thesis doctorate

8/12/2019 Thesis Doctorate

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The Social Construction of Vulnerability to Flooding: Perspectives and Values from the

Red River Basin

By

Monica (Toni) Morris-Oswald

A ThesisSubmitted to the Faculty of Graduate StudiesIn artial Fulfillment of the !e"uirements

For the #e$ree of

Doctor of Philosophy

atural Resources !nstitute

%ni&ersity of Manitoba'innie$ Manitoba

March *++,


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THE UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA

FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES*****

COPYRIGHT PERMISSION

The Social Construction of Vulnerability to Flooding: Perspectives and Values fromThe Red River Basin

By

Monica (Toni) Morri!O"a#$

A Thesis/Practicum submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of

Manitoba in partial fulfillment of the requirement of the degree

f !octor of Philosophy

" #$$%

Permission has been granted to the &ibrary of the University of Manitoba to lend or sellcopies of this thesis/practicum' to the (ational &ibrary of )anada to microfilm this thesis and

to lend or sell copies of the film' and to University Microfilms *nc+ to publish an abstract ofthis thesis/practicum+

This reproduction or copy of this thesis has been made available by authority of the

copyright o,ner solely for the purpose of private study and research' and may only bereproduced and copied as permitted by copyright la,s or ,ith e-press ,ritten authori.ation

from the copyright o,ner+


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ABSTRACT

In the last two decades there ha&e been efforts to ad&ance human understandin$ of social

sources of flood &ulnerability in an attemt to reduce the hi$h social and material costs of

flood e&ents This study e.lored social sources of &ulnerability by e.aminin$ both

community and institutional &alues and ersecti&es as they relate to flood ris/ and

miti$ation in the !ed !i&er Basin Manitoba 0anada To that end the followin$ ob1ecti&es

were considered2

To re&iew local miti$ation decision-ma/in$ rocesses and describe the relati&e emhasis

on structural and non-structural measures in the !ed !i&er Basin

To e.lore identified miti$ation acti&ities and decision-ma/in$ rocesses within the

conte.t of &ulnerability reduction aroaches to ha3ard mana$ement

To describe community and institutional ersecti&es &alues and ercetions of

&ulnerability and determine their roles in creatin$ social &ulnerability

To recommend how to counter some of the /ey sources of social &ulnerability in the !ed

!i&er Basin based on the findin$s from this research

The case study research was conducted in two small rural communities in the southern art

of the Manitoba ortion of the !ed !i&er Basin4 the communities were Ste A$athe and

5merson Manitoba Ste A$athe is a small francohone town located 6+ /ilometers south of

the 0ity of 'innie$ It se&erely flooded in the !ed !i&er flood of 788, 5merson is located

at the 0anadian-American border 8+ /ilometers south of 'innie$ It was sared inundation

in 788, due to the rin$ di/e that surrounds the town

9ualitati&e methods were used for data collection at the indi&idual and community le&el A

community sur&ey was conducted in both communities on flood-related issues community

or$ani3ation and decision-ma/in$ A smaller $rou of articiants from each community

articiated in a &isual research method in which they were as/ed to hoto$rah ob1ects :

laces : eole which symboli3ed community &alues : riorities or had secial meanin$ in the

conte.t of li&in$ with the on$oin$ flood threat Indi&idual inter&iews were held with each

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hoto$rahy articiant and focus $rous were held within the two communities to &alidate

findin$s related to community ersecti&es and flood ris/ mana$ement

9ualitati&e methods were also used to identify institutional &alues and norms related to flood

mana$ement decision-ma/in$ in the !ed !i&er Basin These methods included "ualitati&e

analysis of documents related to flood ris/ mana$ement and /ey informant inter&iews with

reresentati&es of a$encies and institutions en$a$ed in flood mana$ement issues in Manitoba

AT;ASti (*+++) "ualitati&e software was used to facilitate data analysis


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term olitical commitment that will ro&ide both a &ision and fundin$ for flood miti$ation

and &ulnerability reduction acti&ities in the !ed !i&er Basin These conclusions hi$hli$ht the

need for concerted efforts to address social economic and olitical contributors to flood

&ulnerability in the !ed !i&er Basin if communities are to become more resilient to flood

ha3ard

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AC%NO&LEDGEMENTS

'hen somethin$ has consumed so much time and ener$y it is hard to see it come to an end

As I reflect bac/ I reali3e that this hase of my life would not ha&e been ossible without thesuort of so many eole both in my =rofessional> life and in my ersonal one

I owe a secial debt of $ratitude to my ad&isor ?ohn Sinclair who unerrin$ly /new when I

needed hel and when I needed to 1ust =run> with the research Than/ you for allowin$ me to

do thin$s my own way Also than/ you for your thou$htful insi$hts into the research rocess

and your ractical suort @ou made me lau$h - 1o/es about the =ointy heads> bein$ a case

in oint oe we ne&er become one of those ?ohn

I was blessed with a committee whose members were di&erse in both e.ertise and character

I want to e.tend a than/ you to Bonnie allman for her insi$hts into the challen$es facin$

rural communities and for readin$ my final draft so meticulously !aymond ;afond the

=ractitioner> on my committee offered hu$e doses of encoura$ement &ia emails 1ust when I

needed them most !aymond than/ you for sharin$ the wealth of your e.erience in disaster

lannin$ and resonse

My committee would not ha&e been comlete without the e.ertise and astute obser&ations

of 5mdad a"ue @ou challen$ed me to always see the =bi$$er icture> Similarly a sincere

than/-you to #an Shrubsole who read my final draft in a &ery short eriod of time and /new

1ust where I most needed to ma/e imro&ements

O&er the years there ha&e also been many students and staff at the C!I who ha&e rofoundly

imacted my thin/in$ about comle. en&ironmental and social roblems I ha&e articularlyfond memories of Sandra Melissa and Brenda who all started the h# ro$ram with me 'e

sent late ni$hts schmoosin$ about anythin$ and e&erythin$ D some of it academic 'e ha&e

all successfully reached the end of this 1ourney

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Of course it would ha&e been imossible to comlete this research without the acti&e

articiation of the communities of Ste A$athe and 5merson The residents showed me $reat

/indness and were always welcomin$ e&en when I showed u at the door when it was -E+ 0

outside Than/ you so &ery much

I am also truly than/ful for the fundin$ suort of SS!0 and the %ni&ersity of Manitoba

which allowed me to do this research in the !ed !i&er Basin

On a ersonal le&el I ha&e to e.tend an abundance of $ratitude to my =$uys> !olf and

Mitchell Oswald !olf always offered ractical hel when I needed it re$ardless of the

lateness of the hour and re$ardless of the enormous demands already laced on his time I

also want to than/ my teena$e son Mitchell who in $rinnin$ at me in the middle of my

defense reminded me of the imortance of =ersecti&e> I lo&e you both

Finally I want to ac/nowled$e my &ery secial sister at who ur$ed me to do a h# when I

had doubts about my ability to see it throu$h This one>s for you Sis

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TABLE o' CONTENTS

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1.2.1 Flooding in the Red River Basin...........................................................................................................6

1.2.2 Responses to flooding............................................................................................................................9

1.2.3 Institutional arrangements for floodplain management......................................................................117E ! 5S5A!0OB?50TI


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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure .#. The Red River Basin 222222222##2222222##222222222# 4

Figure .#/ Flo< diagram of research methodology 22222222##222222222## .4

Figure /#. P"R model 222##2222222222222222##222222222# 6/

Figure 8#. -istoric boiler monument222222##2222222##222222222# .7

Figure 8#/ Children on the ban= of the Red River 2222222##2222222222# ..Figure 8#3 "nvil monument 222222222##2222222##22222222##2# ..

Figure 8#6 *ulti?generational family home 2##2##2222222##22222222##2# ./

Figure 8#5 Community Center 222222222##2222222##22222222### ./

Figure 8#8 Ste# "gathe French School 22222##2222222##2222222##22# .6

Figure 8# C%?%P store and gas bar 2222222222##22222222222##2# .6

Figure 8#4 Red River erosion behind home 2##22##2222222##222222222# .5

Figure 8#9 Ste# "gathe bridge@ vie< from north of to


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LIST OF TABLES

Table 3#. Data collection methods 22222#2222222222222222222# 48

Table 3#/ Criteria for community selection 2###2222222222222222222# 96

Table 6#. Content summary of documents analyed 222222222222#2#222# ./8

Table 6#/ )overnmental institutional values related to flood management 22##22#2##2 .68

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CHAPTER INTRODUCTION

T+, r,,arc+ -ro.#,/

In 0anada the human desire to occuy floodlains uttin$ life and roerty at ris/ has

resulted in a hi$h le&el of &ulnerability to flood (de;oe *+++) !ecent lar$e scale floods in

0anada ha&e ser&ed as a reminder that &ulnerability to this tye of ha3ard remains si$nificant

e&en in the face of enhanced communications ad&ancements in the science of rediction and

considerable financial and technolo$ical in&estment in costly infrastructure to rotect human

settlements Floods ha&e been widesread throu$hout 0anada drainin$ the ta. base both

federally and in indi&idual ro&inces and causin$ business disrution and economic stress

