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The objective of this exploratory research is to investigate the role of Twitter in crisis communication by analysing all the earthquake-related messages from local public authorities in four Italian regions (Abruzzo, Lazio, Marche and Umbria) during the seismic sequence that began on 24th August 2016 and finished at the end of January 2017.

The study is based on a manual data collection of earthquake-related tweets. Founded on a theoretical framework, the data analysis has been developed both through textual analysis and in-depth interpretation by two researchers to catalogue the messages according to identified categories.

It emerges that the affected Italian regions used Twitter only for information coverage without offering a complete and detailed picture of the disaster. Most of the tweets concerned daily statements by politicians or regional administrators engaged in crisis management, while an accurate selection of the topics and messages to be launched does not emerge, with significant implications on the effectiveness of the tweeting activity itself.

This paper aims to contribute to the literature on crisis communication and social media during a natural disaster, highlighting the criticalities shown by the Italian case studies. The originality of this study relates to the comparative examination of Twitter activities for four regional government bodies involved in the 2016 Italian earthquake.

Since the late 1980s, social theorists championed for the birth of a new era, in which societies were increasingly exposed to growing global risks. The presence of increasing risks including natural disasters, technological errors, terrorist attacks, nuclear wars and environmental degradation suggests that human beings are becoming increasingly vulnerable. Therefore, an understanding of vulnerability is crucial. Vulnerability is often considered as the potential to suffer from physical attacks. This approach, however, has limited capacity to explain many forms of suffering including not only physical aspects, but also mental, social, economic, political and social dimensions. This chapter draws on the vulnerability literature to present an overarching framework for the book. It starts with an outline of the concept origins, then discusses its relationship with the risk society thesis before forming conceptualisation. The chapter then points out the key similarities and differences between vulnerability and other concepts such as risk, disaster, poverty, security and resilience. The authors rework an existing “security” framework to develop a new definition of the concept of vulnerability. Finally, the authors look into the root causes and the formation of vulnerability within social systems.

The purpose of this study is for a higer sustainability of the historic towns and centres. The task of the society is to minimize risk and guarantee maximun safety within the territory while safeguarding the natural as the built landscape. With these sometimes unfortunate outcomes in mind, the society continue to promote “informed planning” hoping to achieve ever grater sustainability and respect for the extant, but, in practice, what the society have done amounts to very little. Indeed, today’s historic city centrers remain neglected and are increasingly “unsafe”.

In the course, Italy introduced a set of regulations in an attempt to construct, transform, conserve and exploit the potential of historic cities. Unfortunately, the results were not outstanding and today we need to rethink their approach if we are to reverse the abandonment of historic centers and make those “safe” again. In an effort to understand if what was hitherto put in place is sufficient or if new strategies are called for, we have reviewed the technical measures issued. In a large number of cases, restoration only increased their fragility, whereas in many others, especially concerning small centers with traditional economies, no rehabilitation work was ever attempted, not even essential maintenance work, and thus their functional and physical obsolescence became manifest.

The variegated and complex fragility of such centers requires forms of planning that can take account of the environment, deploy city-planning measures and undertake structural and architectural adaptation. If regeneration is to lead to a “comprehensive and integrated vision” for solving urban problems, economic, physical and social improvement and appropriate environmental conditions for an area subject to transformation, it will require new national and local action policies able to guarantee physical safety, the conservation of cultural values and the social and economic regeneration of such centers within a framework of policies for equilibrated urban development.

The processes of repurposing/revamping and giving leverage to historic centers must make use of multidisciplinary approaches ranging from conservation needs to overall regeneration needs. Therefore, new formulas are needed to enable us to combine conservation based on protective constraints with formulas for rehabilitation, reuse and performance improvement that are couched less in terms of sustainability, and more in terms of profitability, according to the principle – repeatedly voiced in international forums – that assets are also economic resources. Therefore, it will be necessary to proceed carefully, by drawing up a program of territorial development strategies with due guarantees of feasibility and economic growth prospects.

An appropriate regulatory framework is certainly necessary for the regeneration of historic towns and centers but an even more important role should be played by projects that optimize the use of resources if we are to ensure that financing will be managed correctly and a connection will be created – given the discontinuity represented by new constructions – between what remains of extant historic and contemporary architecture and construction. In this context, contemporary architectural design and urban planning can help meet the continued requests for the refurbishment of consolidated cities and the reconstruction of earthquake-stricken towns.

Rehabilitating center is not a cultural luxury but a necessity that springs from the need to economize territorial and economic resources. Consequently, a methodology should be formulated to produce, in each specific case, a design jointly drawn up by town planners, architects, urban redevelopment experts, structural engineers and with the participation of many other specialist figures, such as economists, sociologists, geologists and engineering physicists.

