Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698056766113.pdf (Pakistan)
The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) promotes regional cooperation for inclusive and sustainable economic and social development in Asia and the Pacific, a dynamic region characterized by growing wealth, diversity and change, but also challenged with persistent poverty, environmental degradation, inequality and insecurity.
ESCAP supports member States with sound strategic analysis, policy options and technical cooperation activities to address key development challenges and to implement innovative solutions for region- wide economic prosperity, social progress and environmental sustainability.
ESCAP, through its conference structure, assists member States in forging a stronger, coordinated regional voice on global issues by building capacities to dialogue, negotiate and shape the development agenda in an age of globalization, decentralization and problems that transcend borders.

A key modality for this strategy is the promotion of intraregional connectivity and regional integration.
The International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) is a strategic framework, adopted by United Nations Member States in 2000, aiming to guide and coordinate the efforts of a wide range of partners to achieve substantive reduction in disaster losses and build resilient nations and communities as an essential condition for sustainable development.

The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) is the secretariat of the ISDR system.
The ISDR system comprises numerous organizations, States, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, financial institutions, technical bodies and civil society, which work together and share information to reduce disaster risk.

UNISDR serves as the focal point for the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) – a ten year plan of action adopted in 2005 by 168 governments to protect lives and livelihoods against disasters.
iv Protecting Development Gains Reducing Disaster Vulnerability and Building Resilience in Asia and the Pacific The Asia-Pacific Disaster Report, 2010 ESCAP Rajdamnern Nok Avenue 10200 Bangkok - Thailand www.unescap.org UNISDR UNESCAP Building Rajdamnern Nok Avenue 10200 Bangkok - Thailand www.unisdr.org The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
This publication has been issued without formal editing.

Mention of firm names and commercial products does not imply the endorsement of the United Nations.

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Reproduction of material in this publication for sale or other commercial purposes, including publicity and advertising, is prohibited without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Applications for such permission, with a statement of purpose and extent of the reproduction, should be addressed to the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, Regional Office, AP, Thailand.
v Preface The Asia-Pacific region has had to cope with an unprecedented number of disasters.
In all cases, - from Cyclone Aila in Bangladesh, Bhutan and India, Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan Province of China, back-to-back Typhoons Ketsana and Parma in the Philippines, Viet Nam, Lao Peoples’ Democratic Republic and Cambodia, the Padang earthquake in Indonesia, the Samoa earthquake and subsequent Pacific tsunami disaster, the heat waves and rampant wildfires in Australia and the Russian Federation, the “dzud” in Mongolia, the earthquake in Qinghai Province in China, to the massive floods and landslides in Pakistan, China, India and Bhutan, - it is the poor and vulnerable that bear the brunt and worst risks and impacts of these disasters.
People of the Asia-Pacific region are four times more likely to be affected by natural disasters than those living in Africa, and 25 times more likely than those living in Europe or North America – and while the region generated only one quarter of the world’s GDP, it accounted for a staggering 85 per cent of deaths and 38 per cent of global economic losses during 1980-2009.
It is clear that the Millennium Development Goals cannot be attained in the region if its hard fought development gains are not protected from the risks and impacts of disasters.

There has long been a gap in understanding of the scale of risks and losses in a disaster-prone region where disasters have such disproportionate impacts on human development.
To address this glaring information and knowledge gap, ESCAP and UNISDR joined hands and produced for the first time, the Asia and Pacific Disaster Report 2010.

The report is centred on the thinking that good efforts made by Asia-Pacific countries in reducing vulnerability are not enough.

Disaster risks are increasing exponentially, a result of the compounding effects of inequitable economic growth patterns, population pressures and extreme climatic events.
Good efforts thus need to be matched by urgent scaling up of efforts in disaster risk reduction and new multidisciplinary policy approaches.

First, we need to recognize that the risk of disasters is increasing globally and is highly concentrated in middle- and low-income countries.

The main driver of this trend is rapidly increasing exposure to risk.

It is in these situations that good urban governance and ecosystems protection become important and need attention.
vii In addition to the growing exposure to disasters, we should also recognize that the increasing socio-economic losses due to disasters are also linked with and exacerbated by poverty, and that the vulnerabilities of the poor stem from socio-economic and environmental imbalances.

For example, most post-disaster efforts go into rebuilding the economy, even though the damage and loss can be even greater in the social sector – a divergence that risks widening levels of inequity.
Unless these imbalances are addressed, people who are constantly exposed to disaster risk are more likely to remain poor and more vulnerable to disasters, perpetuating a vicious cycle from which it is extremely difficult to break free.

Thus the question for us is not “how to?”, but rather “how to do better?” – because people matter!

The report also identifies new opportunities for reducing risks.

The first of these is making disaster recovery resilient - an opportunity that is often overlooked.
The second is the improved use of emerging technologies to ensure that efforts before and after disasters are more effective and efficient.

Last is the need to leverage on regional cooperation so that a commonly shared political will and action plans emerge that prioritize the work necessary to reduce risks.

Finally, this report makes the first attempts at improving understanding of the disaster risks of the region, through an analysis of historical disaster damage and loss data.
This initial attempt has produced an approach that can provide relevant historical information to decision makers and furthers our understanding of the quantitative risks and impacts of disasters.

We have the honour of presenting the Asia-Pacific Disaster Report to the distinguished Ministers and policy-makers participating in the Fourth Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR).
This report also comes at a time when both the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction 2011 (GAR11) and the IPCC Special Report on Extreme Events (SREX) are underway.

Aware of the focus of these global reports, it is our hope that the regional report will highlight the unique Asia- Pacific regional issues, and provide policy direction on what can be done better - in order to protect and secure inclusive and sustainable development in the region.
Dr. Noeleen Heyzer Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of ESCAP Ms. Margareta Wahlström UN Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction viii Acknowledgements The 2010 Asia-Pacific Disaster Report (APDR) is the first biennial report of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction for Asia and the Pacific (UNISDR AP) office.
The report is produced in response to the recommendations of the first session of the ESCAP Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction held in Bangkok, 25-27 March 2009, following a proposal made by the Executive Secretary of ESCAP.

Development of the report is attributed to a multi-stakeholder effort of disaster risk reduction organizations and experts from the region.

The report provides a comprehensive outlook on the socio-economic aspects of disaster risks and risk analysis in the region.
Publication of this report was coordinated by the Information and Communications Technology and Disaster Risk Reduction Division (IDD) at ESCAP and the UNISDR AP office.

The Statistics Division and the Macroeconomic Policy and Development Division of ESCAP also supported by providing valuable inputs to finalize the report.
The preparation of the report was the joint responsibility of the APDR team consisting of the ESCAP-UNISDR Editorial Committee, professional staff of the Disaster Risk Reduction Section, Information and Communications Technology and Development Section, Space Application Section at IDD/ESCAP, Asia-Pacific regional staff of UNISDR and many other professionals involved in disaster risk reduction in the region.

The editorial process was led by Zengpei Xuan of IDD/ESCAP and Jerry Velasquez of UNISDR AP office.
The Editorial Committee Editors: Zengpei Xuan, Chief of Information and Communications Technology and Disaster Risk Reduction Division, ESCAP Jerry Velasquez, Senior Regional Coordinator, UNISDR Asia-Pacific office Executive Editors: Rodel Lasco, Convening Lead Author, IPCC and Philippine Coordinator, ICRAF Haishan Fu, Chief of Statistics Division, ESCAP Secretaries: Yuichi Ono, Section Chief, Disaster Reduction Section, Information and Communications Technology and Disaster Risk Reduction Division, ESCAP Madhavi Malalgoda Ariyabandu, Programme Officer, UNISDR AP ix Lead Authors and Key Contributors: Sanjaya Bhatia, Tiziana Bonapace, P.G.
Dhar Chakrabarti, Vishaka Hidallege, Yuichi Ono, and Guoxiang Wu contributed as the lead authors for the report.

Key contributions on the contents for the chapters were provided by Madhavi Malalgoda Ariyabandu, Charlie Benson, Clovis Freire, Yejin Ha, Manzul Hazarika, John Ievers, Ramona Miranda, Atsuko Okuda, Nokeo Ratanavong, Sanjay Srivastava, Lal Samarakoon, Ram Tiwaree, Shadev Singh, and Jerry Velasquez.
Peer-Reviewers: A number of eminent reviewers representing policy-makers, scholars and development practitioners contributed to the initial drafts of the report, including staff members of ESCAP and UNISDR.
In particular, Charlie Benson, Reid Basher, Katalin Demeter, Buddika Hapuarachchi, Atsushi Koresawa, Santosh Kumar, Tadao Nakatake, Dugkeun Park, Ranasinghe Perera, Cecile Pichon, Marqueza Lepana Reyes, Bienvenido Rola, Thomas Schmidlin, Kaoru Takara, Futoshi Takiguchi and Daniel Vorbach reviewed chapters and provided substantive inputs.
Regional/National Organizational Contributions: The Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC), the Geo-informatics Center at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), The Asian and Pacific Training Center for Information and Communications Technology for Development (APCICT), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) Disaster Preparedness European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid department (DIPECHO)- South Asia, the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS), Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) at the World Bank, the Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), the Space Co-operation office for the Asia-Pacific region at Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the International Red Cross & Red Crescent Society (IFRC), National Disaster Management Authority Government of India (NDMA), Practical Action, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC), OXFAM, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and its regional offices for Asia and the Pacific, United Nation University (UNU) and Secretariat at World Meteorological Organization (WMO) are among the key contributing organizations.
Other Contributions: Many individuals provided inputs to the report in numerous ways.
We wish to acknowledge the following who contributed through interviews: Raphael Anindito, Pascal Brurcher, Nguyen Xuan Dieu, Evangiline Dispo Emerenciana, Sébastien Fesneau, Patrick Fox, Binaya Bhusan Gadanayak, Iwan Gunawan, Irawati Hapsari, Bui Viet Hien, Dao Xaun Hoc, Bui Quang Huy, Sanny Ramos Jegillos, Adelina Kamal, Arif Jabbar Khan, Takeshi Komino, Sudhir Kumar, Budidarmo P. Kuntjoro-Jakti, Donna Mitzi Lagdameo, Alexander A Lim, Htain Lin, Sampurnananda Mahapatra, Ananda Mallawatantri, Sally McKay, Dang Quang Minh, Nguyen Thi Kim Ngãn, Hening Purwati Parla, Cecile Pichon, Regina Rahadi, Marqueza Lepana Reyes, Ruth Rodriguez, Kristanto Sinandang, Felix de Vries, Patricius Usfomeny, Angger Wibowo, Ian Wilderspoon, John Twigg, Dang Van Tao and Vu Xuan Viet.
x Case studies and substantive editorial assistance were provided by Kalpana Ambrose, Rajindra Ariyabandu, Cihat Basocak, Scott Cunliffe, Nguyen Ngoc Huy, Wai Leong Loh, Bibhuti Bhusan Gadanayak, Shoji Matsubara, Abhilash Panda, Angelika Planitz, Anshu Sharma, Goulsara Pulatova, Jorge Martinez-Navarrete, Rachel Sinnathamby and Dilhani Thiruchelvarajah.
The Editorial Committee recognizes the guidance and inputs provided by Andrew Maskrey, Coordinator, Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR).

The report was edited by Peter Stalker, and Marie Ange Sylvain-Holmgren contributed to the cover page.
The committee acknowledges with thanks the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) of the Republic of Korea for printing the report, and in assisting in launching it at the Fourth Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Incheon, Republic of Korea on 26 October 2010.
The committee highly appreciates the comments and guidance provided on the final draft by Noeleen Heyzer, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of ESCAP and Margareta Wahlström, UN Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction.
xi Abbreviations AADMER ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response ACDM ASEAN Committee on Disaster Management ADB Asian Development Bank ADPC Asian Disaster Preparedness Center ADRC Asian Disaster Reduction Center ADRRN Asian Disaster Reduction and Response Network AMCDRR Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction AMeDAS Automated Meteorological Data Acquisition System APCICT Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information and Communication Technology for Development APEC Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation APSCO Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization ARF ASEAN Regional Forum ARPDM ASEAN Regional Programme on Disaster Management ASEAN Association of South-East Asian Nations BRAC Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee BRR CB CCA CIS CO2 Agency for the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of Aceh and Nias Citizens’ band Climate Change Adaptation Commonwealth of Independent States Carbon dioxide CRED Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters CSO DAC Civil Society Organization Development Assistance Committee DaLA Disaster and Loss Assessment DaNA Damage and Needs Assessment xiii DEC Disasters Emergency Committee DLNA Damage, Loss and Needs Assessment DRM DRR Disaster Risk Management Disaster Risk Reduction ECLAC UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean ECO Economic Cooperation Organization EM-DAT International Disasters Database ENSO El Niño-Southern Oscillation EO ESA Earth Observation European Space Agency ESCAP Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific FAO GCC Food and Agriculture Organization Gulf Cooperation Council GCC-DC Gulf Cooperation Council - Disaster Centre GDP GEO Gross Domestic Produce Geostationary Earth Orbit GEOSS Global Earth Observation System of Systems GFAS Global Flood Alert System GFDRR Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery GFMC Global Fire Monitoring Center GIS Geographic Information System GLOF Glacial Lake Outburst Flood GNDR Global Network of Civil Society Organizations for Disaster Reduction GNSS
 Global Navigation Satellite System GTZ HF HFA Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit High Frequency Hyogo Framework for Action IAWE International Associations for Wind Engineering ICIMOD International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development xiv ICT IDB IFI IFRC IP IPCC IRP IRRI Information and Communications Technology Inter-American Development Bank International Financial Institution International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Internet Protocol Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change International Recovery Platform International Rice Research Institute JAXA Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency KLAP MDG Kuala Lumpur Regional Action Plan Millennium Development Goal MODIS Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer MTPDP Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan NAPA National Adaptation Plan of Action NGO NSET OAS Non-Governmental Organization National Society for earthquake Technology-Nepal Organization of American States OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OFDA US Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance PDNA Post-Disaster Needs Assessment PONJA Post-Nargis Joint Assessment PRSP Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper RSMC Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre SAARC South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation SAR Synthetic Aperture Radar SDMC SAARC Disaster Management Centre SOPAC Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission TRIAMS Tsunami Recovery Impact Assessment and Monitoring System UN United Nations xv UNCCD United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification UNDG United Nations Development Group UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNEP United Nations Environment Programme UNESCO United Nations Economic Social and Cultural Organization UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNIFEM United Nations Development Fund for Women UNISDR United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction UNOCHA United Nations Office for
 the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs UNU VSAT WFP United Nations University Very Small Aperture Terminal World Food Programme WMO World Meteorological Organization xvi Contents Preface ···························································································································································ⅴⅰⅰ Acknowledgements ·································································································································ⅰⅹ Abbreviations ············································································································································ⅹⅰⅰⅰ CHAPTER I ······················································································································································· 1 Disaster risk in Asia and the Pacific ······································································································2 Disaster trends ·····································································································································2 Across the subregions ······················································································································· 2 Types of disaster and impact ·············································································································· 6 Unreported and forgotten disasters ·································································································· 6 Physical and economic exposure to disasters ··················································································10 Impact of climate change on disaster risk ·······················································································11 Glacial lake outburst floods ············································································································· 13 Droughts
13 Droughts ········································································································································ 13 Sea level rise ··································································································································· 14 Tropical cyclones ····························································································································· 15 Heavy precipitation ························································································································· 15 Forest fires ····································································································································· 15 Climate change and disaster risk ······································································································ 16 An index of disaster risk ···················································································································· 16 CHAPTER II ····················································································································································21 Socio-economic impacts of disasters ··································································································22 Impacts of disasters ··························································································································· 22 Economic and social damage assessments ······················································································24 Impact on livelihoods and poverty ··································································································· 26 Impact on health and education ······································································································· 30 xvii Psychosocial impacts ·························································································································· 30 Gender impacts
30 Gender impacts ··································································································································31 Socio-economic vulnerability to disasters ·······················································································32 Defending the poor by accelerating vulnerability reduction ·························································36 CHAPTER III ···················································································································································39 Reducing vulnerability, socio-economic perspectives ····································································40 Disaster development inter-linkages ······························································································· 40 Why is it difficult to make risk reduction a priority?
······································································42 Implications of disasters and climate change for MDG targets ·····················································42 Scaling up climate change adaptation in Asia and the Pacific ·······················································43 Scaling up disaster risk reduction in Asia and the Pacific ·······························································44 HFA Priority Area 1 - Ensure that disaster risk reduction is a national and a local priority with a strong institutional basis for implementation ··············································································· 44 HFA Priority Area 2 - Identify, assess and monitor disaster risks and enhance early warning ·················· 47 HFA Priority Area 3 - Use knowledge, innovation and education to build a culture of safety and resilience at all levels ·············································································································· 49 HFA Priority Area 4 - Reduce the underlying risk factors ····································································· 52 HFA Priority Area 5 - Strengthen disaster preparedness for effective response at all levels ····················· 56 Implementation challenges ··············································································································· 57 National – local coordination gaps ··································································································· 58 Conclusions ·········································································································································59 Opportunities for cross learning ······································································································· 59 CHAPTER IV ··················································································································································65 Making the recovery resilient
 ··············································································································66 Allowing sufficient time ···················································································································· 66 A window of opportunity ················································································································ 67 Planning for recovery ······················································································································ 68 Governance and local leadership ······································································································ 69 Finance ················································································································································69 Building on cultural and social resilience ·························································································70 xviii Gender imperatives ···························································································································71 Recovery for resilient development ································································································· 72 CHAPTER V····················································································································································75 Capitalizing on new technology ·········································································································76 Bridging information gaps ················································································································ 76 Integrated information systems with decision support tools ······························································· 77 Recent advances ·································································································································78 Regional communication capacity for emergency
 response ································································ 79 Earth Observation (EO) data for disaster risk and response ································································· 80 Disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation ·································································81 Integration with indigenous knowledge···························································································· 83 Coping with major disasters ············································································································· 83 Initiatives for sharing space information and products ·································································86 Sentinel Asia ·································································································································· 86 International charter space and major disasters ················································································· 86 UN-SPIDER ····································································································································· 87 Group on Earth Observations (GEO) ································································································· 88 World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Global Observation System ·············································· 88 Global Flood Alert System (GFAS) ····································································································· 88 Regional cooperative mechanisms promoted by ESCAP ································································88 Regional Space Applications Programme (RESAP) ·············································································· 88 Asia-Pacific gateway ······················································································································· 88 Regional platform for sharing satellite information products and
 services ············································ 89 Regional cooperation for drought monitoring and early warning ························································ 89 Collaborative communication infrastructure ······················································································ 89 A learning experience ························································································································89 CHAPTER VI ··················································································································································93 Cooperating across the region ·············································································································94 Drivers of regional collaboration ······································································································ 94 Architecture of regional cooperation ······························································································· 95 xix Regional intergovernmental organizations·····················································································97 North and East Asia – progress without cooperation ········································································· 97 South-East Asia – significant cooperation ························································································· 97 South Asia – promising road maps ································································································· 101 Central Asia – cooperation in the making ······················································································· 103 West Asia – looking for models ······································································································ 104 Pacific Island countries – partnerships and networks ········································································ 104 Other regional organizations
 ··········································································································105 The Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) ·············································································· 105 The Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC) ··················································································· 106 The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD)········································· 106 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) ······················································································ 107 Academia, the private sector and the media ··················································································· 107 Non-governmental organizations ··································································································· 107 United Nations organizations ········································································································· 108 Pan-Asia-Pacific Cooperation ········································································································· 110 Looking forward ······························································································································112 Way forward ········································································································································· 113 Socio-economic impacts of disasters - threats to development ··················································114 Improving risk reduction further – scaling up vulnerability reduction ················································· 115 Making adaptation more inclusive ·································································································· 116 Improving further vulnerability reduction along the lines of the HFA ················································· 116 Opportunities after a disaster - making the recovery
 resilient ····················································117 Capitalizing on new technology ·····································································································118 Cooperating across the region ········································································································118 Bibliography ············································································································································· 121 xx Boxes Box I-1 Regional cooperative mechanism on disaster monitoring and early warning, particularly drought ····19 Box I-2 Recent mega-disasters in Asia and the Pacific ···················································································19 Box I-3 Estimating tsunami risks with sedimentation surveys ········································································19 Box I-4 Climate change in the Mekong Delta, Viet Nam ···············································································20 Box I-5 Tornadoes in Bangladesh ··················································································································20 Box I-6 Building a disaster risk index ·············································································································20 Box II-1 Disasters in Pacific Island countries ···································································································37 Box III-1 Disaster risk reduction and poverty reduction ···················································································61 Box III-2 Mal development example ···············································································································61 Box III-3 Development projects contribute to disaster risk ···············································································61 Box III-4 Economic benefits of investment in disaster risk
 management··························································62 Box III-5 Planned adaptation to climate change······························································································62 Box III-6 Integrating disaster risk reduction into development plans in the Philippines ····································63 Box III-7 Some issues arising from mainstreaming ··························································································63 Box III-8 Planning for flood management in Pune, India ·················································································64 Box III-9 Successful crop insurance in India ·····································································································64 Box IV-1 The cyclone preparedness programme in Bangladesh ·······································································73 Box IV-2 Working with communities on climate resilient recovery in Viet Nam ···············································73 Box IV-3 The Tsunami Recovery Impact Assessment and Monitoring System ···················································73 Box IV-4 Recovery and reconstruction of Tsunami-hit Samoa ··········································································74 Box V-1 Technology for the Safe Island Programme in the Maldives ·······························································91 Box V-2 Training on ICT for disaster risk reduction and management·····························································91 Box V-3 Indigenous forms of disaster risk reduction ·······················································································91 Box VI-1 Regional Integrated Multi-hazard Early Warning System ·································································112 xxi Figures Figure I-1 Reported disasters, by global region, 1980-2009 ················································································ 3 Figure I-2 Number of
 disasters by type of natural hazard in Asia-Pacific, 1980-2009 ·········································· 3 Figure I-3 Trend in disaster risk, Asia-Pacific country groupings – 2000-2004 to 2005-2009 ·····························17 Figure I-4 Trend in disaster risk, Asia-Pacific economies – 2000-2004 to 2005-2009 ········································18 Figure II-1 Fiji, annual fluctuations in GDP relative to the incidence of disaster, 1980-2008 ·······························27 Figure II-2 Human vulnerability to high-frequency, lower impact floods·····························································33 Figure II-3 Human vulnerability to high-frequency, lower impact storms ····························································33 Figure II-4 Economic vulnerability to storms of high-frequency and lower impact ··············································34 Figure II-5 Vulnerability to weather-related disasters, by Asia-Pacific subregion ·················································37 Figure III-1 Vicious spirals of disaster risk and development failure ·····································································41 Figure V-1 Rapid mapping image of Cyclone Nargis damage ·············································································79 Figure V-2 Overview of all crisis mapping and damage assessment maps ··························································87 Figure VI-1 Forms of regional cooperation on disaster risk reduction ··································································96 Figure VI-2 Overview of AADMER work programme (2010-2015) ····································································100 xxii Tables Table I-1 Disaster events and impacts by subregion and country, 1980-2009 ···················································· 4 Table I-2 Asia-Pacific countries ranked by number of disasters, 1980-2009 ······················································· 5 Table I-3 Asia-Pacific countries ranked by number of deaths
 from disasters, 1980-2009 ··································· 5 Table I-4 Asia-Pacific countries ranked by number of people affected by disasters, 1980-2009 ························· 5 Table I-5 Asia-Pacific countries ranked by economic damage, 1980-2009 ························································· 5 Table I-6 Top 10 disaster types and their impact, Asia and the Pacific, 1980-2009 ············································ 7 Table I-7 Compilation of DesInventar data to EM-DAT type of events for Indonesia, 1998-2009 (12 years) ······· 8 Table I-8 Compilation of DesInventar data to EM-DAT type of events for Sri Lanka, 1998-2009 (12 years) ········ 8 Table I-9a Comparison of EM-DAT and DesInventar data for Indonesia, 1998-2009 (12 years) ··························· 9 Table I-9b Comparison of EM-DAT and DesInventar data for Sri Lanka, 1998-2009 (12 years) ···························· 9 Table I-10 Top 10 countries in the Asia-Pacific region based on absolute and relative physical exposure ············10 Table I-11 Top 10 countries in the Asia-Pacific region based on absolute and relative GDP exposure ·················11 Table II-1 Major disasters in Asia and the Pacific – the social and economic impact ··········································25 Table II-2 Damage, loss and needs assessments, selected disasters in LDCs ······················································25 Table II-3 Literature review on the long-term impact of disasters by disaster type ············································28 Table III-1 Preparedness makes a difference – same levels of hazards but different impacts ······························56 Table III-2 Key features of an inclusive and environmentally sustainable disaster risk reduction strategy ············60 Table V-1 EO satellite application capacities in the Asia-Pacific region ······························································82 Table VI-1 ASEAN Regional Programme on Disaster Management (2004-2010)
 ················································99 xxiii chapter Ⅰ Disaster risk in Asia and the Pacific Disaster trends ● 2 Unreported and forgotten disasters ● 6 Physical and economic exposure to disasters ● 10 Impact of climate change on disaster risk ● 11 An index of disaster risk ● 16 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Disaster risk in Asia and the Pacific The Asia-Pacific region is very prone to disasters caused by natural hazards.
These include droughts, floods, storms, extreme temperatures and wildfires, as well as mass movements such as landslides, volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis.

