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In an era marked by the increasing frequency of major natural and manmade disasters, the imperative for effective disaster recovery planning and response has never been more pronounced. As communities grapple with the aftermath of hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, pandemics and other crises and emergencies, the integration of innovation technologies has emerged as a beacon of hope for more resilient and efficient recovery efforts. Standing at the forefront of this technological revolution is artificial intelligence (AI) — a transformative force with the potential to revolutionise every facet of disaster recovery. While the benefits are substantial, challenges in AI implementation are evident. These challenges underscore the need for continuous research and development efforts to unlock the full spectrum of AI's potential benefits. The journey toward harnessing AI in disaster recovery is dynamic, requiring ongoing innovation to overcome existing limitations. Navigating the evolving systems of AI in disaster recovery planning, the amalgamation of benefits, challenges and ongoing evolution underscores the pivotal role that AI plays in shaping the future of resilient disaster response. This paper identifies where AI can play the most significant positive role for disaster recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many people experience disasters that cause anxiety due to relocation and uncertainty about when they can return to normal. Thus, by systematically reviewing the literature using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews, this research aimed to identify the most effective social cohesion variables in disaster recovery. The results showed social cohesion's role in disaster recovery. The findings showed that the most influential social cohesion variables in disaster recovery are social capital, sense of community, social participation, and place attachment. Policymakers can use this framework to empower communities by improving social cohesion to mitigate the impacts of environmental disruptions and make communities resilient to future shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2016 Alberta wildfires resulted in widespread destruction of property and displacement of residents. Research aimed to identify the roles and responsibilities of social work practitioners and human service professionals in long-term disaster recovery. This article presents the findings from interviews, focus groups, and a survey with a total of 140 participants in Alberta, Canada. Implications for disaster social work planning, and response and recovery efforts in Canada and internationally, will inform the development of programs and policies to support and make visible the contribution of social workers and human service professionals in long-term disaster recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop and apply a dynamic economic simulation model to analyze the multi-regional impacts of, and mechanisms of recovery from, a major disaster, the HayWired scenario — a hypothetical Magnitude 7.0 earthquake affecting California's San Francisco Bay Area. The model integrates loss pathways: capital stock damage, labor supply shocks due to short-term population displacement and longer-run out-migration from damaged areas, and the exacerbating effects of damage to transportation infrastructure capital, as well as various aspects of static and dynamic economic resilience. With input substitution-based static inherent resilience and dynamic resilience in the form of optimal intertemporal and spatial investment allocation, gross output losses range from 0.5 percent to 6 percent across regions, and welfare losses are 0.4 percent statewide but can be ten times as large in hardest-hit areas. Large-scale reconstruction investment is supported by substantial interregional transfers of resources through intra-state trade. Increased output via firms engaging in the key adaptive resilience tactic of production recapture can alleviate a substantial fraction of losses—but only if upstream and downstream barriers to recovery can be lowered quickly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Disaster responders are exposed to several physical and mental health risks. This study aimed to describe self-care strategies used by disaster responders after the earthquake in Syria and eastern Turkey in February 2023. Methods: A study specific web-based questionnaire survey was used to collect quantitative and qualitative data according to a convergent mixed methods approach. Data from 252 disaster responders responding to the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria were analyzed using both descriptive and analytical statistics and summative content analysis of free-text answers. Data were collected in March to July, 2023. Results: The most used self-care strategies included resting, social support from colleagues in the field, extra intake of food or drink, and intake of medicines. The recovery strategies varied due to previous disaster response experience, indicating that supportive self-care strategies can be developed or learned. Conclusion: Given the extreme conditions and limited possibilities of external support, sufficient self-care is an essential competence among disaster responders. Self-care strategies can be both external processed such as intake of medicines, social support from others, and internal processes such as personal reflection. Providing oneself with self-care activities seems to be a skill developed with increasing experience supported by pre-deployment training. Therefore, to enhance resilience, self-care strategies should be encompassed in pre-disaster response training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small businesses are susceptible to failure at a higher rate, especially after a disaster. Disasters include the weather, fire, pandemics, power outages, network failures, legal issues, cyber-attacks, and technical problems. One way to potentially mitigate failure is to create a business continuity plan (BCP) or a disaster recovery plan (DCP). Contained in the plan is the ability to return to operations. However, most small businesses do not have the time or financial resources to create the plans. Enabling ChatGPT to guide the small business owner with directed prompts is an uncomplicated way to develop the plan, saving time and resources and generating a complete document. