Publications & Research

We provide a platform between researchers, disaster practitioners, healthcare professionals and students for expertise exchange, collaboration and policy discussion.

Publications & Research

The HKJCDPRI Publications Section contains collaborative researches and publications with our partners and renowned academic institutions, and other research and development projects related to disaster preparedness and response.

The Guidelines section contains our selected collection of technical information, operational guidelines and useful tools for disaster management.

The Blog sub-section provides a platform where our team and peers share news and updates, as well as opinions and experiences in building disaster preparedness for the communities.

The blog posts are written by the author in his own personal capacity / affiliation stated. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in the post belong solely to the author and does not necessarily represent those of Hong Kong Jockey Club Disaster Preparedness and Response Institute.

All resources listed here are freely and publicly available, unless specified otherwise. We ask users to use them with respect and credit the authors as appropriate.

2020

23/01/2020

Barriers and enablers in the long term recovery of communities affected by natural hazards: a review of the literature

[本文只供英語版本]

Four phases of disaster management are well-established in disaster related literature. The phases are emergency relief, recovery and reconstruction, mitigation, and preparedness. Long-term recovery is the process of restoring a community to a stable and functional state. An effective long-term recovery support to disaster-impacted communities enables the community to restore, redevelop and revitalise the environmental, social, economic fabric of the community and build resilience. Recovery should begin during response and aim to return the disaster-impacted area to pre-disaster status, or even better than before.

The report “Barriers and enablers in the long term recovery of communities affected by natural hazards: A review of the literature” , published by the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, reviewed Australian and international literature on the long term recovery of communities that have been impacted by natural hazards. The review identified the barriers and the enablers of effective long term recovery. The key findings are:

Research into disaster recovery has been dominated by research on disaster planning, prevention and response, and there has been a dearth of research on long term recovery. Thus research needs to focus on long term recovery as the costs, both financial and social, are significant.

Recovery in the long term is a complex process with no clear end point. The process is not linear from short term to long term recovery, and nor are the same actors involved in short term and long term recovery.

Local communities and their associated capitals are the core of successful recovery and thus community engagement needs to be central to immediate, short, medium and long term recovery policy and practice.

There is a need for a greater focus on restoration of environment and the community in line with the traditional response to restoration of the built environment.

Importantly there is a need to develop national monitoring and evaluation framework for long term recovery as most evaluations focus on the immediate response and short term response and lack consistency.

For full report, please visit this link: https://www.bnhcrc.com.au/publications/biblio/bnh-6568

By Hong Kong Jockey Club Disaster Preparedness and Response Institute

23/12/2019

World Disaster Report 2018 - Leaving No One Behind, Published

[中文翻譯版本即將推出]

The first World Disaster Report was published in 1993 with the aims of bringing up the latest trends, facts and anlysis of comtemporary disasters and the impact of disasters on vulnerable people in the globe. It is convened by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) annually to bring together researchers, humanitarian workers and various experts to highlight the most imperative emerging issues as a key reference document for disaster management practitioners.

The first World Disaster Report was published in 1993 with the aims of bringing up the latest trends, facts and anlysis of comtemporary disasters and the impact of disasters on vulnerable people in the globe. It is convened by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) annually to bring together researchers, humanitarian workers and various experts to highlight the most imperative emerging issues as a key reference document for disaster management practitioners.

With a theme of "Leave No One Behind", the 2018 World Disaster Report lays out the problem that vulnerable people with significant humanitarian needs are left behind by the humanitarian sector in some situations. The report tries to examine the factors which cause the most vulnerable communities to be missed out, i.e. why they are "out of sight". The five factors that the report describes as the reasons of missing out those people in need of assistance are summarised in the diagram shown below. Apart from these five reasons, the report looks into the factors that inhibit the presence of internationally funded humanitarian assistance in the emergency field. These factors include: political, security and physical environment issues.

The five factors that the report describes as the reasons of missing out those people in need of assistance (source: IFRC World Disaster Report 2018)

The report sets out recommendations in six main areas, and addresses specific calls to action in each area to government, international humanitarian organisations and donors. It also calls for a more conscious and transparent approach to ensuring the people in greatest needs will be prioritised for humanitarian assistance. The six main areas of recommendations are:

Getting the incentive right

Recognising and supporting the role of local humanitarian action

Adopting a community-centred, participatory approach

Taking up our shared responsibiity for resilience

Inproving appropriate use of data and technology

Addressing the critical cases

For details, please view the full report or executive summary on IFRC's World Disaster Report 2018 - Leave No One Behind webpage.

By Hong Kong Jockey Club Disaster Preparedness and Response Institute

28/11/2019

A Concise Guideline on Design and Conduct of Simulation Exercises published by UNDRR

[中文翻譯版本即將推出]

The <Words into Action guidelines - Design and conduct of simulation exercises - SIMEX (public review version)> is published by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). The guidance document targets emergency manager, relevant government departments and other players responsible for disaster preparedness planning exercises. This guidance document consists of three main sections: General information on Simulation Exercise; the Process including planning, design, implementation and debriefing; Existing Guidelines.

The <Words into Action guidelines - Design and conduct of simulation exercises - SIMEX (public review version)> is published by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). The guidance document targets emergency manager, relevant government departments and other players responsible for disaster preparedness planning exercises. This guidance document consists of three main sections: General information on Simulation Exercise; the Process including planning, design, implementation and debriefing; Existing Guidelines.

Under the Existing Guidelines section, a list of selected guidance materials on SIMEX for further reading is recommended. That includes guidance materials published by the WHO, Swedish Civil Contingency Agency, Government of New Zealand, etc.

This guidance document is part of the UNDRR's Words into Action Guideline series on practical implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction Priority 4 component on enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response. The current version of the document a public review version which is a product of a long and detailed process of drafting, consultation and review. This document is now on the PreventionWeb for public review until 14 December 2019. For more information, please visit the review page.

The <Words into Action guidelines - Design and conduct of simulation exercises - SIMEX (public review version)> document.

An exercise decision tree, such as displayed in the WHO Exercise Manual 2017, can facilitate the choice of exercise type.

The <WHO Simulation Exercise Manual> is one of the selected guidance recommended in the <Words into Action guidelines - Design and conduct of simulation exercises - SIMEX (public review version)> guidelines.

By Hong Kong Jockey Club Disaster Preparedness and Response Institute. 28 November 2019.

30/10/2019

Policy Brief – Policy Implications of Urban HEDRM: The Cases of Extreme Wind Events and Vector-Borne Diseases

Natural hazards have direct and indirect health impacts. Apart from physical and mental trauma, other health impacts include malnutrition, disrupted disease treatment plans, and risk of infectious diseases. Health impacts may be mitigated through health-related emergency and disaster risk management (Health-EDRM). They are systematic analysis and management of health risks through the reduction of hazards and vulnerability in all stages of the disaster management cycle, from prevention/mitigation, preparedness, response to recovery (Lo et al., 2017; World Health Organization [WHO], 2019).