This week we discussed the three dimensions of vulnerability: Exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. We defined exposure as the degree to which people/things could be affected by coastal hazards. When giving examples of the 2004 Tsunami destruction it resounded to me that this concept surely must be entangled with the other two. Secondly, we defined sensitivity as the degree to which humans could be harmed by exposure. Lastly, we stated that adaptive capacity is the degree to which a community could mitigate the potential for harm by taking action to reduce exposure or sensitivity. Reading the definition of adaptive capacity for the first time brought back memories of all of the people who were flooding into my home city of Houston from New Orleans following hurricane Katrina. One thing that resounded to me was that the education level of those affected has a serious impact on their adaptive capacity. When giving this concept more thought I realized that this lack of education would leave you much more exposed when compared to an educated person.

To learn more about how the concept of a lower education affects those after a coastal disaster I decided to do more research to integrate what I had learned with what I was curious about. I wanted to learn more about how the educational system of New Orleans was effected after this great storm. If the school system was to recover fast this was to be an example of a human system possessing high resilience. If the school system went into shambles following the aftermath it obviously could not be classified as resilient. My curiosity led me to “The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education”  which specifically described post-Katrina school conditions.

“In late August, Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast. As a result, 20,000 African-American college students in New Orleans suddenly had nowhere to attend classes. About half of these black students were enrolled at the three historically black universities in the city. Damage estimates from the hurricane at these three institutions reach as high as $850 million.
It is certain that the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina has produced long-lasting damage to African-American higher education, not only in New Orleans, but in the nation as a whole. ” – Journal of Blacks in Higher Education

Simply, the New Orleans school system was not resilient. It was not resilient because a resilient school system would have been able to at least seat students a couple weeks after the storm. This was not the case. If fact, due to the age of most of the buildings combined with their “necessity” to not be coded like newer buildings, many schools in New Orleans had to either rebuild from ground-up or deemed to be too inefficient to rebuild. This created a bottle-neck as these students were then funneled to other schools which were at capacity and under reconstruction. Musical chairs with entire schools if you will.

An article in the Washington Post caught my eye because Education Secretary Duncan stated that he believed Hurricane Katrina was one of the best things that could have ever happened to the Louisiana school system. In his mind he saw the hurricane as a way for the state to start fresh and build a school system founded on a system of unity and preparedness should another such disaster occur. Additionally, Duncan stated that Katrina “forced” the city of New Orleans to address seriously underperforming public schools.

Regardless of if you are looking at the glass half-full or half-empty, you must still be thankful that we live in a nation that has wonderful resources for emergency response as well as citizens that are constantly working to ensure that the response is effective.

Resources:

Washington Post – http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2010/01/29/AR2010012903259.html

Journal of Blacks in Higher Education – http://www.jbhe.com/features/49_hurrican_katrina.html

Earth 107 Course Website – https://cms.psu.edu/section/content/default.asp?WCI=pgDisplay&WCU=CRSCNT&ENTRY_ID=404084F002F44F56AC62114B5A6F469F

This week’s topic is directly in my realm of interest. Being a student of the social sciences, I gravitate toward better understanding the social nuances of climate risk. Fortunately, I was able to find a great article to look at through the lens of this week’s topic. This article thoroughly discusses the 3 aspects of vulnerability — exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity.

Mozambique, a low-income country on the east coast of southern Africa, is being confronted with many of the same dilemmas being faced by other areas of the world. Like many other areas, the city of Beira, Mozambique is “in a race against time to protect itself from cyclones, floods and rising sea-water levels”. This article highlights the fact that climate change will increase the severity of cyclones and flooding, increasing the level of exposure for the population of Mozambique, one of the world’s poorest countries.

In particular, the article explains that the population of Beira, which has more than 500,000, is largely illiterate and in poverty, which are two of the major socioeconomic features that effectively increase sensitivity and reduce adaptive capacity. These dimensions of vulnerability are also largely influenced by the demographic burden of the youthful population, as was highlighted in our materials this week.

The article also mentions the high rates of disease in Mozambique. Diseases like malaria and cholera are a physical and economic detriment to the population in Mozambique and add to the sum of many factors precipitating vulnerability to significant damage from coastal damage.

However, it is not just the demographic and health profile that predisposes Mozambique to increased damage from coastal decline. The infrastructure of sanitation and non-sanitation-related water is quickly decomposing. For example, the Chiveve tidal river, built in the 1960s, is described as a “big mistake of the past”. The city of Beira is now putting up a flood barrier to protect against storm surges and leaders hope that future development with prove to be sustainable and supportive of a young and growing population.

