Disaster Mitigation and Management

1 DISASTER MITIGATION AND MANAGEMENT M. Mayur, Siddharth Institute of Engineering and Technology, Puttur.Abstract: But, when the victims of the mysteries areIndia is one of the most disaster prone the people then they need to know what thecountries of the world. It has had some of mysteries are and the impact the mysteriesthe world’s most severe droughts, famines, can have on them.cyclones, earthquakes, chemical disasters, This paper discusses how disaster can bemid-air head-on air collisions, rail accidents, managed through awareness and suggests aand road accidents. Disaster is a sudden, methodology to design an awarenesscalamitous event bringing great damage, program with the help of the spatialloss, and destruction and devastation to life component. But before discussing this let usand property. In simple terms we can define discuss what a disaster is? What disasterdisaster as a hazard causing heavy loss to management is? How disasters can belife, property and livelihood. This paper managed by spreading awareness aboutdeals with types of disasters and mitigation disasters? And what is the role of GIS inand management methods at and after the disaster management?time of disasters. Vulnerability, Hazards andRisk reduction are the main key points What is a Disaster?involved in Disasters. This paper deals with According to each, disaster is defined asmain aspects involved in each and every many ways, so, there is no particulartype of disaster for managing and mitigating definition for a Disaster.their effects. GIS also plays an important Overall, disaster is defined as:role in management of Disasters. The paperdeals with role of GIS in it and awareness  Disaster is a sudden, calamitousprogrammes required for public to save event bringing great damage, loss,themselves from disasters and importance of and destruction and devastation toGIS in Disaster Management. life and property.  WHO defines Disaster as "anyIntroduction: occurrence that causes damage, ecological disruption, loss of humanThe earth has been an unstable proposition life, deterioration of health andthroughout its existence. Man who entered health services, on a scale sufficientthe scene has been exploring during his to warrant an extraordinary responseshort existence to unravel the various from outside the affected communitymysteries which are mysteries till date. or area”.These mysteries have been understood byand confined to the intellectual community.

2But as a Civil Students, we can say as: A disaster may have the following main features:-It is a natural accident, which causes greatdamage to life, property and Structures  Unpredictability,which cannot be reused.  Unfamiliarity,  Speed,It may also be termed as “a serious  Urgency,disruption of the functioning of society,  Uncertainty andcausing widespread human, material or  Threatenvironmental losses which exceed theability of the affected society to cope using Vulnerability, Hazards and Risk are theits own resources.” main key points when ever disaster mitigation and management is considered. Types of Disasters: Disasters are simply defined as any over helming ecological disruption which disturbs environmental and economical positions. Disasters are mainly divided as two types:  Natural Disasters and  Artificial Disasters. Artificial Disasters are also called as ManDamages by Disasters: Made Disasters. Natural Disasters:Damages done by disasters are inevitableand they cannot be reduced and predicted Disasters that are caused by Natural causesand only method is to manage them and are called as Natural Disasters.mitigate them. The damage caused bydisasters is immeasurable.  Earthquakes,The damage caused by disasters depends on:  Landslides,  Floods, • Geographical location of place, • Climate of the place,  River erosion, • Type of Surface of Earth and  Cyclones, • Degree of Vulnerability.  Tsunami,This influences the mental, socio-economic,political and cultural state of the affected  Forest Fires etc…area.

3Artificial Disasters:  Decide where your family will reunite if separated,These are the disasters that are occurred dueto man made changes over the surface of the  Maintain emergency food, water,Earth. medicine, first aid kit, tools, and clothing.  Nuclear Disasters, During an Earthquake:  Chemical Disasters,  Take cover. Go under a table or  Mine Disasters, other sturdy furniture; kneel, sit,  Biological Disasters. or stay close to the floor. Hold on to furniture legs for balance. BeThese are an example of manmade disasters. prepared to move if your cover moves.Natural Disasters:  If no sturdy cover is nearby,Earthquakes: kneel or sit close to the floor next to a structurally sound interiorEarthquakes are nothing but any sudden wall. Place your hands on themovement over the surface of the Earth floor for balance.which shakes Earth vigorously that destroysthe structures resting on the Earth. Cyclone: Cyclone is defined as: Rapid inward circulation of air masses about a low pressure centre; circling counter clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern. • Keep watch on weather and listen to radio or TV. Keep alert about the community warning systems – loudspeakers, bells, conches, drums or any traditional warning system. • Get to know the nearest cyclone“We are not about to predict shelter / safe houses and the safestearthquakes. As one door closes, another route to reach these shelters,opens. If we can’t predict earthquakes,then let’s learn to live safely with them.” • Prepare a first aid kit, emergency tools for saving ourselves, dry food.The main safeties behind Earthquakes are:  We should know safe spot in each During a Cyclone: and every room of our house, • Disconnect all electrical appliances