Floods ha&e also strained social suort systems causin$ immeasurable stress and disrution

to many families and communities and resultin$ in roerty and infrastructure dama$es

in1uries and e&en deaths (earce 788,4 Morris-Oswald Simono&ic and Sinclair 788J4

de;oe *+++4 Morris-Oswald *++7) There is no e&idence that the trend will discontinue and

the imlications of $lobal warmin$ for increased ha3ard e&ents fuel concern about future

flood disasters There are also concerns about continued $rowth and de&eloment in

floodlains interferin$ with natural systems and ecolo$ical rocesses (de ;oe *+++) and

hi$hli$htin$ that human beha&ior is a contributor to the roblem of floodin$ In $eneral

unsustainable land uses and de&eloment ractices may often ma/e a si3eable contribution to

floods and may increase &ulnerability to disaster throu$h romotion and adotion of

unsustainable sur&i&al and coin$ strate$ies in the face of a flood ha3ard (%ribe Shi$eo

0uero Fran/lin and Girot 7888)

Flood e&ents become actual disasters for many reasons some related to the hysical

characteristics of the flood (si3e duration etc) and others related to human : social factors

isastersare rimarily defined accordin$ to the &ulnerability of human $rous that are

e.osed to the e&ent That &ulnerability is in turn affected or determined by a number of

factors Two fre"uently-cited cate$ories of factors include the le&el of =ris/> at that location

(articularly the robability of occurrence of the ha3ard e&ent and li/elihood of dama$e) and

conditions that contribute to social &ulnerability

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=Social &ulnerability> as a term includes a wide ran$e of social economic and olitical

sources of &ulnerability within a community or society (Blai/ie 0annon #a&is and 'isner

7886) Social &ulnerability to ha3ard is most easily understood in the conte.t of the

de&eloin$ world where for e.amle o&erty oulation $rowth and mar$inali3ation of

some $rous within society mean2 7) eole li&e in less secure hysical en&ironments4 and

*) they ha&e less access to resources should a ha3ard e&ent occur It is thus not surrisin$ that

much research on &ulnerability has been done in oor nations In a $eneral sense the

&ulnerability aroach has as a $oal to identify the (often) more subtle rocesses that can

both directly or indirectly influence loss and hardshi amon$ human $rous e.osed to a

ha3ard They include for e.amle the nature of eole>s relationshi with the en&ironment

local /nowled$e of the ha3ard local adati&e strate$ies local decision-ma/in$ rocesses

and the role of owerful institutions in determinin$ the interretation of and resonse to

disaster includin$ distribution of ris/ These rocesses are hi$hly comle. and e.ist at

multile scales These are also the same rocesses that are fre"uently o&erloo/ed in decision-

ma/in$ when e.edient solutions to flood ris/ are sou$ht and adoted by decision-ma/ers

They also can limit or enhance communities> caacities to be sustainable

a3ards such as floods are mana$ed within a broad conte.t of social olitical and economic

forces For e.amle economic and olitical forces at multile scales may be imlicated in

encoura$in$ li&elihood acti&ities in ha3ardous 3ones li/e floodlains At the international

olicy le&el there are international a$reements (such as the Boundary 'aters Treaty between

0anada and the %nited States) that ur$e multi-artisan cooeration in de&eloin$ ha3ard

miti$ation strate$ies Secific to floodin$ ha3ards at national and re$ional le&els there are

olicies de&eloed to mana$e for e.amle de&eloment in flood-rone 3ones At a &ery

local le&el flood le&el miti$ation acti&ities may be focused uon either technocratic solutions

to ris/ or uon broader holistic olicies and strate$ies that see/ to romote sustainable

communities Such olicies and acti&ities and the 1ud$ments and &alues uon which they are

based $reatly influence &ulnerability4 they can ro&ide incenti&es or disincenti&es related to

how flood ha3ard is mana$ed

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suitable to this research refers $enerally tocharacteristics of a erson (or

$rou) in terms of their caacity to anticiate coe with resist and reco&er from the imact

of a ha3ardN (Blai/ie 7886 8) 'hen eole are &ulnerable to a ha3ard it can threaten their

li&es li&elihoods roerty infrastructure economic roducti&ity natural resources and

re$ional roserity (%ribe et al 7888) The resonses they adot to handle the ris/ can in

turn ha&e lon$-term imlications for the sustainability of their communities

In the last two decades there has been more attention to and analysis of &ulnerability D

articularly social sources of &ulnerability D in an attemt to reduce the hi$h human and

material costs of floodin$ 9uestions that are fundamental to &ulnerability analysis include

!hoand !hatare at ris/ and in !hat !a(s(Catural a3ards !esearch and Alications

'or/sho 7888) This has reciitated a mo&ement away from traditional ha3ard studies

with their focus rimarily on ha3ard a$ents and indi&idual resonses to more consideration

of the community le&el of resonse and ad1ustment (?ones and Shrubsole *++7) There are

attitudes at a community le&el that can encoura$e or discoura$e adotion of a wider ran$e of

ha3ard mana$ement strate$ies (Tobin and Mont3 788,) that need to be better understood to

address &ulnerability

For the uroses of this research =community> is best articulated throu$h the notion of

connectedness to both a lace and to the social webs that communities ro&ide Friedman

(788) in conductin$ research into the definition of community "uoted a resondent who

said community is a state of mind but it is intimately tied to ublic lace The sense of

community flourishes when the ublic lace ro&o/es ride and identityN (E) This

connection simultaneously to a common landscae and to fellow citi3ens (Beatley and

Mannin$ 788,) encasulates the notion of community in both $eo$rahical and social terms

Furthermore the decision in this research to conduct much of the analysis at the community

scale was influenced in art by the notion that a =community> is the smallest mana$erial unit

that can ma/e indeendent and indi&isible decisions relati&e to which ad1ustment to a ha3ard

are adoted (Kates 78,7)

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In relation to e.osure to ris/ community ideolo$y and acti&ity influence indi&idual

ercetions and beha&ior and communities resond to ha3ards based uon the wider conte.t

of conditions and ressures that e.ist - whether they are social economic olitical or

cultural (?ones and Shrubsole *++7) These factors then are /ey to understandin$ how

members of communities or$ani3e to reduce their flood &ulnerability and what miti$ation

measures they adot and which ones they re1ect

Go&ernments ha&e a /ey role in mana$in$ &ulnerability and resonse to ha3ards whether

natural or human induced istorically ublic olicy related to ha3ard mana$ement has

reflected early flood ha3ard research ractice Its focus was on miti$ation rearedness

resonse and reco&ery (?ones and Shrubsole *++7) This focus used much traditional science

(where causes and solutions are rele$ated to discrete measurable asects of discilinary

in"uiry) to redict the conse"uences of ha3ards to or$ani3e resonse lans and de&elo

miti$ation otions but it had some serious limitations The chief limitation in the case of

flood ha3ard was that this aroach failed to reduce losses and hardshi from successi&e

floods erhas this limitation e.isted (and e.ists) because ha3ards as a$ents of harm cannot

be erfectly understood nor can the conse"uences of miti$ation acti&ities be reliably and

accurately redicted Or more imortantly how eole li&e where they li&e what they do

and how they are li/ely to be imacted by a crisis are less dictated by science than by their

social circumstances includin$ their &alues culture and world&iew Increasin$ly in

en&ironmental literature the ob1ecti&e asects of ha3ards (rimarily "uantitati&e hysical

sciences) and the sub1ecti&e asects (related to social science concerns) are seen not so much

as dichotomous but rather as interwo&en characteristics of comle. human-natural systems

(ewitt 788,4 Stefano&ic *+++)


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aroach to ha3ard studies esecially at a local le&el


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0oncetual framewor/s and &ulnerability tyolo$ies which identify factors (includin$ social

ones) contributin$ to &ulnerability to ha3ard ha&e been de&eloed ('inchester 788*4 Blai/ie

et al 7886) These ha&e heled in the analysis of &ulnerability includin$ attemts to

identify the comle. causes and effects of &ulnerability beyond the mere hysical forces at

lay @et it is common ractice in 0anada to address the hysical asect of flood ha3ards

without the social dimension which leads to short-si$hted unsustainable aroaches with

otentially alarmin$ lon$-term conse"uences

0 Con1,21 o' 1+, r,,arc+

The !ed !i&er Basin is a suitable site for this case study for se&eral reasons There is a lon$

history of floodin$ in the !ed !i&er with dama$es in e.cess of ++ million dollars

(0nd) and there ha&e been recent ma1or flood miti$ation decisions made Furthermore the

International !ed !i&er Tas/ Force ro&ided reorts to the American-0anadian International

?oint 0ommission (I?0) in *+++ (I?0 *+++a4 I?0 *+++b) which re&iewed the e&ents of the

788, flood and made some &ery secific recommendations to imro&e flood rearation and

resonse on both sides of the border They stated the necessity of further research into a

number of flood-related issues in the Basin includin$ the imortance of fosterin$ floodresilience and the imlications of the 788, flood on community and social identity

1.2.1 Flooding in the Red River Basin

Manitoba is a rairie ro&ince located at the center of 0anada It has a oulation of

aro.imately 776 million eole with o&er ,++++ li&in$ in the lar$est urban center

'innie$ istorically the !ed !i&er Settlement at the confluence of the !ed and

Assiniboine !i&ers was settled in the early 7,++>s for the urose of conductin$ thelucrati&e fur trade This was followed in the later 7J++>s by e.tensi&e immi$ration from

