Community Resilience and Volcano Hazard: The Eruption of Tungurahua and Evacuation of the Faldas in Ecuador
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-2002
Keywords
community resilience, volcano hazard, evacuation, Ecuador
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-7717.00189
Abstract
Official response to explosive volcano hazards usually involves evacuation of local inhabitants to safe shelters. Enforcement is often difficult and problems can be exacerbated when major eruptions do not ensue. Families are deprived of livelihoods and pressure to return to hazardous areas builds. Concomitantly, prevailing socioeconomic and political conditions limit activities and can influence vulnerability. This paper addresses these issues, examining an ongoing volcano hazard (Tungurahua) in Ecuador where contextual realities significantly constrain responses. Fieldwork involved interviewing government officials, selecting focus groups and conducting surveys of evacuees in four locations: a temporary shelter, a permanent resettlement, with returnees and with a control group. Differences in perceptions of risk and health conditions, and in the potential for economic recovery were found among groups with different evacuation experiences. The long-term goal is to develop a model of community resilience in long-term stress environments.
Rights Information
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Disasters, v. 26, issue 1, p. 28-48
Scholar Commons Citation
Tobin, Graham A. and Whiteford, Linda M., "Community Resilience and Volcano Hazard: The Eruption of Tungurahua and Evacuation of the Faldas in Ecuador" (2002). School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications. 104.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/geo_facpub/104
