is ranked 147th on the Human
Development Index (PBS 2017; Jahan 2015). Pakistan’s geographical and climatic
features make the country extremely prone to multiple environmental hazards, of
which floods are the most frequently occurring. Pakistan has experienced multiple
flood events in the past affecting (Rana and Routray 2018) primarily the rural areas of
the country (Jamshed et al. 2017). It is estimated that between 1970 and 2017, 85 flood
events occurred, displacing over 80 million people, causing thirteen thousand mortal-
ities and economic damages of more than 21 billion US Dollars (EM-DAT 2017).
In the last ten years, floods have become more frequent and intense due to climate
change and pose a serious challenge for flood disaster management in Pakistan. The
flood event in 2010 played havoc with the affected population and hit the local and
national economy hard. This flood event has exposed various vulnerabilities of the
country. In 2009, Pakistan was ranked 69th on Global Climate Risk Index and was
later ranked 1st in 2010 on the same list due to the impacts of the flood disaster in
the same year (Kreft et al. 2015). This flood event has caused an estimated damage
Public and Private Sector Interventions in Post-disaster … 231
of 10 billion US Dollars (EM-DAT 2017). World Bank has estimated that over 2000
people lost their lives; 1.6 million houses were destroyed, and over 20 million people
were internally displaced within the country (The World Bank 2010). In the after-
math of the disaster, external interventions (both public and private) played a key role
for minimizing the impact through relief, recovery, and reconstruction. Post-disaster
phases (relief, reconstruction, and recovery) cost more than US$ 8.7 billion where
81% of contributions for relief and recovery efforts came from donors (The World
Bank 2015).
In this chapter, a comparison of the resettlement efforts of the public and private
sector after the flood disaster of 2010 has been done. Resettlement efforts were
carried out in the form of model villages (MVs). Four MVs—two developed by the
public sector and two by the private sector—were selected. Quantitative data were
analyzed using descriptive statistics, whereas checklists were constructed to analyze
qualitative data. Based on these, this chapter tries to identify pre-disaster and post-
disaster socioeconomic and physical changes in resettled communities. The research
is aimed to help planners, developers and disaster managers for effective post-disaster
settlement.
2 Theoretical Background
Pakistan is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change. Climate-induced

extreme weather events such as floods are forecasted to occur with a higher frequency
and intensity (IPCC 2012). After the 2010 extreme flood event, public resettlement
was implemented in Pakistan, however there is a significant gap in literature regarding
the efficacy and long-term sustainability of such measures (Jamshed et al. 2018).
The IPCC views resettlement as a failure to adapt but research has shown it can be
a sustainable adaptation measure in disaster risk reduction (IPCC 2012). In recent
years, post-disaster resettlement has been framed as an adaptation strategy; however,
an uncertainty surrounding the benefits and disadvantages of resettling vulnerable
communities is also acknowledged (Arnall et al. 2013; Arnall 2018).
Arnall (2018) describes three principles of resettlement ventures. The first prin-
ciple states that resettlement should always be seen as the very last resort when all
other adaptation measures are declared to be ineffective. The primary reason for this
principle lies within the relative infancy of research into how resettlement affects
different communities. The second principle delves into willingness of people to
relocate, and asserts that resettlement should always be voluntary, since research
into involuntary resettlement has shown its inefficacy. The third principle is that
resettlement should provide communities with better development standards than
their pre-disaster settlements. Resettlement can be categorized in different ways. In
terms of willingness of people to resettle, it can be said to be either voluntary or
involuntary (King et al. 2014; Hansen and Oliver-Smith 1982). One benefit of invol-
untary resettlement is that it can bring development opportunities to the communities,
allowing physical and social infrastructure to be readily available to them which is
not the case in their pre-disaster conditions. On the flipside, one major disadvantage
of involuntary resettlement is that it has been found to impoverish the communi-
ties which are induced to relocate (Arnall 2018). Some researches, for example
Evrard and Goudineau (2004) and Wilmsen and Wang (2015), dispute this cate-
gorization, stating that state-led voluntary settlement programs often operate in a
grey area (Arnall 2018), with coercive incentives that provide little to no alternatives
than to resettle. On the other hand, in sectoral terms, resettlement can be public or
private, with public referring to state-initiated resettlement programs whereas private
referring to programs initiated by private entities, non-government organizations, or
communities themselves (Badri et al. 2006). The primary difference between public
and private resettlement is that government-led schemes are readily adopted as tools
to solve issues of poverty and vulnerability of rural populations and is hardly ever
the last resort (Arnall 2018).
Barnett and O’Neill (2012) also identifies disadvantages of involuntary resettle-
ments. He identified labor mobility as an alternative to forced resettlements which
can have fewer risks and larger rewards. Resettlements have also shown to increase
vulnerability and maladaptation, by leading to landlessness, unemployment, home-
lessness, social marginalization, food insecurity, reduced access to common-property
resources and increased morbidity (Barnett and O’Neill 2012). However, Okada
et al. (2014) attribute such maladaptation to lack of preparation and planning. They
show that resettlement and land-swap initiatives, if properly managed, offer some
of the best long-term strategies for disaster risk reduction. Maladaptation can also
be directly linked with voluntary resettlement, as resettlement always fails when
people do not want to relocate, which inherently decreases their capacity to adapt
and increases vulnerability (Barnett and O’Neill 2012).
Correa and Gonzalez (2000) contend that resettlements to similar geographical
regions can cause an increase in vulnerability and economic losses, and in case
of involuntary relocation to these regions people tend to return to their original
lands. Ganapati and Ganapati (2008) discuss public participation in resettlements
and declare that although such participation may in theory be desirable, achieving it
in reality proves to be more complicated. One important reason is that such participa-
tory initiatives attract unrepresentative sample of the concerned population. Jamshed
et al. (2018) conclude that participatory process in resettlements allows policymakers
to understand the preferences and local knowledge of the concerned population, and
builds support and trust for policies, avoiding time consuming litigation against such
plans and policies. Cronin and Guthrie (2011) are of the opinion that community
participation in resettlement creates an unshakeable sense of ownership and connec-
tion of the community to the new development, thereby increasing its coping capacity.
It has been shown that resettlement can decrease livelihood security, social capital
and cultural ties (King et al. 2014). Furthermore, state intervention in the resettle-
ment process impacts upon complex layers of community dynamics and resilience
(King et al. 2014).
Santiago et al. (2018) assert that one of the major weaknesses of public sector
relocation is that people are more dependent on the state and prefer to take little
responsibility. Usamah and Haynes (2012) discuss effects of relocation over short and
long term by studying two cases and find that communities face losses of community
and livelihood options, but simultaneously feel safe from the threat of disasters.
This demonstrates that public sector resettlement programs can reduce risks from
environmental threats but increase social vulnerability. While a significant amount
of literature address different dimensions of post-disaster resettlement, there is a
gap in research which can compare external resettlement interventions in Pakistan.
Empirical comparison of government-led and private sector interventions in selected
model villages in Pakistan is carried out in this research to address this research gap.
3 Model Village Initiatives in Pakistan
In order to cope with the reconstruction phase of the disaster, the Government of
Punjab, together with international and local NGOs, devised a strategy for the first
time to construct ‘model villages’ (MVs) to resettle the most exposed, vulnerable and
marginal section of affected population with modern facilities in rural areas to raise
their living standard. A model village is defined as planned, resilient and sustainable
rural settlement with different social and physical amenities and economic oppor-
tunities. The development of MVs was mainly concentrated in Punjab province as
it was the decision of the provincial government to construct the MVs. Punjab is
the most populous province of Pakistan where almost 53% of country’s population
subsists (PBS 2017). Punjab was also significantly affected during the 2010 flood
event and more than six million people in the province were displaced and more than
3000 villages were severely affected (Nadeem et al. 2014; PDMA 2013; NDMA
2010). Two primary criteria were chalked out to select the MVs: first to select the
districts which were extremely affected by floods and second to select the district
where the majority of resettlement projects were carried out. These two criteria also
correspond to the external interventions for reducing disaster risks by focusing on
relief and recovery efforts. Considering this, the district of Muzaffargarh was deemed
the most suitable to carry out the study as 1.7 million were displaced, around 0.2
million houses were destroyed and over 500 settlements were affected only in this
district (NDMA 2010). Distribution of cost of MVs developed by public sector is
given in Table 1.
4 Methodology
Social science-based research methodology was adopted for this study (Fig. 13.1).
Initially, comprehensive literature was reviewed, and academics and professionals
were consulted for the theoretical understanding and framing of the research problem.
The research questions were developed, and the case study area was selected for field-
work. Literature analysis and theoretical background helped in guiding the analysis.
The analysis led to recommendations and conclusion.
Table 1 Financial costs of model villages in Punjab (Public Sector) (Field-survey 2018)
S. No. District No. of villages No. of Houses Total cost (PKR) Per village cost
1 USD = 133 (PKR)
PKR (November,
2018)
1 Dera Ghazi 3 360 188,845,591 62,948,530
Khan
2 Mianwali 2 200 128,802,858 64,401,429
3 Bhakkar 1 80 58,003,753 58,003,753
4 Layyah 3 180 127,548,256 42,516,085
5 Rajanpur 4 375 202,552,586 50,638,147
6 Rahim Yar 3 300 203,107,800 67,702,600
Khan
7 Muzaffargarh 6 506 281,214,354 46,869,059
Total 22 2001 1,190,075,197 393,079,603
Fig. 13.1 Research design
4.1 Selection of Case Studies
The preliminary expert interview with officials of Provincial Disaster Management

Authority (PDMA) revealed that this organization developed 22 model villages
(MVs). However, the exact number of MVs developed by private sector was unknown.
Tasleem (2010) claimed that almost 200 on-site and off-site MVs were planned
and developed in the affected districts of the province by public and private sector
(Tasleem 2010). The interview with an assistant director of finance and planning
of PDMA revealed that the government spent around 75 million Pakistani Rupees
only for housing in 22 MVs. (Table 1). As the number of model villages by private
sector was not available, for comparative purposes, two model villages were selected
from each sector. A total of four MVs were randomly selected, two were developed
by NGOs (private) and other two by Provincial Disaster Management Authority
(public). Household surveys were conducted to evaluate public and private interven-
tions in development of MVs in resettlement of affected population. NGO developed
MVs were Ittehad and Pakpur, whereas PDMA developed MVs were Ehsanpur and
Jalwala (Fig. 13.2 and Annex 1).
Ittehad MV is situated at 30° 38 25.30 north and 70° 58 23.52 east. It is
located next to the rural town Ehsanpur and approximately 15 km north of sub-district
headquarter Kot Addu. The River Indus passes at an approximate distance of 11 km
in the west of the MV. It spans an area of 23.5 acres and accommodates almost 1100
people in 166 housing units. Housing is distributed in six different blocks. Each block
has 25–30 housing units and separate park and livestock enclosure. The project was
mainly funded and developed by Engro Foundation—local NGO—and completed
in less than one year. Basti Pakpur Noor Ghazi is located at 29° 59 7.92 north
and 71° 4 25.07 east near a small rural settlement Shahgarh. The site is situated
12 km North West of district headquarter Muzaffargarh city. Chenab River flows
13 km to the east and Indus flows 22 km west of the MV. The MV was developed
over an area of 8 acres with 99 houses accommodating around 650 people. The
community is divided into six blocks where each block has 15–17 houses, a park,
and a waste disposal point. The MV village was developed by Pakpur Foundation
together with Ansaar Management Company (AMC) and few other partner NGOs.
Table 9 indicates that most of the services and facilities are provided by NGOs in the
MVs compared with MVs developed by public sector organizations.
Basti Jalwala developed by Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA)
is situated at 29° 51 31.18 north and 71° 4 28.82 east. The site is located 10 km from
the urban settlement of Khangarh and 25 km from district headquarter Muzaffargarh.
River Chenab is located ten kilometers in the east. The MV consisted of 136 houses
with a common community park, animal shed, and veterinary center. Ehsanpur MV
is located at a latitude of 30° 38 20.83 North and longitude of 70° 58 33.97 East
and is almost 15 km away from sub-district headquarters Kot Addu. The MV is
positioned in front of Ittehad Model Village. It consists of 69 housing units having
a community park and livestock shed. This MV is also developed by the PDMA.
Eshanpur MV is not connected with any kind of electricity facilities.
4.2 Sampling
A total of 470 houses were constructed in all the selected model villages (MVs),
one for each relocated family. There were approximately 3111 people living in
selected four model villages. It was difficult to survey each house due to finan-
cial and time constraints, therefore it was decided to randomly involve households
Fig. 13.2 a Map of Pakistan showing the province of Punjab, b Map showing rivers, 2010 flood
extent, location of selected district and location of various constructed model villages in the province
(in green dot). c map showing selected district, its sub-district headquarters as well as location of
government and NGOs driven model villages taken as case study areas (Authors 2019)
Table 2 Sample size distribution in case study areas (Field-survey 2018)

Name of model Total Total Total Representation % of
village households population families of population population
(approx.) surveyed surveyed surveyed
Private Ittehad 166 1100 50 331 30%
MVs MV
Pakpur 99 655 32 212 32%
MV
Public Basti 136 900 41 271 30%
MVs Jalwala
Ehsanpur 69 456 22 146 32%
MV
Total 470 3111 145 960 31%
who are completely willing to participate in the survey. Considering this criteria, 50
households from Ittehad MV, 32 from Pakpur MV, 41 from Basti Jalwala and 22 from
Ehsanpur MV were interviewed resulting in the total sample of 145 households. It
gave a sample size for each study area which represented between 30% and 32% of
the population (Table 2).
4.3 Data Collection and Analysis
A household survey (using questionnaire, focus group discussion and personal obser-
vation) was the primary tool for the data collection. A semi-structured questionnaire
was designed containing both closed and open-ended questions. The questionnaire
had six main sections and several sub-sections. The main sections gathered infor-
mation on area profile, respondent profile, comparison of situation before and after
relocation, community participation in the resettlement process and overall rating
on different aspects of resettlement. A check list based on Likert scale was used to
compare pre and post disaster situation regarding income, housing, health, education
and security (Annex 2). For example, households were asked if they perceive better
income-earning opportunities, housing, health, education or security in the MV as
compared to their place of origin. Likert scale represented the level of agreement
compared the pre and post-disaster situation. The pretest of ten questionnaires was
performed to remove ambiguities and unnecessary information as well as to improve
the questionnaire. Field assistant was hired to collect the data considering language
and cultural limitations.
5 Results and Discussion
5.1 Socio-Economic Profile of Respondents
The household survey revealed that all the case studies differ in socio-economic
situations (Table 3). The proportion of literate people (who attended at least primary
school) is much higher in NGO developed MVs compared to public sector developed
MVs. More than 50% of respondents were literate in Ittehad and Pakpur MV, whereas
in Ehsanpur MV only 27% of respondents were literate. Average family size was
between 6 and 7 where Ittehad MV consist of large families with the average family
size of around 7, Pakpur had average family size 6.8, Jalwala had 6.1 and Ehsanpur
had 6.7. All case studies consisted of large family sizes. Regarding economic aspects,
none of the households in all case studies was unemployed. In Jalwala, the majority
were self-employed and in all other MVs majority are employed. Income level in
Table 3 Socio-economic profile of respondents (Field-survey 2018)

