Impact of Natural Disasters on Sustainability and Well-being: A Research Proposal

This research proposal explores the multifaceted impact of natural disasters on sustainability and well-being. It examines the causes, consequences, and potential mitigation strategies for natural disasters, focusing on their effects on economic growth, social structures, and human health. The research employs a hybrid methodology, combining qualitative and quantitative approaches, to gather data through interviews, questionnaires, and group discussions. The study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the complex relationship between natural disasters and human well-being, highlighting the need for effective disaster management strategies and sustainable development practices.

Assessment 3: Impact of natural disaster on
sustainability and well being
S118 Research Methodologies in Global Learning
EMG505
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Table of Contents
Assessment 3: Impact of natural disaster on sustainability and well being.....................................1
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Significance of the Research........................................................................................................4
Literature Review and Theoretical Framework...........................................................................5
Aims/ Hypotheses/ Specific Research Questions........................................................................8
Method.........................................................................................................................................9
Limitations.................................................................................................................................13
Ethical Consideration.................................................................................................................14
Proposed Timeline.....................................................................................................................15
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................16
Reference:......................................................................................................................................17
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Introduction
It is essential that the human race must take care of the environment around as it is necessary for
our survival. There are various factors which creates disturbance to the natural factors which
causes disasters. It has also been identified that there are different prone regions which are
differentiated on the basis of their location. These locations are most prone regions which faces
most natural disasters. As the list of the 190 countries with the highest chances of facing the
natural disaster, America is considered a third country to face most natural disasters in the whole
world. It must be noted that the due to natural disaster, the society, culture, economy and the
livelihood of the nations is affected. The impact of the disasters caused due to the natural
disasters affects various factors such as the sustainability of the growth or development of the
nations and it also gives rise to the question of the safety and security of the well being of the
humans.
This research also includes a different method by which effective research is conducted and it is
necessary that such research is conducted efficiently, this is the reason that the researcher has
adopted Hybrid research method i.e. Qualitative and Quantitative Research Method. It also
includes the method by which the data and the information to be utilised in the research along
with the ethical consideration considered while conducting the research which includes the safety
of the participants, confidentiality, etc. This also includes the limitation faced by the limitations
or the issues faced in the research.
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Significance of the Research
There are various aspects which are discussed in this research and it holds a significant place in
the research. This will provide the information regarding the natural disasters, its causes, and its
impact on the sustainability of the growth of the economy and the well being of the people living
on the globe. This research will provide an understanding and knowledge about the awareness of
the natural disasters.

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Literature Review and Theoretical Framework
As per the Guha .et. al., (2012) Natural disasters are generally classified as biological,
geophysical, metrological and climatic conditions. In this review disasters are caused due to
metrological and hydrological review is categorised in one category denominated only by hydro-
meteorological, and biological disaster are not included. As per Cavallo. et. al., (2013) the
empirics of growth do not present definite reliable answers on the interconnection between the
economic growth and the natural disasters. According to the traditional form of neo-classical
model of the growth, the rate of technological progress is unlikely being affected due to the
destruction of capital stock by natural disasters. However, it will promote short-term economic
growth because it will divert the nation away from their static state level of macroeconomic
purposes. The endogenous growth model will possess a radical view because of which the
natural disaster will lead toward the higher growth in economy, resulting in the the improvement
in the capital stock productivity and aftershocks of natural disaster will provide catalyst for
reinvestment, that is not available in neoclassical model of growth. According to the Fisker
(2012), the available form of literature on the economic results of the natural form of disasters is
amazingly inconclusive and developed their analyses on the same data-EM-DAT- and most of
the studies have focussed their base on the five –year growth rates of the GDP. Some of the
analysts have given their arguments regarding the positive effects of the natural disasters on the
economic growth. As per the Loayza et. al., (2012), he stressed that the natural type of disasters
may cause significant physical and economic damage the effects of the damages can spread
beyond the immediate local community. They have also seen that that the impact of the various
form of disaster are creating barriers on the growth of the developing nations are developing
nations are vulnerable towards the impacts and also understood the impacts of the disasters are
not as much on the developed nations. As Datar et. al., (2013), Natural disasters will provide
degradation of the health in developing nations and cause impacts. As per the Patton and
Johnston (2017), it has been stated that it is important to understand the magnitude of the
disasters to analyse the impact of the disaster. It is also very necessary to evaluate the effects of
the disaster and analyses are the effects are direct or indirect. The direct effects of the disasters
are the impacts on actual site where the disaster has actually take place and indirect effects are
the surrounding the area of direct site. It is quite are natural that at the time of initial happening
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of the disaster the natives of the place should move towards the safer destination to get rids of the
effects of disaster (Patton & Johnston, 2017). It has been observed that human beings should
move towards another safer place at the time of disaster to make themselves to avail basic
amenities for the survival.