Disaster trends According to the International Disaster Database Haiti Earthquake.

The most frequent hazard in the (EM-DAT), between 1980-1989 and 1999-2009, region is flooding, followed by storms, earthquakes the number of disaster events reported globally and mass movements (Figure I-2).

increased from 1,690 to 3,886.


Over the whole period of 1980-2009, 45 per cent of these were in As the number of reported disasters has increased, Asia and the Pacific.

Figure I-1 shows such increase so has the number of reported people affected.

by regions.

Asia-Pacific has been the region that The scale of three of the regions most recent major suffered the largest number of disasters over these disasters in indicated in Box I-2.

years.
years.

Both Asia-Pacific and Africa have experienced a sharp increase in the number of disasters in the last decade.

Such increase could be related to many Across the subregions factors including increasing population exposed Disasters affect all subregions of Asia and the to hazards and improvements in reporting and Pacific.

Over the period of 1980-2009, South collection of disaster data in EM-DAT.

and South-West Asia had the greatest number at 1,283, followed by South-East Asia at 1,069.
These In terms of losses, however, this region is regions also experienced the most fatalities, with proportionally harder hit.

While it generates 25 per the figure for South-East Asia spiking as a result of cent of the world’s GDP, it has suffered 42 per cent the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.

However, the East of the economic losses due to disasters.
The region and North-East subregions suffered more both in also has 61 per cent of the world’s population, and terms of number of people affected and economic has suffered a similar proportion of disaster-related damage.

Considering their smaller country and deaths, but has 86 per cent of the total population population sizes, both human and economic losses affected by disaster.

Between 2000 and 2008, the are also significant among the Pacific Island states.
region’s proportion of global deaths rose to 83 per Statistics by country and sub-region are shown in cent – though this figure should be considerably Table I-1.

lower for 2010 as a result of the January 2010 2 Chapter Ⅰ.
Disaster Risk in Asia and the Pacific Figure I-1 – Reported disasters, by region, 1980-2009 400 Figure I-1 – Reported disasters, by region, 1980-2009 Figure I-1 Reported disasters, by global region, 1980- Africa 1987 1988 1989 1990 Asia-Paciﬁc 1991 1992 1993 1994 Caribbean 1996 Europe 1997 1998 1999 2000 Latin America 2001 2002 2003 2004 North America 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 1994 1995 Year 1995 Year Africa Asia-Paciﬁc Caribbean Europe Latin America North America Source: ESCAP based on data from EM-DAT: The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database – www.emdat.be – Université Catholique de Louvain – Brussels – Belgium Figure I-2 – Number of disasters by type of natural hazard in Asia-Pacific, 1980-2009 Figure I-2 Number of disasters by type of natural hazard in Asia-Pacific, 1980-2009 Figure I-2 – Number of disasters by type of natural hazard in Asia-Pacific, 1980- Year Year Drought Drought Flood Flood Storm Storm Earthquake (seismic activity) Earthquake (seismic activity) Mass Movement Dry Mass Movement Dry Volcano Volcano Extreme temperature Mass Movement Wet Wildﬁre Extreme temperature Mass Movement Wet Wildﬁre Source: ESCAP based on data from EM-DAT: The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database – www.emdat.be – Université Catholique de Louvain – Brussels – Belgium Note: Wind storms are termed hurricanes in the North Atlantic and South Pacific, typhoons in the West Pacific and cyclones in the Indian Ocean.
3 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Table I-1 Disaster events and impacts by subregion and country, 1980-2009 East & North East Asia China DPR Korea Hong Kong, China Japan Macau, China Mongolia Republic of Korea Sub-total North & Central Asia Armenia Azerbaijan Georgia Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Russian Federation Tajikistan Turkmenistan Uzbekistan Sub-total Pacific (Oceania) American Samoa Australia Cook Islands Fiji French Polynesia Guam Kiribati Marshall Islands Micronesia (Federated States of) Nauru New Caledonia New Zealand Niue Northern Mariana Islands Palau Papua New Guinea Samoa Solomon Islands Tonga Tuvalu Vanuatu Sub-total South & South-West Asia Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan India Iran (Islamic Republic of) Maldives Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka Turkey Sub-total South-East Asia Brunei Darussalam Cambodia Indonesia Lao PDR Malaysia Myanmar Philippines Singapore Thailand Timor-Leste Viet Nam Sub-total GRAND TOTAL Events Killed Affected (‘000s) 2,549,850 10,736 16 2,785 2,485 1 1,341 2,567,214 Damage ($, millions) Note: Damage data are at 2005 prices Source: ESCAP based on data from EM-DAT: the OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database – www.emdat.be – Université Catholique de Louvain – Brussels – Belgium 4 Chapter Ⅰ.
Disaster Risk in Asia and the Pacific Table I-2 to Table I-5 show data of the countries while countries such as Kyrgyzstan, Bhutan and most severely affected by disasters.

As might be several Pacific Island states, including Solomon expected, in terms of absolute numbers these tend Islands, Tuvalu and Fiji, are in seismically active to be the largest and most populous countries.

areas, therefore, are exposed to earthquakes.


In These countries are, for example, often exposed 2008, Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga were to flooding – as in Bangladesh, China, the Russian among the world’s top 10 countries and territories Federation and India.

When considered in relative in terms of the number of deaths per 100,000 terms, however, the smaller countries may be even inhabitants.

These high levels of exposure are more exposed.


The Pacific Island states such as Fiji reflected in the human and economic impact, as and Vanuatu are regularly faced with storm surges shown in Table I-2 to Table I-5.
Table I-2 Asia-Pacific countries ranked by number of disasters, 1980-2009 Table I-4 Asia-Pacific countries ranked by number of people affected by disasters, 1980-2009 Rank Country Events Rank Country Affected (millions) China India Philippines Indonesia Bangladesh Russian Federation Japan Australia Viet Nam 10 Iran (Islamic Rep. of) 574 416 349 312 229 176 155 154 152 140 China India Bangladesh Philippines Viet Nam Thailand Iran (Islamic Rep. of) Pakistan Indonesia Cambodia 2,550 1,501 316 109 68 54 42 30 18 16 Source: ESCAP based on data from EM-DAT: the OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database – www.emdat.be – Université Catholique de Louvain – Brussels – Belgium Source: ESCAP based on data from EM-DAT: the OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database – www.emdat.be – Université Catholique de Louvain – Brussels – Belgium Table I-3 Asia-Pacific countries ranked by number of deaths from disasters, 1980-2009 Table I-5 Asia-Pacific countries ranked by economic damage, 1980-2009 Rank Country Deaths Rank Country Damage ($ billions) Bangladesh Indonesia China India Myanmar Pakistan Iran (Islamic Rep. of) Sri Lanka Philippines 10 Russian Federation 191,650 191,164 148,419 141,888 139,095 84,841 77,987 36,871 32,578 31,795 Source: ESCAP based on data from EM-DAT: the OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database – www.emdat.be – Université Catholique de Louvain – Brussels – Belgium China Japan India DPR Korea Turkey Australia Iran (Islamic Rep. of) Indonesia Republic of Korea 10 Bangladesh Note: Damage data are at 2005 prices 322 188 52 46 35 34 25 23 20 16 Source: ESCAP based on data from EM-DAT: the OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database – www.emdat.be – Université Catholique de Louvain – Brussels – Belgium 5 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Types of disaster and impact The most common type of disaster in the region is with an increased incidence of pestilence and flooding, followed by storm (Table I-6).
The greatest crop diseases, which further reduces crop yields.

loss of life, however, has been from earthquakes.

Nevertheless, the net agricultural impacts are The number of earthquakes recorded excludes many sometimes beneficial, as moderate flooding in less low-intensity events, which occur continually around severely affected areas can boost soil fertility and the region and cause little damage.
All these events productivity by depositing micro-nutrients, fine silt may seem less dramatic than severe earthquakes, and loam (Dixit and others, 2008).

For instance, but since they happen much more frequently, in Nepal crop land near rivers and in low-lying they cause greater and longer-lasting damage to areas were heavily affected by the 2007 floods, infrastructure and livelihoods in the region.
resulting in high crop losses, but in other areas the standing paddy crop benefited from the temporary Droughts – Physical damage is typically limited immersion, probably resulting in expected overall largely to livestock and crops, rain-fed and irrigated.

surplus production (WFP and others 2007).

Droughts can also delay planting operations and result in outbreaks of pests.

Drought can also affect Storms – The impacts of storms (e.g.
tropical hydropower generation, resulting in electricity cyclones and typhoons) are similar to floods shortages and in some cases, lower export earnings.

because they are associated with heavy rain and related flooding.

Storms can also cause storm Earthquakes – Excluding localized losses, surges and related seawater intrusion, damaging earthquakes generally have little impact on standing crops and aquaculture.

High winds can also crops.


However, they can cause widespread loss of damage physical structures and crops, take off life and destroy infrastructure and other productive roofs, destroy buildings, power lines, trees and capacity, including agricultural infrastructure and crops.

As with flooding, related levels of loss distribution, and marketing networks.

For example, depend in part on the strength of a storm and its the May 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake in China occurrence in the agricultural cycle.
resulted in 69,227 deaths, and destroyed or badly damaged transport infrastructure, water and sanitation facilities, communications and power supply networks, and industrial and agricultural Unreported and forgotten disasters infrastructure, as well as social infrastructure, To calculate disaster risks, it is necessary to consider including hospitals, clinics, schools and houses the historical damage and loss data.

There are (ADB 2009).


many such sources, but the most commonly used source is the EM-DAT or the US Office of Foreign Floods – Where warning systems are weak, floods Disaster Assistance (OFDA)/Centre for Research on can cause considerable loss of life.

They can also the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) database, wash away roads, bridges, irrigation infrastructure which is maintained by the Université Catholique de and even flood control structures, along with non- Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.
Although the EM-DAT fixed assets and flimsier housing, whilst causing data provides a broad overview of the economic considerable damage to remaining buildings and damage and human losses due to disasters, it does other infrastructure.

Intense flooding also destroys have its limitations.
For example, for a disaster to crops, disrupts agricultural operations, erodes river be entered into the EM-DAT international database, banks and even shifts the courses of rivers while it must fulfil one or more of the following criteria: leaving heavy deposits of sediment on fields and 10 or more people reported killed; 100 or more irrigation channels.

Floods can also be associated people reported affected; a declaration of a state 6 Chapter Ⅰ.
Disaster Risk in Asia and the Pacific of emergency; or a call for international assistance.

classification of events, which has to be equated The Asia-Pacific region experiences many disasters to EM-DAT if a comparison is to be made.

This is that fall below these thresholds but nevertheless done in tables I-7 and I-8 below.

Floods in EM-DAT inflict serious damage for highly vulnerable may be reported as Floods, Flash Floods, Surges, populations.
Indeed, so frequent are these events Urban Floods, etc., in the DesInventar national that many communities accept them as an integral databases.

It should also be noted that some part of their existence and, with varying degrees of events in EM-DAT are reported as different types success, learn to live with them.

of events in national databases (as per DesInventar methodology).
For example, Floods of 1989 in Sri Many of the disasters, particularly in rural areas, Lanka are reported (at least) as Floods, Landslides go unreported because local governments lack the and Rains in DesInventar, depending on the specific technical and human resources for community-level manifestation on each division or district.
disaster monitoring – unable to fully identify or map potential local hazards or develop the appropriate Compared with EM-DAT, DesInventar reports rescue, recovery or re-construction plans.

many more disaster events (Tables I-9a and I-9b).


To highlight the issue of unreported and forgotten On the other hand, it reports fewer deaths for certain hazards like floods, suggesting that EM- disasters, this report compares the records from DAT may be over-estimating deaths and may need two disaster databases, EM-DAT and DesInventar, to pay greater attention to data verification.

One for Indonesia and Sri Lanka.


EM-DAT is the OFDA/ explanation is that “missing” is always aggregated CRED International Disaster Database, while the together with “killed” in EM-DAT, whereas in Network for Social Studies on Disaster Prevention DesInventar databases they are shown in separate in Latin America created DesInventar in 1992 to entries in the database.
The main difference record the impacts of highly localized small-scale between these databases is that DesInventar does events and later was extended to a number of not impose a threshold for disaster events to enter other countries.

the database.

For this reason, the total mortality for some disaster events may be higher in the It should be noted that the Indonesia and Sri Lanka Sri Lanka and Indonesian national DesInventar national DesInventar databases use a more detailed databases.
Table I-6 Top 10 disaster types and their impact, Asia and the Pacific, 1980-2009 Rank 1 2 3 Floods Storms Earthquakes 4 Mass movements – wet 5 6 Extreme temperatures Droughts 7 Wildfires 8 Volcanic eruptions 9 Mass movements – dry 10 Insect Infestations Events 1,317 1,127 444 264 119 108 96 71 20 8 Deaths (thousands) People affected (millions) Damage ($ millions) Note: * Damage and loss reported in $millions at 2005 constant prices.
Source: ESCAP based on data from EM-DAT: The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database – www.emdat.be – Université Catholique de Louvain – Brussels – Belgium, and data on implicit price deflators in $ from the United Nations Statistics Division National Accounts Main Aggregates Database.
7 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Table I-7 Compilation of DesInventar data to EM-DAT type of events for Indonesia, 1998-2009 (12 years) DesInventar Events DROUGHT FLOODS SURGE EM-DAT type Drought Floods Floods Subtotal FLOODS/LANDSLIDE Landslide LANDSLIDES CLIMATE CHANGE STRONG WIND Landslide Subtotal Storm Storm Subtotal Reports Killed Deaths Injured Missing Houses Destroyed Houses Damaged Affected TOTAL 5847 4936 4001 230063 935 204816 279799 12552991 Note: DesInventar data are available for Indonesia only from 1998 onwards.
Source: UNISDR and UNDP based from DesInventar database - www.desinventar.org Table I-8 Compilation of DesInventar data to EM-DAT type of events for Sri Lanka, 1998-2009 (12 years) Event EM-DAT type DROUGHT Drought FLOOD SURGE TIDAL WAVE Flood Flood Flood URBAN FLOOD Flood Subtotal SUBSIDENCE Landslide LANDSLIDE Landslide Subtotal Storm Storm Storm CYCLONE GALE RAINS WINDSTORM Storm LIGHTNING Storm Subtotal Reports Killed Deaths Injured Missing Houses Destroyed Houses damaged Affected TOTAL 12,150 1,562 1,505 1,066 57 66,711 251,849 24,012,576 Note: DesInventar data are available for Indonesia only from 1998 onwards.
Source: UNISDR and UNDP based from DesInventar database - www.desinventar.org 8 Chapter Ⅰ.
Disaster Risk in Asia and the Pacific Table I‑9a Comparison of EM‑DAT and DesInventar data for Indonesia, 1998‑2009 (12 years) Floods Landslides Storms Droughts Total Events Deaths People affected EM‑DAT Desinventar EM‑DAT Desinventar EM‑DAT Desinventar Note: DesInventar data are available for Indonesia only from 1998 onwards.
Source: UNISDR and UNDP based from DesInventar database - www.desinventar.org Table I‑9b Comparison of DesInventar and EM‑DAT data for Sri Lanka, 1998‑2009 (12 Years) Floods Landslides Storms Droughts Total Events Deaths People affected EM‑DAT Desinventar EM‑DAT Desinventar EM‑DAT Desinventar Source: UNISDR and UNDP based from DesInventar database - www.desinventar.org The differences in reported losses in EM-DAT and recently started to develop their own databases.
DesInventar are also evident in other databases.

For example, in Sri Lanka, 230 death have been The second gap is that EM-DAT only provides reported from floods and landslides from 1989 information on larger disaster.

Medium to small onwards in the DesInventar national database, disaster are more frequent, causing accumulated which is categorized by type of effect and by impacts on society, but they are not captured in district.

However, the same figure is reported as EM-DAT.


Thus, extensive disaster risks are not 325 in EM-DAT, 276 in ReliefWeb, less than 300 in measured.

ADRC, and 300 by Dartmouth Flood Observatory.

Which one is the most accurate is difficult to say at These two limitations pose challenges in our this time.
attempt to understand disaster risks in Asia and the Pacific, and provide us with a clear picture of where This results in two large gaps in our understanding the gap exists, and where concerted action would of disaster risks.

First is that it is only EM-DAT be needed by countries in the region.

where most countries have systematic disaster losses recorded and made available for analysis.
In The next section is an attempt by this report to Asia and the Pacific region, only Nepal, Iran, and Sri Lanka have comprehensive national databases.

In India, the province of Orissa has the database.

interpret disaster risks most relevant to decision makers in Asia and the Pacific, despite the limitations posed by EM-DAT data.
Indonesia, Viet Nam, Maldives and Vanuatu just 9 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Physical and economic exposure to disasters in absolute terms, and in relative terms the second most exposed – the North Mariana Islands.

For earthquakes, Asia and the Pacific has the top Overall disaster risk depends on three factors: four most exposed countries in terms of absolute ● Hazard – The type and intensity of a hazard exposure, and the top two in terms of relative event exposure – Vanuatu and Solomon Islands.
● Exposure – The number of people and the scale of assets exposed to the event A corresponding analysis can be carried out for ● Vulnerability – The capacity to cope with and economic exposure.

This is done by mapping recover from hazard events.

physical exposure onto the distribution of economic output to estimate the GDP at risk.

For Over the past 20 years, the risks for most hazards flooding, seven countries from the Asia-Pacific have been increasing.
This is mainly because of region are in the world’s top 10 most exposed the increase in exposure, though this has partially countries – absolutely (lose) and relatively (loss been offset by reduced vulnerability resulting from related to GDP) (Table I-11).

For cyclones, six Asia- better development conditions (GAR 2009).

Factors that influence vulnerability are examined in greater Pacific countries are in the world’s top 10 for absolute exposure.

For earthquakes, for example, detail in Chapter II.
Japan is the most exposed followed by China and the Philippines.

In terms of relative exposure to For flooding, as indicated in Table I-10, the Asia- storms, the highest levels are among the small Pacific region has the world’s top 10 most exposed Pacific Island countries.

For earthquakes, Vanuatu countries.

This is true both in absolute numbers, has the world’s highest relative GDP exposure.
with Bangladesh at the top, and in terms of relative Several other countries from the Pacific, South Asia exposure with Cambodia at the top.

