Res Publica. Revista de Historia de las Ideas Políticas, 2021
Históricamente, los estudios de desastres han presentado dos comprensiones antagónicas de las cat... more Históricamente, los estudios de desastres han presentado dos comprensiones antagónicas de las catástrofes: singularidades extremas que producen historia o procesos que perpetúan estructuras sociopolíticas e inequidades. Mediante un análisis del terremoto de 1970 en Ancash, Perú, y su influencia en la implementación de discursos de (des)aceleración en medio de grandes transformaciones en la sociedad peruana, este artículo presenta una comprensión alternativa de los desastres más allá de la disrupción y continuidad, para enfocarse en las articulaciones temporales que estos producen. Al ser concebidos como dispositivos temporales, los desastres tienen la capacidad de reestructurar ritmos, escalas y temporalidades de manera heterogénea y múltiple. El artículo pretende aportar argumentos que, aunque basados en el terremoto de Ancash, pueden aplicarse a otros debates sobre catástrofes, crisis y desastres como desencadenantes de aceleración y desaceleración económica, social o cultural.
Res Publica. Revista de Historia de las Ideas Políticas, 2021
Historically, disaster studies have been confronted with two antagonistic, but not exclusive, con... more Historically, disaster studies have been confronted with two antagonistic, but not exclusive, conceptualizations of catastrophes: first and foremost, extreme singularities that produce history, but also processes that perpetuate sociopolitical structures and inequalities. By exploring how the 1970 earthquake in Ancash, Peru was the scenario for implementing discourses of acceleration and deceleration amid strong transformations in Peruvian society, this article presents an alternative understanding of disasters beyond disruption and continuity by focusing on the temporal articulations they induce. When conceived as temporal devices, disasters have the capacity of restructuring rhythms, scales, and temporalities heterogeneously and manifoldly. This paper aims to bring forward arguments that, although grounded in the 1970 Ancash earthquake, can be applied to other discussions of disasters, catastrophes, and crises as triggering scenarios of economic, social, or cultural acceleration and deceleration.
International Journal of Disaster Risk Science, 2020
A rise in the number of flood-affected people and areas has increased the interest in new methods... more A rise in the number of flood-affected people and areas has increased the interest in new methods and concepts that account for this change. Citizens are integrated into disaster risk reduction processes through participatory approaches and can provide valuable up-to-date local knowledge. During a field study in Eberbach (Baden–Wuerttemberg, Germany) sketch maps and questionnaires were used to capture local knowledge about flooding. Based on a previous study on urban flooding in Santiago de Chile, the tools were adapted and applied to river flooding in the city of Eberbach, which is regularly flooded by the Neckar River, a major river in southwest Germany. The empirical database of the study comprises 40 participants in the study area and 40 in a control area. Half of the participants in each group are residents and half are pedestrians. Purposive sampling was used, and the questionnaires aimed to gather demographic information and explore what factors, such as property, influence t...
Volunteered geographic information can be seen as valuable data for various applications such as ... more Volunteered geographic information can be seen as valuable data for various applications such as within disaster management. OpenStreetMap data, for example, are mainly contributed by remote mappers based on satellite imagery and have increasingly been implemented in response actions to various disasters. Yet, the quality often depends on the local and country-specific knowledge of the mappers, which is required for performing the mapping task. Hence, the question is raised whether there is a possibility to train remote mappers with country-specific mapping instructions in order to improve the quality of OpenStreetMap data. An experiment is conducted with Geography students to evaluate the effect of additional material that is provided in wiki format. Furthermore, a questionnaire is applied to collect participants’ socio-demographic information, mapping experience and feedback about the material. This pre-study gives hints for future designs of country-specific mapping instructions ...
