Introduction to Disaster Risk Management

M 01: Where We Stand

Module Objectives

This introductory module will:

• Give an overview of natural hazards and disasters all over the world;
• Provide definitions and frameworks, to assure a basic common knowledge and
consistency,
• Introduce the most significant players in the international context, and
• Present coping techniques: showing differences between former and current
practices.

Introduction

Earthquakes, storms, and other hazards killed about 3.3 million people between
1970 and 2010, which is an annual average of 82,500 deaths worldwide in a typical
year (NHUD report, 2010). Disaster risk arises when hazards interact with physical,
social, economic and environmental vulnerabilities. Events of hydro-meteorological
origin constitute the large majority of disasters. Despite the growing understanding
and acceptance of the importance of disaster risk reduction and increased disaster
response capacities, disasters and in particular the management and reduction of
risk continue to pose a global challenge.

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Definition and Criteria

For a disaster to be entered into the EM –DAT – a specialized disaster database, at least
one of the following criteria must be fulfilled (Red Cross, 2010):
• 10 or more people reported killed (missing or presumed dead);
• 100 or more people reported affected;
• Declaration of a state of emergency; and/or
• Call for international assistance.

Natural vs. Technological Disasters

In 2007 a new classification was introduced in EM –DAT. This classification is a first

step in the development of a standardized classification of disasters. It distinguishes
two categories of disasters: natural and technological.

Natural Disasters are (Red Cross, 2010):

• Biological – which comprehends insect infestations, epidemics and animal attacks;
• Geophysical – earthquakes and tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, dry mass movements,
such as avalanches, landslides, rock falls and subsidence of geophysical origin;
• Climatological – droughts and associated food scarcity, extreme temperatures and
wildfires;

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• Hydrological – floods, inundations, water logs, surges; and

• Meteorological – storms.

Technological Disasters are:

• Industrial Accidents: - such as chemical spills, collapse of industrial infrastructures,
explosions, fires, gas leaks, poisoning, radiation;
• Transport accidents – by air, road, rail or water; and
• Miscellaneous – this comprehends collapse of domestic/non industrial structures,
explosions, fires, etc.

This course focuses only on Natural disasters. Key caveats with disasters data include
the lack of standardized collection methodologies and definitions (Red Cross, 2010).
Data are not always complete, and generally are not collected for statistical
purposes, thus the quality of completion may vary according to the type of disaster,
country, collector (national or international agencies, public or private entities etc.).

Natural Disasters affect all regions

Disasters affect all regions. East Asia has been hit by the highest number of disasters
(more than 2,000). Floods and storms are the most common, while droughts much
less so (except in Africa). Deaths are more concentrated: droughts in Africa are the
deadliest; storms in East and South Asia also take many lives.

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Differences across countries suggest that some countries prevent disasters better
than others. For example, the contrast in the death toll in Haiti and the Dominican
Republic, sharing the same island and storms, underscores the point that disasters
are manmade, not natural.

We are capable of reducing the death toll even in poor countries: moving food averts
a famine despite droughts; early warning systems reduce deaths caused by storms
and floods, and so on (NHUD Report, 2010).

Floods and storms are the most common disasters all over the world in the years
between 1970 and 2010, hitting for more than 60% in every region – in North
America accounting for more than 75% of the total number of natural disasters. Not
surprisingly, Africa shows the highest percentage of drought (around 30%). Central
and Latin American, East Asia and Europe share the highest percentage of
earthquakes (more than 20% per region), while extreme temperature are becoming
a serious threat in Continental Europe and South Asia (NHUD Report, 2010).

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Where hazards have struck

Each hazard afflicts countries differently, but many countries are subject to multiple
hazards, though the importance of each differs. Earthquakes and volcanoes
(geophysical hazards) tend to cluster along fault boundaries characterized by
mountainous terrain. Floods, cyclones, and landslides (hydro-meteorological
hazards) affect the eastern coastal regions of the major continents as well as some
interior regions of North and South America, Europe, and Asia. Drought is more
widely dispersed across the semiarid tropics.

Areas subject to hazards fall primarily in East and South Asia and in Central America
and western South America. Many of them are also more densely populated and
developed than average, leading to high potential for casualties and damage. But
geography is not destiny. Many countries in harm’s way have managed to protect
their population over time (NHUD Report, 2010).

