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Integrating scientific and local knowledge within disaster risk reduction (DRR) using methods that encourage knowledge exchange and two-way dialogue is a difficult yet important task. This article shows how participatory mapping can help in fostering integrative DRR through the involvement of a large range of stakeholders. It draws on a project conducted in the municipality of Masantol Philippines that is regularly affected by flooding and other natural hazards. Participatory 3-Dimensional Mapping, or P3DM, has been used for both risk assessment and DRR planning. P3DM facilitates the interpretation, assimilation and understanding of geo-referenced data by making them visible and tangible to everyone. Given that maps are scaled and geo-referenced, P3DM also helps in incorporating both local and scientific knowledge through a two-way dialogue in DRR.

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (SFDRR) has been a guide for disaster risk governance globally. With the popularization of the vulnerability paradigm, gender has been established as one of the social determinants of disaster risk. However, it is often used interchangeably with “women” based on the binary categorization of gender identity that dominates, including in the Western world, reducing it to a demographic variable denied of any voice, context, or history. This article explores gender beyond the binary in the SFDRR, disaster risk reduction (DRR), and the broader risk governance mechanisms through examples of hijras from India and baklas from the Philippines. It delves into a discussion on the influence of dominant Western discourses in the creation of gender categories and their non-Western realities through a post-colonial lens. The article deals with questions on hybridity of identities, power, control, resistance, leverage, and the unique capacities of gender diverse groups at the time of disasters and beyond, while investigating the space of such groups within global frameworks like the SFDRR.

This essay expands the postcolonial agenda for future disaster studies that we suggested in conclusion of the book The Invention of Disaster. It provides some refined perspectives on how to capture the diversity and complexity of the world that we draw from the philosophy of Martinican poet and novelist Edouard Glissant. Glissant’s philosophy of creolisation and relation offers critical pathways towards pluralistic approaches to understanding what we call disaster in a world that is marked by hybridity and relationships rather than essentialism and nativism. A Tout-Monde, in Glissant’s terms, that is the combined additions of different and hybrid interpretations of disaster. Exploring the Tout-Monde of disaster studies will constitute a radical and forward-looking postcolonial agenda; radical in that it will challenge many of our scholarly assumptions, popular discourses as well as common-sense policies and practices.

A large amount of studies have been produced on disaster-related issues over the last century of research, yet there continues to be gaps in translating knowledge into action. This paper discusses the battlefield of knowledge and action for disaster risk reduction (DRR), outlining the need for a more integrative process consisting of bottom-up and top-down actions, local and scientific knowledge, and a vast array of stakeholders. The challenges in addressing the need for an integrated process are outlined alongside a potential road map for bridging gaps in DRR. The final section addresses issues to be overcome in order to implement the aforementioned road map. Future ways to bridge gaps in DRR between bottom-up and top-down actions, and local and scientific knowledge are proposed.

Study the effects of earthquakes, floods and other natural hazards with sensitivity to ethical dilemmas and power imbalances. Study the effects of earthquakes, floods and other natural hazards with sensitivity to ethical dilemmas and power imbalances. A resident stands on the ruins of a building that was destroyed by the earthquake on Palu, Indinesia

Probabilistic volcanic hazard analysis is becoming an increasingly popular component of volcanic risk reduction strategies worldwide. While probabilistic hazard analyses offer many advantages for decision-making, displaying the statistical results of these analyses on a map presents new hazard communication challenges. Probabilistic information is complex, difficult to interpret, and associated with uncertainties. Conveying such complicated data on a static map image without careful consideration of user perspectives or context, may result in contrasting interpretations, misunderstandings, or aversion to using the map. Here, we present the results of interviews and surveys conducted with organisational stakeholders and scientists in New Zealand which explored how probabilistic volcanic hazard map properties influence map interpretation, understanding, and preference. Our results suggest that data classification, colour scheme, content, and key expression play important roles in how users engage with and interpret probabilistic volcanic hazard maps. Data classification was found to influence the participants’ perceived uncertainty and data reading accuracy, with isarithmic style maps reducing uncertainty and increasing accuracy best. Colour scheme had a strong influence on the type of hazard messages interpreted, with a red-yellow scheme conveying the message of a hazard distribution (high to low), and a red-yellow-blue scheme conveying the message of hazard state (present or absent) and/or risk. Multiple types of map content were found to be useful, and hazard curves were viewed as valuable supplements. The concept of “confidence” was more easily interpreted than upper and lower percentiles when expressing uncertainty on the hazard curves. Numerical and verbal expression in the key also had an influence on interpretation, with a combination of both a percent (e.g., 25%) and a natural frequency (e.g., 1 in 4) “probability” being the most inclusive and widely-understood expression. The importance of these map property choices was underscored by a high portion of participants preferring to receive maps in unalterable formats, such as PDF. This study illustrates how engaging with users in a bottom-up approach can complement and enhance top-down approaches to volcanic hazard mapping through a collaborative and integrative design process which may help to prevent miscommunications in a future crisis when maps are likely to be drafted and disseminated rapidly.

