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Globally, climate change is exacerbating the impacts of climate-related, natural hazards including avalanches. However, there is limited knowledge about how small and remote communities are affected by and perceive the effects of a changing climate with hazards that increase in intensity and/or frequency. Consequently, there is a call for more actionable and interdisciplinary climate adaptation research, which takes its starting point in understanding the local concerns of people living in small remote communities.

This paper test the photovoice method to gather respondents’ perceptions of the place in which they live and the hazards they face through personal narratives of photographs.

Despite its limitations, the photovoice method was found to be a suitable tool for gaining valuable insights into the communities while ensuring comfort and enjoyment for both participants and the researcher.

The findings also show that despite its limitations photovoice is a useful method for shedding light on risk perception, place attachment and resiliency in communities facing the risk of natural hazards. The study found that place attachment is an important factor to consider in disaster risk management, policy and decision making.

The paper adds to a growing body of literature surrounding the relationship between place attachment and community resilience to climate-related natural hazards. The authors examined the impact of place attachment on community resilience, focusing on two rural and remote villages located in the Westfjords in Iceland – Patreksfjörður and Flateyri. Societal aspects of natural hazards have hitherto been hardly addressed in Iceland and to our knowledge the applied method has not been tested before in such a setting. The photovoice method is tested to gather respondents’ perceptions of the place in which they live and the hazards they face through personal narratives of photographs.

This article focuses on the representations of natural hazards, disasters, gender roles and norms in Makoto Shinkai’s disaster-themed anime films Your Name (2016) and Weathering with You (2019).

This article commences with a literature review on disasters, disaster films, gender in disasters and gender in disaster films; then, this article thoroughly investigates the portrayal of disasters and gender in the two films, drawing data from their narratives and plots.

This article finds that the two films’ depictions of disasters and gender adhere to the traditional patterns observed in Hollywood and Japanese disaster films. The natural hazards and disasters in the two films reflect real-world disasters that occurred in Japan’s recent decades, especially the 3.11 Tohoku earthquake in 2011. Traditional gender figures and prevalent heterosexual expectations in Japanese culture and society deeply influence the two films’ portrayal of gender roles and norms.

Numerous academic works explored Hollywood disaster films, their representations of gender roles and norms in disaster themes. However, few focus on recent Japanese anime films such as Your Name and Weathering with You. This article aims to fill this gap.

Fires have the potential to destroy, resulting in the loss of property and livelihoods, as well as injury, death and repeated trauma for those who are already vulnerable. However, fire as a hazard has been treated rigidly and un-critically, a model that has influenced how it is perceived by policy makers, first responders, engineers and academics and subsequently approaches to implementing and better understanding fire prevention, mitigation, response and recovery from the impacts of fire.

This article deals with fire, arguing that its case can help imagine what liberation might mean within and for disaster studies. The study argues against dogmatic, outdated, technological and solution-focused perspectives that have constrained how fire and its effects are understood and discuss what disciplinary liberation could mean for the study of fire and its integration within DRR. The study’s approach is based on the DRR Assemblage Theory, which points to fire as an issue at a societal level.

The study explores the themes of fire and liberation through contributions and insights that have emerged through the authors' professional experience in research and practice. It offers an original and timely engagement with disaster studies through the lens of fire, an increasingly pertinent phenomenon for disaster scholars and practitioners alike.

By drawing on the example of fire as a socio-technical-environmental phenomenon, this paper contributes a novel perspective on the intellectual and practical possibilities that can emerge from disciplinary liberation.

The study, within the Increasing Resilience of Cultural Heritage (ResCult) project, aims to support civil protection to prevent, lessen and mitigate disasters impacts on cultural heritage using a unique standardised-3D geographical information system (GIS), including both heritage and risk and hazard information.

A top-down approach, starting from existing standards (an INSPIRE extension integrated with other parts from the standardised and shared structure), was completed with a bottom-up integration according to current requirements for disaster prevention procedures and risk analyses. The results were validated and tested in case studies (differentiated concerning the hazard and type of protected heritage) and refined during user forums.

Besides the ensuing reusable database structure, the filling with case studies data underlined the tough challenges and allowed proposing a sample of workflows and possible guidelines. The interfaces are provided to use the obtained knowledge base.