According to the Hall et. al., (2016), Government of any nation is trying their best to cope up
with this form of situations. Government and NGOs are jointly working towards the reduction of
the post effects of these natural disasters. It has been seen that some of the developed nations like
Australia, America, and South Asian nations etc. those are also more prone to the disasters has
constructed a disaster management cell for preventing the losses of the disaster. These disaster
management cells will perform as per the regulation and laws of the disaster. The major
objective of this form of disaster management cell is to prevent the disaster as they may occur. It
has also been seen that that certain form of scientific methods and plan are been developed after
the research of the disasters are they are somehow also successful in reducing the effects of the
disaster but every other disaster id different in nature and have variable challenges to prevent the
minimum loss of the disaster. Also, methods to prevent the disaster need a frequent update of the
prevailing systems as the nature of disaster also changes significantly. There should be proper
training of the disaster management will be in place and training should be more practical in
nature than theoretical in nature to get them the feel of actual disaster challenges. It has also been
seen that post effect of the disaster the government is taking an unnecessary delay in
implementing the survival plans of the natives because the team that is dealing with the disaster
is not efficient enough and prepared to overcome the challenges of the disaster. Generally, the
authorities are also implementing the temporary relief measures after the disaster instead of long-
term plans are more required in place than temporary measures. It is the responsibility of the
local as well central government authorities to be well coordinated to provide efficient and
effective relief measures post-disaster (Hall et. al., 2016). As per the Howitt et. al., (2012), the
natural form of disasters are affecting the global and local environment severely. The disasters
not only destroy the property as well there is a significant loss of the human lives as well will be
incurred. The disaster also significantly impacted the local economy as well as the overall
economy of the nation. The disaster will bring negative growth to an economy of any nation. The
major problem with any form of natural disaster is that they are not predictable and it is neither
diverted nor avoided. The government can only help in reducing the after-effects of the disasters
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by fast and effective necessary action to save as many as human lives and support minimum
losses of property (Howitt et. al., 2012). Japan is very prone to natural disasters which are
occurring frequently due to nature of its geographical characteristics. It has been observed that
their disaster nursing has more diversified in nature than any other disaster-prone economies. A
trans-disciplinary approach is stating that natural disaster is generally a consequence of the man-
made actions rather that self-evolving. Humans have created a significant level of destruction on
the earth without thinking of the consequences. Mass mining and severe eliminating of the forest
land results in earthquakes. Water levels have increased due to global heating and melting of
glaciers which results in floods. The result of a tragic form of disturbances in the environmental
and social sphere will together make socioeconomic consequences of extreme severity, such as
loss of life and high level of material damage and the spread in infectious diseases because of
degradation insanitary conditions. As per Datar .et. al., (2013), Natural disaster can be classified
as moderate or small and are responsible for adverse environmental and socio-economic
consequences. Lessons must be learned from the post-disaster and the disasters are an
opportunity to implement measures that are integrating measures that are flexible in nature due to
the greater impact of the disaster management team. In order to ensure that wellbeing of the
natives of the nation it is required that well being of the natives are not been overlooked. It is the
responsibility of the government to see that there should be fast prompt action is being taken by
the disaster management team to eradicate the effects of the disaster to a minimum level and also
government should promote the environment conservation mechanism more effectively
(Datar .et. al., 2013).
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Aims/ Hypotheses/ Specific Research Questions
It is necessary that the aims or the objectives of the research must be clearly stated or it can
affect the conduction of research. There are various aims on which are stated below:
 The impact of disaster caused by natural factors.
 Identification of impacts caused due to disasters mentioned above.
 Gathering information or data on the impact of the disasters on the sustainability.
 This research also aims at the impact of natural disaster on the well being.
