Resilience to coastal flooding from severe storms
Citation: Lumbroso DM, Suckall NR, Nicholls RJ, White KD. Enhancing resilience to coastal flooding from severe storms in the USA: international lessons. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences. 2017;17:1357-1373.
Language: Abstract and full text available in EN.
Free to view: Yes.
Funding sources: US Army Corps of Engineers Climate Preparedness and Resilience Community of Practice.
What is this? In this systematic review, the authors searched for publications on the resilience of communities to flooding in Cuba and Bangladesh. They restricted their searches to material published after 1991. The authors included 31 peer-reviewed articles and 96 grey literature documents.
What was found: The objective of this study was to understand how Cuba and Bangladesh developed resilience to coastal flooding and tropical storms in order to improve resilience in the USA. Cuba improved resilience by a stronger National Meteorological Service, improved warning systems that provided more accurate information, local government evacuation plans, and school-based education for risk-reduction in disasters. Bangladesh switched to a holistic disaster risk-reduction approach. In both countries, communities placed trust in their local and national authorities, which translated to swift action when evacuation warnings were implemented.
Implications: The authors of the review stated that the USA could use the experiences of Cuba and Bangladesh to enhance resilience to storms. Examples included improved communication of warnings, education in schools about risk-reduction for disasters, development of greater trust, increased awareness of risks, and the adoption of more holistic approaches to reduce risk in disasters.
Other considerations: The authors of the review discussed some of their findings in the context of place of residence, education, and sex.
This summary was prepared by Briann Mensour, checked by Jawaria Karim, and finalized by William Summerskill.