Prelims

Half Title

Climate-Induced Disasters in the Asia-Pacific Region

Series Page

Community, Environment and Disaster Risk Management

Series Editor: William Lee Waugh, Jr.

Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction: Issues and Challenges, Volume 4

Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction: An Asian Perspective, Volume 5

Climate and Disaster Resilience in Cities, Volume 6

Disaster Education, Volume 7

Droughts in Asian Monsoon Region, Volume 8

Environment Disaster Linkages, Volume 9

Community-based Disaster Risk Reduction, Volume 10

Climate Change Modeling for Local Adaptation in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan Region, Volume 11

Ecosystem-based Adaptation, Volume 12

Water Insecurity: A Social Dilemma, Volume 13

Risks and Conflicts: Local Responses to Natural Disasters, Volume 14

Building Resilient Urban Communities, Volume 15

Hyogo Framework for Action and Urban Disaster Resilience, Volume 16

Local Disaster Risk Management in a Changing Climate: Perspective from Central America, Volume 17

Recovering from Catastrophic Disaster in Asia, Volume 18

The Tourism–Disaster–Conflict Nexus, Volume 19

Improving Flood Management, Prediction and Monitoring, Volume 20

Resistance, Resilience, and Recovery from Disasters, Volume 21

Title Page

Community, Environment and Disaster Risk Management Volume 22

Climate-Induced Disasters in the Asia-Pacific Region: Response, Recovery, Adaptation

Edited by

Andreas Neef

Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, University of Auckland, New Zealand

and

Natasha Pauli

UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, and Department of Geography and Planning, University of Western Australia, Australia

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2021

Copyright © 2021 Emerald Publishing Limited

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-83909-987-8 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-83909-986-1 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-83909-988-5 (Epub)

ISSN: 2040-7262 (Series)

Contents

List of Tables, Figures and Plates

List of Contributors

About the Contributors

Carl Adams holds a Master of Arts in Development Studies from the University of Auckland. His interests include humanitarian coordination and bureaucratic impediments in disaster responses. He has recently worked in Bangladesh as Country Director with Swiss-based humanitarian agency Medair and now works as International Director with Tearfund New Zealand.

Ashley Bartlett holds a Master of Science in Environmental Management from the University of Auckland. Her interests lie in the intersection of climate change adaptation and sustainable development in the Oceania-Pacific region, and the ways in which marginalised people’s knowledge can be incorporated into climate change resilience and adaptation planning.

Lucy Benge holds a Master of Arts in Development Studies from the University of Auckland. Her research interests include disaster-induced migration and displacement, climate change adaptation, disaster recovery and community-centred approaches to risk reduction and education.

Kahukura Bennett holds a Master of Arts in Development Studies from the University of Auckland. Her interests lie in the intersection of gender and sustainable development in the Pacific Islands. She currently works for Fairtrade Australia New Zealand.

Bryan Boruff is a Senior Lecturer in Geography at the University of Western Australia. His expertise lies in the application of geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing technologies to the study of environmental hazards. His research interests encompass risk and vulnerability assessment, population health, sustainable livelihoods, urban and regional development and development of spatially enabled eResearch tools.

Chanchhaya Chhom is a Founder of Plankton Media, a social media platform for ecotourism and green messages in Cambodia. He has worked on projects and research in public policy, political analysis and within the energy and environmental sector, through the Royal University of Phnom Penh and Green Move Consulting. He is an accomplished author of Khmer poetry and songs.

Savuti Henningsen holds a Master of Environmental Science with a specialisation in Land and Water Management from the University of Western Australia. Her research interests lie in environmental management and statistical analysis of environmental data. She is a Tutor at the University of Western Australia and Murdoch University.

Gracie Irvine holds a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Physical Geography from University College London. She currently works in environmental consulting in London and specialises in the assessment of daylight, sunlight and overshadowing.

Andreas Neef is a Professor in Development Studies at the University of Auckland. His current research focusses on adaptation and resilience to climate change, climate-induced migration and displacement, post-disaster response and recovery and land grabbing. Most of his recent research has been conducted in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific.

Meg Parsons is a Senior Lecturer (Environmental Management) within the School of Environment at the University of Auckland. Her research examines the intersections between colonialism and climate change adaptation, and the ways in which Indigenous peoples’ knowledge and experiences can be incorporated into climate adaptation plans and actions.

