Constructing a holistic approach to disaster risk reduction: the significance of focusing on vulnerability reduction

Abstract

BackgroundThe functions of everyday life can stall due to disasters, irrespective of where the disasters take place, causing a wide range of consequences in a wide range of areas such as, human, economic, social, political, psychological and environmental concerns for communities. Disaster losses cannot be measured simply in monetary terms as the loss of lives is immeasurable and the impact on communities is either direct or indirect in nature. Disaster losses occur at all levels, from individual household losses to national and international level losses resulting from exceptional catastrophic events (UNDP, 2004).With the increase in natural and man-made disaster losses, policy makers, practitioners and the research community all over the world are seeking effective and efficient means of overcoming or minimising such losses. This has resulted in various theoretical constructs being introduced related to the disaster risk management domain. Although many of these theoretical constructs such as 'disaster risk', 'susceptibility', 'resilience', 'resistant', 'disaster risk reduction', 'vulnerability reduction', and 'hazard mitigation' have been advantageous for disaster management scholarship, they have failed to sufficiently address the triggering agents, functional areas, actors, variables, and disciplines pertaining to disaster events (McEntire et al., 2002). Aim of the paper'Disaster risk reduction' and 'vulnerability reduction' are commonly discussed topics in the current disaster management domain. They are used interchangeably to mean ways of overcoming and minimising disaster losses. In this context, this paper focuses on establishing a relationship between these two theoretical constructs to develop a holistic approach to disaster risk reduction with particular reference to improving its applicability in practical settings. Research methodologyThis paper is based on a literature review and an overall understanding gained through two case studies conducted on post-disaster infrastructure reconstruction projects in Sri Lanka and three expert interviews in the United Kingdom and Sri Lanka. The literature review and the empirical research explored 'the influence of integration of disaster risk reduction into infrastructure reconstruction on socio-economic development'.Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analysed to investigate the influence of integration of disaster risk reduction into infrastructure reconstruction on projects' and communities' vulnerability reduction. Two case studies were conducted within a water supply and sanitation reconstruction project and a road reconstruction project following the tsunami of 2004. The case studies consisted of a series of semistructured interviews and a questionnaire survey. The questionnaire survey was mainly conducted to triangulate the data gathered from the semi-structured interviews. It added depth to the study by using multiple sources of evidence. While the semi-structured interviews were analysed using NVivo (version 8) software, the ...

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