Disaster Risk Management An emergent priority Area

What is a Disaster A serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society causing widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses which exceed the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources- (WHO)

Vulnerability to Disaster The degree to which a socio-economic system is either susceptible or resilient to the impact of natural hazards is determined by a combination of several factors including; hazard awareness, the condition of human settlements and infrastructure, public policy and administration, organized abilities in all fields of disaster management. Poverty is also one of the main causes of vulnerability in most parts of the world (WHO)

Deadliest Natural Disasters- Past times Disasters have been occurring for centuries, however their severity and scale could have not been completely understood due to lack of knowledge about disasters at that time, unavailability of communication means & media and lower causalities due to lower population density during these times

Deadliest Natural Disasters- Recent Past

Graph by Robert Simmon, based on data (Upto 2005) courtesy EM-DAT: The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database ( Université Catholique de Louvain—Brussels, Belgiumwww.em-dat.net Natural Disasters T HE R ISING C OSTS F OR M ANKIND Average Cost is beyond 50 Billion USD Advanced Technologies like Remote Sensing could help in lowering these costs

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Recent disaster trends in Asia and the Pacific An overview of disaster trends in Asia and the Pacific from the year 1980 onwards. It found that floods and storms were the two main causes of disasters in the region and affected the largest number of people

The scale of a disaster can be localised affecting only a small area and population can affect a major part of a country, or even can expand to the territory of more than one country Scale of Disaster Response strategies would be according to the requirement

The duration of a disaster can vary from momentary (earthquake) to several weeks (flooding) or even years long (prolonged drought) Duration of Disaster Response strategies would be according to the requirement

Managing Disaster - Rapid Response Chances of survival in the aftermath of disaster are increased significantly by careful planning of relief/rescue efforts, including ; mobilization of rescue teams, Coordination amongst emergency responders arranging medical supplies Preventive measures against epidemics/diseases Relocation/rehabilitation of affected Medical/psychic treatments to lessen the agony/stress of affected

Disaster Management has essentially been problem response driven Investment in preparedness is necessary to reduce the damages in future risks International, national and local resources are still predominantly used for emergency response operations after a disaster occurs. A recent study shows that it is up to 8 times cheaper to invest in longer term prevention, mitigation and preparedness than in post disaster emergency operations Usually after a severe disaster (flood) a project would be quickly implemented without giving enough thought to the impact such solutions would have on upstream and downstream reaches

Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction into Development This argues for the need of systematic & more conscious ways of integrating Disaster Risk Reduction(DDR) into development process Disasters have an enormous impact on development. With every disaster, there is a significant impact on various sectors of development like agriculture, water & power, education, housing and infrastructure. This results in a serious social and economic, setback to the development and particularly in (i)Policy (ii)Strategy (iii)Programming (iv)Project/program cycle management (v)External relations (vi)Institutional capacity

Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) Expected Outcome: The substantive reduction in losses in lives and in the social, economic and environmental assets of communities and countries Political commitment of 168 Governments to implement HFA, allocate necessary resources and set up the appropriate institutional and legislative frameworks to facilitate its implementation Integrate disaster risk reduction into policies, plans and programmes of sustainable development and poverty reduction Recognize risk reduction as both a humanitarian and development issue – in the context of sustainable development Focus on national implementation, with bilateral, multilateral, regional and international cooperation

Reliable and timely statistics are essential for disaster preparedness planning and response readiness. After a disaster has struck, statistics are used for assessing the initial disaster impact, and for subsequent monitoring and evaluation. Although the data about disasters and their impacts is collected after the occurrence of the events, the institutional capacities, systems and protocols for collecting the data is required to be built prior to the occurrence of such events The information for pasts disasters are useful in policy planning and decision-making for disaster risk reduction, preparedness, mitigation, response, relief and recovery Disaster databases and resulting statistics serve also as tools for measuring the progress and achievements of the policies and plans. Disaster Databases

Societal Change Climate Change Disaster Change Disaster Management Change Intensifying Extreme weather events Torrential rains Cyclones Storm surges Droughts Glacial melt Limitation in centralized protection by infrastructure More important for human to adjust & living with nature Urbanization & Urban concentration & Rural depopulation Limited resources, poverty, poor governance More severe damages Disasters in inexperienced regions Every thing is changing so as should DM

ISNET/ISA realized this fact that Disaster Risk Management is an important priority area That ‘s why we all are here to deliberate and share our experience in this domain What role a Space Agency can play in DRM Disaster Risk Management An emergent priority area (Wait for my next presentation after 5 min)