Bringing lessons from crisis management into the realm of wicked problems

Despite long-term research agendas around how to better understand and address wicked problems, they remain ‘wicked’ while crises generally come to an end. The objective of this paper is to assess whether governments seeking to address wicked problems can learn lessons from the insights of crisis management. While we are careful to avoid stretching the lessons of crisis management too far, we argue that there is untapped potential in establishing the broader applicability of crisis research to wicked problems. In doing so, we identify traditional roadblocks to addressing wicked issues and suggest that they are much less discernible in many crisis conditions. We then illustrate via a case study of the whole-of-government response to the 2011 Queensland Floods in Australia. The case has broader relevance beyond Australia in identifying how the challenges of crisis management can help us find better ways of addressing seemingly intractable wicked policy problems, particularly through strategic crisis framing.     

民国时期河南水旱灾害及其政府应对

民国时期是河南水旱灾害频繁发生的时期,不仅灾害出现的频率高,而且灾害的强度也非常大。为了应对灾害,政府采取了不同程度的应对措施。事实证明,没有政府的救灾措施,灾害的影响是不可想象的。一个转型中的政府越来越有力地确立自己在赈灾过程中的主导性地位。     

水环境变迁与徐州城市兴衰研究

水对城市发展至关重要,严重水灾可能会酿成"城毁人亡"的悲局。历史上徐州饱受水灾之苦,特别是黄河决口南徙打乱了原本水系,使得境内水灾频仍,经济和社会发展受阻,在很大程度上导致了城市的衰落。但另一方面,沂、沭、泗以及故黄河所带来的便利灌溉条件则促进了境内古代农业生产;而运河开凿又使徐州处于全国重要的水运枢纽位置,因此带来商贸繁荣、工业发展、人口集聚和城市兴盛。本文在对历史上徐州水系变迁、尤其是水灾频发及其产生原因作出深入分析的基础上,着重探讨了境内水环境变化对徐州城市兴衰主要方面的影响。研究表明:①黄河对徐州水系变迁和城市兴衰影响巨大,直接时间持续近700年;②良好的水环境对历史上徐州境内工农业生产、商品贸易和城市建设起到了极大的推动作用,城市的繁荣兴旺与农田水利的风调雨顺、水上运输的川流不息往往处于同一个时期;③建国后徐州境内水系得到逐步治理与恢复,特别是20世纪80年代中期京杭运河(徐州段)实现全年通航后,其城市发展的水环境得到极大改善,为打造山水生态园林城市提供了良好条件。     

Urban geo-archaeology in medieval alzira (Prov. Valencia,Spain)

Alzira is situated in a cut-off meander loop of the Rio Júcar. Geo-archaeological study shows that the Islamic city wall was built during the second quarter of the 11th century AD, at a time when the river had a low-amplitude and low-energy flood regime. After mid-century, overbank silts began to invade the city as peak flood discharge increased, with a spate of destructive floods reflected by high-energy deposits during the late 11th century. Urban expansion within the city wall is dated to the later 11th or early 12th century, interrupted by local abandonment and moderate-energy flood silts. Major construction during the mid-12th century was followed by protracted abandonment (after a siege in AD 1171?) and further, moderate-energy flood silts that redistributed occupation and collapse debris. Reoccupation, during the late 14th century, was terminated by catastrophic floods in 1517 and 1571, after which much of the western end of Alzira was not rebuilt. Following further flood catastrophes during the 17th century, parts of the central walled city remained abandoned until the 19th century. with new occupation atop flood sands of yet another disaster in 1864. The change in flood regime after 1150 was a result of deforestation of the watershed, but progradation of a downstream tributary fan after 1517 created an unstable, aggrading floodplain increasingly prone to severe flooding. Climatic anomalies were responsible for periods of recurrent severe floods, archaeologically verified during the 11th and 12th centuries, and historically documented, beginning in 1318. The geo-archaeological methodology illuminates the constructional and settlement history of Alzira, allows distinction of fluvial and cultural components, and provides the necessary microstratigraphic detail and dating control to document the true complexity of alluvial processes during the last 1000 years.     

Remembering and forgetting 1974: the 2011 Brisbane floods and memories of an earlier disaster

The city of Brisbane, capital of the Australian state of Queensland, sits on a floodplain and has been struck by two devastating flood disasters in the last 50 years. This article contributes to the growing literature on disaster memory by tracing memories of a flood in 1974 as they were constructed and re‐enacted in a more recent disaster in 2011. The article examines how disaster memories shape local identities and considers how such memories influence policy and local knowledge, doing so by reference to an analysis of three forms of memory media—personal narratives, news media reporting, and built memorials. At times, memories of 1974 enabled Brisbane residents to prepare for an oncoming flood and to understand the scope of the 2011 event. Yet other memories produced a form of forgetting by positioning the earlier flood as a successfully navigated event now safely contained in the past. Findings from the analysis thus point to the importance of understanding memories of past disasters as a critical element of disaster planning and management.     

安徽历史气候变迁的初步研究

本文通过对安徽省近300年资料的统计和分析,发现历史上因气候的不断变化和异常,给安徽地区造成了众多的水旱灾害,其中水灾又多于旱灾,并呈现出增多期与减少期交替向前发展的规律,而在时间上则显示出夏季最为集中、秋季次之的高度季节性特点.经与太阳活动的历史资料相比较,又发现安徽水旱灾害与太阳活动有密切关系,在太阳活动世纪周期增强期前提下,水旱灾害多发生在太阳活动11年周期的极值附近.     

1954年湖北水灾与救济

1954年长江中下游发生特大水灾,其中湖北省遭受的损失尤为严重。面对肆虐的洪水,湖北省党政军民在中共中央和中央人民政府以及全国人民的支援下,采取了一系列措施积极救灾。在水灾救济中表现出明显的特点:政府(包括中央政府和地方政府)承担起组织救灾的任务,成为救灾的组织者和指挥者;积极组织灾民生产自救,促使社会功能尽快恢复正常;努力帮助灾民克服灾民意识,在物质救灾的同时加强精神救灾。     

Conceptual framework for the persistence of flood-initiated geomorphological features

The paper is concerned with the degree to which geomorphological features formed by a large magnitude river flood may be expected to persist in the landscape. Fluvial and hillslope features formed in association with a particularly rare flood, on Exmoor in southwest England, are analysed after a post-event period of 50 years. New recurrence interval analyses and field assessments are combined with earlier data. The concept of static and dynamic aspects of landscape persistence is suggested, and the relative persistence potential of flood-initiated features is indicated in relation to the recurrence interval of formative events.     

Transboundary river governance and climate vulnerability: Community perspectives in Nepal’s Koshi river basin

Frequent floods in the Koshi River have left the Nepalese vulnerable to erosion and recurring inundation—especially those living on the floodplains. The situation is worsening because water flow in the river is highly uncertain, affected by rainfall in the mountains and by climate change, and influenced by the Koshi barrage, which is governed by the Koshi River Agreement, a bilateral river agreement with India. This study addresses how Koshi River governance contributes to the vulnerability of riverine communities in Nepal by drawing upon ideas about vulnerability and vulnerability mapping. A household survey and interviews were conducted in 2015 for a comparative study of people living on two river islands located upstream and downstream of the barrage. Findings remain relevant because of persistent governance challenges and growing climate change effects, escalating islanders’ vulnerability to recurrent floods. The islanders’ vulnerability was produced locally and also shaped by historical, social, economic, political, geographical, and ecological processes occurring at multiple scales. That insight highlights the need to study the broader political economy of hazard production to understand vulnerability in the context of governance.