5uroe by ioneers in search of arable land In the southern art of the ro&ince the !ed

!i&er ro&ided incenti&e for these early 5uroean settlements into the area (a"ue *+++) as

the ri&er was a source of water for households and li&elihood acti&ities (articularly

a$riculture) and initially ser&ed as a transortation route O&er many decades inhabitants

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alon$ the !ed !i&er became accustomed to the threat of hi$h water in the srin$ but not total

inundation (Bumsted 788E)

Today most of the oulation of the ro&ince of Manitoba is ori$inally from (or descended

from eole who emi$rated from) &arious 5uroean countries i$h numbers of German-

sea/in$ Mennonites and utterites li&e in many southern communities characteri3ed by

intensi&e a$ricultural roduction French 0anadian communities also e.ist in areas of the

ro&ince and there are a lar$e number of abori$inal (First Cations) eole settled in urban

centers and rural reser&es These settlements are redominantly in the northern areas of the

ro&ince

The imortance of water mana$ement in the ro&ince is e.emlified by the fact that three-

"uarters of Manitobans li&e in areas of the ro&ince /nown for their history of e.tensi&e

floodin$ (Manitoba 0onser&ation *++7) There are fi&e rincial ri&ers in the ro&ince

includin$ the !ed and Assiniboine ri&ers in the southern art of the ro&ince The !ed !i&er

flows northward ori$inatin$ in 'aheton Corth #a/ota and flowin$ northward for JJH /m

It meanders throu$h Corth #a/ota northeastern Minnesota and southern Manitoba to finally

end at ;a/e 'innie$ The !ed !i&er Basin has an unusually flat too$rahy The ri&er has a

sloe of less than +7 m:/m on a&era$e and has a shallow ri&erbed The result is that under

flood conditions waters sread lar$ely unimeded across the landscae The !ed !i&er has

se&eral tributaries of which the Assiniboine !i&er is the most si$nificant The draina$e area

of the !ed !i&er increases from 7*6E++ to *J,H++ s"uare /ilometers where its tributaries

drain to$ether

The $reatest concentration of dama$es in Manitoba from the 788, flood occurred between

the caital city of 'innie$ and the %S border to the south This southern re$ion

encomasses ei$ht municialities alon$ the !ed !i&er 'hile the e.tent of floodin$ in 788,

&aried in each municiality the a&era$e amount of land area in each that was flooded was

6EP (Buc/land and !ahman 7888) In the municiality that recei&ed the most dama$e in

788, (!itchot) rou$hly half of the houses were dama$ed Qcirca J++R (Buc/land and !ahman

7888) There was one abori$inal reser&ation directly affected by the 788, flood D !oseau

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!i&er First Cation They recei&ed e.tensi&e dama$es4 rou$hly HP of the *+6 homes on the

reser&e were flooded (0M0 *++)

Fi34r, 5 T+, R,$ Ri6,r Bain(a$a-1,$ 'ro/ RRBDIN7 0889)

;ocation ma for the !ed !i&er Basin Ma has been coied and adated with ermission from the !ed !i&erBasin #ecision Information Cetwor/ (!!B#IC) htt2::wwwrrbdinor$:data:lidar1s February *E *++,!esale or further coyin$ of this material is strictly rohibited

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1.2.2 Responses to flooding

In the last fifty years there ha&e been si. ma1or floods ie $reater than J++++ cubic feet er

second (cfs) in southern Manitoba D in 78H+ 78 78,6 78,8 788 and 788, (#oerin$

788,) In recent decades as both the oulation and economic in&estment in Basincommunities ha&e increased residents of the &alley ha&e sou$ht to rotect their roerty and

li&elihoods from e.cessi&ely hi$h water le&els throu$h two /ey acti&ities2 artificial draina$e

measures to "uic/ly remo&e water from a$ricultural land and construction of structural flood

miti$ation measures to alter the flows of water away from oulated areas (articularly town

di/es) The latter community le&el initiati&es are done under the leadershi of the newly

named 'ater 0ontrol Infrastructure Section ('0IS) formerly 'ater !esources Branch of

the newly created Manitoba 'ater Stewardshi #eartment of the ro&incial $o&ernment

5&en at a household le&el it has become more common to increase rearedness throu$h

construction of small di/es ele&ation of buildin$s abo&e the 7++-year flood le&el or

construction of temorary sandba$ di/es around homesteads durin$ a flood e&ent This is in

some contrast to 1ust fifty years a$o at which time remo&al of ossessions and e&acuations of

residents were the rincial household flood dama$e miti$ation strate$ies (Buc/land and

!ahman 7888) For e.amle after the 788, flood 'ater !esources Branch (now the '0IS)

suorted and offered funds to assist residents in construction of ri&ate di/es and other

flood-roofin$ acti&ities to brin$ ri&ate roerties u to the 788, flood line lus + meters

(two feet) flood rotection le&el

In 788, there were ele&en southern communities with artial or comlete ermanent di/e

systems with almost an e"ual number of temorary ones ut in lace as the e&ent unfolded

Many of these communities now ha&e ermanent town di/es The 0ity of 'innie$ was

sa&ed from e.tensi&e dama$es in 788, throu$h the oeration of the =floodway> around the

city This lar$e infrastructure ro1ect comleted in 78J di&erts floodwaters from the !ed

!i&er around the city in an alternate 6H /m channel and deosits it north of the city limits

(Morris-Oswald *++7) It is currently under$oin$ a ma1or e.ansion to brin$ flood

rotection in the 0ity to the 7:,++ year flood le&el In *++E-*++6 the ori$inal bud$et for the

e.ansion was H million (0dn) but the floodway authority recently had to increase

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fundin$ by 7EH million to meet risin$ construction costs The fundin$ challen$es are a result

of both dramatic cost hi/es and a lac/ of full commitment by the Federal $o&ernment to ay

for half of the costs of the e.ansion In terms of structural miti$ation within the 0ity there

is also a system of rimary and secondary di/es to rotect hysically &ulnerable areas of the

city durin$ flood conditions

5.istin$ flood lannin$ strate$ies in Manitoba in&ol&e both structural measures and

or$ani3ational methods (a"ue *+++) These strate$ies became articularly dominant

followin$ the 78H+ flood which cost about 6* million Q78H+ dollarsR (Bumsted 788E) and

resulted in a total of 7*H+++ e&acuations from both 'innie$ and southern communities

(Bumsted 788,) Structural control wor/s under the ausices of the ro&incial $o&ernment

became a re&alent means of miti$atin$ dama$e in the Basin After the 78H+ flood the 78HJ

!oyal 0ommission on Flood 0ost-Benefit Analysis was assi$ned the tas/ of determinin$

how to reduce future dama$es from flood They focused on structural en$ineerin$ wor/s and

traditional cost-benefit analysis in their assessment %ltimately a series of strate$ic measures

were roosed such as the imressi&e !ed !i&er Floodway a di&ersion channel at the city of

orta$e la rairie to di&ert Assiniboine !i&er waters to ;a/e Manitoba the Shellmouth

!eser&oir on the Assiniboine !i&er to ro&ide water stora$e rin$ di/es in some &ulnerable

communities to the south and e.tensi&e di/in$ for the 0ity of 'innie$ Throu$h the 78+>s

and ,+>s these recommendations came to fruition The structural measures were funded

throu$h federal-ro&incial cost-sharin$ arran$ements In some of the cost sharin$

a$reements municial $o&ernments also assumed aro.imately HP of construction costs In

all cases the necessary en$ineerin$ desi$n wor/ and suer&ision of construction were

underta/en by what is now '0IS (re&iously the 'ater Branch of Manitoba) In the years

followin$ their construction they ha&e ser&ed their uroses well a&ertin$ considerable

dama$es and sufferin$

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1.2.3 Institutional arrangements for floodplain management

Floodlain mana$ement in&ol&es a multitude of a$encies in Manitoba and all three le&els of

$o&ernment Many only become in&ol&ed in a flood crisis '0IS ('ater !esources Branch

in 788,) bears the bul/ of resonsibility actually administerin$ multile Acts with a wideran$e of resonsibilities such as forecastin$ oeration of the flood control wor/s monitorin$

flows dissemination of floodlain and flood information and de&eloment and monitorin$

of flood-roofin$ ro$rams '0IS also ha&e a !e$ional Oerations $rou that is resonsible

for field acti&ities enforcement of le$islation emer$ency resonse to floods and deli&ery of

ser&ices at a community le&el It is the !e$ional Oerations $rou who ro&ide security to

di/ed communities and search and rescue oerations The /ey ro&incial Act they administer

is the 'ater !esources Administration Act a &ery comle. iece of le$islation One

imortant ro&ision of the Act since 788, stiulates that there should be two-sta$e

insections of buildin$s under construction in the floodlain to ensure they comly with

flood roofin$ criteria set out by the ro&ince (788, flood line lus + meters) Another /ey

ro&ision ermits the Minister (of 'ater Stewardshi) to remo&e structures that do not

conform to flood-roofin$ criteria owe&er olitically the remo&al of structures from

ri&ately owned roerty has ne&er to date been seen as defensible ('hitney 7888)

The #y/in$ Authority Act also administered by '0IS $i&es owers to a #y/in$

0ommissioner who is aointed by the ro&incial $o&ernment to suer&ise and insect flood

defence wor/s secific to the 0ity of 'innie$ The 0ity of 'innie$ Act also $i&es the 0ity