This paper provides a multidisciplinary vision on regeneration.

The purpose of this paper is to mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of Disaster Prevention and Management. It reviews the modern-day challenges facing researchers, scholars and practitioners who work in the field of disaster risk reduction (DRR).

The paper reviews key issues in DRR, including the relationship between capital and labour and its influence on vulnerability, the role of human mobility and migration in disaster vulnerability and the definition of welfare.

There is a need for a major revision in the body of disaster theory so that it can take account dynamic changes in the modern world. In the future, climate change and migration may radically alter the bases of vulnerability, risk and impact. The ways in which this will occur are not yet clear, but indications can be gained from current trends and the state of foment in which the world presently exists.

Prediction of future developments is always subject to the caveat that unexpected influences may change the expected course of events. However, the authors need to anticipate developments in order to produce theory, policies and practical solutions that are well-thought-out and viable.

Disaster theory must adapt to new conditions if it is to remain the “road-map” that clarifies complex realities and enables disasters to be managed and abated.

Huge changes in the stability, expectations and vulnerabilities of populations are underway. These need to be understood much more fully in terms of their ability to influence disaster risks and impacts.

Presently, few analyses of the dynamism of global society are able to present a clear picture of the future needs of theory generation, scholarship and research.

Eight years of civil war in Syria severely impacted the historic core of Aleppo, with about 30 percent of its buildings completely destroyed and huge amounts of debris generated. This paper proposes recovery strategies for some of the most badly damaged sites in the city through material reuse and transformation, one of the goals of which is to ensure the continuity of the city’s urban cultural heritage. The purpose of this paper is to presents not only risks but also opportunities with respect to the integration of technologies to support recovery and reconstruction.

The paper analyzes the current situation in the Old City of Aleppo by identifying the most seriously damaged sites, namely those that have sustained damage to between 80 and 100 percent of the site. It reviews comparable international post-disaster examples and investigates appropriate options for dealing with the damage caused by the war and the management of debris, with consideration given to minimal intervention, the retention of structural integrity, technology and the integration of historic materials within new components and buildings. The methodology has relied on research through field work, including interviews with stakeholders in Aleppo.

The paper proposes two strategies to guide post-war rebuilding and conservation efforts in the Old City of Aleppo through: the creation of new multi-purpose, public open spaces and the use of debris in the repair of buildings and construction of new components and buildings, including infrastructure for solar panels within the new public spaces.

This paper contributes to the development of a post-civil war sustainable material recovery approach for the Old City of Aleppo and for Syria more generally, where a disaster waste management strategy is still in development.

The increasing number of natural disasters has increased the attention on emergency plans aimed at providing fast support to affected communities. In this context, inventory pre-positioning management, which involves positioning the materials required to meet the affected community's needs early, has been increasingly acknowledged, but many challenges persist. The purpose of the paper is to provide a decision support system for the optimal quantification and location of humanitarian aid, trying to enhance and extend the existing literature on this topic.

The paper develops a numerical model for inventory pre-positioning of humanitarian aid to reduce both emergency response times and costs connected to goods procurement for seismic events. By examining the characteristics of the territory and the affected population, the model defines the optimal stock levels for four basic need items (hygienic sanitary kits, beds, blankets and camp tents) to be pre-allocated in the territory.

The model was validated using data obtained from the two severe earthquakes that occurred in Italy. The case study showed how the simulated outputs differ from the real case data and the economic benefits of adopting inventory pre-positioning considering the cost reductions (purchase, storage, transport and fulfilment of requirements).

The proposed decision support system allows the pre-positioning of emergency supplies in local areas in order to reduce response times and increase the speed of intervention in the event of seismic events, exploiting the advantages of a simulation model. Numerical and graphical results can easily support improvements in humanitarian logistics, providing those affected with rapid, cost-effective and better-adapted responses.

Studies on human behaviour during a seismic emergency in tall buildings are scant. During such emergencies, occupants need to reach a safe place. The purpose of this paper is to address some of the emotional and behavioural responses of the occupants of three multi-storey buildings during the 19 September earthquake that hit Mexico City in 2017.

A cross-sectional and non-probability study was conducted using a questionnaire-based survey; the sample size was n = 352, and the study was conducted from 4 October to 20 November 2017.

(1) In the 11 storey-building, women, age (18–49 years old [yo]) and participants with higher education exhibited flight behaviour, and those of the six storey-building within the age category 18–49 yo also exhibited a similar behaviour; (2) Women and age (18–49 yo) in the six and 11-storey buildings were significantly associated with fear of the earthquake; (3) Women were significantly more fearful and felt more intense the tremors than men in the 11-storey building; (4) Women were significantly more fearful of the 11-storey building collapsing; (5) The taller the building, the more fearful were the occupants of the building collapsing.

