D. Sanderson

UNSW Sydney | UNSW · Faculty of Built Environment

The frequency and severity of floods is increasing in many countries, and hospitals play an essential role in protecting the community from their potentially devastating impacts. However, many hospitals are vulnerable to flooding having been designed and located without these risks in mind. In such situations, evacuation of vulnerable patients to s...

Recently, applications of agent-based model (ABM) have been used to understand the interaction between social and hydrological systems. These systems are dynamic and co-evolving, which can be captured through different decision-making entities in an ABM simulation. Therefore, this review aims to better understand the use of ABM for flood risk manag...

Hydrological extremes occupy a large spatial extent, with a temporal sequence, both of which can be influenced by a range of climatological and geographical phenomena. Understanding the key information in the spatial and temporal domain is essential to make accurate forecasts. The capabilities of deep learning methods can be applied in such instanc...

Flooding events are set to worsen in rapidly urbanising Pacific Islands. ⁽¹⁾ Most Pacific Island cities and towns are in low-lying areas vulnerable to more severe tropical cyclones and rising sea levels. Approaches to disaster response and recovery need to improve. This article uses four principles drawn from area-based approaches (ABAs) – people-c...

Extreme weather events such as floods are predicted to become increasingly common and severe as the climate changes. Effectively functioning hospitals are critical to a community's resilience to the adverse health impacts of such events. Yet many hospitals have not been designed with extreme weather risks in mind and are built in flood-prone areas,...

The frequency and intensity of both human-made and natural disasters are predicted to increase, and hospitals play a critically important role in reducing injury and mortality rates. However, there is increasing evidence that many hospitals are vulnerable to disasters, and more effective strategies are needed to enable the safe evacuation of patien...

This paper presents the findings of a review of academic literature concerning the degree to which corruption worsens naturally-triggered disasters in the built environment. The research employed a ‘systematic literature review’ methodology to analyse leading academic databases, resulting in a detailed analysis of 59 peer-reviewed, published papers...

Unique vulnerabilities are intrinsic to Pacific island countries which shape risk perception and influence adaptive decision making to natural hazards. This study aims to examine ongoing risks caused by hydro-meteorological hazards, with a focus on micro-level household response to increasing vulnerabilities, in addition to macro-level community re...

This guide concentrates on Sphere’s four technical chapters covering water supply, sanitation and hygiene promotion (WASH); Food security and nutrition; Shelter and settlement; and Health. Additional tools and approaches for urban response are included: Context analysis, Assessments, Profiling and Targeting; Area-based approaches and Cash and marke...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the challenges of transitional shelter provision for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in urban informal settlements. While there has been considerable research on postdisaster transitional shelters, less is known on shelters for IDPs in urban informal settlements. Design/methodology/approach A cas...

Purpose This paper aims to discuss what people perceive as risks and resilience factors, and how they build everyday resilience. Design/methodology/approach The study focuses on Kampung (literally “village”) Plampitan, a neighbourhood in the inner-city part of Surabaya. The research used field observation, in-depth interviews and workshops during...

This book presents practical approaches for tackling the threats from climate change and disasters to urban growth in Pacific island countries and Asian nations. With chapters written by leading scholars and practitioners, Urbanisation at risk presents research and case studies from island countries across the Pacific, Cambodia, Nepal and the Phil...

Many commentators have speculated on how the coronavirus pandemic will alter cities and the ways they are planned and used. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has tweeted: “There is a density level in NYC that is destructive […] NYC must develop an immediate plan to reduce density.”

https://theconversation.com/drought-fire-and-flood-how-outer-urban-areas-can-manage-the-emergency-while-reducing-future-risks-131560

There is growing recognition of the cumulative impact that converging environmental, political, social and economic risks have on the ability of cities to function in times of shocks and stresses. While many frameworks and assessment tools have been developed to assess the technical resilience of the infrastructure of cities, there have been fewer...

Two global transformative changes—rapid urbanisation and mass digital disruption—are brought together in the concept of ‘Informed Urbanisation’. This approach stands in contrast with the more common and more problematic ‘accidental urbanisation’ that is unsustainable, responsive urban growth driven by population demand and economic development. Inf...

