Measuring disaster resilience in the Philippines: evidence using network data envelopment analysis

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we assess the resilience of households in responding to climate-induced calamities such as flash floods and landslides in Compostela Valley of the Philippines. Using cross-sectional survey data collected in 2013 and 2014, we applied the integrated data envelopment analysis (DEA)-based network model to estimate a composite resilience score, ranging from zero to one, and decomposed into coping and adaptive capacities. The overall resilience score of households is, on average, 0.75, while the average coping and adaptive capacity scores are 0.61 and 0.92, respectively. The correlation of the overall resilience with the adaptive capacity is significantly higher than that of the overall resilience and the coping capacity. This implies that adaptation measures of households mainly depend on external assistance that enables vulnerable households to recover from calamity, and thus effectively achieve post-event life stabilization. No significant difference in the overall resilience scores is found among villages in the surveyed area.

KEYWORDS:

• Asia
• Philippines
• disaster risk management
• community-based adaptation
• resilience
• coping capacity
• adaptive capacity
• network data envelopment analysis (NDEA)

JEL CODE:

• C14
• D13
• I31

Acknowledgement

The data used in this paper were collected as part of the Agent-based modelling of sustainable livelihoods for vulnerable people to adapt to the impacts of flood-related landslides in the Philippines.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Renato A. Villano is a Professor of Economics and specializes in the area of applied econometrics, agricultural economics and development economics. His recent research activities focused on efficiency and farmer decision-making analysis, risk analysis in production systems, resilience and poverty measurement and impact assessment. He holds a PhD from the University of New England, Australia.

Damasa B. Magcale-Macandog is a Professor in the University of the Philippines at Los Banos. Damasa Magcale-Macandog is a seasoned researcher and academician conducting various researches related to agricultural, biological, agroforestry, ecological, land use change, climate change, natural resource inventory, spatial analysis and biodiversity studies for the past 25 years. Damasa Magcale-Macandog has lead and implemented several multidisciplinary internationally funded projects on sustainable natural resource management and inventory; coordinated international scientific networks and events; and disseminated research information and knowledge to a wider audience through scientific conferences, journals, community forum and various stakeholder consultations.

Lilibeth A. Acosta is a Senior Analyst in the Thought Leadership Division and the Manager of the Green Growth Performance Measurement Program in the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI). She has over 15 years of experience in indicator development, integrated assessment and scenario modeling of climate change vulnerability and adaptation as well sustainable development in the fields of ecosystem and biodiversity, agriculture and land use, and biomass energy. She worked as a senior development specialist in the National Economic Development Authority in the Philippines and senior scientist in the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and Environmental Science departments in the universities in Belgium, Japan, UK and the Philippines. Before joining the GGGI, she worked as an international consultant in the ADB, UNCCD and UNCTAD. A national of the Philippines, she holds a PhD in Agricultural Policy from the University of Bonn (Germany), Masters in Economics and Politics of Development from the University of Cambridge (England), and Bachelor in Agricultural Economics from the University of the Philippines.

Carolyn-Dung Thi Thanh Tran is a Discipline Leader in Business and Senior Lecturer at International College of Management, Sydney, NSW, Australia. She is also an Adjunct Lecturer in the Business School, University of New England. She specializes in operational research and its application in education, local government and agriculture. Her recent publications appeared in Applied Economics, Technological Economic and Development Economy, Asian Economic Journal, International Transaction in Operational Journal, Local Government Studies and Public Finance and Management.

Elena A. Eugenio is a Research Associate in the University of the Philippines in Los Banos (UPLB). She worked in many international and interdisciplinary projects on integrated sustainability assessment of bioenergy and livelihood vulnerabilities to typhoon associated hazards in Asia. She coordinated online and field surveys, liaised with local government officials, and conducted statistical analysis in these projects. Recently, she also worked as Senior Researcher in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development's (UNCTAD) Project on the assessment of organic certification in the coconut oil value chain in the Philippines. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Plant Pathology from the Department of Agriculture and Master of Science in Environmental Science in the School of Environmental Science and Management in UPLB.

Paula Beatrice M. Macandog is an Economist who has spent a significant part of her professional career contributing to agricultural development in the Philippines. She has experience in supporting agricultural development from both government and non-government organizations. She has worked in various research for development projects in the areas of socio-economic aspects of environmental conservation, disaster risk management and natural resource management. Her current research is on Climate Resilient Agriculture and on developing support tools that aim to help design climate-resilient programs and policies.

ORCID

Renato A. Villano http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2581-6623

Notes

1 For the purpose of this study, the term ‘disasters’ is used in general to refer to climate-induced calamities resulting from natural hazards, also known as ‘natural disasters’ in the literature.

2 Previous work has shown that land tenure and size of agricultural land area are important parameters, from land preparation work in agriculture, to disaster resilience planning, especially for rural communities. However, due to incomplete information on the size of area per household, the variable was not included in the analysis.

3 With regard to detecting outliers under a DEA framework, there are a variety of methods proposed in the literature, such as those proposed by Andersen and Petersen (1993), Wilson (1993, 1995), Simar (1999), Rostamy-Malkhalifeh et al. (2003), Beguin and Simar (2004), De Sousa and Stosic (2005), Tone and Tsutsui (2010), De Witte and Marques (2010), Carolyn-Dung and Villano (2010), Norris et al. (2011), and Thanassoulis (2011). Among these methods, we choose to adapt the method suggested by Simar (1999) and Thanassoulis (2011). This method has been applied in the work of Carolyn-Dung and Villano (2018).

4 P4599 at 2012 exchange rate of 1 USD = Php 41.00.

5 Typical support organisations: Coco Federation, Council of Women, Dayag, GKK, Kalahi, Mandaya and Mansaka Tribal Organisation, Matuary, NCIP, Purok, Senior Citizen, Women’s Organisation, 4Ps and some others.

Additional information

Funding

The Agent-based modelling of sustainable livelihoods for vulnerable people to adapt to the impacts of flood-related landslides in the Philippines project is funded by The Oscar M. Lopez Centre for Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management Foundation, Inc. (The OML Center as part of the project entitled “Agent-based modelling of sustainable livelihoods for vulnerable people to adapt to the impacts of flood-related landslides in the Philippines”).