Natural Hazards and Public Management

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Frontmatter

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2. Chapter 1. Introduction: Natural Hazards and Government Response between Stakeholder Pluralism and the Public Interest

   • Open Access

   Andrew Butt

   Abstract

   There is an evident increase in awareness and policy response to natural hazards in urban and peri-urban environments in many regions internationally. However, many public policy and community approaches do not meaningfully reduce risk and impact in the long term, including for vulnerable locations and communities. In peri-urban and wildland-urban interface regional policy decisions and land use planning and human settlement policy decisions can and do expose more people to more and increasingly risky situations andimpacts can amplified by population and settlement trends that see more people, property and assets in these locations. Wildfire and flood are two such examples of peri-urban disaster explored in this book. Complexity is evident in peri-urban areas where categories of place can be unclear within policy and public understandings. This chapter introduces a series of examples of how decision-making, the application of evidence and the legitimacy of public policy have presented increased exposure to risk and hazard, and these cases demonstrate particular challenges of uncertain, yet high impact events within policy systems that seek evidence and consensus.

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3. Chapter 2. Risk and Hazard from Bushfire and Flood in Eastern Australia

   • Open Access

   Michael Buxton, David Mercer

   Abstract

   This chapter relates the concept of ‘risk’ to those of ‘liveability’, ‘amenity’ and ‘wellbeing’ by investigating how risk and hazard can affect the Australian vulnerability to bushfires and flooding. The most catastrophic fire and flood events in Australia’s post-colonial history have occurred in recent years. The concept of ‘risk’ is defined and then explored through an examination of two elements: ‘likelihood’ and ‘consequence’. Two factors are contributing to increased levels of bushfire and flood risk: the large-scale expansion of settlement particularly into high-risk peri-urban areas, and increasing levels of risk because of anthropogenic climate change. The possibility of rapid non-linear change requires planning for alternative futures and rigorous alternative policies. Multiple climate hazard events are occurring at the same time in the same or connected locations, or multiple climate extremes in succession. The need to consider complex interacting social and ecological factors in analysing risk through integrated governance arrangements is now increasingly important. The most effective means of anticipating risk to prevent or limit harm is the use of land use planning systems. However, Australian governments have increasingly adopted neo-liberal planning systems which have encouraged large-scale expansion of settlement particularly into peri-urban areas which are among the world’s most vulnerable to catastrophic bushfire and flood. Widespread abandonment of residential properties and even townships is now increasingly likely.

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4. Chapter 3. The 2018 East Attica Wildfire

   • Open Access

   Anna Apostolidou, Wolfgang Seibel

   Abstract

   This chapter analyses the origins and consequences of one of the deadliest natural disasters in recent European history: the 2018 East Attica wildfire in Greece. The fire, which mainly affected a popular holiday resort near Athens, claimed more than 100 lives. The catastrophic outcome was the result of mutually reinforcing factors, including weather conditions, chronic infrastructure problems such as unauthorised construction, inefficiencies in the Greek firefighting system and human error. Using media coverage and various expert reports, the chapter examines each of these factors and discusses the public debate surrounding them. It also examines what lessons the authorities have learned from the 2018 wildfires in eastern Attica to deal with the ever-increasing number of fires each summer.

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5. Chapter 4. Amenity Traps and Safety Illusions: The California Camp Fire of 2018

   • Open Access

   Wolfgang Seibel

   Abstract

   This chapter analyses the origins of the California Camp Fire of 2018, named after Camp Creek Road in Butte County, and its catastrophic consequences. The death toll of 86 people, mostly residents, made it the worst fire disaster in the US in the last 100 years until the even deadlier wildfire on the Hawaiian Island of Maui in August 2023. Based on the Butte County Grand Jury Camp Fire report of 2020, the Camp Fire Case Studies of the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of 2021 and 2023, and contemporary media coverage, the chapter addresses the paradox that previously recommended measures of risk mitigation were omitted by local and state-level authorities whose commitment to prevention and the protection of lives and property was otherwise credible and strong. The analysis identifies various types of interacting causal mechanisms as both permissive conditions and immediate trigger factors that partly aggravated, partly mitigated the impact of the Camp Fire. Specifically, the chapter sheds light on the ambivalence surrounding social cohesion and resilient local communities with regard to risk mitigation affecting desirable amenities and familiar settlement patterns as well as learning and new alliances in the process of the post-disaster recovery.

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6. Chapter 5. Necessary, Yet Overlooked: Land Use Control in La Plata Flood Risk Management

   • Open Access

   Jana Blahak

   Abstract

   Between 2002 and 2013, the city of La Plata, Argentina, was affected by flood events of varying strength, culminating in a disastrous flood in April 2013 when more than 80 people died. The city administration had been made aware of pre-existing factors that made residents more vulnerable and exposed to flooding. Yet, despite the city’s growth, the administration did not introduce more non-structural measures, such as land use controls, to adapt the city’s flood risk management strategy to the change. A process-tracing analysis of the process leading to this lack of adaptive capacity shows that what made the integration of more land use controls into the municipal’s strategy for flood risk management challenging goes beyond purely structural issues like missing coordination between responsible departments. Only by considering how dynamics like the path dependency of strategic documents, partial co-optation of the planning sector and psychological and political incentives impacted public officials at critical junctures, is it possible to show why responsible public actors did not use existing chances to adapt the trajectory of flood risk management in La Plata.

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7. Chapter 6. Missing the Window: Barriers to Building Back Better in the Western Cape, South Africa

   • Open Access

   Robyn Pharoah

   Abstract

   ‘Building back better’ is a central tenet of disaster risk reduction globally. This is encapsulated in Priority Four of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, which identifies post-disaster recovery as a valuable opportunity for achieving more resilient nations and communities that are better able to prevent and withstand disasters. The legislation guiding disaster risk reduction and management also highlights recovery and rehabilitation as critical spaces for developing and applying disaster risk reduction measures. Despite policy commitment to building back better, however, seizing these opportunities has proved challenging in practice. Drawing on case studies from South Africa’s Western Cape province, this chapter examines the obstacles to building back better in South Africa. It shows how institutional arrangements and legislation shaping the allocation, release and oversight of government funds for recovery and rehabilitation following disasters hamper risk reduction, not only preventing mitigative actions but critically also creating and deepening disaster risk—even where there is political will and capacity for promoting resilience. It also explores the Provincial Disaster Management Centre’s efforts to create space for building back better within the current institutional and legislative architecture, drawing out core lessons that can be applied both in South Africa and elsewhere.

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8. Chapter 7. Generalisation and Prospects of Learning

   • Open Access

   Wolfgang Seibel

   Abstract

   This volume’s case studies address the problems and counterintuitive phenomena of natural disaster risk reduction (DRR) through public management, as well as the associated uncertainties. They pertain to the pitfalls of stakeholder pluralism and competing patterns of interpretation in risk assessment. In this context, the social cohesion of local communities is both an asset and a liability in terms of effective resilience. Communities exposed to natural hazards, usually due to extreme weather events such as droughts and floods, are facing tough choices between prevention and maintaining familiar patterns of settlement and construction. However, there is a silver lining in the form of innovative and productive stakeholder alliances, such as those between local communities, municipalities, and the insurance industry. These alliances allow government agencies to develop satisfactory second-best solutions to better protect human lives and property.

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9. Backmatter

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