A socio-ecological analysis of hospital resilience to extreme weather events

Hospitals play a critical role in helping communities respond effectively to extreme weather events (EWEs). Despite predictions of more EWEs, little is known about the process by which hospital infrastructure resilience to such events can be built. Using Gunderson and Holling’s Adaptive Cycle, a new theoretical perspective based on socio-ecological resilience theory is provided to understand this process. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews, observations of disaster drills and disaster planning meetings, as well as additional documentary analysis of past incident reports. The research findings were then refined and validated in a focus group meeting with respondents. The findings indicate that there are significant organizational barriers which prevent facilities managers improving the resilience of hospital facilities to future EWEs. It was found that the disaster planning process is ad hoc and non-inclusive, focused on man-made disasters and compliance driven, top-down approach, under-resourced and is driven by a general ignorance of the importance of resilient-built facilities to health care delivery during an EWE. It is concluded that to produce more resilient hospital infrastructure, there needs to be a more well-resourced, integrated and collaborative approach to disaster management planning which enables health facilities managers to play a more central role in disaster planning decisions. There also need to be better systems, technologies and training implemented to manage information about health infrastructure performance before, during and after EWEs.     

Communicating about organizational culture in the briefing process: case study of a hospital project

A new hospital building represents a rare opportunity to align the physical environment of healthcare with contemporary healthcare needs and models of healthcare delivery to help ensure optimal health outcomes. The effectiveness of interaction between project stakeholders from the hospital and design teams during the briefing process of any hospital project is critical in ensuring this alignment occurs. Therefore it is important to explore the process of knowledge sharing during this project briefing stage. Using thematic content analysis to explore communication exchanges between these project stakeholders, we show that knowledge exchanged during the briefing process is acquired not only explicitly but implicitly through social processes whereby participants attempt to socially construct a common understanding of the project. In particular, the importance of constructive conflict in driving this process is critical. This has implications for health planners, project managers, facilities managers and health professions engaged in the briefing process of hospital projects. In particular, it highlights the importance of providing the correct environment and enough time for culturally conducive social interaction and knowledge sharing to occur between the many stakeholders involved.     

Trial and error in urban restructuring processes: learning from Dutch experiences

In the last few decades, new governance processes have been put in place throughout the Western world. In practice, unfortunately, cooperation in the networks does not always work as expected. In this paper, we identify the factors that contribute to success and failure with respect to network working in urban restructuring and the lessons that can be learnt. A Dutch case study exemplifies these processes. The perceptions of local stakeholders about satisfying or dissatisfying processes and results were used to elicit the information. Our main conclusion is that changed institutional conditions affecting the local authorities and housing associations and economic developments strongly intervene in the processes. Consequently, the functioning of a network cannot be explained by the quality of network management alone. These findings indicate that there is a gap between the suggested importance of the instruments in network theory and their relative usefulness in everyday practice. Dealing with all kinds of constraints in the management of networks will be an ongoing process of trial and error.     

Prior and governed stakeholder relationships: The key to resilience of inter-organizational projects

Increasingly, scholars are recognising the importance of resilience in projects. However, there is a lack of research on the resilience of temporary inter-organisational projects while considering the intricate relationship among multiple stakeholder organisations. We conducted an embedded comparative case study to investigate the mechanisms how stakeholder relationships involving prior ties and inter-organisational governance in the project support its resilience. Our results show that few prior ties among stakeholders keep them vigilant, fostering the readiness and preparedness for resilience, while many prior ties keep social solidarity among stakeholders, fostering the response and recovery for resilience. Contractual and relational governance improves resilience by clarifying stakeholders’ roles and responsibilities and forming collective cognition, respectively. We believe a plural governance design based on prior ties among stakeholders will improve resilience of the inter-organisational project, by promoting dynamically distributed and centralised stakeholder engagement in preparing, responding and recovering from the unexpected.     

信息时代医院建筑医疗服务效率探究

本文着重讨论了在信息时代新的医院管理和医院环境设计理念影响下,医院建筑的发展应如何体现医疗服务的效率,并提出核心医院网络的概念及其对中国医院未来发展的指导意义。     

Inter-agency governance risk in managing hospital responses to extreme weather events in New South Wales,Australia: a facilities management perspective of shared situational awareness

Extreme weather is predicted to become more frequent and severe into the future. While our understanding of hospital infrastructure vulnerability to such events has advanced considerably in recent years, current approaches to healthcare facilities management treat hospitals in isolation from their surrounding governance infrastructure. However, recent research indicates that if hospital resilience is to be properly understood, health infrastructure must be managed holistically, as part of a much larger governance system of interdependent organizations. The inter-agency governance risks associated with this system are currently ignored in the facilities management literature. To explore these risks, an in-depth case study of 24 agencies in the state of New South Wales, Australia is presented. The results show that facilities managers are embedded in a highly complex and dynamic array of governance boundaries which are largely unresolved and misunderstood. A number of practical strategies are presented which could be adopted to significantly improve facilities manager’s integration into this system. These include: mapping hospital dependency on other agencies to build surge capacity; resolving overlapping operational boundaries with other agencies; proactive risk reduction for critical external support infrastructure; understanding potential conflicts with the objectives external agencies in responding to an extreme weather event.     

