B.Tech.

(Civil) 5th semester

5CEU6.2: DISASTER MANAGEMENT (L-2)
Exam Hrs. 3 Max. Marks: 150 (IA:50, ETE:100) Credit: 2
Hrs.
CONTENTS
Scope, objective and outcome of the course 1
Introduction: Understanding the Concepts and definitions of Disaster, Hazard, Vulnerability, Risk,
Natural and Manmade Disasters, Disaster and Development, and Climate Change. Professional 5
ethical aspects.
Types of Disasters, their occurrence/ causes, impact and preventive measures:
Geological Disasters: earthquakes, landslides, tsunami, mining; 4
Hydro-Meteorological Disasters: floods, cyclones, lightning, thunder-storms, hail storms, 2
avalanches, droughts, cold and heat waves.
Biological Disasters: epidemics, pest attacks, forest fire.; 2
Technological Disasters: chemical, industrial, radiological, nuclear. 2
Manmade Disasters: building collapse, rural and urban fire, road and rail accidents. 2
Disaster profile of Indian continent, Mega Disasters of India and Lessons Learnt. Risk mapping. 3
Disaster Management Cycle: Disaster Management Cycle and its components: Pre disaster and
post disaster, Paradigm Shift in Disaster Management. . 3

Disaster management system in India: Disaster Management Act 2005, National Guidelines and
Plans on Disaster Management; Role of Government (local, state and national),Non-Government 4
and Inter- Governmental Agencies.

TOTAL 28

Suggested Readings:
1. Coppola D P, 2007. Introduction to International Disaster Management, Elsevier Science
(B/H), LondonDynamics of Structures by Clough & Penzin, Mc Graw Hill Book Co.
2. Manual on natural disaster management in India, M C Gupta, NIDM, New Delhi.
3. Earthquake Tips by C.V R. Murthy, IIT Kanpur.
4. An overview on natural & man-made disasters and their reduction, R K Bhandani, CSIR, New
Delhi
5. Encyclopedia of disaster management, Vol I, II and IIIL Disaster management policy and
administration, S L Goyal, Deep & Deep, New Delhi, 2006
6. Disasters in India Studies of grim reality, Anu Kapur & others, 2005, 283 pages, Rawat
Publishers, Jaipur
7. Management of Natural Disasters in developing countries, H.N. Srivastava & G.D. Gupta,
Daya Publishers, Delhi, 2006, 201 pages
8. Disaster Management Act 2005, Publisher by Govt. of India
9. Publications of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Various Templates and
Guidelines for Disaster Management
10. National Disaster Management Policy, 2009, GoI
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 1. DISASTERS AND VULNERABILITY

1.1 DISASTERS AND HAZARDS

Disasters have been the part of the environment in which we live since
time immemorial and are the regular features of life. Disasters normally
do not provide any warning and they do not discriminate between people
and country. During last few decades it has been observed that these
disasters are on increase. The main reasons behind it is population
growth, implementation of technological development in unplanned
manner and to greater extend degradation of professional ethics and or
human values at almost all levels. It is a well-known fact that disasters
are the product of many natural hazardous event, on which the man has
no control but certainly the man can play an important role in reducing
the disastrous effect of these natural or man-made hazardous event on the
mankind.

Basically Disaster is an impact of a hazardous event on society/

infrastructure/ environment. Hence, hazard and disaster are two different
terms respectively called in Hindi as Vipada and Aapada.

Hazard can be defined as the dangerous physical event or human activity

that can be natural or man-made with little or no warning and has the
potential to cause wide spread destruction in terms of property, loss of
human life/ injury and or environmental degradation. For example, flood,
volcanic eruption, earthquake, drought, accident, fire etc.

Disaster is a French word “Desastre” i.e. Des+aster; Des: bad & aster: star
i.e. bad-star. Disaster occurs when the impact of a hazardous event on a
section of society is such that

 It affects the functioning of a community or a society

 It causes widespread human, material, economic, infrastructural
and/or environmental losses along with ecological imbalance and
 It exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope with
the event using their own resources.

The most severe part of these disasters is that the most likely victims of
these disasters is the weaker sections of the society which is the major
part of the population of the country.

Disaster management, in simple words, is a planning to minimize the

adverse effects of a disaster and to restore the normal life of the affected
people therein. Disaster management is a complex and applied

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interdisciplinary approach to tackle the pre and post disaster effects in
planned manner. It involves management, planning, administration and
coordination of different organizations.

