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The 2013 Central European floods were not only one of the most severe natural disasters in Austria in the last decades, but also constituted a landmark in crisis communication. For the first time, social media and online newspapers were important news channels, creating a need for new crisis communication strategies. Based on 20 semi-structured interviews and an analysis of online data, we reconstruct in this chapter the online communication of different stakeholders such as the authorities, rescue organisations and journalists during this emergency situation. The study shows that the use of social media was a weak point in official crisis communication. Through detailed analyses of information flows and the requirements of different stakeholders, the study reveals new challenges and possibilities for crisis communication in the digital age.

Using and understanding social media in the context of networked publics enhances crisis communication. This chapter describes models and ideas for integrating social media into the communication strategies of rescue organisations. The authors develop their recommendations for the use of social media by these organisations from both a summary and comparison of communication processes during the 2013 Central European floods in Austria, and from the perspective of an organisation actively using social media in the chosen model region of Alkoven. The chapter presents basic recommendations, recommendations inspired by content strategy and recommendations based on web and social media literacy in order to support the further development of crisis communication in the digital age.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the role that language translation can play in disaster prevention and management and to make the case for increased attention to language translation in crisis communication.

The paper draws on literature relating to disaster management to suggest that translation is a perennial issue in crisis communication.

Although communication with multicultural and multilinguistic communities is seen as being in urgent need of attention, the authors find that the role of translation in enabling this is underestimated, if not unrecognized.

This paper raises awareness of the need for urgent attention to be given by scholars and practitioners to the role of translation in crisis communication.

Due to climate change and an increasing concentration of the world’s population in vulnerable areas, how to manage catastrophe risk efficiently and cover disaster losses fairly is still a universal dilemma.

This paper applies a law and economic approach.

China’s mechanism for managing catastrophic disaster risk is in many ways unique. It emphasizes government responsibilities and works well in many respects, especially in disaster emergency relief. Nonetheless, China’s mechanism which has the vestige of a centrally planned economy needs reform.

I propose a catastrophe insurance market-enhancing framework which marries the merits of both the market and government to manage catastrophe risks. There are three pillars of the framework: (i) sustaining a strong and capable government; (ii) government enhancement of the market, neither supplanting nor retarding it; (iii) legalizing the relationship between government and market to prevent government from undermining well-functioning market operations. A catastrophe insurance market-enhancing framework may provide insights for developing catastrophe insurance in China and other transitional nations.

First, this paper analyzes China’s mechanism for managing catastrophic disaster risks and China’s approach which emphasizes government responsibilities will shed light on solving how to manage catastrophe risk efficiently and cover disaster losses fairly. Second, this paper starts a broader discussion about government stimulation of developing catastrophe insurance and this framework can stimulate attention to solve the universal dilemma.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the main changes regarding flood policy in Spain during the period 1983-2013, that is right after the large and very damaging episodes of 1982-1983 in Valencia, Catalonia and the Basque Country.

This is above all a review paper that looks retrospectively at flood policy in Spain during the past three decades. In order to collect and organize the information the authors follow the methodology of the IPCC regarding vulnerability studies. That is, the authors provide evidence for an overall assessment of the evolution of exposure, sensibility and adaptive capacity to floods in Spain for the period of reference. The authors approach these issues through the own experience and expertise on this subject as noted in the reference list.

While exposure to floods has generally increased (especially after the massive growth of urbanization in flood prone land of the 1990s and early 2000s) overall flood policy has contributed to make Spain less sensible and more adapted to floods. Still some issues remain unsolved especially the control of urban growth and the adaptation of the built environment to floods. For these reasons absolute economic losses from floods may continue to be important in the future (perhaps more so with climate change) even though, overall, Spanish society may have become less vulnerable and therefore more resilient than in the past.

The paper provides a retrospective study and assessment of policies taken and their changes regarding floods at a national level over a long period of time (30 years) which is a theme still relatively little explored in the scientific literature on this hazard.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the inherent adaptive capacities of multilevel flood management institutions in England that are necessary to espouse the concept of Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA).

This paper is based on an extensive assessment of flood management literature including European and English flood management policies, strategies, regulations and reports. First, an assessment protocol was developed from systematic literature search and, second, multilevel flood management policies and organizations were evaluated. A qualitative scoring method was applied at the assessment stage.

The protocol included 18 major assessment criteria under seven EbA principles. Application of the protocol showed that English national flood policies showed comparatively greater adaptive capacities than European- and local-level policies and local organizations. Specialized flood management policies such as Catchment Flood Management Policies at the local level and European Policies such as flood directives are among the lowest-scoring policy institutions. It was also identified that there is an emerging trend of stakeholder participation, catchment-based approach and knowledge-based adaptation planning at the national level which potentially can be the entry points of wider-scale EbA implementation. This paper recommends proactive roles of local executive organizations through improving institutional communication, consideration of catchment-scale planning with clear adaptation goals and valuing local knowledge base.

The research is important to identify the institutional aspects of adaptive capacity that require attention for promoting alternative adaptation measures such as EbA.

The study aims to showcase public sentiments via social media, Twitter, during 2014 floods of Jammu and Kashmir, India.

The study is based on content analysis of tweets related to Kashmir floods. Search was performed with “#kashmirfloods” and was confined to tweets posted from 4 September 2014 through 3 November 2014. A naturalistic approach was applied to examine the content and classify tweets into 5 major and 25 sub categories. Data as such collected were tabulated in SPSS 21 for analysis.

During the study period, individuals, news channels, and organisations posted a total of 36,697 tweets related to Kashmir floods. It all started with an outburst of tweets which goes on declining (exponentially) with every passing day. People express themselves in a number of ways with informational tweets used more during the time of disaster. Individuals expressing their sentiments outscore other types of sentiments with text-based tweets ranking high. About 44 per cent of tweets were retweeted, and nearly 31 per cent tweets were marked favourite. Comparatively, more number of informational and help tweets were retweeted or marked favourite. Contextual richness of tweet (i.e. number of embedded expressions) enhances its visibility by means of getting liked and/or retweeted. A statistically significant positive association is observed between the number of expressions in a tweet and the number of times it is liked (favourite) or retweeted.

Twitter plays a pivotal role during natural calamities like Kashmir floods to connect people in the hour of need and help. It provides a platform where the plight of people is heard across the globe and which encourages people to unite and overcome hurdles together.

This study examines the sentiments of people expressed during Jammu and Kashmir (India) Floods 2014 on social media – Twitter.