Lost for Words Amongst Disaster Risk Science Vocabulary?

Abstract

Like other subjects, disaster risk science has developed its own vocabulary with glossaries. Some keywords, such as resilience, have an extensive literature on definitions, meanings, and interpretations. Other terms have been less explored. This article investigates core disaster risk science vocabulary that has not received extensive attention in terms of examining the meanings, interpretations, and connotations based on key United Nations glossaries. The terms covered are hazard, vulnerability, disaster risk, and the linked concepts of disaster risk reduction and disaster risk management. Following a presentation and analysis of the glossary-based definitions, discussion draws out understandings of disasters and disaster risk science, which the glossaries do not fully provide in depth, especially vulnerability and disasters as processes. Application of the results leads to considering the possibility of a focus on risk rather than disaster risk while simplifying vocabulary by moving away from disaster risk reduction and disaster risk management.

Keywords

Disaster risk / Disaster risk management (DRM) / Disaster risk reduction (DRR) / Hazard / Vulnerability

References

[1] Adams J. Risk, 1999, London: UCL Press

[2] Alexander DE. Resilience and disaster risk reduction: An etymological journey. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 2013, 13(11): 2707-2716

[3] Aven T. On how to define, understand and describe risk. Reliability Engineering & System Safety, 2010, 95(6): 623-631

[4] Aven T. On some recent definitions and analysis frameworks for risk, vulnerability, and resilience. Risk Analysis, 2011, 31(4): 515-522

[5] Balay-As M, Marlowe J, Gaillard JC. Deconstructing the binary between indigenous and scientific knowledge in disaster risk reduction: Approaches to high impact weather hazards. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2018, 30: 18-24

[6] Ball N. Some notes on defining disaster: Suggestions for a disaster continuum. Disasters, 1979, 3(1): 3-7

[7] Bankoff G. Rendering the world unsafe: “Vulnerability” as western discourse. Disasters, 2001, 25(1): 19-35

[8] Britton NR. Developing an understanding of disaster. Journal of Sociology, 1986, 22(2): 254-271

[9] Butler JRG, Doessel DP. Who bears the costs of natural disasters?—An Australian case study. Disasters, 1980, 4(2): 187-204

[10] Clarke JF. Some effects of the urban structure on heat mortality. Environmental Research, 1972, 5(1): 93-104

[11] Comité National Japonais. 1994. Multi-language glossary on natural disasters (Glossaire multi-language sur les désastres naturels). Tokyo: Comité National Japonais pour la Décennie Internationale de la Réducion des Désastres Naturels.

[12] Criss RE, Shock EL. Flood enhancement through flood control. Geology, 2001, 29(10): 875-878

[13] Davis I, Lohman EJA. A manual for the implementation of disaster risk reduction measures. Open House International, 1987, 12(3): 40-42.

[14] de Boer J. Definition and classification of disasters: Introduction of a disaster severity scale. Journal of Emergency Medicine, 1990, 8(5): 591-595

[15] De La Cruz-Reyna S. Scarpa R, Tilling RI. Long-term probabilistic analysis of future explosive eruptions. Monitoring and mitigation of volcano hazards, 1996, Berlin: Springer 599-629

[16] Ellsworth WL. Injection-induced earthquakes. Science, 2013, 341(6142): 142-149

[17] Etingoff K. Ecological resilience: Response to climate change and natural disasters, 2016, Oakville: Apple Academic Press

[18] Gardner JE. Decision making for sustainable development: Selected approaches to environmental assessment and management. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 1989, 9(4): 337-366

[19] Glantz, M.H. 1994. Environmental phenomena: Are societies equipped to deal with them? In Proceedings of Workshop on Creeping Environmental Phenomena and Societal Responses to Them, 7–10 February 1994, Boulder, Colorado, USA.

[20] Glantz MH. Creeping environmental problems and sustainable development in the Aral Sea Basin, 1999, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

[21] Granger K, Jones T, Leiba M, Scott G. Community risk in cairns: A multi-hazard risk assessment, 1999, Cairns: Australian Geological Survey Organisation Cities Project

[22] Hansson SO. Dimensions of risk. Risk Analysis, 1989, 9(1): 107-112

[23] Head GL. An alternative to defining risk as uncertainty. The Journal of Risk and Insurance, 1967, 34(2): 205-214

[24] Hewitt K. Interpretations of calamity from the viewpoint of human ecology, 1983, London: Allen & Unwin

[25] Hewitt K. Regions of risk: A geographical introduction to disasters, 1997, London: Routledge

[26] House of Commons Civil contingencies bill, 2004, London: House of Commons

[27] Hurley MJ. SFPE handbook of fire protection engineering, 2015, New York: Springer

[28] Jackson J. Living with earthquakes: Know your faults. Journal of Earthquake Engineering, 2001, 5(sup001): 5-123

[29] Johnson BB. Accounting for the social context of risk communication. Science & Technology Studies, 1987, 5(3/4): 103-111.

