Although recurrent floods cause detrimental impact for the people living in riverine floodplains, households are taking up various risks management strategies to deal with them. This paper examined household’s post-disaster coping strategies to respond and recover from riverine floods in 2017. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey from 377 households from the right bank of Teesta River in Bangladesh. Households employed different coping strategies including borrowing money, assets disposal, consumption reduction, temporary migration, and grants from external sources, to cope with flood. Results from logistic regression models suggested that increasing severity of flood reduced households’ consumption. Exposed households were more likely to borrow money. Consumption reduction and temporary migration were mostly adopted by agricultural landless households. Income from nonfarm sources was found to be an important factor influencing household’s decisions on coping. Furthermore, households that recovered from the last flood disaster seek insurance through their own savings and available physical assets, highlighting the role of disaster preparedness in resilient recovery. This study calls for the policy intervention at the household-level to enhance the adaptive capacity of riverine households so that people at risk can cope better and recover from flood disaster using their resources.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate human health and potential ecological risk assessment in the ger district of Ulaanbaatar city, Mongolia. To perform these risk assessments, soil samples were collected based on reference studies that investigated heavy element distribution in soil samples near the ger area in Ulaanbaatar city. In total, 42 soil samples were collected and 26 heavy metals were identified by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) methods. The measurement results were compared with the reference data in order to validate the soil contamination level. Although there was a large difference between the measurement results of the present and reference data, the general tendency was similar. Soil contamination was assessed by pollution indexes such as geoaccumulation index and enrichment factor. Mo and As were the most enriched elements compared with the other elements. The carcinogenic and noncarcinogenic risks to children exceeded the permissible limits, and for adults, only 12 out of 42 sampling points exceeded the permissible limit of noncarcinogenic effects. According to the results of the ecological risk assessment, Zn and Pb showed from moderate to considerable contamination indexes and high toxicity values for ecological risk of a single element. The Cr and As ranged as very high ecological risk than that of the other measured heavy metals.

Social acceptance is a challenging aspect that affects the development of geothermal energy and such issues have been reported in many countries, such as Germany, Japan, Greece, and Kenya. In this study, we discuss the barriers to social acceptance and associated risks faced by geothermal energy developers in East Africa. We have conducted semi-structured interviews with international organizations (38.5%), public companies (38.5%), and private companies (23.1%). The interviews were qualitatively analysed using inductive content analysis. The key barriers identified by respondents were the lack of political, market, and community awareness; lack of local political support; lack of public funding; human resource shortages; involuntary resettlement; local cultural aspects; employment issues; and demographic change. The lack of awareness of geothermal energy affects public and private funding, and leads to negative risk perception by communities. Risks, such as air, soil, and water pollution, land acquisition, social exclusion, resource risks, and drilling and project costs, were considered important by our respondents. In this study, we emphasize the need for the following: raising awareness regarding geothermal energy; training professionals; implementing strong surface studies to reduce the risks associated with the exploration stage; and conducting environmental and social impact assessment reports to mitigate negative risks to local communities, while also ensuring their engagement and raising their awareness about the negative risks of geothermal energy.

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in Indonesia has been established for over 36 years. During this time, the EIA system has evolved to reflect both political and bureaucracy changes. However, the current implementation and effectiveness of the EIA process have not yet to be fully understood. This study aims to review the current implementation of EIA, to assess the effectiveness of EIA process procedurally, and to provide recommendations. In order to examine the effectiveness of EIA, we evaluate and compare the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) of nickel smelters against criteria. The results indicate that the screening and scoping process encountered problems in terms of scientific database availability, cost, and time of the study. Public participation was not effective due to the constraints of information channeling and weaknesses of the discussion process. We found insufficient synchronization between the evaluation and monitoring processes. EIA reporting indicated redundancy, inconsistency, and ambiguity. We recommend the political reinforcement of the will of the government to establish sustainable policy in terms of budgeting, human resources, and procedure of decision-making process in EIA.