The increasing number of natural disasters could severely damage the cultural heritage, causing permanent damage to movable and immovable assets and tangible and intangible heritage. The study provides an original tool properly relating the (spatial) information regarding cultural heritage and the risk factors in a unique archive as a standard-based European tool to cope with these frequent losses, preventing risk.

The purpose of this study is to identify LGBTQ+ perceptions of and experiences with hazards, vulnerabilities and disasters in the San Francisco Bay Area in the USA and to co-develop applied projects to “queer” disaster knowledge production and risk reduction activities in the region.

This is a community science project in which we collaborate with community members to enhance both community and scientific knowledge with the goal of utilizing it to produce a positive change to pressing social issues and their underlying causes. We do this through a series of four focus group workshops to identify community priorities, hazards, vulnerabilities and local action. We follow this with further ethnographic research and projects to apply findings from phase one.

The authors have found that: LGBTQ+ people in the Bay Area have unique experiences with hazards, vulnerabilities and disasters; there are significant gaps in the representation of LGBTQ+ hazard exposure in local scientific models that we can address through alternative methodologies; and tabletop exercises, learning modules and podcasts help orient and train disaster response agencies and personnel on LGBTQ+ inclusive operations.

This initiative entails novel approaches to community science for disaster risk reduction and creative collaboration with community-based organizations to foster the development of LGBTQ+ inclusive disaster risk reduction and response.

Disasters and armed conflict often co-occur, but does that imply that disasters trigger or fuel conflict? In the small but growing body of literature attempting to answer this question, divergent findings indicate the complex and contextual nature of a potential answer to this question. The purpose of this study is to contribute a robust cross-country analysis of the co-occurrence of disaster and conflict, with a particular focus on the potential role played by disaster.

Grounded in a theoretical model of disaster–conflict co-occurrence, this study merges data from 163 countries between 1990 and 2017 on armed conflict, disasters and relevant control variables (low human development, weak democratic institutions, natural resource dependence and large population size/density).

The main results of this study show that, despite a sharp increase in the co-occurrence of disasters and armed conflict over time, disasters do not appear to have a direct statistically significant relation with the occurrence of armed conflict. This result contributes to the understanding of disasters and conflicts as indirectly related via co-creation mechanisms and other factors.

This study is a novel contribution, as it provides a fresh analysis with updated data and includes different control variables that allow for a significant contribution to the field.

This research aims to investigate post-forest fire perceptions of businesses towards the environment as a stakeholder. Through interviews with affected businesses, the authors aim to understand whether disasters prompt sustainability prioritisation beyond legal or market demands, shedding light on potential shifts in environmental attitudes and decision-making processes.

The authors used qualitative methods to investigate post-disaster shifts in environmental perceptions. Using site visits, preparatory meetings and semi-structured interviews between October 2017 and April 2021, the authors gained insights into destruction, recovery efforts and stakeholder perspectives. Content analysis provided valuable decision-making insights, particularly in understanding the landscape dominated by SMEs reliant on short-term strategies.

Interviews revealed varied perspectives on stakeholder recognition, especially concerning the natural environment. Although some managers promptly acknowledged stakeholder groups, the recognition of the natural environment as one varied. Concerning the natural environment as a stakeholder, responses ranged from ecological acknowledgment to denying its stakeholder status. Despite differing views, many agreed on the forest's importance, especially for resource-reliant industries. The findings suggest that although many decision makers verbally acknowledge the natural environment as a stakeholder, their actions reveal the opposite.

The limitations are the COVID-19 pandemic in the data research phase. The methodology applied (qualitative) can be a limitation in itself and the authors recommend further research, applying mixed or quantitative methods. The research covers one event in one country. It is relevant to test our questions and conclusions in other countries/after other natural disasters. Incorporating other stakeholders' views and exploring alternative theories could enhance understanding and challenge existing results.

This study holds practical implications for understanding the relationship between organisations and the natural environment, particularly in recognising it as a stakeholder. By acknowledging the environment as a stakeholder, organisations can mitigate the effects of future natural disasters, as well as reducing their environmental footprints. Implementing these insights can lead to more informed decision-making processes and contribute to more effective resources and stakeholder management.