For storms, and North and Central Asia also have high relative the region has the top four most exposed countries exposures to earthquakes.
Table I-10 Top 10 countries in the Asia-Pacific region based on absolute and relative physical exposure k n a R Floods Storms Earthquakes Absolute (millions) Relative (%) Absolute (millions) Relative (%) Absolute (millions) Relative (%) Bangladesh1 (19.2) Cambodia1 (12.2) Japan1 (30.9) North Marina Isl.2 (58.2) Japan1 (13.4) Vanuatu1 (60.4) India2 (15.8) Bangladesh2 (12.1) Philippines2 (20.7) Niue9 (25.4) Philippines2 (12.1) Solomon Isl.2 (36.3) China3 (3.9) Viet Nam3 (3.9) China3 (11.1) Japan10 (24.2) Indonesia3 (11.0) Tonga6 (21.1) Viet Nam4 (3.4) Bhutan4 (1.7) India4 (10.7) Philippines11 (23.6) China4 (8.1) Papua New G..9 (17.5) Cambodia5 (1.7) India5 (1.4) Bangladesh6 (7.5) Fiji12 (23.1) India8 (3.3) Philippines12 (13.8) Indonesia6 (1.1) Thailand6 (1.3) Rep. of Korea9 (2.4) Samoa15 (21.4) Pakistan9 (2.8) Timor Leste14 (11.3) Thailand7 (0.8) Nepal7 (1.2) Myanmar11 (1.2) New Caledonia18 (20.7) Iran15 (1.7) Japan15 (10.5) Philippines8 (0.7) Lao PDR8 (1.1) Viet Nam13 (0.8) Vanuatu20 (18.3) Bangladesh17 (1.3) Bhutan17 (0.8) Pakistan9 (0.5) Myanmar9 (0.9) Hong Kong17 (0.4) Tonga21 (18.1) Papua N. G..9 (1.1) Indonesia31 (0.4) 10 Myanmar10 (0.4) Philippines10 (0.9) Pakistan19 (0.3) Cook Islands32 (10.5) Afghanistan (1.0) Kyrgystan35 (0.4) Source: P. Peduzzi, UNEP/GRID-Europe Note: Number in parenthesis is the value.
Number in superscript against each country shows its global rank.

10 Chapter Ⅰ.
Disaster Risk in Asia and the Pacific Table I-11 Top 10 countries in the Asia-Pacific region based on absolute and relative GDP exposure k n a R Floods Cyclones Earthquakes Absolute ($billions) Relative (%) Absolute ($billions) Relative (%) Absolute ($billions) Relative (%) China1 (12.5) Bangladesh1 (14.5) Japan1 (1,226.7) North Marina Isl.2 (59.4) Japan1 (340.7) Vanuatu1 (96.5) Bangladesh3 (9.7) Cambodia2 (14.0) Rep. of Korea4 (35.6) Vanuatu9 (27.1) China7 (16.0) Solomon Isl.2 (46.3) India4 (9.3) Japan6 (4.5) Viet Nam3 (4.4) China5 (28.5) Niue11 (24.9) Philippines9 (11.4) Tonga6 (22.7) Philippines5 (2.5) Philippines6 (24.3) Fiji13 (24.1) Indonesia11 (7.9) Papua New G.8 (22.1) Thailand8 (3.0) Thailand6 (1.8) Hong Kong7 (13.3) Fiji8 (16.0) Turkey14 (5.7) Timor Leste13 (14.9) Philippines9 (2.5) India8 (1.3) India9 (8.0) Japan14 (23.9) Iran17 (3.8) Philippines14 (11.2) Viet Nam10 (2.2) Myanmar9 (1.1) Bangladesh13 (3.9) Philippines5 (23.9) Australia25 (2.7) Japan23 (6.6) Rep. of Korea18 (1.2) Lao PDR11 (1.1) North Marina Isl.19 (1.5) New Caledonia16 (22.4) India25 (2.1) Kyrgystan35 (4.0) Indonesia19 (1.0) Nepal13 (0.9) Australia23 (0.8) Samoa21 (19.2) Pakistan31 (1.4) Azerbaijan36 (4.0) 10 Cambodia21 (0.9) Sri Lanka18 (0.6) New Caledonia25 (0.7) Tonga24 (17.4) New Zealand34 (1.0) Indonesia41 (3.5) Note: Number in parenthesis is the value.
Number in superscript against each country shows its global rank.

Source: P. Peduzzi, UNEP/GRID-Europe Impact of climate change on disaster risk disasters such as floods, droughts, extreme temperatures, typhoons, hurricanes, and wildfires.

Future development policy, including that on IPCC has examined the published results from many creating mega-infrastructure, will need to take different models to indicate the potential global due consideration of future disaster risks, and in changes by 2100.
In summary, it has concluded: particular the impact of climate change.

There has been many efforts to link the rise in the reported - Surface warming – Global average surface air number of disasters with emerging evidence on temperature will increase by between 1.1°C and global climate change but it is not possible to 6.4 °C.

establish this link conclusively.


Because of the - Sea level – The sea level will rise by between degree of randomness in both global climate 18 and 59 centimetres, and oceans will become systems and the occurrence of disasters, and the more acidic.

limited data available covering the past three - Extreme events – It is very likely that there will decades, it is statistically difficult to quantify and be more frequent hot extremes, heat waves and isolate the exact impact of climate change.
heavy precipitation events.

- Precipitation – It is very likely that there will However, there is some evidence of linkages be more precipitation at higher latitudes and between physical changes, atmospheric, terrestrial likely that there will be less precipitation in most and oceanic, and the weather processes that subtropical land areas.

lead to disaster caused by natural hazards.


So it is - Cyclones – It is likely that tropical cyclones difficult to set aside the potential impact of climate typhoons and hurricanes – will become more change.
This section therefore analyzes the climate intense, with larger peak wind speeds and change findings of various international, regional more frequent heavy precipitation associated and national agencies for the Asia-Pacific region with ongoing increases in tropical sea surface and considers the implications for disaster risk temperatures.
reduction, particularly for hydro-meteorological 11 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Nevertheless, there will be differences within Asia- marine influences will result in local climate changes Pacific subregions: that can vary significantly from regional trends.

Extreme temperatures – In Central Asia, the Droughts – Many long-term trends over the Tibetan Plateau and North Asia, the warming is period 1900-2005 indicate significant increases likely to be well above the global mean.
In East and in precipitation in Northern and Central Asia, and South Asia, it will be above the global mean, and more dry conditions in parts of Southern Asia.

in South-East Asia, it will be similar to the global More intense and longer droughts have been mean.

In East Asia, summer heat waves or hot found over wider areas since the 1970s, particularly spells will be of longer duration, more intense and in the tropics and subtropics.

Higher temperatures more frequent.


East Asia and South Asia are also and decreased precipitation have increased the very likely to have fewer very cold days.

prevalence of drier conditions and contributed to changes in the distribution of droughts.
Changes Precipitation – Boreal winter precipitation is very in sea surface temperatures, wind patterns, and likely to increase in North Asia and the Tibetan decreased snow pack and snow cover have also Plateau, and it is likely to increase in Eastern Asia and the southern parts of South-East Asia.

Summer been linked to droughts.


precipitation is likely to increase in North Asia, East Sea level – Global average sea level is rising as a and South Asia and most of South-East Asia, but it consequence of three factors: thermal expansion is expected to decrease in Central Asia.

An increase of warming ocean water; the addition of melted in the frequency of intense precipitation events is water from the ice sheets of Greenland and very likely in parts of South Asia and East Asia.
Antarctica, and from glaciers and ice caps; and an increased surface runoff.

Over the 20th Century, Storms – Since 1970s, there is good evidence for the average rate of global mean sea level rise was an increase in the more damaging and intense about 1.7 millimetres per year.

During 1993-2003, tropical cyclone activity in the North Atlantic.

This it was 3.1 millimetres per year, and since 2003, it is correlated with increases in tropical sea surface has been about 2.5 millimetres per year.
Prior to temperatures.

However, there is no clear trend in 1990, more than 50 per cent of the sea level rise the global annual number of tropical cyclones.

came from thermal expansion, but this proportion Extreme rainfall and winds associated with tropical has now dropped to 15 per cent, with a much cyclones are likely to increase in East, South-East greater contribution from the melting of glaciers, and South Asia.

Monsoonal flows and the tropical large-scale circulation are likely to be weakened.
However, there has been little assessment of the ice caps and ice sheets.

If current trends continue, the glacier and ice cap reservoir will be exhausted by 2200 (UNEP, 2007).

projected changes in regional climatic means and extremes.

Also, there are substantial variances in In addition to the scenarios presented by IPCC models representing monsoon processes.
A lack and the United Nations Environment Programme of clarity over likely future changes in the El Niño- (UNEP), there is an emerging body of evidence Southern Oscillation (ENSO) further contributes from other studies in Asia and the Pacific.

The to uncertainty about future regional monsoon rest of this chapter presents a collection of case and tropical cyclone behaviour.
Consequently, studies from the region on possible climate change it is difficult to obtain quantitative estimates of impacts on Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) projected precipitation changes.

Nevertheless, it is droughts, sea level rise, extreme precipitation clear that the region’s very complex topography and events, and forest fires.

12 Chapter Ⅰ.

Disaster Risk in Asia and the Pacific Glacial lake outburst floods once again.
Monitoring of Lake Imja Tsho using the European Space Agency (ESA) radar satellite In the Indian sub-continent over the last 100 years, imagery has provided a useful means for detecting the air temperature has increased by an estimated growth of the lake, even monthly – and it now 0.3ºC to 0.6ºC – and by 2100 the temperature may seems that the lower terraces at several villages increase further by 3.5 ºC to 5.5ºC (IPCC, 2007).

could be over topped by a GLOF.


This will affect high-altitude glacial environments, which are very sensitive to temperature changes.

These local changes in the Himalayas underline Studies by ICIMOD (2007), SAARC (2008) and the importance of investigating the impact of others have shown that in recent decades global warming on glaciers over much larger the Himalayan glaciers have been melting at areas.

ICIMOD and SAARC among others say that unprecedented rates.
This results in the formation given the complexity and expense of monitoring, of ever-larger glacial lakes, with the risk of sudden safeguarding, these precious regional resources breaches and “GLOFs”.

Most of the Himalayan will need greater action from the international glacial lakes have appeared within the last five community.

GLOF mitigation measures and early decades, often with devastating consequences.
Two known hotspots of glacial activity are the warning systems are expensive particularly for smaller countries, therefore, a regional approach Dudh Koshi sub-basin of Nepal and the Pho Chu may prove more useful.

sub-basin of Bhutan (ICIMOD, 2007).


Nepal – The Imja glacier has been retreating ever Droughts faster: from 1962 to 2000 it retreated by 42 metres According to United Nations estimates, one third per year but between 2001 and 2006 the rate of the world’s population lives in areas with water increased to 74 metres per year.

In Bhutan between shortages, and 1.1 billion people lack access to 1963 and 1993, glaciers were retreating by 30 safe drinking water.

After floods, droughts are metres per year.


In the Lunana region of the Pho the world’s second most geographically extensive Chu sub-basin in 2001, some of the glaciers were hazard (Liu, 2007).

In Asia, drought is the second retreating as fast as 57 metres per year with rate most significant disaster after flooding in terms of increases since 1970 of up to 800 per cent.

Some affected population and it occupies fourth position of the smaller glaciers have now disappeared.

As in terms of damage.


Droughts may cause less the glaciers melt, they can form new lakes, expand immediate physical damage than earthquakes, or merge existing ones.

In the Dudh Koshi sub- basin, the total number of lakes has decreased by 37 per cent, but their total area has increased by floods, or storms, and as a result often receive lower priority in disaster risk reduction.

But they often have a longer-lasting impact, undermining 21 per cent.
The Thorthormi glacier had no supra- food and water security.

As they become more glacial ponds during the 1950s, but now has a new frequent and widespread, they will need much cluster of supra-glacial lakes.

If this trend continues, greater attention.

They can also exacerbate it will merge to form a large lake posing a serious environmental degradation and desertification.

GLOF threat.
GLOF threat.

Bhutan – In the Pho Chu sub-basin, the total In 2006, for example, a severe drought in Southern number of lakes has decreased by 19 per cent China left 520,000 people short of drinking water, but the total area has increased by eight per cent.

damaged 102,000 hectares of crops, and caused The Luggye Tso Lake, for example, is expanding economic losses of over $50 million.

In that year, Drought is a particularly severe problem in China.
13 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 the city of Chongqing suffered its worst drought are on the coast.

Sea level rise may force people to in half a century, causing financial losses of around move away from their customary land on coastal $1 billion.

Across China that summer, 18 million lowlands.

people went short of drinking water.

With limited land space and human and financial Australia has also been severely affected.
Some resources, these economies are already facing areas of Australia may have annual rainfall of over disasters caused by natural hazards, particularly 1,200 millimetres, but overall this is the world’s storms, droughts and floods.

Now, warming ocean driest inhabited continent.

Severe droughts affect temperatures and sea level rise are threatening some parts of Australia about once every 18 years fisheries as well as coral reef and mangrove – though the intervals between these events have habitats.
varied from 4 to 38 years.

Severe droughts occurred in 1982 and 1994, and starting in 2002, three - Loss of land – due to flooding coastal plains, years of rainfall deficits led to continuing drought with low-lying atolls especially at risk.

in 2005.

But the most severe drought was in 2006.

- Less fresh water – as a result of floods, droughts Since 1999, severe drought has also hit much of Central and South-West Asia – affecting close to and cyclones which threaten freshwater supplies.
- Lower agricultural productivity – as a result of 60 million people and putting stress on agriculture, extreme weather events, such as warmer, wetter animal husbandry, water resources, and public climates that favour the breeding of pests.

health.
health.

Preliminary analysis suggests that these - Degraded coral reefs – coral reefs are bleached droughts are related to large-scale variations in the by higher ocean temperatures, causing some climate across the Indian and Pacific Oceans due to species, such as tuna to move to other areas.

global warming and related weather disturbances - More disease – a result of warmer, wetter such as ENSO (Liu, 2007).

conditions that favour insects such as mosquitoes as well as aquatic pathogens.
Drought planning and mitigation can now make - Reduced tourist income – due to visitors more use of satellite remote-sensing techniques.

discouraged by disasters and the prevalence of China, for example, has made substantial progress disease as well as by shrinking biodiversity.

in using these techniques to monitor soil moisture - Lower productivity – More severe disasters and and droughts.
To further address this, the National lower health standards will undermine natural Climate Program has developed the Drought- and human resources and inhibit economic Flood Monitoring System and Operational System for Climate Impact Assessment and for Short-term Climate Prediction.

Sea level rise development.

However, the impact is also likely to be severe in larger low-lying nations such as Bangladesh, and along deltas and river systems such as the Mekong (Box I-4).
UNU and the United Nations In the Asia-Pacific region, the countries among the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) most fragile and exposed are the Maldives and the (2009) mapped the effects and concluded that Pacific Island developing countries.

Many Pacific in the densely populated Ganges and Mekong Island countries are low-lying atolls, but even in systems a sea level rise of 1 metre could affect the larger countries many people live by the sea.
In 24 million people and reduce the land currently Fiji, for example, half the population live within 60 under intensive agriculture by at least 1.5 million kilometres of the shore and 90 per cent of villages hectares.

A sea level rise of 2 metres would affect 14 Chapter Ⅰ.
Disaster Risk in Asia and the Pacific an additional 11 million people and render at The Japan Meteorological Agency, however, has least 969,000 more hectares of agricultural land undertaken a new study that shows a gradual unproductive.

This would force millions of people increase in hourly rainfall and frequency of heavy to migrate, though many of these “environmental daily rainfall.
The Automated Meteorological migrants” who lack the necessary financial, social, Data Acquisition System (AMeDAS) has made and political resources would be unable to move observations at one-hour intervals at about 1,300 far enough to fully mitigate the impact and would regional observing stations since late 1970s.

find themselves in equally precarious destinations.
AMeDAS covers a shorter historical record than Tropical cyclones local weather stations which have records going back about 100 years but it has around nine times as many stations, making it easier to capture In the last 50 years, there have been significant localized heavy precipitation.
AMeDAS tallies up inter-decadal and inter-annual fluctuations in the the frequency of days with over 200 millimetres frequency of tropical cyclones in the Western North or over 400 millimetres of rain, and the frequency Pacific.

But there is no clear long-term trend (ESCAP/ of hours with over 50 millimetres and over 80 WMO Typhoon Committee, 2009).

The situation differs from one part of the region to another.

millimetres of rain.


Using 11-year average values, this shows gradual increases in hourly rain and in Japan and the Philippines, for example, show no the frequency of heavy daily rain.

However, since significant trend in the frequency of land-falling the observation period of AMeDAS is short and cyclones.
And in the case of China and Thailand, the frequencies of heavy and strong rain change the number seems to be decreasing, while for the considerably every year, further data will be needed Republic of Korea, it could be increasing.

In China, to capture the long-term trend (Ebihara, S, 2003).

the maximum intensity of land-falling tropical cyclones seems to be declining but there is no India gathers daily rainfall data from 1,803 weather trend in mean intensity.

And while the extreme stations.


For Central India during the monsoons winds induced by tropical cyclones appear to be between 1951 and 2000, there were fewer decreasing, there is no trend for the associated moderate rain events and more extreme ones.

precipitation.

However, since one trend has offset the other, there has been no significant trend for seasonal Most climate models project a reduction in the mean rainfall.
Central India is expected to have a number of tropical cyclones in the Western North substantial increase in hazards related to heavy rain Pacific, but there are fewer studies on cyclone intensity.

In a warmer climate, some models project an increase in the number of intense cyclones.

However, such projections have considerable uncertainties and limitations.

Heavy precipitation in the future (Goswami and others, 2006).
Forest fires Forest fires are primarily induced by humans although they are also aggravated by climatic extremes.

Many communities have traditionally used fires to clear agricultural land but nowadays Based on existing methods of rainfall monitoring, fires are regularly used to convert peat lands to IPCC has concluded that most land areas have commercial plantations, often to produce biofuels.
seen more frequent events of heavy precipitation, These land-use fires can spread as wildfires during which are consistent with global warming and the dry spells or during the extended droughts that are observed increases of atmospheric water vapour.

likely to occur during ENSO events.

These appear to 15 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 be increasing in severity and frequency as a result of climate change (GFMC, 2009).
Fires are also An index of disaster risk becoming more likely as a result of greater regional In the past five years, a number of international vegetation dryness following the melting glaciers in agencies have developed indexes for disaster risk the Himalayas.

In mainland South and South-East and management.


United Nations Development Asia, forest fires cause seasonal smoke pollution, Programme (UNDP), in partnership with UNEP- which is aggravated by industrial pollution and trash GRID, for example, has produced a Disaster Risk burning – leading to the “Asian brown cloud” or Index (DRI), which ranks the countries according the seasonal smoke pollution in Northern Thailand.

to the level of risk (Peduzzi et al, 2009).


Similarly, Columbia University and the World Bank under In Central Asia, unsustainable forestry practices, the ProVention Consortium have implemented often illegal, are increasing the risk and severity a Hotspot project, which aims to identify of wildfires and contributing to steppization.

In at greatest risk (Dilley, 2006).


The Americas North Asia, warming will affect forest cover and Indexing Programme of the Instituto de Estudios fire regimes and reduce the extent of permafrost.
Ambientales of the Universidad Nacional de In North-East Asia, notably in the far east of the Russian Federation, mixed forest ecosystems are Colombia in partnership with the InterAmerican Development Bank has produced a set of becoming increasingly vulnerable to fire – as a composite indexes that represent different aspects consequence of careless fire use and reduced of disaster risk or disaster risk management institutional capacities to manage fires (GFMC, (Cardona, 2006).

2009).
2009).

Climate change and disaster risk The current chapter provides risk indices by assessing risk patterns of non-major disaster events caused by hydrometeorological whose recurrence Although it is extremely difficult to quantify the period is within 20 months.

Extremely large physical impact of any particular climate change disasters caused by earthquakes, tsunamis, and process, there have been some qualitative tropical cyclones are not a primary target.
estimates of future disaster risks and the threats to development in Asia and the Pacific (IPCC, Using data from EM-DAT (for the period of 2000- 2007).
In the absence of any countermeasures, 2004 to 2005-2009), trends have been estimated climate change is expected to influence future for the risks of deaths and the number of people disaster risks in three ways: first, through the likely increase in weather and climatic hazards such as global warming, sea-level rise, and erratic affected per month per million population, as well as the economic damage and loss per month expressed as a percentage of GDP.
precipitation patterns; second, through increases in the vulnerability of communities to natural hazards The use of a return period of once in 20 months due to ecosystem degradation, reductions in water provides us with an opportunity to make the resources and food availability, and changes in results more meaningful to decision makers in the livelihoods; and third, by pushing more people to region, since 20 months is well within the terms of higher levels of hazard exposure.
Many communities elected officials in the region.

It also circumvents will also be less able to cope with even existing the inherent limitations of the EM-DAT database, levels of disastrous natural hazards, as a result of which is its incomplete coverage of more frequent environmental degradation and rapid unplanned disaster events in countries.

urban growth coupled with climate change.

16 Chapter Ⅰ.

Disaster Risk in Asia and the Pacific The overall results are presented in Figure I-3.
This of deaths by climatological disasters.

uses the following symbols to express changes between the periods 2000-2004 and 2005-2009: North and Central Asia – Risks decreased for ▼– Risk has reduced ▲– Risk has increased ■– Risk has stayed the same multi-hazard and climatological disasters but increased for people affected by hydrological and meteorological disasters.

Pacific region – Risks increased for deaths by The results are in one sense reassuring.
Apart geophysical, hydrological and climatological from the risk of deaths caused by meteorological disasters.