Today, there are over 4.2 billion people living in our cities. By 2045, the prediction is that there will be six billion, with most growth taking place in Asia and Africa. Against this backdrop of rapid urbanisation, increasing disasters, conflict and displacement, and an aid system geared towards rural response, what are the challenges and opport...

Over the last decades, urban resilience has been high on the urban development research agenda. These research efforts have yielded various resilience frameworks and assessment tools. Resilience is a broad concept and needs contextualising. This research takes a people-centred approach, to understand what resilience actually means to people, partic...

This paper discusses the challenges of humanitarian coordination in crises situations in urban areas. It identifies the range of stakeholders and the central role of local authorities. It discusses the cluster system and its limitations in urban response. The paper argues that for better humanitarian action in urban areas, international efforts nee...

The purpose of this study, a meta-synthesis of the DEC members’ and others’ work , is to learn lessons from the actions in Nepal for future disaster response, in Nepal and elsewhere. This study therefore is not an evaluation of members’ activities - a number of these already exist, some of which are referred to in this report. Rather, it seeks to l...

Our aim with this publication is to raise the profile and provide a better understanding of the humanitarian shelter and settlements sector. We hope this report will be used by humanitarian policy makers, donors, governments, academics and senior managers of humanitarian agencies and institutions, to better prepare for and meet the shelter and sett...

Area-based approaches (ABAs) to urban post-disaster recovery have attracted increasing attention in recent years. ABAs – defined as actions that ‘support people after a disaster in a specific location to transition effectively from relief to recovery’ – have been used in some recent disaster recovery operations to good effect, and a number of organ...

Rapid onset disasters such as earthquakes and floods can destroy years of development gains. While wellcoordinated post-disaster recovery efforts by aid actors (including local and international NGOs, United Nations agencies, governments and others) can bring lasting improvements, poorly conceived and executed approaches can lead to weaknesses in e...

Introduction Urbanization has challenged many humanitarian practices given the complexity of cities. Urban humanitarian crises have similarly made identifying vulnerable populations difficult. As humanitarians respond to cities with chronic deficiencies in basic needs stressed by a crisis, identifying and prioritizing the most in need populations w...

This paper examines area-based approaches (ABAs) in urban post-disaster contexts. After introducing the main features of ABAs, the paper discusses current practice in humanitarian response, and the need within urban areas to draw lessons from urban development approaches, from which ABAs have emerged. The paper then presents lessons from research c...

This paper reviews what resilience as both a broad concept and as a consequent set of policies and practices means in the Pacific urban context, with a specific emphasis on the growing number of informal and squatter settlements. It also discusses the increasing urban focus of resilience and what it means for Pacific Island Countries (PICs). The pa...

Area-based approaches (ABAs) have gained traction in recent years among humanitarian aid agencies seeking to provide better responses in urban areas following a naturally triggered disaster. This is in response to existing approaches that have struggled with the complexity of urban programming. This guidance note presents ten principles for enactin...

This paper discusses urban disaster resilience as a helpful way of framing the challenges practitioners face in formulating effective interventions both before and after disasters in towns and cities. Three elements to enable a better understanding of urban disaster resilience are explored: space (relating to approaches to settlements and planning)...

This year’s World Disasters Report focuses on resilience within humanitarian action. The report explores the different meanings of resilience, as well as criticisms, and its application both before and after crises. It considers how resilience is measured, and the importance of building evidence. The report examines the ‘business case’ for adopting...

2016 may well prove to be a turning point in how humanitarian aid responds to crises. For one, the need is great. Forced migration from conflict is at its highest since the second world war; the number and scale of disasters triggered by natural hazards are increasing; and 2015 was the hottest year ever recorded. The aid sector, largely unchanged...

In making the case for resilience, this paper argues that the concept of resilience provides a readily-understandable approach for addressing many of the challenges faced in humanitarian aid. This reflects a particular – and possibly unique – time in the international community’s approach to disasters and other crises, when better evidence is deman...

Accelerating urbanization worldwide is leading to more urban-centered disasters. With more people living in densely populated areas, especially in low- and middle-income countries, the threat of increased loss of life, livelihoods and city fabric from floods, earthquakes, storms and conflict is becoming more of a reality. Poorer urban dwellers, who...

Relief is the enemy of recovery" is a truism often cited after disasters. In other words, by focusing aid efforts only on the short term and encouraging a "saviour mentality", prospects for returning to normal are slowed.

