In light of the recent incidence of natural disasters, hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes, and the spread of a potentially lethal disease, COVID-19, it is timely to consider how we might develop community resilience to reduce the loss of life, disruption, and other problems in the wake of such events.
Writing in the International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, a research team from Australia and Vietnam, has taken three past events as case studies. They have looked at the research literature surrounding those events and the secondary work and have combined information to help them build a conceptual model of disaster. Their work offers new concepts that might improve community resilience capabilities but also identifies effective ways to improve still further. The same work expands on the potential of social media for preparedness strategies and discusses community empowerment, and the shared responsibilities of all those affected and involved, particularly the response and regulatory agencies.
The team also reveals the gaps in the literature in this area and attempts to fill them. Their focus was on the floods in Queensland, Australia, the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the Japanese earthquake. The team suggests that their findings demonstrate that “in order to sustain effective and efficient strategies and practices, supportive policies, legislations, and resource allocation must be established.”
Whittaker, S., Khalfan, M.M.A. and ulHaq, I. (2020) ‘Developing community disaster resilience through preparedness‘, Int. J. Critical Infrastructures, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp.53-76.