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Enhancing Urban Community Resilience in Face of Natural Hazards and Unexpected Disruptions

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Hazards and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 June 2023) | Viewed by 21574

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Robert Osei-Kyei

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Guest Editor

School of Engineering, Design and Built Environment, Western Sydney University, Parramatta, NSW 2751, Australia
Interests: critical infrastructure; resilience; disaster management; disaster resilience; infrastructure resilience
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Urša Komac

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Guest Editor

School of Engineering, Design and Built Environment Western Sydney University, Parramatta, NSW 2751, Australia
Interests: urban community; community resilience; urban transformation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

UN-Habitat estimates that climate change and variability could force more than 143 million people to move within their countries. In addition, every year, an estimated 26 million people are pushed into poverty by natural disasters due to climate change. Further, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many essential activities and services in urban communities were shut down as they lacked the resilience needed to adapt and withstand unexpected crises or pandemics. It is therefore imperative that countries establish urban community resilience to ensure they can tolerate disturbance while maintaining their functions and structure in the face of disasters and unexpected disruptions. This Special Issue will collect research studies shedding light on the emerging strategies adopted to enhance urban communities’ ability to navigate natural disasters. We hope this issue will inform public authorities and private developers on how to effectively strengthen the resilience of urban communities, ensuring the continuity of essential functions and services after natural disasters and pandemics.

Original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

urban community resilience
urban transformation
public private partnership in urban community resilience
disaster resilience
urban disaster management
critical infrastructure resilience

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Robert Osei-Kyei
Dr. Urša Komac
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

community resilience
urban transformation
urban resilience
disaster management

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 10126 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis of Disaster Risk on Expressways for Foreign Tourists to Japan Using Rental Cars: Study Using Central Nippon Expressway Pass

by Yuma Morisaki, Makoto Fujiu and Shuji Osawa

Sustainability 2023, 15(18), 13481; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151813481 - 8 Sep 2023

Viewed by 669

Abstract

The travel patterns of foreign visitors to Japan are changing from group travel, which was the mainstream to date, to individual travel, and there has been an increase in the number of cars rented by visitors as a means of transportation. The use of rental cars improves access to rural areas and is being promoted as a means of transportation. However, if a natural disaster occurs while driving a rental car, then the individual may face difficulties owing to a lack of local support. Therefore, the traffic volume on the roads used by foreign visitors to Japan during certain periods needs to be estimated in advance as well as the natural disaster risks that exist on those roads. In this study, we utilized CEP data managed by the Central Nippon Expressway Company in Japan to identify the risk of disaster for foreign visitors to Japan who use expressways with rental cars. The CEP data has usage records of foreign visitors to Japan who used rental cars on expressways in the Chubu region of Japan during the period from 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019. Using this data, we calculated the risk of earthquake and landslide disasters. Result of this analysis, it is clear that the risk of earthquake disasters is high on expressways in the Tokai region, and the risk of landslide disasters is high on expressways in mountainous areas. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Enhancing Urban Community Resilience in Face of Natural Hazards and Unexpected Disruptions)

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18 pages, 13471 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Spatial Decision Support System for Modeling Urban Resilience to Natural Hazards

by Hamid Rezaei, Elżbieta Macioszek, Parisa Derakhshesh, Hassan Houshyar, Elias Ghabouli, Amir Reza Bakhshi Lomer, Ronak Ghanbari and Abdulsalam Esmailzadeh

Sustainability 2023, 15(11), 8777; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15118777 - 29 May 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1964

Abstract

A major component of urban management is studying and evaluating urban resilience in order to minimize the effects of natural hazards. This is because of the increasing number of natural hazards occurring worldwide. A spatial decision support system is presented for modeling urban resilience and selecting resilient zones in response to natural hazards. This system is implemented based on 22 criteria, grouped into three categories: demographics, infrastructure, and environmental. The criteria are then standardized using minimum and maximum methods, and their importance is determined by the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). The resilience maps in various scenarios are prepared using the ordered weighted average (OWA) method. Flow accumulation (distance from fault), vulnerable population density (vulnerable population density), and distance from road network (material type) were regarded as the most important criteria for flood resilience (earthquake resilience) from environmental, demographic, and infrastructure criteria, respectively. There are different areas that are considered to have very low resilience depending on the risk attitude. According a pessimistic scenario, 1% of Tehran’s area has very low resilience, while according to an optimistic scenario, 38% has very low resilience. This system can be used by urban planners and policymakers for the purpose of improving resilience to natural hazards in low-resilience areas. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Enhancing Urban Community Resilience in Face of Natural Hazards and Unexpected Disruptions)

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16 pages, 1352 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An IFS-IVIFS-DEMATEL Method to Identify Critical Success Factors of Cross-Department Coordination of Emergency Management

by Weijian Jin and Yajing Zhang

Sustainability 2023, 15(11), 8620; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15118620 - 25 May 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1134