0ouncil $eneral owers and duties to ta/e action related to flood or other disaster All

municialities or secifically municial councils are $ranted owers throu$h the Municial

Act which allows them to both ta/e actions durin$ times of emer$ency and enforce their own

by-laws to re$ulate or rohibit acti&ities or de&eloment in the floodlain They are e.ected

to handle local crises includin$ flood e&ents and dama$es until they ha&e e.hausted their

own resources At that oint there are le$islati&e ro&isions for them to formally see/

assistance from senior $o&ernments

Flood miti$ation falls under all three 1urisdictions D federal ro&incial and municial with

the senior $o&ernments assumin$ a lar$e art of the cost for ma1or structural initiati&es (such

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as those noted earlier) throu$h &arious cost-sharin$ a$reements owe&er e&en with the

intensi&e construction of control wor/s that characteri3es the !ed !i&er Basin and other

re$ions in 0anada dama$es ha&e escalated with successi&e e&ents strainin$ federal bud$ets

istorically it was in 78,H that the federal $o&ernment out of frustration with escalatin$

flood dama$es be$an to see/ a broader ran$e of otions to reduce and resond to flood ris/s

other than e.clusi&ely structural ones ence a federal Flood #ama$e !eduction ro$ram

(F#!) - under 5n&ironment 0anada - was created shiftin$ the mana$ement emhasis from

e.clusi&ely structural measures to include new initiati&es in floodlain main$ and warnin$

systems land ac"uisition lus an e.ressed intent to =encoura$e> local municialities to

enact floodlain re$ulations such as 3onin$ re$ulations buildin$ codes etc These were non-

structural aroaches The federal $o&ernment ro$ram also stiulated that it would not

build aro&e or finance inaroriate de&eloment in the floodlain nor ro&ide disaster

assistance for such de&eloment owe&er accordin$ to Shrubsole (*+++) failure to actually

enforce and nurture such acti&ities as local floodlain re$ulations has been a serious

imediment to flood miti$ation in 0anada $enerally4 the !ed !i&er Basin was no e.cetion

as seen in 788, (Morris-Oswald *++7)

Of additional concern is the fact that since the late 788+>s the F#! has been essentially

defunct Co new le&el of $o&ernment has assumed resonsibility for floodlain mana$ement

and there has been no comrehensi&e new flood mana$ement ro$ram or &ision ut forward

to relace the F#! (Shrubsole *+++) Institutional arran$ements for floodlain

mana$ement remain fra$mented across 0anada (Shrubsole *+++) contributin$ to flawed

unsustainable decision-ma/in$

'hen it comes to emer$ency rearedness acti&ities ublic Safety and 5mer$ency

rearedness 0anada (S50)and its ro&incial counterarts (such as Manitoba 5mer$ency

Mana$ement Or$ani3ation QM5MOR) ha&e the most imortant role to lay in flood

mana$ement The 5mer$ency Measures Act emowers the ;ieutenant Go&ernor in 0ouncil

to aoint an ad&isory committee to recommend emer$ency rearedness lans and

ro$rams (a"ue *+++) Assessment of dama$es comensation and administration of the

#isaster Financial Assistance Arran$ements (#FAA) also fall under the 1urisdiction of

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M5MO The #FAA is a er-caita cost sharin$ formula (ro&incial-federal) for eli$ible

e.enses followin$ a disaster In 788, M5MO administered the contentious ro$ram

assessin$ dama$es and determinin$ comensation arran$ements for both community

infrastructure dama$es as well as ersonal dama$es sustained by residents

After the 788, flood comlaints and disutes about the rocess amount and nature of flood

dama$e comensation were common (I?0 788,4 Morris-Oswald *++7) Ill-will towards

$o&ernment authorities was also comounded by a belief held by some residents south of the

floodway that oeration of the floodway (to sa&e 'innie$) artificially raised water le&els on

their roerties causin$ additional dama$es Other residents resented the e&acuation orders

re"uirin$ that they abandon their efforts to sa&e their ersonal roerty (throu$h maintainin$

temorary di/es umin$ water etc) in order to comly with the orders

The tas/ of rearin$ emer$ency resonse lans has been assi$ned to local $o&ernments by

the Manitoba $o&ernment (a"ue *+++) ;ocal $o&ernments are also re"uired to ha&e a

committee of community members to ad&ise on such a lan @et accordin$ to Shrubsole

(*+++) municial $o&ernments ha&e $enerally been e.cluded as meanin$ful artners in most

flood mana$ement lans limitin$ local e.ertise ;ocal $o&ernments rarely ha&e the

necessary resources to de&elo and imlement emer$ency lans As a conse"uence there is a

differin$ ran$e of rearation from community to community in the Basin ('achira and

Sinclair *++H) In $eneral comrehensi&e $rassroots emer$ency resonse lans

imlemented at a community le&el often suffer from a lac/ of in&estment suort and

direction from senior $o&ernments (5!I *++7) There is e&idence of a need for senior

le&els of $o&ernment to suly on$oin$ suort (both technical assistance and ersonnel) to

local communities if disaster reduction $oals are to be reali3ed (5!I *++7)

The issue of multi-le&el artnershis and secifically the role of ublic in&ol&ement in

miti$ation decision-ma/in$ in Manitoba has recently come under scrutiny as a result of

research bein$ conducted in the !ed !i&er Basin (Sinclair #iduc/ Morris-Oswald and

Olc3y/ *++E) !esults su$$est some dissatisfaction amon$st residents of the Basin with

current floodlain mana$ement decision-ma/in$ ractices The ublic aears desirous of a

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more acti&e role in miti$ation decision-ma/in$ For e.amle there aears to be a reference

for more ublic consultation at the municial le&el consultation at all sta$es of deliberation

o&er &ulnerability reduction strate$ies (not 1ust the end) and more ublic education on the

issues critical to effecti&e decision-ma/in$

The abo&e discussion of the conte.t of flood and floodlain mana$ement in the !ed !i&er

Basin ro&ided a bac/dro a$ainst which this research was conducted as did the issues

raised in the aftermath of the 788, flood The 788, flood e&ent had been somewhat

characteri3ed by disa$reements and conflict not an uncommon occurrence in 0anada

(a"ue *+++)4 much of the conflict was between =e.erts> within $o&ernment a$encies and

the eole of flood rone areas It su$$ested a need to better understand the differin$

ersecti&es of $o&ernment a$encies and community residents with re$ard to flood

&ulnerability and how to miti$ate harm The aftermath of 788, was also followed by

si$nificant efforts to try to understand what haened to cause the le&el of de&astation seen

and to imro&e lannin$ caacities (I?0 *+++a4 Manitoba 'ater 0ommission 7888)

Therefore at the onset of this research it was e&ident that there was a lac/ of a continuin$

&ision for sustainable floodlain mana$ement in Manitoba (and 0anada) a discernable and

otentially worrisome dominance of structural measures and a lac/ of both the will and the

means for addressin$ community and re$ional &ulnerability to flood This failure to address

some asects of flood &ulnerability and articularly social sources (as oosed to hysical

sources) was the imetus for this research In addition as seen in this conte.t flood

mana$ement in the Basin with hi$hly comle. institutional arran$ements has not been able

to truly facilitate a cooerati&e mutual relationshi between senior $o&ernment decision-

ma/ers local municialities and Basin residents

: R,,arc+ o.;,c1i6,

The urose of this research was to better understand the relationshi between community

ersecti&es- beliefs attitudes &alues- floodlain mana$ement and miti$ation decisions in

the Basin and community &ulnerability to flood The emhasis from the outset was on

in&esti$atin$ social &ulnerability as oosed to hysical &ulnerability to flood 'hile both

sources of &ulnerability are seen to wor/ in tandem to create the otential for a disaster to

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occur social sources of &ulnerability ha&e not been $i&en sufficient attention (Blai/ie et al

7886)

This research considered such issues as community riorities and &ision for the future

ercetions of &ulnerability community acti&ities related to flood mana$ement how local

miti$ation decisions are made institutional ersecti&es and &alues and why structural

measures ha&e such aeal articularly lin/a$es were sou$ht between community and

institutional ersecti&es &alues and decision-ma/in$ and how those lin/a$es mi$ht create

&ulnerability in this conte.t This research addressed the roblem of floodin$ throu$h the

alication of new /nowled$e about the social construction of &ulnerability in the Manitoba

ortion of the !ed !i&er Basin

To that end the followin$ ob1ecti&es were fulfilled

%bectives:

7 To re&iew local miti$ation decision-ma/in$ rocesses and describe the relati&eemhasis on structural and non-structural measures in the !ed !i&er Basin

* To e.lore identified miti$ation acti&ities and decision-ma/in$ rocesses within the

conte.t of &ulnerability reduction aroaches to ha3ard mana$ement

E To describe community and institutional ersecti&es &alues and ercetions of&ulnerability and determine their roles in creatin$ social &ulnerability

6 To recommend how to counter some of the /ey sources of social &ulnerability in the!ed !i&er Basin based on the findin$s from this research

< O6,r6i," o' r,,arc+ /,1+o$

The achie&ement of the abo&e ob1ecti&es was done throu$h "ualitati&e (0reswell 7886)

research The creation of social &ulnerability must be e.amined within a real world conte.t