Network structure,complexity, and adaptation in water resource systems

Infrastructure systems are often complex. Many have both natural and built components. For such systems, including water resource networks, resilience is a common policy goal. In the formalised study of complex systems, the structure and function of networks can contribute directly to system resilience. One branch of complex systems studies, network science, describes how connectivity between individual components can explain some system-wide properties of growth and reliability. Water resource systems analysis has only begun to apply techniques from network theory and complexity science to assess adaptability and resilience. We present an analysis of connectivity in a network model of California's water infrastructure system using several network science techniques. Results indicate that nodes in California's water system are clustered but without scale-free properties. The network originates from a mixture of top-down (centralised) and bottom-up (dispersed interactions of parties) planning. This structure provides managers greater flexibility to use local and distant water sources. We use the analysis to illustrate how several disciplinary notions of resilience apply to civil infrastructure planning. We also explore how adaptability, not just complexity, influences resilience in planning. Creating systems that can respond to future changes must be an important policy goal in planning civil infrastructure.     

An integrated approach to intelligent urban facilities management for real-time emergency response

Due to rapid urban growth and technological advancements, urban facilities today have become more complex and diversified. Furthermore, their malfunction and destruction by disasters tend to cause severe loss of life and property. Therefore, economical and effective management of urban facilities and facilities-related emergencies is necessary. However, the conventional approach to urban facilities management exhibits limitations in monitoring the urban-wide facilities status and handling emergency events occurring on urban facilities. To overcome the drawbacks of conventional urban facilities management, this paper proposes an integrated approach to intelligent urban facilities management for real-time emergency response based on the integration of facilities-related information and the integration of management functions. For the verification of the proposed approach, a prototype of the Intelligent Urban Facilities Management System (IUFMS) has been developed and tested. Through information integration and functional integration, IUFMS is expected to detect any abnormalities in advance and take proper measures by performing a comprehensive analysis of urban facilities and their correlations.     

Three Points Approach (3PA) for urban flood risk management: A tool to support climate change adaptation through transdisciplinarity and multifunctionality

Urban flood risk is increasing as a consequence of climate change and growing impervious surfaces. Increasing complexity of the urban context, gradual loss of tacit knowledge and decreasing social awareness are at the same time leading to inadequate choices with respect to urban flood risk management (UFRM). The European Flood Risk Directive emphasises the need for non-structural measures aimed at urban resilience and social preparedness. The Three Points Approach (3PA) provides a structure facilitating the decision making processes dealing with UFRM. It helps to accept the complexity of the urban context and promotes transdisciplinarity and multifunctionality. The 3PA introduces three domains wherein water professionals may act and where aspects valued by different stakeholders come into play: (1) technical optimisation, dealing with standards and guidelines for urban drainage systems; (2) spatial planning, making the urban area more resilient to future changing conditions; and (3) day-to-day values, enhancing awareness, acceptance and participation among stakeholders. Based on in-depth interviews conducted in The Netherlands and Denmark, we describe the complexity of decision making in practical UFRM and explain how the 3PA can be used when organising participatory processes. We introduce a theoretical framework characterising the large range of aspects involved in decision making related to UFRM and evaluate the usefulness of the 3PA in dealing with it. We conclude that the 3PA offers water managers and operators an efficient communication tool and thinking system, which helps to reduce complexity to a level suitable when organising strategy plans for UFRM and urban adaptation to climate change.     

A hierarchy of measures for infrastructure resilience – learning from post-disaster reconstruction in Christchurch,New Zealand

Recent research into the concept of resilience has shown that it helps key players in urban development to assess and set priorities for resistance and recovery for disaster risk management. However, a competing issue within post-disaster recovery is managing the trade-offs between quickly restoring infrastructure services versus taking time to consider and consult on alternative options. Through an examination of the post-earthquake reconstruction in Christchurch, New Zealand, this paper considers infrastructure resilience by using a hierarchy of measures. This hierarchy shows how infrastructure resilience needs to be considered as a series of interventions in response to different levels of damage. It elucidates the varying nature of resilience measures, the decision-making processes required to implement them and constraints, chiefly in funding, that prevent wider application of such measures. This is an important consideration for defining and acting upon the opportunity for change created by a disaster. Furthermore, a broader examination of resilience in disaster risk management highlights that clarification is needed over what constitutes an appropriate response for community involvement in post-disaster infrastructure reconstruction.     

