IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/sustdv/v32y2024i2p1376-1385.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring complexities of disaster risk and vulnerability: Everyday lives of two flood‐affected communities in Sri Lanka

Author

Listed:
  • H. Unnathi S. Samaraweera

Abstract

Two riverside communities in Kolonnawa, Colombo district, and Thawalama, Galle district, of Sri Lanka are flood‐prone communities that, not only have experiences of flood disasters of different scales, but also face a number of disaster risks and vulnerabilities intertwined in their everyday lives. Using a mixed methods approach, the article draws on household surveys, in‐depth interviews and focus group discussions with flood‐affected people, and on semi‐structured interviews with community leaders in the two‐flood‐prone‐communities. The article critically explores how the understanding of disaster risks and vulnerabilities is overly focused on “incapacities,” “weaknesses,” and “victimization” of affected people, and emphasizes that vulnerability should not be treated as an antonym of community resilience. The article argues how community resilience still exists within vulnerable communities and it highlights the need for developing a more holistic approach to understand the vulnerability paradigm and better disentangle the complexity of vulnerability and disaster risk in local contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • H. Unnathi S. Samaraweera, 2024. "Exploring complexities of disaster risk and vulnerability: Everyday lives of two flood‐affected communities in Sri Lanka," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(2), pages 1376-1385, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:32:y:2024:i:2:p:1376-1385
    DOI: 10.1002/sd.2723
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.2723
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/sd.2723?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. De Silva, M.M.G.T. & Kawasaki, Akiyuki, 2018. "Socioeconomic Vulnerability to Disaster Risk: A Case Study of Flood and Drought Impact in a Rural Sri Lankan Community," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 131-140.
    2. Angelo Jonas Imperiale & Frank Vanclay, 2021. "Conceptualizing community resilience and the social dimensions of risk to overcome barriers to disaster risk reduction and sustainable development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(5), pages 891-905, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yunjia Ma & Sijia Chen & Kaiwen Zhang & Yumeng Yang, 2022. "Temporal and Spatial Pattern Evolution and Influencing Factors of the National Comprehensive Disaster-Reduction Demonstration Community in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-16, November.
    2. Xiaobing Yu & Hong Chen & Chenliang Li, 2019. "Evaluate Typhoon Disasters in 21st Century Maritime Silk Road by Super-Efficiency DEA," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-10, May.
    3. Yao-bin Wang & Jin-hang Zhao & Rong Yao & Rui-tao Zhao & Ying Li, 2022. "Risk of Poverty Returning to the Tibetan Area of Gansu Province in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-21, September.
    4. Manzoor Hussain Memon, 2023. "Poverty, Gap and Severity Estimates for Disaster Prone Rural Areas of Pakistan," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 166(3), pages 645-663, April.
    5. Vanda Ningrum & Chotib & Athor Subroto, 2022. "Urban Community Resilience Amidst the Spreading of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): A Rapid Scoping Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-12, September.
    6. Eriko Miyama, 2023. "Regional Agriculture and Social Capital after Massive Natural Disasters: The Case of Miyagi Prefecture after the Great East Japan Earthquake," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-15, July.
    7. Kai Wang & Zhe Wang & Jun Deng & Yuanyuan Feng & Quanfang Li, 2022. "Study on the Evaluation of Emergency Management Capacity of Resilient Communities by the AHP-TOPSIS Method," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-14, December.
    8. Sujoy Subroto & Ranjan Datta, 2024. "Perspectives of racialized immigrant communities on adaptability to climate disasters following the UN Roadmap for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(2), pages 1386-1400, April.
    9. John Bosco Acharibasam & Ranjan Datta, 2024. "Enhancing community resilience to climate change disasters: Learning experience within and from sub‐Saharan black immigrant communities in western Canada," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(2), pages 1401-1411, April.
    10. Albert Sanghoon Park, 2023. "Building resilience knowledge for sustainable development: Insights from development studies," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2023-33, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Vito Frontuto & Silvana Dalmazzone & Francesco Salcuni & Alessandro Pezzoli, 2020. "Risk Aversion, Inequality and Economic Evaluation of Flood Damages: A Case Study in Ecuador," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-17, December.
    12. Mastronardi, Luigi & Cavallo, Aurora & Romagnoli, Luca, 2022. "A novel composite environmental fragility index to analyse Italian ecoregions’ vulnerability," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    13. Crystal Kwan & Ho Chung Tam, 2021. "Ageing in Place in Disaster Prone Rural Coastal Communities: A Case Study of Tai O Village in Hong Kong," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-21, April.
    14. Adityawan Sigit & Maki Koyama & Morihiro Harada, 2023. "Flood Risk Assessment Focusing on Exposed Social Characteristics in Central Java, Indonesia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-18, December.
    15. Sáenz Pinzón, María Camila, 2024. "Instrumentos financieros y bienestar de los hogares rurales colombianos ante choques climáticos," Documentos CEDE 21191, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    16. Choirunnisa Audi Karina & Giyarsih Sri Rum, 2018. "The Socioeconomic Vulnerability of Coastal Communities to Abrasion In Samas, Bantul Regency, Indonesia," Quaestiones Geographicae, Sciendo, vol. 37(3), pages 115-126, September.
    17. Emmanuel Eze & Alexander Siegmund, 2024. "Identifying disaster risk factors and hotspots in Africa from spatiotemporal decadal analyses using INFORM data for risk reduction and sustainable development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(4), pages 4020-4041, August.
    18. Yuguo Lin & Chao He, 2021. "Evaluation of Livelihood Sustainability in the Context of Natural Forest Land Degradation Vulnerability: A Case Study of Five Counties in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-16, June.
    19. Luciana Laborda & Marcos H. Easdale & Abigail Fallot & M. Paula Ocariz & Pablo A. Tittonell, 2024. "Rise from the ashes! Resilience patterns in Patagonia pastoralist communities," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(2), pages 1428-1445, April.
    20. Rike Stotten, 2024. "The natural domain and its social representation in the community resilience concept," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(2), pages 1458-1470, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:32:y:2024:i:2:p:1376-1385. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-1719 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.