listed as the most important factor affecting hurricane risk perception. A significant finding of the study was that experience of a hurricane generally outweighs general knowledge of the hazard.
2.8. Disaster Assessment
With the increasing evidence of human capacity to alter and influence environmental conditions, there came a shift from the focus on nature’s effects upon people to the identification of the role of humans in changing the natural landscape (Thomas, 1956). White and Haas (1975) examined research trends in their
Assessment of Research on Natural Hazards in the United States.
The work reveals that most research concentrated largely on technologically oriented solutions to problems of natural hazards, to the exclusion of social, economic and political factors that govern human societies. The assessment also led to the establishment in 1976 of the Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Centre at the University of Colorado in Boulder. The Centre serves as a national and international clearing house for information on natural hazards and human adjustments to them. The studies conducted in the succeeding decades incorporated more social analysis in the research questions based on the premise that social factors were instrumental in governing behavior during an extreme natural event.Human System Responses to Disaster: An Inventory to Sociological Findings
(Darbek, 1986) providesa historical example of a compilation of knowledge available in that era; one is able to ascertain the depth and breadth o f focus on the human factor to a plethora of incidents. As the author explains, delineations by individuals and system level responses were utilized for the purposes of the view.
However, for the current research, the text’ s findings are predominantly on the behavioral aspects and thus require merely acknowledgement.
multidisciplinary research and frameworks in dealing with hazardous events in the attempt to come up with recommendations to reduce the cost of disasters. Natural hazards studies also took on a more humanistic attitude with more research done on vulnerability，risk and mitigation. These studies also covered response to warnings, assessment of actions during extreme events, and post disaster relief and recovery.
Vulnerability has become a key paradigm in hazard research. The vulnerability of people to tropical cyclones is a function of the incidence of the phenomenon as well as their exposure (Pielke and Pielke,
1997). Incidence refers to the number of cyclones, their intensity and the paths that they take. If a community lies along the tracks of these cyclones, they become at risk with a potential for loss of life and property. Societal vulnerability as defined by Pielke and Pielke (1997) is therefore “determined through the societal and climatic aspects of the hurricane phenomenon，’.
Understanding Vulnerability: An Introduction in Understanding Vulnerability
by Twigg (1998) is astudy on vulnerability, which focused on its reduction and the strengthening of the people’s capacity toward resilience as part of mitigation and management strategies. These studies have also shown that an increasing number of people have become vulnerable to hazards because of changes in their socio-demographic conditions as well as their cultural and political circumstances. This condition is more prevalent in developing countries where economic pressures have forced many of the poor to locate themselves to flood-prone areas and unstable sloped hills and other elevated regions.
Vulnerability to Tropical Cyclones: Evidence from the April, 1991 Cyclone in Coastal Bangladesh,
(Haque and Blair, 1992), is a study on vulnerability and the decision to evacuate during an extreme event, which showed that, due to socioeconomic factors, most inhabitants (mostly the men) in flood-prone regions of Bangladesh refused to leave their dwellings until it was too late for them to seek safety. Reasons for failure to evacuate were looting, disbelief in warnings, poor conditions and
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overcrowding of shelters, as well as a fatalistic attitude that the cyclone was the will
of Allah
and thatthey could not do anything to counter the event.
Constructing Vulnerability: The Historical Natural and Social Generation of Flooding in Metropolitan Manila
，(Bankoff, G., 2003)，studies the vulnerability of the Filipinos towards flood hazards. He argues that the lack of mutuality between the environment and human activity over time has led to the vulnerability of most Filipinos to the risk of flooding. Flooding has become a chronic risk, particularly to most residents of Metropolitan Manila whenever a tropical cyclone hits the country. Therefore, the understanding of the nature of floods in the Philippines requires an appreciation of the storms that impact the country.Tost Cyclone Adjustment Process: Basic Needs Perspective’
by Alam (2003) analyzes anddifferentiates the post cyclone adjustment process in the location of Sandwip Island by dividing it into three hazard risk zones on the basis of the surge height of the 1991 cyclone: badly affected area;
moderately affected area; and less affected area. The study showed that during relief and rehabilitation stages, external agencies were found not to understand exact requirements in the three hazard risk zones. Different NGOs took part in relief and rehabilitation programs in the post cyclone period, highlighting their activities in different books, papers and manuals (C AR E, 1991; CCD B, 1991;
BR AC , 1991; A D A B , 1992). There remains, however, a conspicuous absence o f research into the whole context of vulnerability and local coping with cyclone hazards.
‘Cyclone Disaster Vulnerability and Response Experiences in Coastal Bangladesh^
by Edris, A &Collins, E (2008) examines people’s response and the impact of disaster through in-depth interview and observation. The field research compared a combination o f participants1 observations and non-participants’ external interactions with coastal communities. This study identifies the contexts within which people are vulnerable to cyclone hazards and consequent local responses to living with cyclone disasters in the coastal zone of Bangladesh. Additionally, it examines the origins of
vulnerability to cyclone hazards given local people’s experiences on the Bangladesh coast and identifies adaptation strategies and coping before, during and after cyclone disasters.