1.2 SEVERITY OF DISASTERS

India is prone to almost every type of natural hazards like, earthquakes,
landslides, flood, drought, cyclone etc. because of its typical geo-physical
location and versatile hydro-climatic conditions. India is also susceptible
to different types of man-made hazards due to undisciplined/ negligent/
casual attitude of masses in day to day activities.
The extent of damage to infrastructure and loss of human life and
economic losses during a hazard defines the severity of disaster. Though
we are helpless in preventing the occurrence of natural hazards but we
can definitely reduce the severity of disasters to greater extent as
“occurrence of natural hazards may be natural but its severity is only
manmade”. The severity of a particular disaster is product of vulnerability
of that region and the intensity of the triggered hazardous event. The
vulnerability of a region towards a disastrous event depends of the
following factors:
1.2.1 Vulnerability
The term vulnerability has been derived from a latin word, “vulnerabilis”
the meaning of which is “to harm” or “wound”. Vulnerability includes two
important parameters namely “susceptibility of a region/ society to a
particular disaster” and “capability to face the disaster”. Also, vulnerability
is not a static term but it is a dynamic process which keep on changing in
terms of capability and susceptibility. Hence, the term vulnerability can be
defined as “the probability of being damaged, destroyed or lost because of
a natural or man-made hazard and various conditions determined by
environmental, economic and social factors or processes contribute to it.
Unfortunately, the Indian continent is most vulnerable to different types
of natural and manmade disasters in Asia and Asian continent is most
vulnerable to different types of disasters in the global context. The
vulnerability of Indian continent to different types of disasters is as below:
i. Earthquakes: 60% of land mass prone to Earthquakes
ii. Floods: 40 million hectare (8%) of land mass is prone to flood.
iii. Cyclone: 8000 Km long coastline with two cyclone seasons.
iv. Drought: low and medium rainfall region which constitute 68% of
the total area vulnerable to Drought
v. Land-Slide/Hail-Storm/Cloud-Burst: Hilly regions are vulnerable
to these events.
vi. Different types of Manmade Hazards.
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Apart from the typical geo-physical location and versatile hydro-climatic
conditions of Indian continent, the various others factors which contribute
to its vulnerability have been described in the following paragraphs.
A. Underlying Causes: The various under lying causes which contribute
to the vulnerability of a region towards a hazardous event are:
a. Poverty
b. Over population and high density of population
c. Limited Access to Resources
d. Poor Law-Enforcing System
e. General Pre-Conditioning Factors like Preparedness
B. Dynamic Factors: The lacking of following features/ parameters in a
particular region contribute to vulnerability:
a. Institution
b. Education
c. Training
d. Appropriate Skill
e. Local Market/ Investments
Following macro forces also fall under this category
a. Population explosion
b. Uncontrolled Urbanization
c. Environmental Degradation
d. Unplanned Development
C. Unsafe Conditions: The factors responsible for creating the unsafe
conditions in a particular region that finally contribute to vulnerability
are:
a. Fragile Physical Environment
b. Dangerous Location
c. Dangerous Buildings and Infrastructure
d. Deforestation
e. Public Action/ Response
Accordingly, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has published the
vulnerability maps for all main types of disasters indicating the region that
are most, more are least susceptible to each type of these disasters like,
wind, earthquake, draught, cyclone, volcanoes, flood, landslides…. etc.
These vulnerability maps helps in taking the suitable steps for
preparedness and mitigation against these disasters.
(Refer vulnerability Maps on NDMA site)
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1.3 TYPES OF DISASTERS

As we have defined the disaster as the impact of hazardous event (natural

or man-made) causing great losses to human life, infrastructure and or
environment, hence the disasters could be classified on the basis of the
nature and source of the hazardous event. India, due to its typical geo-
physical location and versatile hydro-climatic conditions, is prone to
almost every type of natural hazards like, earthquakes, landslides, flood,
drought, cyclone etc. The high power committee setup by National
Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Government of India, has identified
33 types of disasters with respect to Indian continent.

1.3.1 Classification Based on Speed/Warning

On the basis of the speed of hazardous event or the warning provided by

the hazardous event before its occurrence, the disasters can be classified
as slow onset disasters and rapid onset disasters.

Slow Onset Disaster: The slow onset disaster occurs due to slow
hazardous event and generally prevails for longer duration. As slow onset
disaster provides proper warning before their occurrence, preparedness
and mitigation efforts could be initiated in advance hence, the severity of
these types of disasters in terms of loss can be minimized to greater extent.
For example, Drought, Epidemics, Flood, Cyclone etc.
Rapid Onset Disaster: The rapid onset disaster occurs due to sudden
hazardous event and generally prevails for shorter duration but have long
term impacts. As rapid onset disaster does not provide proper warning
before their occurrence, preparedness and mitigation efforts could not be
initiated in advance hence, the severity of these types of disasters in terms
of destruction, injuries, causalities is much more as compared to slow
onset disasters. For example, Earthquake, Flash-flood, land slide, etc.
1.3.2 Classification Based on the Source

On the basis of nature of the source the disasters can be broadly divide in
two categories i.e. Natural Disasters and Man-made Disasters. Natural
disasters are those whose source is natural hazardous event like,
Earthquake, Cyclone, Flood, Drought, Volcanic Eruption etc. Man-made
disasters have the source as man-made activity or event behind these
disasters like, Accidents, Technological Disasters, Environmental
Degradation etc. Most of these man-made hazards are due to mishandling
of the equipment in the industries or due to human errors/ mistakes.
Technically, most of the natural disasters are also man-made because
these natural hazards do not kill people, it is man in his role as a policy
maker, planner, architect or as a builder who had played a key role in
converting these natural hazards into disasters or in increasing the

