The 2007 Solomon Islands Earthquake and Tsunami:

Cascading Effects and Community Recovery

The 2007 Solomon Islands earthquake and tsunami caused extensive damage to several of the country’s islands. Whereas the physical impacts of these hazards on affected communities’ lives and livelihoods have long been addressed, social impacts associated with the events continue to shape relations within and between the affected communities. This paper discusses these effects and their specific origins using a categorisation of triggers of cascading effects developed based on an analysis of nine crises. As this categorisation was based on crises in developed countries, this is an exploratory paper, aimed at investigating to what extent this categorisation applies to a cascading disaster in a developing country. This paper concludes that while similar triggers are of relevance, the ways in which triggers of cascading effects influence communities differs.