The research re"uired e.lorin$ multile facets of social &ulnerability and how they are

created and lin/ed The "ualitati&e methods (e$ inter&iews hoto elicitation) were of

articular &alue because the social &ulnerability ersecti&e relies hea&ily on conte.t4 it was

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essential to use "ualitati&e methods in attemtin$ to understand how Basin residents ma/e

sense of community flood ris/ and resond to it An interreti&e aroach (Ma.well 788)

was used emloyin$ a systematic analysis of te.t (e$ con&ersation written te.t and

hotos) to arri&e at an understandin$ and interretation of how residents construct meanin$

in their e.eriences of e&eryday life O&erall the study focused on understandin$ flood

&ulnerability by identifyin$ not only how floodlain mana$ement decisions are made but

more imortantly by e.lorin$ what social ercetions &alues and assumtions $o&ern

community le&el beliefs about &ulnerability and about related decision-ma/in$

An interdiscilinary aroach was adoted in this research because &ulnerability to ha3ards is

found at the ne.us of society built en&ironments and e.treme natural e&ents


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they ercei&e as imortant community &alues *) their attachment to the town E) concerns

they ha&e about flood &ulnerability and 6) sources of reassurance of security in the face of

flood &ulnerability (e$ town di/e) After the films were de&eloed inter&iews were held

with each articiant and the meanin$s of the hoto$rahs were recorded hoto data were

analy3ed for /ey findin$s related to community &ulnerability A focus $rou discussion was

conducted in each community to chec/ the &alidity of findin$s This was done by resentin$

(&ia oweroint slide show) a samle of hotos and commentary from inter&iews for

articiants to discuss At the conclusion of the research each community was $i&en a lar$e

oster of local hotos ta/en and commentary by residents about the community and flood

ris/ They are now ublicly dislayed within the communities

In addition to community research a documentary analysis was done on a samle of

documents a&ailable to the ublic on flood miti$ation issues in Manitoba4 this archi&al

material included reorts written from 78H+ to 7888 by a &ariety of authors rimarily

$o&ernment ersonnel consultants and reresentati&es of community or$ani3ations The

urose of the analysis was to identify some of the ersecti&es and &alues e.hibited in this

time frame by /ey institutions and decision ma/ers and any e&olution in thin/in$ about

flood &ulnerability and miti$ation This heled fulfill the first ob1ecti&e of this research

related to how flood miti$ation issues ha&e been addressed and miti$ation decisions made to

date

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Fi34r, 0 5 F#o" $ia3ra/ o' r,,arc+ /,1+o$o#o3y

#ocumentary analysis more secifically "ualitati&e content analysis was selected as a

method because it re&eals asects of the social conte.t in which documents are created and

then used as communication mechanisms D what is said and how it is said allows researchers

to ma/e inferences about what is imortant to the creators of the documents 0ontent analysis

as a techni"ue allows researchers to disco&er and describe the focus of indi&idual $rou

institutional or social attention ('eber 788+ in Stemler *++7) In this articular study it was

also used to hel identify imortant attitudes and &alues used by dominant institutions and

decision ma/ers in Manitoba with re$ard to &ulnerability reduction

In addition to documentary analysis of archi&al material /ey informant inter&iews were

conducted with $o&ernment ersonnel members of non-$o&ernmental a$encies (CGO>s)

and local municial decision-ma/ers and acti&ist $rous to in&esti$ate their ersecti&es on

floodlain mana$ement These ersonnel who reresent the ersecti&es of their institutions

or or$ani3ations may be referred to as =institutional $ate/eeers> (!o/each 78,8) They

were identified throu$h direct contact with /ey or$ani3ations within the Basin A list of the

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tyes of a$encies:or$ani3ations reresented in the research aears in 0hater E Section E6

5.amles of information sou$ht from /ey informants included their a$ency>s or $rou>s

ersecti&es on how decision-ma/in$ is done how consultations are done with imacted

communities what &ariables influence miti$ation decisions what an ideal rocess for

decision-ma/in$ mi$ht be what the riorities of communities are and what barriers mi$ht

e.ist to reali3in$ sustainable floodlain mana$ement The inter&iew schedule aears in

Aendi. 0

Once the abo&e data were collected the achie&ement of ob1ecti&es two and three re"uired

that findin$s be e.amined in the conte.t of current thin/in$ about the creation of

&ulnerability to flood ha3ard In $eneral &ulnerability framewor/s see/ to e.lain the

&ariables that contribute to or are critical to the analysis of &ulnerability 'hile numerous

&ulnerability framewor/s were re&iewed one model offered articular $uidance and insi$hts

in this analysis The model was that of 'isner et al *++6 - a more recent &ersion of Blai/ie

et al>s (7886) A! model - which focuses on the ressures and rocesses that result in

disasters throu$h a =ro$ression of &ulnerability>- essentially social &ulnerability coincidin$

in sace and time with ha3ard e&ents articularly this framewor/ emhasi3es the interlay

between root causes of social &ulnerability (such as &alues economic forces $o&ernance

etc) dynamic rocesses (such as decision-ma/in$ li&elihood or other stresses etc) and

resultant &ulnerable conditions that are created by the aforementioned root causes and

rocesses This framewor/ was alied in art and in the 0onclusion chater it was adated

to show the ro$ression of social &ulnerability in the !ed !i&er Basin usin$ the findin$s of

this research The &ulnerability analysis comonent of the study considered the results of the

documentary analysis of archi&al material analysis of /ey informant inter&iews and the

emirical community data from the community sur&eys hotos inter&iews and focus $rous

in e.lorin$ the social construction of &ulnerability in the !ed !i&er Basin

The final ob1ecti&e of this study was to ma/e recommendations on how ha3ards : disaster

&ulnerability mi$ht be addressed in this conte.t Four recommendations were made as a

means of addressin$ some of the broader societal issues that attenuate &ulnerability in the

Basin (refer to 0hater , Section ,H)

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In conductin$ this research the assumtion was made that recommendations related to

reducin$ &ulnerability and imro&in$ miti$ation re"uired an understandin$ of some of the

root causes of social &ulnerability secifically throu$h e.lorin$ the ersecti&es and &alues

of community residents and institutions #ecision ma/in$ rocesses are deendent uon such

social &ariables and &alues in articular (Man$un and ennin$ 7888) The findin$s of this

research may &ery well ha&e imlications for imro&in$ resonses to ha3ards of all tyes

articularly when shared with the aroriate authorities communities interest $rous and

indi&iduals

= Or3ani>a1ion o' 1+, 14$y

Followin$ the introductory chater this thesis document is or$ani3ed as follows2

Chapter /resents the literature re&iew entitled2 Vulnerability to Flood Hazard 5.lorin$

the notion of flood &ulnerability as a social construction re"uired a broad o&er&iew of

literature on issues of rele&ance to floodlain mana$ement and miti$ation decision ma/in$

within the !ed !i&er Basin Main areas of the rele&ant academic literature that are resented

within this 0hater include 2 an o&er&iew of theoretical ersecti&es in ha3ards and disasters4

concetuali3ations of &ulnerability in the natural ha3ard conte.t4 &ulnerability reduction andcreation throu$h ha3ards and articularly flood ha3ard4 the role of structural and

nonstructural miti$ation measures in alle&iatin$ flood &ulnerability4 olicy issues in

miti$atin$ flood dama$es4 community le&els of analysis of &ulnerability and the role of

culture and &alues within flood miti$ation decision ma/in$

Chapter 3re&iews theResearch Design and Methods 5mirical data collection was

erformed in two ma1or hases One was related to a re&iew of institutional ersecti&es and

&alues on &arious asects of flood &ulnerability and community articiation in decision

ma/in$ The institutional analysis was based uon two acti&ities2 7) documentary analysis

and4 *) inter&iews with /ey informants from flood mandated a$encies or other rele&ant

or$ani3ations The second hase of data collection was at the community le&el and included2

7) a sur&ey on flood &ulnerability and local decision-ma/in$ conducted with residents in two

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Basin communities selected accordin$ to a set of criteria which aears in 0hater E4 *) use

of a &isual method utili3in$ hoto$rahy and inter&iews within those same communities to

$arner community ersecti&es and &alues related to flood ris/ and miti$ation and E) a focus

$rou with articiants within each community who too/ hotos and articiated in

inter&iews for the urose of discussin$ and &alidatin$ findin$s

Chapter 6is entitledInstitutional Values and Perspectives It resents the findin$s from a

re&iew of a samle of documents rele&ant to flood and floodlain mana$ement in the !ed

!i&er Basin durin$ the eriod from 78H+ to 7888 The re&iew e.amined the thematic content

of documents durin$ the si.ty year eriod includin$ the two years immediately followin$ the

788, flood This is followed by the results of indi&idual inter&iews with /ey informants Qalso

termed =institutional $ate/eeers> (!o/each 78,8 HE)R from within Basin or$ani3ations

en$a$ed in flood related acti&ities The final discussions in the chater hi$hli$ht ma1or

findin$s related to institutional ersecti&es and &ulnerability as well as a secific discussion

of the &alues of $o&ernment institutions

Chapter 5 is entitled Survey of Counity Perspectives This chater resents the

community sur&ey data analysis The results of the sur&ey are or$ani3ed accordin$ to themes

that emer$ed from the data This is followed by a discussion of what the findin$s re&eal

about community ersecti&es riorities and &alues their lin/ to flood mana$ement issues

and miti$ation decisions that are made locally and be$ins to e.lore their lin/ to

