How can long-term disaster recovery be made more effective and inclusive? This question is central to research and practice on disaster management, with emerging calls for understanding how certain recovery priorities and processes gain prominence, often with very different outcomes for people impacted by disasters. Using empirical evidence from Tamil Nadu in South India, we explore the representation of disasters in three areas: how the disaster-triggering hazard itself is represented, how disaster-affected populations are represented and are able to represent themselves, and how recovery from disasters is represented. To do this we draw on three disasters that have occurred over the past quarter of a century: the Indian Ocean Tsunami, the South Indian Floods, and Cyclone Gaja. Using multiple lines of data, including multi-stakeholder interviews, and participatory group discussions, we demonstrate the crucial role that representation plays in influencing recovery processes and outcomes. We synthesise the empirical findings through the ‘disaster representation space’ where representations from disaster frontlines are juxtaposed with top-down narratives and those brokered by intermediaries. We argue that conferring greater representational power and agency on populations that are typically marginalised can contribute to more positive, inclusive and long-term recovery outcomes.

In many contexts recovery from COVID-19 is ongoing. The impacts of the pandemic were diverse and their distribution uneven, which may in part explain the diversity in the ways in which its recovery has been framed. Numerous framings concerning what constitutes 'recovery', what its pursuit should entail, who (or what) it should target and whose vision the notion of recovery should represent have been expressed by various fields of study. An assessment of the way in which diverse fields (e.g. health, conservation and development) have represented the priorities of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is so far not available. This knowledge gap is important since understanding the threads in common, and those distinct between fields, may help move towards a more integrated appraisal of the multiple priorities salient to recovery. Integration however also involves representing diverse knowledges, values and lived experiences and supporting disaster-resilient communities requires being attentive to the voices of the most marginalized. Due recognition of and engagement with these groups is essential for enhancing the justice and equity of recovery-focused interventions, and can help ensure that interventions do not presume, misplace or misrepresent local priorities. With growing recognition of the need for decolonial, grounded and co-developed responses to processes of recovery, nature futures and global development there is a need to understand how COVID-19 recovery has been conceived and articulated across fields, and crucially, the extent to which it has included the perceptions of socially, economically and politically marginalized groups. We analyzed 30 papers (10 per field), and asked (1) How does COVID-19 recovery tend to be framed within these fields, including the representation of intersecting risks? (2) Where is there divergence and congruence in recovery discourses across these fields, and what would an integrated understanding of recovery look like? (3) To what extent are local voices reflected or acknowledged in these international framings? We found that while perspectives differed, all highlighted how COVID-19 exposed pre-existing interconnected crises. Many framed the root cause as flawed economic growth models, which was considered in need of various degrees of transformation combined with more integrated governance. Crucially, few framings had strong representation of local, or marginalized voices and relatively few papers actively grounded their calls, or prominently advocated for such practices. Our findings point to a need for more co-created knowledge generation and agenda setting for COVID-19 recovery, and disaster recovery more broadly.

This paper investigates land cover, land use and vegetation changes at macro-regional, regional, local, and site spatial resolutions in the Megalopolis of Mexico City and how these affect groundwater recharge potential. Our research was framed within a transdisciplinary-holistic scope to unpack the complex social, geographic, and environmental processes often hidden when using single discipline, one-scale, one-stakeholder perspectives. Land cover/use data from the 1970s and 2018 were used as the primary input to analyze changes using remote sensing and geographical information systems. At the (macro)regional scale, land-use changes, especially human settlements, increased from about four to almost 40 % between 1970 and 2018, with a significant incursion into rural landscapes. At the local scale, analyses revealed a considerable decline in predominantly cold-humid vegetation types and conversion of agricultural fields into peri-urban landscapes. At pedon scale, hydrological balance analyses were calculated and then extrapolated to the region on behalf of soil maps information to assess groundwater recharge potentials, revealing the importance of soils as the core landscape component for water infiltration. Furthermore, social perception of changes was investigated among local stakeholders using semi-structured interviews with four communities. Nested multi-scale analyses revealed different disrupting processes hidden at one scale and evident at another. Outcomes are discussed considering their relevance for addressing transdisciplinary and theoretically applied frameworks.

This article presents a critical reflection on the meaning of crisis recovery, as experienced from the grassroots. It draws insights from a programme of research with indigenous and campesino communities in Colombia and Peru, undertaken in the period following the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a flexible, qualitative approach, the teams engaged in broad-ranging discussions about people’s concerns and aspirations. These exchanges revealed how people’s pandemic stories were inherently interconnected with other, ongoing and everyday risks associated with conflict, marginalization, poverty, displacement and environmental degradation. They also underlined how misconceived it can be to view the pandemic experience as some form of break from ‘normality’, externalizing the notion of crisis in a way that fails to acknowledge the historic and structural roots of risk and vulnerability. On the other hand, we also saw how capacities for coping with the crisis were already embedded in communities, partly as a consequence of long-faced injustices, reflected for example in the resurgence of communal care and indigenous practices. These perspectives conveyed a conception of recovery not as a linear or individualized trajectory, but as a multifaceted collective process that seeks to confront the dynamics of ongoing risks and injustices.

