Nature-Based Resilience: Experiences of Five Cities from South Asia.

As in many other parts of the world, the urban areas of the South Asian region are increasingly expanding. While cities today are the heart of commercial, technological and social development, they are also vulnerable to a variety of natural and anthropogenic threats. The complex urban infrastructure, and the ever-expanding population in cities, exacerbate the impacts of climate change and increase the risk of natural hazards. Throughout history, various hydrological disasters including floods, tidal surges, and droughts, and non-hydrological disasters such as earthquakes, landslides, and storms have led to catastrophic social, economic and environmental impacts in numerous South Asian cities. Disaster risk reduction is therefore central to ensure sustainability in urban areas. Although Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are identified as a promising strategy to reduce risk and increase resilience, there appears to be a lack of evidence-based approaches. NbS are measures that can be practiced to obtain benefits of nature for the environmental and community development through conserving, managing, and restoring ecosystems. Against this backdrop, the South Asian cities provide opportunities to evaluate capacities for achieving Nature-based Resilience (NbR) through NbS. This study documents insights from five cities of five different countries of the South Asian region which are subjected to a wide array of disasters: Barishal (Bangladesh), Phuentsholing (Bhutan), Gurugram (India), Kathmandu (Nepal), and Colombo (Sri Lanka). The primary objective of this study is to provide evidence on how NbS are being practiced. Thus, some success stories in cities under consideration are highlighted: restoration of natural canals through integrated development plans and community participation (Barishal), concepts of Gross National Happiness (GNH) and minimal nature interventions (Phuentsholing), "Greening cities'' including eco-corridors, vegetation belts, biodiversity parks (Gurugram), proper land use planning aims at different disasters (Kathmandu), and wetland restoration and management with multiple benefits (Colombo). These cases could therefore, act as a "proxy" for learning from each other to prepare for and recover from future disasters while building NbR.

Protection Motivation Status and Factors Influencing Risk Reduction Measures among the Flood-Prone Households in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh, a low-lying deltaic country, experiences recurrent floods. To reduce the subsequent losses and damages, self-preparedness measures are imperative. In that context, the present study attempted to assess the flood protection motivation status of local flood-prone households through the evaluation of threat and coping capacities, as well as the identification of the factors that influence preparedness actions. Using Protection Motivation Theory (PMT), this study employed a mixed-method approach at three different flood-prone locations in Bangladesh: (1) Type 1 settlement, an area with 'hard (flood embankment)' flood risk reduction measures; (2) Type 2 settlement, without any risk reduction measure; (3) Type 3 settlement, with 'soft' measures put in place as part of NGO-led disaster risk reduction interventions. The study findings revealed a comparatively higher protection motivation status among the respondents living in the Type 3 settlement, in terms of evaluating the flood risk and capacity to take flood preparedness measures. The correlation analysis further illustrated that the factors of the perceived probability and severity of flooding, coping capacity, previous flood experience, reliance on NGO interventions, and gender status had an influence on the protection motivation of flood-prone households. Remarkably, no such influence was found for socio-economic factors such as education and income. It is hoped that the study findings can support the future decision-making process for designing preparedness interventions for communities in flood-prone areas.

Risk Awareness and Impediments to Disaster Preparedness of Foreign Residents in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, Japan.

The likelihood of a mega-earthquake, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the threat of other disasters in the Tokyo Metropolitan area have necessitated collective responsibilities to take all possible actions to reduce their impacts. The experiences from past disasters have, however, highlighted the plight of foreign residents in coping with disasters and have reinvigorated calls for rigorous counteractions. As the population of foreign residents continues to increase in the metropolis, this research examines their awareness of risks and the obstacles that hinder disaster preparedness in the wake of future disasters. An Extended Parallel Process Model is utilized to analyze both secondary and primary data sources, and the results reveal that 65% perceive the severity of disaster as a threat and believe in a likelihood of occurrence in the city; however, the confidence to undertake some recommended countermeasures are lacking (with low efficacy of 70%). This is causing many to control their fear by not actively seeking further risk information or participating in disaster prevention activities. In consideration of these instances, the study recommends a collective approach built upon the merits of stakeholder engagements to provide vicarious experiences, verbal persuasions, and mastery experiences to boost the response capacities of foreign residents for disaster preparedness. This will be relevant for city authorities to enhance risk communication and foster foreigner-Japanese community integration.