&ulnerability

Chapter 8is entitled Capturing Counity Flood Vulnerability through Photography

The chater discusses community characteristics ersecti&es and &alues that emer$ed

throu$h re&iew of community hoto$rahs durin$ indi&idual inter&iews with residents and

the focus $rous conducted with community articiants First the central themes that

emer$ed throu$h the analysis of hotos inter&iews and focus $rou data are resented under

se&eral descriti&e headin$s The themes hi$hli$ht issues that were discussed by residents in

reflectin$ uon the &ulnerability of their communities to flood These are followed by a

discussion entitled =;i&in$ with the !is/> that discusses the community sense of flood

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&ulnerability as re&ealed throu$h the hotos Finally comments are ro&ided on the use of

hoto$rahy as a method for e.lorin$ community &alues ersecti&es on flood ha3ard and

community &ulnerability

Chapter resents Conclusions and Recoendationsrelated to amelioratin$ social

&ulnerability in the !ed !i&er Basin 0onclusions relate to how flood miti$ation decisions

are made and what (and how) community and institutional &alues and ersecti&es influence

how flood &ulnerability is addressed in this conte.t A final framewor/ entitled ro$ression

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CHAPTER 0 LITERATURE REVIE& VULNERABILITY TO FLOODHA?ARD

0 V4#n,ra.i#i1y an$ na14ra# +a>ar$

2.1.1 Introduction

Catural disastersha&e been increasin$ in recent decades althou$h there may be a lac/ of

clear e&idence that the actual fre"uency of e.treme ha3ard e&ents has increased (@odmani

*++7) owe&er researchers worldwide ha&e raised an alarm that human imacts uon the

5arth system such as =$reenhouse $ases> emitted into the atmoshere may be causin$ the

$lobal atmoshere to warm which means that both the fre"uency and:or se&erity of &arious

e.treme climatic e&ents are li/ely to increase (Asen Global 0han$e Institute 788)

!e$ardless of the final outcome of such debates as $lobal climate chan$e disasters ha&e been

and will continue to be a threat to human habitation and acti&ities and e&en to human life In

the wei$hty words of %lrich Bec/2 ultimate security is denied to us human bein$sN (Bec/

788* 8,)

The humanperceptionthat disasters ha&e been increasin$ is rimarily related to an

obser&able increase in material losses and loss : ris/ to human life rather than to numbers of

e&ents themsel&es In other words ha3ards are defined as disasters only by the imacts onhuman life and human concerns ;osses ha&e in fact been increasin$ in the last four decades

(5t/in 78884 @odmani *++7) This has led some researchers to conclude that at least one of

the contributors to &ulnerability is the (human determined) =ath of de&eloment> (Blai/ie et

al 78864 @odmani *++7) uman use of en&ironmental resources and the underlyin$ &alues

that lead to certain tyes of usa$e includin$ atterns of settlement are then /eys to

understandin$ and reducin$ human &ulnerability to natural disaster This of course raises the

"uestion of whether there are in fact any truly =natural> disasters $i&en that without eole

there are no disasters #isasters occur at the interface of e.treme hysical e&ents and

&ulnerable oulations (O>Keefe 'est$ate and 'isner 78,)

The human vulnerailit(aroach which considers disasters in a broad conte.t is in contrast

to early studies of natural disasters that ortrayed them as e.cetional circumstances that

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interruted the social rocesses in a society #isasters were &iewed as essentially an

aberration4 the system was attac/ed by an e.ternal a$ent And recover(was then a limited

concet which merely re"uired resumtion of normal atterns of li&in$ (ewitt 78JE4

aman 7888) Because of this treatment of the natural disaster as both aberrant and

nuisance the focus of $eo$rahers and sociolo$ists from the 78H+>s - 78,+>s was to ur$e for

de&eloment of miti$ation measures sharly focused on a =technocratic aroach>

Tyically miti$ation too/ the form of disaster rearedness emer$ency e&acuation lannin$

relief and rehabilitation efforts It $enerally i$nored the issue of vulnerailit( (aman 7888)

and did not see/ e.lanations for &ulnerability beyond the issue of lace and e.osure

Inter&ention focused on reduction of e.osure or barrin$ that on reducin$ stress and

ro&idin$ ser&ices to &ictims and rebuildin$ as necessary after the e&ent

The concet of &ulnerability as alied to e.osure to natural ha3ards D such as floods D

therefore has e&ol&ed only o&er recent decades It is fair to say that the concet of

&ulnerability in 0anada and elsewhere has become an imortant comonent of or new

aroach to disaster studies ('inchester 788*4 Shrubsole *+++4 ?ones and Shrubsole *++74

earce *++7) 'hile initially ta/in$ the form of assessments that still focused si$nificantly

on e.osure-related &ariables the notion of &ulnerability has "uic/ly e.anded to include

more social economic and olitical &ariables as e.lanatory for disaster It has e.tended the

notion of ris/ beyond the technical interretations characteri3in$ early studies Similarly the

solutions to &ulnerability now are seen to artially lie in imro&ed understandin$ of the

human system which includes human &alues that $o&ern our 1ud$ments and moti&ate our

actions

This chater is di&ided into se&eral sections The first section introduces some of the /ey

concets and theoretical ersecti&es in the rele&ant ha3ard and disaster research to which

this study will contribute The meanin$ of the notion of &ulnerability and its emer$ence are

then e.lored in some detail A discussion of the concetual models of &ulnerability is then

resented with articular emhasis on one framewor/ that is roosed for discussion and

adatation in this case study D 'isner et al>s (*++6) ressure and !elease (A!) model The

issue of &ulnerability reduction is resented throu$h reflection on floodlain decision-

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ma/in$ the meanin$ and $oals of =miti$ation> and a secific discussion of nonstructural and

structural aroaches to &ulnerability reduction A brief re&iew of the lin/ between olicy

and &ulnerability reduction is also done !ecent ersecti&es on the alication of

&ulnerability concets at a community le&el of analysis follows Finally there is a $eneral

discussion of culture and human &alues followed by a more detailed re&iew of &alues and

their essential role in ha3ard related decision-ma/in$ A brief summary concludes the chater

00 T+,or,1ica# -,r-,c1i6, in +a>ar$ an$ $ia1,r r,,arc+

2.2.1 Research evolution: A broad overview

istorically ha3ards research and articularly flood research was rooted in the $eo$rahical

ersecti&e with additional ma1or contributions from the social sciences (articularly

disaster research in sociolo$y) In the 786+>s $eo$raher Gilbert 'hite made a si$nificant

early contribution to flood research by identifyin$ and e.lorin$ the rise of flood losses e&en

in the face of structural rotections in floodlains Althou$h technolo$y to reduce e.osure

to ha3ards had e.anded si$nificantly human hardshi from flood disasters was still on the

rise 'hite (78,E) drew attention to a new area of research termed =human resonse> to

natural ha3ards This new ersecti&e was the foundation for decades of beha&ioral@ rather

than hysical@studies of ha3ard e&ents D studies done rimarily at the indi&idual le&el of

analysis 'hite (78,E) was intri$ued by failures to redict how eole in a floodlain would

beha&e in dealin$ with flood roblems and a lac/ of understandin$ of why some $rous of

eole resond differently than others e and others then became critical of decision

choice models that sou$ht to only understand eole>s beha&ior based on economic

otimi3ation rinciles or later throu$h sub1ecti&e utility models because they did not

e.lain beha&ior in flood studies Simultaneously researchers became increasin$ly interested

in olicy and anticiatin$ eole>s resonses to olicy chan$e 'hile olicy studies were

intended to aid decision-ma/ers success was limited

Kates (78,7) for e.amle attemted to aly a decision model (ie bounded rationality) to

find out how eole ercei&e ha3ards the ossible ad1ustments that they mi$ht ma/e and

what different factors mi$ht affect ercetions e did wor/ in floodlains in the Tennessee

a$e *H


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s that $reatly e.anded the notion of what mi$ht influence !hat people do

when they are e.osed to ha3ards Two difficulties became aarent in the flood research2 7)

the relationshi if any between eole>s &erbali3ed attitudes and actual beha&ior durin$ a

flood was tenuous and *) human occuancy in areas of hi$h ha3ard ersists e&en in the face

of threat ('hite 78,E) These deficiencies romted more research that identified a wider

ran$e of &ariables as contributin$ to ris/ ercetion and ha3ard ad1ustment than was at first

erhas anticiated For e.amle further research on ris/ ercetion showed that an

indi&idual>s e.ectations about the robability and se&erity of disaster imacts (ie ris/

ercetion) may be less imortant than the fre"uency of discussin$ thin/in$ about and

e.chan$in$ information about the ris/ (defined as =ha3ard intrusi&eness>) in terms of

redictin$ the adotion of miti$ation and rearedness measures (Tierney et al *++7)