Urban flooding has been increasing in recent years and therefore new specified methods need to be... more Urban flooding has been increasing in recent years and therefore new specified methods need to be developed and applied. The rise of Web 2.0 technologies and collaborative projects based on volunteered geographic information like OpenStreetMap (OSM) lead to new dimensions of participatory practices. Thus, citizens can provide local knowledge for natural hazard analysis in a convenient way. In the following, a case study of the Quilicura community in Santiago de Chile -regularly affected by urban floodsis presented. A combination of OSM Field Papers and the risk perception of local people is applied in the concept of risk awareness maps including a questionnaire for participants’ information. This explorative study is a promising approach for a complementing data source because insight into local knowledge is acquired in a fast way. Results reveal two main streets, which are identified by the participants as prone to urban floods.
Hydrological information-which plays a crucial role in resolving conflicts over water allocation ... more Hydrological information-which plays a crucial role in resolving conflicts over water allocation and distribution is commonly seen as apolitical. However, this type of information is seldom objective and free of biases. Instead, it is used to position arguments and interests in accordance with the prevailing political agendas. Information is structured by complex and conflicting networks of public and private stakeholder interests, further reconstituted in different periods of time and place. Based on a study of the upper Yali basin in the municipality of San Pedro de Melipilla, Chile, we show how knowledge about water is produced, circulated and applied in the context of water scarcity and emerging conflicts over access to groundwater. Building on the notion of the hydrosocial cycle, the qualitative study shows how the production of hydrological reports and its application in political decision-making have reinforced asymmetrical relationships between the stakeholders locked in water conflicts. The lack of capacity of local farmers and community organizations to translate experiences into codified hydrological knowledge further exacerbates these asymmetries. Agro-industrial companies operating in the basin use hydrological assessments to locate and shift the water scarcity problems to the users, whereas locals blame them for accumulating disproportionately large concentrations of water extraction rights. Results contribute to the existing literature on environmental knowledge, arguing that discourses on water scarcity are not objective but shaped by socio-political contingencies. Overemphasising on data and techno-science based information to support certain decisions may be misleading without first unveiling the knowledge production processes operating across power-laden landscapes.
Studies based on information acquired by participative geographic approaches have sought to cope ... more Studies based on information acquired by participative geographic approaches have sought to cope with emergency situations and disasters such as floods. However, the impact of these approaches to flood risk governance systems in order to understand these types of events as a complete risk cycle is still not clear. This paper focuses on analysing the governance possibilities of using participative geographic information like volunteered and public participatory geographic information for flood risk reduction in the case of Santiago de Chile, a city which regularly experiences urban floods during rainy seasons. Based on in-depth interviews and document analysis, our study indicates that a relevant part of the current information used for flood risk reduction efforts is provided to local and regional authorities by the affected population. Though, local actors are not recognized by central agencies as valid agents for the production of official information. Moreover, there are neither instances of communication or deliberation with the community, which reduces the capacity of local actors to discuss possible solutions. Participative geographic instruments are seen as potential mechanisms to strengthen work relations among local actors and authorities, by enhancing new logics for producing and sharing information. The impacts for the current risk governance system though can be diverse depending on the participants' level of commitment of participants and the political relations between actors and agencies. Considered as merely data acquisition and analysis mechanisms, participative instruments reproduce the existing hierarchical top-down structures. Furthermore, local-based approaches can enhance local work, support local diagnostics and increase the decision capacity of citizens.
The fact that an increasing number of people and local authorities are affected by natural hazard... more The fact that an increasing number of people and local authorities are affected by natural hazards, especially floods, highlights the necessity of adequate mitigation and preparedness within disaster management. Many governments, though, have only insufficient monetary or technological capacities. One possible approach to tackle these issues is the acquisition of information by sketch maps complemented by questionnaires, which allows to digitally capture flood risk perception. We investigate which factors influence information collected by sketch maps and questionnaires in case studies in an area prone to pluvial flooding in Santiago de Chile. Our aim is to gain more information about the methods applied. Hereby, we focus on the spatial acquisition scale of sketch maps and personal characteristics of the participants, for example, whether they live at this very location of the survey (residents) or are pedestrians passing by. Our results show that the choice of the acquisition scale...