Challenges of Data Availability and Use in Conducting Health-EDRM Research in a Post-COVID-19 World.

Disasters disrupt communication channels, infrastructure, and overburden health systems. This creates unique challenges to the functionality of surveillance tools, data collection systems, and information sharing platforms. The WHO Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management (Health-EDRM) framework highlights the need for appropriate data collection, data interpretation, and data use from individual, community, and global levels. The COVID-19 crisis has evolved the way hazards and risks are viewed. No longer as a linear event but as a protracted hazard, with cascading and compound risks that affect communities facing complex risks such as climate-related disasters or urban growth. The large-scale disruptions of COVID-19 show that disaster data must evolve beyond mortality and frequency of events, in order to encompass the impact on the livelihood of communities, differentiated between population groups. This includes relative economic losses and psychosocial damage. COVID-19 has created a global opportunity to review how the scientific community classifies data, and how comparable indicators are selected to inform evidence-based resilience building and emergency preparedness. A shift into microlevel data, and regional-level information sharing is necessary to tailor community-level interventions for risk mitigation and disaster preparedness. Real-time data sharing, open governance, cross-organisational, and inter-platform collaboration are necessary not just in Health-EDRM and control of biological hazards, but for all natural hazards and man-made disasters.

A multi-country comparative analysis of the impact of COVID-19 and natural hazards in India, Japan, the Philippines, and USA.

Several countries have been affected by natural hazards during the COVID-19 pandemic. The combination of the pandemic and natural hazards has led to serious challenges that include financial losses and psychosocial stress. Additionally, this compound disaster affected evacuation decision making, where to evacuate, volunteer participation in mitigation and recovery, volunteer support acceptance, and interest in other hazard risks. This study investigated the impact of COVID-19 on disaster response and recovery from various types of hazards, with regard to preparedness, evacuation, volunteering, early recovery, awareness and knowledge of different types of hazards, and preparedness capacity development. This study targets hazards such as Cyclone Amphan in India, the Kumamoto flood in Japan, Typhoon Rolly in the Philippines, and the California wildfires in the U.S. This study made several recommendations, such as the fact that mental health support must be taken into consideration during COVID-19 recovery. It is necessary to improve the genral condition of evacuation centers in order to encourage people to act immediately. A pandemic situation necessitates a strong communication strategy and campaign with particular regard to the safety of evacuation centers, the necessity of a lockdown, and the duration required for it to reduce the psychological impact. Both national and local governments are expected to strengthen their disaster risk reduction (DRR) capacity, which calls for the multi-hazard management of disaster risk at all levels and across all sectors.

Managing Compound Hazards: Impact of COVID-19 and Cases of Adaptive Governance during the 2020 Kumamoto Flood in Japan.

Japan experienced natural hazards during the COVID-19 pandemic as some other countries did. Kumamoto and Kagoshima prefectures, including many other parts of southern Japan, experienced record-breaking heavy rain on 4th July 2020. While many countries were affected by compound hazards, some cases such as the Kumamoto flood did not cause a spike of the COVID-19 cases even after going through massive evacuation actions. This study aims to understand how COVID-19 made an impact on people's response actions, learn the challenges and problems during the response and recovery phases, and identify any innovative actions and efforts to overcome various restrictions and challenges through a questionnaire survey and interviews with the affected people. With an increase in the risk of compound hazards, it has become important to take a new, innovative, and non-traditional approach. Proper understanding and application of adaptive governance can make it possible to come up with a solution that can work directly on the complex challenges during disasters. This study identified that a spike of COVID-19 cases after the disaster could be avoided due to various preventive measures taken at the evacuation centers. It shows that it is possible to manage compound hazard risks with effective preparedness. Furthermore, during emergencies, public-private-partnership as well as collaboration among private organizations and local business networks are extremely important. These collaborations generate a new approach, mechanism and platform to tackle unprecedented challenges.

