Disaster Management
As per Disaster Management Act, 2005 disaster is such a huge loss of life and property which a community can not afford. It could be man made as well as natural.
At international level the first major breakthrough regarding disaster management came in 1990s when 90s were declared as International decade for natural disaster reduction. It ran between 1990 to 1999. It focus was on promote international cooperation to reduce disaster losses, shift towards prevention and preparedness.
Yokohama Strategy and plan of action
It was first international framework on disaster management. It came in 1994. It focus areas were
- Preparedness
- Mitigation
- Prevention
as a central to the disaster reduction.
Hyogo framework for action (2005-15)
It focus areas were building the resilience of nations and communities to disaster.
Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction (2015-30)
It focus area are
- Understanding risk
- Strengthening disaster risk governance
- Investing resilience and
- Enhancing disaster preparedness
Meaning of Understanding Disaster Risk
- Risk assessment, hazard mapping and vulnerability analysis.
- Improve disaster risk data, forecasting and early warning
Meaning of Strengthening Disaster Risk Governance
- Strong institutions and legislation
- Main stream disaster risk reduction into development planning
- Promote coordination among government, private sector and communities.
Meaning of Investing in Disaster Risk Reduction for Resilience
- Invest in resilient infrastructure, houses and public services.
- Reduce economic and social vulnerability.
- Promote risk sensitive land use planning
Meaning of Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response
- Strengthen preparedness and emergency response.
- Build back better during recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction.
- Develop early warning and evacuation system.
7 Global targets of Sendai
- Substantially reduce global disaster mortality by 2030.
- Substantially reduce number of affected people by disasters.
- Reduce direct disaster economic loss in relation to global GDP.
- Reduce disaster damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services.
- Increase number of countries with national local DRR (Disaster Risk Reduction) strategies.
- Enhance international cooperation for developing countries.
- Increase the availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information.
7 Principles of Sendai
- Prevention is greater than response.
- Risk informed development.
- All of society approach.
- Local community participation.
- Protection of vulnerable groups.
- International cooperation.
- Disaster risk reduction integrated with sustainable development and disaster management.
Important Keywords
Vulnerability in Disaster Management
Vulnerability is the degree to which a particular society, communities, individuals, infrastructure or ecosystems are susceptible to damage from hazard. It depends on exposure, susceptibility-coping/adaptive capacity. Thus the same hazard can produce different impacts in different communities.
Importance
- Identifies who/what is at risk and why.
- Enables targeted response allocation and prioritization.
- Supports risk-informed development, resilient infrastructure and evacuation planning.
- Helps protect vulnerable groups like children, women, elderly, persons with disabilities and poor households.
Methodology
- Hazard Mapping
- Frequency, intensity and duration of hazard
- Exposure assessment
- Population, settlement, infrastructure and livelihoods in hazard zones.
- Susceptibility assessment
- Poverty, housing quality, health, livelihood, dependence and access to services.
- Capacity assessment
- Early warning, shelters, evacuation, finance, institutions and social capital.
- Develop a composite vulnerability
- Like flood vulnerability index, GIS mapping and ground-level validation.
Example
2026 study of Assam flood is good example because it use early warning system from satellite imageries provided by IMD (Indian Meteorological Department) in 7 days in advance.