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Each stage in disaster management faces different challenges concerning information gathering, sharing, interpretation and dissemination. However, a comprehensive understanding of different information and communication technology (ICT) systems utilised for humanitarian disaster management is limited. Therefore, the paper follows a systems thinking approach to examine ten major man-made and/or natural disasters to comprehend the influence of ICT systems on humanitarian relief operations.

A longitudinal, multi-case study captures the use of ICT tools, stakeholders involvement, disaster stages and zones of operations for relief operations over the past two decades. A systems thinking approach is utilised to draw several inferences and develop frameworks.

Multiple ICT tools such as geographic information systems, online webpages/search engines, social media, unmanned aerial vehicles/robots and artificial intelligence are used for rapid disaster response and mitigation. Speed and coordination of relief operations have significantly increased in recent years due to the increased use of ICT systems.

Secondary data on the past ten disasters is utilised to draw inferences. The developed ICT-driven model must be validated during upcoming humanitarian relief operations.

A holistic understanding of a complex inter-relationship between influential variables (stakeholders, disaster stages, zones of operation, ICT systems) is beneficial for effectively managing humanitarian disasters.

Broadly classifying the ICT systems into surveillance, decision support and broadcasting systems, a novel ICT-enabled model for humanitarian relief operations is developed.

This conversation presents the reflections from five prominent disaster scholars and practitioners on the opportunities and challenges associated with research following disasters and explores the importance of ethics in disaster research.

This paper is based on the conversations that took place on Disasters: Deconstructed Podcast livestream on the 11th of June 2021.

The prominent themes in this conversation include ethical approaches to research, how we–as disaster researchers and practitioners–collaborate, engage, and cooperate, and whose voices are centred in a post-disaster research context.

The conversation contributes to ongoing discussions around the conduct and practice of disaster research.

This chapter presents a research study that examined post-disaster authentic university academic care resilience (PAUACR) at a Historically Black College and University (HBCU). PAUACR is a university’s and its students’ capacity to bounce back from post-disaster educational challenges. PAUACR requires a strong caring response and authentic academic care environments. For the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI), PAUACR following Hurricanes Irma and Maria was crucial to ensure students successfully completed the academic year. To assess UVI’s PAUACR, this study utilized a caring about academic caregiving inventory (CAACI). This 49-item instrument was used to gain students’ discernment of post-disaster authentic university academic care (PAUAC). The research employed a cross-sectional exploratory survey research design. The empirical analysis found associations between the structural workings of UVI’s academic caregiving in the aftermath of hurricanes Irma and Maria. These findings offer distinctive indicators of UVI’s PAUACR. Along with the findings, this chapter offers practical lessons of academic resilience drawn from the experience of conducting post-disaster research.

The simulated scenarios can be used to compute risk premiums per risk class in the portfolio. These can then be used to adjust the policy premiums by accounting for storm risk.

A complete model to analyse and characterise future losses of the property portfolio of an insurance company due to hurricanes is proposed. The model is calibrated by using the loss data of the Fidelidade insurance company property portfolio resulting from Hurricane Leslie, which hit the centre of continental Portugal in October, 2018.

Several scenarios are simulated and risk maps are constructed. The risk map of the company depends on its portfolio, especially its exposure, and provides a Hurricane risk management tool for the insurance company.

A statistical model is considered, in which weather data is not required. The authors reconstruct the behaviour of storms through the registered claims and respective losses.

This paper will challenge normative disaster studies and practice by arguing that thriving communities require the pursuit of imperfection and solidarity. The authors use Lewis Carroll’s Looking-Glass World as a lens to critique both how disasters are understood, and how disaster researchers and practitioners operate, within a climate-change affected world where cultural, political and historical constructs are constantly shifting.

The paper will undertake an analysis of both disasters and disaster studies, using this unique (and satirical) critical lens, looking at the unfolding of systemic mistakes, oppressions and mal-development that are revealed in contemporary disasters, that were once the critiques of Lewis Carroll’s Victorian-era England. It shows how disaster “resilience-building” can actually be a mechanism for continuing the status quo, and how persistent colonizing institutions and systems can be in reproducing themselves.

The authors argue the liberation of disaster studies as a process of challenging the doctrines and paradigms that have been created and given meaning by those in power – particularly white, Western/Northern/Eurocentric, male power. They suggest how researchers and practitioners might view disasters – and their own praxis – Through the Looking Glass in an effort to better understand the power, domination and violence of the status quo, but also as a means of creating a vision for something better, arguing that liberation is possible through community-led action grounded in love, solidarity, difference and interconnection.

The paper uses a novel conceptual lens as a way to challenge researchers and practitioners to avoid the utopic trap that wishes to achieve homogenized perfection and instead find an “imperfect” and complex adaptation that moves toward justice. Considering this idea through satire and literary criticism will lend support to empirical research that makes a similar case using data.

