community recovery and resilience building in the aftermath of flood hazards in the small island ...

439 Pages·2015·5.46 MB·English

COMMUNITY RECOVERY AND RESILIENCE BUILDING IN THE
AFTERMATH OF FLOOD HAZARDS IN THE SMALL ISLAND
DEVELOPING STATE OF MAURITIUS

ANORADHA CHACOWRY

A thesis submitted to
The University of Gloucestershire
in accordance with the requirements of the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in the School of Natural & Social Sciences

June 2014

DECLARATION

I declare that the work in this thesis was carried out in accordance with the regulations
of the University of Gloucestershire and is original except where indicated by specific
reference in the text. No part of the thesis has been submitted as part of any other
academic award. The thesis has not been presented to any other education institution in
the United Kingdom or overseas.

Any views expressed in the thesis are those of the author and in no way represent those
of the University.

Signed …… ……….. Date: 30 June 2014

Abstract

At the global level, a noticeable rise has been observed in the adverse impact of an
increasing number of hazards, in particular floods, on society. This condition has brought
into greater focus the issues of vulnerability, environmental justice and resilience in the
recovery of community groups. In Mauritius, economic development, growth in population
and intensive land use have resulted in greater human use-environment interaction with
accompanying increase in flood conditions and the vulnerability of inhabitants exposed to
flood risk. Traditional top-down hazard risk reduction strategies have not been very
effective in reducing vulnerability or in promoting resilience of affected communities as
they are often left to fend for themselves immediately after the emergency and relief stage
of the recovery process.

Using three case studies, this thesis explored the perception of the affected communities in
building resilience to recover in the aftermath of flood hazards. Mixed methods of
collecting and analysing data using both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used.
They provided a comprehensive way of gathering information from households, agency
stakeholders and secondary sources. The data were analysed and the results assessed
through the lens of the overarching concept of community resilience that encompasses six
types of resilience. This new approach provided a holistic perspective in exploring factors
that influence the building of community resilience and the realisation of long-term
recovery and rehabilitation.

Findings from this study showed evidence of social inequity and environmental injustice
mostly among the low income groups in all the three case studies. Evaluation of results
revealed a number of factors that were gradually increasing their level of vulnerability and
adversely impacting on their resilience. In order to achieve recovery and community
resilience, the various types of resilience needed to be reinforced. It was found that social
networking and a combination of local knowledge with that of experts, through community
participation in decision making, were crucial in reinforcing community resilience.

Based on the research findings, an integrated framework for disaster risk reduction
management (IFDRRM) was developed. The framework could be applicable in defining
policy options and implementation strategies in Mauritius and possibly in other Small
Islands Developing States (SIDS) with similar challenges.

Acknowledgements

My gratitude and heartfelt thanks to my first supervisor Dr Kenneth Lynch, my second
supervisor Dr Pauline Dooley and to my external supervisor Professor Lindsey McEwen
for their valuable help, kindness and support throughout this thesis and without whom
this study would have never been completed. My special thoughts go to Professor
Lindsey McEwen with whom I started this project and who later became my external
supervisor. She has always been encouraging me, providing me with guidance and
literally ‘pulling me through’ in times of hardship and when I felt discouraged. I am
ever thankful for that! Thanks to Nicky who showed me around and advised me on how
to access library materials when I first started this project. My gratitude to the staff of
the Research Administration for their prompt intervention on any problems I
encountered during my study period. My thanks to the ICT staff for their help and quick
responses to set up and get me back the link to the University website.

I am thankful to those persons especially to Annick who accompanied me in the field
work in the three locations and who helped me to gather local inhabitants for focus
groups interviews and Participatory activities. I am also thankful to Mr Yadowsun and
Mrs Suzanne Boodhoo and the agency stakeholders who took their time and provided
me with valuable information on this subject.

I am indebted to Subash, my husband for giving me the opportunity to take up this
research project; for his continuous encouraging support and his patience for bearing
with me during all those years until the completion of this project. I dedicate this work
to him. My gratitude to members of my family: Hema and Gérard, Nishta and
Christophe and of course to my fond grownups Elisha and Priya who have always been
encouraging me. I am thankful to my brother Manoj and my niece Purnima for their
assistance.

Sachin and Ishaki, thank you so much for allowing me to stay for so long at your place.
My appreciation is to Sachin for taking time off so many times from work to drive me
to the University at Cheltenham, picking me from the airport and driving back. When I
saw you both studying hard for your exams, it acted as a catalyst to me to work even
harder in the final stages of my thesis. Welcome to cute little Adarsh! I wish him a
bright future.

Contents
DECLARATION ..............................................................................................................
Abstract ..............................................................................................................
Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................
Contents ............................................................................................................. i
List of Figures ......................................................................................................... xiii
List of Tables ......................................................................................................... xvi
Acronyms ......................................................................................................... xxi
Chapter 1 General Introduction ......................................................................................... 1
1.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Natural hazards in the global context ............................................................... 2
1.3 Recovery and rehabilitation – a long-term process .......................................... 3
1.4 Resilience building in SIDS against natural and human-induced hazards ....... 5
1.5 Research motivation and project objectives ..................................................... 8
1.6 Research questions ......................................................................................... 10
1.7 Thesis structure ............................................................................................... 11
Chapter 2 Literature Review ........................................................................................... 16
2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 16
2.2 Natural hazards ............................................................................................... 17
2.2.1 Concept of natural hazards from a historical perspective ................ 17
2.2.2 Hazard of the ‘human use-environment interaction’ type ................ 19
2.2.3. Conceptualizing hazards in the research study ................................. 21
2.3 Establishing risk in the context of hazard studies .......................................... 22
2.3.1 Definition of risk .............................................................................. 22
i
2.3.2 Perceived risk ................................................................................... 23
2.3.3 Conceptualizing perceived risk in this research study ..................... 26
2.4 Approaches to hazard risk reduction management ......................................... 27
2.4.1 Top-down approach to hazard risk reduction management ............. 27
2.4.2 Bottom-up approach in hazard risk management ............................. 29
2.5 Vulnerability ................................................................................................... 30
2.5.1 Evolution of the concept and selected definitions from other studies ..
........................................................................................................ 30
2.5.2 Factors affecting vulnerability .......................................................... 32
2.6 Environmental justice (EJ) issues ................................................................... 33
2.6.1 Some of the forces that generate environmental injustice ................ 34
2.6.2 Methodology used to investigate EJ ................................................. 35
2.6.3 Integrating EJ in the research ........................................................... 36
2.7 Resilience building against hazards ................................................................ 37
2.7.1 Resilience as a concept ..................................................................... 37
2.7.2 Resilience in relation to vulnerability .............................................. 38
2.7.3 Conceptualising resilience in relation to vulnerability and EJ ......... 39
2.8 Community resilience ..................................................................................... 41
2.8.1 Community resilience in traditional societies .................................. 41
2.8.2 What is community resilience? ........................................................ 43
2.9. Recovery in the aftermath of hazards ............................................................. 46
2.9.1 The recovery concept ....................................................................... 46
2.9.2 Recovery as ‘getting back to normal’ ............................................... 48
2.9.3 Recovery as a ‘window of opportunity’ ........................................... 49
2.9.4 Recovery - a way forward to reducing vulnerability and building
community resilience ....................................................................... 50
2.10 Framework of DRR management ................................................................... 50
2.10.1 Existing systems and models ............................................................ 50
ii