Indicators Classes Private MVs Public MVs Overall
Ittehad Pakpur Jalwala Ehsanpur
MV MV MV MV
% (N = % (N = % (N = % (N = 22) % (N =
50) 32) 41) 145)
Literacy Illiterate 46.0 34.4 51.2 72.7 49.0
Literate 54.0 65.6 48.8 27.3 51.0
Mean 0.54 0.65 0.49 0.27 0.51
Std. Dev 0.503 0.482 0.506 0.455 0.501
Family size <5 26.0 28.1 36.6 40.9 31.7
5–9 52.0 59.4 56.1 45.5 53.8
≥10 22.0 12.5 7.3 13.6 14.5
Mean 1.96 1.84 1.70 1.72 1.82
Std. Dev 0.689 0.627 0.601 0.702 0.659
Employment Employed 54.0 56.3 39.0 68.2 52.4
status Self-employed 46.0 43.8 61.0 31.8 47.6
Mean 2.46 2.44 2.61 2.32 2.48
Std. Dev 0.503 0.504 0.494 0.477 0.501
Monthly ≤5000 22.0 18.8 24.4 36.4 24.1
family income 5001–10,000 48.0 25.0 26.8 36.4 35.2
(in PKR)
10,001–15,000 20.0 34.4 36.6 13.6 26.9
>15,000 10.0 21.9 12.2 13.6 13.8
Mean 2.18 2.59 2.37 2.05 2.30
Std. Dev 0.896 1.043 0.994 1.046 0.988
Pakpur was the higher (mean income = 12,200 PKR) compared to other MV and
Ehsanpur MV had the lowest mean income (mean income = 8800 PKR). Pakpur was
economically better-off because of its close proximity to sugar mill and district head-
quarter Muzaffargarh where the majority of its residents were employed, whereas
Jalwala is second better because of its close proximity urban settlement of Khangarh.
Ehsanpur MV was surrounded by the rural agriculture fields with limited economic
opportunities. Average monthly family income in all the MV was 10,000 PKR, which
is very low. Overall, the whole district was deprived in terms of socio-economic
development, and was ranked as 34 out of 36 districts in Punjab province (Jamal
2012).
5.2 Post-disaster Situation
5.2.1 Income Opportunities
The household survey generated mixed results in terms of available income opportu-
nities in and around MVs compared to the place of origin (Table 4). On one hand, 60%
of Ittehad MV residents expressed their satisfaction with available income oppor-
tunities (14% of which strongly so), with only 12% expressing their dissatisfaction
stating that income opportunities are limited compared to place of origin. On the
other hand, Pakpur MV residents registered mixed responses, with half of the resi-
dents having either neutral or negative appraisal of available income opportunities.
Interestingly, very few (only 3.1%) of Pakpur MV residents showed a strong approval
of existing income opportunities. Residents of public MVs also opined a mixed eval-
uation of income opportunities. Majority of Ehsanpur MV residents (45.5%) were
indifferent to the available income opportunities and no resident expressed a strong
approval. In Jalwala MV, on the other hand, 31.7% of respondents—a significantly
Table 4 Income opportunities in model villages (Field-survey 2018)

Name of village Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
disagree
Private MVs Ittehad MV 7 23 14 4 2
14% 46% 28% 8% 4%
Pakpur MV 1 6 8 8 9
3.1% 18.8% 25% 25% 28.1%
Public MVs Ehsanpur MV 0 5 10 4 3
0% 22.7% 45.5% 18.2% 13.6%
Jalwala MV 5 10 8 13 5
12.2% 24.4% 19.5% 31.7% 12.2%
Total 13 44 40 29 19
9% 30.3% 27.6% 20% 13.1%
large percentage—expressed a negative opinion of the available income opportuni-

ties. On average, across all surveyed public and private MVs, the results were again
mixed: 39.3% of all respondents registered favorable opinions and 33.1% registered
negative opinions regarding available income opportunities, with a sizable percentage
(27.6%) of the sample expressing their neutral opinion.
5.2.2 Housing Satisfaction
Across all surveyed MVs—public or private—residents expressed their high satis-

faction with post-housing conditions, with no resident registering a “bad” or “very
bad” opinion (Table 5). In both private MVs—Ittehad and Pakpur—the satisfaction
was higher with a very low percentage of moderate appraisals in comparison with
public MVs. For instance, 72% of Ittehad MV and 87% of Pakpur MV residents
evaluated their post-housing satisfaction as “very good”. In Pakpur MV, particularly,
the post housing satisfaction was the highest with no resident registering even a
moderate evaluation. Similarly, in both public MVs (Ehsanpur and Jalwala MVs),
a majority of residents evaluated their post-housing satisfaction as either good or
very good. However, in comparison with private MVs, the results were less than
ideal: In Ehsanpur MV, particularly, a sizable proportion of the respondents (31.8%)
expressed moderate satisfaction with their post-housing conditions. In pre-disaster
situation, almost all households used to live in adobe or semi adobe houses, but reset-
tlement provided them with solid houses with brick cement. Therefore, no response
was registered as “bad” or “very bad”. Moreover, in private MVs, housing design
allowed cross ventilation in rooms by providing auxiliary spaces in front and back
side of the houses whereas in public MVs row housing was provided with no auxiliary
spaces on the back side. Additionally, private MVs provided open kitchens—in the
corridors of the houses—considering rural character. Therefore, housing satisfaction
was much higher in private than public MVs.
Table 5 Post housing satisfaction (Field-survey 2018)

Name of village Very good Good Moderate
Private MVs Ittehad MV 36 7 7
72.0% 14.0% 14.0%
Pakpur MV 28 4 0
87.5% 12.5% 0.0%
Public MVs Ehsanpur MV 9 6 7
40.9% 27.3% 31.8%
Jalwala MV 28 12 1
68.3% 29.3% 2.4%
Total 101 29 15
69.7% 20.0% 10.3%
Table 6 Educational facilities (Field-survey 2018)

Name of village Very Good Good Moderate
98.0% 0.0% 2.0%
Pakpur MV 32 0 0
100.0% 0.0% 0.0%
86.4% 9.1% 4.5%
Jalwala MV 36 5 0
87.8% 12.2% 0.0%
Total 136 7 2
93.8% 4.8% 1.4%
5.2.3 Educational Facilities
In both public and private MVs, the household survey revealed a near-perfect eval-
uation of the education facilities (Table 6). In both private MVs, almost all of the
residents agreed that the education facilities were “very good”. Similarly, education
facilities in public MVs were also positively evaluated by their residents (86.4%
and 87.8% respectively for Ehsanpur and Jalwala MVs). No resident gave a “bad”
or “very bad” opinion regarding the education facilities in all four surveyed MVs.
These results, when averaged, reflected the same trend: as thevast majority of the
respondents (93.8%) from all four MVs rated the education facilities very highly.
5.2.4 Health Facilities
The household survey revealed that in the private Ittehad MV, the respondents eval-
uated the health facilities as highly satisfactory, with no respondent registering a
moderate evaluation (Table 7). However, results from Ittehad MV could not be
compared with Pakpur MV, because, the latter did not possess any health facilities.
On the other hand, the respondent evaluation of health facilities in public MVs was,
positive, but inadequate. In Ehsanpur MV, 91% of respondents reviewed the health
facilities as either good or very good, with only about 9% moderate evaluations. In
Jalwala MV, the moderate evaluation of health facilities was 26.8%, revealing that
health facilities in this MV were the lowest ranked as compared with Ehsanpur and
Ittehad MVs.
Table 7 Health facilities (Field-survey 2018)

Name of village Very good Good Moderate
94.00% 6.00% 0.00%
Pakpur MV* N.A.
45.50% 45.50% 9.10%
Jalwala MV 9 21 11
22.00% 51.20% 26.80%
Total 66 34 13
58.40% 30.10% 11.50%
*Note Pakpur MV had no health facility
5.2.5 Security
In terms of perceived security by the respondents of the model villages, results of

the household survey revealed that private MVs fared slightly better than the public
MVs (Table 8). For both Ittehad and Pakpur MVs, 60% and 53.1% of respondents
appraised their perceived security as “moderate”. In comparison between the two
private MVs, security was worse in Ittehad MV, as a considerable 30% of the respon-
dents evaluate security as “bad” compared to 12.5% in Pakpur MV. Only 4% rated
the security as “good” in Ittehad MV as compared to 18.8% in Pakpur MV. On the
other hand, in public MVs, the security was also deemed less than satisfactory as
compared with the private MVs. For instance, in both Ehsanpur and Jalwala MVs,
no respondent appraised security as “very good”. Security was considered as “good”
by less than 5% of the respondents in both MVs. Ehsanpur MV fared slightly better
than Jalwala MV with 45.5% of its respondents evaluating their perceived security
as moderate compared to only 12.2% in Jalwala. A majority of 61% and 24.4% of
Table 8 Security (Field-survey 2018)

Name of village Very good Good Moderate Bad Very Bad
Private MVs Ittehad MV 1 2 30 15 2
2.0% 4.0% 60.0% 30.0% 4.0%
Pakpur MV 5 6 17 4 0
15.6% 18.8% 53.1% 12.5% 0.0%
Public MVs Ehsanpur MV 0 1 10 8 3
0.0% 4.5% 45.5% 36.4% 13.6%
Jalwala MV 0 1 5 25 10
0.0% 2.4% 12.2% 61.0% 24.4%
Total 6 10 62 52 15
4.1% 6.9% 42.8% 35.9% 10.3%
respondents evaluated their security as “bad” and “very bad” in Jalwala, respectively.
Overall results reflected the same trend: opinions regarding security in majority of
the respondents in all of the model villages surveyed ranged from moderate to bad,
with only a minority of respondents holding a favorable opinion of their perceived
security.
5.2.6 Provision of Physical Amenities
Provision of basic facilities and services are essential for successful post-disaster
resettlement. Table 9 shows provision of facilities and services in each of the four
surveyed MV. The facilities and services are categorized as social, economic, infras-
tructural, and environment. Provision of each facility and/or service under each cate-
gory is marked with a check symbol, whereas its absence is indicated by no symbol.
Social facilities and services were provided in both private and public MVs, however
it is interesting to note that only Ittehad MV provided religious building, and Ehsanpur
MV was the only MV without a primary school. In terms of economic amenities,
Ittehad MV was well-provisioned with livelihood diversification training facility,
dairy hub and commercial shops. With provision of only shops, Pakpur MV was the
least provisioned in terms of economic facilities. In both private MVs, veterinary
health center was not provided although it existed in both public MVs. Results have
shown that infrastructural facilities are the priority for both public and private MVs,
with private MVs showcasing better infrastructure than public MVs. Streets were
paved in all four MVs. Pakpur MV featured both solar and grid electricity supply,
alongside adequate water supply infrastructure. Solar electricity infrastructure was
provided in only one other MV, namely the Jalwala MV. Interestingly, both public
MVs were not connected with electricity grid, which makes Jalwala solely dependent
on its solar power infrastructure. Finally, environmental services and facilities are
clearly not a priority for public MVs. Both Jalwala and Ehsanpur MVs were provided
with open spaces and parks, however basic environmental services and facilities like
solid waste management, underground drainage, water filtration, and wastewater
treatment were not provided in any of the public MVs. On the other hand, both
private MVs were well-provisioned with these facilities, however Ittehad MV was
the only model village with its own dedicated wastewater treatment infrastructure,
however it lacks its own potable water filtration unit which was present in Pakpur MV.
In both of these MVs, solid waste management and underground drainage infrastruc-
ture were provided, making them better than public MVs. In short, private sector
MV provided better infrastructural and environmental services than public MVs.
These physical and environmental facilities were much better compared to the place
of origin. Group discussion revealed that some of these facilities (e-g., water supply,
paved streets, solid waste management, drainage system, livestock shed) were never
provided at the place of origin. These facilities have positive effects especially on
households relocated in private MVs.
Table 9 Facilities and services provided in each model village (Field-survey 2018)
Facilities and services Private MVs Public MVs
Ittehad MV Pakpur MV Basti Jalwala MV Ehsanpur MV
Social
Mosque ✓ ✓
Health center/dispensary ✓ ✓
Primary school ✓ ✓ ✓
Vocational training ✓ ✓ ✓
center
Economic
Livelihood/income ✓
diversification training
Dairy hub ✓
Shops ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Veterinary ✓ ✓
hospital/health center
Infrastructural
Electricity (Grid) ✓ ✓
Electricity (Solar) ✓ ✓
Water supply (hand ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
pumps)
Paved streets ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Livestock shed ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Environment
Parks/Open spaces ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Solid waste management ✓ ✓
Underground drainage ✓ ✓
system
Drinking water filtration ✓
unit
Wastewater treatment ✓
5.2.7 Resettlement Strategies by Public and Private Sector
Both Public and private sector has initiated model villages for resettling disaster
affected rural households in Pakistan, but planning strategies adopted by both sectors
are in contrast. Jamshed et al. (2018) point out striking differences and similarities
regarding community participation in post-disaster resettlement planning process.
Table 10 shows each private and public sector’s planning process from initial land
acquisition, design, construction and rehabilitation. Firstly, selection of affected
people (or beneficiaries) was decided. Private sector considered both house damages
and socio-economic conditions, whereas public sector only considered physical
Table 10 Resettlement strategies for model villages (Field-survey 2018)