The paper seeks to explore the drivers of disaster planning in African-American households. While the paper is exploratory, the authors attempt to dialogue with substantial theoretical and applied research around vulnerability and disaster. Race, ethnicity and vulnerability are issues deeply entangled with American disaster preparedness and response. In this study, the authors hope to illuminate the threads which bind them together and contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between race, ethnicity, class and preparedness.

Data for this project come from a disaster planning question placed on the 2020 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey (CMPS). The authors analyze a split sample of around 5,000 African-American households descriptively and with multinomial logistic regression.

Disaster planning among African-American households is a product of past experiences, concern about other hazards, social trust and gender identity. These results are similar to other findings within the study of household preparedness and help to advance the understanding of predictors within the African-American community. Key drivers such as income, education level, gender identity, social trust and perceptions of other risks are consistent with previous studies.

This project is the first to examine issues of disaster planning utilizing a national sample of African-American households via the one-of-a-kind 2020 CMPS.

This study aims to share with business leaders how annual reviews can assist with workplace engagement.

Findings derived from industry experience, working closely with HR leaders from 95% of Fortune 500 companies, and first-hand experience as chief executive officer/leader.

Key ways that annual reviews boost employee morale are recognition and acknowledgment, constructive feedback, personalized appreciation, team recognition and continuous appreciation.

This study shares original thoughts on annual reviews, which is a timely topic in December, and how they can be used to increase workplace engagement. This study is from a workplace engagement perspective rather than just the organizational benefits of annual reviews.

This paper aims to examine a large-scale typhoon response coordination, focusing on the emergency collaborative network (ECN) configuration and structural properties that characterized the 2018 Typhoon Mangkhut response operations in Shenzhen, China.

The response coordination of Typhoon Mangkhut was operationalized as a Shenzhen-based ECN established upon a six-week observation. A systematic content analysis of publicly available government documents and newspaper articles was conducted to identify participating organizations and interorganizational relationships built and sustained during and immediately after the disaster. Social network metrics at levels of the node, subgroup of nodes and whole network were utilized to examine network capacity, network homophily and network performance, respectively.

Results of the centrality analysis demonstrate that government agencies at municipal and district/county levels took central network positions while private and non-profit organizations were mostly positioned at the network periphery. The blocking analysis points to a salient homophily effect that participating organizations sharing similar attributes were more likely to connect with each other. A further investigation of whole network metrics and the small-world index reveals the highly fragmented and discontinued features of ECN, which may result in unsystematic coordination among organizational actors.

This paper is distinctive in examining the coordination structure among response organizations embedded in a centralized and monocentric governance system and, more importantly, how the structural characteristics can differ from that evidenced in a more decentralized and polycentric system.

The survivorship of firms under extreme weather poses an essential question about the local economy's health. Over 90% of agricultural banks are categorized as community banks, which are important financial institutions promoting local growth. While previous studies suggest that climate change and weather shocks adversely impact community banks' resiliency, studies on whether these institutions engage in risk-reducing management strategies have been limited. In this study, the authors examine strategic choices of local community banks when facing flood events which include (1) safety net increase, (2) portfolio diversification, and (3) branch opening. These strategic choices are the coping mechanisms banks can take to survive while affecting the local competitive lending market.

The authors use panel-fixed effect regressions based on the storm data from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s National Weather Service (NWS) and the call reports from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The authors focus on community banks' account variable characteristics and the number of offices to examine whether community banks take an active role in managing flood risk.

Results suggest that community banks do employ the selected strategic choices to a certain degree, as it is found that there is an increase in the core capital that absorbs shocks and portfolio diversification. However, the magnitudes of these activities are rather small and not large enough to fully mitigate the climate risk. Also, the authors do not find any evidence of branch expansion associated with local floods.

This study contributes to the literature by examining different strategic choices of community banks in the face of natural uncertainty. Even though concerns of climate risk have been raised in the regulatory setting, a lack of guidance or assessment tools could contribute to the passive action of these community banks, even though climate risks can have a significant economic impact. Thus, the evidence documented from this study calls for further guidelines and the importance of highlighting climate risks on community banks so that they can actively engage in risk-reducing strategies.

This paper aims to examine how neighborhood characteristics (income, population composition) and individual building attributes (ownership) affect the recovery period of single-family housing and determine their correlations with property abandonment and changes in residential land use after natural disaster.

This empirical study focuses on Valley Fire, one of the California’s most destructive wildfires in 2015, and uses assessor, community, demographic and sales data to measure recovery of a panel of single-family houses located in Lake County in California between 2012 and 2020. Several regression and correlation models will be developed to test different hypotheses.

This study found that: Recovery period is longer than what expected in most existing literature; ownership status significantly affects recovery period; income level is not a significant factor for shortening the recovery period; and minorities may need more assistance for constant recovery. Findings of this research will help identify at risk communities to avoid uneven housing recovery and lower the rate of property abandonment.

Housing recovery is key to revitalizing communities following major natural disasters. The sociodemographic characteristics of each neighborhood have significant impact on the duration of recovery and possible property abandonment. Understanding how home and neighborhood characteristics affect recovery will help planners prevent long-lasting adverse effects of natural disasters.