The risk of people affected per month hazards, generally, risks have not increased.

per million has also increased for multi-hazard and However, this may also seem surprising given the hydrological disasters.

enormous efforts in recent years to improve multi- hazard early warning systems.
South-East Asia – The risk of deaths and numbers of people affected by meteorological disasters This figure also shows the changes in risk by various country groups.

has increased as well as the risk of deaths by climatological disasters.
East and North-East Asia – Risks have decreased South and South-West Asia – Risk of loss by or kept constant for almost all types of disasters climatological disasters has reduced while the risk of and types of impact, the exception being the risk deaths by meteorological disasters has increased.
Figure I-3 Trend in disaster risk, Asia-Pacific country groupings – 2000-2004 to 2005-2009 Multi-hazard Geophysical Meteorological Hydrological Climatological Country grouping Asia and the Pacific East and North-East Asia North and Central Asia Pacific South-East Asia South and South-West Asia LDC LLDC Low income Lower middle income Upper middle income High income e l p o e P l a t o T d e t c e f f A ▼ ■ ▼ ▲ ▲ ■ ■ ▼ ▼ ■ ■ ■ s e i t l a u s a C ■ ■ ▼ ■ ■ ■ ▲ ■ ▲ ▼ ■ ■ e g a m a D .
n o c E s s o L d n a ■ ■ ▼ ■ ■ ■ ▲ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ■ e l p o e P l a t o T d e t c e f f A ■ ▼ ■ ▼ ■ ▼ ▲ ■ ■ ▼ ▲ ▲ s e i t l a u s a C ■ ■ ■ ▲ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ■ ■ ▲ ■ e g a m a D .

n o c E s s o L d n a ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ e l p o e P l a t o T d e t c e f f A ■ ■ ▲ ■ ▲ ■ ▲ ▼ ■ ■ ■ ▼ s e i t l a u s a C ▲ ■ ▼ ▼ ▲ ▲ ■ ▲ ▲ ■ ▲ ■ e g a m a D .

n o c E s s o L d n a ■ ■ ▼ ▼ ■ ■ ▲ ▼ ▲ ■ ▼ ■ e l p o e P l a t o T d e t c e f f A ■ ■ ▲ ▲ ■ ■ ▼ ▲ ■ ▲ ■ ■ s e i t l a u s a C ■ ■ ▼ ▲ ■ ■ ■ ▲ ■ ■ ■ ■ e g a m a D .
n o c E s s o L d n a ■ ▼ ▼ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ■ ▼ ■ ▼ ■ e l p o e P l a t o T d e t c e f f A ■ ■ ■ ■ ▲ ▼ ■ ▼ ■ ▼ ▲ ▼ s e i t l a u s a C ▼ ▲ ▼ ▲ ■ ▼ ▼ ▼ ■ ■ ▲ ▲ e g a m a D .

n o c E s s o L d n a ▼ ■ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ■ ▼ ■ Source: ESCAP based on data from EM-DAT: The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database – www.emdat.be – Université Catholique de Louvain – Brussels – Belgium.

The estimates were calculated by comparing the Value at Risk of impact of disasters between 2 periods of 5 years.
Notes: Multi-hazard comprises Geophysical, Meteorological, Hydrological and Climatological Geophysical = Earthquake, Volcano, Mass Movement (dry), Meteorological = Tropical Storm, Extra-Tropical cyclone - winter storm, Local / Convective Storm, Hydrological = Flood and Mass Movement (wet) Climatological = Extreme Temperature, Drought, Wildfires 17 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Analysis of countries with special needs suggests the poorer countries.
that risk of hydrological disasters has increased in the Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs), Figure I-4 presents the result of similar analysis of while the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) have trends of risk for individual countries.

The blank experienced an increase in risk of loss caused by cells in the table indicate the countries, period and multi-hazard, geophysical and meteorological type of loss for which no conclusive assessment events.
Overall the risks appear to be increasing in could be made.
Figure I-4 Trend in disaster risk, Asia-Pacific economies – 2000-2004 to 2005-2009 Country East and North-East Asia China Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Hong Kong, China Japan Macao, China Mongolia Republic of Korea North and Central Asia Armenia Azerbaijan Georgia Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Russian Federation Tajikistan Turkmenistan Uzbekistan Pacific Australia Cook Island Fiji French Polynesia Guam Kiribati Marshall Islands Micronesia (Federated States of) Nauru New Caledonia New Zealand Niueu Northern Mariana Islands Palau Papua New Guinea Samoa Solomon Islands Tonga Tuvalu Vanuatu South-East Asia Brunei Darussalam Cambodia Indonesia Lao People’s Democratic Republic Malaysia Myanmar Philippines Singapore Thailand Timor-Leste Viet Nam South and South-West-Asia Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan India Iran (Islamic Republic of) Maldives Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka Turkey Multi-hazard Geophysical d e t c e f f A e l p o e P l a t o T ■ ■ ▼ ■ ▲ ▼ ▼ ■ ▼ ■ ■ ▲ ■ ▼ ▲ ▲ ▲ ■ ▼ ■ ■ ■ ▲ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ■ ■ ■ ▼ s e i t i l a s u a C ■ e g a m a D .
n o c E s s o L d n a ■ d e t c e f f A e l p o e P l a t o T ▼ ■ ▲ ▼ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▲ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▲ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ e g a m a D .
n o c E s s o L d n a ■ ■ ▼ ■ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ■ ▼ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▲ ■ ■ ■ ▲ ■ ▼ ■ ▼ ▼ ▲ ▼ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ▼ ■ ■ ▼ ■ ▼ ▼ ■ ▲ ▼ ▼ ■ ▼ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▲ ■ ■ ■ ■ s e i t i l a s u a C ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ▼ ▼ ■ ■ ▼ ▼ ▲ ▼ ▲ ■ ■ ■ ▲ ▲ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▲ ▲ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ■ ▲ ▼ ■ ▼ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ■ ▼ ▼ ▲ ▼ Meteorological e g a m a D s e i t i l a s u a C ■ ▲ d e t c e f f A e l p o e P l a t o T ■ ■ s s o L d n a .
n o c E ■ ▲ ▼ ■ ▼ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ▼ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▲ ■ ▲ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ■ ▼ ▼ ▼ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ■ ▼ ■ ▼ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▲ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ■ ▲ ▲ ▼ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▲ ■ ▼ ▲ ■ ▲ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ■ ▼ ▲ ▼ ■ ▼ ▲ ■ ▼ ■ ▼ ■ ■ ▼ Hydrological Climatological e g a m a D .
n o c E s s o L d n a ▼ ▼ ■ ▼ ▼ ▼ ■ ▼ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▲ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ▲ ■ ■ ▼ ■ ▼ ■ ■ ■ d e t c e f f A e l p o e P l a t o T ■ ▲ ■ ▲ ▲ ▲ ■ ▼ ▲ ■ ▲ ▲ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ■ ■ ▲ ▲ ▼ ■ ▼ ■ ▲ ▲ ▲ ■ ▼ s e i t i l a s u a C ▲ ▲ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ■ ■ ▲ ▲ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ▼ ■ ▼ ■ ▼ ▼ ■ ▼ s e i t i l a s u a C ■ ■ ■ ▲ ■ ▼ ▼ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ▼ ▼ ■ ■ ▲ ▲ ▲ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▲ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ■ ■ ▼ ▼ ■ ■ ▼ ■ ▼ ■ ■ ▼ ■ ▲ ▲ ■ d e t c e f f A e l p o e P l a t o T ■ ▲ ■ ▼ ■ ■ ■ ▲ ▼ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▲ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ■ ▼ ▼ e g a m a D s s o L d n a .
n o c E ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ▼ ■ ■ ▼ ▼ ▼ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ■ ■ ■ ■ ▼ ■ ■ ▼ ▼ ■ ▼ ■ Source: ESCAP based on data from EM-DAT: The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database – www.emdat.be – Université Catholique de Louvain – Brussels – Belgium.

The estimates were calculated by comparing the Value at Risk of impact of disasters between 2 periods of 5 years.

18 Chapter Ⅰ.
18 Chapter Ⅰ.

Disaster Risk in Asia and the Pacific Box I-1 – Regional cooperative mechanism on disaster monitoring and early warning, particularly drought ESCAP launched this Mechanism in September 2010, with technical support of China, India, Thailand, WMO, Asia- Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO), ESCAP/WMO Typhoon Committee and other stakeholders.
Its major functions include: a) provision of satellite information products and services for monitoring drought and identifying high risk areas for early warning possible drought; b) an information portal for accessing technical services of the mechanism, national drought profiles, technical references and other drought risk management related information; and c) capacity building to assist ESCAP members in developing localized products and services and national service networks, and to provide opportunities for training, technology transfer, technical cooperation and pilot projects.
At the initial stage, it will cover only drought, but gradually flood and other types of disasters at a later stage.

In this connection, the Mechanism is expected to eventually also activate provision of space-based products to the affected government immediately after a major disaster strikes.
Box I-2 – Recent mega-disasters in Asia and the Pacific Cyclone Nargis (Myanmar) – 2-3 May 2008 ● Category: 4 (Saffir-Simpson scale) ●People killed: 84,530 deaths and 53,836 missing ●People affected: 2.4 million ●Economic damage: $4 billion Wenchuan Earthquake (China) - 12 May 2008 ●Magnitude: 8.0 (Richter scale) ●People killed: 69,227 deaths and 17,923 missing (by 25 September 2008) ●People affected: 45.6 million ●Economic damage: $85 billion Indian Ocean Tsunami - 26 December 2004 ●Magnitude: 9.3 (Richter scale) ●People killed: 184,167 and 45,752 missing ●People affected: 5.0 million ●Economic damage: $10 billion Box I-3 – Estimating tsunami risks with sedimentation surveys Gigantic earthquakes repeat at several hundred year intervals and the history of past events can be used to calculate the probability of future ones.
For earthquakes with long recurrence intervals, these can be based on geological data.

Indeed sediments left in the wake of tsunamis are often the only discernable record that a coastline has been struck.

In Indonesia, in Meulaboh and in Aceh, sand sheets represent earlier tsunamis soon after AD 1290-1400 and after AD 780-990.

An additional limited sand sheet might correlate with a documented smaller tsunami in AD 1907.
In Simeulue Island, a fresh, uneroded coral boulder from a paleo-tsunami layer yields an age consistent with a historically recorded earthquake in 1861.

Another paleo-tsunami layer may have been deposited by a tsunami associated with an earlier event around 1799.

In Pangandaran, West Java, the deposit is correlated to the tsunami in 1921.

In Sri Lanka, at Karagan lagoon, Hambantota, a sand layer might correlate with an historical tsunami, which occurred during 2100-2300 BP.
In the same lagoon, the possible tsunami sand layers, which might suggests the past tsunami recurrence, were formed at about 600 to 1,000 years intervals.

In Thailand, at Phra Thong Island, the ages of four paleotsunami sand layers, which are likely to have been deposited by the predecessors of the 2004 tsunamis, are estimated range from 300 to 2,300 years ago.
In Banda Aceh in Indonesia, the 2004 Earthquake that caused the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami has a predicted 520 years return period earthquake though lesser events are more frequent, as indicated in the table below.
Magnitude (Mw) Return period years Tsunami height (m) at Banda Aceh 9.2 8.5 8.0 7.5 7.0 520 250 120 55 25 Source: Latief, H et-al 2009 9.5 5.2 2.7 1.11 0.48 19 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Box I-4 – Climate change in the Mekong Delta, Viet Nam The Mekong Delta would be seriously impacted by climate change due to sea level rise, warmer, longer and more arid dry seasons, increased flooding during the rainy season and elevated Carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations.
This will directly affect the presence of pesticides in the environment, referred to as “pesticide fate”.

But there will also be indirect effects as a result of altered development, reproduction and dispersal of invertebrate pests; changes in resistance and cultivation conditions of common crop varieties; and changing land use patterns.

Since the mid-1980s, pesticide use in the Mekong Delta has increased substantially.
This has been reduced somewhat through integrated pest management and 3R3G (3 reductions, 3 gains).

But climate change is likely to influence land use and the outbreaks of insect pests and diseases and undermine these positive developments.

Source: Sebesvari and others, 2010 Box I-5 – Tornadoes in Bangladesh Bangladesh lies between the Himalayas to the north and Bay of Bengal to the south, and has an intricate river system and complex and shallow coastal configuration.
Cold heavy air from the north and warm moist air from the south create the conditions for severe thunderstorms, which spawn frequent tornadoes or other strong winds.

During the period 1961 to 1996, these caused more than 10,000 deaths.

The frequency is likely to increase as a result of climate change (IAWE, 2009).
Source: Kayahara, 2009 Box I-6 – Building a disaster risk index For building the index in this report, the definition of risk adopted in this report is the following one proposed by Cardona (2003): “Risk: the expected number of lives lost, persons injured, damage to property and disruption of economic activity due to a particular natural phenomenon, and consequently the product of specific risk and elements at risk.” “Thus, risk is the potential loss to the exposed subject or system, resulting from the convolution of hazard and vulnerability.
In this sense, risk may be expressed in mathematical form as the probability of surpassing a determined level of economic, social or environmental consequences at a certain place and during a certain period of time”.
20 chapter Ⅱ Socio-economic impacts of disasters Impacts of disasters ● 22 Economic and social damage assessments ● 24 Impact on livelihoods and poverty ● 26 Impact on health and education ● 30 Psychosocial impacts ● 30 Gender impacts ● 31 Socio-economic vulnerability to disasters ● 32 Defending the poor by accelerating vulnerability reduction ● 36 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Socio-economic impacts of disasters Disasters, whether single dramatic large-scale events or smaller-scale ongoing crises, not only cause immediate economic damage and loss of life, they also have a deep and lasting impact on human development.
Disaster losses are often linked with, or exacerbated by poverty and vulnerabilities of the poor that stem from socio-economic and environmental imbalances.

In turn, disasters may push people into poverty and affect the ability of the poor to rise out of poverty – since people who are constantly exposed to such threats and income shocks are more likely to stay poor and vulnerable, setting in motion a vicious cycle that can be extremely difficult to break.
Impacts of disasters Disasters used to be considered as singular events Indirect losses – These arise out of direct losses primarily demanding emergency humanitarian and relate to disruptions in the flow of goods and responses focused on meeting basic physical needs services that cause additional losses in income of survivors.

But for many people, smaller-scale earnings and jobs.

disasters are an ongoing part of daily life.


And on a larger scale these events have a legacy that is Macroeconomic effects – These refer to the deep with potential lasting impact on the quality impacts on economic factors such as GDP growth of economic growth and development.

The loss rates, indebtedness levels, fiscal deficits, and of human capital and social consequences are balance of payment performance.
These effects particularly far reaching in developing countries, also arise when disasters increase the scale and where they are often linked with or exacerbated incidence of poverty, affect human capital, heighten by poverty, reflecting wider socio-economic gender inequalities and even change the structure inequalities.

In turn, disasters can prevent people and composition of individual communities.

from rising out of poverty.
Disaster damages and losses can be considered in losses depends on the type and intensity of a three categories: direct losses, indirect losses and hazard event, the geographical area of impact, The scale and nature of disaster damages and secondary effects: its population, the scale and nature of assets exposed to the event, the hazard’s timing relative Direct damage and losses – These relate to loss of human life and injury together with physical to the agricultural cycle, the extent and nature of vulnerability of people and assets to the hazard damage to assets, including homes, schools, event and the scope for, quality and effectiveness of hospitals, transport and telecommunications any warning systems.
For example, physical damage infrastructure, crop and livestock losses, etc.

in the event of a drought is typically limited largely 22 Chapter Ⅱ. Socio-economic impacts of disasters to crops and livestock.

Both rain-fed and irrigated areas were heavily affected by the 2007 floods in crops may be adversely affected.

Droughts can also Nepal, resulting in high percentage or even total delay planting operations and result in outbreaks of crop losses, but the standing paddy crop in other pests.
Hydropower generation can be additionally areas benefited from the temporary immersion, affected, resulting in electricity shortages and, with an overall surplus production expected from where relevant, reduced export earnings.

the latter areas (WFP and others 2007).

In contrast, earthquakes have little impact on standing crops, excluding localized losses.
However, The impacts of typhoons1 are similar, to the extent that they are associated with heavy rain and related they can potentially cause widespread loss of life, flooding.
Typhoons can also cause storm surges destruction of infrastructure and other productive and related seawater intrusion, damaging crops capacity, potentially including agricultural and aquaculture activities; and considerable wind i n f r a s t r u c t u re a n d i n p u t d i s t r i b u t i o n a n d damage both to physical structures and crops, marketing networks.
For example, the May 2008 taking off roofs, bringing down whole buildings, Wenchuan Earthquake in China resulted in 87,476 power lines and trees, and flattening crops.

As with deaths, destroyed or badly damaged transport infrastructure, water and sanitation facilities, flooding, related levels of loss depend in part on the strength and timing of a typhoon relative to the communications and power supply networks and agricultural cycle.
industrial and agricultural infrastructure as well as social infrastructure, including hospitals, clinics, These various direct losses can lead to a wide array schools and homes (ADB 2009b).

of indirect and secondary effects.


The 2005 India/ Pakistan Kashmir Earthquake, for instance, was Floods, too, with weak warning systems, can cause estimated to have resulted in the loss of almost considerable loss of life and extensive physical a third of local jobs in the Pakistani Azad Jammu damage to infrastructure.

Roads, bridges, irrigation and Kashmir (AJK) region, one of the poorest infrastructure and even flood control structures can regions in the country (Shortall, 2009).
Direct be washed away together with non-fixed assets losses in one sector can also lead through to and flimsier housing and other building structures, indirect impacts in others, most obviously where whilst remaining buildings and other infrastructure widespread crop losses result in reduced inputs to can suffer considerable damage.

Intense flooding the agro-processing industry and associated job also damages and destroys crops and can disrupt losses.
Crop losses can necessitate greater food agricultural operations due to prolonged inundation of flood waters, flood-related river bank erosion and cutting, shifts in the course of rivers and heavy imports as well, with potential implications for the balance of payments and levels of foreign reserves, and force up prices, affecting poor households deposits of sediment on fields and in irrigation disproportionately and fuelling inflation.

There may channels.
There may channels.

In common with droughts, floods can be further consequences for agricultural production also be associated with an increased incidence of in subsequent cropping seasons as well, in part pestilence and crop disease, further reducing crop depending on access to inputs and the extent of yields.

However, the net direct impacts of flooding damage to agricultural land and infrastructure.
For on the agricultural sector are sometimes beneficial, instance, 20,000 hectares of seed-growing areas rather than detrimental, as moderate flooding in in Sichuan, which produces up to 20 per cent of less severely affected areas can improve soil fertility China’s rice seeds, were badly hit by the 2008 and productivity by depositing micro-nutrients, fine silt and loam on fields (Dixit and others 2008).
For instance, crop land near rivers and in low-lying 1 Wind storms are termed hurricanes in the North Atlantic and South Pacific, typhoons in the West Pacific and cyclones in the Indian Ocean.

The terms are used interchangeably in this chapter.
23 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Earthquake, raising concerns about subsequent rice crops.2 have been found to have a significant impact on children’s school attendance by physically preventing children from reaching schools; by Disasters can even have consequences for world reducing household capacity to meet the cost markets.
For instance, a rapid increase in world of school fees and stationary; by resulting in the rice prices in early 2008, in turn feeding into a transfer of children into income-generating activities wider food price crisis with particularly severe to supplement household earnings; and by resulting impacts on the world’s poor, was in part linked in increased (adult) male migration, requiring to a series of pest outbreaks and natural hazard children to stay at home to help with domestic and events in a number of major producing countries agricultural work (Gautam and Oswald, 2008).
The (IRRI 2008).

The price of Thai rice increased almost 2008 Koshi Flood alone disrupted the education of three-fold between December 2007 and April some 23,000 Nepali school students, including both 2008, to a high of around $1,000 per tonne.

The displaced students and students of the host schools price subsequently fell but has remained around where the displaced were sheltered (Archarya, and double the pre-crisis level, reflecting longer-term Aryal, 2008).
In Viet Nam, disaster-related damage fundamentals behind the crisis (most notably rising global demand in excess of growth in output and to school buildings has also disrupted the quality of schooling, resulting in the temporary relocation higher production costs).
of students to schools in neighbouring localities, thereby increasing class sizes, and resulting in shifts Disasters can also have potential budgetary from full to half-day or even a third-day schooling, consequences, relating both to possible disaster- within remaining usable classrooms, sometimes for related reductions in government revenue and periods of a year or more.

additional, unplanned expenditure in support of the relief and recovery effort.
A government may be obliged to address these Economic and social damage assessments budgetary pressures via a partial reallocation Studies of recent disasters in the region’s LDC – of resources, with implications for planned the 2007 Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh, the 2008 Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, the 2009 Bhutan consequences, or a widening of the fiscal deficit.
Earthquake, the 2009 Tsunami in Samoa, and the The latter will imply increased domestic and/or 2009 Typhoon Ketsana in Lao Peoples’ Democratic external borrowing or an expansion of the money supply, each, in turn, with potentially significant knock-on effects (Benson and Clay 2004).

Republic and Cambodia, were carried out to determine the value of damaged assets and the magnitude of losses on economic flows as well as reconstruction requirements for various sectors.
The legacy of a disaster may be particularly far Table II-1 shows that at the macroeconomic level, reaching via its impact on human capital, with the impacts of disasters varied from extremely long-term implications for socio-economic growth severe in the case of Cyclone Nargis to marginal in and development.

This impact reflects both tragic the case of Typhoon Ketsana.
loss of life and disruptions to education, in turn due to damage to school buildings and reduced As indicated in Table II-2, disasters also have a attendance.

In Nepal, for instance, disasters significant impact on social sectors.

However, the 2 www.javno.com/en-world/sichuan-earthquake-agriculture- damage-usd6-bln---fao_160203, quoting FAO.