Recognizing the environment as a stakeholder fosters environmental consciousness and community engagement. Addressing the natural environment as such enhances the ownership and responsibility of the surrounding natural environment.

The study's originality lies in its exploration of organisational responses to natural disasters, particularly in recognizing the environment as a stakeholder. It offers unique insights into decision-making processes and attitudes towards environmental responsibility, contributing to advancing understanding and informing strategies for sustainable disaster management on a global scale.

At the global level, disaster risk finance (DRF) is playing an increasingly prominent role in the international agendas for climate change adaptation. However, before implementing such agendas, it is essential to understand the needs and limitations of DRF in the subnational context where they need to impact. This research aims to gain insights into the perspectives of community and governmental actors in Colombia regarding DRF. Its goal is to promote the specific design of collaborative educational and technical assistance processes that consider their interests in the subject and the cultural diversity of the territories.

To achieve this, semi-structured interviews were conducted, and the findings were organized to highlight key aspects that help to understand DRF perspectives in the Colombian context.

It was found that the most significant limitations of implementing DRF include a lack of knowledge on the topic, corruption that encourages a reactive approach and the absence of economic resources. Concerns have emerged regarding the possibility of climate risk insurance becoming a profit-driven enterprise and the potential development of dependency behaviors within community groups, leading to maladaptation and moral hazard. Similarly, the implementation of DRF through foreign funds has raised concerns about the loss of territorial sovereignty and autonomy.

This is one of the first studies that carry out this kind of research and contributes to the formulation of inclusive public policies for DRF in different contexts worldwide.

Critical infrastructures are susceptible to unexpected disruptive events that affect their functional performance. Public–private partnership (PPP) offers opportunities for stakeholders to build resilience by proactively coordinating and positioning the capabilities of the stakeholders. Partnerships are mostly riddled with risks that affect the performance and goal attainment of the partnerships. The purpose of this study was to develop a risk assessment model for PPP in critical infrastructure resilience (CIR) using fuzzy synthetic evaluation.

This study used a quantitative approach to analyse survey responses from respondents. Mean score ranking, Kendall’s coefficient of concordance and fuzzy synthetic evaluation were used to analyse the responses from respondents.

This study identified seven risk categories; Political, Financial, Ethical, Bureaucracies and red tapes, Legal, Coordination and Institutional as the critical risk categories that may frustrate the partners in a PPP arrangement from performing their responsibilities. A risk assessment model was also developed in the form of a risk index equation to ascertain the risk level of using a PPP to build critical infrastructure resilience in Ghana. It was found that the risk level in using PPP to build critical infrastructure resilience is high.

The outcome of this study can be used as an informative and guiding tool to streamline any future PPP arrangement or even amend current PPP arrangements in critical infrastructure resilience.

The study has drawn attention to the risks in using PPP to build critical infrastructure resilience within the Ghanaian context. It has also established a risk index to assess the risk level of using PPP to build critical infrastructure resilience. This risk index can be used to ascertain the risk level in different countries. In addition, no research has been conducted to empirically test the risks in using PPP to build critical infrastructure resilience thus making this study a novel contribution to the critical infrastructure resilience research domain.

This study aimed to address the underexplored domain of organisational vulnerability, with a specific focus on understanding how vulnerability is understood in organisations and the underlying pathways leading to vulnerability.

This study utilised a narrative literature review methodology, using Google Scholar as the primary source, to analyse the concepts of organisational vulnerability in the context of disaster risk studies. The review focused on relevant documents published between the years 2000 and 2022.

The analysis highlights the multifaceted nature of organisational vulnerability, which arises from both inherent weaknesses within the organisation and external risks that expose it to potential hazards. The inherent weaknesses are rooted in internal vulnerability pathways such as organisational culture, managerial ignorance, human resources, and communication weaknesses that compromise the organisation’s resilience. The external dimension of vulnerability is found in cascading vulnerability pathways, e.g. critical infrastructure, supply chains, and customer relationships.

As the frequency and severity of disasters continue to increase, organisations of all sizes face heightened vulnerability to unforeseen disruptions and potential destruction. Acknowledging and comprehending organisational vulnerability is a crucial initial step towards enhancing risk management effectiveness, fostering resilience, and promoting sustainable success in an interconnected global environment and an evolving disaster landscape.