Réka Patrícia Gál and Petra Löffler (eds.) "Earth and Beyond in Tumultuous Times. A Critical Atlas of the Anthropocene". Lüneburg, Germany: Meson Press, p. 47-72, 2021
The notion of the Anthropocene is shaped by diverse spatial and temporal scales. While this discu... more The notion of the Anthropocene is shaped by diverse spatial and temporal scales. While this discussion settles several challenges for scholars and scientists, it also leads to intense debates on the causes and responsibilities of climatic transformations due to anthropogenic emissions. Notably, consideration of memory practices around climatic disasters may play an important role in reaching an agreement about the responsibility and liability of different parties when talking about anthropogenically-induced climate change. But it can also jeopardize the possibility of reaching a consensus, leading to irreconcilable positions between different world arrangements. In this article, I analyze two cases of flood controversies in the region of Ancash, Peru: Lake 513 and Lake Palcacocha. Both lakes pose high risks to the population downstream due to possible glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF). The diverse set of actors affected, however, reduces the capacity to reach agreements about the causes and consequences of those threats. Building on the notions of boundary objects and ontological disputes, I reflect on how difficult it is for actors with diverse ontological backgrounds and world arrangements to achieve a consensus on political climate resolutions. The article concludes by stressing the relevance of relational arenas for the interaction of different projects of world production, even if this interaction does not always lead to mutual understanding.
En los últimos años se han generado herramientas participativas para la toma de decisiones y los ... more En los últimos años se han generado herramientas participativas para la toma de decisiones y los procesos de planificación de la Región Metropolitana de Santiago (RMS). Sin embargo, todavía son muchos los desafíos pendientes que existen en la RMS en materia de herramientas y metodologías de planificación. La aproximación geosistémica para la construcción de escenarios futuros resulta de gran relevancia para entender la dependencia del crecimiento urbano y agrícola con los espacios de montaña, en cuanto suministro de servicios ambientales vitales para el desarrollo integral de la capital de Chile, ya que permite abordar de manera integral todos los niveles de incertidumbre presentes en el territorio, especialmente bajo un contexto de cambio climático.
Res Publica. Revista de Historia de las Ideas Políticas, 2021
Históricamente, los estudios de desastres han presentado dos comprensiones antagónicas de las cat... more Históricamente, los estudios de desastres han presentado dos comprensiones antagónicas de las catástrofes: singularidades extremas que producen historia o procesos que perpetúan estructuras sociopolíticas e inequidades. Mediante un análisis del terremoto de 1970 en Ancash, Perú, y su influencia en la implementación de discursos de (des)aceleración en medio de grandes transformaciones en la sociedad peruana, este artículo presenta una comprensión alternativa de los desastres más allá de la disrupción y continuidad, para enfocarse en las articulaciones temporales que estos producen. Al ser concebidos como dispositivos temporales, los desastres tienen la capacidad de reestructurar ritmos, escalas y temporalidades de manera heterogénea y múltiple. El artículo pretende aportar argumentos que, aunque basados en el terremoto de Ancash, pueden aplicarse a otros debates sobre catástrofes, crisis y desastres como desencadenantes de aceleración y desaceleración económica, social o cultural.
Res Publica. Revista de Historia de las Ideas Políticas, 2021
Historically, disaster studies have been confronted with two antagonistic, but not exclusive, con... more Historically, disaster studies have been confronted with two antagonistic, but not exclusive, conceptualizations of catastrophes: first and foremost, extreme singularities that produce history, but also processes that perpetuate sociopolitical structures and inequalities. By exploring how the 1970 earthquake in Ancash, Peru was the scenario for implementing discourses of acceleration and deceleration amid strong transformations in Peruvian society, this article presents an alternative understanding of disasters beyond disruption and continuity by focusing on the temporal articulations they induce. When conceived as temporal devices, disasters have the capacity of restructuring rhythms, scales, and temporalities heterogeneously and manifoldly. This paper aims to bring forward arguments that, although grounded in the 1970 Ancash earthquake, can be applied to other discussions of disasters, catastrophes, and crises as triggering scenarios of economic, social, or cultural acceleration and deceleration.