Assessing urban lifeline systems immediately after seismic disaster based on emergency resilience

Resilience is an emerging concept for analyzing the dynamic performance of critical infrastructures during the post-disaster recovery process. Although a number of studies examined how to assess long-term resilience (1 year +), very few have investigated short-term resilience (few days to several weeks following a disaster). This study presents the new concept of ‘emergency resilience’ and the framework for assessing this short-term resilience for urban lifeline systems in the emergency recovery stage. This framework can quantify differences in system performance (pre-disaster vs. post-recovery) using the new ‘recovery degree’ feature. It also integrates a new performance response function which is based on network equilibrium theory to assess emergency resilience in both the technical and organisational dimensions. In the case study of the water pipeline network in Lianyungang, China, the results showed that the levels of the recovery budget b and recovery resource r had different effects on emergency resilience R in seismic disaster. Furthermore, it is demonstrated how the concept and its assessment framework can provide a quick reference tool for optimal decision-making under various scenarios. This study also examined the effects of two anti-seismic reconstruction measures, namely meshed expansion and ductile retrofitting, on the expected emergency resilience of the water pipeline network.     

Large-scale construction programme resilience against creeping disruptions: Towards inter-project coordination

Extant resilience research in project management focused mainly on the project level and sudden disruptions. However, resilience at the programme level, especially resilience against creeping disruptions, remains unexplored. This study adopts boundary object theory as the theoretical lens to explore programme resilience against creeping disruptions. Based on the case study of a large-scale construction programme Expo 2020 Dubai, a process model is proposed to unveil how programme resilience can be fostered through inter-project coordination. The model includes roles (i.e., program coordinators and project managers) and processes (i.e., preparation, mobilisation and response phases) that impact the resilience of the programme. The three-phase resilience process further corresponds to three boundary object-based coordination mechanisms: pull, match, and push, respectively. This study not only contributes to the project/programme resilience and management literatures, but also advances knowledge on resilience.     

Late Modernity to Postmodern? The Rise of Global Resilience and its Progressive Potentials for Local Disaster Planning (Seattle and Paris)

ABSTRACT

This paper studies how approaches to disaster planning have been changing with the rise of ‘resilience,’ a concept that has been widely recommended by various international institutions. The critical studies on resilience argue that resilience only serves to legitimise a neoliberal policy agenda that is compatible with a global economic system of capitalism. Contesting that position, this paper argues that the rise of resilience can imply a shift in the mode of governance, and an opportunity for planners to engage with more progressive practices. To make this argument, we propose a ‘postmodern lens’ through which resilience can be seen as an attitude and a style of governance that goes beyond neoliberal assumptions by embracing uncertainty and complexity of governance challenges. Postmodern framing of resilience notes (1) how the concept can initiate a shift in the planner’s view of and practices on knowledges (going beyond ‘expert knowledge’), (2) how the flexibility of the concept can be used for developing political narratives that are progressive (3) how the concept can open up potential venues for nonconventional powers to intervene in policy making processes. To demonstrate how this lens works, we compare the cases of Seattle and Paris, which have drastically different risk governance political structures.     

Understanding project management performance using a comparative overrun measure

Project managers need support to diagnose project management performance problems. Diagnosis happens when managers learn about prior project management performance by using outside view information about past projects to situate focal projects within the context of past project management performance. No prior research has incorporated outside view information into performance measures. Hence, we propose a comparative performance measure that compares overrun of a focal project to overrun of past similar projects to promote an understanding of trends across projects. Traditional overrun measures that only compare performance to initial estimates fail to encourage learning from past performance. Our comparative measure can be used to evaluate how well lessons have been leveraged, addressing a lack of existing quantitative measures for learning from previous projects. Project managers need encouragement to use new comparative project performance measures, so they should be embedded in performance management systems with incentives for continuous improvement.     

The Evolution of the Federal Role in Supporting Community Recovery After U.S. Disasters

Problem, research strategy, and findings: The process of long-term recovery, if done well, can minimize post-disaster disruption, address problems that existed before the disaster struck, and improve the future resilience of a community. The U.S. government, however, historically has lacked a systematic approach to supporting community recovery. This study describes the history of federal policies for supporting community recovery after disasters, with particular attention to the roles of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). We conclude by considering the new National Disaster Recovery Framework (NDRF). This historical review suggests that the federal government needs to emphasize the following: providing resources for community recovery planning; facilitating increased flows of information after disasters; streamlining FEMA assistance to public agencies; explicitly working to reduce the barriers between FEMA and HUD; and incorporating equity into recovery policies. Recovery policies also need to include incentives to achieve substantive goals of rebuilding in a way that is sustainable, equitable, cost-effective, and timely, and that reduces the chances of future disasters.