Rich and poor countries are subject to hazards, but most of the 3.3 million deaths
over the last 40 years were in poor countries. Damage, however, may be rising in
absolute terms, with earthquakes and storms causing the most of it. Middle-income
countries are particularly vulnerable.

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More people were affected in the two recent decades than earlier. This increase may
reflect greater exposure to hazards, or better reporting in recent years, or both.

Half the world’s people now live in cities up from 30 percent in 1950, and most large
and rapidly growing cities in poor countries struggle to provide public services,
including disaster prevention.

Many scholars believe that “Rising absolute damage is plausible, considering the
increased exposure from urbanization”.

Deaths from Disasters

Areas in the map reflect cumulative deaths from different type of disasters for 1970
to 2010 (NHUD Report, 2010).

Deaths seem to reduce over time in Latin America, North American and Middle East,
while increasing in East Asia and Africa. Africa looms as large as East Asia, and the
Americas shrink (the north to almost nothing).

When those areas reflect economic damages and losses instead that population
death, Africa shrinks and middle-income and high-income countries expand, such as

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North America (Gulf coast), Middle East (Morocco, Libya and Arabic Peninsula) and
East Asia (Australia, China and Indonesia).

Damage on the rise in the last two decades

The annual global damage from disasters between 1970 and 2010—adjusted for
inflation—fluctuates like deaths but is also rising in spurts. Damage in the recent
two decades is significantly greater than in the earlier decades. This could reflect
greater exposure, or better reporting, or both.

Most of the damage is from storms, earthquakes, and floods—in that order.
In addition to the economic costs of disasters, there are social and environmental
impacts that are many times difficult to quantify. Some examples of social and
environmental impacts of disasters include: loss of human life, damage to the
environment, losses of natural habitats and destruction of ecosystems, disruption of
communities and family life, loss of cultural heritage assets, unemployment, and
migration.

Disasters tend to have differential impacts on men and women, and gender is an
important issue to consider in recovering as well preventing damages and losses
from disasters.

Humanitarian Assistance

Donors usually respond to disasters after they strike: about a fifth of total
humanitarian aid between 2000 and 2008 was devoted to spending on disaster relief
and response.

The share of humanitarian funding going to prevention is small but increasing—from

about 0.1 percent in 2001 to 0.7 percent in 2008.

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However, prevention activities often imply long-term development

expenditures…………..whereas the focus of humanitarian aid—already a tiny part of
official development aid—is immediate relief and response. Donors concerned with
prevention could earmark official development aid (rather than humanitarian aid)
for prevention-related activities.

And such aid, if used effectively, could reduce issues arising from the Samaritan’s
dilemma: the inability to deny help following a disaster to those who have not taken
sufficient prevention measures.

Other Game Players

Many scholars suspect that climate change is influencing the occurrence and impact
of natural hazards, mainly because the number and severity of disasters around the
world has been increasing (UN ISDR 2009, Munich RE, 2010 as quoted by Bouwer,
2010). Climate change occurs because of high and low frequency natural variations
and because of atmospheric pollution through anthropogenic greenhouse gas
emissions.

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The knowledge about the impacts of climate change on weather hazards has
improved considerably during the last few years and recent changes in temperature
and rainfall that are being observed have partly been caused by greenhouse gas
emissions (IPCC, 2007).

Disasters however are defined by the disruption of the functioning society, involving
widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses, and this is largely
influenced by population and their location (Bouwer, 2010).

New players such as climate variability, changes in temperature and rainfall patterns,
as well as population density, poverty and geo-physical characteristics are playing
major roles in shaping the new era of disasters.

Coping with Disasters

Natural disasters are regarded as the ultimate expression of destructive forces of

nature.

In the past, disasters have be seen as external events that were not preventable not
even forecastable. Most of the responses were based on the use of indigenous
knowledge the elderly used to share generation after generation such as early
warning, rainwater harvesting, flood protection (especially the handmade ones),
cropping patterns, thrift and credit.

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Neither dedicated institutions, nor agencies at local, provincial or national level were
designed to cope with disasters and lack of coordination among agencies was a
common denominator.