4 and turn off gas. dangerous, especially after longer • If the building starts crumbling, periods of heavy rainfall and damp protect yourself with mattresses, rugs weather. or blankets under a strong table or • If you are in areas susceptible to bench or hold on to a solid fixture landslides and debris flows, consider (e.g. a water pipe) leaving if it is safe to do so. • Listen to your transistor radio for Remember that driving during an updates and advice. intense storm can be hazardous. If you remain at home, move to aFloods: second story if possible. Staying out of the path of a landslide or debris • All your family members should flow saves lives. know the safe route to nearest shelter/ raised pucca house. After the Landslide: • If your area is flood-prone, consider • Stay away from the slide area. There alternative building materials. Mud may be danger of additional slides. walls are more likely to be damaged • Check for injured and trapped during floods. You may consider persons near the slide, without making houses where the walls are entering the direct slide area. Direct made of local bricks up to the rescuers to their locations. highest known flood level with • Help a neighbor who may require cement pointing. special assistance - infants, elderly people, and people with disabilities.During Floods: Elderly people and people with disabilities may require additional • Drink boiled water. assistance. People who care for them • Keep your food covered, don’t take or who have large families may need heavy meals. additional assistance in emergency • Use raw tea, rice-water, tender situations. coconut-water, etc…During a Landslide: Disaster management means: Emergency management is the discipline • Stay alert and awake. Many debris- of dealing with and avoiding risks. It is a flow fatalities occur when people are discipline that involves preparing for sleeping. Listen to a Weather Radio disaster before it occurs, disaster response or portable, battery-powered radio or (e.g., emergency evacuation, quarantine, television for warnings of intense mass decontamination, etc.), and supporting, rainfall. Be aware that intense, short and rebuilding society after natural or human-made disasters have occurred. In bursts of rain may be particularly general, any Emergency Management is the

5 continuous process by which all individuals, disasters when they occur. The mitigation groups, and communities manage hazards in phase differs from the other phases because an effort to avoid or ameliorate the impact of it focuses on long-term measures for disasters resulting from the hazards. reducing or eliminating risk. Effective Emergency Management relies on thorough integration of emergency plans at Mitigative measures can be structural or all levels of government and non- non-structural. Structural measures use government involvement. technological solutions, like flood levees. Non-structural measures include legislation,Disaster management involves a cycle land-use planning and insurance. Mitigationnamely Emergency Cycle. is the most cost-efficient method for reducing the impact of hazards; however itExperts, such as Cuny, have long noted that the is not always suitable. Mitigation doescycle of Emergency Management must include include providing regulations regardinglong-term work on infrastructure, public evacuation, sanctions against those whoawareness, and even human justice issues. refuse to obey the regulations (such as mandatory evacuations), and communicationThe process of Emergency Management of potential risks to the public. Someinvolves four phases: structural mitigation measures may have adverse effects on the ecosystem. 1. Mitigation 2. Preparedness A precursor activity to the mitigation is the 3. Response identification of risks. Physical risk 4. Recovery. assessment refers to the process of identifying and evaluating hazards. The hazard-specific risk (Rh) combines both the probability and the level of impact of a specific hazard. The equation below states that the hazard multiplied by the populations’ vulnerability to that hazard produces a risk Catastrophe modeling. The higher the risk, the more urgent that the hazard specific vulnerabilities are targeted by mitigation and preparedness efforts. However, if there is no vulnerability there will be no risk, e.g. an earthquake occurring in a desert where nobody lives.This is named as Emergency Management Preparedness:Cycle since it works in a cyclic process. Preparedness is a continuous cycle ofMitigation: planning, organizing, training, equipping, exercising, evaluation and improvement Mitigation efforts attempt to prevent activities to ensure effective coordinationhazards from developing into disasters and the enhancement of capabilities toaltogether, or to reduce the effects of