First, the sample considered in the study was no probability; consequently, the results should not be generalised to the existing high-rising buildings in Mexico City. Second, some of the variables considered herein were of the Likert-type scale but have been assumed as continuous; in fact, some future work could be the design of a valid and reliable questionnaire to address human behaviour during earthquakes in tall buildings.

The presented results may be the great value to key decision-makers on how to address the lack of earthquake preparedness during a seismic emergency. Further, the results have shed light on the negative emotions (fear) experienced by the occupants of tall buildings.

Gaining a better understanding of human behavioural in tall buildings is essential in devising measures to mitigate the impact of earthquake disasters.

Research on human behaviour during a seismic emergency in high-rise buildings is scant. To gain a better understanding of human emotional and behavioural response to earthquakes in tall buildings, it becomes necessary to conduct research such as the present case study. This may help decision-makers to devise measures so that the impact of earthquake disasters may be limited.

With the global outbreak of COVID-19 that has made the economic activities standstill, countries have taken immediate measures to safeguard not only the human lives but also the economies. This study investigates empirically the lockdown impact of current pandemic on the Saudi economy.

The study employs inoperability input–output model (IIOM) on the input–output table (IOT) of Saudi Arabia for the analysis.

Findings show that with the closure of few sectors for the period of two months, the GDP declined to 6.49%. Findings also show a negative impact on consumption, investments and exports.

One limitation of current study is that it uses IOTs which lack primary and secondary income distribution that is vital for presenting complete interindustry connections in the analysis. The interindustry structures relate to the consumption structures which ultimately lead to the income distribution and affect the consumption behaviors of economic agents. Hence, the complete income circular flow is not incorporated in IIOM using IOT. The findings of current study would be well grounded if it endogenized the primary and secondary income distribution.

The practical implication of this study is the use of IIOM for anticipating the potential loss against the backdrop of catastrophes and pandemics. The IIOM has the capability to predict the economic effects of disruptive events and hence the policy-makers can better predict and devise prudent policies to avoid the likely threats to the economy.

The current situation is unprecedented, and it is challenging for governments to forecast the economic repercussions. Several economic sectors have been inoperative due to lockdown implemented by the governments. This study empirically estimated the inoperability produced by the current pandemic. The findings are consistent with other estimated statistics, thereby proving the efficacy of IIOM to anticipate the economic repercussions of natural hazards.

The purpose of this paper is to explore behavioural factors which are perceived to influence corrupt action in the Australian construction industry.

The paper draw on Rabl and Kühlmann’s Model of a corrupt action and the results of face-to-face interviews with 23 people working in the Australian construction industry.

The results suggest that corruption is ambiguously defined yet perceived to be very common and primarily associated with personal gain rather than breaking the law. The main forms of corruption were identified as kickbacks, fraud and bribery and this behaviour is perceived to be driven by high goal feasibility, by conducive attitudes and supportive subjective norms and by high perceived behavioural control over being caught.

The research is based on a relatively small sample of 23 respondents and the use of snowball sampling may have meant that the respondents would tend to present a particular view of the industry. It is also important to point out that this research took place within a highly politicised environment coinciding the with launch of the third Royal Commission into corruption in the construction industry and is based on the respondent’s perceptions of corruption rather than incontrovertible evidence of corruption in practice. Nevertheless, given the care the authors took to avoid these biases, it does provide a useful window in the incidence and types of corruption in construction and the behavioural factors that might influence it.

In terms of tackling corruption, it is recommended that greater attention be given to exploring the culture of the industry which appears to normalise corrupt behaviour and to the hidden informal “institutions” which appear to be undermining the many formal policies and procedures which have been put in place to tackle corruption in the construction industry.

The global construction industry has been identified by Transparency International as the most bribery-prone of 19 industries it rated. The cost is huge with scarce resources being diverted from much needed urban regeneration, community concerns about development being ignored, individual human rights being abused, productivity and efficiency being compromised and important environments, cultures and heritage being destroyed. In Australia, concerns about corruption in the construction industry have led to an unprecedented three Royal Commissions which have argued that there is a culture which encourages, accepts and rewards this behaviour.

By using Rabl and Kühlmann’s Theory of a corrupt action this paper throws new light on how corruption is defined by members of the construction industry. The findings suggest that while formal technical and procedural solutions to corruption are important in addressing corruption they are likely to be undermined by strong cultures and informal institutions which dictate the “rules of the game” on the ground. There is a clear need to better understand how these informal institutions work to constrain formal rules devised to bring about reform.