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Method
As the research is collected by way of Primary Method, it is essential that the concept of primary
method is also explained. The primary method is a method in which the data is gathered or
collected freshly by directly contacting the person i.e. the participant to the interviews or the
respondents to the questionnaires. This means in this method the data or information that is used
in the research is collected for the first time i.e. such data or the information is not used before in
any of the research (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016). There are various methods by which the data can
be collected by the researcher such as organising or conducting the interviews, preparing the
questionnaires, group discussions, etc.
For conducting an efficient research, it was sure that adequate method is selected. As the
research includes collecting the data and the information both in form of words and the
mathematical or statistical data, hybrid research method is selected for this research i.e. both
Qualitative and Quantitative Research methods are adopted.
Research Design
Qualitative Research: It is one of the most significant methods which are adopted by the
researcher for the collection of data. In this method, this research is conducted in order to collect
or gather the information or the data in the form of non-numerical data i.e. in form of words.
These are the researches which are conducted and focused on the human element of the society
or the community of the nation (Khan, 2014). This includes the questions of research such as
“how”, “why”, etc. This involves the collection of data by way of directly contacting the person
i.e. the participant by way of interviews, surveys, focus group, etc.
Quantitative Research: It is a method in which the research is conducted by the statistical,
computational or mathematical techniques. The main aim of this research is to identify the
numerical or statistical side of the research and evaluating the data collected accordingly. It is
also considered that this research method provides more accurate information as all the
information or data is in the form of statistics and it is easier to represent statistical or
mathematical information properly (Beins, 2017). This includes the method for collection of data
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and information by way of the questionnaire as the outcome of a questionnaire for data collection
can be shown in statistical form (McGuirk & O'Neill, 2016).
Participant Recruitment (Sampling), sites for Research.
The participants in this research by whom the data and the information is collected are selected
on random basis. Only those persons were selected those who had interest in the environment, its
sustainability and the impact of natural disaster on the environment. Participants having the
knowledge of the environment and the factors affecting were also selected for the purpose of
conduction of research and collecting related data.
Data Gathering Methods
For effective conduction of research, it is essential that authentic and reliable data is collected as
based on this data and the information, the outcome of the research is based. There are various
methods which are adopted by the researcher but in this research, the data is collected by way of
interviews, questionnaire and group discussion. The methods adopted for collection of the data
are as follows:
Interviews: It is the most significant method by which the data and the information are
collected. This method is considered as an essential method for collecting the data as it is
collected directly from the persons related to the topic on which the research is conducted.
Moreover, the data is collected directly from such person or participant who has knowledge
about the environment, natural disasters, etc (Fontana & Prokos, 2016). The information so
collected is referred to be most authentic and reliable information as it is directly collected from
the personnel mentioned above. There are various interviews such as direct interview, telephonic
interviews, etc but in this research, the data is gathered from direct interviews with the
participants. This also includes that it is necessary that adequate questions are framed properly
and ethically.
Group Discussion: This is also an effective method by which the data is collected by the
researcher. For the purpose of the collecting data on the research i.e. “Impact of natural disaster
on sustainability and well being”. In this, certain individuals are selected who then comes
together for discussing a particular topic and topic of this discussion is mentioned above
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(Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2015). It is well known that different people have different views or
opinions which broaden the scope of the research. In this, every individual is given a chance to
speak and put its view before other individuals.
Questionnaire: This is the most popular method which is adopted by the researcher for the
collection of data. In this, the respondents are provided certain questions along with some
answers from which one answer is to be selected by such respondent. All the questions are to be
framed with proper care and responsibilities as it must be made sure that such questions must
cover whole aspects of the research as leaving any aspect of the research uncovered then it can
affect the effectiveness of the research (Bryman, 2016). Below is the example of the
questionnaire which is included in the research such as:
Question 1. Does natural disaster have an impact on the sustainability and the well being?
a) Yes
b) No
c) Maybe
Question 2. What are the impacts of disasters which are caused by natural factors?
a) Loss of Life
b) Destroys the economy of the nation
c) Destruction of infrastructure
Question 3. What are the factors which cause natural disasters?
a) The disturbance caused by Human Beings
b) Disturbance in natural factors
c) None of the above
Question 4. Whether natural disaster affects the economy of the nations?
a) Yes
b) No
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Question 5. Does the natural disaster affect the social life of the nation?
