Chapter 2 I

UNIT II
DISASTER RISK REDUCTIONS AND

PRE-DISASTER PLANNING
MAPPING OF VULNERABILITY
Classification of Extreme events

STATE OF VULNERABILITY OF INDIAN DISTRICTS & STATES
UNDERSTANDING PRE- DISASTER PLANNING
• Pre- disaster planning and their efficient execution, the impact of

these disasters, on man and the society in terms of loss to lives and
properties can be greatly reduced.
• It is mainly because of this, that IDNDR (International Decade for

Natural disaster reduction) has put a strong emphasis on this phase.
• The United Nations has designated the 1990s as the International

Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR) to reduce loss of
life, property damage, and social and economic disruption caused by
natural disasters, especially in developing countries.
• A variety of criteria or measures working on preparedness can be

adopted in which some are enumerated below:
i. One should plan for contingencies on critical infrastructure like
place of shelter, hospitals, drinking water installations, power
plants and telecommunication.
ii. There should be adequate financial, material and equipment
support including stockpiling of essential articles in high- risk
disaster prone areas.
iii. Proper land use planning should be incorporated.
iv. The land communities may be assisted in coping with disaster

situations by such measures as dissemination of information and
knowledge, development of skills, provisions of material support.
v. The NGO’s may be increasingly involved in (a) reaching relief and
development assistance to the people and ensuring an equitable
share of this to the non – vulnerable section (b) facilitating people’s
participation and mobilizing community efforts in the planning and
implementation of disaster reduction and management programs
(c) promoting thrift groups for self help.
vi. Incentives should be given to the business sector and small
entrepreneurs to commercialize technologies, which have a
bearing on disaster reduction.
vii. Disaster reduction projects should necessarily

incorporate components to reduce incidence of poverty
and disabilities.
viii. Media should highlight accurate information about
disaster events and their impact.
ix. Adequate quantity of medicines, vaccines, and first –
aid kits should be supplied in disaster – prone areas.
x. National highways and vital link roads in the region
should be kept in optimum condition to enable reaching
the essentials to affected population fast.
xi. As part of long term measures, detailed risk analysis in disaster –

prone areas should be made and risk maps prepared and made
available to all.
xii. National codes should be prepared delineating responsibilities of
the concerned authorities to fight the impending disasters.
In view of IDNDR and recently concluded WCDR (world conference on

disaster reduction), the emphasis continues to be more on disaster
preparedness and on a more sophisticated level using satellite images,
remote sensing and communication technologies.
It is being increasingly realized that there should be different forms of

disaster preparedness depending on factors influencing, for example
a. Household preparedness which encourages people to prepare in
terms of risk communication process
b. Organizational preparedness, private or public
c. Inter- organizational preparedness (including community
preparedness)
d. Central and state government preparedness.
There are many variant in warning systems. So to establish a early warning is

applicable to show onset natural disasters.
For this a base line data need to be established and continually updated so as
to keep track of trends and intervene decisively so that loss are minimized, if
not prevented totally.
A early warning system can make use of what are called “trace indicators” of
such systems involving a wide variety of data drawn from various areas.
There are of course new technologies for disaster warning; there is always a
need for integrated program such an approach has to have three distinctive
elements: (a) detectional warning (b) communication and (c) response.
There are many variant in warning systems. So to establish a early warning is

applicable to show onset natural disasters.
For this a base line data need to be established and continually updated so as
to keep track of trends and intervene decisively so that loss are minimized, if
not prevented totally.
A early warning system can make use of what are called “trace indicators” of
such systems involving a wide variety of data drawn from various areas.
There are of course new technologies for disaster warning; there is always a
need for integrated program such an approach has to have three distinctive
elements: (a) detectional warning (b) communication and (c) response.
Warning are of use to the affected communities if elements of uncertainty of

time as well are appreciably resolved.
The use of satellite remote sensing has facilitated warning mechanisms.

Warning must be issued promptly and totally reliable.
Some necessary methods such as (i) Siren, (ii) Door knocking (iii) mobile
speakers etc. even though they become boring; so is true for any evacuation
plan.
UNDERSTANDING HAZARDS IN PARTICULAR
GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
EARTHQUAKES:
Elements at Risk
Several key factors that contributes to vulnerability of human population to
earthquakes:
• Location of settlements in an earthquake prone area, especially on soft
ground, on area prone to landslides or along fault lines.
• Dense collection of weak buildings with high occupancy.
• Non-engineered buildings constructed by earth, rubble, buildings with
heavy roofs (more vulnerable than light weight structures), poor quality
and maintenance of buildings.
• Weak or flexible storey intending for parking purposes.
GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
EARTHQUAKES:
The Indian subcontinent lies upon the Indian Plate. This plate is moving
northward at about 5 centimeters per year and in doing so, collides with
the Eurasian Plate. Upon the Eurasian Plate lie the Tibet plateau & Central
Asia.
Due to this collision, the Himalayas are thrust higher and very many
earthquakes are generated in the process. This is the cause of
earthquakes from the Himalayas to the Arakan Yoma.
GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
EARTHQUAKES:
Figure to the left