'Everyday nature', understood as people's ability to access nature nearby, should be protected in law and planning policy, facilitating three key benefits: (1) human health and wellbeing; (2) intrinsic and extrinsic ecological advantages; and (3) supporting the UK's 30by30 nature conservation commitment. Yet there are three obstacles to the protection of everyday nature: (1) the prioritisation of 'special' and 'priority' nature conservation habitats; (2) the lack of protection for Local Wildlife Sites; as well as (3) counter-intuitively, the rise of biodiversity as a preferred governing concept. Addressing these obstacles, the paper develops the concept of everyday nature, making four proposals for change: (1) improved conceptual analysis; (2) confirming current policy on Local Wildlife Sites; (3) implementing the concept of everyday nature in legislation and planning policy; and (4) implementing the Government's target that everyone lives within a 15-minute walk from a green or blue space.

Just transitions - responses to environmental change that minimise negative impacts on the most affected people and places, while ensuring nobody is left behind - are gaining scholarly and policy significance in areas beyond their original focus on carbon-intensive jobs and sectors. Yet attention to what a just transition means for biodiversity, as another aspect of the global environmental crisis, remains limited. Given the critical role that biodiversity plays in supporting livelihoods and wellbeing, this is a notable gap. This paper assesses what a just transition means for biodiversity, focusing on urban environments as the spaces in which many people encounter biodiversity globally. We undertake interview research across three case study cities representing different geopolitical and environmental contexts: Bristol (UK); Yubari (Japan); and Cape Town (South Africa) and ask two questions: what does biodiversity tell us about the concept of just transitions in the lived environment; and what are the consequences of considering just transitions in the context of biodiversity in the lived urban environment? Based on our findings, we set out six principles for a just transition in relation to urban biodiversity, as areas for further empirical enquiry: a shared sense of what a just transition and biodiversity mean in the local context; diverse social and ecological knowledge systems informing decision-making; integration and cohesion across policies; inclusive, meaningful and early engagement; supporting communities during and after implementation; and measures for assessing the effectiveness of outcomes from an ecological and a social perspective.

'Representations' of recovery refer to the creation, circulation, reinforcement and subversion of ideas about what should be done in the months and years after a hazard has struck. The research reported in this paper outlines how contrasting and, in some cases, openly contested narratives can emerge in society around the nature and causes of the event, the impacts and needs of the affected population, and the priorities and effectiveness of recovery processes. We worked in three states in India - Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Kerala - collecting and collating a range of information on ideas, experiences and debates about disaster recovery from people in disaster-affected communities, from governmental and non-governmental organisations, from reports in the media, from academic studies and from official documentation. These related to major hazard events over the last two decades as well as recent events that hit the states prior to or during the course of the research. Though there is much variation between disaster cases in the pattern of representations by different actors, there are some discernible elements that do tend to work together to generate an effect on outcomes, often in ways that not only side-line livelihood and wellbeing priorities of disaster-affected people but also sometimes downplay or even negate the needs and rights of specific social groups. Managing disaster recovery is a hugely challenging task. However, it is not well served if the ways in which impacts and recovery needs are articulated lead to the effective exclusion of certain sectors, social groups, needs and concerns from full consideration, or to the blocking of alternative perspectives such as proactive approaches to future risk reduction. Key in this, we maintain, is the need to shift representations of recovery to better match the needs and voices of those most affected.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a global reach and impact, introducing stay at home orders, social distancing, facemask wearing, and closing national and international borders. Yet, the need for international disaster aid as a result of previous disasters and ongoing crises remained present. Interviews with staff from United Kingdom aid agencies and their partner organizations examined how development and humanitarian activities changed during the first six months of the pandemic. Seven key themes were highlighted. The need to recognize individual country contexts and experiences when dealing with a pandemic was emphasized, together with appropriate strategic decisions around guidance and supporting staff and the value of learning from previous experiences. Restrictions limited agencies' ability to monitor programs and ensure accountability effectively, but relationships between partners adjusted, with a move to a greater reliance on local partners and increased empowerment in these groups. Trust was vital to allow for the continuation of programs and services during the first months of the pandemic. Most programs continued but with significant adaptations. An enhanced use of communication technology was a key adaptation, though caveats remained around access. Concern around safeguarding and stigmatization of vulnerable groups was reported as an increasing issue in some contexts. The impact of COVID-19 restrictions on ongoing disaster aid was rapid and extensive, forcing aid agencies at different scales to work swiftly to try to ensure as little disruption as possible, and -generating important lessons for both the ongoing and future crises.

