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- Wamsler, Christine
(författare)
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An Innovative Systems Approach for Research on Urban Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation
- 2010
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Ingår i: Systemist. - 0961-8309. ; 23:3, s. 188-215
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper presents an innovative research on urban risk reduction and climate change adaptation that combines case studies, grounded theory and systems analysis, which could be used as a template for similar intersectoral and interdisciplinary investigations. Such a ‘case studies–grounded theory–systems analysis approach’ permits a grounded theory to be built from case study data, which is viewed and analysed as part of a system that includes causal factors and feedbacks. This is an important advancement of the linear paradigm model commonly used for axial coding, which is one of the data analysis tools of grounded theory. This new approach allows theory to be built not only on any specific situation/system, but also on how this situation/system could be improved (i.e. be positively influenced). Moreover, it allows investigations that cross the traditional boundaries between disciplines and sectors as regards: (a) the methods applied; (b) the research focus; (c) the heterogeneous set of practitioners and experts involved; and (d) the outcomes that are relevant to more than one discipline or sector. In this context, the combined use of interviews, group discussions, walk-through analyses, observations, text reviews, questionnaires, and, importantly, research workshops and ‘hands-on’ practice proved to be an effective means of attaining this.
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| 2. |
- Wamsler, Christine
(författare)
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Bridging the gaps: stakeholder-based strategies for risk reduction and financing for the urban poor
- 2007
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Ingår i: Environment & Urbanization. - : SAGE Publications. - 1746-0301 .- 0956-2478. ; 19:1, s. 115-142
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper explores the options that can be used by aid organizations working in human settlement development to more effectively address disaster risk management. Qualitative research was carried out in El Salvador at both the household and institutional levels - to analyze the needs, capacities and perspectives of slum dwellers and aid organizations. A clearer understanding of the gaps between what households need and undertake to deal with disasters and risk, and how organizations support them, yields important insights for the restructuring of development aid. At the household level, the research reveals a huge variety of crucial but somewhat weak coping strategies. At the institutional level, organizational structures and mechanisms for social housing provision and financing offer a potentially powerful platform for tackling disaster risk. However, current project measures are insufficient. Support for and scaling up of selected household coping strategies, combined with the expansion of social housing funding mechanisms for risk reduction and financing, are some of the options proposed for targeting aid.
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| 3. |
- Wamsler, Christine
(författare)
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Coping strategies in urban slums
- 2007
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Ingår i: State of the World 2007: our urban future. - 9781844073917 ; , s. 124-124
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Wamsler, Christine
(författare)
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Integrando la gestión del riesgo, planificación urbana y vivienda social: lecciones de El Salvador [Integrating disaster risk reduction, urban planning and social housing: Lessons from El Salvador]
- 2007
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Ingår i: Revista INVI. - 0718-1299. ; , s. 93-114
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Abstract in Spanish Más atención se está dando a la necesidad de integrar la gestión del riesgo en el trabajo de desarrollo para poder reducir así la vulnerabilidad de los pobres que viven en áreas urbanas. Usando El Salvador como estudio de caso, este artículo analiza el proceso de integración en dos sectores de desarrollo: planificación urbana y vivienda social. El objetivo es identificar de qué manera se puede superar la separación existente entre gestión del riesgo, planificación urbana y vivienda social. A partir del Huracán Mitch, y después de los terremotos del 2001, las organizaciones de vivienda social en El Salvador empezaron a abordar las causas subyacentes de la vulnerabilidad urbana. A pesar de experiencias positivas en la implementación de proyectos más integrales, la creación de marcos operativos, organizacionales, institucionales y legales adecuados aún se encuentran en etapa inicial. Lamentablemente, los fondos disponibles para la gestión del riesgo post-desastre llegaron a su fin, sin una asignación de recursos para la consolidación del proceso iniciado. El artículo propone un modelo para integrar la gestión del riesgo en la planificación urbana y en la vivienda social, de manera que dicho proceso sea más inclusivo y sostenible dentro del contexto de desarrollo.