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have sought to understand why wildland urban interface areas continue to expand in the United States despite increasing riskand loss to those areas. Using the case of the Camp Fire in northern California, which destroyed the town of Paradise and surrounding communities in the fall of 2018, this article explores how new arrivals to this area interact with rebuild institutions to evaluate their risk of future wildfires. The paper builds off of concepts of “disaster machine” (Pais and Elliott in Soc Forces 86(4):1415–1453, 2008) and “resilience gentrification” (Gould and Lewis, 2021) to show that people’s sense of risk is mediated by positive messaging and subsidization of the rebuild, what is referred to in this paper as “fire branding.” Using qualitative interview data with 32 arrivals new to the area since 2020, the paper analyzes three recurrent themes that help contextualize people’s willingness to move to a very high fire hazard environment. First, new residents often see themselves as pioneers with much to offer the rebuild. The sense that they can shape the direction of the rebuild and contribute to the community is based not only on the excitement of recovery but on the idea that they came to inhabit a “blank slate.” Second, many in the burn scar see the landscape as having lost the propensity to burn. Third, arrivals trust builders, fire organizations and town officials to do the work to keep them safe from fire. The exception to this trust is with the insurance industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Disaster responders are exposed to several physical and mental health risks. This study aimed to describe self-care strategies used by disaster responders after the earthquake in Syria and eastern Turkey in February 2023. Methods A study specific web-based questionnaire survey was used to collect quantitative and qualitative data according to a convergent mixed methods approach. Data from 252 disaster responders responding to the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria were analyzed using both descriptive and analytical statistics and summative content analysis of free-text answers. Data were collected in March to July, 2023. Results The most used self-care strategies included resting, social support from colleagues in the field, extra intake of food or drink, and intake of medicines. The recovery strategies varied due to previous disaster response experience, indicating that supportive self-care strategies can be developed or learned. Conclusion Given the extreme conditions and limited possibilities of external support, sufficient self-care is an essential competence among disaster responders. Self-care strategies can be both external processed such as intake of medicines, social support from others, and internal processes such as personal reflection. Providing oneself with self-care activities seems to be a skill developed with increasing experience supported by pre-deployment training. Therefore, to enhance resilience, self-care strategies should be encompassed in pre-disaster response training.

This article reports on findings from a research study on social workers who practised in Christchurch, New Zealand, following two disaster events: the Canterbury earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 and the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks. The concept of posttraumatic growth (PTG), with particular reference to vicarious PTG, double exposure and shared resilience, is also explored in relation to this research. Data were gathered via qualitative interviews with twenty-three registered social workers conducted in 2021 and analysed through a reflexive thematic analysis. The findings reveal Christchurch social workers believed, due to their involvement in disaster response work, that their practice skills were enhanced, and they gained new understandings of trauma, including the positive changes which can occur as a result of exposure to traumatic experiences. The social work participants also considered their interpersonal and professional relationships as essential to the development of their own sense of resilience. This article concludes with a discussion on the implications of these findings and PTG theory for contemporary social work practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Operational resilience is the preparedness and existence of resilient IT systems, processes and resources to provide services continuously during a disruption. This study examines the operational resilience implementation challenges and opportunities for UK building societies and wider financial institutions. The key challenges are resource constraints, understanding regulatory requirements, supplier concerns, domain knowledge, legacy systems and manual-driven processes. Some challenges are being addressed with awareness and training, improved governance and risk management, recruitment and industry support networks. The opportunities include realising the actual state of IT systems, adopting cloud solutions, resources and capabilities, as well as improved domain knowledge and a better understanding of services and markets. Regulators need to be more explicit about their expectations and requirements, while the industry needs to collaborate on setting up common frames of reference for operational resilience frameworks. Lastly, the study provides a holistic view of operational resilience, including its implementation and management challenges, control measures and emerging opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the role of Islamic faith‐based organisations (FBOs) in Indonesia and examines the way in which their disaster recovery aid can be successful or less successful depending on social capital formation in communities affected by a disaster. The paper argues that Islamic FBOs play a prominent role in disaster‐affected communities by building new social capital or strengthening existing social capital. Failure to do so may affect a community's recovery and its long‐term resilience. Applying a framework that considers three types of social capital—bonding, bridging, and linking—from a comparative perspective, the paper discusses two cases of disaster recovery: one following the earthquake that struck Aceh in 2013; and the other after the Mount Kelud volcanic