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Vulnerability studies are commonly used to inform planning, as cities and regions seek to build resilience to environmental hazards. In Shelby County, Tennessee, socioeconomic census tract data were mapped to identify the socially vulnerable population and places to underpin strategies in the Mid-South Regional Resilience Master Plan (RRMP). While this is an important step in identifying vulnerability in the county, this paper aims to enhance the local analysis through an integrated approach that considers both social factors and environmental hazards in assessing vulnerability.

This paper conducts a social vulnerability assessment by integrating a social vulnerability index with risk exposure analysis at the census tract level to identify the population and places vulnerable to riverine flooding in Shelby County.

The analysis reveals that social vulnerability assessments that do not relate socioeconomic factors to specific environmental hazards such as riverine flooding underestimate the population and places that are vulnerable. For Shelby County, this has the tendency to undermine the prioritization and effectiveness of strategies to build resilience to riverine flooding and can worsen preexisting marginalization.

This paper recommends integrated vulnerability assessments for each of the environmental hazards identified in the Mid-South RRMP to augment existing resilience efforts in the county.

This paper enhances the understanding of social vulnerability assessments by consolidating the need for integrated assessment frameworks as basis for resiliency planning.

Research shows that the physical locations of correctional facilities often contribute to environmental hazards. Research also shows that correctional facilities are often sited near hazardous or undesirable land(s). In combination, incarcerated individuals may be at increased risk of experiencing negative health consequences because of exposure to various environmental harms. This is especially alarming as incarcerated individuals lack the capacity to decide where they are detained. In these cases, health issues that may have developed while detained may extend beyond incarceration. Furthermore, incarcerated individuals are not protected by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Justice policies.

Using a case study approach, the authors examine two specific correctional facilities in the USA to not only demonstrate the various environmental harms that incarcerated individuals encounter but also highlight carceral spaces as sites of environmental violations.

Additionally, the authors address the negative health consequences incarcerated individuals report because of exposure to these harms. They also argue that creating safer communities requires more than reducing crime and preventing criminal victimization. Creating safer communities also includes promoting environmental safety and protection from hazards that cause sickness and disease.

This work contributes to an emerging and growing body of literature that examines the intersection of carceral studies and environmental justice.

This article takes an autobiographical approach in describing the evolution of the equity and environmental justice debate. The intent is not only to provide a historical approach in identifying the emerging research and policy questions, but also to describe the author's own scholarly growth in studying them.

Studies have proved that wood sawmill workers are exposed to high occupational risks if not well managed. In developing countries, many wood sawmills are found in urban and semi-urban areas. Studies exploring how residents near these wood sawmills perceive and react to these risks is scarce in Nigeria. The application of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) technology is possibly one of the ways to manage the likely hazards. This study aims to investigate the possible hazards associated with timber sawmills in residential areas and the role of 4IR technologies in proffering feasible solutions to mitigate them in Nigeria’s cities.

Data were sourced from three cities and nine sawmills across Nigeria. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with authoritative participants (residents, environmentalists, government agencies, sawmill owners, 4IR technology experts and medical experts) who have been championing the regulation and safety of timber sawmill locations within the cities (Lagos, Benin City and Owerri) via a phenomenology type of qualitative research and supplemented by secondary sources.

Findings show that timber sawmills are located across the three cities in Nigeria and may have contributed to the health and environmental challenges of the people living in the neighbourhood. The identified hazards were grouped into three sub-themes (physical, health and environmental hazards). Findings identify robots, modularisation, cyber-physical systems, the internet of things and services and human-computer interaction as the digitalised technology that can be used in sawmills to mitigate hazards for the benefit of mankind.

The paper is limited to hazards that residents in timber sawmills locations may face in Nigeria’s cities and data collected via face-to-face 23 interviews. The paper’s referral to past publications in the findings and discussion section compensated for the small sample size.

As part of this paper’s implications, the emerged recommendations will strengthen collaboration with relevant stakeholders regarding control measures via the use of 4IR technologies in timber sawmills. This will stir up policymakers to develop possible policies that will promote and create the platform for the implementation of 4IR technologies in city sawmills.

Apart from probably being the first paper to explore the hazards of residents in timber sawmill locations and proffer solutions via the usage of the 4IR technology, this paper’s contribution emphasis the need for in-depth future studies regarding the risk perceptions of Nigeria’s residents living in timber sawmill area.

Purpose – The vulnerability and adaptive capacities of cities in Latin America have received relatively less attention compared to other regions of the world. This chapter seeks to address these gaps by (a) examining vulnerability to the health impacts from air pollution and temperature, and exploring whether socioeconomic factors between neighborhoods differentiate these risks within the cities of Bogota, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, and Santiago and (b) assessing the capacity of urban populations to perceive and respond to vulnerability and risk.