a) Yes
b) No
Data Analysis
Various methods are being utilized to estimate the impact of the disasters based on the data of
damages and the losses happened such as social accounting matrix (SAM), input-output table
and model of computable general equilibrium. SAM method has been widely accepted because
of the familiarity with development community at the international level. Social accounting
matrix (SAM) has been used to examine the impacts across the different form of activities,
factors and socio-economic agents. SAM approach has tended to provide upper bounds of impact
estimates and rigid coefficients same IO models. All the mentioned models have certain
disaggregation as well all this can derive the distributional impacts present in the disaster in
context to evaluate equity considerations required for the public policies completely against the
disaster (Blaikie. et. al., 2014) SAM is needed to be constructed in more aggregated way and
unique for the different form of the disaster and different for nation to nation. Another concept of
measuring the data of the various form of post-disaster that is followed by World Health
Organisation (WHO). It is a factor of the overall study of the disease and mentioned as the
number of years is being wasted due to ill health, early death and any form of disability. This
concept was developed in 1990 and a popular way of comparing the life expectancy and the
overall health in different countries (Gray and Mueller, 2012). DALY is calculated by taking in
count two major components years of life because of disability and years of life lost because of
early death. DALY is being used for analyzing the impacts of the disaster and evaluating the loss
of lives because of disaster only. This analysis will help in getting the idea of measures and plan
in disaster management by the government to decrease the impacts of the disaster.
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Limitations
As per the conduction of research and the gathering or collecting the data and the information in
regards to the research, there are various issues which were faced by the researcher. The main
issue with the research was faced while a collection of the data and information as it requires a
lot of time to collect reliable and authentic data from significant sources. As the data was also
collected by way of interviews, it was difficult to maintain the interest of the person getting
interviewed and recording their views or opinions. Moreover, only fewer persons were interested
in answering the questions as most of them didn’t have the knowledge of the environment and its
sustainability. As the process of collection of data by the primary method is a time-consuming
method, at the same time, it very expensive as it includes making the questionnaires, conducting
interviews which also involves the employing other persons in collecting the data and the
information. However, it was made sure that research are conducted effectively and efficiently
within the given period of time i.e. before the deadline and expenses or the cost was also
controlled.
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Ethical Consideration
While conducting a research, there are various ethical issues which are included. This includes
the consent of the persons, right to privacy, confidentiality, harm protection, etc (Strufe, 2016).
These factors are to be considered while conducting a research as it is the significant part of the
research and it also involves legal capacity of the person from whom the data and the
information is collected. These factors are explained as follows:
 Informed consent of the person: All the person from whom the data is collected were
properly informed about nature, scope, purpose, benefits, risks involved, outcomes of the
research along with the ethical consideration in relation with the privacy and security
(DePoy and Gitlin, 2015).
 Rights to privacy: The respondents from whom the data was collected were informed
before the commencement of the interview about the confidentiality during the process of
data collection, analysis and the preparation of final report. The information of the person
will be kept safe with the researcher and after the final report is prepared; the personal
information of such person will be destroyed so that it may not be linked with him/her
afterward. All of this information was provided to the person before initiation of the
interview.
 Protection from Harm: It was made sure by the researcher that the interviews or the
surveys were conducted in a safe environment as all research include certain risks,
however, in this research the risk is minimal. The participants were free to not respond to
the question to which they were not comfortable and in case of any issues, they were free
to communicate the issue with the researcher.
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Proposed Timeline
For maintaining the effectiveness of the research, all the activities were performed as per
stipulated time period. The schedule was prepared with the adequate time period for performing
the activities and such schedule was followed properly.
Tasks
(In Weeks)
W 1 W 2 W 3 W 4 W 5 W 6 W 7 W 8 W 9 W
10
W
11
Selection
of the
Topic
Selection
of
Research
method
Data and
information
collection
Analysing
the
collected
data and
information
Preparation
of Report
Completion
of
Research
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Conclusion
From the discussion made above, it concluded that natural disaster affects the sustainability and
the well being along with the economy, community and the livelihood of the nation. All the
methods adopted for collection of data and the information must be adopted properly as these
methods define the effectiveness of the data collected which is used in this research. The time
schedule made or developed by the researcher is essential as it ensures the completion of the
research as per the schedule. There were some issues or limitations which were faced while
conducting the research which was dealt with without compromising the effectiveness of the
research.
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