Accessed 6 December 2009. needs assessments conducted, suggested that during reconstruction, a lower priority was given to the social sectors.
In Bangladesh, for example, 24 Chapter Ⅱ. Socio-economic impacts of disasters while the social sectors suffered 55 per cent of the and underlines the importance of dedicating more damage and losses from Cyclone Sidr, it was only resources to the social sectors not only in the post- accorded 22.6 per cent of the funds in the needs disaster recovery process but more importantly as assessments.
This divergence between economic an essential component of a country’s long term and social recovery will widen levels of inequity – development strategy.
Table II-1 Major disasters in Asia and the Pacific – the social and economic impact Disasters Cyclone Sidr Cyclone Nargis Samoa Tsunami Typhoon Ketsana, Lao PDR Typhoon Ketsana, Cambodia Bhutan Earthquake Deaths 3,406 84,537* 154 28 43 12 Affected population Effects on GDP (%) 1,000,000 2,400,000 5,274 180,000 180,000 7,240 2.8 21 20 0.4 0.2 -- Note: * Including people missing, the total is around 140,000.
Source of data: (i) Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh – Damage, Loss and Needs Assessment for Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction, Report by Govt of Bangladesh, April 2008; (ii) Post Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) – Report by Tripartite Core Group comprising Govt of Myanmar, Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), UN, July 2008; (iii) Samoa - ESCAP - the Early Recovery Team consisted of the United Nations (UNDP, UNEP, UNESCO, FAO, OHCHR, ESCAP, UNISDR), the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, IPA, Conservation International and SPREP; (iv) Ketsana Typhoon in the Lao PDR (September 29, 2009): Damage, Loss and Needs Assessment for Disaster Recovery and Livelihood Restoration, A Report prepared by the Government of the Lao PDR, November 2009; (v) Comprehensive Post Disaster Needs Assessment – Ketsana Recovery and Reconstruction in Cambodia, Royal Govt of Cambodia Report, March 2010, (vi) Bhutan Earthquake September 21, 2009 - Joint Rapid Assessment for Recovery, Reconstruction and Risk Reduction, The Royal Government of Bhutan, the World Bank and the United Nations, 20 October 2009.
Table II-2 Damage, loss and needs assessments, selected disasters in LDCs Bangladesh Cyclone Sidr 2007 Myanmar Cyclone Nargis 2008 Samoa Tsunami 2009 Lao PDR Typhoon Ketsana 2009 Cambodia Typhoon Ketsana 2009 Bhutan Earthquake 2009 Sectors Social Productive Infrastructure Cross-sectoral Total Social Productive Infrastructure Cross-sectoral Total Social Productive Infrastructure Cross-sectoral Total Social Productive Infrastructure Cross-sectoral Total Social Sectors Productive Sectors Infrastructure Cross-sectoral Total Social Productive Infrastructure Cross-sectoral Total Damage $ millions Losses $ millions Damage and loss assessments Total $ millions % by sector Total $ millions Needs assessment % by sector 904.20 25.10 222.50 6.10 1,157.90 937.54 669.00 132.26 15.20 21.00 464.00 30.90 - 515.90 30.00 2138.00 58.00 42.00 1,754.00 2,268.00 15.78 39.45 81.68 - 136.91 10.13 19.71 21.16 51.00 39.54 1.05 14.47 0.20 55.26 13.50 - - - 13.50 10.51 76.33 9.78 0.32 96.94 0.74 2.36 3.47 6.57 3.35 59.00 11.47 0.10 73.91 52.00 - - - 52.00 925.20 489.10 253.40 6.10 1,673.80 967.70 2,806.80 189.90 57.20 4,021.60 26.29 115.78 91.46 0.32 233.85 10.87 22.07 24.36 57.3 42.89 60.05 25.94 0.31 129.18 65.50 - - - - 66.13 42.91 119.05 37.40 14.16 213.52 41.70 - - 2.04 43.74 22.6 34.1 41.7 1.6 85.7 5.1 8.8 0.4 19.3 52.8 27.8 0.2 20.6 36.9 42.5 0.0 20.1 55.8 17.5 6.6 95.3 4.7 Sources: (i) Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh – Damage, Loss and Needs Assessment for Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction, Report by Govt of Bangladesh, April 2008; (ii) Post Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) – Report by Tripartite Core Group comprising Govt of Myanmar, ASEAN, UN, July 2008; (iii) Samoa - ESCAP - the Early Recovery Team consisted of the United Nations (UNDP, UNEP, UNESCO, FAO, OHCHR, ESCAP, UNISDR), the World Bank, ADB, IPA, Conservation International and SPREP; (iv) Ketsana Typhoon in the Lao PDR (September 29, 2009): Damage, Loss and Needs Assessment for Disaster Recovery and Livelihood Restoration, A Report prepared by the Government of the Lao PDR, November 2009; (v) Comprehensive Post Disaster Needs Assessment – Ketsana Recovery and Reconstruction in Cambodia, Royal Govt of Cambodia Report, March 2010, (vi) Bhutan Earthquake September 21, 2009 - Joint Rapid Assessment for Recovery, Reconstruction and Risk Reduction, The Royal Government of Bhutan, the World Bank and the United Nations, 20 October 2009.
25 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Impact on livelihoods and poverty proportion rely on home produced food.

As a result, while Samoa as a whole subsequently experienced a significant increase in household In many economies the largest share of economic income many of those in the tsunami-affected output and employment is for agriculture – as areas were left behind and poverty increased.
many people work in subsistence agriculture, relying primarily on meagre assets, agricultural ● Cambodia – Typhoon Ketsana hit 14 of the land, small-scale livestock raising and cash crops, country’s poorest provinces where families, which and common natural resources such as fish and were already suffering from food shortages, are non-timber forest products.

For this reason, the further impoverished as most of the rice crop greatest impact of disasters on livelihoods is often was damaged or destroyed.
felt through damages and losses in the agriculture sector – to houses and shelters and productive ● Lao PDR – Typhoon Ketsana hit districts in assets including agricultural land, livestock, rural five southern provinces that were among the and small-scale enterprises as well as loss of country’s poorest and most food insecure – employment.

For example: and just when household food stocks were at their lowest and farmers were preparing for the ● Pakistan – The 2005 Kashmir Earthquake was harvest.
estimated to have resulted in the loss of almost a third of jobs in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir In small economies, inter-annual movements in region, one of the country’s poorest regions GDP can even closely track patterns of hazard (Shortall, 2009).

occurrence.

As indicated for Fiji in Figure II-1, Fiji experiences a wide range of natural ● Bangladesh – Cyclone Sidr affected densely hazards, including cyclones, droughts, floods, populated areas with poverty levels ranging earthquakes and tsunamis.
In such economies, between 35-50 per cent of the population – even events such as cyclones or volcanic reducing the incomes and employment for two eruptions whose impact would be relatively million people.

localized in a larger country can have significant macroeconomic ramifications.
They can destroy a ● Myanmar – Cyclone Nargis caused extensive significant segment of the transport, power, and damage and loss of livelihoods, employment communications networks, as well as productive and income for poor communities dependent on small-scale agriculture and fishing and resource- based small-scale enterprises.

and social infrastructure, and even precipitate an exodus of human capital (Benson and Clay, 2004).
A loss that would be merely a local transfer in a ● Samoa – The tsunami hit one of the country’s in such economies (Handmer and Thompson, poorest regions, where a higher than average 1997).
larger country can represent a devastating setback 26 Chapter Ⅱ. Socio-economic impacts of disasters Figure II-1 Fiji, annual fluctuations in GDP relative to the incidence of disaster, 1980-2008 ) % ( e t a r h t w o r g P D G l a u n n A 10.0 8.0 6.0 4.0 2.0 0.0 -2.0 -4.0 -6.0 -8.0 Source: Based on Benson (1997a) with additional data from www.databank.worldbank.org and www.sopac.org/fiji Annual GDP growth in real terms (%) Countries with small and vulnerable economies economy’s growth shrank to only 4.5 per cent, have the highest ratio of economic loss to capital compared to post-tsunami forecast of 5.7 per cent stock and also tend to have very low national due to various, unrelated factors, including rising savings, and thus have less capacity to absorb oil prices and domestic interest rates, inflation, impacts and recover.
These include the Least drought and unrest in the countries three southern Developed Countries, Small Island Developing most provinces (NESDB, 2006).

The Maldives States (SIDS) and Landlocked Developing Countries economy, too, performed much more weakly than (LLDCs) – which together comprise about two forecast, with a negative growth rate of 4.6 per thirds of the countries with very high economic cent compared to a post-tsunami forecast of -1.7 vulnerability to disasters (UNISDR, 2009).
per cent, followed by 19.1 per cent growth the following year, bringing GDP up to a level of 13.6 However, the medium to longer-term macroeconomic per cent higher (in real terms) than in 2004. ramifications of major disaster events are less clear- cut, particularly in larger economies.
Even short- Over the past 10 years, there has been a surge term impacts can be difficult to gauge in larger of academic interest, in part stimulated by rising economies from a visual examination of broad disaster losses, to establish whether disasters are indicators of economic performance alone, because good or bad, on balance, for an economy.

Much of of difficulties in disentangling their effects from this research has focused on cross-country empirical other influences on economic performance.
For analysis, in particular on the impact of disasters on instance, returning to the example of the 2004 GDP growth, taking a lead from existing theories Indian Ocean Tsunami, Indonesia achieved an of development which place considerable emphasis actual annual GDP growth rate of 5.7 per cent (in on the roles of capital and labour growth and constant price terms), compared to a post-disaster productivity (e.g.

Solow, 1956; Denison, 1967).


forecast of 5.2 per cent, whilst GDP grew by 6.2 As already discussed, disasters reduce the pace per cent year-on-year (in constant price terms) in of capital accumulation by destroying existing Sri Lanka, 0.8 percentage points higher that the productive and social capital (including standing revised post-disaster forecast.

In contrast, the Thai crops) and diverting scarce resources away from 27 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 new investment.
They can also result in deaths, their varying direct and indirect impacts.

This has long-term health problems and withdrawal of yielded some extremely illuminating and relatively children from education, reducing existing human consistent findings (Table II-3).

capital stock.
At the same time, disasters can generate construction-led booms and offer an These findings on differences in the economic opportunity to upgrade capital and so achieve impact of various types of natural hazard are a leap in technological progress, potentially explained to some extent by the fact that stimulating an economy via Aghion and Howitt’s climatological, hydrological and meteorological (1998) endogenous Schumpterian model of growth hazards destroy intermediate inputs to production, through a process of creative destruction.
particularly agricultural crops with direct adverse impacts on economic output.

In contrast, Somewhat confusingly, some of the empirical earthquakes (geophysical hazard) leave crops analysis has concluded that disasters either boost largely standing but damage infrastructure, economic growth or have little detrimental impact reducing the capital-labour ratio.

As such, so it is (e.g.


Albala-Betrand, 1993; Caselli and Malhotra, held, they redress imbalances between the two 2004) but others say that they reduce growth relating to relative over-investment in productive and may even force countries onto lower long- capital and under-investment in human capital, term growth projections (e.g.

Hochrainer 2009; particularly in middle-income countries, resulting Noy 2009; Skidmore and Toya 2007).
However, in higher growth via both increasing returns and questions have been raised about the findings of high reconstruction investments (Lopez, 2009; both Albala-Betrand and Caselli and Malhotra, the Loayza and others, 2009).
Adverse impacts of former relating to bias regarding the predominance climatological hazards are most extreme in the of geophysical hazards in his dataset (see below) case of droughts, where there is little to no (Benson and Clay, 2004) and the latter relating to damage to infrastructure and thus no possibility of the proxies used to measure capital and labour increasing returns to production or reconstruction- destructions and the timing of the growth response led booms.
Lower-income countries often have (Fomby and others, 2009).

larger agricultural and agro-processing sectors, explaining why climatological, hydrological and Some researchers have gone a step further and meteorological disasters also have relatively larger disaggregated by type of hazard, in recognition of economic impacts in these economies.
Table II-3 Literature review on the long-term impact of disasters by disaster type Reference Disaster type Impact on long term growth Other key findings Raddatz (2009) Geophysical Climatological Climatological (Drought) 0/+ -- -- Fomby et al (2009) Loayza et al (2009) Okuyama and Sahin (2009) Hydological (Moderate floods) ++ (with lag) Hydrological (Severe floods) Geophysical (Earthquake) 0 0 Hydrological (Floods) --- (for developing country industrial growth) +++ (for services output in all countries) Meteorological (Storms) -- (agriculture), ++ (industrial growth) Meteorological (Storms) --- Reduce GDP per capital by 1 per cent point for low- income countries but statistically insignificant impact on high income countries In developing countries, impact on agricultural GDP is negative but positive on non-agricultural growth Any positive impact of floods, earthquakes or storms are reversed in the event of severe events Highest impact multiplier of 2.02 (damage and losses spread to the widest extent), also found negative relationship between disaster impact and income level Note: scale is as follows – +++ ,--- significantly positive or negative; ++, -- positive or negative; +, - marginally positive or negative; 0 neutral 28 Chapter Ⅱ. Socio-economic impacts of disasters Consequences of major earthquakes may also be theory of creative destruction, Hallegatte and particularly extreme in lower income countries Dumas (2009) developed a theoretical Solow-like because of greater delays in the reconstruction growth model which revealed that slower, better process (see below), higher associated opportunity quality reconstruction, allowing embodiment of costs of reconstruction spending, greater loss of new technologies, amplifies the short run adverse life (reducing changes in the capital-labour ratio) consequences of a disaster but that these impacts and potentially widespread damage to basic are partly cancelled out in the long-term assuming infrastructure, such as road networks and ports, the level of reconstruction resources lies above a on which the economy relies.
Noy (2009) and threshold value (see below).

Meanwhile, Cuaresma Skidmore and Toya (2007) similarly find that the and others (2008) explored the extent of post- adverse economic impacts of disasters decline with disaster foreign knowledge spill-overs empirically, development, although they do not distinguish finding that countries with higher levels of between different types of hazard.
They also development are better able to take advantage find, variously, that countries with higher foreign of capital upgrading opportunities post disaster, exchange reserves, greater degrees of openness to in effect confirming Hallegatte and Dumas’ trade more developed financial sectors, including theoretical predictions to the extent that lower higher levels of domestic credit experience, and income countries are less likely to be able to access higher rates of literacy or educational attainment, sufficient reconstruction resources even to replace experience relatively lower losses.
like with like.

Hallegatte and others (2007) explored a different Some of the variations in detailed nuances of the angle, developing a theoretical econometric model above findings are almost certainly attributable to explore how economic outcomes are affected to differences in the disaster data on which the by the degree of availability and timeliness of analyses are based.

In interpreting the findings, it reconstruction funding.
Using probability density is particularly important to bear in mind that none functions for future losses based on historical of the indicators of disaster impact are necessarily data for Europe, their model shows that GDP particularly accurate.

Thus, as Hochrainer (2009), for losses remain moderate if a country has the instance, notes, there are enormous data challenges capacity to fund the reconstruction effort but in measuring impacts.
Further variations in findings that when funding available for reconstruction is reflect the fact that, inevitably, the various models limited, resulting in reconstruction activities over involve different elaborations, varying simplifying a number of years, disaster-related GDP losses assumptions and control for a range of different increase sharply.
The authors tentatively suggest factors such as per capita income, levels of literacy that this may partly explain why some poorer or educational attainment, external debt stocks, aid countries that experience repeated disasters flows and the degree of trade openness.

cannot develop, instead remaining in a perpetual state of reconstruction, making it difficult to Nevertheless, some relatively consistent, key accumulate productive capital.
In such situations, messages emerge, including that: it is particularly important that reconstructed infrastructure is built to higher standards.

● Disasters have larger relative impacts on Results of analysis on the role of technological ● The nature and overall magnitude of impact transfer further support the finding that economic varies between types of hazard.

impacts of disasters are more severe in lower- ● Severe disaster events do not have positive income countries.
In line with the Schumpterian impacts under any circumstances.

developing, than developed, countries.

29 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 , learning by children.
In the Philippines, for example, hydrological and meteorological hazards have it was found that after disasters, children had lower particularly severe economic impacts on developing attention span and interest in their studies (see countries is especially important in the light of below).

climate change, emphasizing the particular need to enhance resilience to these types of hazard.

Psychosocial impacts Impact on health and education Disasters also have profound psychosocial impacts.
In a matter of a few minutes or seconds, people go through violent and degrading experiences Some of the most immediate concerns are for that separate them from a familiar world that gave health.

Contamination of water supplies, for them safety and meaning.

They can lose their example, leads to an increase in water-borne independence and self-worth that is essential for diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea.
At the peaceful human interaction and socially cohesive same time the destruction of crops and agricultural communities.

These psychosocial impacts are less land lead to increases in food insecurity.

obvious than physical impacts.

Their negative effects are more gradual in onset and thus go un- There can also be disruption to education due to or underreported.

However, their effects can be physical damage to schools and the surrounding more insidious and destructive on the long run to infrastructure.
The Indian Ocean Tsunami in the well-being of societies.

2004, for example, resulted in losses to the education sector estimated at $ 230 million.

This To date, in Asia-Pacific, the availability of data type of economic impact to the sector is more is scarce and scattered across international apparent in some countries in the region.

In the o r g a n i z a t i o n s .


T h o u g h , W H O a n d o t h e r Philippines, the Department of Education showed organizations have some information on the an annual expenditure of U$ 8.6 million in 2006 psychosocial impact of the Indian Ocean Tsunami for repair and reconstruction of schools damaged and more recent disasters, long term empirical by typhoons.
Additionally, disasters negatively research that substantiates the interlinkages impact education by making it more difficult for between disasters and psychosocial disorders are families to afford sending their children to school.

not available.
not available.

Households may be less able to meet the cost of school fees, or have to keep children at home to do domestic and agricultural work to supplement household earnings, or to take the place of adults Anecdotal evidence suggests that the extent of psychosocial impact will depend to some extent on the severity of the disaster and its cause.

Natural who have had to migrate to urban areas (Gautam phenomena such as typhoons or floods, for example, and Oswald, 2008).
The 2008 Koshi Flood alone may be less traumatic than man-made events such disrupted the education of some 23,000 children.

as insurgencies or acts of terrorism.


People may also Also, during the 1998 floods in Bangladesh, 25- be in a stronger position if they can return home 30 per cent of students dropped out in the eastern quickly rather than living in “tent cities” that may be part of Dhaka when schools were closed for more sources of disease epidemics, physical abuse, rape, than 3 months due to the floods.

Disruption of and other human rights violations.


classes occur after disasters even if there is no damage to school facilities, as schools are often People are more likely to recover if they can rely used as emergency shelters for periods of several on social support networks, such as the extended months.

There are additional effects of disasters to family, friends, or religious communities.
In this 30 Chapter Ⅱ. Socio-economic impacts of disasters regard, there are reports of some elderly showing their authority.

Other family roles may also change.

greater mental resilience in confronting their Women who lose their spouses may be driven to ordeal than the young.
Having experienced many take on activities culturally attributed to men, while challenging events in their long lives, typically, harbouring deep misgivings about their capabilities many build up a disaster “immunity”, which plays to assume these duties.

At the same time children a stabilizing role in the affected communities.
may have to take on functions in the family that However, this important potential role could be are inappropriate for their age and consequently neutralized if the elderly succumb to diseases, increase their vulnerabilities further.

dehydration and malnutrition deficiencies that are common in post-disaster situations.
The elderly To date, for the most part, psychosocial trauma are especially vulnerable when social protection is in the Asia-Pacific region is not recognized for non-existent, or when income support previously what it is.

In some cases, the efforts to contain provided by children is no longer available in the spread of disease and restore essential services the aftermath of the disaster.
One report on the is so overwhelming that psychosocial support Wenchuan Earthquake found that 70 per cent of seems a luxury.

In other cases, psychological elderly lost their stable income source, primarily due to the loss of their children.
Not surprisingly, there and psychiatric services that are provided in the immediate aftermath of disasters are the first ones was an increase in depression with women worse to be phased out when circumstances start to affected: 24 per cent of male and 37 per cent of normalize.

Both survivors and relief organizations females showed severe depression and another may unwittingly camouflage psychological trauma 30 per cent of males and 38 per cent of females by focusing on the physical resilience of survivors.
showed moderate depression.

It is incumbent upon Furthermore, some countries in the region, notably state organs to anticipate these impacts by setting Indonesia and the Philippines, have a longer up social provisions of cash and in kind support prior tradition in providing psychosocial support than to disaster striking.

Furthermore, social protection others.

For other countries this concern is more systems for the elderly should be seen in terms of recent.
In 2005, the Maldives, for example, in their role in societies and the social obligation to cooperation with WHO, organized what appears to compensate them for the contributions that a long have been the first ever workshop on the current life brings to society – providing for the elderly is status and future preparedness in mental health and therefore an issue of social justice (Community psychosocial aspects in disasters.

In January 2010, Alliance November 2008).


Children also need special attention because their responses to trauma are different from adults and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre organized an event on psychosocial responses to disasters with a special focus on children.
The infrequent nature of these activities further underlines the urgent may not be immediately obvious, often masked by need for a more systematic, coordinated and long- behavioural disorders such as increased hostility, term approach to address the issue.

hyperactivity, or apathy.

Furthermore, they are the most vulnerable to malnutrition, dehydration and vector-borne diseases that can impact on their long term development.
Gender impacts Gender relations in disasters deserve special attention because they are a reflection on gender Disasters also alter family dynamics in unhealthy relations in society which in Asia and the Pacific ways.

Men who have lost their traditional role as are often very imbalanced, preventing women breadwinners may become particularly sensitive from gaining the benefits of development and to - real or perceived - attempts at undercutting making their full contribution.
Women have been 31 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 stereotyped as housewives, secondary earners or food, get water and look after the household.

In mothers.

Although gender issues are fairly well Nepal as more and more males migrate to find researched and debated, women are still largely work elsewhere, more women become heads of marginalized in issues, such as, literacy, land households, remaining in areas prone to flooding ownership and access to credit (UNISDR 2009).

or other disasters.
or other disasters.

The effects can also be different Accordingly, in dealing with disasters and the risks for disasters associated with climate change – and arising from climate change, the women have require gender-sensitive policies that take into different capacities to reduce risk and adapt and account the particular needs and capacities of both come up in political decision-making and legal women and men.

rights (UNDP 2010).
rights (UNDP 2010).

Unsurprisingly, therefore, during and after the disasters, women and children suffer most.

For Socio-economic vulnerability to disasters example, women accounted for 61 per cent In the context of disaster risk reduction, disaster of deaths in Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar (Joint vulnerability can be defined as “the lack of capacity Assessment Report), and 70 to 80 per cent of those who died during the Indian Ocean Tsunami.
In to anticipate, cope with, resist and recover from the impact of a natural disaster” (Blakie and others, the 1991 Bangladesh cyclone, death rates among 1994).

Vulnerability, therefore, can be determined women were almost four times higher than those by factors such as access to information, assets, among men.

social protection and insurance.


