6
Tecnología y Ciencias del Agua
, vol. VIII, núm. 2, marzo-abril de 2017, pp. 5-18
Lee
et al
.,
Relationships between floods and social fragmentation: A case study of Chiayi, Taiwan
•
ISSN 2007-2422
Introduction
All cities —even those in wealthy countries—
are vulnerable to disasters and extreme climate
events, and their resilience and capacity to
cope vary markedly (Seto, Parnell, & Elmqvist,
2013). Therefore, achieving urban sustainability
and resilience is a priority for all governments
(Sukhdev, 2013). Recently, besides the physical
vulnerability approach, the social vulnerability
approach has been proposed as a crucial pers-
pective in discussing the causes of contempo-
rary disasters, because it stresses human agency
when discussing the issues of environmental
change, or the occurrence of disaster (Lee, 2014;
Khan, 2012).
Some researchers have suggested that given
identical natural hazards, the consequent dam-
age will be more severe when the social system
is more vulnerable (Cutter 1996; Cutter, Boruff,
& Shirley, 2003; Mendes, 2009; Menoni, Moli-
nari, Parker, Ballio, & Tapsell, 2012; Turner
et al
.,
2003). Thus, because the structural characteris-
tics of social systems moderate various impacts
of disasters, discourse on disasters is considered
a social construct rather than a simple natural
event (Adger, Brooks, Bentham, Agnew, & Erik-
sen, 2004; Adger
et al
., 2011; Cutter, 1996; Cutter,
Mitchell, & Scott, 2000; Cutter
et al
., 2003; Khan,
2012; Tierney, 2007).
Some scholars have noted that the tradi-
tional epistemology of disaster was based on
an “event-based” perspective that overempha-
sized specific disaster events such as typhoons
or earthquakes. However, it is easy to overlook
that many disasters have human causes. For
instance, overuse or improper use of slopelands
owing to urbanization can cause building col-
lapses and landslides. Focusing solely on a
disaster event or its immediate impact excludes
consideration of human agency (Tierney, 2007).
The institutional roots of disasters thus are
difficult to improve, and consequently social
vulnerability researchers consider the “process
of vulnerability” necessary to understand the
causes of disasters (Turner
et al
., 2003). Such
understanding of disasters can help establish
more local-contextual strategies to respond to
disasters, environmental changes and sustain-
able lifestyles (Turner
et al
., 2003). Hence, only
by understanding disasters from the perspec-
tives of trajectory and process, is it possible
to clarify the limitations and possibilities for
human action when facing changes in social-
environmental systems.
On the other hand, rural-urban mobility has
increased urbanization in both developing and
newly developed countries. Socio-economic ar-
ticulation is also increasing between larger and
smaller urban communities (Barbieri & Carr,
2005). Indeed, a hallmark of contemporary ur-
banization is that urban areas are growing faster
and larger than before, and in new geographic
locations (Fragkias, Güneralp, Seto, & Good-
ness, 2013). Furthermore, since the 1990s, urban-
ization has led to clear trends of an ageing rural
population and shrinking working population
in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors
(Kohsaka, Shih, Saito, & Sadohara, 2013). Con-
sequently, the most vulnerable residents tend to
be socioeconomically deprived. Such residents
also tend to live in informal or traditional settle-
ments, located in areas at the greatest risk for
flooding or landslides, and also for eviction dur-
ing environmental crises (Nagendra, Sudhira,
Katti, & Schewenius, 2013).
Social fragmentation refers to the social orga-
nization or structure of a neighborhood, where
a highly fragmented neighborhood influences
social connections within the neighborhood and
between residents, with potential consequences
for the quality of social life (Ivory, Collings,
Blakely, & Dew, 2011). The social fragmentation
construct fits broadly into the social properties
of neighborhoods, along with the more com-
monly used social cohesion and capital con-
structs. However, few studies have examined
social fragmentation can be used to examine the
relationship with vulnerability.
This study applies social fragmentation
to explore the integration of a social system
to supplement social vulnerability index.
Furthermore, this study examines whether
longitudinal data can represent the trend of