Design/methodology/approach – Because of the complex nature of vulnerability, we combined a set of quantitative and quantitative methods and data to determine whether and under what conditions the people in these cities are vulnerable (e.g., Time Series Analysis, Generalized Linear Model, and statistical correlations of exposure and human mortality with socioeconomic vulnerability).

Findings – We found high levels of PM10, ozone, and other criteria air pollutants in three cities for which we had data. However, the pattern of their impacts on health depends on the particulars of pollutant levels and atmospheric and weather conditions of each city. Our results reflect the varied facets of urban vulnerability and shed light on the nature of the associated human health risks. Although wealthy populations have access to education, good quality housing, and health services to mitigate some environmental risks, overall the data show that health impacts from air pollution and temperature in the study cities do not necessarily depend on socioeconomic differentiations.

Research limitations/implications – Although we sought to use quantitative and qualitative methods, given the complexity of the research, it has proven difficult to fully explore these issues across scales and with a full accounting of local context.

Practical implications – Our findings show that wealthy and educated populations may be equally at risk to the health implications of air pollution. Policies designed to mitigate these risks should not use socioeconomic characteristics as predictors of a population's risk in relation to air pollution.

Originality/value – This research contributes valuable insights into the dynamics of vulnerability to air pollution in Latin American cities, a region that has been historically underrepresented in empirical studies of urban risk. We have also combined a range of methods and approaches to improve our understanding of the multifaceted nature of urban vulnerability to global environmental change.

This chapter discusses some issues of diversity in hazard mitigation when just recovery is considered or not. Justice in hazard mitigation becomes crucial considering unequal distribution of resources, systemic racism, and social vulnerability to hazards. While there has been research on just recovery, there is little or no evidence of research that examines the issue of equity and justice in hazard mitigation, This chapter discusses what hazard mitigation is, the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 focusing on the planning process, public involvement in the planning process, some planning theories on vulnerability, and building the case for achieving and striving for justice and equity in promoting diversity in hazard mitigation. The chapter makes some recommendation on how to achieve diversity in hazard mitigation.

Risk assessments are the very basis on which planning and implementation are carried out. In the context of urban risk management, the assessment processes are complex to understand as they involve multi-sectoral parameters. Many of the issues involved are of technical nature, but this also requires focus on the principles behind the assessment process including participatory assessment tools.

Action planning is a participatory, short-term, visible, output-oriented process that enables urban community groups to plan the development of risk reduction actions in their locality and to lead the implementation of the action plans.

There are three kinds of actions that emerge from an action planning process: (i) those that can be implemented by the community groups themselves, (ii) those that need some external help for implementation, and (iii) those that can only be implemented by specialized agencies from outside the community. Implementation management processes thus need to look at how internal systems can be established to operationalize self-action, and to coordinate external interventions.

The fast depletion of natural resources that has resulted in the scarcity of resources and degradation of environment and the subsequent conflict over resources within and among the states have given rise to a growing concern for environmental security all over the world. It may be pointed out here that since the beginning of human civilization, humans have been relying on the environment for their needs and demands. Therefore, the concern of human beings to the environment has been always and obvious. But now with the depletion of natural resources, the concern for environmental security is being advocated. The purpose of this paper is to analyze environmental issues in the context of South Asia. It may also be added here that in a situation as stated above, any stress on the environment can cause conflicts involving violence within the state as well as between the nation states. Moreover, this paper will look into other issues related to the environment degradation in India and Bangladesh.

The first approach confines environment to the nature and the problems and constraints related to it. It can be termed as ecological approach. This approach is too narrow in its scope, as nature alone is not responsible for many types of hazards. How it is being exploited and protected is equally important. The other approach has been termed as the maximize approach and it includes both the ecology and its human domains. This approach takes into consideration the interaction between the two. It believes that the excessive dependence of human beings affects the environment. Also, the depletion and degradation of the environment affect human beings. The environmental security has to include both the domains and understand their inter-linkages. In fact, the uses of environment and its proper maintenance are related to the human domains.

The environment-related problems and their implications are more similar in both countries. It is true that there is a growing awareness on environmental issues in almost all the countries in the last few years and the individual countries have persuaded environment-friendly policies in certain sectors. Apart from this regional level, a common approach to securing the environment may involve the following aspects: sharing of knowledge and expertise regarding population control measures, policies and programs; cooperation for development and poverty eradication; regularization of inter-state migrations, evolving a regional framework for controlling, repatriation and rehabilitation of refugees; establishment of a system of disaster management and disaster preparedness at the regional level; exchange of knowledge and research works on seismic tremors, earthquakes, and landslides, their causes and possibilities; evolving common flood control measures and development of a regional flood warning system; common measures can be taken up for increased agriculture productivity, treatment of salinity, development of cyclone warning system, reforestation, development of water resources, air pollution control system, etc.

This research will not only be useful for India and Bangladesh but also for other South Asian countries and developing countries as well.