eruptions in East Java in 2014. In both instances, the findings highlight the importance of the village facilitator, cultural sensitivity, and understanding of local indigenous and religious practices for successful disaster recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smooth interaction with a disaster‐affected community can create and strengthen its social capital, leading to greater effectiveness in the provision of successful post‐disaster recovery aid. To understand the relationship between the types of interaction, the strength of social capital generated, and the provision of successful post‐disaster recovery aid, intricate ethnographic qualitative research is required, but it is likely to remain illustrative because it is based, at least to some degree, on the researcher's intuition. This paper thus offers an innovative research method employing a quantitative artificial intelligence (AI)‐based language model, which allows researchers to re‐examine data, thereby validating the findings of the qualitative research, and to glean additional insights that might otherwise have been missed. This paper argues that well‐connected personnel and religiously‐based communal activities help to enhance social capital by bonding within a community and linking to outside agencies and that mixed methods, based on the AI‐based language model, effectively strengthen text‐based qualitative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incorporating cloud-based algorithms for disaster recovery (DR), it explores data replication, failover, virtual machine (VM) migration, and consistency algorithms. These algorithms play a pivotal role in safeguarding data and system continuity during unforeseen disruptions. Data replication ensures redundancy, failover algorithms swiftly transition to backup resources, VM migration facilitates resource optimization, and consistency algorithms maintain data integrity. Leveraging cloud technology enhances the effectiveness of these algorithms, providing robust DR solutions critical for business continuity in today's digital landscape. The recent growth in popularity of internet services on a massive scale has also raised the demand for stable underpinnings. Despite the fact that DR for big data is frequently overlooked in security research, the majority of existing approaches use a narrow, endpoint-centric approach. The significance of DR strategies has grown as cloud storage has become the norm for more data. But traditional cloud-centric DR techniques may be expensive, thus less expensive alternatives are being sought. There is persistent concern in the information technology (IT) community about whether or not cloud service providers (CPs) can guarantee data and service continuity in the event of a disaster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large number of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in developing countries operate in informal settlements. Most of these settlements exist in hazardous environment despite being affected by floods. This research discusses the scarcity of knowledge on the resilience of businesses operating in Kigogo flood-prone informal settlements in Dar es Salaam. It especially focusses on MSMEs. Although recovery of MSMEs has been intensively studied worldwide, in Tanzania it is downgraded. This article is set to bridge this glaring gap focusing on MSMEs recovery after floods. The research methodology employed quantitative research design by completing questionnaires through interviews. A total of 202 owners of MSMEs were interviewed. While content analysis was used to analyse qualitative data, the research further employed a logistic unit model to analyse factors explaining recovery of MSMEs after floods. The study revealed a statistically significant association between the recovery of MSMEs and suitable plans for safeguarding business, personal savings, profit (saving from business) and government support. Other factors include family and friend’s support, business continuity training, longevity in business operation, pre-disaster mitigation measures, critical destruction to business facilities, and running several businesses. Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threat (SWOT) analysis of the business environment where MSMEs operate revealed a number of issues that inform policymakers, urban planners and environmentalists on what can be done to enhance recovery and hence promote sustainable development. Contribution: The study adds to the body of knowledge by drawing attention to factors that predict disaster recovery of MSMEs operating in flood-prone informal settlements.

Abstract Shifting demographics—that is, the growing number of older adults in Canada and internationally—and intersecting climatic risks create a complex landscape of aging in place in disaster contexts. Some older adults are vulnerable due to their underlying health conditions and limited physical mobility. Yet they also exhibit resilience in a distinct manner, owing to their wealth of knowledge, wisdom, and ability to navigate adversities. This article elucidates potential avenues for promoting the involvement of older adults in disaster recovery efforts. Our intention is to recognize and foster older adult resilience and mitigate vulnerability by drawing upon insights from the study titled “In the Aftermath of the 2016 Alberta Wildfires: The Role of Social Work Practitioners and Human Service Professionals in Long-Term Disaster Recovery.” Employing a qualitative research approach, that study recruited 51 participants for semistructured interviews and focus groups. A thematic analysis of the collected data unveiled the pivotal roles played by social workers and human service practitioners in facilitating recovery from the 2016 wildfires in the research. Notably, three overarching themes emerged concerning the promotion of older adults’ involvement in disaster recovery: fostering supportive relationships, building partnerships and enhancing collaboration, and addressing ongoing challenges. These findings offer valuable insights into how social work practitioners and human service professionals can effectively facilitate the engagement of older adults in disaster recovery initiatives. This article emphasizes the significance of actively promoting the participation of older adults in disaster mitigation efforts, thereby fostering greater resilience within communities.