Criteria Private sector Public sector
Allocation policy/selection Based on house damages and Based on house damages
of beneficiaries socio-economic conditions
Location of model village Based on distance as well as Based on distance from affected
considering the past villages
multi-hazard history
Layout/design of model Participatory layout design Pre-designed layouts without
village with special concern on considering community
cultural and privacy issues and concerns
consideration of local climate
Design of houses Designs with special Pre-designed houses without
consideration of local rural considering cultural and local
character and climatic aspects character
Planning and design of Use of available resources in Considerations social, cultural,
facilities planning and design of and economic needs only in
facilities provision
Mainstreaming facilities with Environment friendly
existing services technologies (biogas and solar)
Environment friendly
technologies
Considerations social, cultural,
and economic needs in
provision as well as planning
and design
Skill development and Vocational training for each Vocational training center (not
Livelihood opportunities household both male and operational)
female (mat making, Commercial area
construction, beekeeping,
livestock farming, and
entrepreneurship)
Commercial area
Dairy hub
Fish pond
Adult literacy programs
Monitoring, operation and Village organizations District model village
maintenance Block development committees management boards
Village Organizations
damages to houses of affected population. In case of physical locations of new

model villages, private sector deliberately put distance from previous settlements, to
save them from possible extreme events. Public sectors, on the other hand, decided
the location based on distance from previously affected village. Housing design
plays an important role in shaping lives and culture of the society. Private sector
accommodated inputs, received from local communities, whereas public sector did
not involve communities in the physical planning and designing process of model
villages. When developing and providing various amenities, both private and public
sector considered community needs, as well as environmental, cultural and social

dimensions. Solar power houses, solar pumps and biogas were key environmentally
friendly amenities. Both private and public sector provided vocational institutes to
develop skills and technical help in the communities. However, private sector went
one step further by ensuring diversification of livelihood options through provision
dairy farms, adult literacy programs, skill development, and vocational trainings.
For the continuous maintenance of villages, both sectors formed village boards and
organizations to mobilize community and deliver their concerns to sponsors or local
government. However, community mobilization was seen to be followed up in true
spirit in NGO-sponsored model villages.
6 Conclusion and Recommendations
Disaster resettlement is a multi-faceted and complex phenomenon. Private and public

sectors, as well as their synergy, are important in addressing disaster-impacts in
the post-disaster phase. Rural flooding has a tendency in developing countries to
wreak havoc in communities, leaving them exposed to various social, economic,
infrastructural and environmental issues. Unless timely and need-based relief and
rehabilitation are provided, these communities may suffer for extended periods of
time. The disastrous flooding of 2010 in Pakistan laid bare this fact, where millions
of people were affected, and which paralyzed half of the country. Both private and
public sectors stepped up to provide houses along with necessary amenities to the
displaced population. Model villages were launched throughout the country to cater
to households displaced by flooding.
This research has investigated post-disaster resettlement situation by relocated
households compared to their place of origin. The analysis has shown that the private
and public sector put efforts in relocating displaced population. However, both had
their shortcomings and advantages. Better houses and living environment with access
to social amenities are major advantages while shortcoming in the maintenance of
community facilities was noticed. One very positive aspect was that none of the
households were found unemployed in target model villages. Resettlement process
along with the provision of facilities are drastically different. Generally, households
living in model villages developed by private sectors seemed more satisfied. Each
NGO developed their own strategies for planning, designing, and implementing MVs
which differ from the strategies developed by the public sector. However, in terms of
housing satisfaction, all surveyed MVs—public or private—residents expressed their
high satisfaction. Similarly, the household survey showed positive satisfaction with
the education facilities. In terms of security and infrastructural development satisfac-
tion, private sector supported MVs were slightly better than their counterparts. Liveli-
hood and skill-development programs were far more diversified, and young and adult
literacy programs could make the communities more resilient. This improved situa-
tion can be attributed to more community participation in the development process
of model villages. Overall, external interventions—especially by private sectors—in
post-disaster resettlement have socially, economically and physically improved the

lives of disaster affected vulnerable households.
The results of this research provide multiple lessons and recommendations for
the future. It can be recommended to ensure the participation of communities, both
beneficiaries and hosts, through the resettlement process. Participation in resettle-
ment process can be helpful in planning housing layout and designing structures
that represent norms and cultures of communities and create sense of ownership.
Cautious selection of communities based on the socio-economic situation can result
sustainable outcomes. Communities should be trained for operation and mainte-
nance of services and facilities. Livelihood and skill development programs should
be developed based on local market potentials. Last but not the least, the public and
private sector should work closely together in order to benefit from information and
knowledge sharing.
Annex 1
Commercial area in Ittehad MV Street view in Ittehad MV
Vocational training for women in Pakpur MV Housing block in Pakpur MV
Livestock shed in Jalwala MV Street view in Jalwala MV
Inside view of house in Ehsanpur MV Street view of Ehsanpur MV

Annex 2
How would you rate the services and facilities in model village compared to place of origin?
Services and facilities Very good Good Moderate Bad Very bad
Housing
Education
Health
Security
Electricity
How much do you Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree
agree “there are
enough income
earning opportunities
in and around MV”
Facilities and services Check
Social
Mosque
Health center/dispensary
Primary school
Vocational training center
Economic
Livelihood/income diversification training
Dairy hub
Shops
Veterinary hospital/health center
Infrastructural
Electricity (grid)
Electricity (solar)
Water supply (hand pumps)
Paved streets
Livestock shed
Environment
Parks/open spaces
Solid waste management
Underground drainage system
Drinking water filtration unit
Wastewater treatment
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Mr. Jamshed is pursuing his Ph.D. degree at the Institute of Spatial and Regional Planning
(IREUS), University of Stuttgart, Germany. He did his Bachelor in City and Regional Planning
degree from the University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Lahore, and worked for one
and a half years in public sector. Later, he did his Master in Infrastructure Planning degree from
the University of Stuttgart, Germany with a scholarship from the Higher Education Commis-
sion (HEC), Government of Pakistan. His research interests are vulnerability assessment, disaster
resilience, post-disaster resettlement, and rural-urban linkages.
Dr. Rana, is an urban planner and is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Depart-
ment of Urban and Regional Planning, National University of Sciences Technology, Islamabad,
Pakistan. He received postgraduate and doctorate degrees in Regional and Rural Development
Planning from Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. His research interests include urban and
regional development, disaster risk reduction, and climate change adaptation.
Mr. Mirza graduated as an architect in 2012 from the University of Punjab where he served as a
Lecturer for four years. In 2016 he received the DAAD scholarship to study MSc in Infrastructure
Planning at the University of Stuttgart in Germany, where his master’s thesis was focused on the
comparative assessment of climate change adaptation plans in South Asian countries. His research
interests include climate change adaptation and disaster risk management, sustainable architecture
and urbanism, green building technologies, theory of architecture and urban design, etc. Currently,
he is working as an architect for Otterbeck Architekten (OA Office GmbH) in Stuttgart, Germany.
Effectiveness of Disaster Risk Reduction
(DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation
(CCA) Training Programs: Views
and Voices from Barisal Division,
a Coastal Region in Bangladesh
Sharmin Nahar Nipa, Jarin Tasneem Oyshi, and Istiak Ibne Rouf
Abstract Barisal division, a coastal region of Bangladesh, is one of the most vulner-
able zones in terms of climate-induced disasters, where the children, women, and
young people are at high risk. Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change
Adaptation (CCA) training programs for children and youth usually aim to change
the way of thinking and action, which can make the future generations or the commu-
nities more resilient. Trainings can help to improve skills, knowledge, and capacities
to manage any disaster event. Considering this fact, the Centre for Climate Change
and Environmental Research (C3ER) of BRAC University facilitated several capacity
building training programs on DRR and CCA, which have been conducted in different
districts of Barisal division. Nearly 105 children and youth of 3 districts (Barguna,
Bhola, and Barisal) of Barisal division have transformed into Disaster Ambassador
and helped to enhance the capacities of their communities to deal with climate-
induced disasters. This chapter aims to find out the effectiveness of these training
programs to build disaster resilient communities through the active participation of
children and young people. It finds that the trained children and youths became able
to contribute positively through making decisions and developing work plans which
were supported by various organizations.
Keywords Disaster risk reduction (DRR) · Climate change adaptation (CCA) ·

Training · Resilient · Coastal region · Bangladesh
S. N. Nipa (B) · J. T. Oyshi · I. I. Rouf

Center for Climate Change and Environmental Research (C3ER), BRAC University, Dhaka,
Bangladesh
e-mail: sharmingeo@gmail.com
J. T. Oyshi
e-mail: jarin.tasneem@gmail.com
I. I. Rouf
e-mail: i.istiakasif@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4948-9_14
254 S. N. Nipa et al.
1 Introduction
Bangladesh is considered one of the most vulnerable countries in the world in terms
of natural disasters like cyclone, storm surge, flood, drought, river erosion, salinity
intrusion, etc. Simultaneously, the IPCC (2014) has predicted that the occurrence
of climatic shocks is likely to become more frequent, intense and severe in the
future due to climate change. The signs of climate change have already begun to
appear in many locations of the country which ultimately are disrupting the liveli-
hood practices/activities/options of the inhabitants of Bangladesh. Among all zones
of the country, the coastal zone is more susceptible to extreme natural events and
increasing disasters which may cause damages to properties, infrastructures, agri-
cultural productions, and economic assets and can threaten lives and livelihoods,
food security and public health (MoEF 2009). Recently, the country is ranked as the
6th in the Global Climate Risk Index 1997–2016, demarking it as one of the most
vulnerable counties suffering from long-term consequences of climate change for
last two decades (Eckstein et al. 2017).
Children are more likely to face death or injuries than adults during disasters
(UNICEF 2007a). Also, young people often face severe damage due to disasters
and face difficulties in coping with those conditions. The research conducted by
Akachi et al. (2009) revealed that climate change causes more damages to children
as they have less physiological and metabolic capacity than that of adults and are
more sensitive to climate-related exposure. On the other hand, scholars find that chil-
dren who are aware of natural hazards can contribute significantly to preparedness,
response, and recovery processes of disaster management cycle rather than becoming
passive victims of disasters (Anderson 2005; Mitchell et al. 2008; Peek 2008; Morris
and Edwards 2008). Moreover, their development and resilience get enhanced when
they are taught about adaptation with challenges (USDHHS 2017). On the other
hand, involving young people in various disaster preparedness activities increase
their mental and physical capacities to cope with disaster impacts (Khorram-Manesh
2017). It is evident that children and young people are capable of generating inno-
vative ideas to manage disasters, reduce vulnerabilities, and enhance capacities to
cope with the changing environment (Walden et al. 2009).
Moreover, in order to create a ‘culture of risk reduction’, it is essential to actively
involve children and youth in disaster risk reduction, i.e., increased awareness and
knowledge of disaster threats along with other community members (Morris and
Edwards 2008). Local youths often get involved in helping people during disas-
ters by taking part in rescuing, distributing relief, and sharing information. There
are numerous cases around the world demonstrating that youths have participated
actively in disaster management and made communities more resilient (Ministry of
Youth Affairs and Sports 2017). For example, during 2004 tsunami, young people
played an active role in disaster management. They participated in relief works, took
other children to safe places, and cared for them until their guardians were found
(UNICEF 2007a, b).
Effectiveness of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) … 255
Moreover, community participation is considered one of the most effective

measures for dealing with natural disasters. Bangladesh has already developed a
comprehensive and effective disaster management plan as a guideline for local
communities and authorities to make them prepared immediately after a disaster
occurs. Despite of these initiatives, there is still a need to increase awareness
and preparedness on natural disasters at the local level (MoEF 2009). Training
and awareness-raising programs for children and youth can play a vital role in
this regard. The participation of children and youth in disaster risk management
(DRM), i.e. disaster risk reduction (DRR) measures is not new in Bangladesh.
Disaster risk management is the application of disaster risk reduction policies and
strategies to prevent new disaster risk, reduce existing disaster risk and manage
residual risk, contributing to the strengthening of resilience and reduction of disaster
losses (UNISDR 2019). Disaster risk reduction is aimed at preventing new and
reducing existing disaster risk and managing residual risk, all of which contribute
to strengthening resilience and therefore to the achievement of sustainable develop-
ment (UNISDR 2019). Different organizations regularly involve children and young
volunteers in DRR related activities. As climate change is no longer a myth for
Bangladesh, they have also started to involve them in climate change adaptation
(CCA) related activities. According to IPCC (2019), the process of adjustment to
actual or expected climate and its effects. In human systems, adaptation seeks to
moderate or avoid harm or exploit beneficial opportunities. In some natural systems,
human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate and its effects.
Organizations like ActionAid Bangladesh, BRAC, Plan International, Bangladesh
Red Crescent Society, UNICEF, Save the Children, etc. have conducted several
training programs, involving children and young people to increase their aware-
ness and capacities. However, some of the organizations evaluate the impacts of
the training and some organizations do not. While evaluating, only resilience of the
participants is assessed, it is not assessed whether the training helped to build a
climate-resilient community by proper dissemination of their knowledge.
Therefore, it is essential to measure whether the children and youth have become
resilient to natural disasters and climate change-induced extreme events and whether
they can serve their communities to become more resilient to climate-induced disas-
ters. In this context, the research was conducted in Barisal, Barguna, and Bhola
districts of Barishal division to find out the effectiveness of training programs for
building disaster resilient communities through the active participation of children
and young people.
2 Background
Bangladesh is situated in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta with very flat and

low-lying topography as two-third of the land area is hardly 5 m above mean sea level
(MSL) (World Bank 2011). The southern coastal region of Bangladesh is particularly
vulnerable to cyclones, tidal flooding and storm surge occurring in the northern Indian
Ocean (Ali 1999). On an average, on every three years, the country is hit by a severe
cyclone. Predictions show that impacts of climate change will increase in ocean
surface temperature and sea-level rise which will intensify the cyclonic storm surges
covering an additional 15% of the coastal zone (World Bank 2011).
In Bangladesh, the vulnerability of children is higher to climatic disasters
(UNICEF 2011, 2016). Disasters cause a socio-economic breakdown, which
threatens food security, health, and education of children and makes them more
vulnerable. Reports from UNICEF (2011 and 2016) revealed that in many fami-
lies children are subjected to child labor, trafficking, child marriage, or even sexual
exploitation as the families have to struggle to get rid of the disaster impacts.
Fothergill (2018) showed that when climatic instability leads to more extreme
events, the risks of the youngest members of the societies will also increase. An
UNICEF report revealed that the children are particularly vulnerable to climate
change impacts ranging from direct physical impacts, i.e. cyclones, storm surges,
and extreme temperatures, to impacts on their education, psychological stress, and
nutritional challenges. Higher temperatures would increased rates of malnutrition,
cholera, diarrhoeal disease and vector-borne diseases like dengue and malaria. As
they have underdeveloped immune systems, they are at higher risk of contracting
these diseases (UNICEF 2011). In such context, as children are the most affected by
disasters and climate change-induced disasters and often least consulted, they have
the right to actively participate in DRR and CCA related activities (Plan-International
2018). Along with children, young people are often severely affected by disasters
and can face severe difficulties in coping with unforeseen and traumatic disruptions
to their lives (IFRC 2018). Whereas, they also can play an active role in disaster
preparedness and response activities (Dhaka Tribune 2018).
There are several examples showing evidence that children can make consider-
able and significant contributions during emergency situations. A UNICEF (2007a,
b) study found that in several cases children and youth have responded spontaneously
and taken live-saving decisions along with relief and recovery actions. Moreover, they
provided health care, psychosocial support, hygiene education as well as helping in
reconstruction and planning processes (UNICEF 2007a, b). If children can be mobi-
lized and trained for disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and resilience, they
can be considered as valuable resources. Also, to create a culture of risk reduction,
it is essential to increase awareness and knowledge of local threats and include chil-
dren with the other community members in DRR and CCA activities (Morris and
Edwards 2008). Therefore, attention should be drawn to engage children in disaster
risk reduction and climate change adaptation activities, and promote their efforts
(UNISDR 2009). Children and parents having better interactions through hazard
education programs create readiness at home (Ronan and Johnston 2003). Besides,
providing knowledge about natural hazards promotes the involvement of children in
preparedness, response, and recovery (Fernandez 2012; Morris and Edwards 2008),
considering them as a changing force in both developed and developing countries
(UNDP 2014). They can promote necessary changes and influence people who have
a significant impact on disaster prevention and risk management (UNISDR 2000).
Involving youth in community-based disaster risk management provides opportu-