[30] Kaplan S, Garrick BJ. On the quantitative definition of risk. Risk Analysis, 1981, 1(1): 11-27

[31] Kelman I, Mercer J, Gaillard JC. The Routledge handbook of disaster risk reduction including climate change adaptation, 2017, Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge

[32] Kennedy J, Ashmore J, Babister E, Kelman I. The meaning of ‘Build Back Better’: Evidence from post-tsunami Aceh and Sri Lanka. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 2008, 16(1): 24-36

[33] Kreis IA, Busby A, Leonardi G, Meara J, Murray V. Essentials of environmental epidemiology for health protection: A handbook for field professionals, 2013, Oxford: Oxford University Press

[34] Krüger F, Bankoff G, Cannon T, Schipper L. Cultures and disasters: Understanding cultural framings in disaster risk reduction, 2015, Abingdon: Routledge

[35] Leroy SAG. From natural hazard to environmental catastrophe: Past and present. Quaternary International, 2006, 158(1): 4-12

[36] Lewis J. Stephens LH, Green SJ. The vulnerable state: An alternative view. Disaster assistance: Appraisal, reform and new approaches, 1979, New York: New York University Press 104-129

[37] Lewis J. On the line: An open letter in response to ‘Confronting natural disasters, an international decade for natural hazard reduction’. Natural Hazards Observer, 1988, 7(4): 4

[38] Lewis J. Development in disaster-prone places: Studies of vulnerability, 1999, London: Intermediate Technology Publications

[39] Lewis J. Some realities of resilience: A case study of Wittenberge. Disaster Prevention and Management, 2013, 22(1): 48-62

[40] Lewis J, Kelman I. The good, the bad and the ugly: Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) versus Disaster Risk Creation (DRC). PLoS Currents Disasters, 2012

[41] Mika K. Disasters, vulnerability, and narratives: Writing Haiti’s futures, 2019, Abingdon: Routledge

[42] O’Keefe P, Westgate K, Wisner B. Taking the naturalness out of natural disasters. Nature, 1976, 260: 566-567

[43] Oliver-Smith T. Post disaster consensus and conflict in a traditional society: The 1970 avalanche of Yungay, Peru. Mass Emergencies, 1979, 4: 39-52.

[44] Oliver-Smith T. Disaster risk reduction and applied anthropology. Annals of Anthropological Practice, 2016, 40(1): 73-85

[45] Peduzzi P, Dao H, Herold C, Mouton F. Assessing global exposure and vulnerability towards natural hazards: The Disaster Risk Index. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 2009, 9(4): 1149-1159

[46] Perry R, Quarantelli EL. What is a disaster?, 2005, New York: Xlibris

[47] Quarantelli EL. Sowder B. What is disaster? The need for clarification in definition and conceptualization. Disasters and mental health: Selected contemporary perspectives, 1985, Rockville, Md.: Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration, National Institute of Mental Health 41-73.

[48] Quarantelli EL. What is a disaster?, 1998, New York: Routledge

[49] Reams BD, Surrency EC. Insuring the law library: Fire and disaster risk management, 1982, London: Glanville

[50] Schuller M, Morales P. Tectonic shifts: Haiti since the earthquake, 2012, Sterling: Kumarian Press

[51] Shaw R, Sharma A, Takeuchi Y. Indigenous knowledge and disaster risk reduction: From practice to policy, 2009, Hauppauge: Nova Publishers

[52] Smith K. Environmental hazards: Assessing risk and reducing disaster, 2013 6 London: Routledge

[53] Stiftel B, Mukhopadhyay C. Thoughts on Anglo-American hegemony in planning scholarship: Do we read each other’s work?. Town Planning Review, 2007, 78(5): 545-572

[54] Sudmeier-Rieux KI. Resilience—An emerging paradigm of danger or of hope?. Disaster Prevention and Management, 2014, 23(1): 67-80

[55] Tarhan C, Aydin C, Tecim V. How can be disaster resilience built with using sustainable development? [sic]. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2016, 216: 452-459

[56] Timmerman P. Vulnerability, resilience and the collapse of society: A review of models and possible climatic applications, 1981, Toronto: Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Toronto

[57] Torry WI. Hazards, hazes and holes: A critique of the environment as hazard and general reflections on disaster research. The Canadian Geographer, 1979, 23(4): 368-383

[58] UNDHA (United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs) Internationally agreed glossary of basic terms related to disaster management, 1992, Geneva: UNDHA

[59] UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) Reducing disaster risk: A challenge for development, 2004, New York: UNDP

[60] UNISDR (United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction) Living with risk: A global review of disaster reduction initiatives, 2004, Geneva: UNISDR

[61] UNISDR (United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction) Hyogo framework for action 2005–2015: Building the resilience of nations and communities to disasters, 2005, Geneva: UNISDR

[62] UNISDR (United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction) Terminology, 2009, Geneva: UNISDR

[63] UNISDR (United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction) Proposed updated terminology on disaster risk reduction: A technical review, 2015, Geneva: UNISDR

[64] UNISDR (United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction) Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction 2015–2030, 2015, Geneva: UNISDR

[65] UNISDR (United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction). 2017. Terminology on disaster risk reduction. Geneva: UNISDR. https://www.unisdr.org/we/inform/terminology. Accessed 4 May 2018.

[66] Vermeiren JC. Disaster risk reduction as a development strategy, 1993, Washington, DC: Organization of American States

[67] Warheit GJ. A note on natural disasters and civil disturbances: Similarities and differences. Mass Emergencies, 1976, 1: 131-137.

[68] Whitehand JWR. The problem of anglophone squint. Area, 2005, 37(2): 228-230

[69] Wisner B. “Build back better”? The challenge of Goma and beyond. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2017, 26: 101-105

[70] Wisner B, Blaikie P, Cannon T, Davis I. At risk: Natural hazards, people’s vulnerability and disasters, 2004 2 London: Routledge