From December 10 to December 11, 2021, a deadly tornado outbreak struck across several states in the US, including Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee. This tornado outbreak resulted in at least $3.9 billion in damage, more than 90 fatalities, and hundreds of injuries. Mayfield, Kentucky, a small city in the eastern United States, was hit by a long-track tornado rated as an Enhanced Fujita 4 (EF4) scale and was one of the communities most heavily damaged during the tornado outbreak. Following the 2021 tornado event, an analysis was performed in the Interdependent Networked Community Resilience Modeling Environment (IN-CORE) for the City of Mayfield to investigate a design code change for residential structures and its effect on communitywide metrics related to functionality and dislocation. Specifically, the IN-CORE modeling environment was used to hindcast the community-level building damage and forecast the community-level building recovery in Mayfield for residential buildings. This required the development of a Mayfield test bed for IN-CORE with a focus on buildings. The generalization of multidisciplinary community resilience modeling from a test bed community to a real community impacted by a recent major tornado event is intended to benchmark that IN-CORE has a strong potential and capability to forecast/hindcast community resilience and provide what-if scenarios for decision makers, city planners, and stakeholders in communities with similar sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, with a focus on the status of tsunami disaster victims affected by the 2011 East Japan Earthquake, investigates into the status of private property rights in facing with the reviving legal instrumentalism in Japan, under the campaign of land law reform for the elimination of "land without identifiable owners" in the name of facilitating the disaster recovery, by means of the "special zone" method or the designation of lawless areas where the normal time law is excluded, with the particularly targeted area for such exclusion being the constitutional requirements of due process and fair compensation in public taking. Under the extraordinary setting of absolute majority of conservative party at the National Diet in the aftermath of the 2011 great disaster, legislations in Japan during this decade have been characterized by a manifestation of neo-liberal policy, driving the entire Japanese legal system into a corner. Facts observed in present Japanese society are not different from those observed in other authoritarian regimes in Asia, including the phenomenon of "land grabbing" by the governmental projects, which Asia once experienced a century ago for the colonial land enclosure by "wasteland management." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Planning Education & Research is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Planning Education & Research is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Urban areas are undergoing significant changes with the rise of smart cities, with technology transforming how cities develop through enhanced connectivity and data-driven services. However, these advancements also bring new challenges, especially in dealing with urban emergencies that can disrupt city life and infrastructure. The emergency management systems have become crucial elements for enabling cities to better handle urban emergencies, although ensuring the reliability and detectability of such system remains critical. This article introduces a new method to perform reliability and detectability assessments. By using Fault Tree Markov chain models, this article evaluates their performance under extreme conditions, providing valuable insights for designing and operating urban emergency systems. These analyses fill a gap in the existing research, offering a comprehensive understanding of emergency management systems functionality in complex urban settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approximately 45000 global deaths are caused by natural disasters annually, though the human impact in terms of injuries, homelessness, economic losses, and psychological impact is much larger. In the disaster aftermath, social media platforms such as Twitter, and Facebook, are often used by communities to stay connected, share experiences, and access vital information and resources as needed to support disaster response and recovery. Twitter with a user base of more than 350 million daily active users, has emerged as an excellent resource for communication under such circumstances. However, published evidence regarding the role of Twitter in the post-disaster scenario, especially in relief, recovery, and rehabilitation is very limited but promising. The current study is an attempt to study the role of Twitter in the 2023 Turkey earthquake. using prominent hashtags. The positive, neutral, and negative frames of reference have been identified by using sentiment analysis. The techniques of discourse analysis and sentimental analysis were utilized for the study. The study reflected that Twitter has played an excellent role in disseminating information, advocacy, and coordinating relief and recovery operations, but it promotes negative discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus resulted in shelter-in-place orders disrupting business operations and supply chains. IT leadership was faced with the rapid implementation of crisis management and business continuity plans as well as on-the-fly adaptations required to stay operational. Four CIOs from various businesses discussed the challenges of dealing with a rapidly spreading pandemic, strategies to mitigate the loss of business continuity, and lessons learned in the transition to hybrid or fully remote work environments. This paper recounts and analyzes the best practices gained from these interviews. Data was collected through online interviews with CIOs from