Helen Giggins

Urban settlements’ vulnerability to flood risks in African cities: A conceptual framework

In the recent past, the frequency and gravity of large-scale flood disasters have increased globally, resulting in casualties, destruction of property and huge economic loss. The destructive flood disaster devastating Louisiana, USA, is a recent example. Despite the availability of advanced technological capabilities for dealing with floods in developed nations, flood disasters continue to become more rampant and disastrous. Developing countries in Africa such as Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan have recently experienced severe flooding, leaving a considerable number of human casualties and thousands displaced. In African cities, most vulnerable urban residents usually have lesser capacity and fewer resources to recover from the shocks of disaster as a result of the failure of governments to build human security for poor African residents. Many scholars have acknowledged the lack of appropriate vulnerability assessment frameworks and policies, questioning the efficiency and effectiveness of the tested models in Africa. The ability to accurately identify, measure and evaluate the various vulnerabilities of affected people and communities is a right step towards reducing disaster risk. This article aimed at developing a framework for assessing urban settlements’ vulnerability to flood risks in Africa. The framework is currently being tested to assess various dimensions of vulnerability drivers in three urban communities in Ibadan metropolis, the third largest city in Nigeria, focusing more on flood risk perceptions and behaviour of the risk bearers. It uses participatory and mixed method approaches to socially construct vulnerability of populations at risk. This model emanates from the evaluation of considerable relevant literature and an array of vulnerability assessment frameworks. It integrates some approaches that are applicable to African cities in a bid to create a versatile tool to assess, identify and mitigate the effects of flood disaster risk and reduce urban poor’s vulnerability to natural and human-induced hazards.

Privacy-Preserving Data Mining

Despite enormous benefits and the extremely fast proliferation of data mining in recent years, data owners and researchers alike have acknowledged that data mining also revives old and introduces new threats to individual privacy. Many believe that data mining is, and will continue to be, one of the most significant privacy challenges in years to come.

Statistical Database Security

Statistical database security focuses on the protection of confidential individual values stored in so-called statistical databases and used for statistical purposes. Examples include patient records used by medical researchers, and detailed phone call records, statistically analyzed by phone companies in order to improve their services. This problem became apparent in the 1970s and has escalated in recent years due to massive data collection and growing social awareness of individual privacy.

Statistical Disclosure Control: To Trust or Not to Trust

The statistical analysis of data stored in data warehouses is an important phase in the organisations strategic planning process. For the maximum benefit to be gained from such data warehouses, a relationship of trust needs to exist between all parties involved. In this paper we investigate its importance with respect to the statistical security problem. Understanding trust relationships in this context is particularly crucial since an individuals privacy cannot be guaranteed using traditional security mechanisms.

Vulnerability of human settlements to flood risk in the core area of Ibadan metropolis, Nigeria

Flood disasters continue to wreak havoc on the lives of millions of people worldwide, causing death and massive economic losses. In most African cities, residents and their assets are among the most vulnerable to flood risks in the world. The nature and scale of this urban risk are changing because of the dynamic patterns of land use, unplanned growth and impacts of climate change. Flood risk is the product of the flood hazards, the vulnerability and exposure of the people and their physical environment. In order to minimise flood disaster, there is an urgent need to understand, invest in flood disaster risk reduction for resilience and to enhance disaster preparedness for an effective response as articulated in the recent Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. This research utilises a new proposed flood vulnerability assessment framework for flood risk in a traditional community in the heart of Ibadan metropolis, in the context of their households’ exposure, susceptibility and coping capacity through a well-designed questionnaire survey. The study uses descriptive and inferential statistics techniques to provide a detailed understanding of the vulnerability profiles of the community and the levels of residents’ preparedness to mitigate the flood risk. The results of the statistical analysis show that there is a significant relationship between residents’ flood awareness and having previous flood experience, but there is no significant association between their awareness of risk and the level of preparedness for flooding. To minimise exposure and vulnerability to flood risk, we advocate effective adaptation policies to achieve disaster risk reduction and resilience on flood risk rather than focusing merely on reactive measures after disaster strikes.

Mixed Messages: Tacit Communication Emanating from Non-human Actants in Disaster Contexts☆

Abstract Post-disaster reportage frequently focusses on catastrophic and harrowing human impacts together with heroic acts of mercy: aid agencies benefit from the subsequent mobilisation of donors. In the aftermath analytical reviews evaluate both success and failure to reflexively improve relief outcomes in future aid deployments. Both activities tend to concentrate on the experiences of key individuals in major organisations associated with disaster recovery and reconstruction. Little consideration is given to the influence of the non-human aid they deploy beyond the recognition that they are vital and necessary. Similarly, government and NGO policies and procedures are regarded as the mechanisms by which aid is distributed. None of this is counterintuitive or surprising, yet there may be another dimension. Actor Network Theory (ANT) was conceived as a problem-solving action research tool predicated upon the notion that non-human actants can play an equal role in problems, and while ANT has previously been utilised in monthly to consider the challenges faced when integrating high-level technology systems with humans this paper speculates that the technique could also reveal useful insights during disaster recovery and reconstruction. This paper uses a detailed case study to suggest that a) nonhuman actants in disaster contexts may exert influences that were not foreseen when they were deployed, and that b) human actants may exert unintended influences: critically these actants include researchers and reporters. The research concludes that ANT principles have the potential to surface new perspectives in complex post-disaster contexts, but that the conduct of a purist ANT investigation would be highly problematic and potentially disruptive to the reconstruction process.

Online support material for Computer Science Honours program using Blackboard

In this paper we present the outcomes of a project aimed to provide online support material to help students to become more familiar with the Computer Science Honours program at The University of Newcastle. We discuss the motivation behind the decision to present the material via a Learning Management System. These systems are traditionally designed to deliver course material online. We propose a new use for Learning Management Systems, whereby material is organized and presented to inform Computer Science students about the Honours program and consequently give them extra encouragement to undertake the Honours program. Additionally, for students that are already enrolled in the program, online support material is made available to help them during the course of their studies.