Session 10:

Resilience
(Part 2)

SANA KHOSA

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The Oak Tree and the Reeds

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Two key features of Resilience

 Absorptive Capacity (inherent resilience)

 Adaptive Capacity (dynamic resilience)

 Dynamic resilience is tied closely with social capital

 Technological disasters and social capital

 Can disasters disrupt social capital in a well-knitted community?

 Liesel Ritchie’s research shows they can.
 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill – 11 million gallon spill
 Devastation for the environment, marine life and fisheries
 Lawsuits to seek damage claims from Exxon dragged on
 Impacted the community of claimants adversely
 Social capital (trust, willingness to socialize) declined

In technological disasters you blame someone for the occurrence, Super oil tanker by Exxon in Valdez, Alaska

uncertainty of impacts, lawsuits. Negative impact on social capital.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaRdUHrUnBs
 Technological Disasters and their impacts

 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010

 Victims compensated soon but they were critical of the compensation process
 Felt that compensation was random and arbitrary
 Individuals and businesses felt they were competing with each other for resources,
some had filed fraudulent claims and profited more

 Do you think flood victims being compensated would feel the same way?
 The downside of Social Capital

 Can social capital be negative?

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 Strong social cohesion in toxic groups? Or groups that deny membership to

minorities?
 Ingroup solidarity means you are going to exclude others.
 The social capital of the elites – the well-off, the well-connected that avoid
locating near hazardous sites – pushing them onto the marginalized.
 NIMBY groups – ‘Not in my backyard’ – environmental injustice!
 The downside of Social Capital

 Post Hurricane Katrina many left without housing. Needed temporary housing.
 FEMA provided trailers for displaced residents –designated/approved sites
 A study was conducted to see patterns of where these trailers were located and
whether social capital had something do with it.
 Used voting rates as a poxy for civic engagement/participation.
 Findings: the higher the voting rates in a zip code, the fewer the trailers.
 Trailers come with a stigma attached.
 “city leaders were avoiding areas where civically engaged people might protest”
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Measuring Disaster Resilience

 Goal = increasing resilience

 Differences in operationalization of resilience in measuring schemes
 Disaster resilience is a multi-level concept – nations, regions, communities,
organizations, households, individuals.
 Both quantitative and qualitative
 Objective data and self-reported data (through focus groups or perception-
based surveys)
Community-Level Measurement Frameworks
 Baseline resilience indicators for communities (BRIC) (secondary source/available data)
 6 resilience domains : social, economic, housing and infrastructure, institutional, community, and
environmental
 Social resilience is measured by: equality in educational attainment, English language competence, food
security, fewer elderly and disabled, health insurance available, transportation service available, mental
health services available, etc.
 Community resilience: place attachment, political engagement, resident’s disaster preparedness,
response training, etc.
 Institutional resilience: investments in disaster mitigation, flood insurance coverage, the ability of
jurisdictions to coordinate with each other, disaster management experience.
Community-level frameworks

 Communities advancing resilience toolkit(CART)

 Data provided by community stakeholders who take part in the assessment
 Reliance on secondary (community health, housing ind.), and primary data
both
 Key informant interviews
 ‘community conversations’
Communities advancing resilience toolkit(CART)
(interview Qs)
 Disaster resilience scorecard for cities

 Based on the UN initiative for making cities resilient (within the Sendai
Framework for Action)
 Detailed tool containing 117 indicators , each rated from 0 to 5 and covering ‘ten
essentials’ to build resilient cities.
 Let’s look at the various dimensions.
1

5
6

10
Organizational-Level Measurement
Organizational Level – resilience score

 Maximum disruption losses – Health unit, govt agency, grocery

store
 How much of the losses were avoided
 Losses avoided/maximum loss possible (ratio measure of
resilience)
 No decline in functionality - 100% resilience
 Measuring Household Resilience

 Home ownership, income, education --- better preparedness

 Previous experience with disasters
 Psychological well-being of family members (anxiety, depression, substance abuse)
 Set of beliefs/attitudes – crisis as shared challenges – having hope – avoiding blame/guilt
 Religious and pro-social belief systems
 Viewing adversity as meaningful and a learning experience
 Maintaining family roles and family functions
 Keeping communication open but limited information to younger ones
 Coping and problem-solving skills
 Measuring Household/family resilience

 The Social Policy and Evaluation Research Unit in NZ

identified factors for family resilience:
 Good communication
 A secure income
Food security, access to health services, household assets,
 Effective decision-making
diversity of income sources, employment, water access,
 Coping skills education
 Behavioral control
 Optimistic outlook
 Community connectedness
 Sense of belonging
 Community involvement
 Resilient Disaster Responses