International Journal of Disaster Risk Science, 2020
A rise in the number of flood-affected people and areas has increased the interest in new methods... more A rise in the number of flood-affected people and areas has increased the interest in new methods and concepts that account for this change. Citizens are integrated into disaster risk reduction processes through participatory approaches and can provide valuable up-to-date local knowledge. During a field study in Eberbach (Baden–Wuerttemberg, Germany) sketch maps and questionnaires were used to capture local knowledge about flooding. Based on a previous study on urban flooding in Santiago de Chile, the tools were adapted and applied to river flooding in the city of Eberbach, which is regularly flooded by the Neckar River, a major river in southwest Germany. The empirical database of the study comprises 40 participants in the study area and 40 in a control area. Half of the participants in each group are residents and half are pedestrians. Purposive sampling was used, and the questionnaires aimed to gather demographic information and explore what factors, such as property, influence t...
Volunteered geographic information can be seen as valuable data for various applications such as ... more Volunteered geographic information can be seen as valuable data for various applications such as within disaster management. OpenStreetMap data, for example, are mainly contributed by remote mappers based on satellite imagery and have increasingly been implemented in response actions to various disasters. Yet, the quality often depends on the local and country-specific knowledge of the mappers, which is required for performing the mapping task. Hence, the question is raised whether there is a possibility to train remote mappers with country-specific mapping instructions in order to improve the quality of OpenStreetMap data. An experiment is conducted with Geography students to evaluate the effect of additional material that is provided in wiki format. Furthermore, a questionnaire is applied to collect participants’ socio-demographic information, mapping experience and feedback about the material. This pre-study gives hints for future designs of country-specific mapping instructions ...
Urban flooding has been increasing in recent years and therefore new specified methods need to be... more Urban flooding has been increasing in recent years and therefore new specified methods need to be developed and applied. The rise of Web 2.0 technologies and collaborative projects based on volunteered geographic information like OpenStreetMap (OSM) lead to new dimensions of participatory practices. Thus, citizens can provide local knowledge for natural hazard analysis in a convenient way. In the following, a case study of the Quilicura community in Santiago de Chile -regularly affected by urban floodsis presented. A combination of OSM Field Papers and the risk perception of local people is applied in the concept of risk awareness maps including a questionnaire for participants’ information. This explorative study is a promising approach for a complementing data source because insight into local knowledge is acquired in a fast way. Results reveal two main streets, which are identified by the participants as prone to urban floods.
Hydrological information-which plays a crucial role in resolving conflicts over water allocation ... more Hydrological information-which plays a crucial role in resolving conflicts over water allocation and distribution is commonly seen as apolitical. However, this type of information is seldom objective and free of biases. Instead, it is used to position arguments and interests in accordance with the prevailing political agendas. Information is structured by complex and conflicting networks of public and private stakeholder interests, further reconstituted in different periods of time and place. Based on a study of the upper Yali basin in the municipality of San Pedro de Melipilla, Chile, we show how knowledge about water is produced, circulated and applied in the context of water scarcity and emerging conflicts over access to groundwater. Building on the notion of the hydrosocial cycle, the qualitative study shows how the production of hydrological reports and its application in political decision-making have reinforced asymmetrical relationships between the stakeholders locked in water conflicts. The lack of capacity of local farmers and community organizations to translate experiences into codified hydrological knowledge further exacerbates these asymmetries. Agro-industrial companies operating in the basin use hydrological assessments to locate and shift the water scarcity problems to the users, whereas locals blame them for accumulating disproportionately large concentrations of water extraction rights. Results contribute to the existing literature on environmental knowledge, arguing that discourses on water scarcity are not objective but shaped by socio-political contingencies. Overemphasising on data and techno-science based information to support certain decisions may be misleading without first unveiling the knowledge production processes operating across power-laden landscapes.