COVID-19 and the expanding role of international urban search and rescue (USAR) teams: the case of the 2020 Beirut explosions.

The paper conducts a case study on the international urban search and rescue (USAR) response to the Beirut explosions in August 2020. The incident is worth analysing because it was the first of the international USAR deployments under global travel restrictions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. It will closely look at the activity of @fire Germany, which is self-recognised as a light USAR team, deployed to Beirut. Due to the arrangements imposed for COVID-19 prevention, it becomes more difficult for international USAR teams to arrive in affected areas quickly, meaning that the possibility for life-saving further decreases. Thus, international USAR teams must be flexible to contribute to early recovery activity after the completion of the search and rescue phase. The @fire Germany's response gives a good example of how light international USAR teams could contribute to early recovery. Also, some countries might not want to receive or send international USAR teams due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the COVID-19 era, strengthening national and local teams, or first responders, who are already in-country becomes critical to saving more lives.

Urban-Rural Partnership Framework to Enhance Food-Energy-Water Security in the Post-COVID-19 Era.

Food, energy, and water (collectively referred to as 'FEW') security forms the key to human survival as well as socioeconomic development. However, the security of these basic resources is increasingly threatened due to growing demand. Beyond the widespread implications on public health, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has further raised additional challenges for FEW security, particularly for urban populations, as they mainly outsource their FEW demands from rural areas outside their physical boundaries. In light of that, this study reviews existing literature on FEW security to highlight the growing relevance of urban-rural linkages for realizing FEW security, especially against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. To achieve this, relevant research documents have been identified through Elsevier's Scopus database and other sources (by applying search equations). The authors have accordingly underlined the necessity of shifting the conventional urban-centric approach to city region-centric development planning for the post-COVID-19 era. To this end, a framework has been suggested for translating physical urban-rural linkages to a partnership enhancing a collective response. The major elements of this framework are the conceptualization of national-level policies to support urban-rural linkages. The framework can play the role of a science-policy-action interface to redesign the FEW system in city regions.

Digital Citizen Science for Responding to COVID-19 Crisis: Experiences from Iran.

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has so far been the most severe global public health emergency in this century. Generally, citizen science can provide a complement to authoritative scientific practices for responding to this highly complex biological threat and its adverse consequences. Several citizen science projects have been designed and operationalized for responding to COVID-19 in Iran since the infection began. However, these projects have mostly been overlooked in the existing literature on citizen science. This research sheds light on the most significant online citizen science projects to respond to the COVID-19 crisis in Iran. Furthermore, it highlights some of the opportunities and challenges associated with the strengths and weaknesses of these projects. Moreover, this study captures and discusses some considerable insights and lessons learned from the failures and successes of these projects and provides solutions to overcome some recognized challenges and weaknesses of these projects. The outcomes of this synthesis provide potentially helpful directions for current and future citizen science projects-particularly those aiming to respond to biological disasters such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 Impact on SDGs and the Fiscal Measures: Case of Indonesia.

The implications of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic have stretched far beyond human health and wellbeing, causing serious setbacks for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Although governments worldwide have implemented different fiscal stimulus measures to mitigate the implications of COVID-19, it is important to develop a precise understanding of their focus areas to ensure if the progress of SDGs is on track. For a specific case of Indonesia, this study establishes a thorough understanding of the COVID-19 implications on SDGs, and its fiscal stimulus package through a literature review and semi-formal interviews with the core stakeholders in Indonesia. The study results highlighted that COVID-19 has varyingly affected the progress of all SDGs in Indonesia. Amongst the four pillars of sustainable development in Indonesia, the SDGs on the social and economic development pillars are stated to be the most impacted. As for the fiscal stimulus, it is perceived that it can help maintain the SDGs' attainment progress to a certain extent, although there are several concerns on its implementation. Deriving lessons from the conducted research, the study puts forward key suggestions for the effective implementation of SDGs in the post-COVID-19 era.

