Research design for studying disaster resilience in temporal and spatial scale

The design of this dissertation includes both temporal and spatial scales in studying exposure of Cyclone Nargis in the Delta in 2008 and the experience of recovery beyond 2008. A place-based approach that links the physical features of the three places of the Delta to the broader context of resilience is applied. Cutter (2006) argues, ‘social and biophysical elements mutually relate and produce overall vulnerability of the place’ (p.88). In revisiting Cyclone Nargis, place vulnerability in Myanmar in terms of biophysical features is a given fact. The geographical risk is largely shaped by its position in ‘the most at risk’ country category. The biophysical vulnerability of the Ayeyarwady Delta is compounded by weak governance, a poorly functioning disaster risk response system and people’s lack of access to resilient infrastructure, including telecommunications, the media (as risk communication facilities), roads, bridges, boats and emergency shelters, etc.

Pre-disaster vulnerability and resilience in the three different research zones is evaluated through the lens of interaction of three domains including ‘people’, ‘place’ and ‘governance’. The interactive dimensions of ‘people’, ‘place’ and ‘governance’ are also reflected in all discussions in the next chapters which cover the impact phase and post-impact phase. Through the lens of vulnerability and resilience, the human security perspective of the three selected zones is studied by noting that disaster exposure varies across geographical and temporal scales (Adger 2006; Cardona et al. 2012; Cutter et al. 2003).

People

‘People’ refers to the community members who live in the villages of the three selected zones. Individual voices will also be counted as community members representing community issues. Throughout a disaster cycle, sometimes, people may have only limited capacity to act independently from the administrative authorities’ rule that is imposed on them. Nevertheless, it is far from taking community as a passive subject of the administrative structure. This study looks into the dynamics of communities in

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all segments of the disaster cycle, namely disaster response, recovery, preparedness and mitigation.

Place

Here, both the biophysical features and man-made infrastructure are counted as part of ‘places’. Any of the ‘places’ that enhance people’s capacity to respond to disaster risk are also alternatively called ‘assets’ in discussion in this dissertation. But the notion of ‘place’ needs to consider not only the physical vulnerability of a geographic region but also the resilience function of the natural environment around the community. Governance

Weak governance can result in an increase in the number of risk drivers that are connected to each other (Preventionweb 2015). Governance is defined by UNDP (2010):

Governance is the exercise of political, economic and administrative authority in the management of a country's affairs at all levels. It comprises mechanisms, processes and institutions through which citizens and groups articulate their interests, exercise their legal rights, meet their obligations and mediate their differences. Governance encompasses, but also transcends, government. It encompasses all relevant groups, including the private sector and civil society organizations. (UNDP 2010, p.1)

In this research, the meaning of ‘governance’ encompasses the international level to the village level and transcends all aspects of community lives that link to community disaster risk reductions.

Vulnerability and resilience factors are embedded in the condition of the environment and the status of its resource as being crucial elements of a community’s resilience system (Constas et al. 2014). In building a disaster-resilient community, the perspectives of micro-level community systems should be linked to those of the macro- system at the national level that deals with policy, social protection systems, infrastructure, laws and governance issues (IFRC 2014). The state of vertical integration between community and the national, regional and global disaster risk

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governance regime will also be explored in order to identify enabling factors for communities in reducing vulnerability.

In terms of ‘spatial’ scales, this study primarily focuses only on village-level resilience while considering villages’ linkages with the regional, national and global scales as part of the study. For instance, organizing an emergency evacuation drill in a village is a positive variable of the resilience capacity of the community. Although the village’s participation in the drill is the focus of this study, the driving forces behind this participation will also be considered as the involvement of the other layers. Therefore, the guideline of the Relief and Resettlement Department to organize the emergency drills in the respective villages and the mandate of the Myanmar government to implement the designated Action Plan for Disaster Disk Reduction to fulfill its obligation as a member of the Sendei Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction will be taken into account. Although this precautionary exercise is a community-based action, the influence of a policy framework from the township and national political system on the community’s decisions will also be included in the ‘safety analysis’. With respect to the ‘temporal’ scale, the current process of building a community’s resilience is considered to have a threshold in pre-Nargis years. As the emergence of some of the villages from the Bogale area (Zone II) was a by-product of undocumented agricultural expansion in the last 40 years, the way their villages emerged has tremendous implications for their vulnerabilities and the resilience of the community nowadays.