Studies based on information acquired by participative geographic approaches have sought to cope ... more Studies based on information acquired by participative geographic approaches have sought to cope with emergency situations and disasters such as floods. However, the impact of these approaches to flood risk governance systems in order to understand these types of events as a complete risk cycle is still not clear. This paper focuses on analysing the governance possibilities of using participative geographic information like volunteered and public participatory geographic information for flood risk reduction in the case of Santiago de Chile, a city which regularly experiences urban floods during rainy seasons. Based on in-depth interviews and document analysis, our study indicates that a relevant part of the current information used for flood risk reduction efforts is provided to local and regional authorities by the affected population. Though, local actors are not recognized by central agencies as valid agents for the production of official information. Moreover, there are neither instances of communication or deliberation with the community, which reduces the capacity of local actors to discuss possible solutions. Participative geographic instruments are seen as potential mechanisms to strengthen work relations among local actors and authorities, by enhancing new logics for producing and sharing information. The impacts for the current risk governance system though can be diverse depending on the participants' level of commitment of participants and the political relations between actors and agencies. Considered as merely data acquisition and analysis mechanisms, participative instruments reproduce the existing hierarchical top-down structures. Furthermore, local-based approaches can enhance local work, support local diagnostics and increase the decision capacity of citizens.
The fact that an increasing number of people and local authorities are affected by natural hazard... more The fact that an increasing number of people and local authorities are affected by natural hazards, especially floods, highlights the necessity of adequate mitigation and preparedness within disaster management. Many governments, though, have only insufficient monetary or technological capacities. One possible approach to tackle these issues is the acquisition of information by sketch maps complemented by questionnaires, which allows to digitally capture flood risk perception. We investigate which factors influence information collected by sketch maps and questionnaires in case studies in an area prone to pluvial flooding in Santiago de Chile. Our aim is to gain more information about the methods applied. Hereby, we focus on the spatial acquisition scale of sketch maps and personal characteristics of the participants, for example, whether they live at this very location of the survey (residents) or are pedestrians passing by. Our results show that the choice of the acquisition scale...
Réka Patrícia Gál and Petra Löffler (eds.) "Earth and Beyond in Tumultuous Times. A Critical Atlas of the Anthropocene". Lüneburg, Germany: Meson Press, p. 47-72, 2021
The notion of the Anthropocene is shaped by diverse spatial and temporal scales. While this discu... more The notion of the Anthropocene is shaped by diverse spatial and temporal scales. While this discussion settles several challenges for scholars and scientists, it also leads to intense debates on the causes and responsibilities of climatic transformations due to anthropogenic emissions. Notably, consideration of memory practices around climatic disasters may play an important role in reaching an agreement about the responsibility and liability of different parties when talking about anthropogenically-induced climate change. But it can also jeopardize the possibility of reaching a consensus, leading to irreconcilable positions between different world arrangements. In this article, I analyze two cases of flood controversies in the region of Ancash, Peru: Lake 513 and Lake Palcacocha. Both lakes pose high risks to the population downstream due to possible glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF). The diverse set of actors affected, however, reduces the capacity to reach agreements about the causes and consequences of those threats. Building on the notions of boundary objects and ontological disputes, I reflect on how difficult it is for actors with diverse ontological backgrounds and world arrangements to achieve a consensus on political climate resolutions. The article concludes by stressing the relevance of relational arenas for the interaction of different projects of world production, even if this interaction does not always lead to mutual understanding.
En los últimos años se han generado herramientas participativas para la toma de decisiones y los ... more En los últimos años se han generado herramientas participativas para la toma de decisiones y los procesos de planificación de la Región Metropolitana de Santiago (RMS). Sin embargo, todavía son muchos los desafíos pendientes que existen en la RMS en materia de herramientas y metodologías de planificación. La aproximación geosistémica para la construcción de escenarios futuros resulta de gran relevancia para entender la dependencia del crecimiento urbano y agrícola con los espacios de montaña, en cuanto suministro de servicios ambientales vitales para el desarrollo integral de la capital de Chile, ya que permite abordar de manera integral todos los niveles de incertidumbre presentes en el territorio, especialmente bajo un contexto de cambio climático.
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