International disaster databases and catalogs provide a baseline for researchers,governments,communities,and organizations to understand the risk of a particular place,analyze broader trends in disaster risk,and justi...International disaster databases and catalogs provide a baseline for researchers,governments,communities,and organizations to understand the risk of a particular place,analyze broader trends in disaster risk,and justify investments in mitigation.Perhaps because Singapore is routinely identified as one of the safest countries in the world,Singapore’s past disasters have not been studied extensively with few events captured in major global databases such as EM-DAT.In this article,we fill the disaster data gap for postwar Singapore(1950–2020)using specified metrics through an archival search,review of literature,and analysis of secondary sources.We present four key lessons from cataloging these events.First,we expand Singapore’s disaster catalog to 39 events in this time period and quantify the extent of this data gap.Second,we identify the mitigating actions that have followed past events that contribute to Singapore’s present-day safety.Third,we discuss how these past events uncover continuities among vulnerability bearers in Singapore.Last,we identify limitations of a disaster catalog when considering future risks.In expanding the disaster catalog,this case study of Singapore supports the need for comprehensive understanding of past disasters in order to examine current and future disaster resilience.展开更多
基金We would like to acknowledge support from the National Research Foundation,Prime Minister's Office,Singapore under the NRF2018-SR2001-007 and NRF-NRFF2018-06 awardsThis research is also partly supported by the National Research Foundation Singaporethe Singapore Ministry of Education under the Research Centres of Excellence initiative through the Earth Observatory of Singapore
文摘International disaster databases and catalogs provide a baseline for researchers,governments,communities,and organizations to understand the risk of a particular place,analyze broader trends in disaster risk,and justify investments in mitigation.Perhaps because Singapore is routinely identified as one of the safest countries in the world,Singapore’s past disasters have not been studied extensively with few events captured in major global databases such as EM-DAT.In this article,we fill the disaster data gap for postwar Singapore(1950–2020)using specified metrics through an archival search,review of literature,and analysis of secondary sources.We present four key lessons from cataloging these events.First,we expand Singapore’s disaster catalog to 39 events in this time period and quantify the extent of this data gap.Second,we identify the mitigating actions that have followed past events that contribute to Singapore’s present-day safety.Third,we discuss how these past events uncover continuities among vulnerability bearers in Singapore.Last,we identify limitations of a disaster catalog when considering future risks.In expanding the disaster catalog,this case study of Singapore supports the need for comprehensive understanding of past disasters in order to examine current and future disaster resilience.