#eficiencies in early studies ha&e also led to the more multi-scale and multi-dimensional

aroaches that characteri3e more recent ha3ard studies (S5I *++*) Increasin$ly

comle.ity in the lin/ed human-natural system and related decision-ma/in$ rocesses is

bein$ embraced It has brou$ht about a substantial redesi$n of both olicy and ractice in

hi$h ris/ areas and new ersecti&es re$ardin$ decision-ma/in$ Most imortantly decisions

and decision-ma/in$ rocesses themsel&es are now &iewed as otentially creatin$ or

reducin$ &ulnerability #isaster is understood as the roduct of a cumulati&e set of

decisions (and) then the rocesses by which these choices are made become a focal oint

for otential chan$eN (0omfort 'isner 0utter ulwarty ewitt Oli&er-Smith 'einer

Fordham eacoc/ and Krim$old 7888 67)

In fact the imro&ed aroaches to ha3ard and disaster assessment that followed from the

earliest studies on flood ha3ard $enerally reco$ni3ed that our social systems influence the

decisions of indi&iduals and communities and decisions are not simle and discrete

summations of ersonal costs and benefits (real or ercei&ed) By 78JJ 'hite elaborated on

the imortance of social rocesses in assessin$ ris/ in e.osure to ha3ards by statin$2

%nless a ris/ analysis comrehends the social structure within which indi&idual decisions

are made it may fall far short of understandin$ either the rocess or conse"uences of those

decisionsN ('hite 78JJ ,*)

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'hite>s initial wor/ on human resonse and subse"uent research and criti"ue of traditional

e&ent-focused ha3ard ersecti&es a&ed the way for e.aminin$ decision-ma/in$ rocesses

and social conte.ts as contributors to ha3ard &ulnerability Secific to flood ha3ards he and

other researchers (e$ Kates 78,74 ewitt 78JE4 9uarantelli 78JJ4 Bo$ard 78JJ) reali3ed

that understandin$ of flood disasters was limited by oular technocratic attitudes measures

and interretations This ac/nowled$ement made it ossible to consider new aroaches to

flood dama$e reduction and miti$ation that had not before been well reco$ni3ed Many of

these were nonstructural aroaches Miti$ation otions were broadened to include more

than 1ust technocratically deri&ed and imlemented structural solutions to flood roblems

Kates> (78,7) $roundbrea/in$ wor/ referred to commonly as the =natural ha3ards aradi$m>

considered the issue of ha3ard in a lin/ed human-ecolo$ical conte.t where the resonse of

human $rous to ha3ard was related to a number of /ey factors e loo/ed at techno-social

atterns or sta$es of ad1ustment to natural ha3ard and what ad1ustments (ie choices made)

tend to emer$e from these sta$es and the resultant atterns of dama$e is wor/ has been

characteri3ed both as an early humanecologicalorpoliticalecologicalersecti&e is

model of ad1ustment to ha3ard was based on seein$ natural ha3ards as an interaction of man

and nature $o&erned by the coe.istent state of ad1ustment in the human use system and the

state of nature in the natural e&ents systemN (Kates 78,7 ,J) Mutual imact (human and

natural system) defined this ersecti&e e defined three broad cate$ories of human

ad1ustment to natural ha3ard threat2 7) those ad1ustments that modify the natural e&ents

system (e$ structural measures such as those that ro&ide barriers to limit the sread of

flood waters) *) those that modify the human use system (includes both structural and

nonstructural measures with emhasis on the latter) and E) a set of emer$ency ad1ustments

(shorter-term ad1ustments tyically to reduce hardshi and losses ost-e&ent)

2.2.2 in!ing natural ha"ards and disaster perspectives

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The aroaches of Kates and 'hite (and others) discussed earlier are sometimes &iewed as a

=natural ha3ards aroach> and as searate from disaster aroaches er say (Tierney et al

*++7) althou$h the distinction is somewhat (and increasin$ly) hard to define The /ey

distinction is that the ha3ards aroach focuses on how the adotion of ha3ard ad1ustments

can reduce the undesirable results of a ha3ard e&ent Temoral focus in analysis is another

rimary difference Geo$rahers : lanners loo/ at understandin$ &ulnerability miti$ation

and rearedness mainly re-e&ent and loo/ at a more limited number of ha3ards Their

focus is "uite often at the indi&idual scale e.aminin$ indi&idual beha&ior In contrast

disaster researchers often sociolo$ists are interested in a broad ran$e of disasters and see/ to

describe and analy3e a &ariety of social units often with a focus on or$ani3ational beha&ior

They loo/ less at rearedness and more at conditions immediately rior to the e&ent

resonse beha&iors and more immediate short-term conse"uences They loo/ only

secondarily on actual reco&ery (Tierney et al *++7) In addition definitional roblems

related to the distinction between ha3ards and disaster research are comounded by the

reality that disaster ersecti&es themsel&es are by no means well-defined concetually

(Tierney et al *++7)

It is fair to say that &arious aradi$ms ha&e been used in the field to concetuali3edisasters

Many are still debated and usually reflect the disciline of the researcher #isasters ha&e been

characteri3ed as2 sudden and dramatic e&ents that in&ol&e social disrution or destabili3ation

(9uarantelli 788Ja) that $enerate collecti&e resonse (9uarantelli 788Ja) and that can in

theory be miti$ated (Tierney et al *++7) #isasters ha&e also been described as social

constructions and thus roducts of social definition (Kres 788Ja) They are characteri3ed as

causin$ some de$ree of destruction as seen in the social science literature (#ynes 788J4

9uarantelli 788Ja) and in the olitical science literature (latt 7888) on disasters #isasters

ha&e been defined in terms of sychosocial imact (;as/a 788+) and or$ani3ational and

community imacts (Kres and Bosworth 78864 #ynes 788J) They ha&e also been definedaccordin$ to e&aluations that center on direct and indirect losses

There are a number of o&erlain$ ha3ards and disaster aradi$ms used by researchers Key

ones include2 e&ent-based aradi$ms orfunctionalism(where disasters are considered as

discreet e&ents which interfere with the functionin$ of society4 also lin/ed with as(stems

a$e *J


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ersecti&e)4politicaleconom(theories (focusin$ on how $o&ernment can be contributors to

disasters throu$h romotin$ different acti&ities D often for economic e.ediency ) (ewitt

788,4 Tierney et al *++7)4politicalecologicalersecti&es (focusin$ on human oulation

and atterns of roduction and resources allocation in the hysical en&ironment) (Oli&er-

Smith 7888b) Tierney et al (*++7) also identify an =emer$in$> ecologicalvulnerailit(

ersecti&e that sees communities as consistin$ of loosely-couled hetero$eneous ecolo$ical

elements and networ/s in which ower and resources are not distributed e"ually Such

ine"uities influence coin$ with disasters This arallels the notion of the human-

en&ironment condition as a couled system with its own endo$enous sources of stress

namely where its own dynamics can be a source of threat (S5I *++*) In this &iew it is

ossible to see a shift from the idea of one erturbation to which a society must coe or adat

to one where there are flows of stresses which emanate from both the human and natural

en&ironment Inclusion of multile stresses and multile ha3ards as art of &ulnerability

assessment is also findin$ fa&or in the literature (9uarantelli 788Jb4 ?ones and Shrubsole

*++74 S5I *++*)

As to the cause of natural disasters there are two distinct tyes of concetuali3ations in the

literature The first set of concetuali3ations loo/s at e&ent characteristics as indeendent

&ariables and social resonses to the e&ent as deendent &ariables4 for e.amle floods of =.>

ma$nitude result in e&acuation of =y> ersons This was tyical of the early e&ent-focused

aroaches 0lassical disaster research li/e early ha3ards research loo/ed not at

&ulnerability but at =the fact of disaster> (Ale.ander 788,4 Tierney et al *++7)

0on&ersely disaster studies that encomass &ulnerability and miti$ation aroaches see

social arran$ements as determinin$ the nature and e.tent of imact should a ha3ard e&ent

occur (Kres 788Ja) In a concetual shift the &ulnerability aroaches see disasters as less

a reaction to an e&ent as they are a social conse"uence and they are less a defense a$ainst

e.ternal attac/ but rather artly a result of social or$ani3ation and the ability of decision-

ma/in$ actors to face crisis (9uarantelli 788Ja)

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Cow there is an emhasis on e.aminin$ for instance creation of &ulnerability distribution of

&ulnerability and chan$es in &ulnerability that occur at laces where ha3ard e&ents occur

There are more lin/a$es between the hysical science of ha3ards and the social science of

disasters as it relates to natural e&ents This notion of &ulnerability has also tended to mo&e

research in both ha3ards and disasters to focus less e.clusi&ely on the time eriod

immediately surroundin$ an e&ent loo/in$ at causes and trends rooted in societal

characteristics

0: V4#n,ra.i#i1y an$ 64#n,ra.i#i1y a,/,n1

The increasin$ imortance and reference to the concet of &ulnerability and its ractical

manifestation D namely &ulnerability assessment D re&eals much about how attitudes towards

disasters and decision-ma/in$ ha&e chan$ed 0oncern with e.osure to a hysical ha3ard

ris/ has been sulemented with concern about social economic olitical and social

rocesses that contribute to the imacts of an e&ent disasters D where and

why and to whom they occur Many discilines then ha&e contributed and de&eloed their

own interretations and ersecti&es on ha3ards that now e.and the analysis of disasters to

include social olitical economic and cultural factors in human ercetion of and resonse

to ha3ards

#efinitions of vulnerailit(in recent natural disaster research san se&eral discilines D