During any crisis, relief efforts depend on the timely exchange of crisis-related information between organizations and the communities. Existing literature shows that relief efforts often fall short in terms of effective communication. One of the possible reasons for this is a misalignment between the expectations of people and the efforts of disaster respondents. Thus, understanding people's needs and expectations during disasters may help reduce the gap between the key stakeholders. In this paper, we use the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) technique to mine tweet data collected during Hurricane Harvey to better understand the needs of the people in the disaster area. Through data mining, we identify five themes of concern by Twitter users during the pre-crisis period of Harvey: disaster declaration and emergency response, concern about a specific town, event or travel cancellations, threat to oil & gas (energy) industry, and climate change. Based on these themes, we provide recommendations to help disaster management agencies and policymakers be better prepared to assist disaster victims and facilitate citizens' involvement.

The objective of this paper is to provide up-to-date empirical information on the expansion of P. juliflora, its environmental and livelihood impacts, and the performance of past and current management strategies in the Middle Awash Valley (MAV), Ethiopia. This study was based on data collected using focus group discussion, key informant interviews, and field observation. The results show that P. juliflora has expanded rapidly and invaded valuable grazing and croplands, and settlement areas. The rapid expansion of P. juliflora in the study area is attributed to climate change (increased temperature and declined rainfall), its ecological competition, spreading of seeds by wild animals and pastoral (mobile livestock) livelihood system, and recent occurrences of flood and drought-induced pasture scarcity that has forced livestock to eat more P. juliflora seed pods. Also, delays in the use of land cleared for farming activity have created good opportunities for Prosopis expansion. The perception and views of people on the benefits of P. juliflora and management options vary according to livelihood systems and stakeholder types (e.g., environmental managers and pastoralists). The attempted management strategies to eradicate P. juliflora (cutting, burning, and bulldozering or converting into economic utilization by making charcoal, fodder, and furniture) failed to achieve the intended outcomes. These management interventions failed due to many reasons. Some of these were the rapid rate of P. juliflora expansion triggered by the recurrent drought, severe scarcity of pasture that forced livestock to eat P. juliflora’s seed pods and travel into new areas, inadequate technologies to aid utilization and eradication, inability to collect sufficient quantity of pods to produce fodder for livestock, and absence of sufficient and satisfactory markets for the end-product (fodder). The results generally imply the need for urgent policy and management interventions. This study also highlights important issues that should be considered in introducing and implementing management strategies in the future.

The Paris Agreement articulates a global goal on adaptation, which aims to ensure an ‘adequate adaptation response’ to the ‘global temperature goal’, and requires countries to report progress through periodic global stocktakes. However, there remain conceptual and methodological challenges in defining an adaptation goal and mixed evidence on what effective adaptation looks like and how it can be enabled. In this review, we demonstrate how different normative views on adaptation outcomes, arising from different epistemological and disciplinary entry points, can lead to very different interpretations of adaptation effectiveness. We argue that how effectiveness is framed will significantly impact adaptation implementation and outcomes. This, furthermore, represents a way of exercising influence in adaptation decision-making. Eleven principles of effective adaptation are distilled as a way to pluralize guidance in international processes such as the Global Stocktake as well as national and sub-national exercises on tracking and monitoring adaptation.

Though there is increasing recognition of the cultural dimensions that shape climate change adaptation, our experience from working with actors engaged in adaptation policy and practice suggests that the role of culture still tends to be conceived in overly narrow and fixed terms. This is exemplified in portrayals of conservative cultural norms as stifling positive change. A growing body of research across the world indicates that the reality is seldom as simple as this-culture works in complex and variable ways, and, most importantly, is inherently dynamic. Drawing especially from research work on vulnerability and adaptation conducted in semi-arid regions, we illustrate this argument by briefly exploring three themes-multiple knowledge systems for farming in Botswana, the dynamics of pastoralist values and livelihoods in Kenya, and the interplay of caste and livelihood choices in India. Understanding how different facets of culture such as these operate in context helps move away from viewing culture statically as a barrier or enabler, and toward a more plural and dynamic appreciation of the role of culture in adaptation. This includes recognizing the potential for factors that may be construed as barriers to become enablers. Critical, balanced engagement with cultural dimensions in both research and practice, understanding and working with these dynamic social structures, is essential if adaptation is to create meaningful and lasting change for those who need it most. This article is categorized under: Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change > Values-Based Approach to Vulnerability and Adaptation

We contend that the representational aspects of recovery play an important but under-researched role in shaping long-term outcomes for disaster-affected populations. Ideas constructed around events, people and processes, and conveyed through discussion, texts and images, are seldom neutral and can be exclusionary in their effect. This review draws insights from literature across multiple disciplines to examine how the representation of needs, roles and approaches to recovery influences the support different social groups receive, their capacities to recover, and their rights and agency. It shows how these representations can be contested and challenged, often by disaster-affected people themselves, and calls for increased attention on how to move creatively towards more informed, inclusive and supportive recovery visions and processes.