for-profit and non-profit businesses. The transcripts of the recorded interviews were then analyzed for similar strategic approaches, aspects of success, and areas that needed improvement. The results revealed best practices in dealing with the loss of a centralized work environment, strategies to leverage technology to maintain business continuity, and procedures to incorporate into future pandemic response plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the aftermath of a disaster or crisis, studies have long documented aid and support for the affected community, creating a therapeutic space for members to cope with the associated losses. This support can be expressed in a number of mediums including donation dollars, volunteer hours or through well-wishes offered online. One example of this support that has transcended virtual and geographic boundaries and emerged as material culture is the #strong slogan. Within the past 10 years, these slogans use the name of a disaster-affected community followed by “strong” (e.g. El Paso Strong, Boston Strong, Jersey Strong) both online and in material culture (e.g. stickers or Tshirts) to raise awareness and often funds following a tragic event. Using news media of #strong coverage over the past decade, this research investigates how these slogans represent therapeutic communities and contribute to the cultural identity of the affected community during recovery. Our findings reveal that the slogans contribute to community pride and social cohesion thus helping individuals cope with loss. Moreover, the strong slogans present in material culture reflect the unique cultures of each locale and often are associated with local events or iconic places. Importantly, these slogans can foster disaster resilience by maintaining a collective memory of hazards that impacted communities in the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change induced disasters have increased in frequency and intensity threatening economic wellbeing of businesses and communities. Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) being integral part of communities makes bulk (90%) of the economic activities around the globe, 96% in Asia and 99% of in Pakistan. In disaster context, survival, recovery and resilience of MSMEs are central to realization of community's survival, recovery and wellbeing. Small businesses are marred by liability of smallness characterized by limited resources, informal structure and unity of its ownership and management. SMEs are mostly dependent on entrepreneur's capabilities and resources for management, survival and growth. Some scholar suggest that in MSME context, among other factors entrepreneur's competencies, psychological and social capitals play a pivotal role in enabling organizational resilience and their disaster performance. Recently few studies have emerged focusing on investigating the impact of various entrepreneurial specific capabilities, resources and mechanisms either on firm resilience or firm performance separately in natural disaster and pandemic context. However, investigating the impact of these on MSME disaster recovery performance in an integrated model seems to be still missing. To address the gap, a study was designed to examine the relationship between entrepreneur's psychological capital, organizational resilience and MSME disaster recovery performance (MSME-DRP). An empirical quantitative study, grounded in multi-theory perspective, the propositions were explored by collecting data through questionnaire survey from 225 valid responses from flood effected District of Nowshera, Pakistan. Findings revealed that PsyCap significantly and positively impact MSME's disaster recovery performance. Results further highlighted significant partial mediation by organizational resilience, while it having significantly positive effect on recovery as direct mechanism as well. The paper contributes to the existing streamof research on organizational resilience and organizational disaster performance in broader strategicmanagement literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shifting demographics—that is, the growing number of older adults in Canada and internationally—and intersecting climatic risks create a complex landscape of aging in place in disaster contexts. Some older adults are vulnerable due to their underlying health conditions and limited physical mobility. Yet they also exhibit resilience in a distinct manner, owing to their wealth of knowledge, wisdom, and ability to navigate adversities. This article elucidates potential avenues for promoting the involvement of older adults in disaster recovery efforts. Our intention is to recognize and foster older adult resilience and mitigate vulnerability by drawing upon insights from the study titled "In the Aftermath of the 2016 Alberta Wildfires: The Role of Social Work Practitioners and Human Service Professionals in Long-Term Disaster Recovery." Employing a qualitative research approach, that study recruited 51 participants for semistructured interviews and focus groups. A thematic analysis of the collected data unveiled the pivotal roles played by social workers and human service practitioners in facilitating recovery from the 2016 wildfires in the research. Notably, three overarching themes emerged concerning the promotion of older adults' involvement in disaster recovery: fostering supportive relationships, building partnerships and enhancing collaboration, and addressing ongoing challenges. These findings offer valuable insights into how social work practitioners and human service professionals can effectively facilitate the engagement of older adults in disaster recovery initiatives. This article emphasizes the significance of actively promoting the participation of older adults in disaster mitigation efforts, thereby fostering greater resilience within communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]