nities to empowerment in grassroots level, brings ownership within their disaster
preparedness plan, benefit their families, friends, and others of the community as well
as to implement different mitigation actions (Pfefferbaum et al. 2018; Omoto and
Snyder 1990). This is because youths are generally creative, passionate, and idealistic,
which makes them potential advocates for disseminating information (USDHHS
2017), to enhance knowledge and preparedness among family and friends (FEMA
2015), and key agents for social change (Mukhier and Omer 2015). Considering
these facts, over the years, the value of young people’s participation in DRM related
activities is getting stronger (Walden et al. 2009).
Scholars find that children and youth both can actively participate in increasing
their community’s adaptive capacity (Pollack 2010; Back et al. 2009; Tanner 2009;
Gautam and Oswald 2008). They can share their knowledge with their family
members, friends, and society (Shaw et al. 2009) Moreover, they often learn from
schools and access information from media and other sources, which makes them
more aware of impacts of climate change than adults (Plan-UK 2002). Peek (2008)
showed that when children and youth are informed and engaged in a disaster-related
measure, they possess the better abilities to protect themselves and others than those
who lack information and do not engage themselves in such actions. According
to a study by Anderson (2005), excluding children and youth from DRM activi-
ties neglects a valuable resource for social contribution as well as threatens their
safety and security from disasters. Therefore, they must be involved, trained, and
empowered to participate actively in disaster prevention, preparedness, planning,
and response efforts.
Several organizations in Bangladesh, along with the Government have taken
initiatives to provide training and increase the capacities of children and youth
in DRR and CCA activities. ActionAid Bangladesh,1 BRAC,2 Plan International,3
Bangladesh Red Crescent Society,4 UNICEF Bangladesh,5 Save the Children in
Bangladesh,6 etc. are engaged in increasing capacity and awareness among the
young people about climate-induced disaster preparedness, and response through
1 ActionAid is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) whose primary aim is to

work against poverty and injustice worldwide.
2 BRAC is a non-profit organization that aims to achieve large scale positive changes through
economic and social programmes that enable women and men to realize their potential.
3 Plan International is a development and humanitarian organization that advances children’s rights
and equality for girls.

4 The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society is a member of the International Federation of Red Cross and
Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and committed to the Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross and
Red Crescent Movement i.e. Humanity, Neutrality, Impartiality, Independence, Unity, Voluntary
Service and Universality.
5 The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) was created by the United
Nations General Assembly which is a Donor organization. UNICEF Bangladesh aims to advance
the rights of children, especially those who are unheard and disadvantaged.
6 Save the Children is an international non-governmental organization that promotes children’s
rights, provides relief and helps support children in developing countries.

creating knowledge-sharing platform. The Disaster Management and Climate

Change (DMCC) programme of BRAC along with the cooperation of the Adolescent
Development Programme (ADP) of BRAC’s Education Programme (BEP) organized
Kishoree-Kishor Convention (KKC) in October 2016 which was held in Dhaka,
Chittagong, Khulna, and Rajshahi. The objective of this convention was to aware
adolescents about the possible effects of climate change and to orient them on how
to face a threat and continue life as usual and facilitate a youth-initiated district-wise
disaster risk reduction action plan (Asad 2018). Another climate change adapta-
tion project, conducted by Save the Children, titled as ICCCCA (Integrated Child
Centered Climate Change Adaptation) in Bangladesh emphasized child-centered
adaptation and engaged children in risk assessment and planning levels. Through
this project Save the Children in Bangladesh got remarkable success by giving a
basic idea to children and youth on CCA and eco-friendly environment, their roles
and responsibilities, and including them in local disaster management committees
(Islam 2018).
ActionAid Bangladesh organized training in Patharghata and Barguna titled
“Search and Rescue Training 2017” which also focused on adolescent girls’ roles
in DRR and provided them training on active participation in search and rescue
activities during and after a disaster. Through the training, the participants gained
knowledge and training on DRR and were able to disseminate their knowledge
in society to help others (Hossain 2018). In respond to vulnerabilities to climatic
disasters and to promote community participation in DRR, Dhaka Ahsania Mission
(DAM)7 and Concern Universal Bangladesh8 conducted the “School Bridges” project
for building of capacities of students. The project provided training on leadership,
search and rescue, community-based disaster reduction, early warning, and shelter
management, and empowered student bridges’ voices, awareness and strengthen
coordination (Hossain 2009). UNICEF Bangladesh is involved to train children and
youth about DRR and CCA and has organized several workshops and training in
Barguna, Barisal, and Bhola districts where the participants prepared work plans on
DRR and CCA. UNICEF Bangladesh assess the impact of their project regularly
to check its effectivity (Jalil 2018). Governmental organizations (like, Barisal Divi-
sional Commissioner office), as well as Non-Government Organizations (NGOs)
(i.e. UNICEF Bangladesh) are active in the Barishal division for working on DRR
and CCA activities, engaging enthusiastic children and youth groups.9
7 Dhaka Ahsania Mission is a non-government development organization and provides services

towards unity, peace and development of social and spiritual life for the human community in
general and for the disadvantaged and suffering humanity, in particular.
8 Concern Universal (CU) is a UK based development and emergency relief organization established
in 1976 which works for eliminating poverty and inequality.

9 Consisting of children and youth of different ages. Most of these groups were created by District
Commissioner Office and UNICEF Bangladesh (as Youth Net, Kishore Kishoree Club, Union Shishu
Parishad, Jamuna Kishoree Club, Shefali Ilisha Club, Bokul Ilisha Union, Debating Council) in order
to raise awareness on different existing and emerging issues, like child rights, skill development,
disaster risk reduction and climate change related activities. Apart from that, some groups are
parts of different independent organizations, (i.e. Jubo Red Crescent Society) which are actively
Consequently, the Centre for Climate Change and Environmental Research

(C3ER)10 of BRAC University, in association with the Barisal Divisional Commis-
sioner (DC) office and UNICEF Bangladesh jointly organized trainings in three
coastal districts of Bangladesh (Barisal, Bhola, and Barguna) in order to increase
capacity and knowledge on DRR and CCA of the local children and youths in 2017.
In total 105 participants (35 from each district) were selected through evaluating their
interest and willingness to serve the community, abilities to work for the community
to make them resilient, and previous work experiences in the community. The age
of selected participants was ranged from 14 to 23 years.11 The training module was
prepared through extensive literature review to understand the vulnerability of Barisal
division, existing and possible risk reduction strategies and adaptation measures. This
research aims to fill the gap of evaluation impacts of this training program to check
its effectiveness after a certain period.
3 Methodology
3.1 Data Collection Techniques
This research employed literature review, questionnaire survey, key informant inter-
view and focus group discussion for collection data. The questionnaire survey was
conducted to obtain information about disasters; previous knowledge on DRR and
CCA; activities to make the community more resilient to climatic disasters and status
of training knowledge utilization and resilient status of the participants and commu-
nity as well. All the trainees (105) participated in the survey. Moreover, five key
informant interviews (KIIs) were conducted to acquire information about initiatives
of different NGOs, INGOs, and other organizations which have programs focusing
children and youths. Key informants were chosen from BRAC, UNICEF Bangladesh,
ActionAid Bangladesh and Save the Children in Bangladesh. Additionally, six focus
group discussion (FGDs) sessions were conducted in three Upazilla (sub-districts),
i.e. Barisal Sadar, Bhola Sadar, and Barguna Sadar. Each FGD session consisted 10–
12 participants. The FGD participants were randomly selected from the beneficiary
communities.
involved in disaster warning and relief works. Moreover, independent local youth clubs/groups
and volunteers from Rover Scout groups are involved in the several awareness raising and relief
distribution activities.
10 Centre for Climate Change and Environmental Research (C3ER) established in 2011. C3ER gives
special attention to research in the area of adverse impact of climate change on health, food security,
poverty and livelihood, displacement and migration, loss and damage assessment, renewable energy,
negotiation process, technology transfer, education and awareness, etc. C3ER also gives training
on Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation for the most vulnerable, including
women, children, youth and the poor.
11 The children and youth in this age group were selected because their assessment result is good
compared to other participants.

3.2 Data Analysis
Under this study, the results of the literature review and KII were compiled in the
background and discussion sections. Besides, GIS was used to produce a study area
map by using Arc GIS 9.10 software. The results from the questionnaire survey were
analyzed by Microsoft office (MS excel program) to analyses the themes, and the
compiled results were presented in the results and discussion sections.
3.3 Study Area
Three southern coastal districts of Barisal division—Barisal, Bhola, and Barguna

districts were selected as study areas for the research (Fig. 1). The southern part of
Bangladesh adjoining the Bay of Bengal is known as the “coastal zone” which is
highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change as most of the climatic disasters
(i.e., cyclone, storm surge, coastal erosion, sea-level rise) are most likely to generate
from the Bay of Bengal (Ali 1999).
Due to sea-level rise, almost 7500 ha of land in Bangladesh have been submerged
over the past 30 years (FIP 2017). The IPCC report (IPCC 2007) further indicates
that the chances of cyclonic storm surges and related coastal floods in Bangladesh
will likely become more severe as tropical cyclones will increase in intensity in
the future. Over the last 53 years, the country has faced at least 12 major tropical
cyclones leaving 479,490 people dead (Dhaka Tribune 2017). Being very close to
the coast, Barisal, Bhola, and Barguna districts are susceptible to climatic disasters.
In recent years, cyclone Sidr-2007 took 3363 lives and one of the most affected
districts was Barguna (Davidson 2008). Cyclone Aila-12 2009 hit 15 Southwestern
coastal districts of Bangladesh and killed 150 people causing damage to over 200,000
houses, Barisal and Bhola were two of the districts that suffered most from the disaster
(Roy et al. 2009). To reduce this vulnerability Barisal, Bhola, and Barguna districts
were selected for conducting training programs for children and youths to make them
resilient along with their communities.
4 Results and Findings
4.1 Disaster Occurrence and Experiences
The survey found that, majority of the participants had experienced natural disas-
ters during the past ten years (Fig. 2). Among the mentioned disasters, the cyclones
12 Tropical
Cyclone Aila hit Bangladesh on May 25, 2009. It devastated parts of Sunderbans and
drowned inhabitated islands of the delta.
Fig. 1 Study area (Field survey 2019)
were more frequent as seven cyclones, namely Sidr-2007, Nargis-2008, Aila-2009,

Mohasen-2013, Komen-2015, Royanu-2016 and Mora-2017 were identified from the
survey. Along with cyclones, other disasters like floods, waterlogging, storm/tidal
surge, lightning, river/coastal erosion, salinity intrusion and excessive fog also
occurred in the area.
Fig. 2 Disaster occurrence in the study area (Field survey 2019)
The survey data revealed that, in Barishal, Barguna and Bhola, respectively 57,
40 and 35% participants actively participated in different response and rehabilitation
activities during and after a disaster. They mainly helped the disaster-affected people
to go to the safe shelter and participated in relief work. Also, they were engaged in
rehabilitation, repairing works, and removing the uprooted trees.
According to the participants, signs of changed climate can be noticed in the study
area. They have noticed an increase in climatic disasters (flood, cyclone, drought),
temperature, erratic behavior of rainfall (continuous rainfall and untimely rainfall),
lightning and fog. A change in seasonal patterns has been noticed also (e.g. presences
of autumn season or spring season are hardly felt) (Fig. 3).
4.2 Previous and Present Knowledge on DRR and CCA
Among the participants 46% from Barisal, 49% from Bhola, and 36% from Barguna
were aware of DRR and CCA. However, they did not have any in-depth knowledge
on these issues. They mentioned names of several organizations or Programme,
i.e., Barisal City Corporation (BCC),13 Union Parishad,14 Bangladesh Red Crescent
Society, Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA)15 UNICEF Bangladesh
and Youth Net as their sources of knowledge about DRR and CCA. Moreover, they
regularly get knowledge also from national newspapers, TV programs and social
13 Barisal City Corporation is a self-governed municipal administration in Bangladesh that
administers and oversees development and maintenance works in the city of Barisal.
14 Union Parishad is the smallest rural administrative and local government units in Bangladesh.
15 YWCA is an INGO movement of working for the empowerment, leadership and rights of women,
young women and girls.

