DISASTER PREPAREDNESS AND PLANNING

MANAGEMENT

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INTRODUCTION TO DISASTERS

KUNCHALA ASHOK
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR (C)
CED, JNTUHCEH
KUKATPALLY
 CONTENTS

 Concepts and Definitions

 Disaster , Hazards, Vulnerability

 Resilience, Risks Severity, Frequency & Details

 Capacity, Impact, Prevention, Mitigation

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DISASTER

Disaster is a sudden catastrophic event that causes wide spread damage and
immeasurable damage, loss, destruction and devastation to life, property ,
livelihood, economy and environment.

NDMA – National Disaster Management Act 2005.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (USA).

Features of Disaster

1. Disaster are uncertain.

2. Disasters are complicated events caused by natural or human actions.

3. Disaster occurs suddenly and unexpectedly affecting the vulnerable groups.

4. Disaster are unpredictable events.

Types of disasters

1. Natural disaster

Major – floods, cyclones, droughts and earthquakes.

Minor – cold waves, heat waves, land slides.

2. Man made disaster

Major – forest fires, deforestation, pollution.

Minor – Road , train accidents, industrial disasters. Ex – Bhopal gas tragedy. .

Hazards : A hazard can be defined as a potentially damaging physical event, social and
economic disruption or environmental degradation.

Natural hazards - due to natural phenomenon.

1. Terrestrial (planetary) hazards :

Tectonic movements of lithosphere and sudden movement of earth surface and even oceanic
plates resulting in greater damage to life and property.
a) Endogenic hazards - due to high pressure and temperature beneath the earth
surface produce major internal forces to cause movement of the plates for a
greater intensity and dimension. Ex – V, E, A, L, T.

b) Exogenic hazards – atmospheric phenomenon or changes in it. X – floods,

storms.

1. Climatic hazards : This type includes the phenomenon of EI Nino, sea level rise,
glacier melting cause serious environmental effects.

2. Chronic hazards : it occurs in a long term conditions or problems such as

drought, pollution, resources degradation.

3. Hydrological hazards : cyclones, hail, ice, snow floods, drought, Tsunami.

4. Meteorological hazards : storms, heat waves and cold waves.

5. Infrequent events : cyclones , lightning and hail storms.

2. Extra planetary hazards - occur due to collision of celestial bodies and the
resulting falling of debris on the earth surface.

Ex – NASA (National Are nautical Space Administration).

Environmental Hazards - those components of natural environment that have a

potential to cause harm to life, property and environment, including a large number of
fatalities. Natural or Man made activities. (ISDR, UN 2001)
Types –

Geomorphic / geological – E, V, T, L, A.

Atmospheric – C, H, CW, HW, S.

Extra planetary – meteorite impacts, catastrophic earth changes.

Seismic – ground shaking, liquefication.

Hydrological – desertification, Salinization, drought, erosion.

Man made hazards ( Anthropogenic) :

a) Physical –human induced activities, desertification, loss of natural resources,

pollution, waste disposal.

b) Technological – interaction of society, technology, natural systems. Industrial ,

structural, nuclear, computer, transportation.

c) Biological – bacteria, virus, medical waste, insects, plants, birds, animals and
humans. Pathogens, toxins.

d) Social – population explosion, famine, terror attack, conflict.

Environmental stress - situation or a variation in environmental quality that
causes disturbances in functioning of ecosystem.

1. Physical – kinetic energy developed by the earth by V E.

2. Wild fire – forest fires created by wild fires cause combustion of biomass.

3. Pollution – ozone, carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide,

radio active materials.

4. Thermal – discharge water industrial processes into water bodies like

lakes, streams, resulting in killing aquatic organisms.
 Radiation – release of radio active materials into environment from agriculture,
industry, medicine.

 Climatic – change in weather such as temperature, wind and precipitation of

particular region.

 Biological – complex and diverse interactions that occurring from organisms of

the same or different species.

 Abiotic stressor–

physical – loss of bio diversity, loss of habitat in ecosystem.

chemical - herbicides, fungicides, insecticides to control pests.

 Biotic stressor. Living organisms put stress on the other organisms.

Environmental stress on clean fresh water :

1. Depletion of ground water resources due to mounting pressure on food supplies.

2. Unpredictable and erratic monsoons

3. Rapid urbanization and industrialization

4. Multiple cropping practices.

5. Increase in global temperature

6. Increased frequency and intensity in drought.

Ecological influences on clean air in coastal India :

1. Urbanization And Industrialization

2. Over Population

3. Deforestation

4. Green House Effect

5. Photochemical Smog
Energy sources that induces man made hazards :

1. Use of nuclear weapons.

2. Explosion of nuclear power plants.

3. Bhopal gas tragedy

4. Release of harmful elements from pesticide plants.

Effect of environmental hazards :

Hazards to people

5. mortality, impact on health

Hazards to goods

6. Damage to property , socio economic impacts

Hazards to environment

Loss of biodiversity, environmental pollution, environmental degradation,

Vulnerability :

The quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed ,
either physically or emotionally.

Process of analysis

Recognize the root causes of vulnerability.

Understand the ability of people to deal with and recover from disasters.

Identify the strategies to reduce risk from long term basis.

Identify the need for additional resources and external assistance.

Types –

1. Physical - UNISDR – population density levels, site, design, materials.

2. Economic – individual, families, community.

3. Social - related to levels of literacy and education.

4. Ecological – depletion and degradation of natural resources.

Vulnerability indicators :

Improper design and building construction

Insufficient care for the assets

Incomplete information and lack of awareness among the public.

Giving least attention towards environmental management.

Insufficient preparedness measures in the event of disaster.