 Responses that are flexible, scalable and adaptable

 Flexible – start local, and then seek help from higher-level jurisdictions
 Disasters are dynamic – new emergent threats and complexities
 Capacity outside of government needs to be built and relied on
 Resilient response is nonhierarchical /more emergent
 Coordination works but not central command
 ‘HIERARHY IS THE ENEMY OF RAPIDITY AND ADAPTABILITY’ (p. 200)
Type of Organization Number of Agencies

Public 111
Federal/National, State and Local 60
Foreign/International 51

Nonprofit (including NGOs, INGOs, 85

Charities)
Private 29
Multilateral 23
Military-based 13
Federal/National 7
Foreign 6
Political Parties and affiliated agencies 9

Total 270
 Resilient Disaster Response

 Accommodates groups not involved in planning

 “Like jazz pianists and improvisational actors, responders must depart from scores and scripts in
order to put together an effective response” (p. 201)
 Emergency Operations Center(EOC) in NY on 9/11
 1 million people in Lower Manhattan area at the time of the attacks
 300,000 needed to be evacuated by the waterways
 A self-organizing process/not waiting for federal orders
 “…spontaneous, improvised system that brought together ferries, tugboats, fishing boats, dinner
boats, sightseeing vessels, government watercraft, and other types of vessels.
 Resilient and Effective Response

 Extensive organizational experience with dealing with crisis situations

 Effective communications
 Not hierarchical organizations
 “resource slack” in organizations – personnel, resources, funds more than
functional requirement
 If they do not have resources – mutual aid packs
 Planning, scenarios, hazard assessments – any blind spots?
 Responding organizations are Learning organizations!
 Resilient Disaster Recovery

 Least studied area of disaster research

 Recovery is differential – different aspects of the communities recover at different
rates.
 Recovery is complex – can take years
 Recovery is not limited to physical reconstruction - but also social, psychological ,
cultural, and institutional dimensions
 Some functions require quick fixes – medical treatment - critical infrastructure –
water supply restored, electricity restored, transportation routes opened.
 But others require deeper thinking, engagement and deliberation.
 Resilient Disaster Recovery

 Should it be an activity controlled by the central government?

 What about restoring livelihoods, social networks, community needs?

 Mostly public participation is lacking in recovery.

 But this is the longer, more tiring route to take.
 Some areas have recovered more sustainable and ‘green’.
 Public-private partnerships , water management, flood management
 Private sector involvement?
 Sustainable Disaster Recovery?

 Six principles of positive and sustainable disaster recovery:

1. An inclusive, participatory recovery planning and implementation process
2. A focus on community quality of life
3. A commitment to economic vitality and diversity
4. A concern with social and intergenerational equity
5. A focus on preserving and improving the natural environment and ecosystems
6. Activities aimed at reducing the impact of future disasters
(Brenda Phillips, 2009)
 International NGOs - frontrunners in
recovery?
 Should they play that role?
 Haiti knowns as the “ republic of NGOs” because state institutions are weak
 UN cluster approach
 Disorganized relief effort with duplication, competing for funds for districts,
service gaps, NGO leads getting transferred, “massive waste and lack of
transparency by the Red Cross” in Haiti.
 Ethical questions also raised? Cultural and social differences.
 Social Capital and disaster recovery

 Social capital (voting population, political activism, civic participation, ‘linking

connections’ to higher government levels.
 Elderly survivors randomly assigned housing without caring for the social
networks – had an adverse impact(1995 Kobe EQ in Japan)
 2011 Japan EQ/Tsunami – community elders and ibasho concept
 Ibasho – a designated place to come together informally and interact
 Ibasho Café – an informal community space for empowering elderly – restored
sense of belonging and need, elderly found a renewed sense of purpose and
worked towards recovery.
Resilience

 An ideal state?
 Power and privilege
 Group Project Paper

 Introduction (2)
 Background of the case - Include impacts, how government and other organizations responded to
reduce the impacts of the disaster (5)
 Region of impact – Risk Analysis including both Hazards and Vulnerability Analysis (5)
 Vision for building resilience in the communities impacted (6)
(should include Disaster Risk Reduction Methods/Strategies for improving resiliency and reducing
risks/vulnerabilities)
 Lessons Learned and Conclusions (2)

Peer Evaluations on the day of paper submission – Not all students in the group will get the same points.
Panel Discussion
on Monday