Fig. 3 Evidence of climate change recognized by respondents (Field survey 2019)
media. However, they never receive any formal training focusing on disaster and
climate change impact, DRR and CCA measures and the role of youth on these
issues before this survey was conducted.
Figure 4 shows a comparative status between the condition before and after
the training. It was observed that though participants were aware of vulnerability,
they were not informed enough about exposure and sensitivity. After attending the
training, the children and youth gained better understanding about vulnerability,
exposure, and sensitivity which include basic concepts and components of DRM,
difference between hazard and disaster, concerns of DRR and CCA, the differ-
ence between DRR and DRM, and CCA strategies and pre and post-disaster work,
but after attending the training, they got to know it. Trainings also provided them
context-specific knowledge about climate change, disaster risk reduction, and adap-
tation options. Moreover, they became aware of different disasters (i.e., cyclone,
flood, drought, lightning, river/coastal erosion, salinity intrusion) and their impacts
on different sectors (i.e., agriculture, water, health, biodiversity, fisheries) along with
the risk reduction and adaptation strategies. Participants also became able to iden-
tify the most vulnerable groups (i.e., women, children, elderly, disabled, pregnant
women) during disasters and their specific necessities. These knowledge and aware-
ness helped to get involved as disaster ambassadors and contribute to enhance overall
resilience level.
Fig. 4 Comparison between previous and present resilience status (Field survey 2019)
4.3 Preparation of Work Plan
After receiving the training, the participants of three districts prepared a work plan
for DRR and CCA, which was planned to be implemented within a year (Table 1).
This work plan has potentials to help participant’s families, vulnerable groups, i.e.,
school-going children, adolescents, women, disadvantaged groups (slum dwellers)
and elderly people. According to the participants, the youth and children can play
an active role in implementing the work plans through different clubs and groups,
collaborating with the other stakeholders (Table 2).
4.4 Status of Training’s Knowledge Utilization
The research showed that the majority of the participants have started to utilize their
gained knowledge for the wellbeing of their family, friends, and society (Fig. 5). 84%,
80% and 85% participants respectively form Barisal, Bhola and Barguna dissemi-
nated their gained knowledge on DRR and CCA. Information regarding impacts of
climate-induced disaster impacts on agriculture, water, health, fisheries, livestock,
Table 1 Summary of work plan in Barisal, Barguna, and Bhola (Field survey 2019)
Activities How these activities will be executed
Dissemination of DRR and CCA knowledge Rally in school
Courtyard meeting
Arranging drama/debate
Conducting classroom-based sessions
Raising awareness among family, friends, Group discussion with influential and
neighbors, and school-going children on DRR community people
and CCA
Participation in DRR or CCA measures In association with GOs, NGOs, INGOs,
Tree plantation programs UzDMc and community people.
Measures for solving the waterlogging problem,
i.e., cleaning of drains
Delivering warning message before and during
disasters
Search and rescue operations
Relief distribution
Strengthening the river embankments
Repairing roads and/or embankments after
disasters
Excavating rivers and canals
Raising base platforms of tube wells and houses
Arranging safe drinking water in saline-prone
areas
Providing first aid to the disaster victims
Table 2 Work plan implementer and assistance required for implementation (Field survey 2019)
District Work plan implementer Assistance required for implementation
Barisal Youth Net, Kishore Kishoree Club, UNICEF Bangladesh, Local NGOs,
Union Shishu Parishad, Jubo Red Bangladesh Red Crescent Society,
Crescent Society Bangladesh Forest Department, Ward
council, City Corporation, Senior Citizen
Groups, Community people, Government
Officials
Bhola Jubo Red Crescent Society, Union UNICEF Bangladesh, Union Parishad,
Shishu Parishad, Kishore Kishoree NGOs, District food office, local
Club, Jamuna Kishoree Club, Shefali government, coastal people, Bangladesh
Ilisha Club, Bokul Ilisha Union Red Crescent Society, community people
Barguna Kishore Kishoree Club, Union Shishu UNICEF Bangladesh, Union Parishad,
Parishad, Jubo Red Crescent Society, District Food Office, Community People,
Debating Council of Barguna, Rover Donor Organizations, Doctors, Media,
Scouts, Barguna Youth forum Students, Influential Local People,
Teachers, Social Workers, Local NGOs,
Government Officials
Fig. 5 Utilization of training’s knowledge (Field suvey 2019)
biodiversity and children and strategies of DRR (like, storing dry food items and valu-
ables in underground chambers before cyclones, producing climate tolerant crop vari-
eties, protecting wetlands, planting trees strategically, planting less water consuming
trees, like, mango, jujube, harvesting rainwater and staying at home during lightning)
are shared with community people.
Besides, 89% participants from Barisal, 85% participants from Bhola and 87%
participants from Barguna have actively participated in DRR or CCA measures, such
as, they engaged in tree plantation and homestead gardening, raising awareness on
the importance of tree plantation, cleaning drains, promoting the practice of rainwater
harvesting in saline-prone areas, raising awareness about heatstroke, etc.
4.4.1 Status of Community
During FGD sessions, more than 60% of people of three districts (Fig. 6) mentioned
that they had gained knowledge on DRR measures from the trainees, which helped
them to become aware of different disaster impacts and knew how to fight back with
disaster impacts.
Reactions of three participants from FGD sessions are mentioned below:
Participant 1: A 37 years old housewife from a slum area in Bhola
Last year we faced a strong storm with frequent lightning…. A man got hit by lightning
and died. At that time neither me nor anyone from my community had much idea about
lightning…. Few days later, while a group of youth came to our slum for talking about
importance of safe drinking water, what to do during cyclone, importance of tree plantation
and many more issues, I showed interest to know about lightning. They explained it using
pictorial graph and advice to stay at home whenever we will see dark clouds in the sky….
They disseminated information regarding lightning impacts and mitigation measures…Later
I also disseminated this information to others.
Fig. 6 Resilient status of the community (Field survey 2019)
Participant 2: 19 years old male student from Barishal

One day a group of youth came to my school in a form of awareness building campeign…,
they discussed about various disasters, their impacts, strategies to tackle, climate change,
adaptation strategies and other related issues, using big posters, pictures and books… I got
to know clearly why our area is more vulnerable in terms of climate induced disasters and
what we can do in this situation…I think it was very helpful for me, because, now I find
myself more capable than previous time to fight against cyclone… Now, I know the necessity
of storing dry foods whenever cyclone comes… I regularly share this information with my
family members and especially to those relatives who lives close to sea, so that they can
store food and can take all essential actions for being prepared for cyclones.
Participant 3: 40 years old male farmer from Barguna

Because of saline-water intrusion in our area, crops do not grow properly… A group of
children and young people came to meet us and talked about climate change and its probable
impacts. They told me that the frequency of cyclone has been increased due to climate
change which is one of the main reasons of saline-water intrusion problem in our area. I
was also shocked, when they said that the crop production of our area will be reduced more
in near future as a result of sea level rise. I was totally unaware of this issue. Then they
suggested some salinity tolerant crop verities, i.e. BRRI dhan47 which can be cultivated in
this condition. After cross-checking this information from local agriculture department, I
have started to cultivate salinity tolerant crop verities…
5 Discussion
The survey results showed that in pre-training condition, few participants used to
get involved in disaster-preparedness activities. Similarly, few of them had exposure
towards DRR and CCA strategies. After attending training sessions, the participants
gained essential knowledge on DRR and CCA, got ideas about possible roles of
children and youth to mitigate and adapt to climate change impacts. Participants
prepared work plans on DRR and CCA through which they are able to disseminate
knowledge among their family members, friends, and community members. They
take parts in different activities like tree plantation, solving water logging problems,
delivering early warnings before and during disaster events, raising plinth of tube-
wells and houses, relief works, repair and rehabilitation, and arranging safe drinking
water in their respective localities. These work plans were implemented through
different organizations and clubs, formed by the local children and youths supported
by government organizations, NGOs and INGOs.
Pfefferbaum et al. (2018) showed in their research that involving children and
youth in community-based disaster management benefits their family, friends, and
others in society. This study showed that the majority of the participants in each
districts utilized their gained knowledge for the wellbeing of their family, friends,
and community members. Comparing the condition of the participants before and
after the training, it is evident that the training has acted positively to enhance capac-
ities for DRR and CCA. The case studies revealed that the students shared their
knowledge within their communities and made them aware of issues like lightning,
preparedness before cyclones, and salinity intrusion, as these are common hazards,
usually experienced in the study area. For example, the community got to know
from the participants that to be safe from lightning, one should avoid open space
during a dark and dense cloudy period (The Daily Star 2018a). The communities
were also advised not to go out during thunderstorms. In this way, the participants
of the training effectively disseminated their knowledge to make a disaster-resilient
community. The training not only benefitted the participants and their close ones,
but it also helped to increase the resilience of other community members.
6 Conclusion
The study portrayed that training can be effective as it can make communities better
prepared for facing climate-induced disaster impacts. It was also evident that the
children and young people of the Barisal division, i.e. Barisal, Bhola, and Barguna
districts are highly enthusiastic and eager to work for DRR and CCA as there are a
good number of children and youth-based groups currently working at the community
level. Also, some of the participants had primary knowledge on DRR and CCA which
they got form training and workshops organized by different organizations. Though
some of the participants have received some orientation training on DRR, these are
not comprehensive. Also, most of the participants did not have proper knowledge
and training experience on CCA. So, the provided training was beneficial for them
to make plans to adapt to the changing scenario of climate.
Some issues were evolved from the FGD, KII, and field observation, which is
needed to be solved to make the results of the training more effective in future.
As climate change will increase the frequency of disasters in the study area, the
number of training on CCA should be organized more by the Government, NGOs,

INGOs, and others. The findings of the study also identified some issues related
to the training structure. The training that is given at the local level needs to be
modified according to local adaptation measures, and the contents of the training
should be easily understandable to the trainees. During the literature review, it has
been identified that several organizations have provided training on DRR and to
some extent, on CCA also. However, there is a lack of assessments of the impacts of
these training programs on the participants and the effectiveness of such programs.
The training programs should be evaluated and assessed, and proper documentation
should be maintained to improve training contents to make those more effective.
So, along with a work plan, there should be a monitoring plan so that the progress
of the actions can be monitored properly. Government, NGOs, INGOs and other
organizations can also monitor their activities. This research has been undertaken
after five months of providing training by C3ER to evaluate the interim effectiveness
of the training. There should be follow-up research to understand the effectiveness of
training after a longer period, especially after implementing all strategies mentioned
in the work plan. That follow-up research will be able to portray a better picture of
effectiveness of the training program.
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To ‘Float’ or ‘Not’: Cases of Amphibious
Housing and Their Impacts
on Vulnerable Communities of Jamaica
Iftekhar Ahmed
Abstract Jamaica is ranked twentieth in the 2016 World Risk Report as a country
exposed to multiple hazards. Among these, tropical storms, hurricanes and floods
hit Jamaica most frequently. Recent studies associate the higher frequency of storms
and flooding in Jamaica with impacts of climate change. Four types of flooding affect
Jamaica: flash floods, riverine floods, tidal floods and ponding. During flood, common
options are either to build walls to keep the water out, build elevated houses or evac-
uate. None of these is a sustainable permanent solution. Affordable amphibious
housing is a proactive solution that enables people to remain in their communi-
ties of origin with a safe and healthy living environment during flood events. An
amphibious house is one option that sits on the ground for majority of the time,
with the capacity to float on the floodwater, and then returning to its exact original
position when the flood recedes. After the severe flood of 2009 in Jamaica, CARIB-
SAVE, a non-governmental organization (NGO), undertook the amphibious housing
project in selected local communities of Jamaica so that people do not need to evac-
uate. Through structured and critical analysis of selected case study communities of
Jamaica, this chapter tests a measurement matrix to evaluate impacts of the project
on the communities. Preliminary findings show that amphibious housing is effective
and considerably less expensive than the other options.
Keywords Amphibious houses · Coastal areas · Climate change adaptation ·

Disaster risk reduction · Flooding · Jamaica
1 Introduction
A large part of the Caribbean is in vulnerable low-lying coastal areas and river deltas,
making them some of the most disaster-prone areas in the world, with the most
marginalized communities. Jamaica, the small island state, ranks 20th in the 2016
World Risk Report (Jeschonnek 2016) as a country exposed to multiple hazards
I. Ahmed (B)
e-mail: iftekhar.ahmed@bracu.ac.bd

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4948-9_15
274 I. Ahmed
(Table 1). Among these, tropical storms, hurricanes and floods hit Jamaica most
frequently. Within the last few years, the effects of climate change on Jamaica has
become more evident. It has resulted in more severe hurricanes and increase in heavy
rainfall and flooding. The island has the second highest economic risk exposure to
two or more hazards according to the 2008 update of the Natural Disaster Hotspot
study by the World Bank (Dilley et al. 2005).
Recent increase in the intensity and frequency of climate-related natural hazards
such as escalating rainfall variability, hurricanes and floods combined with fragile
ecosystems and coastal zones, and an agriculture-dependent economy all contribute
to Jamaica’s overall vulnerability to climate change. Historical record of floods and
updated data on frequency of flooding in Jamaica confirms that the recent increase is
associated with impacts of changed climate. Four types of floods affect Jamaica and
the wider Caribbean: flash flood, riverine flood, tidal flood and ponding. Floods affect
physical assets, used for economic production and/or services, on the costs of raw
materials and inputs to economic production, on the subsequent costs to businesses,
and thus on overall wider economic competitiveness and employment patterns in
the sub-region at local and global level. Other losses include, effects on health (food
and water borne diseases), infrastructure damages, water scarcity, impacts on urban
biodiversity, effects on tourism, and cultural heritage and additional secondary effects
on agriculture and total ecosystems (ODPEM 2008).
Under the circumstances, climate change adaptation has been considered at policy
level and is one of the outcomes of the Vision 2030 Jamaica-National Development
Plan. It has been realized that there is little option but to take proactive adaptive
measures. On a similar note Smith observes, “Given the cluster of uncertainties that
darken the future, the precautionary principle dictates that we should be preparing
now for a more hostile environment and change building practices accordingly.”
(Smith 2010, p. xi) Stern (2006, p. 40) states, “investing now in adapting to future
climate impacts will be considerably more cost-effective than taking emergency
measures after the event.”
Housing is the most urgent of the basic building typologies, as it mostly affects
the quality of every human life. Housing deserves special consideration, as it is
intergenerational. Building houses close to water bodies has always been culturally
preferred due to the ease of movement, agriculture and scenic views, despite of the
risk of flooding and erosion. Floating habitats existed in various vernacular cultures
since ancient times, for example Malay houses on stilts (Hack et al. 2010). With
technological advancement, building that adapts to rising water could be assumed
as only the next logical step. During a flood, common options are either to build
walls to keep the water out, build elevated structures or evacuate, none of which is
Table 1 Natural disasters and population data per square kilometer in Jamaica, 1900–2007
Country Area (km2 ) Disaster/100 km2 Population Population/km2
Jamaica 10,831 0.397 2,804,332 259
Source Maynard-Ford et al. (2008)
To ‘Float’ or ‘Not’: Cases of Amphibious Housing … 275
a sustainable solution in the context, as seen in recent floods of Jamaica (Roadways

in Western Parishes Flooded 2010). Globally, there has been a growing awareness
of the limitations of traditional flood-mitigation strategies, which only attempts to
contain/control the overflow of floodwater. Even the houses on stilts that traditionally
existed in various cultures, sometimes fail once floodwater cross the estimated limit,
resulting catastrophic consequences. There is the added risk of being complacent
and developing behind flood barriers.
On the other hand, floatable or amphibious housing is an affordable, non-defensive
and proactive flood mitigation strategy that considers a flood prone region’s historic
cycles of flooding and works in synchrony with nature (Treehugger 2009). Those
allow water to flow rather than obstructing it, thus preventing force evacuation during
flood events and provide safe and healthy living environment. Amphibious housing
that can rise and fall with levels of floodwater, simultaneously offers a sustainable
disaster resilient solution and a new way of life. To adapt, it needs to shift from
the attitude of conquering nature with technology to the attitude of adapting to it.
Olthuis and Keuning (2010) explain that compared to all the common approaches
to flood mitigation (such as building barriers or houses on stilts) the key advantage
of amphibious housing is that, being on water, it is naturally sustainable and doesn’t
alter the site permanently.
Measuring community resilience1 is recognized as an essential step towards
reducing disaster risks and being better prepared to withstand and adapt to a broad
array of natural disasters. This study analyses the impacts of disaster resilient
amphibious housing during floods with selected case studies from Jamaica. Through
structured and critical analysis of selected case studies from Jamaica, this chapter
aims to explore the perceptions, reactions and expectations of local communities to
these interventions.
The study adopts selected indicators from each components of Baseline Resilience
Indicators for Communities (BRIC) to measure the impacts of the project on commu-
nities. The BRIC is a refined version of the Disaster Resilience of Place (DROP)
model that was developed at the Department of Geography and Hazards and Vulnera-
bility Research Institute, University of South Carolina, USA, in 2008 (Winderl 2014).
The BRIC provides a conceptual framework measuring and analyzing community-
level resilience to natural hazards through using a set of indicators for evaluating
ecological, social, economic, institutional, infrastructure and community competen-
cies (Winderl 2014). Baseline characteristics provide a sustainable framework that
1 Community resilience is a measure of the sustained ability of a community to utilize available

