Sense-making for anticipatory adaptation to heavy snowstorms in urban areas

Abstract

This paper takes a case of Xavier snowstorm of March 15–16, 2013 in two Belarusian cities of Minsk and Mahiliou˘ , and uses it to demonstrate how failures in communication in organisation hamper adaptation to an extreme weather event even in such a snow-proof society as Belarus. Highly hierarchical governance by the state causes a number of institutional misfits and interplays resulting in major implementation and decision making deficits; for the same reason governmental organisations have limited capacity to learn and prepare for future adaptations. Non-state actors were reluctant to take pro-active approach on the phase of post-disaster sense-making, although they demonstrated strong leadership and selforganisation during the storm. Except generic governance issues in Belarus, this also can be due to mal-resilient institutional legacies lasting from USSR times.