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Introduction To Disaster Manaement (Lecture-1)

Natural and man-made disasters have increased significantly over the past decade, especially in developing countries. The costs of disasters, which average $880 billion annually, have tripled over the past 10 years. A disaster occurs when a hazard such as an earthquake or flood impacts a vulnerable population, causing damage, casualties, and disruption that exceed the local capacity to cope. Key aspects of disaster management include understanding hazards, vulnerabilities, and capacities in order to reduce risks before a disaster occurs and facilitate response and recovery efforts after a disaster strikes.

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51 views22 pages

Introduction To Disaster Manaement (Lecture-1)

Natural and man-made disasters have increased significantly over the past decade, especially in developing countries. The costs of disasters, which average $880 billion annually, have tripled over the past 10 years. A disaster occurs when a hazard such as an earthquake or flood impacts a vulnerable population, causing damage, casualties, and disruption that exceed the local capacity to cope. Key aspects of disaster management include understanding hazards, vulnerabilities, and capacities in order to reduce risks before a disaster occurs and facilitate response and recovery efforts after a disaster strikes.

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assad ullah
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Introduction to Disaster Management

Disaster: Background
•Over the past decade, the number of natural and
manmade disasters has climbed inexorably.
•From 1994 to 1998, reported disasters average was 428
per year but
•from 1999 to 2003, this figure went up to an average of
707 disaster events per year showing an increase of about
60 per cent over the previous years.
•The biggest rise was in countries of low human
development, which suffered an increase of 142 per cent.
•Drought and famine have proved to be the deadliest
disasters globally, followed by flood, technological disaster,
earthquake, windstorm, extreme temperature and others.
•Global economic loss related to disaster events average
around US $880 billion per year.
Cost of disasters

Between 2003-2013, natural disaster in developing countries affect more than 1.9
billion people, and caused more than US $ 494 bn in damages. Cost tripled over
the previous decade.
What is a disaster ?
• French word “Desastre”
• ‘des’ meaning bad and ‘aster’ meaning star.
• Refers to ‘Bad or Evil star’.

•A disaster can be defined as


A serious disruption in the functioning of the
community or a society causing wide spread material,
economic, social or environmental losses which exceed
the ability of the affected society to cope using its own
resources”.
Disaster

A disaster is a result from the combination of hazard,


vulnerability and insufficient capacity or measures
to reduce the potential chances of risk.

A disaster happens when a hazard impacts on the


vulnerable population and causes damage,
casualties and disruption.
A disaster happens when a hazard impacts on the vulnerable
population and causes damage, casualties and disruption.
•Any hazard – flood or cyclone triggers with greater
vulnerability (inadequate access to resources, sick and old
people, lack of awareness etc) would lead to disaster causing
greater loss to life and property.

•Example: Earthquake in an uninhabited desert cannot be


considered a disaster. An earthquake is disastrous only when it
affects people, their properties and activities.
Thus, disaster occurs only when hazards and vulnerability
meet.
What is a hazard ?
‘a dangerous condition, that threat or have the potential for
causing injury to life or damage to property or the environment.’
The word ‘hazard’ comes from French word ‘hasard’ , or Arabic
word ‘az-zahr’ meaning ‘chance’ or ‘luck’.
Hazards can be grouped into two broad categories
namely Natural and Manmade.
• Natural Hazard because of natural phenomena
(hazards with meteorological, geological or even biological
origin).
•Manmade hazards: due to human negligence. Manmade
hazards are associated with industries or energy generation
facilities and include explosions, leakage of toxic waste, pollution,
dam failure, wars or civil strife etc.
Natural Hazards

Natural hazards are hazards which are


caused because of natural phenomena
Hazards with meteorological,
Geological or even
Biological origin.
Examples of natural hazards are:
Cyclones,
Tsunamis,
Earthquake and
Volcanic eruption which are exclusively of
natural origin
Man Made hazards

Manmade hazards are hazards which are due to


human negligence.

Manmade hazards are associated with:


Industries or
Energy generation facilities and include
explosions,
Leakage of toxic waste,
Pollution,
Dam failure,
Wars or civil strife etc
Various types of hazards
Various types of hazards
What is a vulnerability ?

“The extent to which a community, structure, services or


geographic area is likely to be damaged or disrupted by the
impact of particular hazard, on account of their nature,
construction and proximity to hazardous terrains or a disaster
prone area.”

It can be categorized into :


•physical; and
•socio-economic
•Physical Vulnerability: It includes notions of who and what
may be damaged or destroyed by natural hazard such as
earthquakes or floods.
•Socio-economic Vulnerability: Socio-economic condition by
degree to which a population is affected by a hazard.
Example, people who are poor and living in the sea coast
don’t have the money to construct strong concrete houses.
They are generally at risk and loose their shelters when ever
there is strong wind or cyclone.
Example of physical vulnerability is a hazardous slope:
Unchecked growth of settlements in unsafe areas exposes
the people to the hazard. In case of an earthquake or landslide the
ground may fail and the houses on the top may topple or slide
and affect the settlements at the lower level even if they are
designed well for earthquake forces.
Capacity

“Resources, means and strengths which exist n


i
households and communities and which enable
them to cope with, withstand, prepare for, prevent,
mitigate or quickly recover from a disaster”.
Formula for Disaster Risk

Disaster Risk (or recipe for disaster) has been


presented by Ward, 1999 as follows:

Disaster Risk = Hazard * Vulnerability / Manageability

Manageability – the degree to which the community


can intervene and manage a hazard in order to reduce
its potential impact
Manageability is synonymous to capacity

Disaster Risk = Hazard * Vulnerability / Capacity


Disaster management cycle

Includes sum total of all activities, programmes and


measures taken up before, during, and after a disaster with
the purpose to avoid a disaster, reduce its impact or recover
from its losses. The three key stages of activities within
disaster risk management are:
1. Before a disaster (pre-disaster).
2. During a disaster (disaster occurrence).
3. After a disaster (post-disaster)

Before a disaster (pre-disaster): Activities to reduce human and


property losses caused by a potential hazard.
Example, by carrying out awareness campaigns, strengthening the
existing weak structures, preparation of the disaster management
plans at household and community level etc. Such risk reduction
measures taken under this stage are termed as mitigation and
preparedness activities.
During a disaster (disaster occurrence).
Initiatives taken to ensure the needs and provisions of victims
are met and suffering is minimized. Activities taken under this
stage are called emergency response activities.
After a disaster (post-disaster)
Initiatives taken in response to a disaster with a purpose to
achieve early recovery and rehabilitation of affected
communities, immediately after a disaster strikes. These are
called as response and recovery activities.

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