resources to respond to, withstand, and recover from adverse situations (Chandra 2018). Housing
being one of the key components in any community, housing condition and its ability to withstand
potential disasters is automatically a part of community resilience.
276 I. Ahmed
considers the impacts of implementations of programs, policies, and interventions

that foster resilience. BRIC can be used as an initial baseline for monitoring existing
attributes of resilience to natural hazards, also to determine the specific drivers of
resilience for specific places and to monitor improvements in resilience over time.
As measuring all the indicators of the BRIC were beyond the scope of the study,
few indicators (as detailed in section Community response to affordable amphibious
housing project) from each category were selected for using in this study. Addition-
ally, physical component was added for its relevance to the project as it sheds light
on the physical elements of the amphibious housing project.
As BRIC is a qualitative method, the resilience components in combination with
intervention categories were measured against five resilience categories (Table 4)
as well as their impact on communities. Here the impact qualitatively indicates the
benefits or changes that are consequences of the external interventions; in this case,
how the amphibious housing has affected the communities with medium- to long-
term community-level change.
To find out the community response to the selected indicators, qualitative methods
such as unstructured interviews and focus group discussions were conducted to study
two selected flood-prone communities of Jamaica as it facilitated reaching the core
issues with more complex questions compared to quantitative methods. Qualitative
methods involved assessing the key issues of resilience in the studied communities.
It also fostered a sense of ownership and allowed for a deeper examination of the
situation. Unstructured interview was conducted as it allowed the interviewees to
be more relaxed, and thus more forthcoming. It also had the added advantage of
pursuing a topic that is not directly related to the formal list of questions, but that
might be important or even crucial to the issue. Additionally, focus group discussion
sessions were conducted where the group members did not know one another, so that
social pressures did not influence them.
3 Amphibious Housing as a Solution: Technology

and Cases
The recent design and development of the ‘amphibious house’ has the potential to
play an important role in the future of flood adaptation. The amphibious houses
are innovations in hydrological living, developed over the past decade to tackle the
problem of flooding and create opportunity to live in a place with a high risk of
water damage. Pioneered by the Dutch architects, the idea is to convert crisis into
opportunity through this innovation. The idea is to live with water and not against
it and overcome the constraints of flooding and challenging the ‘accepted’ norm of
living on dry land during floods. Forty-six floating houses were developed to tackle
the recurring problem of flooding in the Nederlands, which impacts the low-lying
areas in every few years. The project was implemented on a Government-designated
flood-overflow plane in the Maasbommel area near the Maas River of the Netherlands
(Pötz and Bleuzé 2009).
An amphibious house is an option that sits on the ground for most of the time, with
the capacity to float on the floodwater, and then returning to its exact original posi-
tion while the flood recedes. Amphibious architecture allows an otherwise-ordinary
structure to float on the surface of rising floodwater while the amphibious foundation
retains the connection to the ground by resting firmly on the earth under usual circum-
stances. The houses that can be elevated can be made amphibious. The philosophy
of floating architecture is not to fight against nature, rather co-exist with it.
Typically designed from single to double storied, the ‘amphibious house’ has
a split-level design with a living room facing on the lower level and bedrooms at
the upper level. This part is made of wood to make the houses light and easier to
float when required. Those are not floating per se, rather those have an innovative
foundation that enables those to float and rise with the changing water level. They
consist a low ceiling basement with watertight-hollow concrete box that works as
an underwater air buoyancy chamber2 helping the house to keep afloat during a
flooding condition. In normal conditions, the foundation sits on dry land. However,
when the river swells to flood level, the house can float up with the water table and
withstand a rise of up to 5.5 m, which covers beyond the normal flood conditions.
When the floodwater subsides, the houses return to their original position. Six heavy
iron posts (5.5-m-long) are sunk into the bottom to withstand the strong currents of
the floodwater and secure the house (about 300 m2 in plan).
Flexible pipes adapted to move with force of water, keep the house connected
to building services and utilities like electrical, water and sewer lines. This solu-
tion is used to maintain constant energy supply for the houses to remain habitable.
The houses give the residents opportunity to cope with flood, instead of evacuating
or being devastated. It is an idea to convert yesterday’s houseboat into tomorrow’s
hydrological design. As the technology is adopted and refined, current costs of foun-
dation are expected to fall dramatically. For example, field study in Bliss Pastures
and Port Maria, Jamaica shows a floating house of an approximate size of 200 m2
with sustainable recycled materials costs in the range of $2000–$3500, which is
affordable. For smaller structures, ensuring stability remains a challenge. If the base
area of the building is small compared to its height, the floating structure becomes
slightly unstable.3 This issue needs to be resolved for floating residences to become
more acceptable socially.
More recently, disasters like the Japan Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina have forced
the architect community to think ‘out of the box’ to design for disaster struck areas.
Morphosis Architects designed the prototype prefabricated float house for the ‘Make
it Right’ Foundation. The affordable house was developed for the Hurricane Katrina
2 Airbuoyancy chamber is an enclosed section of a floating structure that contains air, generally
trapped inside an airtight space (which can be a basement) to help the structure maintain buoyancy.
3 When a floating structure increases in height, the centre of gravity goes higher. When the height
of the structure increases until the centre of gravity and the metacentre (intersection between the
working line of the righting force and the symmetry axis) are in the same position, the result will
be indifferent balance and an unstable structure (Mestemaker 2012).
278 I. Ahmed
struck flood prone lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. The flood-safe house is flexible
to float with rising water levels so that it remains afloat even during the most severe
floods. The design can be used in any flood zone throughout the world (Ergodesk
2009). The most commonly used material for floating foundations at present is
polystyrene. It is either mixed with or encased in concrete when used in floating
foundations; as has been done in the foundation of the Float house by Morphosis
Architects, where polystyrene was used encased in concrete.
While this may be the most commonly available material for floating foundation,
polystyrene is considered hazardous for health during both production and use. There
is opportunity to invent more sustainable materials for floating structures.
4 Flooding in Jamaica: Limitations of Existing Mitigation

Measures
The overall increase in greenhouse gases (GHG) has been significant, especially
over the past 50 years (UNISDR 2012). Flooding is one of the primary hazards,
representing about 40% of all natural hazards in the world. With anthropogenic
climate change, frequency and intensity of flood events are increasing all over the
world. Unfortunately, a small share of only 1% of disaster and development aid
goes to disaster risk reduction (UNISDR 2012). In Jamaica, 96.3% of the national
population, 94.9% of the national territory and 96.3% of the GDP are vulnerable
to multiple hazard events (GFDDR 2018). Among tropical storms, hurricanes and
floods, floods are the most frequent. UNEP predicts severe impacts of some highly
frequent disasters that hit Jamaica as shown in Table 2.
The country becomes even more vulnerable by a weak building code and its
enforcement along with already existing heavily debt-burdened economy. Flooding
is a recurring natural hazard in Jamaica which continue to worsen every year with
growing impacts of climate change and rising sea level (Prevention Web 2010). About
120 Jamaican rivers flow to the coast from the mountains, contributing the creation
of numerous low-lying and flood-prone areas. The communities in these areas are
especially vulnerable to these flooding. The data from 2002 and 2010 shows the
severity of flood damage. About 2553 homes and 41,656 people were affected in these
disasters (Prevention Web 2010). Of the existing strategies of flood disaster mitigation
relocation strategies failed historically, mainly due to lack of proper logistical support
in a poor economy. Under these circumstances, a serious re-examination of possible
alternate options to construct in flood-prone areas was considered from the turn of the
century. A fresh outlook to existing conditions and disaster management strategies
were taken. Amphibious construction already practiced in various parts of the world
was considered as a sustainable solution to the problem.
Table 2 Examples of projected impacts and challenges on selected sectors by the ‘climate driven
phenomenon’ (Wilbanks and Sathaye 2007)
Disaster types Impacts
Tropical cyclones and storm-surges Damage to coral reefs; power outages cause disruption of
public water supply; increased risk of deaths, water and
food-borne diseases, disorders, potential for population
migrations, loss of property, flood and wind casualties and
damages, economic losses, transport, tourism,
infrastructure (e.g., energy, transport), insurance;
problems with land use/population density in flood-prone
areas, flood defenses, institutional capacities; increased
vulnerability in storm-prone coastal areas; possible effects
on settlements, health, tourism, economic and
transportation systems, buildings and infrastructures;
coastal areas, settlements and activities, fixed
infrastructure, insurance sector
Extreme rainfall and riverine floods Erosion/landslides, land flooding; problems with land
use/population density in flood-prone areas, flood
defenses, institutional capacities, settlements,
transportation systems, infrastructure; possible effects on
settlements, health, tourism, economic and transportation
systems, buildings and drainage infrastructure; coastal
areas, settlements and activities, regions and populations
with limited capacities and resources, fixed infrastructure,
insurance sector and flood plains can be affected
5 Common Mitigation Techniques: Community Response
According to the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management

(ODPEM) (www.odpem.org.jm) of Jamaica there are two types of flood mitigation
measures in the country: Flood control structures and Non-structural flood control
measures. Table 3 shows their salient features and relative strength/weaknesses:
On the other hand, houses on statically elevated or elevated platforms or stilts
(Fig. 1) is ineffective as it detaches the homes from ground contact thus disrupting
the spatial continuity in communities. In addition, with further rising sea levels with
global warming, flood levels can be even higher making a flood mitigation strategy
that relies on a fixed static elevation ineffective.
Considering the most severe cases of floods over the next fifty years, the water may
reach heights beyond the levels that were anticipated during the time of construction
of the houses.
280 I. Ahmed
Table 3 Types of flood mitigation measures in Jamaica (ODPEM 2008)