$eo$rahy sociolo$y and anthroolo$y 5.amles include2

characteristics of a erson or $rou in terms of their caacity to anticiate coe with

resist and reco&er from the imact of a ha3ard (Blai/ie et al 7886 8)

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the de$ree of suscetibility and resilience of the community and en&ironment to

ha3ards (Buc/le Mars and Smale *+++ in ?ones and Shrubsole *++7 7)

&ulnerability is the measure of the caacity to weather resist or reco&er from the

imacts of a ha3ard in the lon$ term as well as in the short term (Mileti 7888 7+)

&ulnerability refers to the social and economic characteristics of a erson a household

or a $rou in terms of their caacity to coe with and to reco&er from the imacts of

disaster (aman 7888 786)

All four definitions contain two main concets2 the idea of threat and that ad&erse effect will

&ary as eole resond to the threat The definitions also allow for the e.istence of

differential &ulnerability based on social characteristics such as caacities to resond and

resilience

The definition by Blai/ie et al (7886) as noted in 0hater 7 will be adoted for this study It

is articularly suitable because it is not e&ent secific nor does it focus on the disaster a$ent

characteristics !ather it allows for an e.amination of the caacities of social $rous in

relation to all four temoral arts of the ha3ard cycle (Tierney et al *++7) D miti$ation

(which allows for anticiatory lannin$ and measures to reduce e.osure between e&ents)

rearedness (actions ta/en rior to disaster imact to enhance emer$ency resonse)

resonse to the ha3ard e&ent and reco&ery

The &ulnerability aroach loo/s at social issues in the re-disaster sta$e as e.lanatory in

terms of at least some of the outcomes from the ha3ard e&ent Key to the &ulnerability

aroach is the assumtion that there is an imortant relationshi between e&eryday

conditions within a community and the totality of imact sustained once a tri$$er e&ent (such

as a natural disaster) occurs (Blai/ie et al 78864 Ale.ander 788,)

In other words &ulnerability is increasin$ly seen as a roduct of re-e.istin$ conditions

(ower structure o&erty ethnic di&ersity etc) and : or rocesses ($o&ernance decision-

a$e E7


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ma/in$ or$ani3ational caacities etc) within a society It is the combination of a tri$$erin$

hysical e&ent and articular social factors that result in natural disasters D in other words

ha3ards confrontin$ &ulnerable communities cause disasters (Ko&acs and Kunreuther *++7)

0are should be ta/en to not automatically e"uate &ulnerability with o&erty D it is not always

the case @odmani (*++7) clarifies that social constructions of &ulnerability can ha&e &arious

roots 'hile lac/ of access to resources and income oortunities are dimensions of

&ulnerability and often consistent with o&erty =other asects of social ositionin$> can also

determine eole>s &ulnerability e notes for e.amle that &ulnerability is influenced by

factors such as a$e ethnicity $ender community structure community decision-ma/in$

rocesses and olitical issues In the de&eloed world conte.t where absolute o&erty is

often not as ressin$ these latter three factors are of articular si$nificance esecially in

terms of community le&el &ulnerability assessment

Another reason the &ulnerability aroach has found $reat accetance in the last two decades

is because it has been reco$ni3ed that solely technocratic aroaches are unable to 7)

ade"uately address the comle.ity of disaster issues and *) the redisosition of certain

communities to disaster The technocratic aroaches were the lo$ical solutions to the ha3ard

roblems defined as e.ternal e&ents to be controlled but were ob&iously inade"uate when

social &ariables were seen as contributors to &ulnerability

5&en the early &ulnerability studies emhasi3ed the biohysical assessments of &ulnerability

Then o&er time the notion of hysical a$ent became less dominant A ma1or shift in

thin/in$ about disasters accomanied this chan$e Most articularly a disaster was no lon$er

e.erienced as a reaction but rather as a social conse"uence (Gilbert 788Ja4 Gilbert 788Jb)

#isaster was a result of the =underlyin$ lo$ic> of the community (Gilbert 788Ja4 Gilbert

788Jb) From this stance the usettin$ of human relations was central to the concetualframewor/ for &ulnerability analysis


45/348

to the chance that characteristics of a human $rou as $enerated by olitical-economic

conditions that ma/e them unsafe coincide in time and sace with a tri$$er e&ent to which

they ha&e been made &ulnerable


46/348

In the flood conte.t it means that the nature of the flood (characteristics li/e duration

intensity etc) and the social circumstances of imacted residents must both be considered in

a comrehensi&e assessment of &ulnerability4 &ulnerability then re"uires consideration of

both social and bio-$eohysical dimensions A dilemma howe&er is a lac/ of clear

framewor/ for showin$ lin/a$es between satial henomena (li/e floods) and social

structures and rocesses 5.istin$ literature has little to say about the interactions between

couled social ecolo$ical systems (S5I *++*) In other words the rocesses within society

that $enerate unsafe conditions and how they actually interact with a secific ha3ard to

influence &ulnerability rarely ha&e been e.lored (?ones and Shrubsole *++7)

2.3.1 #ulnerabilit$ assessment

was first used in the 78,+>s and was seen as a

tool in disaster mana$ement (@odmani *++7) The assessment attemts to understand !ho

or !hatis &ulnerable to ha3ards ('ates *+++) In terms of natural ha3ards because

&ulnerability is seen as a measure of a erson or $rou>s e.osure to the ha3ard and de$ree to

which they can reco&er Blai/ie et al (7886) maintain that it is ossible to de&elo a

"uantitati&e measure of &ulnerability onl(in terms of theproailit(that a ha3ard of a

articular intensity fre"uency and duration will occur This robability in turn affects the

de$ree of loss at the le&el of analysis considered (e$ household or community) in relation

to their le&el of &ulnerability to secific ha3ards of different intensities

This ma/es &ulnerability then a hyothetical and redicti&e term that is ro&en only by

obser&in$ the imact of the e&ent should it occur (Blai/ie et al 7886) Thus understandin$

of &ulnerability will e&ol&e o&er time must be based on ost-e&ent reflection and intentional

reduction in unsafe ractices istory and e.erience are used to transform society towards astate of increased resilience to multile shoc/s

Models of &ulnerability then ser&e rimarily as methods for understandin$ the causes and

symtoms of &ulnerability


47/348

be or e&en to identify ossible imlications of different olicy alternati&es By way of

e.amle a current $uide by the Cational Oceanic and Atmosheric Administration (COAA

7888) for conductin$ an assessment of community &ulnerability to ha3ard includes the

followin$ sections2 ha3ard identification (comrehensi&e list of ha3ard tyes and

rioriti3ation)4 ha3ard analysis (ma ris/ and ran/ suscetibility to ha3ard)4 critical facilities

analysis (in&entory and e&aluation of facilities in relation to hi$h-ris/ areas)4 societal analysis

(identification of hi$h need oulations and de&elo strate$ies)4 economic analysis

(identification of economic sectors and economic centers)4 en&ironmental analysis

(identification of /ey en&ironmental resources and sensiti&e areas)4 miti$ation oortunities

analysis (assessment of articiation in miti$ation ro$rams and in&entory of hi$h ris/

unde&eloed land) This tye of assessment is &ery suited to the de&eloed world with a hi$h

reliance on technolo$y and oulation studies Other methods (mobility chartin$4 wealth

ran/in$4 transect wal/s) ha&e been successful and been found more aroriate in other

conte.ts (COAA 7888) such as some de&eloin$ nations where technolo$y is not a&ailable

local e.erience with technolo$y is limited and local articiatory methods of e&aluatin$

&ulnerability are more meanin$ful in helin$ eole to concetuali3e &ulnerability


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human resonses to a ha3ard there is a dearth of information a&ailable The focus in research

to date has been to establish criteria that show lin/s between indi&idual resonses and &arious

characteristics of the e&ent 'hy are some resonses or otions eliminated esecially o&er

lon$er time-scales in a societyL !oot causes of &ulnerability may offer e.lanation D

includin$ causes rooted in &alues social caital olitical ideolo$y tye of economy etc A

thorou$h understandin$ of &ulnerability re"uires understandin$ of understated little e.lored

sources of &ulnerability and their imact on decision-ma/in$ Also imro&in$ understandin$

of some of these social and cultural characteristics (such as &alues and cultural beliefs)

should imro&e assessment of &ulnerability to multile ha3ards because they ha&e

imlications for alltyes of ha3ards In fact the $eneral shift away from a$ent-secific

aroaches incororates loo/in$ at $eneral &ulnerabilities (earce 788,) as well as secific

&ulnerabilities in disaster mana$ement

The tye of ha3ard bein$ faced is imortant in assessin$ &ulnerability There are households

or communities that are &ulnerable to a wide ran$e of ha3ards because of a broad inability to

access a &ariety of resources and little choice otions due to limited economic or olitical

ower ('inchester 788*4 Blai/ie et al 7886) Others are more &ulnerable to some tyes of

natural ha3ards than other tyes Thus the indicators of &ulnerability may be at times "uite

different in loo/in$ across different ha3ards as well as across different communities

Sometimes models and framewor/s of &ulnerability assessment are roduced rimarily from

the ersecti&e of someone e.ternal to a community This often does not do 1ustice to the

ossible &ictims and layers most directly affected It is imortant to collect data reflectin$

=indi$enous interretations of e&ents and rocesses> which can erhas enrich and alter

framewor/s (Blai/ie at al

thesis doctorate

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