Takeaway for practice: Local community planners can draw several lessons from this historical account. First, they should become aware of the various post-disaster programs now, before disaster strikes. Second, knowledge of post-disaster policies and programs will enable planners to use them creatively and effectively if disaster strikes. Third, in the midst of reconstruction, planners need to continually seek opportunities to promote betterment and resilience to natural hazards.     

Efficacy beliefs,sense of unfairness,and participation in LULU activism

Many waste management facilities are locally unwanted land uses (LULUs). While the issue of LULU siting has attracted significant academic attention, attempts to explain local residents' participation in social movements against LULUs are limited. In particular, knowledge about how proxy efficacy belief and sense of unfairness shape individuals' participation in collective actions is limited. Building upon the collective interest model, this study develops a theoretical model for explaining local residents' participation in social movements against proposals related to LULU siting. The model is tested with the empirical data obtained in Hong Kong. The analysis results reveal that perceived self, group and proxy efficacies, perception of unfairness in the siting process, collective identity of victim, and peer influence are determinants of local activism against LULUs. These discoveries enrich the body of knowledge on the exercise of siting LULUs and opposition from local communities. The findings also contribute to better understanding of the roles of different efficacy beliefs in social mobilization. Research limitations and potentials for future research are discussed.     

基于突发公共卫生事件下小区防疫响应的社区韧性建设规划思考 — —以成都市小区防疫响应为例

社区被视为体现城市韧性的典型 代表,也是近年许多国家研究的热点议题。 2020年的新冠疫情是对城乡韧性的集中考 验,社区更成为直面病毒的主战场。作为社 区的基本组成单元,各个城市的居住小区在 本次疫情防控中展现出的自组织能力为未来 社区韧性建设提供了重要参考。成都市作为 全国千万以上人口城市中感染率最低的城市 之一,其小区的防疫响应是全国小区的缩影。 本文试图通过对成都小区防疫响应的总结, 对提升社区韧性建设提出规划层面的思考, 包括从空间导向走向人本导向、利用移动社 交平台推动公众参与、增强规划弹性应对发 展变化、将风险管理意识融入规划全过程以 及运用智慧技术助力精细化管理。     

DRONES FOR AGRICULTURE IN TANZANIA

WeRobotics is a young U.S. / Swiss based non-profit organization that builds inclusive participation and local capacity in the application of emerging technologies in the Global South. It bridges the digital divide by localizing robotics technologies like drones and artificial intelligence through its growing global network of local knowledge hubs — Flying Labs in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the South Pacific, accelerating the social good sector through best practices and training programs and sharing knowledge through its global community. Taking WeRobotics’ first drone agriculture project in the Dodoma region in Tanzania as an example, this article exemplifies how to transfer relevant skills and robotics technologies to Flying Labs’ partners and openly share learnings of pilot projects and best practices to build local resilience and competencies.     

Conceptualizing ‘the Urban’ Through the Lens of Durban,South Africa

Contemporary urban theory raises many questions about how ‘the urban’ is being conceptualized in a fast changing world that is approaching an urban epoch. Evolving debates about what it means to be urban, including the similarities and differences between so-called northern and southern cities, the future of cities, the way to manage and sustain cities, and cities’ relationships to the new Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, reveal the need for urban theory that can explain and provide insights into contemporary urban governance, processes, and outcomes. This special issue uses Durban as a lens to provide insight into the changing nature of cities in the Global South and Africa in particular, which encapsulate and reflect both formality and informality; tradition and modernity; uneven and unequal growth and social transformation; environmental crises and ‘resilience and sustainability’. This paper reflects on the dominant processes shaping the development of the city, revealing the challenges, tensions, and opportunities that emerge as the city assembles new ways of being urban, through the rationalities, knowledge, experiences, practices and actions of the state, citizens, and the private sector.     

弹性概念下适应台风灾害风险的开放空间设计思考

在全球气候变化背景之下,台风灾害对沿海城乡地区有着长久且深远的影响。弹性概念的引入使得适应台风灾害风险的规划设计有了与常规不同的角度。本文综述了弹性与城市规划、台风灾害风险的相关研究,探讨了当前沿海地区的台风灾害风险与开放空间现状,将开放空间划分为社会型、生产型、生态型3类,与弹性概念相结合展开设计思考,以期为相关的设计实践与研究提供新的思路与可能。