Utilizing Population Distribution Patterns for Disaster Vulnerability Assessment: Case of Foreign Residents in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area of Japan.

Foreign residents in Japan are amongst the vulnerable groups at risk to disasters in the country. Improvement is crucial in meeting Japan's vison of zero casualties in major disaster events. If the case of the 2005 Hurricane Katrina is to offer an insight into migrants' characteristics in mega-disaster situations, then a broader analysis of vulnerabilities is needed to avoid mass casualties should the anticipated megathrust earthquake occur. Hence, this study analyzes the vulnerabilities of foreign residents by utilizing their spatial distribution attributes in the Tokyo metropolitan area. This study uses multiple approaches that combine geographic information systems to analyze secondary and primary datasets. The results reveal that foreign nationals are spatially clustered in some parts of the metropolis, especially within a 7 km radius of Minato city. The densities in these areas alter the earthquake community vulnerability levels from 1.23% to 2.8% and from 5.42% to 13.46%, respectively. Although only 11% of foreign residents are prepared for any disaster, there is a high sense of interaction amongst them and Japanese nationals, which almost eliminates isolation within communities. This study therefore proposes the utilization of some of these attributes in mobilizing specifically targeted evacuation procedures, management of evacuation centers, and disaster risk information dissemination.

COVID-19 Response in Thailand and Its Implications on Future Preparedness.

Thailand has been affected by COVID-19, like other countries in the Asian region at an early stage, and the first case was reported as early as mid-January 2020. Thailand's response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been guided by the "Integrated Plan for Multilateral Cooperation for Safety and Mitigation of COVID-19". This paper analyses the health resources in the country and focuses on the response through community-level public health system and legislative measures. The paper draws some lessons on future preparedness, especially with respect to the four priorities of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. At the end, the paper puts some key learning for future preparedness. While Thailand's response to COVID-19 has been effective in limiting the spread of the disease, it falls short at being able to address the multiple dimensions of the crisis such as the economic and social impacts. The socioeconomic sectors have been hardest hit, with significant impact on tourism sectors. Sociopolitical system also plays an important role in governance and decision-making for pandemic responses. The analysis suggests that one opportunity for enhancing resilience in Thailand is to strive for more multilevel governance that engages with various stakeholders and to support grassroots and community-level networks. The COVID-19 pandemic recovery is a chance to recover better while leaving no one behind. An inclusive long-term recovery plan for the various impacted countries needs to take a holistic approach to address existing gaps and work towards a sustainable society. Furthering the Health Emergency Disaster Risk Management (HEDRM) Framework may support a coordinated response across various linked sectors rather than straining one particular sector.

Reflection of Challenges and Opportunities within the COVID-19 Pandemic to Include Biological Hazards into DRR Planning.

COVID-19 has reinforced the need to revisit the integration of health within disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies for biological hazards in a system-wide approach. In November 2020, DRR experts attended the Asia-Pacific Partnership for Disaster Risk Reduction (APP-DRR) Forum to share progress and learnings in the areas of health system resilience, data management, residual risk management, risk communication, digital literacy, and knowledge product marketing. Advancements for health in DRR included the importance of multi-sectoral, multi-hazard action plans; adaptation to technological advancements in data collection, dissemination and protection; promoting the health and wellbeing of essential and nonprofessional workers; and improving inclusivity in digital literacy. COVID-19 has affected progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and created a unique opportunity within DRR to re-evaluate the adequacy of response mechanisms against concurrent, cascading or interacting risks of future biological hazards. Health emergency disaster risk management (Health-EDRM) is a new World Health Organization paradigm that includes DRR at intra-, inter- and multidisciplinary levels. Scientific advancement under Health-EDRM is necessary for health and non-health actors in DRR education and research. Continuous education on the multifaceted risk governance is a key to building awareness, capacity and accelerating towards achieving the international DRR and the SDG targets.