Flood control structures
Type of structures Key features Strength/weakness
Check dams Constructed with rocks and Only useful to stabilize riverbed
mortar or concrete, of variable slopes and prevent soil erosion.
height and width They are very costly, and their
design and construction require
careful planning
Retaining walls Built with rock/concrete block Challenging to build in
structures built on steep slopes diversified topographic
anywhere in the watershed, conditions. Expensive to build
where the erosion of the base
foundation threatens lands
and/or homes
Bunding Flexible structures of variable Bunding is used to prevent bank
thickness and length, composed erosion and landslips and to
of galvanized wire mesh, stone, protect agricultural lands from
wild-cane and riverbed being flooded. Not useful for
materials residences
Sauarage /Gabion/Mattress Saurage groynes are long, Only useful for foot of banks
groynes cylindrical, slightly flexible along small, slow-moving
structures of variable thickness, streams or riverbanks, where
composed of wire and rocks. there are signs of undermining
Gabion/Mattress groynes are and threats to permanent
long, flexible structures of structures. Not useful for
variable thickness, composed of residences
wire and rocks
Levees Constructed of clay or earth fill Have proven quite effective for
material with some structural smaller communities, not very
modifications effective for larger communities
Flood walls Require very little space and Even though they are low
are often used to protect cities maintenance, they are expensive
and developed areas to construct
Channel Alterations Reduce floods by deepening Sometimes these works can
and widening the channel by have undesirable effects, by
cutting meanders aiding the sediment transport
process
Detention Ponds Ponds placed on and off-side, Has to be considered in the
can minimize the damage to design of downstream
downstream structures by protective structures. Highly
reducing peak flows expensive
Non-structural flood control measures
Flood Plain Regulations Flood plain regulations Effective in terms of land-use
designate flood-prone areas and planning. Restricts evacuation
limit their use to those rate of the residents
compatible with the degree of
flood-risk
(continued)
Table 3 (continued)
Flood control structures
Type of structures Key features Strength/weakness
Reforestation and Crop Attempts to prevent further Though widely used, the
Rotation deforestation and to establish measure is too slow to
large-scale reforestation in the implement
upper catchment areas
Flood Warning Systems Flood warning systems include Attempts to provide maximum
several rain gauges located in lead time for the evacuation of
areas where maximum amounts the residents whose property is
of rainfall can occur likely to be affected. It is a
passive mitigation measure
where only evacuation is
possible
Flood Plain Hazard Maps The location of flood control Provides a basis for assessing
structures depends largely on the priorities for supplementing
the information provided by existing programs; for
Flood Plain Hazard Maps constructing or upgrading flood
control structure and for
preparing new schemes to
protect life, agro- industrial
lands, houses, buildings, etc.
Takes long time to implement
Fig. 1 House on stilts in Jamaica (Field-study 2019)
6 Communities of Flood-Prone Areas in Jamaica
The field study was conducted in two flood prone vulnerable communities of Jamaica:
Bill Pastures and Port Maria (Fig. 2) were selected as case study areas as they
are particularly vulnerable to inland flooding and meet the necessary criteria of
the research. These two communities have several houses with buoyant foundation
retrofits. A brief overview of the communities and their concerns are given here:
282 I. Ahmed
Fig. 2 Map showing locations of the two case study areas. Source Author, based on (Nations Online
2019)
6.1 Case Study Area 1: Bliss Pastures
Bliss Pastures is a small city with a few rivers near Wakefield, Trelawny Parish,
Jamaica. According to the 2011 Census of Population and Housing of Jamaica (Statis-
tical Institute of Jamaica 2017), Wakefield has 1089 housing units with 1141 house-
holds. It is highly vulnerable to flooding, especially flash flooding in its low-lying and
flood prone areas. According to Jamaica’s National Meteorological Office, during
the heaviest rainfalls ten to twenty-centimeter water accumulates in the area. Despite
being one of the world flood prone areas in Jamaica, the residents continue to inhabit
there due to their financial inability to leave. The communities are highly vulnerable
to regular cycles of flood and drought, accompanied by heavy rainfall for 2–3 months.
According to Jamaica’s National Meteorological Office (ODPEM 2008), one of the
key factors of heavy flooding in the area is the water from the overflowing water
bodies that gets the soil over-saturated, making it incapable of absorbing more water.
Moreover, due to a lower topographical position, Bliss Pastures floodwater collects
in the community after passing through other areas.
The common impacts of heavy flooding are inundated roadways, huge land-
slips and fallen trees (Flood fear—Rains from Richard expected to pound Ja 2010).
Unstructured interviews and focus group discussions with the community members
revealed that the residents are advised to be prepared for raised water level and be
ready to move quickly to high-elevated locations. The community is particularly
vulnerable in public health during severe floods as the pit latrines overflow causing
serious health hazards. During most floods, the worst affected residents must evac-
uate from their houses and take shelters at governmental facilities such as schools and
depend on emergency supplies. It often takes more than a month for the flood water
to recede, making return to regular living condition even harder. There have been
cases where the flood victims considered the flood risks to be too high and perma-
nently left the locations. Historically, during the heaviest floods, there have been
occasional casualties. During the most severe floods water rises nearly to the roof
level of houses, there have been cases where single and two-storied houses tumbled
by flood, killing and injuring people. Common impacts are severe damage to major
roads, making few parts of the community inaccessible, damage of private properties
and flattened crops on some farms, animal casualties, affecting the livelihood of the
community members. The heaviest flooding occurred in 2009, in the heavy rainy
season, and forced more than 120 persons to evacuate their houses in Bliss Pastures,
many leaving behind some of their personal belongings, as water levels rose in the
low-lying community (Roadways in Western Parishes Flooded 2010).
In the focus group discussions, community members shared that relocation to
higher grounds that are relatively safer is not realistic even with monetary compen-
sation, food, and new land offered by government; mainly due to high cost of building
new houses. It is expected that there will be another severe flood soon. The community
members, worried about the impacts of future floods are interested in the prospects
of retrofitted or newly built amphibious houses. However, they are concerned about
Government’s involvement in any such project and the accompanying corruption,
sidelining the community interests. Another key issue of large-scale intervention is
land ownership; currently many of the residents do not own their land; they either
rent or squat on Government/others’ lands. This makes new construction partially
challenging. Many of the residents are skeptic about new construction or even inter-
vention, mainly due to corruptions at administrative level and other malpractices.
Also, consequently they are apprehensive about supports, received from any new
organization/agency
6.2 Case Study Area 2: Port Maria
Port Maria is the capital of Saint Mary Parish, located on the north coast of Jamaica
near Outram River, about 55 km north of Kingston. According to the 2011 Census
of Population and Housing of Jamaica (Statistical Institute of Jamaica 2017), Port
Maria has 2577 housing units with 2794 households. The city has a population of
approximately 7500 people. The communities sited directly on the riverbank and
living adjacent to the river are particularly vulnerable to minor and severe flooding
due to Outram river that flows to the Caribbean Sea. The economically challenged
communities are inundated in regular heavy rainfalls. Flooding occurs even without
rainfall, as the river levels are high, making the grounds overly saturated.
Serious floods occur every two years, with about 4–5 minor floods in between.
The last major flood occurred in February 2015 (Flood fear—Rains from Richard
expected to pound Ja 2015). The problems are like Bliss Pastures. Along with damage
to property, crop and livestock, flood poses serious public health threats. The over-
flowing pit latrines cause serious health threats such as ringworm, fungal infections
and grunge itch. Flooding also brings mosquitos to the community. The risk persists
284 I. Ahmed
even when the floodwater recedes. Another problem is the humid conditions due to
oversaturated soil. Subsequent flood happens before the houses are dried up from
the last flood’s water, causing lasting damages to properties such as mold and fungus
infestations. The residents have to relocate during flood; it sometimes takes up to
six weeks for them to come back to their home, greatly disrupting the people’s lives
(Turner and English 2015). Historically, major floods occur during June–September,
with occasional ones in November-December. With global climate change the level
of floodwater is rising every year (ODPEM 2008).
The government offers very limited help other than restricting to sell land of
the area and providing limited financial assistance. The government argues that the
residents are ‘voluntarily’ exposing them to the risk when in reality the marginalized
communities have little choice but to live here, as they cannot afford to acquire land
and build new houses elsewhere (Turner and English 2015).
7 The Affordable Amphibious Housing Project
Affordable amphibious housing existed in vernacular cultures since ancient times

(Hack et al. 2010). Contemporary examples of amphibious housing exist in the
Netherlands, Thailand, in several countries of North America. In Old River Landing,
Louisiana, USA amphibious housing has been successfully attempted for more than
three decades. Studies show that they have been more reliable and more convenient
compared to houses with permanent static elevation (Ergodesk 2009).
On an average, a contemporary amphibious house with similar technology used
in amphibious houses of the Netherlands usually costs in the range of US $300,000–
$400,000 (Mestemaker 2012). Naturally they are not a sustainable option for low-
income people vulnerable to flooding in Jamaica. Under the circumstance, several
researchers considered retrofitted amphibious houses as an alternate. The initial target
was to provide a design solution to retrofit existing houses at an affordable price which
was below US $5000. The target was to produce a prototype suitable solution for the
flood prone areas of Jamaica which can be potentially applied to other parts of the
world in various vulnerable conditions (Turner and English 2015).
CARIBSAVE, an NGO with long background of working with several low-income
communities across the Caribbean, collaborated with a team of researchers from
University of Waterloo, Canada led by Scott Turner and Elizabeth English to find
a sustainable solution for amphibious houses. The first part of the field study was
to identify the communities that were highly vulnerable to flooding and having a
dialogue with them to find out the nature of their vulnerability, existing capacities to
handle them and creating a databank of their natural and fabricated environment. They
conducted an extensive range of survey to understand Jamaica’s existing housing
types, construction materials and methods of construction, neighborhood pattern,
life style, social system and cultural preferences in the communities (Turner and
English 2015; CARIBSAVE Partnership 2012).
The second part of the field study was to decide strategic design strategies of
amphibious housing, suitable for the selected communities. The issues covered in
this phase discussed both design, technical and social issues such as existing social
capital in communities, architectural and engineering issues and overall urban plan-
ning decisions. The aim was to further develop on the designs, developed by the
Buoyant Foundation Project team (What is a Buoyant Foundation? 2018). Several
notable refinements were required to suit the local conditions with consultation with
a local civil engineering consultant who understood local conditions and construc-
tion possibilities. The floating technologies already used in Louisiana as discussed
earlier, were integrated with local vernacular building typologies and construction
techniques as the context of Louisiana is very similar to the Jamaican context as they
belong to similar climatic region. While Louisiana has a humid subtropical climate,
the areas studied in Jamaica has a tropical climate quite like Louisiana.
From the outset, the team (consisting member of CARIBSAVE and researchers
of University of Waterloo) decided that new construction would be too expensive,
and prototypes should be developed to retrofit existing houses. The primary focus
was to research already practiced buoyancy strategies used in amphibious houses in
projects of Louisiana and to find the most economically and technologically suitable
option for the local context. In the next step, expert of hydrology and fluid dynamics
vetted the selected systems for their stability under potential flood conditions in
varying conditions. From a range of options, the collaborative research team chose
a sustainable vertical guidance system that could resist any lateral horizontal move-
ment of the houses during severe floods. Finally, a team of researchers/designers at
the University of Waterloo,4 based on the data and analysis provided by the local
engineering consultants, developed a set of design solutions, sustainable for the local
communities (Fig. 3).
8 Design Strategies to Retrofit
From the outset, a solution was required that would be low-cost and replicable for
the local communities. The design retrofit with cost-effective and locally available
materials and local construction practices was used to convert existing regular houses
4 a.The team of researchers at the University of Waterloo consisted graduate research students and
was led by Scott Turner and Dr. Elizabeth C English.
b. Scott Turner is a Project Manager at the Buoyant Foundation Project, Ontario, Canada.
During the Affordable amphibious housing project, he was a Graduate Student at the Department of
Engineering - Architectural Studies of University of Waterloo. His research interest includes water
and its relationship to architecture and infrastructure. He specializes in floating structures with a
focus on amphibious housing in North America.
c. Dr. Elizabeth English is an Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture of University
of Waterloo. Dr. English’s current research focuses on developing amphibious foundation systems
as a flood mitigation and climate change adaptation strategy that supports the preservation of
traditional housing forms and cultural practices. She is working on projects for indigenous and
indigent populations in south Louisiana, the Canadian North, Jamaica and Vietnam.
286 I. Ahmed
Fig. 3 Top—schematic drawing of components of a retrofitted amphibious house in Jamaica,

bottom left—during dry and bottom right—during flood conditions (Field-survey 2019)
to amphibious houses in the communities of Bliss Pastures and Port Maria. The
typical Jamaican houses are built using pier-and-beam construction system with
wood joists and beam platforms on the foundation piers of either concrete masonry
unit (CMU), a standard size rectangular block or timber. It should be noted that the
retrofit was only possible in the houses with elevation above grade making retrofitting
assembly of a buoyant foundation possible. Slab-on-grade5 was not considered as it
is not possible to retrofit. Assembly of a retrofit is similar in principle with buoyancy
elements below the existing floor structure, a connection of structural substrate to the
floor with a vertical guidance system to restrict lateral movement during floods. It
was essential to reinforce the existing structures to various degrees, as they would be
exposed to strong lateral forces of floodwater. The buoyancy elements were secured
using marine plywood strapping, placed perpendicular to the floor joists. The existing
joists were secured with sill beams with galvanized steel hurricane ties (Turner and
English 2015).
5 Slab-on-grade is a type of floating slab foundation where the concrete slab that is to serve as the
foundation for the structure above is formed from a mold set directly into the ground. The concrete
is then placed into the mold, leaving no gap between the ground and the structure.
As the community of Bliss Pastures were more economically challenged, cost-

effective, safe and structurally sound materials and techniques were used. While in
Port Maria, more traditional yet cost effective approach was employed. As Styrofoam
would be too expensive in the local context, recycled 5-gallon jugs were used for
buoyancy as they are inexpensive, easily available and the residents could fit it by
themselves (Turner and English 2015). Galvanized steel ‘chicken wire’ cages were
used to frame the jugs in modules of 3 wide and 4 deep. They were affixed to the
marine plywood strapping installed below and perpendicular to the floor joists. In
Bliss Pastures, each house required 370 jugs, giving 6990 kg of buoyancy which
was 30% more than calculated buoyancy to float the house during floods (Turner and
English 2015).
In Port Maria, regular buoyancy blocks composed of expanded polystyrene was
used below the existing floor structure (Fig. 4). A plywood structural substrate was
used to reinforce the existing structure and support for the buoyancy blocks. To
prevent lateral movement readily available timber telephone poles were used. This
enabled the houses to rise, float and descend during floods.
It should be noted that, depending on availability and convenience, wire mesh
“cages” containing recycled jugs or expanded polystyrene (EPS) were used. As labor
cost is considerably higher in the first process, the decision of buoyant technology
should be context sensitive. EPS on the other hand has a simpler construction tech-
nique. Research showed that while the first technique is ecologically sustainable, the
second one is 65% less expensive.
The construction costs for the amphibious retrofit foundations (including labor
and materials) varied in the two communities. In Bliss Pastures it cost $2414 USD
($90.24/m2 ) on an average while in Port Maria it cost $3765 USD ($93.81/m2 ) on an
Fig. 4 Retrofitted amphibious houses of Bliss Pastures and Port Maria (Field-survey 2019)
288 I. Ahmed
average. Voluntary labor, if available, reduced the cost partially, $1199 USD for the
Bliss Pastures and $2064 USD for the Port Maria. For a permanent house, the costs are
affordable for the residents. Moreover, if one considers the cost and hassle involved
in relocating and repairing flood damage, retrofit buoyant foundation provides an
economically sustainable low-environmental impact solution (Turner and English
2015).
A key goal of the amphibious house project was to ensure that the construction
is simple enough so that the residents themselves can replicate it in future. For the
amphibious housing to be a sustainable housing typology the capacity building in
the local communities for flood-resilient housing was crucial, as continuous external
intervention by NGO and others were not realistically available. Field study shows
that there have been other cases of post disaster intervention by the agencies and
gradually amphibious housing technology is becoming an acceptable, innovative
and sustainable flood mitigation solution.
9 Community Response to Affordable Amphibious

Housing Project
Focus group discussions and interviews with studied communities show that they
are economically challenged, poorly educated and underprivileged. Most of the resi-
dents live below local poverty line (US$ 1.90 per day since 2015, (UNDP: Poverty
In Jamaica At 14.5% 2017)). Whatever limited asset they have, they do not want to
expose those to the theft and destruction by floods. As such, leaving their houses
unprotected during the floods is one of the toughest things they are forced to do.
The fact that amphibious houses, letting them stay at their houses, works as a big
positive force in its favor. A critical factor is the prevailing government corrup-
tion and resultant lack of trust on any government endeavor. As NGOs and other
external bodies have already executed the amphibious projects, there is an inherent
trust involved. The response from the two communities studied for the affordable
amphibious housing project can be summarized under seven types of components.
Those are briefly discussed here:
a. Ecological Components
As the amphibious structures can maintain an elevation that is always above the
surface of the water, the long-term degradation of permanent static Elevation (PSE)
due to soil subsidence can be avoided. Moreover, the vertical guidance posts (VGPs)
has the flexibility to be extended in case of the early predictions for expected flood
level is exceeded. Green space, undisturbed land and forested land cover remains
very similar to regular habitats. Due to existing ecological condition, there is minimal
wetland loss and the amphibious projects are very similar to regular housing projects
in this respect.
b. Physical Components
As the houses on stilts (Fig. 1) have a permanent static elevation (PSE), they are
highly vulnerable to damage when exceptional flooding occurs, and they exceed the
anticipated elevation calculated during design. As the amphibious houses have the
capacity to adapt to variable flood levels, they can cope with even the most severe
flooding and rise according to the water level. Unlike houses on stilts, elevated to
fixed level, amphibious houses have the flexibility to accommodate varying levels of
floodwater. Community response shows, this gives them a good level of compatibility
with existing urban fabric and walkability between buildings.
Another advantage is the clustering of the structures. Generally, the amphibious
houses are clustered in such a way so that they can enhance safety of the overall
housing infrastructure. The elevated houses detach the residents from street level,
requiring long flights of stairs or elevators (for differently abled persons) which
the communities studied cannot afford. The amphibious houses have the natural
advantage over houses with permanent static elevation being close to the grounds.
c. Infrastructural Components
As most of the residents live in their own houses, shelter capacity is high. As
a limited number of existing houses has been retrofitted, residents living in other
regular houses often relocate to their neighbors in the amphibious houses. Nearly
about half of the community can relocate to the amphibious houses and the shelter
capacity doubles during flood events. As evacuation is not necessary during floods,
evacuation potential for the amphibious houses is very low. Most of the houses
were constructed during the last two to three decades; as such, they are eligible for
retrofitting with potential lifespan of about two to three decades left in them. During
floods, the residents can avail smaller water transports such as boats to continue with
their regular lifestyle.
d. Institutional Components
A formal hazard mitigation plan prepared by local authorities is not available in
studied cases. There are very few structures in the localities which can be used as
flood shelters during floods. The amphibious housing partially solves the problem
in the community, as only a small portion of existing houses has been retrofitted as
amphibious. Collectively, the community faces the challenges of flooding in a basic
informal participatory process. However, the municipal expenditures to support this
is at bare minimum level.
e. Economic Components
The most important economic component of the project is the comparative advan-
tage of retrofitting or even new construction as compared to monetary damage of
regular houses caused by floods. Compared to ordinary construction, an amphibious
system (new/retrofitted) involves costs of various degrees (generally in the range
of 5 to 10%) mainly due to the need for a more elaborate foundation system. On
the other hand, the cost of an amphibious system is much lower than houses with
290 I. Ahmed
PSE, as it requires the replacement of the entire foundation system as no retrofitting