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severity of these disasters. On the basis of the source of occurrence of the
hazardous event, the disasters can be classified in five categories namely,

 Geological,
 Hydro-meteorological,
 Biological,
 Technological, and
 Accident related man-made disasters

a. Geological Disasters: A geological disaster occurs due to a hazardous

event triggered by natural geological activities or due to a combination
of two or more natural or man-made events acting together, causing
destruction and loss of human life in an area. The list of different forms
of natural geological hazards that can occur are as below:
 Earthquake that may lead to liquefaction or Tsunami;
 Volcanic eruptions;
 Landslides;
b. Hydro-Meteorological Disasters: Hydrometeorology is a branch of
meteorology and hydrology that studies the transfer of water and energy
between the land surface and the lower atmosphere. Accordingly, the
following hazardous events belongs to Hydro-meteorological hazards:
 Floods: River Flood, Flash Flood, Coastal Flood, Urban Flood etc.
 Drought
 Cyclones (also known as typhoons and hurricanes)
 Heavy snowfall: Avalanches
 Extreme Temperature: heatwaves and cold spells.
 Coastal storm surges.
c. Biological Disasters: The main source of this type of disaster are the
biohazards. Biological Disasters belongs to the class of
natural disasters. It refers to the calamity caused by the exposure of
living organisms to germs and toxic substances. For example:
 An epidemic
 Pest attacks,
 Cattle epidemic,
 Food poisoning etc.

The epidemics is the rapid spread of an infectious disease amongst a

large number of people in a region within a short period of time,

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generally two weeks or less. like. Malaria, Typhoid, Cholera, Plague,
Cholera, Hepatitis, Jaundice, Swine-flu, Dengue, Chicken-gunia etc.

Creating awareness with regards to hygiene and do’s and don’ts to be

observed for a particular disease plays important role in reducing the
severity of such disasters. Also, the health care facilities in terms of
team of medical professionals, medicines, mobile health care units and
NGOs, needs to be strengthen to cope up with the disastrous situation.

Epidemic: The rapid spread of a disease to a large number of people,

within a short period of time and restricted to one region/ locality/
community/ country.
For example:
An attack rate of more than15 cases per one lakh people for two
consecutive weeks may be considered as an epidemic.

Pandemic: A pandemic disease is an epidemic that has spread over a

large area causing large number of fatalities and prevalent throughout
an entire country, continent, or the whole world.
A widespread epidemic with a stable no. of infected people is not a
pandemic like, Recurrences of seasonal influenza: though it occurs
simultaneously in large regions of the globe but not being spread
worldwide and having lesser fatalities.
Human History of Pandemic & fatalities:
Black Death/Plague (in 1347-1351) Fatalities
The most fatal pandemic in history: 200 million
Smallpox and Tuberculosis (1520): 56 million
Cholera (1817-1923): 10 million.
Influenza/ Spanish flu (in 1918): 40-50 million
HIV/AIDS (1981): 2 lakh

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 COVID-19 (Dec.2019): On 11th March, 2020, WHO officially declared
the COVID-19 outbreak, a pandemic due to its global spread and
severity: with fatality count & infected count is increasing day by day.
The COVID-19 pandemic sweeping across the world is a crisis of our
own making. Don’t know! whether we should call, the Covid-19
pandemic as biological or techno-biological or man-made disaster. It
appears that our unwillingness to respect the interdependence between
ourselves, other animal species and the natural world may be in general
the reason of COVID-19 Crisis.
d. Technological Disasters: Technological Disasters, mainly belong to
the category of man-made disasters. A technological disaster is an
event caused by a malfunction of technology or a technological
structure and/or some human error in operating, controlling or
handling the technology. The effects of a disaster on an individual and
a group of population may be long lasting for years and some time for
generation to generations. Typical examples of technological disaster
are:
 Structural collapses, such as bridges, dams, mines and
buildings;
 Industrial accidents, such as chemical spill/explosions, spread
of toxic waste, fire etc.
 Nuclear explosions or leakage of nuclear radiation
 Industrial pollution
These disasters are mostly unpredictable and rapid onset in nature.
Major recent industrial disaster in India are: The Bhopal Gas Tragedy);
Jaipur Oil Depot Fire (2009); Korba Chimney Collapse (2009); Mayapuri
Radiological Incident (2010).

e. Accidents related Man-made Disasters: A large number of

railroad accidents, including collisions and derailments, and some time
plane crash, happen in India, which may lead to a significant loss in
terms of loss of human life, injury or disability. During the major
accidents the death casualty can be more than that during flood,
draught like disasters.
 Human factors/personnel error, Distracted Driving, Drunk
Driving, Speeding, Reckless Driving.
 Malfunction or failure of vehicle, engines, or other systems.
 Deficient maintenance of vehicle, road or railway track.
 Poor traffic management.
 Hazardous environment involving weather, birds, animals etc.
 Any combination of the above.
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