Report of Alliance of International Science Organizations on Disaster Risk Reduction (ANSO-DRR) Conference 2020.

This article summarizes the proceedings of the four-session meeting (webinar) conducted by the Alliance of International Science Organizations on Disaster Risk Reduction (ANSO-DRR) on 18 May 2020. ANSO-DRR is an international, nonprofit and nongovernmental scientific alliance bringing together academies of science, research organizations and universities which share a strong interest in disaster risk reduction in the regions along the land-based and maritime routes of the Belt and Road Initiative. ANSO-DRR convenes an annual meeting to review its work progress and discuss its scientific programs. The first session was the opening statements and was followed by the introduction and updates on ANSO-DRR in the second session. The third session was the depiction of the big picture of ANSO, the umbrella organization of ANSO-DRR, led by the Assistant Executive Director of ANSO, while the fourth session was a presentation of perspectives on the strategic development of ANSO-DRR. One of ANSO-DRR's key strategies is to enhance disaster mitigation and response through multidisciplinary cooperation among disaster and healthcare sciences (i.e., health emergency and disaster risk management (Health-EDRM)). It aims to enhance DRR efforts by performing as an instrument in connecting people along the Belt and Road regions, focusing on DRR resource and database development, involving higher education institutions in DRR efforts and increasing disaster resilience in built infrastructures.

Narrative review of non-pharmaceutical behavioural measures for the prevention of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) based on the Health-EDRM framework.

INTRODUCTION: Non-pharmaceutical measures to facilitate a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a disease caused by novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, are urgently needed. Using the World Health Organization (WHO) health emergency and disaster risk management (health-EDRM) framework, behavioural measures for droplet-borne communicable diseases and their enabling and limiting factors at various implementation levels were evaluated. SOURCES OF DATA: Keyword search was conducted in PubMed, Google Scholar, Embase, Medline, Science Direct, WHO and CDC online publication databases. Using the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine review criteria, 10 bottom-up, non-pharmaceutical prevention measures from 104 English-language articles, which published between January 2000 and May 2020, were identified and examined. AREAS OF AGREEMENT: Evidence-guided behavioural measures against transmission of COVID-19 in global at-risk communities were identified, including regular handwashing, wearing face masks and avoiding crowds and gatherings. AREAS OF CONCERN: Strong evidence-based systematic behavioural studies for COVID-19 prevention are lacking. GROWING POINTS: Very limited research publications are available for non-pharmaceutical measures to facilitate pandemic response. AREAS TIMELY FOR RESEARCH: Research with strong implementation feasibility that targets resource-poor settings with low baseline health-EDRM capacity is urgently needed.

COVID-19 Lockdown, Food Systems and Urban-Rural Partnership: Case of Nagpur, India.

The globally fast-spreading novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is now testing the abilities of all countries to manage its widespread implications on public health. To effectively contain its impacts, a nation-wide temporary lockdown was enforced in India. The resultant panic buying and stockpiling incidents together with spread of misinformation created a sense of food insecurity at local level. This paper discusses a specific case of Nagpur from the worst affected Maharashtra state of India, wherein the urban-rural food supply chains were reportedly disrupted. Based on formal interviews with local government officials, a month-long timeline of COVID-19 outbreak in Nagpur was studied along with the consequent government initiatives for maintaining public health and food supply. While the city residents were confined to their homes, this study then assessed their perceived food security at household level, along with their "Immediate Concerns" and "Key Information Sources". Through online surveys at two different time intervals, the concerns of "Food and Grocery" were found to be rising, and "Government Apps and Websites" were identified as the most reliable source of information. Based on the research findings, the authors further suggest specific policy recommendations for addressing the immediate and long-term concerns related to food systems in Nagpur.

Narrative Review on Health-EDRM Primary Prevention Measures for Vector-Borne Diseases.