This document is an output from the “Voices After Disaster: narratives and representation following the Kerala floods of August 2018” project supported by the University of East Anglia (UEA)’s GCRF QR funds. The project is carried out by researchers at UEA, the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, and Canalpy, Kerala. In this briefing, we provide an overview of some of the emerging narratives of recovery in Kerala and discuss their significance for post-disaster recovery policy and practice. A key part of the work was a review of reported recovery activities by government and NGOs, as well as accounts and reports of the disaster and subsequent activities in the media and other information sources. This was complemented by fieldwork on the ground in two districts, in which the teams conducted a total of 105 interviews and group discussions with a range of community members and other local stakeholders. We worked in Alleppey district, in the low-lying Kuttanad region, where extreme accumulation of floodwaters had been far in excess of the normal seasonal levels, and in Wayanad district, in the Western Ghats, where there had been a concentration of severe flash floods and landslides.

The paper examines the processes through which people forced from their homes by conflict can become exposed to heightened risk from environmental hazards in the places where they resettle. It reports on research undertaken with internally displaced people who moved to informal settlements in four locations in Colombia. With one of the world's largest displaced populations and a high annual incidence of hazard events such as landslides and floods, enabling people to create a durable sense of security in their places of resettlement is a major development challenge for the country. However, as the testimonies from individual experiences and perspectives makes clear, this problem is not one that can or should be addressed simply by enforcing existing land use and tenure regulations. The study combined qualitative interview methods with arts-based elements designed to facilitate and open up dialogue with research participants. We found that creating a permanent home, however modest, has symbolic meaning that reflects both personal struggle and collective effort: it represents security and stability, even in sites people know are associated with hazards. In tracing how they have interacted with multiple forms of risk, our work shows how displaced people have had to weigh up the threats they face against limited resettlement options, in an ongoing context of marginalisation. For complex reasons, this is a population that tends to be excluded from formal disaster preparedness and mitigation. However, there are indications that this prevailing situation could be challenged, promoting greater flexibility on the part of governmental organisations and enabling communities to become more engaged in disaster risk reduction. In bringing empirical depth to a topic of global significance at the intersection of displacement, disaster and development, we support the call for adaptable approaches to disaster risk management that can support displaced people more effectively and equitably. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

This paper uses the concept of ecosystem disservices to explore and understand how rapid environmental change associated with an invasive plant species is framed and understood by different stakeholders. Through a focus on narratives, the paper explores how socially-differentiated populations understand the causes and consequences of a plant invasion and express preferences for often contrasting management interventions. The research design uses a workshop format to instigate a series of conversations with socially-differentiated groups of people to explore how people perceive and respond to the impact of Prosopis juliflora (a species of mesquite) in the drylands of Ethiopia. The results show that preferences for interventions differs by age, gender, location and livelihood and also by primary and secondary stakeholder. Different sets of values underpin people's views and these contribute to the variation in the preference for different management interventions. To understand complex issues associated with alien invasive species, we find that the dichotomy between ecosystem services and disservices is artificial and call for a more dynamic and graduated view of ecosystem outputs. More practically, our research shows that P. juliflora management options need wider consideration of socially-differentiated implications and trade-offs and this requires greater efforts to engage with primary stakeholders.

In Colombia, five decades of violent conflict have displaced millions of people, many of whom now face severe risks from flooding, landslides and other environmental hazards in the places they have found to resettle. In our research, one of our main objectives was to better understand the experiences, vulnerabilities and survival strategies of conflict-displaced people living in hazard-prone locations in Soacha, an urban working-class district of Cundinamarca in the centre of Colombia, and in urban and peri-urban areas in or near Pereira and Manizales, both of which are cities in Colombia’s main coffee-growing region. We wanted to create spaces within which such people could tell their life stories with dignity and agency. For socially and politically marginalised people who have suffered enormous loss and trauma, and the disempowering effects of violence, conventional social science interviews may re-open wounds and cause extreme distress. Furthermore, interviewees may feel that there are ‘good’, ‘bad’ or otherwise ‘preferred’ answers to the questions they are asked. In our research, we instead invited participants to share a piece of music or a song they valued with us, via mp3 players, before opening a conversation about their life stories. In this way, we intended for participants to ‘territorialise’ the research encounter by creating comfortable spaces where their taste and habits were central (Dos Santos and Wagner, 2018), and where they exercised greater control and agency to decide the topics discussed (Levell, 2019). We wanted the songs people shared with us to act as their chosen entry points into their life stories. This article offers some reflections on how talking about music, a cultural form linked closely with emotions, memory and identity, can provide a resource for better understanding the lives and experiences of others.