A systematic review protocol of methods and specific tools used to target the most at–need individuals, households and/or communities in urban crises

Six month review undertaken for the UK Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) and the Canadian Humanitarian Coalition (HC) of the response efforts of 13 international NGO members

This lessons paper aims to assist operational agencies responding to the 25 April 2015 Nepal earthquake. It provides 17 lessons drawn from experience of previous comparable disasters, based on evaluations, research papers and interviews with operational humanitarian practitioners. Key links to relevant information are provided after each lesson, wi...

Philippines Typhoon Haiyan DEC/HC response review Page 2 Executive summary Typhoon Haiyan (known locally as Yolanda) that struck the Philippines on 8 November 2013 was one of the most powerful typhoons ever recorded; it caused massive damage across the Visayas and killed over six thousand people. Over four million people were displaced and over one...

After the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti, a common shelter response among large aid agencies was to build standalone single storey structures, often built of timber or steel frame. These are widely known as transitional shelters, or T-shelters, provided by agencies as a supposed ‘stop-gap’ between temporary tents and long term permanent housi...

After the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti, a common shelter response among large aid agencies was to build standalone single storey structures, often built of timber or steel frame. These are widely known as transitional shelters, or T-shelters, provided by agencies as a supposed ‘stop-gap’ between temporary tents and long termpermanent housin...

ABSTRACT Effective integration of DRM into urban management must consider informal settlements. These settlements, also called slums, shantytowns and squatters settlements, are areas where poor quality housing has been built on land for which occupants have no legal claim. They are characterized by inadequate access to safe water, sanitation and ot...

Urban poverty is mired in complexity, with a vast range of choices of issues for NGOs to become involved in. Within the generic grouping of ‘urban poor’ are large disparities, concerning income, status, access and control of resources and respective levels of vulnerability and discrimination. At the ‘bottom’ are the most marginalized. These are the...

The January 2001 earthquake that struck the state of Gujarat in India damaged or destroyed some 8,000 villages and 490 towns. In the months and years after the earthquake, many organizations undertook widespread reconstruction programmes. One such collaboration between the NGO CARE India and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industr...

Disasters are anything but natural. Much can be done to reduce the risk of large scale disasters exacting high death tolls and causing extensive damage. Central to the understanding of disaster risk reduction (DRR) are the separation of the naturally-induced phenomenon, e.g. earthquake or cyclone from man-made vulnerability; and that most disasters...

This short piece argues that a series of progressive developments in our understanding of aid after disasters, and how we should seek to deliver and manage it, calls for a review of accountability systems in the sector.

Executive summary 'It's poverty that is at the core of these disasters.' -Sálvano Briceño, Director, UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) Haiti's earthquake of 12 th January 2010 killed over 220 000 people, injured 300 000, left well over one million homeless, and destroyed infrastructure, services and homes. The cost of recons...

Disaster management and developmental interventions from aid agencies, while often focusing on the same populations, employ fundamentally different tools and approaches. While good development is continuous, long term, slow and ‘bottom up’, disaster management is usually one off, short term, fast and ‘top down’. Conceptual models however, while fro...

Increased exposure to volcanic hazard, particularly at vulnerable small islands, is driving an urgent and growing need for improved communication between monitoring scientists, emergency managers and the media, in advance of and during volcanic crises. Information gathering exercises undertaken on volcanic islands (Guadeloupe, St. Vincent and Monts...

This paper(1) looks at some of the winners and losers in the reconstruction efforts following the 2001 earthquake in Gujarat. It reviews some of the consequences of different approaches to reconstruction and these are illustrated by the experiences of three villages. It ends with a discussion of the lessons that are repeatedly ignored after disaste...

Recent natural disasters show that it is almost always the poorest who are worst affected. The rapidly urbanizing cities of Asia, Africa and Latin America present unprecedented concentrations of poverty, and in so doing mark new levels of vulnerability. Increasing urbanization brings new challenges to reducing the threat of disaster. Yet disasters...

This paper presents a description of the Caqueta district in Lima and describes the methodology and research methods used. It presents the key findings of the project and concludes with a brief discussion of mitigation as a tool for urban development. The paper seeks to reinforce the key point of the project: that adherence to “top down” interventi...