Institutions that prevent damage develop more slowly than assets as countries
urbanize and prosper. But this is changed drastically: even poor countries can
undertake effective prevention, and more can rise to the challenge of doing so.

We will always live on a restless planet with natural hazards covering the gamut of
flood, inundation, wind storm, earthquake, tsunamis etc. Today more than ever,
communities across the globe know more and can do more to take actions to reduce
the devastating consequences of natural disasters left unchecked.

Governments are now able to assess damage and losses after a disaster (and such
assessments differ in scope, purpose, and technique). Better access to scientific
information and more sophisticated technologies allow better assessments.

Measuring damage is tricky, prone to both overestimation (for example, double

counting) and underestimation (it is difficult to value loss of life, or damage to the
environment). Biases also affect the accuracy of estimates, especially when the
prospect of aid affects incentives.

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Accurate measurement is more likely when its purpose is clear, though some items
of interest cannot be measured. Damage assessments have multiple and often
overlapping purposes. They could guide government relief (such as how much to
spend on alleviating the victims’ suffering, knowing that other spending must be cut
or taxes raised). They could show how to hasten economic recovery or identify
specific measures to improve prevention.

Do we have all information?

People are often guided in their prevention decisions by information on hazards, yet
the seemingly simple act of collecting and providing information is sometimes a
struggle. While some countries attempt to collect and archive their hazard data,
efforts are generally inconsistent or insufficient.

Specifically, there are no universal standards for archiving environmental parameters

for defining hazards and related data. Data exchange, hazard analysis, and hazard
mapping thus become difficult.

As presented in this slide, few countries collect and archive data on hazards—even
though technological advances such as the abundance of free, simple, and open
source software (for example, PostGIS, Geoserver, Mapserver, the GeoNode.org
project) should make collecting and sharing information easy.

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And even where information is collected, it is not always shared, even though
sharing information on hazards involves relatively little expense because some
government agencies already collect and analyze data on hazard risks.

Systematic mechanisms for tracking information related to the changing nature of

risk, and translating it into risk-related property valuations, would go a long way to
increase the incentives for prevention. Making maps of flood plains and seismic fault
lines easily accessible would make developers and property owners more aware of
the risks—and more motivated to build appropriately. Collecting data on weather
and climate is also integral to producing accurate forecasts (NHUD report, 2010).

Players in the International Community

When disasters struck many players come to help recovering and reconstructing.
First is the GFDRR – Global facility for disaster risk reduction and reconstruction.

The World Bank and the Regional Development Bank are also involved in loss and
damage assessments and recovering and reconstruction activities and projects –
from infrastructure to governance.

The ProVention Consortium, which is a global coalition of international

organizations, academic institutions, the private & public sectors, and civil society
organizations dedicated to increasing the safety of vulnerable communities and to
reducing the impact of disasters in developing countries. For more information,
please visit its website at http://www.proventionconsortium.org.

Other partners include the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, which is the
United Nations platform for disaster risk reduction, and the International Federation
of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which is working to bridge the gap between
relief and development efforts and currently serves as Secretariat to the ProVention
Consortium.

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Established in 2006, the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR)
is a partnership of 36 countries and 6 international organizations committed to
helping developing countries reduce their vulnerability to natural hazards and adapt
to climate change. The partnership’s mission is to mainstream disaster risk reduction
(DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) in country development strategies by
supporting a country-led and managed implementation of the Hyogo Framework for
Action.

The GFDRR is managed by the World Bank on behalf of the participating donors and
other partnering stakeholders. The GFDRR operates through multiple donor funds to
enable low- and middle-income countries that are at most risk to mainstream
disaster reduction in national development strategies and plans to achieve the
Millennium Development Goals.

First is the GFDRR – Global facility for disaster risk reduction and reconstruction

The Hyogo Framework of Action

In January 2005, 168 Governments adopted a 10-year plan to make the world safer
from natural hazards at the Word Conference on Disaster Reduction, held in Kobe,
Hyogo, Japan.

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The Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) is a global blueprint for disaster risk
reduction efforts during the next decade. Its goal is to substantially reduce disaster
losses by 2015 - in lives, and in the social, economic, and environmental assets of
communities and countries.

