A discipline without a name? Contrasting three fields dealing with hazards and disaster

Staupe‐Delgado, Reidar; Abdel-Fattah, Dina; Pursiainen, Christer

doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102751

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…The definition continues to evolve, shifting with dominant socio-political forces. 7–9 Similarities can be found in contemporary definitions and systems of classification. The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (Geneva, Switzerland) defines disaster as: “… serious disruptions to the functioning of a community that exceed its capacity to cope using its own resources.…”

Section: Part One: Examining the Definition Of Disastermentioning

confidence: 86%

COVID-19 in Long-Term Care: A Two-Part Commentary

Oldenburger,

Baumann,

Crea-Arsenio

et al. 2023

Prehosp. Disaster med.

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Part One: Examining the Definition of DisasterThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a major impact on health, economic, political, and social systems, exacerbated existing inequity, stretched systems to the point of failure, and exposed vulnerabilities globally. We will present a case study of COVID-19's impact in long-term care (LTC) in Canada's most populous province, Ontario. Originally, COVID-19 in LTC was called a crisis by politicians and mainstream media, but the situation and response were comparable to major disasters and wartime. Governments, health systems, and emergency agencies have disaster preparedness plans, however COVD-19's size and duration exposed the limits of these plans. This paper is the first of a two-part commentary that will begin by demonstrating that COVID-19 in LTC meets the definition of disaster by examining existing definitions and comparing COVID-19 in LTC to other disasters. The second paper will apply the case study of COVID-19 in LTC to a disaster framework to identify key contributing factors. The rationale of this discussion is to learn lessons from the experience of COVID-19 in LTC by expanding our perspective of what is a disaster, while identifying what factors contributed, in order to improve preparedness for all types of disaster.The word "disaster" comes from the Greek word "dis" meaning bad or ill-favored, and "aster" meaning star. 1 This coincides with the belief that disasters were from an external force, and the Judeo-Christian view as an "act of God," 2 which frames disasters as: "tragic situations over which persons, groups, or communities have no controlsituations which are imposed by an outside force too great to resist." 3(p733) However, more recently, perspectives related to the definition have shifted from event-centric to human-centric; 4 a complex interaction of environment and human agency, 5 and social phenomenaas Stallings stated: "'Social' separates disasters from tragedies that befall individuals or small groups such as a family. Disasters are collective in nature." 6(p263) Thus, the focus of disaster theory has expanded from the "what" hazard that could impact a community -or event that has occurred -to the "how" and "why" it could or did impact a community.The definition continues to evolve, shifting with dominant socio-political forces. 7-9 Similarities can be found in contemporary definitions and systems of classification. The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (Geneva, Switzerland) defines disaster as: " : : : serious disruptions to the functioning of a community that exceed its capacity to cope using its own resources. Disasters can be caused by natural,

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Section: Part One: Examining the Definition Of Disastermentioning

confidence: 86%

COVID-19 in Long-Term Care: A Two-Part Commentary

Oldenburger,

Baumann,

Crea-Arsenio

et al. 2023

Prehosp. Disaster med.

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“…Societal security has been studied under different names like disaster risk reduction, homeland security, and societal safety, sometimes with little interaction between them (Staupe-Delgado, Abdel-Fattah, and Pursiainen 2022;Høyland 2018). We have chosen the term 'societal security', as it is a well-established and widely adopted term (Høyland 2018).…”

Section: Core Concepts: Societal Security Risk and Resiliencementioning

confidence: 99%

Societal Security as a System-of-Systems: Customs Agencies' Cross-Sectoral Contributions

Zarghooni-Hoffmann,

Ylönen

2023

Proceeding of the 33rd European Safety and Reliability Conference

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The aim of this paper is to provide new insights into cross-sectoral, cooperative aspects of societal security. Societal security can be defined as the continuous outcome of a resilience-based system-of-systems whose purpose is to protect society against a wide range of risks. One of its subsystems is the field of customs. The role of customs agencies in societal security is not well understood. In particular, the cross-sectoral, cooperative aspects have been overlooked both in official guidance and in practice. This paper analyzes the contributions of the Norwegian Customs (NC) to societal security from a system-of-systems perspective, using data from governance documents, official reports, and a list of the NC's collaborators. The main findings are that (1) customs is a node in societal security, and its role much wider than earlier recognized; that (2) the current framework for societal security does not adequately account for agencies whose normal contributions are outside their own sector; and that (3) this lack of understanding impedes efficient and effective measures. Insights on societal security as a system-of-systems are summarized in a jigsaw puzzle analogy.

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“…In addition, particular interest should be focused on the increase in the frequency of high-intensity and short-duration storms [21]. The key to responding to this is the appropriate management of intervention protocols for an urban environment under rainy seasons, as well as effective hydraulic urban network operational procedures [22][23][24][25][26][27]. This vulnerability of urban areas causes critical material and economic damage due to the flooding of suburban channels, drains, and rivers, affecting fields, urban infrastructure and roads in particular [28,29].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Methodological Guide to Forensic Hydrology

Gutiérrez-López

2022

Water

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In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region, geophysical, meteorological and hydrological disasters are increasing every year. With significantly limited resources, these countries are naturally forced to absorb lessons from these disasters. One of the fundamental activities during this learning task remains the need to standardize the forensic reporting process. Like all academic disciplines, engineering is exceptional in its application to the forensic field. This feature makes it a unique input to the investigation of hydrological and environmental catastrophes. Based on the fundamental concepts of forensic investigation, ten principles for properly conducting forensic hydrology studies are proposed. The ten principles proposed are: (i) Principle of use, (ii) production, (iii) principle of exchange, (iv) recognition, (v) correspondence, (vi) reconstruction, (vii) principle of probability, (viii) uncertainty, (ix) principle of certainty, and (x) conclusion principle. A hypothetical case of urban infrastructure failure is used to explain, in detail, each of the proposed principles. This paper proposes a methodology to be considered as a reference point for a forensic hydrological analysis to be used at the LAC region.

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A discipline without a name? Contrasting three fields dealing with hazards and disaster

Cited by 8 publications

References 43 publications

COVID-19 in Long-Term Care: A Two-Part Commentary

COVID-19 in Long-Term Care: A Two-Part Commentary

Societal Security as a System-of-Systems: Customs Agencies' Cross-Sectoral Contributions

Methodological Guide to Forensic Hydrology

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