like amphibious houses is possible. Retrofitted amphibious houses only supplement
the general load-bearing system. They use components to resist lateral movement
with vertical guidance allowing buoyancy to provide uplift during floods; those are
comparatively less expensive, especially with recycled materials. Retrofitting with
recycled materials includes placing new steel channel reinforcement for sill beam
which is added to the existing sill beam to make the retrofitting capable to withstand
forces of flood water (Fig. 3). Steel double angle ‘T’ beams with secondary steel
framing is used to support buoyancy blocks. Finally, telescoping vertical guidance
posts are placed on the outer periphery of the existing piers so that can move up
and down with the flood water keeping the house in its original location. The cost
analysis shows that on an average amphibious foundations cost around 1/3 to 1/2 of
the cost of PSEs.
However, the damages caused by floods cannot be calculated or predicted; but it
is generally greater compared to cost of construction. The impact of floods damages
on livelihood is generally severe in all scenarios as crops and livestock get affected.
Comparatively, a damaged house makes the situation even worse. Thus, amphibious
houses provide a better alternative.
f. Social Components
One of the most serious threats of flooding is disruption of the residents’ quality of
everyday life. For safety of their asset and property, it is common for the male family
members to stay behind while the women and children relocate to safer places,
sometimes with relatives. There is a general dissatisfaction involved with staying
with relatives for long term as they find it humiliating. The safety, health and well-
being of minimal disruption of regular lifestyle during floods are a big relief for the
communities.
g. Community Components
One of the main challenges of flood is relocating the elderly and other differ-
ently abled persons. Amphibious housing provides a greater degree of accessibility
during normal conditions while offers the choice for the elderly and differently abled
persons to remain at their homes. This helps to maintain social order and cohesion.
Compared to PSE houses, amphibious houses help to maintain sense of place in local
communities.
One of the key factors that can trigger a positive change in communities is the
development of affordable house, hence increasing home ownership. The increased
home ownership helps to create communities rooted in place with enhanced social
capital. As the residents do not need to evacuate, amphibious houses help to keep
social connectivity even during flooding conditions.
Overall, a stable community that is grounded in place increases residential density,
attracts more investment in various sectors that further enhances the communities’
prosperity. This in turn increases livability in the communities with increased security
and lesser crimes.
Thirty-six houses were retrofitted in several phases of the project. On an average,

each household residing in the retrofitted houses had 8–10 members. To find the
community response to affordable amphibious housing project, a sample size of 80
respondents was drawn from the affected population of about 400 who were users of
the retrofitted houses. Other members of the community were not included due to lack
of first-hand experience of using amphibious houses during floods. The sample size
was adequate considering the project was still in its early stage. The residents were
asked about the state of the various issues (as indicators) under the seven components
(Table 5). Here the seven resilience components (six adapted from BRIC and one
introduced in this research) were used as benchmark to measure against intervention
category, resilience category and impacts on community. Their qualitative responses
were analyzed and synthesized according to intervention category, resilience category
and impacts on community in vertical columns.
The intervention category, introduced in this research was required as various
elements of the amphibious housing project demanded to be identified whether the
nature of intervention was minimum, medium, high or not related in a few cases.
The five resilience categories (Table 4) has been developed by GOAL (2015) who
defines resilience “as the ability of communities and households to anticipate and
adapt to risks and to absorb, respond and recover from shocks and stresses in a
timely and effective manner without compromising their long term prospects”. The
manual highlights resilience ability to address the root causes of vulnerability which
exacerbate the impact of hazards. It also notes that resilience building can facili-
tate a transition from humanitarian response interventions to long-term development
Table 4 Various resilience categories (GOAL 2015)

Level Category % Description
1 Minimal resilience 0–20 Little awareness of the issue(s) or motivation to address
those. Actions limited to crisis responses. Unsafe for any
emergency, no physical space to evacuate to
2 Low resilience 21–40 Awareness of the issue(s) and willingness to address those.
Capacity to act, knowledge and skills, human, material and
other resource(s) remains limited. Interventions tend to be
one-off, piecemeal and short-term. Prepared for small scale
emergencies, community members can house themselves
in more secured community evacuation shelters
3 Medium resilience 41–60 Development and implementation of solutions. Capacity of
act is improved and substantial. Interventions are more
numerous and long-term
4 Resilience 61–80 Coherence and integration. Interventions are extensive,
covering all main aspects of the problem, and they are
linked within a coherent long-term strategy
5 High resilience 81–100 A ‘culture of safety’ exists among all stakeholders, where
DRR is embedded in all relevant policy, planning, practice,
attitudes and behavior
292 I. Ahmed
programming (GOAL 2015). According to the manual, the toolkit can be used to
determine levels of resilience as shown in the Table 4.
As a part of the interview, participants were also asked to qualitatively express their
opinion about the housing project. The responses ranged from satisfactory, neutral
and dissatisfactory. This provided a perspective that was community specific. For
example, in few indicators, the response was satisfactory even though the resilience
category was medium. The results are shown in the Table 5. Those provide a prelim-
inary understanding of the impact of the amphibious retrofit project on community
at the post implementation phase.
As the Table 5 shows, of the seven components, few were more significant for the
amphibian housing project compared to others. For the local communities, physical,
economic, social and community components were more important. While there
were mixed responses (in terms of resilience level) for physical components, there
were higher level of resilience responses to the other three. This probably was since
the physical components were yet to be further developed for a greater level of satis-
faction of the users. Comparatively, responses to the intangible elements as noted in
social and community components were more satisfactory as the amphibious housing
project enables the community to stay at their location and continue with everyday
life instead of being displaced and relocated. The relationship of intervention cate-
gory with the resilience level is not always simple as in many indicators, minimum
interventions have resulted higher level of resilience and satisfaction.
10 Conclusion
Common approaches to reduce flood risks at city scale include building barriers
like embankments, dams, revetments, flood walls in flood prone zones. But this
kind of infrastructures may cause for further damages and devastations. Not only
barriers fail to realistically cover the whole flood prone zones, there is also the
possibility of floods, exceeding the predicted level, leading to unanticipated failures,
shattering the false sense of safety, as seen in the recent breach of Swar Creek
dam of Myanmar in August 2018, when flooding in 85 villages displaced thousands
from their homes (Naing and Slodkowski 2018). As discussed in Table 3, of the
two types of flood mitigation measures at community level, one displaces residents
from their locations and the other uplifts them from the ground level, disrupting
everyday life. There is a great need to shift the attitude from conquering nature with
technologies instead of adapting to it. As the findings show, the amphibious houses
have potentials to allow to live with nature as those enable vulnerable communities
to be flood-resilient at a modest cost. The additional benefit is the do-it-yourself
nature of it and the fact that the communities can be easily trained to make their
houses amphibious. It fosters capacity building for enhancing resilience, ensuring
self-sufficiency at community level. Climate change adaptation and flood mitigation
with amphibious housing is effective and considerably less expensive than the other
available options. It is effective in both regular and severe flooding conditions.
Table 5 Community response to affordable amphibious housing project (Field-survey 2019)

Resilience component Intervention Resilience category Level Impacts on
category communities
a. Ecological components
Soil erosion Minimum Resilience 4 Satisfactory
Green Minimum Medium Resilience 3 Satisfactory
space/undisturbed land
Forested land cover Minimum Medium resilience 3 Satisfactory
Wetland loss Not related Medium resilience 3 Neutral
b. Physical components
Compatibility with Minimum High Resilience 5 Satisfactory
existing urban fabric
Walkability between Medium resilience 4 Neutral
buildings
Clustering of the Minimum Low resilience 2 Dissatisfactory
structures
Safety of housing Minimum High resilience 5 Satisfactory
infrastructure
Community emergency Medium Medium resilience 3 Neutral
response from its own
resources
Adequacy of water Medium Low resilience 2 Dissatisfactory
supply, sanitation, first
aid, sleeping, food
storage, electric power,
latrine/W.C., per 20
persons
c. Infrastructural components
Shelter capacity (rental Medium Low resilience 2 Dissatisfactory
vacancy)
Evacuation potential Minimum Medium resilience 3 Satisfactory
(arterial miles/mi2 )
Housing age (built Minimum High resilience 5 Satisfactory
since 1970–1994)
d. Institutional components
Recent hazard No Low resilience 2 Dissatisfactory
mitigation plan (yes/no)
Flood ready Yes. Medium Medium resilience 3 Satisfactory
participation (yes/no)
Municipal expenditures Minimum Low resilience 2 Dissatisfactory
(fire, police, emergency
services)
e. Economic components
(continued)
294 I. Ahmed
Table 5 (continued)
Resilience component Intervention Resilience category Level Impacts on
category communities
Effect on livelihood Minimum High resilience 5 Satisfactory
Savings in construction Maximum High resilience 5 Satisfactory
f. Social components
Quality of life Minimum High resilience 5 Satisfactory
Safety, health and Minimum High resilience 5 Satisfactory
well-being
Social order, cohesion Minimum Resilient 4 Satisfactory
and community
interaction
g. Community components
Previous disaster Yes. minimum Medium resilience 3 Dissatisfactory
experience (PDD,
yes/no)
Social connectivity Yes. minimum High resilience 5 Satisfactory
(yes/no)
Sense of place (born in Minimum High resilience 5 Satisfactory
state and still live here)
Social capital Minimum High resilience 5 Satisfactory
The study tests a measurement matrix for discussion and evaluation of the flood
disasters in the case study communities. The initial conclusion is that the indicative
components used in this study were partially adapted from other established disaster
mitigation measurement models. There is a scope to develop a more evolved measure-
ment model involving further refinement and calibration that will be more suitable to
the local context and will assist to compare and evaluate community preparedness.
Findings of this study sheds light on the achievements of the project with prospects
and possibilities of larger scale interventions in the future. It should be noted that,
this study has been a preliminary effort that sheds light on the community response at
a basic level. Future research must involve larger number of communities to measure
their accuracy involving experts and community feedbacks.
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Dr. Ahmed is an Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture of BRAC University,

Bangladesh. He is trained in Architecture and Urban Design. His research interests include
sustainable urban development. He worked as a Research Fellow at the Center for Sustainable
Asian Cities, School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore in projects
such as ‘Benchmarks, Best Practices and Framework for Sustainable Development and Cities’.
He has authored two edited books and many refereed publications.

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Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13196

ISSN 2198-2546 ISSN 2198-2554 (electronic)

External Interventions for Disaster Risk Reduction: Impacts on Local Communities,

research—or fail to take into account community experiences with external

theoretical concept that helps in understanding the social and environmental

(Chapter “Public and Private Sector Interventions in Post-disaster Resettlement:

The long-term commitment to ‘build back better’ needs to be supported by a wide

expanding professionals’ experiential knowledge base. Through structured and

Dhaka, Bangladesh Imon Chowdhooree, Ph.D.

1. David Sanderson, Ph.D., Inaugural Judith Neilson Chair, Built Environment,

Enhancing Community Resilience

Addressing Urban Risks

Adapting with Climate Change Impacts

Dr. Imon Chowdhooree Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture,

Mr. Shams Mansoor Ghani Senior Lecturer, Department of Architecture,

Abstract In any disaster context development may appear as adaptation through

Keywords Development · Adaptation · External intervention · Planning

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 3

Enhancing community resilience is a prime objective for contemporary disaster risk

2 Understanding Views of Community Resilience

case of disaster mitigation or adaptation to hazards, is explored and explained by

ingenuity of new technology (Homer-Dixon 2000). Innovations usually occur on

3 Understanding the Political and Ecological Context

Political ecology as an interdisciplinary concept, seeks to understand human soci-

Political ecology has been developed as an interdisciplinary approach to investi-

Table 1 Political ecology’s attempts to explain issues

4 Understanding Planning Paradigms in the Disaster

Disaster can be identified as the failure of mainstream ‘development’ (Rashid and

This means considering all possibilities of disasters in every development policy,

Scholars appreciate the concept of participatory planning for community develop-

Enhancing community resilience is necessary to eliminate the vulnerability of risk

Community resilience is linked to improve adaptive capacities of a commu-

agenda of enhancing community resilience needs to face the politics of top-down

The planning approach is yet to mature in the disciplinary growth of disaster

W. K. D. Rathnayake and Chandana Siriwardana

Keywords Emergency response · Flood · Sri Lanka · External organizations ·

W. K. D. Rathnayake · C. Siriwardana (B)

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 23

features, as well as the Southwest (May—September) and Northeast (December—

a community. The masculine culture is focused on values such as money, success

3. Disaster management framework of Sri Lanka

4. Involvement of external organizations in disaster management

Provincial Councils District Secretariats Line Departments

Local AuthoriƟes Grama Niladaries

1995). Next to this well-established organization, there are organizations which

3 Methodology and Case Study Area

This research aims to identify involvement of external organizations within the

Fig. 4 The research diagram

External organizations are non-governmental organizations, which get involved in the

1. Providing humanitarian assistance

Fig. 7 Sri Lanka and locations of the Survey—The focused DS divisions

Table 1 Evaluation Framework to access the effectiveness of disaster management framework

Fig. 8 People and institutional behavior and relations (Field-study 2019)

three parameters: necessity, assistance and time of evacuation. External organiza-

4. Search and rescue

external organization do generate much contribution. In other aspects related to the

DEWN—Disaster Management Emergency Network [WWW Document] (2019) http://dewn.dia

Dr. Siriwardana is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering, University of

Imon Chowdhooree, Les Dawes, and Mellini Sloan

Abstract In developing countries Non-governmental organizations (NGO) often

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 41

Keywords Dependency · External supports · Incentive-induced development ·