Atmosphere, environment, society: The typhoon vulnerability nexus in early twentieth-century Hong Kong

• Main Author: WILLIAMSON, Fiona
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2023
• Subjects: Environmental Sciences; Physical and Environmental Geography
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cis_research/224; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/cis_research/article/1223/viewcontent/03_williamson_atmosphere_env_soc_pvoa.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

By looking at how typhoon risk was managed in early twentieth-century colonial Hong Kong, this article argues that bringing a historical lens to the discussion of the human-climate-environment nexus is an essential part of studies of resilience and vulnerability. It interprets physical evidence of the strength of a natural event against human factors, including structural and social vulnerabilities and governance. Investigating two of the deadliest typhoons to have hit Hong Kong's shores (1906 and 1937), this article notes that social vulnerabilities played a major part in turning the typhoon of 1937 into a worse disaster than 1906, despite advances in storm warning and typhoon defences in the intervening years. Thus, with our close lens and with hindsight, we can extrapolate the many factors that contributed to decreased resilience, potentially learning from each disaster as a window into understanding risk elsewhere today.