Journal of Extreme Events

In 2016, heavy precipitation events in Southern Germany demonstrated that pluvial flooding can cause serious damages, not just in large cities but also in small and medium-sized cities. Hazard-oriented disaster management approaches to better address such spatially ubiquitous extreme events are already being developed. However, integrated strategies to reduce risk and to promote climate-resilient development pathways through both private precautionary measures and integrated urban planning are still underdeveloped. Considering the uncertainties associated with heavy precipitation, analyzing and understanding damages, strengthening people’s preparedness and improving preventative measures are central components of resilience building. This paper complements existing empirical studies on households’ preparedness and provides further insight into how resilience to flooding from heavy precipitation in cities can be strengthened. We do this by analyzing the damages caused by one particular heavy precipitation event, the preparedness of people in the affected city and their perceptions of responsibilities for improving precautionary measures. This paper presents the results from a household survey with a total of 1,128 completed questionnaires which was carried out in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany. The findings of the household survey illustrate the variety of damages caused by the heavy precipitation event and reveal important differences between households who experienced damages from pluvial flooding and those who did not. Lastly, findings of people’s perception about who is responsible for improved precautions offer interesting insights into tools that might help to enhance resilience building. Finally, the paper formulates recommendations for an improved assessment of resilience-building processes, individual capacities and planning tools to build climate resilience to extreme precipitation events.

This study sought to measure risk perception and behavior intention of residents in coastal counties in Alabama and Florida in areas affected by Hurricane Michael in October 2018. The aim was to examine individual responses to impending disasters in areas that were recently touched by Hurricane Michael. Risk Information Seeking and Processing (RISP) model and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) were employed in an experiment testing how visual cues and media messages surrounding an impending hypothetical hurricane were interpreted by residents, and their reported influence on an individual’s risk perception and decision-making in the situation. An analysis of 567 respondents determined that live video was most likely to motivate respondents to prepare activities for the storms.

Iran has been faced with increase in flooding cases during the past 60 years. The human activities have been considered as a devastating factor in the environmental change causing the occurrence of severe flooding cases during past decades. On August 11, 2001, a relatively severe rainfall in the south east of Caspian Sea led to the occurrence of a severe deadly flooding in Golestan province and some parts in northern Khorasan province have been unprecedented in Iran over the past century. The destructive extent of flooding in the urban and rural areas reached about 5,000 km². Here, the synoptic surface and upper levels of the weather charts have been analyzed along with the monitoring of half hourly METEOSAT7 images to show the convective clouds development over the area of the study. The total precipitation in this area during the flooding period was reported between 2.5 and 153 mm with the maximum estimation over the center of the storm around less than 250mm. Using satellite imagery in 1979 and 2000, vegetation changes and environmental changes have been investigated and shown extensive decline in vegetation. The image processing and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) calculation of the color composite 433 of LANDSAT5 and the color composite 211 of TERRA (MODIS sensor) images between 1998 and 2001 have been revealed significant deforestation around 248,131,534.3${\text{m}}^2$ over the study, particularly over the rivers’ neighborhood. Also, by assumption of the same precipitation for 1998 and 2001, the discharge rate in flood case of 2001 has been intensified 1.3 times (at 13 percent) larger than that of 1998. This shows the direct impact of the deforestation and land use changes over the study area during 1998–2001.

Disaster and climate change have impacted tourism around the world. Tourist areas are often hit by extreme events, and respective damages severely affect regions and their economies. Disasters, directly or indirectly, affect the number of tourists visited, the hotel industry, revenue generation, employment, and an overall economy of a region. The paper reviews the literature on disasters and the tourism industry. This review paper follows the PRISMA guidelines and statements on the systematic review using “tourism and disasters” keywords. The study aims to ascertain common research themes in the domain of tourism and disasters. Results have revealed that economy, environment, emergency management and response, community-based participation, post-disaster tourism recovery, psychological behavior of people, nature-based tourism, dark tourism, and transportation are the key thematic areas. The findings of the study can help consolidate the research to effectively help future research and relevant stakeholders to work out disaster mitigation measures and improve the preparedness of the tourism industry.