Climate change is expanding the global at-risk population for vector-borne diseases (VBDs). The World Health Organization (WHO) health emergency and disaster risk management (health-EDRM) framework emphasises the importance of primary prevention of biological hazards and its value in protecting against VBDs. The framework encourages stakeholder coordination and information sharing, though there is still a need to reinforce prevention and recovery within disaster management. This keyword-search based narrative literature review searched databases PubMed, Google Scholar, Embase and Medline between January 2000 and May 2020, and identified 134 publications. In total, 10 health-EDRM primary prevention measures are summarised at three levels (personal, environmental and household). Enabling factor, limiting factors, co-benefits and strength of evidence were identified. Current studies on primary prevention measures for VBDs focus on health risk-reduction, with minimal evaluation of actual disease reduction. Although prevention against mosquito-borne diseases, notably malaria, has been well-studied, research on other vectors and VBDs remains limited. Other gaps included the limited evidence pertaining to prevention in resource-poor settings and the efficacy of alternatives, discrepancies amongst agencies' recommendations, and limited studies on the impact of technological advancements and habitat change on VBD prevalence. Health-EDRM primary prevention measures for VBDs require high-priority research to facilitate multifaceted, multi-sectoral, coordinated responses that will enable effective risk mitigation.

An integrated approach to sustainable development, National Resilience, and COVID-19 responses: The case of Japan.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to historic economic fallout. To protect public health and stabilize incomes, governments have implemented massive fiscal stimulus packages. These fiscal supports are crucial, though there is concern that sustainable and resilient development will be sacrificed in the rush to preserve incomes and industries. The aim of the paper is to review whether the Japanese governments' responses in terms of financial stimulus considers longer term resilience and sustainability. This paper reviews pertinent academic literature and publicly available data from governments and organisations. The research is a rapid analysis of emerging information provided by the government of Japan and other international organisations. Using the case of Japan, this paper suggests that it is possible both to protect public health and essential services, while also promoting resilience and sustainability. Japan's integrated solutions show that pandemic response can include accelerated decarbonization and resilient, sustainable development. The paper also warns also that failure to act on long-term sustainability risks increased inequality, higher opportunity costs, cascading hazards, and further retreat from planetary thinking and globalism.

Identifying Research Trends and Gaps in the Context of COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the world in different ways. Not only are people's lives and livelihoods affected, but the virus has also affected people's lifestyles. In the research sector, there have been significant changes, and new research is coming very strongly in the related fields of virology and epidemiology. Similar trends were observed after the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) episodes of 2003 and 2012, respectively. Analyzing 20 years of published scientific papers, this article points out the highlights of coronavirus-related research. Significant progress is observed in the past research related to virology, epidemiology, infectious diseases among others. However, in research linked to public health, its governance, technology, and risk communication there seem to be gap areas. Although the World Health Organization (WHO) global research road map has identified social science-related research as a priority area, more focus needs to be given in the upcoming days for multi, cross and trans-disciplinary research related to public health and disaster risk reduction.

Standards-setting and its implementation through the classification system for international urban search and rescue teams.

The network of international urban search and rescue (USAR) teams, International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG), has started its unique classification system called INSARAG External Classification (IEC) since 2005. In IEC, teams are classified into Heavy or Medium category, and as of the end of 2018, more than 50 teams have been classified. It seems that, through IEC, INSARAG successfully implements the standards such as the IN-SARAG Guidelines although the document is nonbinding. This article analyzes why IEC has got strong support from international USAR teams and what are the keys to successful implementation of standards in international emer-gency management. It concludes that it has been successful because, for example, INSARAG carefully gains a con-sensus from the member states when creating the standards, reiterates the minimum standards instead of the best practices, and sets the clear goal. The endorsement at the UN General Assembly Resolution also contributed to gaining support. Although there are some issues which need to be considered to maintain the system in the future, the lessons of the IEC model can be used for other fields of international disaster and emergency management.