showing plot of
Earthquakes
(M>= 5.0) from
IMD Catalogue for
the period from
1800 to Sept,
2001 (Total
events 3383
events).
GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
EARTHQUAKES:
GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
EARTHQUAKES:
As per the latest seismic zoning map of
India the country is divided into four
Seismic Zones. Zone V marked in red
shows the area of Very High Risk
Zone, Zone IV marked in orange
shows the area of High Risk Zone.
Zone III marked in yellow shows the
region of Moderate Risk Zone and
Zone II marked in blue shows the
region of Low risk Zone. Zone V is the
most vulnerable to earthquakes, where
historically some of the country's most
powerful shock has occurred.
UNDERSTANDING HAZARDS IN PARTICULAR GEOGRAPHICAL
AREA
Measuring the Size of an Earthquake - MSK 64 Intensity Scale
• Intensity is a qualitative measure of the actual shaking at a location

during an earthquake, and is notated in a roman capital numeral.
• The MSK (Medvedev, Sponheuer and Karnik) scale is more convenient
for application in field and is widely used in India.
• The zoning criterion of the map is based on likely intensity. The scale
range from I (least perceptive) to XII (most severe).
• The intensity scales are bas ed on three features of shaking –
perception by people, performance o f buildings, and changes to
• natural surroundings.
UNDERSTANDING HAZARDS IN PARTICULAR GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
The seismic zoning map broadly classifies India into zones where one can expect earthquake shaking of the more or less the
same maximum intensity. The shaking intensity associated with different zones is shown in the table below:
Typical effects of an Earthquake
Physical Damage – damage or loss of buildings and service structures. Fires, floods
due to dam failures, landslides could occur.
Casualties – often high, near to the epicenter and in places where the population
density is high (say, multistoried buildings) and structures are not resistant to
earthquake forces.
Public health – multiple fracture injuries, moderately and severely injured is the most
widespread problem, breakdown in sanitary conditions and large number of casualties
could lead to epidemics.
Water supply – severe problems due to failure of the water supply distribution
network and storage reservoirs. Fire hydrants supply lines if vulnerable could hamper
fire service operations.
Transport network – severely affected due to failure of roads and bridges, railway
tracks, failure of airport runways and related infrastructure.
Electricity and Communication – all links affected. Transmission towers,
transponders, transformers collapse.
GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
The term ‘flood’ is derived from word “flow” so the origin and
history of this word means an overflow of land, not necessarily
submerged.
• This is a atmospheric hazard that affects people who live
close to rivers or in low level coastal areas.
• All of them face threat of floods.
May be due to heavy rains in those areas or elsewhere leading

to rises in water level of streams and rivers.
They may happen in channels which may not be able to hold an
abnormal volume of water.
Floods may also occurs after disasters that is, storms and
cyclones.
GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
There are two types of flooding. The first one is river flooding on
land – borne floods which, as told earlier, is caused by
excessive run off brought on heavy rains.
Land – borne floods may occur at irregular intervals in all
streams and rivers. It is moderate in low –lying areas are
overflowed so that physical materials need to removed, people
are to evacuated to other houses and major flooding if larger
area are overflow causing extensive damage of properties.
GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
The other type of flooding is called coastal flooding or ocean –
born flooding caused by what are called storm surges.
That is extra ordinary rise of sea water level because of various
types of storms in the ocean.
It is noted that surges arises from strong on- shore winds and /
or intense low pressure cells and ocean storms.
One can also say that coastal flooding is largely increased by
storms run off from upper watershed. There is naturally an
impact of waves slashing on the shores and there arises water
called “shocks” on objects which come in the way of the
movement of wave front. Flooding of deltas and low –lying
areas coastal areas, is caused by tidal action, storm waves and
frequent channel shifts.
GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
Disaster preparedness encompasses plans for mitigation,
warning and emergency operations, training, public information
activities, exercises to test disaster preparedness plans,
readiness evaluations, research, review and : co- ordination of
disaster preparedness plans and programmes, and post
disaster evaluations.
Preparedness plans are often developed in the context of flood