Two cities may, for example, have the same exposure to flooding Women are also affected differently during the but if one has better flood defences its people and recovery.

As caretakers they have to take most its economy will be at lower risk.
This is illustrated of the responsibility for sick and injured family in Figure II-2 for higher-frequency, lower-impact members while having less access to formal floods – those that occur on average every five recovery assistance when they are not the head years.

Using data from 1990 to 2009, the right of the household.

They may also be offered fewer hand graph shows the potential number of deaths, opportunities for employment and education.
In while the left hand graph presents the population families under stress women also faced increased exposed per year.

This indicates, for example, that violence.

A post-tsunami assessment in Thailand, Nepal has about the same level of exposure as for example, reported that young women who Thailand, but has a higher risk of deaths.

On the lost their jobs were in danger of being forced into commercial sex work.
At the same time there were fears of increases in HIV infections and other other hand, Bangladesh while highly exposed to these types of floods is less vulnerable.

A similar analysis can be carried out for storms, indicating diseases (UN Country Team Thailand, 2006).

that for lower-impact storms, the countries most vulnerable are the Philippines and Samoa (Figure Smaller-scale, local, slow-intensity disasters such II-3).

as monsoon floods and prolonged droughts also have distinct implications for women.
In parts of A similar analysis can be carried out for economic India and Pakistan, for example, during the periods vulnerability.

This shows that some of the Pacific of seasonal drought men migrate to cities or move Island countries are highly vulnerable.

In Samoa, out with animals in search for water and pasture, for example, even low-impact storms may cause leaving women, children and elderly to produce damage equivalent to 30 per cent of GDP.
32 Chapter Ⅱ. Socio-economic impacts of disasters Figure II-2 – Human vulnerability to high-frequency, lower impact floods Figure II-2 Human vulnerability to high-frequency, lower impact floods Cambodia Bangladesh Viet Nam Bhutan India Thailand Nepal Myanmar Philippines Sri Lanka Indonesia Pakistan Georgia Republic of Korea Afghanistan China Tajikistan Armenia Kyrgyzstan Azerbaijan Mongolia Russian Federation Turkey Malaysia Timor-Leste Japan Papua New Guinea Australia Cambodia Bangladesh Viet Nam Bhutan India Thailand Myanmar Philippines Sri Lanka Indonesia Pakistan Georgia Republic of Korea China Tajikistan Armenia Kyrgyzstan Azerbaijan Mongolia Russian Federation Turkey Malaysia Timor-Leste Japan Papua New Guinea Australia Nepal Afghanistan 140000 120000 100000 80000 60000 40000 20000 0 0 2 4 6 8 10 Population exposed per year (per million inhabitants) Modelled potential casualities (per million inhabitants) Source: ESCAP based on data from EM-DAT: The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database – www.emdat.be – Université Catholique de Louvain – Brussels – Belgium.
The estimates were calculated using probabilistic analysis of risk.
Figure II-3 – Human vulnerability to high-frequency, lower impact storms Figure II-3 Human vulnerability to high-frequency, lower impact storms Philippines Fiji Samoa Guam Japan Philippines Fiji Samoa Vanuatu Cook Islands Hong Kong, China Republic of Korea Bangladesh Myanmar Viet Nam India China Pakistan Australia Sri Lanka Guam Japan Vanuatu Cook Islands Hong Kong, China Republic of Korea Bangladesh Myanmar Viet Nam India China Pakistan Australia Sri Lanka New Zealand New Zealand Thailand Thailand Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea Cambodia Cambodia 800000 700000 600000 500000 400000 300000 200000 100000 0 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 Population exposed per year (per million inhabitants) Modelled potential casualities (per million inhabitants) Source: ESCAP based on data from EM-DAT: The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database – www.emdat.be – Université Catholique de Louvain – Brussels – Belgium.
The estimates were calculated using probabilistic analysis of risk.
Figure II-4 – Economic vulnerability to storms of high-frequency and lower impact 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 0 Population exposed per year (per million inhabitants) Modelled potential casualities (per million inhabitants) 33 Samoa Samoa Fiji Japan Philippines Samoa Tonga Fiji Japan Philippines Samoa Tonga Hong Kong, China Bangladesh Republic of Korea Fiji Japan Philippines Tonga Hong Kong, China Bangladesh Republic of Korea China India China India Viet Nam Viet Nam Australia Australia Thailand Thailand Hong Kong, China Hong Kong, China Bangladesh Bangladesh Republic of Korea Republic of Korea Fiji Japan Philippines Tonga China China India India Viet Nam Viet Nam Australia Australia Thailand Thailand 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 0 GDP exposed per year (%) Modelled potential economic damage and loss (% GDP) Figure II-3 – Human vulnerability to high-frequency, lower impact storms Guam Philippines Fiji Samoa Japan Philippines Fiji Samoa Vanuatu Cook Islands Hong Kong, China Republic of Korea Bangladesh Guam Japan Vanuatu Cook Islands Hong Kong, China Republic of Korea Bangladesh Myanmar Viet Nam Myanmar Viet Nam India China Pakistan Australia Sri Lanka India China Pakistan Australia Sri Lanka New Zealand New Zealand Thailand Thailand Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea Cambodia Cambodia 800000 700000 600000 500000 400000 300000 200000 100000 0 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 Population exposed per year (per million inhabitants) Modelled potential casualities (per million inhabitants) Figure II-4 – Economic vulnerability to storms of high-frequency and lower impact Fiji Japan Philippines Samoa Tonga Hong Kong, China Bangladesh Republic of Korea THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Fiji Japan Philippines Tonga Hong Kong, China Bangladesh Republic of Korea China India China India Viet Nam Viet Nam Australia Australia Thailand Thailand Samoa 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 0 Population exposed per year (per million inhabitants) Modelled potential casualities (per million inhabitants) Figure II-4 Economic vulnerability to storms of high-frequency and lower impact Fiji Japan Philippines Samoa Tonga Fiji Japan Philippines Tonga Samoa Hong Kong, China Hong Kong, China Bangladesh Bangladesh Republic of Korea Republic of Korea China China India India Viet Nam Viet Nam Australia Australia Thailand Thailand 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 0 GDP exposed per year (%) Modelled potential economic damage and loss (% GDP) Source: ESCAP based on data from EM-DAT: The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database – www.emdat.be – Université Catholique de Louvain – Brussels – Belgium.
The estimates were calculated using probabilistic analysis of risk.

The Figure II-4 shows that small economies can Poverty can be further reinforced by the threat of experience huge falls in productive capacity disasters.

Poor households faced with a precarious even with low-impact disasters.

Moreover, the environment are less likely to take risks that might decisions of the poor, in turn, can make them ultimately help them escape from poverty.

In the most vulnerable to hazards.


They often live in Philippines, for example, marginal farmers often substandard housing in dangerous locations – on continue cultivating traditional lower-yielding rice flood plains, riverbanks or steep slopes.

Without varieties because they are relatively more hazard secure land ownership rights they have less tolerant, reducing the risk of total crop failure but incentive to invest in structural risk reduction.

And also limiting potential earnings (World Bank, 2007).
with limited livelihood opportunities they may be forced to over-exploit the local environment, The poor also have fewer opportunities to making it even more vulnerable.

In rural areas with recover from disasters.

Since a disaster is likely little access to financial services, farmers often to hit everyone in a small community its people have savings in the form of livestock, which may have limited scope for formal or informal be killed in the event of a disaster.
In Viet Nam, for community-based support in the aftermath.
And instance, the poorest have proportionally better when it comes to humanitarian assistance and access to livestock than to land, and in 2007 reconstruction the more marginalized groups in the natural hazards resulted in the loss of a quarter population, such as women, children, the elderly of a million pigs, many of which had been held and the disabled are often particularly vulnerable as a form of household investment and income as access to evacuation centres, humanitarian generation (Maltsoglu and Rapsomanikis, 2005).
assistance and support for reconstruction tends to 34 Chapter Ⅱ. Socio-economic impacts of disasters mirror existing societal inequities.

This is particularly terms of the number of people affected) and the true in the Asia and the Pacific region where public national level of poverty (Lal and others, 2009).

expenditure on social protection is extremely low, and such inequalities – and thus inequitable The limited quantitative analysis of the inter- impacts of disasters – remain strong.
linkages between poverty and vulnerability partly reflects data constraints but also reflects the As well as causing hardship and distress, disasters complexity of the relationship, involving a wide can force the near-poor into poverty.
There has range of dynamic social, economic, political and been very limited quantitative analysis of this environmental factors and many two-way flows of relationship, but preliminary research supports linkages, in turn creating difficulties in modelling these linkages in a number of countries.

causalities.
causalities.

For example, limited education contributes to poverty and thus vulnerability to ● Philippines – Estimates in 2009 suggested that natural hazards whilst disaster events, in turn, can Typhoons Ketsana (Ondoy) and Parma (Pepeng) reduce the quality and length of schooling further, could have increased the incidence of poverty leading to deepening poverty.
in 2009 by as much as three percentage points in the worst affected areas of Luzon, and by Disasters undoubtedly have adverse impacts on 0.5 percentage points nationwide, whilst the individual, sector-specific, measures of human total number of poor could increase by 480,000 development too, such as health status, levels of people (Philippines and others, 2009).
educational attainment, access to clean water and livelihood opportunities, in some cases temporarily ● Viet Nam – A further four to five per cent of the and in some more permanently.
For instance, population could be pushed into poverty in the disasters have exacerbated problems of water event of a disaster – those whose expenditure contamination in Nepal, leading to an increase is less than 10 per cent above the poverty line in water-borne diseases, such as cholera and and who live in areas that are prone to floods, diarrhoea, and contributed to food insecurity, by typhoons or droughts (ADB and others, 2004).

destroying crops and agricultural land.


● Nepal – There is a positive correlation between Household level data is particularly important the incidence of poverty and the incidence of in analyzing the impacts of floods, where there landslides – that is, there are higher rates of may be net gainers and losers within the same poverty in parts of the country where more people and houses have been affected by landslides (NSET, 2008).

community.
community.

However, few, if any, countries collate systematic longitudinal data on such impacts and much of the limited snapshot information ● Iran – In the most disaster-prone provinces, a physical damage to related infrastructure, sits negative correlation was found between the in unpublished reports with limited circulations.

annual intensity of disasters and annual urban Moreover, there are potential issues of bias in household expenditure (Kianpour and others, measuring some impacts.
For instance, as observed that is available, beyond initial assessments of 2008).

in Pakistan following the 2005 Earthquake (Shortall, 2009), respondents of livelihoods surveys ● Fiji – There is a statistically significant two- may under-report income and over-report expenses way correlation between disasters (measured in in the hope of securing more assistance.
35 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 To examine this relationship more closely, this report seven indicators outlined above explain 73 per has extended the analysis across a larger dataset cent of the variation in total casualties from by considering all 68 official MDG indicators.

The floods, and among 79 countries 68 per cent of the aim is to determine the extent to which an index variation on total casualties by storms.
Based on based on the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) these indicators and some statistical techniques to indicators can be used as a proxy for levels of estimate the weight of each indicator in explaining vulnerability between countries that have similar the differences in human loss among countries.

It is physical exposure.


The study suggests that the then possible to calculate for each Asia-Pacific sub- following seven indicators are correlated with the region a composite index and use this to track how vulnerability to disasters across the world: vulnerability has changed over time.
- GDP per capita at 2005 constant prices The good news is that over the past 20 years, - Percentage of population undernourished (MDG1) all subregions have shown a reduction in - Percentage of seats held by women in national vulnerability.
This is illustrated in Figure II-5 for parliament (MDG3) floods and storms, based on available historical - Infant mortality per 1,000 live births (MDG4) - Tuberculosis prevalence per 100,000 population GDP and MDG data until 2009, and on projected progress towards the MDGs for the period 2009 (MDG6) to 2015 (ESCAP/UNDP/ADB, 2010).

Progress - Proportion of the population using improved has been fastest in South-East Asia and slower sanitation facilities (MDG7) among the Pacific developing countries.
This - Internet users per 100 people (MDG8) also highlights the point that there is nothing The selection of these indicators was made by to natural hazards: policy makers can deliberately statistical tests.

The model proposed by Peduzzi influence resilience.

inevitable about a country’s level of vulnerability et al.

(2009) of factors that influence human loss caused by disasters was modified to include MDG indicators as explanatory factors.
For each Goal, MDG indicators with data available for at least 30 ESCAP members were tested to verify whether they Defending the poor by accelerating vulnerability reduction were associated with human loss, while controlling As this chapter has demonstrated, those most at for the frequency of hazard, population size and risk from disaster caused by natural hazards are the GDP per capita at 2005 constant prices.
Statistical tests were used to select which indicators provide the better fit of the model to the empirical data on poor, who live in the most exposed environments and have fewer ways of protecting themselves against sudden emergencies.

They are likely to be human loss caused by disasters.

even more exposed as a result of climate change, Multiple regression analysis has shown that economic policies in protecting people against the between 1980 and 2009 for 95 countries the hazards of disasters.
so the next chapter looks at the role of socio- 36 Chapter Ⅱ. Socio-economic impacts of disasters Figure II-5 – Vulnerability to weather-related disasters, by Asia-Pacific sub-region Figure II-5 Vulnerability to weather-related disasters, by Asia-Pacific subregion x e d n i y t i l i b a r e n u v l 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 ENEA NCA PacDeveloping SEA SSWA 0991 0002 9002 5102 year Source: ESCAP estimates 2010 Box II-1 Disasters in Pacific Island countries Pacific Island countries with their small, highly dispersed land areas and populations are vulnerable to a range of natural hazards, such as cyclones, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, landslides and droughts.
Many small islands are also affected by storm surges, which have inundated land, caused loss of life and severely damaged infrastructure.

During these events, freshwater lenses may receive considerable inputs from seawater and subsequent infiltration, and many months may pass before they return to a potable condition.

Since 1950, disasters in the Pacific have reportedly directly affected more than 3.4 million people and led to more than 1,700 reported deaths in the region, excluding Papua New Guinea.
In the 1990s alone, reported disasters cost the Pacific Islands region $2.8 billion in 2004 terms (World Bank, 2006a).

For these countries disasters can have a disproportionately high impact on their economies.

Samoa, for example, has reported average economic disaster costs of 46 per cent of annual GDP (World Bank, 2006a).

In the Solomon Islands, the 2007 Earthquake and accompanying tsunami cost the country around 90 per cent of the 2006 government budget (ADB, 2007a).
In Niue in 2004, Cyclone Heta caused immediate losses amounting to over five times that of the GDP (SOPAC, 2008).

In addition, there are many indirect costs through loss of infrastructure that reduces access to markets or educational opportunities.

37 chapter Ⅲ Reducing vulnerability, socio-economic perspectives Disaster development inter-linkages ● 40 Why is it difficult to make risk reduction a priority?
● 42 Implications of disasters and climate change for MDG targets ● 42 Scaling up climate change adaptation in Asia and the Pacific ● 43 Scaling up disaster risk reduction in Asia and the Pacific ● 44 Implementation challenges ● 57 Conclusions ● 59 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Reducing vulnerability, socio-economic perspectives Reducing the risks of disasters require widespread and sustained commitment across a wide range of fields, as is well illustrated by the priorities for action and detailed tasks elaborated in the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), 2005-2015, the overall framework for reducing disaster risks.
This 10-year framework has been endorsed by 168 nations and multilateral institutions and aims to ensure “the more effective integration of disaster risk considerations into sustainable development policies, planning and programming at all levels, with a special emphasis on disaster prevention, mitigation, preparedness and vulnerability reduction” (UNISDR, 2005).

For reducing vulnerability, it is important to be pro-active, tackling the obstacles directly and exploring a wide range of opportunities.
And since many of the hazards will intensify because of climate change, it is also vital to be approach these issues on a broad front, integrating disasters and climate change policies and socioeconomic policies aimed at reducing poverty and inequities.

Disaster development inter-linkages exposure, vulnerabilities and capacities of people, ability of structures and economies to withstand and recover.
Risk, exposure, vulnerabilities and “Disasters are pending issues and unresolved capacities of communities and societies are problems of development and governance” and outcomes of development determined by the require an “alternative perspective” to depart from development approaches and policies pursued.

The a response based approach towards risk reduction character of development over the last decades, and mitigation (Duryog Nivaran, 1996).
The GAR which has a strong orientation towards maximizing 2009 also emphasizes on an integrated system of economic growth has degraded the natural governance, a governance framework that factors environment, undermined the livelihoods and socio risk reduction into development investments and economic status of large numbers of many poor builds on existing systems of public administration people, and has expanded levels of risk, exposure would be more effective in achieving better and vulnerabilities.
The potential for this kind of development.

self-perpetuating spiral of destructive development and disaster risk is illustrated in Figure III-1.

These Consequently, development can be identified as processes are also contributory to climate change the cornerstone defining disasters.

Natural hazards and events such as heat waves, heavy precipitation by themselves do not cause disasters.
A hazard events, droughts and intense tropical cyclone turning into a disaster depends on levels of risk, activity (UNISDR, 2009a).

40 Chapter Ⅲ.

Reducing vulnerability, socio-economic perspectives Figure III-1 Vicious spirals of disaster risk and development failure Risk Accumulation ● Inadequate early warning and preparedness.

● Inappropriate land-use planning and construction standards.

● Failure to include risk assessment in development projects and pianning.
● Failure to engage community in risk management.

Reduces capacity to cope with or adapt to risk.

Increases human exposure to hazard and susceptibility to harm.

By constraining the building of social or human capital and failing to encourage political participation within prevention work, opportunities for human development are missed.

Increased numbers of exposed people & assets.

Low level hazards magnified by high vulnerability.


Household & government resources directed towards emergency relief & away from development, preparedness & prevention.

Failed Development ● High levels of poverty and inequality.

● Food and livelihoods insecurity, inadequate health care, education and physical infrastructure.

● Macro-economic decline and financial instability tied to uneven global trade and debt agreements.

● Political crisis and violence.


Disaster Losses ● Direct impacts on buildings, infrastructure & stocks.

● Human deaths and injury.

Damage to the natural environment.

● Indirect and systemic economic losses.

Source: DFID (2005) Limits resilience, weakening the base for emergency response.

Stalls socio-economic development, Undermines or destroys livelihoods.
As Figure III-1 illustrates, economic and social All countries in Asia and the Pacific are already development, risks, vulnerabilities and capacities, and will continue to be affected by climate change hazards and emerging hazards are intrinsically inter- impacts to varying degrees, depending on factors linked.
Failed or mal-development is characterized such as their vulnerabilities inherent to their socio- by disconnects between policies, data, planning economic development and their geo-physical and actual budgeting; target-setting in social characteristics.
For example, the IPCC Fourth sectors determined at the national level leaving Assessment Report, IPCC AR4, already observed local governance and administration confined to increased precipitation in Central Asia and drying in implementing agents without adequate skills and parts of South Asia (IPCC, 2007).

The Small Island resources, and accountability mechanisms.
Mal- Developing States (SIDS) in the Pacific and many development results in policy failures and wastage countries in SouthEast Asia are also vulnerable of resources, which adds to a country’s debt.

to the threat of sea level rise, with so much Also, it can lead to heightening hazards and to percentage of their human and economic assets in increased levels of risk and vulnerability.

As noted low elevation coastal zones (World Bank, 2007).
by GAR2009, while not achieving development targets, it also results in risk accumulation It is clear that anticipated development in the Asia particularly those related to poverty reduction and and the Pacific region needs to be planned and improvement of social equity.
implemented in such a manner that it reduces levels 41 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 of exposure and vulnerability of people to disasters in disaster risk reduction may not yield benefits including those that are caused or aggravated by for many years, which make it difficult to justify climate change.

In addition, development should diverting scarce funds from other sectors such not lead to further risks and vulnerability.
as rural health where benefits are more upfront Why is it difficult to make risk reduction a priority?

and visible.

Second, even if measures to reduced risk are successful, it can be difficult to prove that it was due to investments in prevention.

The problem is further compounded by the fact that While there is general agreement on the inter- there are more funds on offer for response than for linkages between disasters and development, and prevention.
the need for integrated planning and resourcing is strongly advocated; attempts to include risks This however arises from treating and addressing and vulnerability reduction as a key aspect in disasters in isolation of development processes.

development planning is yet to happen.

The policy A more integrated approach based on the two- and programme planning and resourcing are highly way linkages between disasters and development compartmentalised at all levels.
For instance, in the MDGs there is no emphasis to reduce disaster as shown will determine that investment on risk reduction and prevention in effect lead to risks, and vulnerability reduction is not a goal in development and vulnerability reduction.

most Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSPs) or national development plans.

Development induced vulnerabilities, which will aggravate climate change impact and increase disaster risk, are thus ignored.
Implications of disasters and climate change for MDG targets National commitments to MDG, UNFCC and There is no explicit mention of disaster risk or HFA separately address poverty.

International climate change implications in the millennium discussions have recognized the need for an development declaration, in the MDGs, or in its integrated approach but inadequate progress has targets.

However, each and every review of MDGs this so far.
Parallel international emphasis support since their declaration flag the issues of increasing agreements (MDG, HFA and UNFCC commitments effects of disasters, environment degradation for example) are easily translated to national policy and climate change as barriers for achieving the and practice with the support of different UN and targets.
Climate change is projected to have serious other institutions separately, the diverse emphasis at international level easily gets reflected at the country levels too.

As a result, targets for MDG, economic and social impacts, which will impede progress towards the MDGs’ (UN MDG Reports, 2005, 2007; UN, 2007).

HFA and UNFCC are set, and strategies and plans developed, implemented and monitored separately The UN resolution at the end of the MDG Summit by different agencies.
This does not facilitate 2005 states disaster risk as a resolve to achieving inclusive and holistic development through existing sustainable development, and calls for the sectoral or line agencies.
establishment of a worldwide early warning system for all natural hazards with regional nodes, and When budgets are tight, governments tend to to fully implement the Hyogo Declaration and the spend less on prevention and risk reduction and Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015 adopted more on post-disaster response and recovery.

There at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction.

are two main reasons for this.