6prevent, protect against, respond to, recover The response phase includes thefrom, and mitigate the effects of natural mobilization of the necessary emergencydisasters, acts of terrorism, and other man- services and first responders in the disastermade disasters. area.In the preparedness phase, emergency This is likely to introduce:managers develop plans of action to manageand counter their risks and take action to 1. firefightersbuild the necessary capabilities needed to 2. policeimplement such plans. Common 3. ambulancepreparedness measures include: 4. disaster relief operation(military) • Communication plans with easily 5. Non combatant evacuation understandable terminology and operation methods. 6. Special rescue teams • Proper maintenance and training of emergency services, including mass at the site of the disaster prone areas. human resources such as community emergency response teams. A well rehearsed emergency plan • Development and exercise of developed as part of the preparedness emergency population warning phase enables efficient coordination of methods combined with emergency rescue. There is a need for both shelters and evacuation plans. discipline (structure, doctrine, process) • stockpiling, inventory, and maintain and agility (creativity, improvisation, disaster supplies and equipment[8] adaptability) in responding to a disaster. • Develop organizations of trained volunteers among civilian Recovery: populations. Professional emergency workers are rapidly overwhelmed in The aim of the recovery phase is to mass emergencies so trained; restore the affected area to its previous state. organized, responsible volunteers are It differs from the response phase in its extremely valuable. focus; recovery efforts are concerned with issues and decisions that must be made after Eg: Community Emergency Response immediate needs are addressed. Teams, Red Cross, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Recovery efforts are primarily concerned with actions that involve rebuildingAnother aspect of preparedness is casualty destroyed property, re-employment, and theprediction, the study of how many deaths or repair of other essential infrastructure.injuries to expect for a given kind of event.This gives planners an idea of what Efforts should be made to "build backresources need to be in place to respond to a better", aiming to reduce the pre-disasterparticular kind of event. risks inherent in the community and infrastructure.Response:

7An important aspect of effective recovery first in India), the creation of a singleefforts is taking advantage of a ‘window of emergency telephone number, and theopportunity’ establishment of standards for EMS staff, equipment and training.for the implementation of mitigativemeasures that might otherwise be unpopular. 4Rs is a term used to describe the emergency management cycle locally.In the United States, the National Response In New Zealand the four phases arePlan dictates how the resources provided by known as:the Homeland Security Act of 2002 will beused in recovery efforts. • Reduction = MitigationIt is the Federal government that oftenprovides the most technical and financial • Readiness = Preparednessassistance for recovery efforts in the United • ResponseStates. • RecoveryIndia Risk AssessmentIn India, the role of emergency managementfalls to National Disaster Management The evaluation of risk for a tropical cycloneAuthority of India, a government agency is a relatively straightforward process. Asubordinate to the Ministry of Home Affairs. hazard map should be prepared for anyIn recent years there has been a shift in given year. The following information couldemphasis, from response and recovery to be used to estimate the probability of stormsstrategic risk management and reduction, of cyclones of various intersections that mayand from a government-centered approach strike different parts of the county.to decentralized community participation.An agency within the Ministry of Science Analyses of climatologicallyand Technology is also playing a role in this records to determine how often • tropical cyclones have struck-field, through bringing the academicknowledge and research expertise of earth their intensities and locations.scientists to the emergency management History of wind strengths,process. frequencies, height and location of • storm surges frequencies ofRecently the Government has formed the .This group represents a public/private flooding.partnership, funded primarily by a large Information about tropical cycloneIndia-based computer company , and aimed occurrences in the past 50-100at improving the general response of • years over the ocean adjoining thecommunities to emergencies, in addition to part of the country in question.those incidents which might be described asdisasters. Some of the groups early effortsinvolve the provision of emergency a) An Integrated Warning/Responsemanagement training for first responders (a System

8 survival, property assets andSpecific preparedness measures to counter livelihoods of individual familiesthe impact of tropical cyclones may be and communities.classified into two categories: Those of long term or seasonal nature, which need to be planned, b) Public Warning System implemented and operationally tested and co-coordinated by The three main objectives in a tropical means of simulation exercise well cyclone warning are: before a seasonal threat To alert the people to the danger commences. Among these are pre- • by announcing the existence of a • season co-ordination meetings at threat due to a cyclone. headquarters, district and local levels, at which operational To identify the areas where people contingency plans are reviewed will be actively threatened by and amended, training and cyclone and where communities • community preparedness should monitor further warning programs conducted and announcements, and community lifelines. To call the people to action by Those of a short-term nature, recommending specific which relate to a state of readiness preparedness activities, which may to cut in once a contemporary • be part of, and integrated warning/ • cyclone threat is announced. response plan to protect vulnerable Among these are domestic, resources. vocational and animal husbandry arrangements to safeguard theDisaster management Team Cycle:

13Conclusion: We cannot predict any of the disasters, but we can prevent them by mitigation andmanagement techniques.So, to keep INDIA safe from all the disasters, we should have minimum knowledge aboutdisasters and their mitigation and management techniques.Save greenery and Mother India from all the disasters.

Disaster Mitigation and Management

by JNTU on Mar 25, 2012

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Disaster Mitigation and Management Document Transcript