Abstract

Cross-Department Coordination of Emergency Management (CDCEM) is considered a critical dimension in China to solve the problem of emergency management. The Decision Experiment and Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) is a method used to build the structural correlation of criteria in uncertain environments to identify critical success factors (CSFs). There are coupling correlations and one-way correlations for interrelationship comparisons between selected factors of CDCEM. Therefore, there are two different assessment scales. However, most previous studies applied the DEMATEL method with a single assessment scale to identify CSFs. To fill this gap, an IFS-IVIFS-DEMATEL method is provided to comprehensively identify the CSFs of CDCEM in this study. The intuitionistic fuzzy set (IFS) is regarded as the assessment scales of coupling correlation, and the interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy set (IFIVS) is regarded as the assessment scales of one-way correlation. The two different types of assessment scales were transformed into interval information in the improved approach. Then, using the conduction correlation among factors, a comprehensive correlation matrix was constructed. After that, the ranking of the central degree and cause degree of the factors according to the traditional DEMATEL method was obtained. Finally, a case study of Nanjing’s CDCEM was illustrated to demonstrate that the proposed method is more suitable and reasonable. It is found that the factors of “cross-department organization”, “cross-department information communication and transmission”, “information sharing technology platform”, “cross-department material supply capability”, and “cross-department prediction and early warning” in Nanjing are CSFs in CDCEM, which should be emphasized to strengthen CDCEM. The findings of this study shed light on the cross-department coordination of emergency management mechanisms in uncertain situations, which would be beneficial for improving the efficiency of governmental management. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Enhancing Urban Community Resilience in Face of Natural Hazards and Unexpected Disruptions)

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24 pages, 1674 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Factors Affecting Flood Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation in Flood-Prone Areas in the Philippines: An Integration of Protection Motivation Theory and Theory of Planned Behavior

by Yoshiki B. Kurata, Ardvin Kester S. Ong, Ranice Ysabelle B. Ang, John Karol F. Angeles, Bianca Danielle C. Bornilla and Justine Lian P. Fabia

Sustainability 2023, 15(8), 6657; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15086657 - 14 Apr 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 15846

Abstract

Natural hazards are one of the destructive phenomena that pose a significant hazard to humans, property, and the economy, among others. One of the most recurring natural hazards is flooding, which is caused by typhoons, monsoons, and heavy rainfall and has been one of the main concerns of the Philippines in recent years. The study’s results will provide information on the factors affecting flood disaster preparedness by integrating the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT). A total of 509 individuals answered an online survey questionnaire with 52 adapted questions. Structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that risk perception (RP), media (M), and personal experience (PE) had an effect on perceived severity (PS) and perceived vulnerability (PV), which consequently affected the attitude toward the behavior (ATB), social norms (SN), and perceived behavioral control (PBC). It was determined that ATB, SN, and PBC significantly affected adapted behavior (AB), which consequently led to intention to follow (ITF) and perceived prevention (PP). After analyzing the data, it was revealed that 56.2% of female respondents were said to be more disaster resilient compared to males. This is the first study to determine the perceived prevention of disaster preparedness and mitigation in flood-prone areas in the Philippines. The results will be beneficial to academicians and government officials in developing determining factors that affect flood disaster preparedness. Lastly, a deeper understanding of how AB is the most significant variable may be further researched to improve the paper. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Enhancing Urban Community Resilience in Face of Natural Hazards and Unexpected Disruptions)

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Review

Jump to: Research

16 pages, 1080 KiB

Open AccessReview

Review of the Relationship Management Strategies for Building Flood Disaster Resilience through Public–Private Partnership

by Robert Osei-Kyei, Vivian W. Y. Tam, Ursa Komac and Godslove Ampratwum

Sustainability 2023, 15(13), 10089; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151310089 - 26 Jun 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1317

Abstract

Relationship management is critical in public–private partnership (PPP), especially when the PPP concept is adopted to build community flood disaster resilience. In this regard, this study aims to conduct a systematic review to explore the relationship management strategies for using public–private partnership to build community flood disaster resilience. A systematic literature review was conducted to retrieve relevant publications related to the subject area. Through a thorough three-stage search using Scopus, a total of twenty-nine relevant journal articles were selected for analysis. From the review, a total of twenty-eight individual relationship management strategies for building community flood disaster resilience using PPP were derived. These strategies were put into six categories based on their individual meaning and relation to other factors; these include effective communication, legal and coordination, knowledge co-production, monitoring and evaluation, social initiatives, and consistent funding. Further, a conceptual framework was developed using a meta-governance approach, in which a four-step process is proposed to make the derived relationship management strategies actionable. The outputs of this study will be impactful for future empirical investigations on the use of PPP in building flood resilience. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Enhancing Urban Community Resilience in Face of Natural Hazards and Unexpected Disruptions)

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