First, investments 42 Chapter Ⅲ.
Reducing vulnerability, socio-economic perspectives ESCAP’s monitoring and updates on progress in the processes like the United Nations Framework region towards achieving MDG goals reports that Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) National of the 55 developing countries in the AP region Adaptation Plan of Action (NAPA), or the United only five are early achievers and 10 are on the track Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in integrating sustainable development principles (UNCCD) National Action plans (NAP).
Second into country policies and programs.

The report is autonomous adaptation, or activities that are also highlights the target on reversing the loss of initiated by communities with very little guidance environmental resources, over the period 1990- or coordination from central bodies.

2000 the land under forest cover decreased in 18 countries (ESCAP, 2007).

In South East Asia, planned adaptation has been undertaken mainly in the context of the ESCAP proposed remedial measures to address the NAPAs.
Within the region, Cambodia and the Lao setbacks posed by the threats of disaster caused by PDR are the only countries to have completed natural hazards and climate change.

These measures NAPAs.


In Cambodia, the NAPA focuses on include larger investments in key sectors such as adaptive management systems of agriculture, health and agriculture, improving governance, and targeted strategies to reach the poorest (ESCAP, water and coastal resources, forests, land use, health, forecasting and surveillance together 2007; UN Millennium Project, 2005).
with research and capacity building measures to support these programs, although with varying Even though initiatives to reduce risk will support emphasis.

While it discusses what is and the need the attainment of the MDGs, disaster risk for improved understanding of the social and reduction rarely features in generic or country- institutional context to climate adaptation, its high specific reports on the achievement of the MDGs.
priority recommendations focus on improving The recent disasters in China, Indonesia and physical infrastructure (Royal Government of Samoa, typhoons and floods in the Philippines, Cambodia, 2006).
The recently completed Lao Cambodia and Lao PDR are all stark reminders PDR NAPA prioritizes agricultural interventions, that none of the MDGs can be achieved unless water management strategies and infrastructure development investments are disaster proof, and development (such as bridges), although it also disaster risk and vulnerability have been factored considers promotion of secondary professions in into development plans and strategies.

Thus, order to improve farmers’ livelihoods.


However, when it comes to investing for the MDGs it will there has been no study of the socio-economic not be enough to build schools.

These and other buildings exposed to natural hazard must be disaster resistant, and people using them need to impact that climate change will have on the Lao PDR (Government of Lao PDR, 2008).

At the national level, Thailand and Viet Nam have have adequate preparedness for disasters.
developed adaptation plans that concentrate on Scaling up climate change adaptation in Asia and the Pacific agriculture and water interventions, including the development of resilient crop varieties, cultivation practices, irrigation measures and coastal zone management (Nguyen, 2007).

Planned adaptation strategies in Indonesia include the development There have been two approaches taken so far in of prediction and early warning systems, forest the region to implement adaptation.
First is planned and agricultural development plans, that focus on adaptation, those are based on national planning rural irrigation and cropping management (Las, 43 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 2007), although a broader adaptation plan is in development.
Scaling up disaster risk reduction in Asia and the Pacific In Nepal, the primary focus of adaptation W ithin two years of endorsing the Hyogo work has been on the risk of GLOF with some Framework of Action, comprehensive disaster risk consideration on the impact of water flow management programmes or action plans had been variability on hydropower production (Agrawala, produced in a number of countries in the Asia- 2003).
The studies on GLOF are already in various Pacific, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Indonesia, stages, which are looked at within the context Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vanuatu and Viet of development projects.

Most of this work has Nam.

They have been followed more recently concentrated on mapping of lakes with a focus on by many others, including the Cook Islands, the engineering of structures to lower the water level Marshall Islands, Nepal and the Philippines.

and prevent sudden breach of lakes.


It is perhaps surprising, with Nepal already seeing large impacts Twenty-five countries in the region have submitted from climate change, that adaptation has not national progress reports on the status of yet gained policy importance.

There is no specific policy on climate change, even policy work in the implementation of the HFA for the period 2007- 2009.
The review involved rating themselves on hydropower industry fails to recognize climate progress against the five HFA priority areas based change impacts.

on self-assessments.


For example, for establishing national policy and legal frameworks for disaster Though vulnerability is addressed within the implied risk reduction, with decentralized responsibilities context of adaptive capacity, there has been no and capacities at all levels, on average the countries direct attention to autonomous adaptation in South in Asia and the Pacific gave themselves a score of Asia.
Since by definition autonomous adaptation 3.8 out of 5, compared to a global average score of will occur without outside assistance, perhaps this 3.6.

For the six indicators on progress in reducing lack of research makes some sense as practitioners underlying risk, many of them related to some have first addressed the most obvious and simplest aspect of mainstreaming, with an average score of strategies.
But autonomous adaptation is perceived 3.1, compared to a global average of 3.0. to be more than coping and is key to shaping the cross scale and boundary inter-linkages between social, institutional, ecological, and physical systems.
Considering that adaptation action is mostly local, HFA Priority Area 1 - Ensure that disaster risk reduction is a national and a local priority with a strong institutional basis for implementation there is a need to link organized and autonomous Disaster risk reduction is also becoming a more adaptation strategies and approaches.

This will not significant part of PRSPs.
A recent survey of 67 only provide the necessary understanding of how PRSPs found that 20 per cent of them devoted to improve coping and adaptation strategies by a whole chapter or section to disaster risk, while communities already impacted by climate change, 55 per cent mentioned the relationship between it will also support an enabling environment to disaster risk and poverty, and only 25 per cent make such practices sustainable and more effective made no mention of disaster risk at all (UNISDR, by fostering better participation, incorporating 2009).
In Asia alone, of the 19 PRSPs studied, indigenous knowledge and empowering those who 15 per cent devoted a whole chapter or section are actually taking action.

to disaster risk, 65 per cent mentioned the 44 Chapter Ⅲ.

Reducing vulnerability, socio-economic perspectives relationship between disaster risk and poverty: and as relieving others of responsibilities for risk just 20 per cent made no mention of disaster risk.

reduction.
reduction.

Instead, these focal points need to The 2005 Bangladesh PRSP is a notable example.

work hard to get risk reduction, coupled with the This strategy identifies comprehensive disaster institutional arrangements for climate adaptation, management as one of sixteen policy matrices and onto everyone’s agenda.

also includes various disaster risk management goals and actions under other policy matrices Supportive legislation and social protection (Bangladesh, 2005).
One of the 10 key goals on s y s t e m s .

G o v e r n m e n t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t which the success of Bangladesh’s strategy will partners have been overhauling their disaster risk be judged will be the extent to which it achieves management policies and strategies but these comprehensive disaster risk management.

Over efforts also need to be supported by strong the past two decades, a number of other countries legislative and policy frameworks.
Reforming such as the Philippines, have also moved from disaster legislation can be slow and neither simply reacting to disasters to integrating disaster legislators nor their constituents have in the past risk concerns into development.

considered this a very urgent matter.

But there is Institutional capacity.

Disaster risk reduction as growing awareness of the need for such change.

In some cases, legislators can take advantage of development policy requires stronger and more recent disasters.
In Indonesia, for example, the capable institutions.

Here progress has been 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami helped spur progress mediocre and there has been little political support and resulted in new legislation by 2007 (Indonesia for building coherent administration.

Although and UNDP, 2009).


Progress in legislation, however, national disaster management offices are typically needs to be backed by enforcement in other areas situated within relatively powerful ministries, including building codes, land use planning and such as the office of the president or the ministry environmental assessment.
of home affairs, they are often politically weak, poorly resourced, lack people with specific sectoral Furthermore, the occurrence of other exogenous knowledge or with socio-economic policy or shocks may be used as additional leverages to gain development planning skills, and far removed from higher priority for disaster risk management.

The central development and planning processes.

re-emergence of economic crisis in 2008, barely a decade after the Asian Crisis, is a case in point.
It Ideally, national disaster management offices should catapulted to the top of policy-making agendas, be relocated into ministries of planning.

This may take some time to achieve, so a simpler alternative may be to establish disaster risk reduction focal once again, the need for social protection.
The difference this time around is that the debate has moved from the narrower definition of social points within individual line agencies and local safety nets to a more comprehensive and systemic governments.

These could identify and draw approach that goes beyond protecting people to on existing disaster risk management expertise transforming their lives through social inclusion and within each line agency, and provide sector- empowerment.
specific technical support and combine disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.

For This provides the opportunity to examine social instance, a disaster management cell has been protection approaches that enable the poor and installed within the National Planning Department socially excluded to reduce their risk to disasters in Sri Lanka (Duryog Nivaran, 2009).

Such initiatives and adapt to climate change.


As has been argued should be encouraged but should not be perceived earlier in the study, people exposed to the most 45 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 severe climate related disasters are often those Recent research based on interviews with over least able to cope with the associated impacts 7,000 people from 48 countries across the globe due to their limited adaptive capacity.
Looking found that local government officials, civil society forward, at least three aspects will need particular organizations and community representatives had attention in the future design of social protection little access to financial resources for disaster risk systems.

One is to evolve long-term perspectives reduction (GNDR, 2009).
so that social protection becomes part of a system of development planning that adapts to short- Many developing country governments in disaster- term and long-term exogenous shocks.

Second, prone countries make some limited regular the “social” needs to be put back in developing budgetary provision.
But as in India, Nepal and the such systems so that interventions are more Philippines, this is typically for humanitarian relief people-centred and less concerned with resource and early recovery and not part of a comprehensive efficiency and fiscal conservatism.

The realities disaster risk financing strategy.


India, for example, of varying types of poverty, as well as the socio- has a Calamity Relief Fund, covering emergency political and economic disenfranchisement of the repairs to approved items of physical infrastructure marginalized and vulnerable, need to be tackled so that social protection transforms relations between and statutory personal compensation (India, 2005; India, 2007).

Viet Nam covers post-disaster relief the individual and the state.
Third, effective cross- and early recovery spending under a more general sectoral linkages need to be established at the contingency budget line for a wider range of institutional level.

unforeseen circumstances.

Many governments, such as Cambodia, also meet relatively small-scale Finding resources for disaster risk reduction.

disaster-related repairs by drawing on regular line Governments may fail to address these issues agency funding, particularly maintenance budgets.
squarely if they believe that disaster risk reduction requires considerable financial investment, and International donor support is a relatively small suspect that the benefits, often un-quantified, may proportion of post-disaster expenditure.

In only be reaped many years ahead, under the watch Indonesia, for example, following the 2006 of succeeding administrations.

However, the costs Yogyakarta Earthquake, only about 15 per cent of may not be as high as feared.
In broader terms the reconstruction was funded by the international disaster risk reduction is less about expenditure community whilst central government met about than about a different attitude to development.

75 per cent of the costs (Fengler and others, 2008).

While it may be easier to see how much is being spent on reconstruction it is more difficult to Moreover, aid for disaster relief may displace short- or medium-term development funding.
Most support from the International Financial Institutions track expenditure on risk reduction.

This is rarely (IFIs), for example, consists of reallocations monitored and may be scattered across a number (Cummins and Mahul, 2008).

of sectoral budgets, or even simply be an indirect benefit of a wider development project such as Countries will therefore need to establish dedicated irrigation that reduces the impact of drought lines of funding.

These would not be necessary (Benson and others, 2009b).
However, it is clear if governments were to integrate disaster risk that governments find it difficult to invest in disaster reduction into overall planning, but in the shorter risk management for example, climatological term dedicated funding is needed both sectoral and forecasting, early warning systems, flood control cross-sectional initiatives for disaster risk reduction measures or seismic strengthening of infrastructure.

and climate change adaptation.

And in countries 46 Chapter Ⅲ.


Reducing vulnerability, socio-economic perspectives with considerable decentralization they should It is also important to track disaster-related external make these available to local government agencies.

assistance.

This will indicate whether development partners themselves place sufficient emphasis on B u d g e t t r a c k i n g .

I t i s a l s o i m p o r t a n t t o risk reduction both within their own programmes establish systems for budget tracking.
Relief and in policy dialogues with governments.

Since and reconstruction efforts in particular may be 1995, the Organization for Economic Cooperation funded by a wide range of national line agencies, and Development (OECD) Development Assistance local governments, local and international Non- Committee (DAC) has, in fact, required donors Governmental Organizations (NGOs), private when reporting aid flows to separate out spending sector donations, United Nations agencies, bilateral on emergency aid.
This category was subsequently donors and IFIs.

For instance, in Indonesia, over relabelled humanitarian aid and, since 2004, has 300 institutions contributed to the post-tsunami been divided into two categories: emergency reconstruction efforts in Aceh and Nias, financing and distress relief; and short-term reconstruction, over 1,500 projects.

This makes it difficult to track relief and rehabilitation.
In 2005, the DAC went a the funding, particularly where it is off budget, and step further and introduced a new sub-category to evaluate results (Fengler and others, 2008).

on disaster prevention and preparedness.

These changes have yet to be reflected in recipient An example of what can be achieved in the country reporting systems but could trickle through aftermath of a major disaster is the work in future years.
undertaken by the World Bank and the Indonesian government following the 2004 tsunami in In January 2010, to complement an existing DAC Aceh and Nias.

This led to a system for tracking marker on climate change mitigation, the DAC resource allocations and disbursements by the introduced a marker on adaptation.
Donors will government, international donors and the 20 identify which aid projects have climate change largest NGOs – which together accounted for 80 adaptation as their principal, or a significant per cent of total assistance flows.

Combined with objective (OECD, 2009b).


These markers are only a joint needs assessment, this was a powerful likely to give approximate indications since there tool for reconstruction planning and monitoring is no internationally agreed methodology for (Goldstein and Amin, 2008).
This experience shows tracking the exact share of aid activity expenditure that such systems should focus on core sectors that contributes to climate change adaptation or and be simple and basic, using low-tech, labour- mitigation.

Nevertheless, they are steps forward intensive data collection and analysis, including proactive collection of data from key players.
More technologically advanced, self-entry based solutions such as the United Nations Development Assistance Database, have mostly yielded disappointing results (Fengler and others, 2008).

and will generate useful experience for both development partners and governments.

HFA Priority Area 2 - Identify, assess and monitor disaster risks and enhance early warning To date, there has been much less experience in Develop and maintain disaster data.

Many tracking expenditure on risk reduction.


This is partly countries lack comprehensive, accurate historical because it is inevitably cross-cutting expenditure data on direct, physical disaster-related losses, or which is difficult to track even for existing priorities lack guidelines for systematic damage assessment.

such as poverty reduction, although know-how is And where guidelines are in place they are not slowly building up.

necessarily applied.


Assessments are also often 47 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 quite partial.

Typically they concentrate on forms These assessments have been used to design of loss that are eligible for public assistance.
Private appropriate relief and reconstruction programmes losses are recorded by the insurance industry, and have also fostered a greater understanding though because of very low insurance penetration of the links between disasters, socio-economic these cover only a small proportion of total private d e v e l o p m e n t a n d g ro w t h .

M o re o v e r, t h e losses.


Moreover, governments often fail to assess assessments increasingly offer recommendations small-scale localized events which, being very frequent, can have a substantial cumulative impact.

reconstruction incorporates measures of disaster And even for larger events, officials and volunteers risk reduction, an approach referred to as “building may lack the skills and the funds needed to reach back better”.
affected areas.

There have been parallel efforts to improve national There have been some encouraging signs of damage assessment processes, enhancing the improvement.

The United Nations Economic recording systems and providing related training.

Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean India and the Philippines, for example, have (ECLAC) developed “comprehensive Disaster Damage and Loss Assessment” (DaLA)3 (ECLAC, 2003).
Now the development partners in other been adapting the DaLA methodology for use in on a regular basis, whilst the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is trialling a regions are applying these guidelines to carry out revised DaNA in Viet Nam.

Damage, Loss and Needs Assessments (DLNAs).


These are sometimes referred to as a Post-Disaster Another complimentary tool developed in Latin Needs Assessment (PDNA), Damage and Needs America and the Caribbean, and now being Assessment (DaNA) or, where multiple partners applied in Asia and the Pacific, is DesInventar, a participate to produce a joint DLNA, a Joint methodology for recording the impact of highly Damage, Loss and Needs Assessment.

localized, small-scale events (see Chapter II).


For instance, UNDP has supported its introduction in DLNAs have been undertaken in a number of Iran, Indonesia, the Maldives, Nepal and the Indian countries in the region after major disasters: states of Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.
in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and the Maldives However, if DesInventar is to fulfil its potential following the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami; in it will need to be developed to overcome some Pakistan following the 2005 Earthquake; in limitations with regards to sector-wise damage to Indonesia, following the 2006 Earthquake in Yogyakarta and the 2009 Earthquake in West Sumatra; in Bangladesh following the 2007 Cyclone infrastructure, industry and services (IDEA, 2004).

Vulnerability mapping.
An impressive example Sidr; in Myanmar following the 2008 Cyclone of vulnerability mapping is in Cambodia where Nargis; in China following the 2008 Earthquake; the Ministry of Planning and the World Food in Bhutan following the 2009 Earthquake; in Programme (WFP) have produced a poverty Samoa following 2009 Tsunami; in Lao PDR and in map, which includes malnutrition, educational Cambodia following Typhoon Ketsana 2009 and in needs, and vulnerability to disaster caused by the Philippines following the 2009 Typhoons.
natural hazards.

The map will serve as a basis for 3 Methodology covers consequences of disasters at the household, provincial and national levels, including those to livelihoods, economic growth, a government’s fiscal position, the balance of payments and levels of poverty.

formulating targeted plans for various interventions carried out by the government and international donors, NGOs, and other organizations (WFP, undated).

48 Chapter Ⅲ.
48 Chapter Ⅲ.

Reducing vulnerability, socio-economic perspectives In Indonesia, local governments have been system.

This understanding helps build in strategies empowered to take responsibility for natural to shift towards improved attitudes and behaviour hazard mapping.

If they are to do so, however, that foster gendered vulnerability reduction to they will need intensive support from agencies like disaster risk and Climate Change.
Such approaches the National Agency for Disaster Management as can also inform targeting preparedness programs well as NGOs.

One of the problems at present is to ensure certain sections of population do not the lack of a standard methodology.

Some local become more vulnerable due to reduced access to governments have engaged in natural hazard resources and information.

mapping but have not followed any specific standard (Subagio and Amhar, 2009).
Strengthening local risk management by linking Local Government and community at risk in Navua, Developing appropriate solutions will require Fiji is being undertaken through a pilot project by longitudinal analysis, using a combination of the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO), qualitative and quantitative tools, not just at the Fiji and the Secretariat of the Pacific Islands Applied national level but also for single hazard events, for the impact will often depend very much on the local context.
In countries such as the Philippines Geosciences Commission (SOPAC).

Participatory Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment (VCA)4 is used to collect first-hand data from the community that experience many localized natural hazard with particular attention to the participation of events, this analysis is also required at sectoral women and men.

Preliminary findings revealed and various sub-national levels down to individual that despite having active women’s groups, communities.
The analysis should also consider women have small roles in community or local the impact on vulnerable groups such as women, development.

Decision making not being equitable children, the elderly and disabled persons, to ensure with low/no involvement of women, inefficient that disasters and related relief and reconstruction dissemination of early warning to the women efforts do not reinforce existing patterns of social creating difficulties for preparedness work, were inequality.
among the issues highlighted by the VCA.

Gender sensitive participatory approaches were used to The potential for disaster and the implications improve attitudes and behaviour.

of climate variability and change should also be incorporated into economic forecasting and other econometric models.

This has proved valuable in other global regions.


In Ethiopia, for example, a macroeconomic forecasting model for investments in irrigation showed double the growth and poverty HFA Priority Area 3 - Use knowledge, innovation and education to build a culture of safety and resilience at all levels reduction returns by incorporating historically Knowledge and education on Disaster Risk based inter-annual variations in rainfall (World Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation Bank, 2006b).
Yet few countries in Asia and the (CCA) are recognized as important first steps Pacific examine disaster scenarios as a regular part in increasing resilience.

Goal 2 of the MDGs of economic forecasting.
Gender concerns in early warning, emergency and preparedness Gender sensitive participatory approaches help practitioners to better understand gender relations that exist in a particular social discusses importance of primary education in lowering poverty; HFA’s priority 3 focuses on 4 The VCA is used worldwide by the International Federation for Red Cross/Red Crescent (IFRC) in the most vulnerable communities to identify local capacities to cope with issues ranging from socio- economic phenomena like unemployment to natural hazards like flood.
49 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 increasing resilience and building a culture of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) with the support safety and resilience at all levels through the use of of the Faculty of Education of the University.

knowledge, innovation and education.

It is located appropriately for dissemination of education and awareness.
The building Knowledge and education on risks and vulnerability demonstrates earthquake–resistant technique, and and their increasing trends as well as options for consists of a large photo gallery, a formal training reducing vulnerabilities are important in creating centre and a mini library.

required culture to facilitate risk reduction.


Public awareness and education as well as specific The Mobile Knowledge Resource Centres in knowledge programmes targeted at community, Myanmar has a similar concept of bringing local and national governments, and international knowledge to communities (e.g communities levels depending on requirements are also focus affected by Cyclone Nargis) and sharing information under the theme of knowledge and education.

through discussions and demonstrations.


Development interventions such as compulsory primary education and optional higher education Retrofitting schools in Pakistan in post South Asia systems as well as other systems such as media Earthquake 2005 is another example of knowledge need to be used as vehicles for sharing knowledge demonstration and sharing at local level.

While and providing education on vulnerability reduction.
making school children safe, the schools are considered as effective channels to spread DRR New knowledge is an important aspect to awareness to local communities.

In Nepal and understand vulnerability trend particularly in India, there have been some further interventions the context of changing climate.
Similarly local that include training of masons, engineers and knowledge especially traditional systems of officials on safety of school buildings, and training knowledge also provide options to engage in and education of students, teachers and parents on invulnerable development.

