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Πλαίσιο ανάλυσης ανεκτικότητας (resilience) σε φυσικές καταστροφές νησιωτικών περιοχών της ανατολικής Μεσογείου: αξιολόγηση της νήσου Κρήτης

Papaioannou Ioannis-Christos

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Summary

The present M.Sc. thesis at first clarifies the idea of Resilience, particularly Disaster Resilience, considering its application in islandic communities. The study mainly aims at constructing an evaluation framework for the resilience development state, based on an appropriate theoretical background, which could present the underdeveloped features of a community, in order to define the guidelines that must be followed to improve the community’s abilities and increase the awareness of competent bodies. The ultimate objective was to make the evaluation framework in question be not only the base for further analysis of islandic communities disaster resilience, but also a tool for periodic evaluation of the resilience in its areas of interest.Disaster resilience is very important for society, due to the human loss, migration flows, material damage and economical damage that result from natural disasters. If the destructive factors associated to climatic change, and whose the presence is becoming more frequent and intense account, the increasing disaster hazard is becomes apparent. In Greece, disaster resilience started concerning the scientific community with delay, while the fragmented approach of the subject created problems, with each researcher defining the term resilience differently, depending on their area of study. In order to address this issue, all definitions of the term were considered and finally the term was translated in greek (Ανεκτικότητα) based on purely conceptual criteria.Α framework was created in the study for islandic communities, since in literature, there is an extensive engagement with disaster resilience of coastal communities and small islandic states, but not for small islandic communities that do not constitute state entities. Similar islandic communities exist throughout the European continent, as well as in the Mediterranean region and particularly in Greece, which includes many of these communities distributed in the Aegean and the Ionian archipelagos. Such islandic communities share the disadvantages of both coastal communities and small islandic states, which however, do not prevent these communities to develop resilience to disasters, in agreement with sustainable development. These disadvantages are the a) small size, b) isolation, c) sensitive coastal environment, d) demographic factors and e) economic factors, such as the intense unilateral approach of the economy of the touristic sector.The evaluation framework was based on the inherent resilience background of the DROP model, that is well-tried and which was structured from the beginning, for evaluating an existing situation at a community level. Subsequently, numerous statistical data, which characterized communities in general, coastal communities, as well as small islandic states, were collected. Among these data, which were related to societal, institutional, environmental, economic and infrastructural properties, the most representative of those available were selected, in order to characterize the islandic communities’ properties and abilities. Furthermore, a questionnaire-based investigation was used in a specific occasion, in order to record data regarding civil protection and to quantify qualitative data that characterize not only islandic communities, but also community level areas in general.The outcome of the above mentioned procedure was the creation of a resilience state evaluation framework, which fulfills the purpose of identifying the disadvantages in the processes of defining directions and justifying priorities for structuring resilience. Additionally, it helps in diffusing information regarding the subject, clarifies and defines a comprehensive consultation framework for the bodies being involved in resilience creation and presents the idea of integrated activation, in which multifarious development can greatly improve results. Nevertheless, the evaluation framework does not offer operational usability in its present structure, but can be considered a basis for an adapted and improved future version.Finally, the evaluation framework was applied to the island of Crete, which has an important geographical and economical role for Greece and constitutes a representative Islandic Community example of the eastern Mediterranean. The ultimate goal is to demonstrate the framework’s application possibilities and to evaluate the aspects of resilience of Crete. The framework application provided some interesting results, which showed that the island of Crete is characterized by a moderate resilience development state, with prospects for future improvement, provided that mentality, responsibility and interest issues are resolved, both on an institutional and on a societal level.

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