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| 6. |
- Wamsler, Christine
(författare)
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Integrating risk reduction, urban planning and housing: Lessons from El Salvador
- 2006
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Ingår i: Open House International. - 0168-2601. ; 31:1, s. 71-83
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Increasingly, attention has been given to the need to mainstream risk reduction in development work in order to reduce the vulnerability of the urban poor. Using El Salvador as a case study, the paper analyses the mainstreaming process in the developmental disciplines of urban planning and housing. The overall aim is to identify how the existing separation between risk reduction, urban planning and housing can be overcome and integration achieved. Since Hurricane Mitch in 1998, and especially after the 2001 earthquakes, not only relief and development organisations, but also social housing organisations hove initiated a shift to include risk reduction in their fields of action in order to address the underlying causes of urban vulnerability. The factors that triggered the process were: 7) the negative experiences of organisations with non-integral projects, 2) the organisations' increased emphasis on working with municipal development, 3) political changes of national level, and more importantly, 4) the introduction and promotion of the concept of risk reduction by international and regional aid organisations. However, required additional knowledge and institutional capacities were mainly built up independently and internally by each organisation, and not through the creation of co-operative partnerships, thus duplicating efforts and increasing ineffective competition. Whilst positive experience has been gained through the implementation of more integral projects, the creation of adequate operational, organisational, institutional and legal frameworks is still in its initial stage. Unfortunately, four years after the 200 7 earthquakes, emergency relief funding for post-disaster risk reduction is coming to on end without the allocation of resources for following up and consolidating the initial process. Based on the findings, on integral model is proposed which shows how mainstreaming risk reduction in urban planning and housing could be dealt with in such a way that it becomes more integrated, inclusive and sustainable within a developmental context.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Wamsler, Christine
(författare)
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Mainstreaming risk reduction in urban planning and housing: a challenge for international aid organisations
- 2006
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Ingår i: Disasters. - : Wiley. - 1467-7717 .- 0361-3666. ; 30:2, s. 151-177
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The effects of 'natural' disasters in cities can be worse than in other environments, with poor and marginalised urban communities in the developing world being most at risk. To avoid post-disaster destruction and the forced eviction of these communities, proactive and preventive urban planning, including housing, is required. This paper examines current perceptions and practices within international aid organisations regarding the existing and potential roles of urban planning as a tool for reducing disaster risk. It reveals that urban planning confronts many of the generic challenges to mainstreaming risk reduction in development planning. However, it faces additional barriers. The main reasons for the identified lack of integration of urban planning and risk reduction are, first, the marginal position of both fields within international aid organisations, and second, an incompatibility between the respective professional disciplines. To achieve better integration, a conceptual shift from conventional to non-traditional urban planning is proposed. This paper suggests related operative measures and initiatives to achieve this change.
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| 9. |
- Wamsler, Christine
(författare)
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Managing Urban Disaster Risk: Analysis and Adaptation Frameworks for Integrated Settlement Development Programming for the Urban Poor
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The damage caused by the dramatic worldwide increase in ‘natural’ disasters is staggering, with the poor in developing countries being most at risk. Disasters make their already precarious living conditions worse, creating a vicious circle of poverty from which they find it hard to escape. To achieve sustainable poverty reduction, more and more attention has thus been given to the need to reduce disaster risk through development work. Despite related efforts, organisations working in urban settlement development still struggle to effectively tackle disaster risk in their daily work. To address this challenge, the present research aims to demonstrate how disaster risk management could be integrated into settlement development programming (i.e. social housing, upgrading and/or local urban governance programmes). The re search methodology used is an innovative combination of case studies, grounded theory and systems analysis. Case studies of four settlement development programmes were carried out in 15 disaster-prone slum communities in El Salvador, Central America, and their wider context analysed at the municipal, national, and global levels. The outcomes were complemented and generalised with investigations in a series of other countries. The research methods included interviews, group discussions, walk-through analyses, observations, text reviews, questionnaires, research workshops and ‘hands-on’ practice. This study shows, on the one hand, that while architects, planners and other urban development actors have the responsibility for developing secure and sustainable settlements, they have nevertheless been unconscious contributors to the increase in disaster risk. In fact, they can negatively influence all three components of risk: hazard(s), vulnerability, and coping capacity. The reasons for this relate to: (a) the lack of knowledge regarding the two-way and multifaceted relationship between disasters and urban settlement development; (b) the separation between the working fields of disaster risk management and settlement development planning from the local to the global level – as well as among these levels; and (c) the substantial gap between what households and communities need or do to cope with risk and disasters and the ways in which urban development actors support them. On the other hand, the research importantly demonstrates that urban development actors – through their programmes, organisational structures and mechanisms for social housing provision and financing – can offer a potentially powerful platform for effectively tackling disaster risk. The empirical and theoretical knowledge developed by this re search is of an intra-, trans- and interdisciplinary/intersectoral nature. Based on the identification of the nexus between disasters and urban settlement development, and of the incomplete approaches to disaster risk management and its mainstreaming, analytical, conceptual and operational frameworks were elaborated. The resulting ‘Analysis and Adaptation Model’ combines seven strategies for the integration of disaster risk management into development programming with five complementary measures to reduce disaster risk. The model provides a comprehensive understanding of the meaning and scope of disaster risk management integration (which applies to the pre- and the post-disaster con text). This assists in both analysing organisations’ work and taking action to improve programme implementation. In conclusion, the research demonstrates how urban development actors working at the local, municipal, national and/or international level might exploit their potential to address the increasing disaster risk of the poor and thus enhance the sustainable reduction of both risk and poverty.
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| 10. |
- Wamsler, Christine
(författare)
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Managing urban disasters
- 2006
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Ingår i: Open House International. - 0168-2601. ; 31:1, s. 4-9
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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