A quick analysis of academic peer-reviewed articles related to the foregoing events (which have stimulated the highest academic attention over the past 15 years) available from Scopus shows that the number of publications peaked immediately or a year after the disasters. This is particularly evident for Hurricane Katrina, which has been the focus of more than 3500 peer-reviewed publications, including 382 before the end of 2005. Rushing to affected areas immediately after the event is very tempting for researchers interested in disasters. Although the collection of perishable data is often essential, both for the sake of the local affected and the international community, the multiplication of initiatives from different countries and research groups sends a very large number of individuals to the impacted areas. Even in the face of intense competition amongst academics, mostly fuelled by the international education business, the authors recognise that such research has emerged from a real desire to 'do good'.

Video game scholars examining the shortcomings of previous video game research reference the need for new and innovative methodologies. Existing video game research seemingly inhibits organic learning experiences by setting specific research targets or providing players with gameplay instructions, hence utilising methodological approaches that study the learning process from the outside. With the increasing popularity of both serious and mainstream disaster video games, a necessity exists for innovative research to explore how video games can be used as learning tools. Based upon the researchers’ own enquiry, this article demonstrates the potential use, benefits and challenges of participatory methodologies for the conduct of video game research. This article pushes back upon traditional video game research methods, reviewing the methodological approaches of existing video game literature and demonstrates how participatory methodologies are currently being used for disaster video game research. An examination of participatory methodologies, being used in disaster video game research, reviews the strengths and challenges of each research approach. Rationalising the potential of participatory methodologies, in the context of constructivist learning theory and active participation, to foster the learning process and explore learning from the inside. As such this article provides an innovative methodological framework, which can be used as a template when considering future video game research.

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (SFDRR) has been a guide for disaster risk governance globally. With the popularization of the vulnerability paradigm, gender has been established as one of the social determinants of disaster risk. However, it is often used interchangeably with “women” based on the binary categorization of gender identity that dominates, including in the Western world, reducing it to a demographic variable denied of any voice, context, or history. This article explores gender beyond the binary in the SFDRR, disaster risk reduction (DRR), and the broader risk governance mechanisms through examples of hijras from India and baklas from the Philippines. It delves into a discussion on the influence of dominant Western discourses in the creation of gender categories and their non-Western realities through a post-colonial lens. The article deals with questions on hybridity of identities, power, control, resistance, leverage, and the unique capacities of gender diverse groups at the time of disasters and beyond, while investigating the space of such groups within global frameworks like the SFDRR.

This article constitutes an effort towards providing an academic overview and grounding for the concept of capacities in the context of disaster studies and disaster risk reduction. Capacities refer to the set of diverse knowledge, skills and resources people can claim, access and resort to in dealing with hazards and disasters. They are both an individual and collective attributes. Everyone possesses a unique set of knowledge, skills and resources that are often shared and combined with those of relatives, kin, neighbours, etc. People’s capacities are not necessarily place based, but they are endogenous to the community of people who share and combine them in dealing with the same hazards and disasters. They further reflect people’s everyday life as it is very seldom that those affected by disasters resort to extraordinary measures to face harmful events. In practice, capacities allow for active prevention to avoid hazards to occur in the first place. They are further tapped to foster preparedness in facing impending hazards and respond to disasters. Capacities also prove invaluable in coping with the lingering effects of disasters and in recovering on the longer term. Harnessing capacities should therefore be an integral part of disaster risk reduction strategies as recognised in the widespread practice of vulnerability and capacity/ies assessment. Ultimately, harnessing capacities for reducing the risk of disaster requires to foster people’s genuine participation in assessing and enhancing their existing knowledge, skills and resources.