Research has shown the importance of social capital in disaster resilience. This presentation examines the implications of this for emergency managers and the use of social media in social capital formation related to disasters.

1. The importance of connected
communities to flood resilience
Neil Dufty, Molino Stewart Pty Ltd

2. let’s start with a poem
LOST IN CYBERSPACE
Is there anyone out there?
I am calling from afar
Can anybody answer?
Quiet is becoming par.
I’m seeking cyber-friends
Ones who will always post
My site I will always tend
To become the perfect host.
Ah, words start to fill the void
A message from a ‘friend’?
Annoyed to being buoyed
This is a better trend.
Oh, reading the mail from this other
I find it is only from my mother. ………………..BACK TO THE POEM LATER

3. a flood resilience framework
Floodplain risk
management
Emergency Community
management development

4. community development
Education: how Psychology: how
people learn people behave
Community
development
Sociology: how people
connect

5. connected communities

6. social capital
‘Social capital is the networks, norms, and social
trust that facilitate coordination and
cooperation for mutual benefit’ (Putnam, 1995)

7. types of social capital

8. social capital and resilience
Major studies:
• 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami
• 2010 Haiti earthquake
• Hurricane Katrina
• Other major disasters

9. value of social capital
‘Despite different time periods, cultures,
government capacities, and levels of
development, all four cases showed that areas
with more social capital made effective and
efficient recoveries from crises through
coordinated efforts and cooperative activities’
(Aldrich, 2012)

10. how it works
• Deep levels of social capital serve as informal
insurance and promote mutual assistance after a
disaster.
• Dense and numerous social ties help survivors solve
collective action problems that stymie rehabilitation.
• Strong social ties strengthen the voices of survivors
and decrease the probability of leaving.

11. now back to the poem
However, like the poem, on the downside:
• although high levels of social capital reduced
barriers to collective action for those in
networked organisations, at the same time
social capital reinforced obstacles to recovery
for those outside of these organisations

12. and what about Victoria?
• Social research in recent floods – indications of social capital
• Community strength survey (source: DPCD)
Indicator Victoria Regional Victoria Metropolitan
) Melbourne
Can get help when needed 91% 92% 91%
(‘bonding social capital’)
Membership of organised groups 61% 64% 59%
(‘bridging social capital’)
Participation in organised sport 41% 43% 40%
(‘bridging social capital’)
Volunteering (‘linking social 33% 43% 28%
capital’)
On decision-making board or 19% 23% 17%
committee (‘linking social capital’)

13. social media
Study of social media use in 2011 floods (OESC)
• Bonding social capital (e.g. lending support to friends and
family)
• Bridging social capital (e.g. people offering help during
recovery)
• Linking social capital (e.g. volunteering help, providing real-
time information called ‘crowdsourcing’)

14. implications
• Strengthen community flood networks in addition to
volunteering e.g. through policy making, capacity building
• Mitigation and recovery plans should help enhance social
capital
• Community education should not just concentrate on learning
for individual preparedness (e.g. emergency plans) but also on
learning to build different types of social capital (e.g. ‘help a
neighbour’)
• Social media should be further developed to help form social
capital before, during and after a disaster

15. a final thought
Like two individuals exposed to the same
disease, recovery may have more to do with the
quality of the host than the nature of the
disease (Aldrich, 2008)

16. Question And Answer
Thank you