The Framework offers guiding principles, priorities for action, and practical means for
achieving disaster resilience for vulnerable communities. Priorities for action include:
1. Ensure that disaster risk reduction is a national and a local priority with a strong
institutional basis for implementation.
2. Identify, assess and monitor disaster risks and enhance early warning.
3. Use knowledge, innovation and education to build a culture of safety and resilience
at all levels.
4. Reduce the underlying risk factors.
5. Strengthen disaster preparedness for effective response at all levels.

The Hyogo Framework explains how there is a need to enhance international and
regional cooperation and assistance in the field of disaster risk reduction through, inter
alia:

• The transfer of knowledge, technology and expertise to enhance capacity building

for disaster risk reduction
• The sharing of research findings, lessons
learned and best practices
• The compilation of information on
disaster risk and impact for all scales of
disasters in a way that can inform
sustainable development and disaster
risk reduction
• Appropriate support in order to enhance
governance for disaster risk reduction,
for awareness-raising initiatives and for
capacity-development measures at all
levels, in order to improve the disaster
resilience of developing countries
• Financial assistance to reduce existing
risks and to avoid the generation of new risks.

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Introduction

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 was adopted at the Third
United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan on March 18
2015.

The Sendai Framework is the successor instrument to the Hyogo Framework for Action
(HFA) 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters.

To learn more, click here.

Summary

This introductory module provided:

• An overview of natural hazards and disasters
• most important definitions and frameworks
• introduced the most significant players in the international context, and
• described coping techniques: former vs. current practices.

Main Interventions

There is now international acknowledgement that efforts to reduce disaster risks

must be systematically integrated into policies, plans and programs for sustainable
development and poverty reduction, and supported through bilateral, regional and
international cooperation, including partnerships. Sustainable development, poverty
reduction, good governance and disaster risk reduction are mutually supportive
objectives, and in order to meet the challenges ahead, accelerated efforts must be
made to build the necessary capacities at the community and national levels to
manage and reduce risk.

Disaster Risk Management is composed by three main types of interventions which

are recovering, reconstructing and preventing risks, damages and losses. Those
interventions will be described and exploited in details in the next Presentation.

Acknowledgement

Figures and graphs are from: The World Bank “Natural Hazards, Unnatural Disasters
– the Economics of effective prevention”, 2010. Text adapted from: The World Bank
“Natural Hazards, Unnatural Disasters – the Economics of effective prevention”,
2010; L.M. Bouwer, “Disaster and climate change”, Worhrmann Print Service,
Amsterdam 2010; The World Bank and GFDRR, “Understanding Risks” Proceeds from
2010 UR Forum, 2010; UN ISDR, “Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building
the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters” 2005; International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies: “World Disaster Report 2010”,
2010; Saroj Jha, “Community-based disaster risk management -Empowering

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communities and local governments through SFs/CDD operations”, presentation at

the DRM week (GFDRR and the World Bank) February 2011; and Margaret Arnold,
“Disaster Risk Management as a Global Agenda”, presentation to the E-Learning
course on Disaster Risk Management, WBI 2003.

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Check Your Understanding

1. Write the type of disaster next to the correct statement.

Industrial Accidents, Meteorological, Climatological,

Type of Disaster
Geophysical

Disaster Type of Disaster

Collapse of industrial infrastructures

Storms
Droughts and associated food scarcity
Earthquakes and tsunamis, volcanic
eruptions, dry mass movements, such as
avalanches

2. Identify two measures that makes the government easier to cope up with the
disasters.

A. Better access to scientific information and more sophisticated technologies

B. Making maps of flood plains and seismic fault lines easily accessible
C. Rainwater Harvesting
D. Thrift and Credit

3. The Hyogo Framework of Action offers guiding principles, priorities for action, and
practical means for achieving disaster resilience for vulnerable communities.

Number the Guiding Principles in the correct sequence according to their priority of
action.

Priority for
Guiding Principles
Action
Use knowledge, innovation and education to build a culture of safety
and resilience at all levels.
Ensure that disaster risk reduction is a national and a local priority
with a strong institutional basis for implementation
Strengthen disaster preparedness for effective response at all levels.
Reduce the underlying risk factors.
Identify, assess and monitor disaster risks and enhance early
warning.

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