Pacific island regional preparedness for El Niño

Abstract

The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle is often blamed for disasters in Pacific island communities. From a disaster risk reduction (DRR) perspective, the challenges with the El Niño part of the ENSO cycle, in particular, are more related to inadequate vulnerability reduction within development than to ENSO-induced hazard influences. This paper analyses this situation, filling in a conceptual and geographic gap in El Niño-related research, by reviewing El Niño-related preparedness (the conceptual gap) for Pacific islands (the geographic gap). Through exploring El Niño impacts on Pacific island communities alongside their vulnerabilities, resiliences, and preparedness with respect to El Niño, El Niño is seen as a constructed discourse rather than as a damaging phenomenon, leading to suggestions for El Niño preparedness as DRR as part of development. Yet the attention which El Niño garners might bring resources to the Pacific region and its development needs, albeit in the short term while El Niño lasts. Conversely, the attention given to El Niño could shift blame from underlying causes of vulnerability to a hazard-centric viewpoint. Instead of focusing on one hazard-influencing phenomenon, opportunities should be created for the Pacific region to tackle wider DRR and development concerns.

Preparedness for slow‐onset environmental disasters: Drawing lessons from three decades of El Niño impacts

“…One complicating factor, however, is that some countries experience teleconnected impacts the year after an El Niño event (known as El Niño +1 year), when the political and public salience is already waning. Still, while the natural scientific knowledge base needs to be expanded, planning based on the information that exists should be considered an imperative for sustainable disaster reduction (Kelman, ). Also, the enormous untapped theoretical potential of El Niño as an interesting case for disaster preplanning and learning under uncertainty needs to be explored further by students of proactive planning and the environment.…”

“…Still, while the natural scientific knowledge base needs to be expanded, planning based on the information that exists should be considered an imperative for sustainable disaster reduction (Kelman, 2017). Also, the enormous untapped theoretical potential of El Niño as an interesting case for disaster preplanning and learning under uncertainty needs to be explored further by students of proactive planning and the environment.…”

“…Attributing any single anomalous societal or environmental impact, such as a drought, bushfire or flood, to El Niño is fraught with uncertainty and potential for bias (Huggel, Stone, Auffhammer, & Hansen, ; Kelman, ). Not only do droughts and floods occur every year even in the absence of El Niño, but it is also difficult to determine to what degree El Niño has exacerbated these hazards during its peak intensity.…”

“…El Niño warm events provide a fruitful case for the study of disaster‐induced learning due to their reoccurring nature and the high level of uncertainty surrounding their impacts (Glantz, , ). While a growing body of knowledge has emerged on the challenges associated with forecasting El Niño, few studies have looked at the phenomenon from an environmental planning and disaster preparedness perspective (Kelman, ; Staupe‐Delgado & Kruke, ). Looking into patterns of learning from El Niño events, both across and within countries, can help us better understand preparedness for uncertain environmental impacts, in addition to providing important insights into learning dynamics.…”

Indicators for the assessment of social resilience in flood-affected communities – A text mining-based methodology

“…J. W. Liu et al, 2017;Madewell and Ponce-Garcia, 2016;Tanner et al, 2014) Security and feeling of control over one's own life (Madewell and Ponce-Garcia, 2016) Positiveness (Madewell and Ponce-Garcia, 2016) Individual health (Cutter et al, 2014;Khalili et al, 2015a) Motivation (Madewell and Ponce-Garcia, 2016) Knowledge (Béné et al, 2017;Bobby Rahman et al, 2016;Davydov et al, 2010;Khalili et al, 2015a;Madewell and Ponce-Garcia, 2016;Schelfaut et al, 2011;Tyshchuk and Wallace, 2018) Sense of belonging (Davydov et al, 2010;Tyshchuk and Wallace, 2018) 1.2 Health/disability Health care (Cutter et al, 2014;Edwards et al, 2017;Khalili et al, 2015a;J. J. W. Liu et al, 2017;Madewell and Ponce-Garcia, 2016) 1.3 Age and Demography Demography (Cutter et al, 2014;Davydov et al, 2010;Khalili et al, 2015a) Household (Béné et al, 2017;Kelman, 2017;Khalili et al, 2015a) Household resources (Cutter et al, 2014;Khalili et al, 2015a) 1.4 Migration Native language proficiency (Cutter et al, 2014) Place attachment (Cutter et al, 2014) Population diversity (Cutter et al, 2014;Edwards et al, 2017;Wickes et al, 2017) 2 Society 2.1 Associativism Volunteerism (Béné et al, 2017;…”