forecast, warning and emergency plans.
GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
Technological feasibilities as well as programmes and policies
that need to be pursued for substantially reducing the
susceptibility to flood damage.
Forecasting is an important requirement in flood management
for
(i) planning evacuation of people and livestock, preponing of
harvest of crops, transport of movable items to
(ii) amelioration (betterment, improvement) through temporary
flood proofing, altering emergency services, orderly disruption
of communication
(iii) Flood control by adjusting reservoir discharges to permit
flood attenuation (reduction of force, effect) and emptying storm
tanks and balancing ponds prior to the arrival of floods.
GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
• States in which floods continues to be annual visitors in India
is Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, and West Bengal.
• The state supply of money haven’t had a single year where
they didn’t experienced push or pull abruptly and roughly for
flood control.
• North Bihar is the most flood prone area of India suffered
from high flood damages.
• Flood mitigation should, therefore provide some of the
necessary conditions for economic development.
• Flood in North Bihar destroy crops, damage properties,
disrupt trade and transport and cause human miseries on a
colossal scale.
GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
• One can trace North Bihar flood problems to several factors,
namely hydrological, topographical, geo- morphological and
drainage.
• Hydrological is evidently natural and is due to floods that
recur in and through river.
• Topography of the area is such that in a relatively short
distance there is a concentration of flows in rivers of limited
capacities of carrying amounts of water.
• Geo – morphological factor arises because of flow of
sediments from slopes of Himalayan mountains causing river
beds and river courses to fluctuate in their sizes and altering
river courses, thereby, overpower unpredictably the
floodplains.
GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
• Drainage occurs because of the river Ganga being an exemplar of master
drainage.
• Flood disaster is almost a regular visitor in West Bengal and so is with the
contiguous Bangladesh.
• Flood give rise to some of the most devastating hazards in mainland Asia.
• The main organizations that disseminate information about flood disaster
are Asian Disasters.
• Preparedness Centre in Bangkok, Thailand, UN’s ESCAP, which keep on
organising a variety of activities in collaboration with national organisation
for e.g., Farrakka Barrage Project, Ministry of Water Resources, Govt. of
India, Planning and Management for Flood Mitigation and Preparedness
through people’s participation and UNICEF in collaboration with Electronic
Research and Development Centre of India, Kolkata Unit on IT – Based
Flood Forecasting, warning and participatory Management system.
GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
DROUGHT
The term “drought” has different meaning in different parts of the world.
Example:
i. In Egypt any year, in which river Nile does not flood, is called a drought whether
there is any rainfall or not.
ii. In Bali, Indonesia, a period of six days without rain is called drought.
iii. In Libya if the period, be two years without rain, drought are said to be
occurred.
But
In an International parlance, droughts are classified as agricultural droughts,

meteorological droughts and hydrological droughts.
GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
Meteorological drought: A situation when there is a significant decrease in rainfall

from climatologically expected amount over the wide area.
Agricultural drought: It occurs when soil moisture and rainfall are inadequate
during the growing season of the crop so as to support its uninhibited growth from
sowing to the harvest.
Hydrological drought: It is a cumulative effect of meteorological drought if it is

prolonged for a long period with a marked depletion of surface water and
consequently of lakes, rivers and reservoirs.
GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
DROUGHT HISTORY IN INDIA
There were around 19 drought years since 1875 and three

occasions when drought happened consecutively for two years,
1904 – 1905, 1965 -1966 and 1986 -1987.
Droughts has been considered, by many, to be largely man –
made. Man intervened in nature to cause desertification,
deforestation, soil erosion etc., and is thus responsible for
environmental disasters which have been reconciled often as
droughts.
GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
• Hills in chotanagpur which were once densely forested but
now due to deforestation rains have been reduced to such
an extent that tea which used to be produced hardly grows.
• For evaluation of areas subject to desertification and for
monitoring drought, we need to use techniques for
estimating rainfall from satellite data.
• Meteorological satellites provide regular and frequent views
of the earth and hence, they are the source of data for
monitoring various aspects of long term water balance.
GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
• Film transparencies, photograph and digital data can be
used to locate, assess and monitor deterioration of natural
conditions in a given area.
• Large scale aerial photography gives the desertification
scenarios in details.
• Remote sensors may be used to monitor soil moisture and
desertification indicators. The initial stages of desertification
study is well facilitated through the use of satellite imagery.
• The data from aerial and space remote sensing should be

combined with data collected on the ground and we can
make use of them for further assessments.
GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
• The Palmer Index is an
naturally accepted scale used
by most states to provide a
means of describing periods
of unusually wet or dry
weather.
• This index, which has been
widely adopted, is an
excellent measure of an
agricultural drought. It is
based on long term records of
temperature and precipitation.
Tsunami
It is a Japanese word meaning “harbour wave”. These waves, which

often affect distant shores, originate from undersea or coastal seismic
activity, landslides, and volcanic eruptions. Whatever the cause, sea
water is displaced with a violent motion and swells up, ultimately
surging over land with great destructive power.
The general causes of Tsunamis are geological movements. It is produced

in three major ways. The most common of these is fault movement on the
sea floor, accompanied by an earthquake.
Tsunami
• To say that an earthquake causes a tsunami is not completely correct.

