Date of Award
2020
Document Type
Open Access Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Geology (MS)
Administrative Home Department
Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences
Advisor 1
Greg Waite
Advisor 2
Kari Henquinet
Committee Member 1
Rudiger Escobar Wolf
Abstract
Jamaica experiences meteorological, hydrological, and geological natural hazards that can produce island-wide impacts. The island’s exposure to multiple hazard types requires effective and sustainable mitigation and disaster risk management to lessen potential impacts, especially for vulnerable populations and communities. Comfort Castle, a small rural farming community, sits in the upper Rio Grande Valley of Portland parish and experiences earthquakes, landslides, hurricanes, heavy rainfall, and floods. Steep terrain and remoteness due to geographic location affect the community’s geophysical vulnerability. Their social vulnerability results from a lack of employment, health, educational, and livelihood resources within the community. Together, geophysical, and social factors combine to create overall vulnerability of place and understanding these root causes leads to effective mitigation. In the case of Comfort Castle, limited accessibility is a common denominator among its root causes and exacerbates both geophysical and social vulnerability. Ethnographic and GIS analyses reveal the linking and influential connection between the community’s accessibility and vulnerability of place. This study calls for existing vulnerability models like the Pressure and Release and Access models to place a significant emphasis on the role of accessibility as it relates to vulnerability. In doing so, mitigation measures can start at the deepest level and effectively lead to a reduction in vulnerability to natural hazards.
Recommended Citation
Thole, Heather, "The impacts of accessibility on vulnerability of place in Comfort Castle, Jamaica", Open Access Master's Thesis, Michigan Technological University, 2020.