Relation ship between hazard, vulnerability and disaster

HxV=D

H and V are low

H is high and V is low.

H is low and V is high.

Resilience :

The term resilience is the ability to revive the confronted with a disaster risk.

Disaster resilience – DFID – ability of countries to manage changes by

maintaining living standards in the face of shocks.
UNISDR – the capacity of a system, community, potentially exposed to adapt by
resisting or changing the order to reach and maintain an acceptable level of
functioning and structure.

OECD ( organization for economic co operation and development) – ability of

individual to absorb and recover from shocks while positively adapting and
transforming their structures and means for living in face of long term changes
and uncertainty.
Bounce back, spring forward and build back better.
Benefits
1. Saving from loss of lives to disasters .
2. Protection of infrastructure and livelihoods.
3. Promotes international collaboration.
4. Prevent disaster related conflicts among people.
Reconstruction of damaged buildings:
 To help the disaster victim to live safe and secure.
 To help handicapped victims .
 To restore the economic vitality of community.
 To provide essential child care service.
 To secure employment to people.

Concept of risk

According to Einstein risk is defined as the probability of an event multiplied by the

consequences if the event occurs.

UNISDR – The potential loss of life injury or destroyed or damaged assets which
could occur to a system, society or a community in a specific period of time,
determined probabilistically as function of hazard, exposure and capacity.
 In a simple sense the term risk refers to a condition where in the occurrence
of an event has the potential to result in a negative impact on the
livelihoods of people.

 A risk is the possibility of the extent of damage to infrastructure, living

beings and environment by the impact of a hazard.

 Risk assessment

 Risk assessment involves the methodology of ascertaining the nature and

magnitude of damage and devastation resulting from disaster, which is
expected in some areas during a specified time period.
Methods

 Identification of hazards

 Analysis risk and its evaluation

 Incorporation of disaster control measures in Risk assessment

 Recognize the high risk levels and conditions

 Initiate preparedness for impending disasters and effective response actions

Risk mapping

Risk maps can be considered as an effective mitigation tool to invest resources in

disaster- vulnerable areas in order to reach out to high-risk areas in the event
of a catastrophe.
The federal emergency management agency(FEMA) collaborates with various
agencies at the level agencies at the level of federal, state, tribal and local
levels to identify the disaster risk areas and encourage planning and
development practices, to reduce the risk through a special program called as
risk mapping, assessment and planning program.

Disaster risk management

Disaster risk management is the implementation of policies and

strategies related to the reduction of risk caused by any disaster. The main
purpose objective of disaster risk management is,

• To prevent the occurrence of new disaster risk

 To reduce the existing disaster risk in a given situation to cope up with the
residual risk

 To build up resilience

 To minimize the losses caused by a disaster

Steps involved in disaster risk management

 Hazard assessment

 Vulnerability assessment

 Capacity assessment

 Peoples perception of risk

Crisis management

Crisis management refers to the management and recovery from an unforeseen event. It
deals with various types of disasters and measures of avoiding risks. it is a continuous
process wherein individuals, groups, communities, the government and some non-
governmental organizations(NGOs)manage the disasters to lessen the impact of
catastrophe.

Levels of disaster

The devastation and damage to the lives, property and environment often used as a yard stick
for defining a disaster but this may turn out to be ambiguous.

Level 0 – planning stage evading disaster of any kind .

Level I – localized incident where municipality respond.

Level II – extensive scale leading to mass causalities.

Level III – very large scale leading to mass causalities.

Factors effecting the disasters

 Rapid urbanization and industrialization.

 Demographic forces such as over population.

 Socio economic factors Such as poverty.

 Improper plans and regulations.

 Extreme events such as wars and civil strife.

Severity of disasters

 Number of fatalities

 Economic loss

Reasons for surge in disasters

 Increase in urbanization , deforestation, environmental degradation , very high

temperature, harsh winds and water storms.
Concept of capacity building

The term refers to different types of activities involved in improving the skills
and infrastructure to become more effective and sustainable in dealing with
any kind of disaster. Structural and non structural measures.

UNISDR - The process through which individual , organizations and societies

obtain strength and maintain the capabilities to set and achieve their own
development objectives over time.

UNDP – creating enable environment with legal frame works, institution

developments, including community, human resource development and
strengthening of managerial systems.
Disaster risk reduction plan :

1. Disaster prevention and mitigation

2. Disaster preparedness

3. Disaster response

4. Disaster rehabilitation and recovery.

Disaster mitigation planning :

1. Organize resources

2. Risk assessment

3. Develop mitigation plan

4. Implement plan and monitor progress.

Guidelines for mitigation measures :

 Early warning symptoms

 Land use zoning

 Building codes

 Incentives

 Increase public awareness

 Provision of assets at subsidized rates

Risk transfer : transfer risk from individual to insurance companies.

Resilience building

Financially support construction activities

Early recovery of the communities following the aftermath.

Quantification of disaster risk :

 Analyzing the previous disaster losses.

 Conducting the risk assessment

 Risk modeling to enable simulation of the consequences and the possibility

of occurrence of different events.

Risk time chart : simple illustration of livelihood of a disaster its severity and
frequency to understand the perspective of an impending disaster. It
provides overview of disasters and evaluate the risks caused by a disaster
and incorporate strategies to create a safer world.
Tangible – loss of life, injury to people.

Intangible – fear, anxiety, anger , sadness.

Na –tech – a hybrid variety of hazards as natural technological hazards. Ex –

radio active pollution, devastation caused by earthquake, tsunami,
explosion of nuclear power plants Okuma on march 11, 2011.

Frequency - The frequency of a natural hazard event is the number of times

it occurs within a specified time interval.

Magnitude - The magnitude of a natural hazard event is related to the energy

released by the event.