Rather, both earthquakes and tsunamis result from fault movements.
• Probably the second most common cause of tsunamis is a landslide
either occurring underwater or originating above the sea and then
plunging into the water.
• The third major cause of tsunamis is volcanic activity. The flank of a
volcano, located near the shore or underwater, may be uplifted or
depressed similar to the action of a fault or, the volcano may actually
explode. E.g., Krakatoa in Indonesia, produced tsunamis measuring 40
meters which crashed upon Java and Sumatra. over 36,000 people lost
their lives as a result of tsunami waves from Krakatoa.
Tsunami
Elements at Risk
• All structures located within 200 m of the low lying coastal area are most
vulnerable to the direct impact of the tsunami waves as well as the impact
of debris & boulders brought by it.
• Settlements in adjacent areas will be vulnerable to floods & scour.
• Structures constructed of wood, mud, thatch, sheets and structures
without proper anchorage to foundations are liable to be damaged by
tsunami waves & flooding.
• Other elements at risk are infrastructure facilities like ports & harbours,
telephone and electricity poles, cables. Ships & fishing boats/nets near
the coast also add to the destruction caused by tsunami waves.
Tsunami
Typical effects
Physical damage - The force of can raze everything in its path. It is the
flooding effect of a tsunami, however, that most greatly effects human
settlements by water damage to homes and businesses, roads, bridges and
other infrastructure. Ships, port facilities, boats/trawlers, fishing nets also get
damaged.
Environmental damage - The range varies from generation of tonnes of
debris on account of structural collapse of weaker buildings, release of toxic
chemicals into the environment on account of chemical
leak/spillage/process failure/utility breakages/ collateral hazards and
negative impact on the already fragile ecosystems.
Tsunami
Typical effects
Casualties and public health: Deaths occur principally from drowning as

water inundates homes or neighborhoods. Many people may be washed out
to sea or crushed by the giant waves. There may be some injuries from
battering by debris and wounds may become contaminated.
Water supply: sewage pipes may be damaged causing major sewage

disposal problems. Drinking water shortage arises due to breakage of water
mains and contamination. Open wells and ground water may become unfit
for drinking due to contamination of salt water and debris.
Tsunami
Typical effects
Standing Crops and food supplies: flooding by tsunami causes damage to

the standing crops and also to the food supplies in the storage facilities. The
land may be rendered infertile due to salt water incursion from the sea.

Chapter 2 I

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Chapter 2 I

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

UNIT II

DISASTER RISK REDUCTIONS AND

Classification of Extreme events

• Pre- disaster planning and their efficient execution, the impact of

• It is mainly because of this, that IDNDR (International Decade for

• The United Nations has designated the 1990s as the International

• A variety of criteria or measures working on preparedness can be

iv. The land communities may be assisted in coping with disaster

vii. Disaster reduction projects should necessarily

xi. As part of long term measures, detailed risk analysis in disaster –

In view of IDNDR and recently concluded WCDR (world conference on

It is being increasingly realized that there should be different forms of

There are many variant in warning systems. So to establish a early warning is

There are many variant in warning systems. So to establish a early warning is

Warning are of use to the affected communities if elements of uncertainty of

The use of satellite remote sensing has facilitated warning mechanisms.

Figure to the left

Measuring the Size of an Earthquake - MSK 64 Intensity Scale

• Intensity is a qualitative measure of the actual shaking at a location

Typical effects of an Earthquake

May be due to heavy rains in those areas or elsewhere leading

Preparedness plans are often developed in the context of flood

In an International parlance, droughts are classified as agricultural droughts,

Meteorological drought: A situation when there is a significant decrease in rainfall

Hydrological drought: It is a cumulative effect of meteorological drought if it is

DROUGHT HISTORY IN INDIA

There were around 19 drought years since 1875 and three

• The data from aerial and space remote sensing should be

It is a Japanese word meaning “harbour wave”. These waves, which

The general causes of Tsunamis are geological movements. It is produced

• To say that an earthquake causes a tsunami is not completely correct.

Casualties and public health: Deaths occur principally from drowning as

Water supply: sewage pipes may be damaged causing major sewage

Standing Crops and food supplies: flooding by tsunami causes damage to

You might also like