Community Resilience and Volcano Hazard: The Eruption of Tungurahua and Evacuation of the Faldas in Ecuador

• Published in: Disasters 2002-03, Vol.26 (1), p.28-48
• Main Authors: Tobin, Graham A., Whiteford, Linda M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Assistance; Community; Community organization; Community Participation; community resilience; Crystalline rocks; Disaster Planning; Disaster relief; Disasters; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Ecuador; Emergency preparedness; Engineering and environment geology. Geothermics; Environmental policy; evacuation; Evacuation of civilians; Exact sciences and technology; Female; Focus Groups; Hazards; Humans; Igneous and metamorphic rocks petrology, volcanic processes, magmas; Internally displaced persons; Male; Natural Disasters; Natural hazards: prediction, damages, etc; Political conditions; Politics; Population Dynamics; Public health; Relief Work; Relocation; Shelters; Social Environment; Social problems; Social systems; Socioeconomic Factors; Stress; Volcanic Eruptions - adverse effects; volcano hazard; Volcanoes
• ISSN: 0361-3666; 1467-7717
• DOI: 10.1111/1467-7717.00189

Official response to explosive volcano hazards usually involves evacuation of local inhabitants to safe shelters. Enforcement is often difficult and problems can be exacerbated when major eruptions do not ensue. Families are deprived of livelihoods and pressure to return to hazardous areas builds. Concomitantly, prevailing socioeconomic and political conditions limit activities and can influence vulnerability. This paper addresses these issues, examining an ongoing volcano hazard (Tungurahua) in Ecuador where contextual realities significantly constrain responses. Fieldwork involved interviewing government officials, selecting focus groups and conducting surveys of evacuees in four locations: a temporary shelter, a permanent resettlement, with returnees and with a control group. Differences in perceptions of risk and health conditions, and in the potential for economic recovery were found among groups with different evacuation experiences. The long‐term goal is to develop a model of community resilience in long‐term stress environments.