Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 4.4
Responses to tropical cyclone hazards in relation to stage of development of a territory.
Source:
In part based on Collimore 1995 and Smith 1996, 1997.
Note:
*In poorer countries, the significance and effectiveness of external relief varies inversely with the size
of population of the territory affected.
fishing grounds. Particularly in the case of
small
islands or island states, therefore, hurricanes can
focus the world's attention and economic aid on a
location that is otherwise an obscure economic
backwater.
Finally, some geographers have been directly
involved in the development, planning and
assessment of mitigation systems. For example
Jeremy Collymore, who previously held posts in
the Department of Geography in the University
of the West Indies, has since worked in the Pan-
Caribbean Disaster Preparedness and Prevention
Project and then been director of the Caribbean
Disaster Emergency Response Agency in
Barbados. In an analysis of the advantages and
limitations of different approaches to hazard
mitigation as practised in the Caribbean
(Collymore 1995), he pointed out the limitations
of 'rational' approaches such as cost-benefit
analysis, when costs such as social dislocation and
psychological trauma cannot be easily quantified
in monetary terms and when perceptions of risk
by people (Caribbean people have for cultural and
historical reasons a high tolerance level for risk)
do not conform to rational models. Consequently,
the 'intermediate' Commonwealth Caribbean
territories are characterised by a heavy reliance on
information-based mitigation strategies such as
hurricane forecasting, warnings and preparedness
information, a comparatively poor take-up of
insurance, and a lack of comprehensive hazard
management planning (see Table 4.4).
Problems and dilemmas in advising
planners
A number of problems and dilemmas in giving
planning advice arise from recent cyclone research
(Walsh 1998). One is the mismatch between the
regional
and
sub-regional
spatial scales, at which
geographers provide reliable data (which may be
useful for ship insurers), and the
local
(<50×50 km
scale), at which data are required for most planning
purposes. Not only do temporal patterns in
cyclone frequency at the regional, sub-regional
and island group spatial scales differ considerably
(see Figures 4.3, 4.4 and 4.5), but also the degree
of reliability decreases at more local scales as the
number of events upon which they are based falls.
A second dilemma concerns the most
appropriate cyclone frequency data sets to use for
future planning purposes in cyclone regions. In