For a city like Beira, which was built for around 100,000 people and whose population density is ever-growing, conventional methods of population density surveying do not suffice. The basic infrastructure, which does not include widespread electricity, does not speak to researchers who study night light. It is for this reason that it is important that researchers look beyond overly-simplistic means of determining risk and vulnerability. I look forward to delving further into my studies of coastal population vulnerability, especially in the African context.

 

References:

http://news.trust.org/item/20160708105817-a0kuz

This week’s lesson discussed coastal vulnerability and its’ three dimensions; exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity.  One dimension in particular, sensitivity, really caught my attention because so many variables play into how sensitive a community or individual is to coastal hazards.  PSU WC (2016) Module 10 Commentary discussed that “Demographic factors such as race, gender, and socioeconomic status can also play an important role in assessing sensitivity to coastal hazards”.  This made me immediately think of Hurricane Katrina and the numerous articles I read during the post-Katrina aftermath.

One article in the New York Times titled “Reports Reveal Katrina’s Impact on Population” discussed how the demographics of New Orleans changed post-Katrina.  The population has yet to reach pre-Katrina numbers, and also states how the “storm’s impact was felt most keenly by the poor” (Lyman, 2006).  The article discussed that the population had shifted and it was those with more financial resources that were able to stay or rebuild, while individuals that were already more sensitive due to things such as poverty level, were displaced with fewer options.  The effects of disaster appear to be amplified for those with limited resources.

Another article in the New York Times titled “Lessons in Resilience from New Orleans” discussed other issues that made the community especially sensitive to disasters.  Most of us have some concept of the geographic vulnerabilities and exposure that New Orleans has to storms and storm surge, but it was also the deficiencies in the emergency response protocols that made the community and residents sensitive to coastal disasters.  The response period, six weeks, was the longest in U.S. History, and emergency response plans were incomplete or insufficient for a storm and flooding of such magnitude.

I cannot even begin to imagine the magnitude of devastation that those that experienced Hurricane Katrina faced during the storm and in its aftermath.  I hope that our country and communities did take notice in the aftermath, and realize that more planning, preparation, and assessments of vulnerabilities are needed to help protect our people and communities from coastal events in the future.  One important aspect of planning for coastal hazards is identifying the sensitivities of your communities.  Ensuring that we identify those that are most sensitive and develop response plans to align with those needs will hopefully help reduce future impacts from coastal hazards.

References:

Lyman, R. (2006, June 06). Reports Reveal Katrina’s Impact on Population. Retrieved July 24, 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/07/us/nationalspecial/07census.html

Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2016).  Earth 107 Module 8 Commentary: Understanding and Assessing Coastal Vulnerabilities. Retrieved July 24, 2016. https://cms.psu.edu/section/content/default.asp?WCI=pgDisplay&WCU=CRSCNT&ENTRY_ID=404084F002F44F56AC62114B5A6F469F

Revkin, A. (2010, August 13). Lessons in Resilience From New Orleans. Retrieved July 24, 2016, from http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/lessons-in-resilience-from-new-orleans/?_r=0

 

Learning about what makes some areas around the world more vulnerable to flooding was very interesting. What was more interesting to me after reading this week’s commentary, was the fact that poor places, where most societies are likely old, minority and non-native speaking are more vulnerable to flooding than other areas. This vulnerability to linked to poverty or minority status because it makes it more difficult to access social services. This was really upsetting because it is hard for places that are struggling with poverty to get proper help, even if they are the ones who need it the most. I found a United Nations article about how floods and poverty have collided.  Malawi is located in Southeastern Africa and is surrounded by Lake Malawi. This article was written is 2015, and talked about the torrential rains that was hitting Malawi. It talks about how there is a familiar link between a major hazard and areas that have high poverty rates and high rates of HIV and malaria. This flood crisis has disrupted access to food, sanitation, drinking water, medication and health services.

This was a really hard article to read, because it shocked me that this happened last year, and it wasn’t in the news or anything. There wasn’t a lot of coverage about this poverty stricken place, and the amount of lives that were lost, which were mostly children. Most of the buildings that were lost were schools and medical buildings. Like the commentary said, the things that people value differ around the world. Those buildings that were destroyed by the flooding, are very important to the people of Malawi. 15 of the 28 districts in Malawi were destroyed with 153 people missing. I wish that we were made aware of this horrific tragedy and that there is something we can do to help these places that are more vulnerable. It was really to think how horrible their sanitation and drinking water situation is, and the horrible foods made it worse. I wish there was something that could done to help these poverty places in the future.

 

Floods and poverty collide in Malawi. (n.d.). Retrieved July 22, 2016, from https://www.unisdr.org/archive/42105