Natasha Pauli is a Lecturer in Geography at the University of Western Australia. Her research examines human–environment interactions in a range of settings from urban streetscapes to smallholder agriculture, with an emphasis on understanding how people perceive and manage ecological relationships under changing environmental conditions.

Renata Varea is a Research Associate with the School of Geography at the University of the South Pacific, Fiji. Her research interests include sustainable climate change mitigation strategies in Fiji. Her current research examines the effects of climate change and development on ecosystem services and the livelihoods of women, youth and minority groups in Ba.

Mark Williams holds a Master of Environmental Science with a specialisation in GIS from the University of Western Australia. He works as a Spatial Analyst for a Western Australian state government agency, where he uses spatial methods and technologies to help make communities in Western Australia more resilient to hazards.

Preface

Asia-Pacific is the world’s most disaster-prone region, accounting for about half of the climate-related displacements of 19 million people that occurred globally in 2017. Climate-related, fast-onset hazards, such as floods, cyclones and typhoons, have claimed more lives, displaced a higher number of people and caused more damage than in any other world region over the past 20 years. In addition, Asia-Pacific countries are extremely prone to slow-onset climate-induced processes, such as sea level rise and extended droughts, as global atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise. Among these countries are several low-income nations, with persistent poverty in rural and coastal areas. The cost of short-term response to and medium- to long-term recovery from climate-induced disasters falls disproportionately on the poorest and most marginalised communities within the Asia-Pacific region. At the same time, long-term adaptation processes to climate-related hazards at the household and community level remain poorly understood. Increasingly, adaptation strategies need to address the challenges of multi-risk environments, whereby climate-related disaster risk is just one of many risk factors, alongside other potential environmental hazards as well as socio-economic and political–institutional risks.

This volume presents richly detailed qualitative research from diverse contexts across the Asia-Pacific region and adds to scholarship on the trajectory of community resilience and adaption to climate-related hazards. Drawing on case studies from Cambodia, Fiji, Solomon Islands and Samoa, the chapters examine various response, recovery and adaptation strategies at the local level, incorporating the perspectives and knowledge of affected individuals, households and communities.

The main questions addressed by the contributions in this volume are as follows:

• What are the perceptions among individuals, households and communities regarding the impacts of climate-induced disasters on their livelihoods?

• Is the post-disaster context the right time for implementing new development agendas and effecting social change?

• Which groups within coastal and rural communities are most vulnerable to climate-induced disasters? Are vulnerability and resilience gendered?

• Are disaster-affected communities involved in decision-making by humanitarian NGOs around post-disaster response and recovery processes?

• What are the factors that enhance or constrain disaster response and recovery by communities and organisations?

• Can scientific/expert knowledge and Indigenous/local knowledge be integrated to enhance community-based disaster risk management and climate adaptation?

• What types of adaptation practices and strategies have individuals, households and communities developed over time and how effective are these in a multi-risk environment?

• Are there trade-offs between individual adaptation mechanisms and community-based approaches to climate adaptation?

• How has planned relocation been constructed as a climate adaptation strategy among government actors and within intergovernmental agencies?

The editors acknowledge the financial support of the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research for a three-year collaborative research project on ‘Climate change adaptation in post-disaster recovery processes: Flood-affected communities in Cambodia and Fiji’ (CAF2015-RR10-NMY-Neef; CAF2016-RR05-CMY-Neef; and CAF2017-RR01-CMY-Neef) and the University of Western Australia’s Research Collaboration Award RA/1/1200/755 ‘Risk, resilience and recovery: A participatory approach to integrating local and scientific knowledge for disaster preparedness of communities in flood-prone catchments in Fiji’ which laid the foundation for this publication project.

We are particularly indebted to the scholars who made invaluable contributions to this volume by reviewing the various chapters, namely, Alexandra Peralta, Chanrith Ngin, Clare Mouat, Jamie Gillen, Karen Paiva Henrique, Lucy Benge and Sarah Prout Quicke.

A common message from the chapters of this book is for greater recognition and acknowledgement of local preferences and practices in disaster risk management and climate change adaptation. We hope that this volume gives voice to the wealth of local knowledge and views expressed by participants in the research, and demonstrates the importance of the social and cultural context in which post-disaster response and recovery efforts and community-based climate adaptation approaches take place.

Andreas Neef

Natasha Pauli

Editors