Conceptual Framework for Disaster Management in Coastal Cities Using Climate Change Resilience and Coping Ability

Abstract

Global warming and environmental changes have resulted in more frequent and extreme weather events, as well as larger-scale disasters around the world. This study presents a disaster risk analysis in Taiwan coastal area using the Climate Disaster Resilience Index (CDRI) and examines the strategies adopted by the coastal residents of Taiwan, through a new concept of “copability” analysis. Based on the results, the majority of the coastal regions fall under the medium-to-low resilient category with the south-western and northern coast of Taiwan as the most high-risk regions posing a high risk to millions of people facing climatic disasters in the future. The coping mechanisms used by local residents are also influenced by the socioeconomic status of the decision-makers as well as the synchronization of disasters. Based on the findings, a 4R management package is developed in which the copability and resilience management strategy are squeezed into four main sectors of resource, reason, roadmap, and respond to work towards a more coordinated management and use of natural resources across sectors and scales. It is advised that all governmental, private, and community actors implement coherent climate risk management measures, accompanied by mitigation initiatives, in order to establish a sustainable level of climate resilience in cities.

Keywords

• disaster resilience index
• climate resilience
• coping mechanism
• Taiwan
• coastal area