It is important that disaster risk reduction actions.
systems of knowledge sharing and education take this into consideration and facilitate sharing of such Initiatives towards mainstreaming DRR into school knowledge across levels effectively.

curriculum have taken place in a number of countries.
In Indonesia, for example, a Presidential The informal networks and community institutions Decree was issued to relevant ministries to are important vehicles to disseminate/share integrate disaster risk reduction into the school knowledge and promote education at local levels.

curricula, although implementation is pending until Communities need to be aware and know of a suitable instrument is devised at national level.
emerging/changing risks, options for vulnerability Including DRR in an already heavy curriculum, reduction, developing their skills and capacity.

resource and capacity issues seem to be the key challenges.

In some agencies, guidelines to A community disaster museum set up in Indonesia integrate emergency awareness into the school- shows effective practices of local resource centres.
based curriculum have been introduced, some The museums transfer information and facilitate guidelines related to educational materials and education and communication in a lively way and disaster-related trainings have been prepared, institutionalise local disaster memories.

The Tsunami Resource Centre (TRC) situated in the Teachers’ although focused on emergency preparedness, emergency response or emergency management.
Training Institute of the Syiah Kuala University in Post-graduate programmes and elective courses on the city of Aceh is an example.

It was started by disasters have been set up in institutions of higher 50 Chapter Ⅲ.

Reducing vulnerability, socio-economic perspectives education (Caritas, 2010), but overall DRR training disaster risk reduction, although the outcome of remains limited.

the project has not been stated.


School safety is one of the areas that has made There is much networking and knowledge sharing considerable progress; however, a school safety initiatives as well as huge support for it.

It happens audit in India has shown that despite information at many levels and in a impressive manner.

being made available, attention is not paid to Knowledge sharing at international level in both constructing safe buildings.
Factors emerging the DRR and CC arena has seen a lot of progress, from this audit highlighted the necessity to include with the Global Platform for DRR as the main disaster risk reduction strategies into development international forum on disaster reduction, providing efforts; that in post disaster reconstruction, strategic guidance and coherence for implementing emphasis is on the safety of big buildings instead of the Hyogo Framework.
A key emphasis is on schools; that sharing good practices among schools sharing knowledge and expertise.

Between the is not happening enough, and teachers who are sessions of the Global Platform, Regional Platforms keen on learning disaster safety are unaware of are convened to focusing on issues of particular information sources and hindered accessing such concern to the regions.
The above are also linked sources due to financial and time constraints; to officially declared national coordinating multi- and that follow up efforts on the school safety sectoral and inter-disciplinary mechanisms for programmes is minimal.

CSOs carry out similar work with children in more localized way.

For example, a project5 engaged with teachers and children on school disaster education in three schools in Indonesia has succeeded in advocacy, coordination, analysis and advice on DRR.
On the CC front, the COPs looked at with a regulatory framework.

The environmental focal point, most often the Ministry of Environment, takes the lead on the discussions on this front.

integrating DRR into formal school curriculum in At regional level, the ISDR Asia Partnership for DRR, 2010.
Kaeru-Dal-Caravan Japan is a similar example of a programme6 where children were encouraged to sketch the house, arrange paper made furniture Asia Disaster Risk Reduction and Response Network (ADRRN), Duryog Nivaran, Climate Action Network are some examples of networks that facilitate inside the house and observe earthquake effects by knowledge sharing.

Training and Resource centres shaking the table.


such as the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) and Asian Disaster Reduction Center Participatory Vulnerability Analysis (PVA) in schools (ADRC) facilitate training, capacity building and (Nepal, Bangladesh, and India), through a project knowledge sharing events.

by Action Aid, aims to make schools in high- risk areas safer by enabling knowledge transfer With reference to climate change, while conceptual and demonstration.
PVA is an approach used in knowledge is readily available and quite updated, emergency contexts to involve local people in doing knowledge required to translate this to practical their own analysis of their situation, strengthening level is not readily available.

There is a gap in their voices in planning effective responses.

The learning from and learning with communities project aims to adapt PVA for use in schools and to apply strategies on ground.
As seen by the to help build the awareness of children, parents, teachers, district officials and agency staff on examples, sectors such as health are at the forefront of participatory research and learning 5 by SEEDS Asia 6 ibid and these would be equally useful for vulnerability reduction.

The private sector is engaged in creating 51 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 and sharing knowledge on their own, particularly monitoring and risk management capacity is still in the area of CC.
While this is encouraging, it is in short supply.

This is especially true in high- good be involved and to learn from and influence risk communities where preparedness activities their agendas if necessary.

are sporadic, dependent on external aid and insufficiently harmonized (UNISDR, 2008).

Community-based Networking for Sharing Knowledge and collaboration has been recorded A project in Tongi and Gaibandha in Bangladesh, in many instances.
For example, promotion of for example, has hazard risks identified and ranked traditional rice cultivation in Sri Lanka is facilitated by communities to develop municipal hazard through a National Farmer Federation; a farmer-to- maps.

Trained volunteers assessed risks with the farmer network.
They are also linked to the Asian community and produced ward-level maps which Farmer Association where they help each other on were manually compiled to produce municipality gaining recognition for their adaptive livelihood level maps.

Sharing these back with the community strategies in the market context.

further increased awareness of their vulnerabilities, The inter-village networking aspect for Natural Resource Management (NRM) in Pang Ma Pha and community responsibilities.
This was funded by CARE Bangladesh with technical and financial District, Mae Hong Son Province in northern support through ADPC’s Asian Urban Disaster preparedness and mitigation options and individual Thailand is another example.

The network Mitigation Program.


facilitates three villages to come together to agree on and develop guidelines to manage harvesting of bamboo shoots for livelihoods.7 Similarly, Wanduruppa and nine other coastal villages in Ambalantota, in south Sri Lanka, face HFA Priority Area 4 - Reduce the underlying risk factors recurrent flooding, 12 to 20 times a year, as a result of the natural build up of a sand barrier across a river mouth.
With assistance from an NGO and the local authority, the community has been Community participation.

The importance of implementing a flood risk management plan that community engagement to resilience building builds on traditional community practices.

After cannot be overemphasised.

Often such participation receiving a warning, the community in the affected is limited to consultation.
This is better than not villages works to clear the sand barrier either engaging with communities at all, but does not manually or with use of machinery, for which the contribute fully towards local empowerment and decision-making.

It is also important to ensure that such consultations reflect the needs and priorities local authority provides limited funding.

In 2008, community had to clear the sand barrier 15 times, effectively avoiding floods, but had to draw on of vulnerable groups.
additional funds only twice.

The community has now been accepted by the local authorities as the Preparedness activities should be based on an body to carry out the flood mitigation mechanism understanding of local capacities, local knowledge (Practical Action).

Similar examples of community and the social factors that affect the ways engagement in risk assessment can be found in communities respond.
Unfortunately budgets the Philippines, Viet Nam, Indonesia, Nepal, India, for such work are generally inadequate and local Maldives, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands.

7 www.rmportal.net/library/content/tools/biodiversity-support- program/copy_of_cbnfm/USAID-BDB-cd-2-data/thailand-jantakad.

pdf/view (Accessed 8 October 2010).

Guidance for this kind of participation has also been produced in Viet Nam.

City Mayors now have 52 Chapter Ⅲ.


Reducing vulnerability, socio-economic perspectives a user-friendly practitioners’ guide for step-wise GLOF risk reduction using both community-based risk assessment developing “Local Resilience Action and non-structural approaches is envisaged.

Plans”.

The guide was based on a project carried out in three cities: Hanoi, Can Tho, and Dong Hoi.
Community participation can also be encouraged Communities can complement scientific geo-spatial through imaginative forms of communication.

One analysis with rapid qualitative vulnerability self- option is a local resource centre, which can act assessments, not only making the analysis more partly as was discussed above.

robust but also ensuring that the assessment itself acts as an agent of change.

Community-based DRR.


Community based and local level disaster management is accepted Participatory risk assessment can thus be used as effective in disaster management, particularly to integrate local knowledge and stakeholders’ in the event of a disaster.

It is important that perspectives into more technical assessments to formal systems acknowledge local contribution produce “participatory geographic information and include it in development plans budgetary systems”.
In Naga City, in the Philippines, this allocation.

Effective policy and strategies are has been used to incorporate local knowledge of urban flooding and vulnerability as well as coping essential to establish and ensure early warning to reach and serve communities, and reduce damage strategies (Peters, 2008).

Another technique, to lives and property.


As exemplified in the National known as participatory three dimensional Level Preparedness Efforts of Bangladesh’s Cyclone modelling, integrates people’s knowledge and Preparedness Programme (CPP), the Government spatial information to produce stand-alone scale introduced standing orders on CPP laying down models that not only support relatively accurate various actions needed at different stages of CPP.
data and analysis, but are also very user-friendly CPP plays a crucial role in the dissemination of and are excellent means of communication.

Cyclone warning, evacuation, rescue, first aid and emergency relief work including mobilization A G L O F r i s k a s s e s s m e n t p ro j e c t i n I n d i a , of people toward cyclone shelters through Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan aims to complement its volunteers in the coastal districts.
CPP is a the structural approaches towards GLOF risk mechanism which relies on technical skills and reduction, with sociological and community-based commitment for ensuring that all potential victims strategies.

The past GLOF/flash flood events were of an approaching cyclone are given sufficient studied to assess GLOF hazards and capacities/ warning to 11 million coastal people in order gaps at community and local administration levels.
Participatory consultative and interactive approaches with community and local stakeholders to enable them to move to safe sites including cyclone shelters and buildings.
The system starts with the collection of meteorological data from the were adopted while consultations with national Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD), stakeholders such as administrators, technical and which issues bulletins including the designated research institutions and civil society organizations warning signals of an approaching cyclone.

The working with mountain communities were also bulletins are transmitted to the six zonal offices and held.
Observations were shared with stakeholders the 30-upazila level offices (sub-district) over HF and attempts to identify appropriate mitigation and radio.

The upazila office in turn passes it to unions preparedness measures were made.

These include and lower levels through VHF radios.

The union community-based approaches/techniques and other team leaders the unit team leaders immediately.
interventions with national partners and institutions The unit team call leaders with volunteers spread for GLOF risk reduction.

Developing research on out in the villages and disseminate cyclone-warning 53 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 signals almost door to door using megaphones, Action Plan for 2010-1012.

The Philippines Strategic hand sirens and public address systems.
CPP National Action Plan (SNAP) on DRR 2009-2019 comprises over 40,000 volunteers (close to recognises the cross cutting issues of community 15,000 female) who are respected and becoming participation in the process of mainstreaming DRR in increasingly integrated and influential within their various sectors.

Similarly in Sri Lanka the Road Map community and with local government agencies.
for Safer Sri Lanka 2006-2015 prioritises CBDRM as one of its seven programmes, with an aim of In Lao PDR, mechanisms for early warning seem having a sustained national programme to build to be spelled out fairly well in terms of lines of the resilience and capacity of at-risk communities communications, starting from the Department of for response and Disaster Risk Management Meteorology and Hydrology to the local disaster (DRM).

Similarly in Lao PDR, Provincial Disaster management organizations.
The information Management Committee (PDMC), District DM consists of weather forecast (rainfalls, storms, Committee (DDMC) and Village Disaster Protection typhoons) and information on water level along Unit (VDPU) have been established.

the main river and its tributaries.

Community based early warning systems are developed in parallel by NGO projects which include setting up However, achievements are neither comprehensive nor substantial.
For example, in the case of Lao monitoring equipment (flood mark) along the river, PDR, where the mechanisms face many challenges system of monitoring and reporting to the village due to inadequate financial resources, lack of disaster protection unit head, district authority and capacities of disaster management committee province.

Further, village disaster risk maps are members, lack of facilities, equipment, and produced and placed within the village head.

The operational systems.


There is abundant knowledge, disaster risk maps consist of information on disaster both in the local traditional domain as well as the types in different areas within the village, elements available technological fields on early warning.

at risk, and evacuation routes.


Government has Deployment of this range of knowledge to effective yet to build on this and sustain useful practices use is, however, very limited due to lack of organised on community based disaster risk management and user-friendly availability of the knowledge developed with the support of donor agencies.

where and when it is required.


The sophisticated systems put into place have yet to show evidence O v e r a l l , i n m a n y i n s t a n c e s , i n s t i t u t i o n a l of smooth implementation in case of emergencies, commitment has been attained, where national although there are a few rare cases.

DRR plans identify Community-based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM) as a priority.

In the national plan for DM 2007-2015 of the Ministry Gender issues in risk and vulnerability.
Gender, age, class and poverty based differential impacts of of Food and Disaster Management, Bangladesh climate change is confirmed in the 2007 Assessment recognized community empowerment (building Report of the IPCC.

The progress reviews on MDGs capacity, community based early warning system, clearly state that goals and targets on gender are of community based risk assessment and preparedness crucial relevance to achieving the rest of the MDG planning, etc.)

which is practiced through the targets.


UNFPA make specific reference to the goals CBDRM programmes in the country.

In Indonesia, related to women, stating that “achievement of the National Action Plan for DRR 2006-2009 prioritised eight MDGs by 2015 is in jeopardy.

Climate change integration of CBDRM with local development is reducing the likelihood of reaching a number master plan.
Following successful implementation of the Goals related to gender and sustainable this is included in recently developed National development that are already at risk as a result of 54 Chapter Ⅲ.

Reducing vulnerability, socio-economic perspectives the deep and continued bias against women and women’s and men’s roles and responsibilities in girls” (UNFPA, 2009).

disaster management tasks are stereotyped based on traditional gender assumptions.
Women are also The United Nations International Strategy for active in the maintenance of both contemporary Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and the United and indigenous early warning systems in the Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) two countries, yet are not officially recognized in review (2009) of the selected country HFA progress policies and programmes.

reports from the Asia and the Pacific, and the global HFA guidance material reveal that cross- There are similar issues in the Pacific.
In Fiji, for cutting issues do not currently receive meaningful example, the National Disaster Management Office or sustained attention, with gender and culture and SOPAC have used a participatory vulnerability least likely to be considered in most sectors.

and capacity assessment to collect first-hand data from Navua communities.
Preliminary findings According to the Gender and Disaster Network, indicate that although there are active women’s while progress has been made in gender and DRR, groups these have a small role in community or it has been slow and inconsistent (2009).

National policies rarely state gender issues explicitly, and it local development.

Women have little involvement either in decision-making and are less likely to be is often an implicit part within larger goals such involved in early warning systems.
as implementing HFA or achieving MDGs.

Gender issues are still marginalized at national levels.

Only Unsurprisingly, therefore, during and after the 19 out of the 118 countries prepared reports for disasters, women and children suffer most (Global the World Conference on Disaster Reduction 2005, Fund for Women, 2005).
For example, women and only eight among 61 countries at Global accounted for 61 per cent of deaths in Cyclone Platform for DRR 2007 mentioned gender or Nargis in Myanmar (Joint Assessment Report), and women’s issues in their national reports.

A recent 70 to 80 per cent of those who died during the UNISDR Review on gender Issues in DRR in India Indian Ocean Tsunami.
In the 1991 Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, too, shows that while national Cyclone, death rates among women were almost policies acknowledge women’s vulnerabilities four times higher than those among men.

and the need for empowerment, budgetary allocations are not available; where practice is Women are also affected differently during the limited to including women as members of local recovery.
As caretakers they have to take most disaster management committees, that too is an afterthought, rather than a systemic provision to ensure gender equity.

Oftentimes women’s of the responsibility for sick and injured family members while having less access to formal recovery assistance when they are not the head of involvement is generally limited to lesser-recognised the household.

They may also be offered limited voluntary work.


View from the Frontline (VFL) 2009 opportunities for employment and education.

In confirms this based on the analysis of information families under stress women also face increased from 12 countries, relatively high volunteer violence.

A post-tsunami assessment in Thailand, women participation at a grassroots level and low for example, reported that young women who participation in decision-making.
Further, while lost their jobs were in danger of being forced into commitment, local capacities and initiatives are high commercial sex work.

At the same time there amongst women, access to formal decision-making were fears of increase in HIV infections and other process, and consequently access to resources by diseases (UN Country Team Thailand, 2006).

women remains low.
women remains low.

In both India and Sri Lanka, 55 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 An important point of observation, which needs attention at the levels of policy and practice, is the International and Save the Children have initiated lack of consideration of women’s capacities.

Due to work on child rights and children’s needs in the socio-cultural prejudices in the region, women DRR.
Although some agencies such as Handicap are frequently labelled as weak and as victims.

International and Help the Aged have started some However, it is evident that despite the lower work, much less attention is paid to disability and socio-economic status and oppressive social and elderly issues.
institutional structures which reinforce gendered imbalances in Asia and the Pacific region, women possess and apply skills and capacities that are key for disaster risk reduction and preparedness, post disaster recovery and rehabilitation, and climate HFA Priority Area 5 - Strengthen disaster preparedness for effective response at all levels change adaptation, which often go unnoticed Losses from disasters can be reduced substantially and formally not recognised (Ariyabandu, 2004; by making adequate preparations.
Disaster UNFPA, 2009; ICIMOD, 2006).

This invisibility is preparedness must integrate structural and non- reflected in the disaster preparedness and early warning programmes, in recovery plans and structural, human-oriented interventions and end- to-end early warning systems.

The benefits of investments, which are often gender blind and preparation were evident from the experience of lack systematic and inbuilt gender analysis.
As two recent cyclones: Nargis, which struck Myanmar demonstrated in the Indian Ocean Tsunami and in 2008 and Sidr which struck Bangladesh in Kashmir Earthquake recovery and reconstruction, 2007.

The cyclones were of similar strengths and gender stereotypes prevailed.

Technology up - struck countries with similar levels of poverty gradation, access to credit, livelihood capacity among people living on extensive coastal tributary development opportunities were not gender systems.
But while Nargis cost 300,000 lives, Sidr e q u i t a b l e a n d re i n f o rc e d e x i s t i n g g e n d e r cost only 3,500 lives.

The difference was that while imbalances (UNDP, 2006; IFRC, 2007; Duryog Myanmar had made little preparation for such Nivaran, 2006).
an event, Bangladesh had invested in protective embankments and preserved its mango forests and Children, elderly and disabled are also identified also had people-centred early warning systems and as particular groups that become marginalized.

well prepared communities (AUSAID, 2008).
Table III-1 Preparedness makes a difference - same levels of hazards but different impacts Tidal wave (and storm surge) 5 metres (up to 6 metres) 3.5 metres (up to 7 metres) Bangladesh Cyclone Sidr, 2007 Myanmar Cyclone Nargis, 2008 Wind speed Population evacuated Deaths Missing Population “severely” affected Total loss and damage Human Development Index (2007) Per capita GDP ($PPP, 2007) Population below poverty line (2004) Source: AUSAID, 2008 56 240 km/hr 3 million 3,406 1,001 1 million $1,674 million 140 $1,400 45% 255 km/hr None 84,537* 53,836 2.4 million $4,134 million 132 $1,900 33% Chapter Ⅲ.
Reducing vulnerability, socio-economic perspectives E f f e c t i v e C o m m u n i t y - b a s e d D i s a s t e r evacuation centers and facilitated relocation of Preparedness (CBDP).

Community-based Disaster community by negotiating on behalf of community Preparedness Programme facilitated by OSDMA, the with Authorities.
State Nodal implementing and monitoring agency was launched in 10 coastal blocks (Kantapada, Similar approaches on CBDRM are adopted across Ersama, Kujang, Balikuda, Balianta, Astarang, the region, with donor and government support Mahakalpada, Rajnagar, Ganjam and Bahanaga) highlighting the value in mobilizing communities of seven coastal districts (Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, and local resources, while building their capacities Khurda, Puri, Kendrapara, Ganjam and Balasore) and social capital, and paying attention to locally of Orissa.
Active involvement of Panchayati Raj important issues including those that are important Institutions (PRI) the local government authority in to marginalized groups.

Good examples on CBDRM the context of devolved power was helpful.

The for disaster response and preparedness can be Village Disaster Management Committees (VDMC) found in India, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, consisting of villagers, ward members and village level government functionaries implemented the programme at village level.
Community mobilization with special focus on vulnerable groups was carried out by local CSOs and members Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bangladesh, China, Viet Nam and Cambodia.8 Implementation challenges of PRIs and it facilitated preparation of Village Despite the advances made, there is still a long and Panchayat level Disaster Management Plans.
way to go, the most challenging aspect being Capacity building on risk analysis and management the integration of DRR into development and led to community identifying specific risk reduction acting upon DRR challenges of climate change.
measures and recognizing their own capacities Low income countries report little progress in and coping mechanisms and using this as basis integrating disaster risk reduction considerations for linking preparedness to local developmental into social, economic, urban, environmental and planning.

The experience was also replicated by infrastructural planning and development.
The implementing the same in 145 blocks of 16 districts governance arrangements for disaster risk reduction (3,005 Blocks and 23,234 villages).

in these countries do not facilitate the integration of risk considerations into development.

Often, the How the community in the Barangay of Talba, the organizations responsible for disaster risk reduction Philippines prepared for the volcanic eruption of lack the political authority and the technical capacity Mt.
Pinatubo in Central Luzon, is a good example of how informed community can take responsibility for not only preparedness measures, but also in to influence development sectors (UNISDR, 2009a).

For instance, the national report from Cambodia states that “[t]here is no common understanding mitigation actions and mobilize local resources of multi-sector integration approaches and lack towards this.

The eruption in 1995 destroyed the of comprehensive understanding of disaster risk village of Talba.
The government communication reduction and vulnerability reduction development system were disrupted and failed to warn the agencies” (UNISDR, 2009).

community.

The parallel community warning system, however, worked and it helped to avoid Participants at the Fourteenth Regional Disaster loss of life.
Resources of the community, such as Managers Meeting in Fiji in 2008 reported privately owned small boats, jeeps and trucks were that some of the activities including legislation used to move the villagers to safety.

The CI also facilitated service delivery by the government at 8 Case studies archive.

www.cbnrm.net/members/cases/cases.html 57 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 approval strategy have stalled (Lal and others, untapped.

The foundation for building resilience 2009).
Bangladesh national review emphasises is people’s awareness and understanding of the attitude related challenges in changing the risks that they face; climate change provides an previous emphasis on response: “Introducing opportunity to address underlying risk factors, raise DRR culture and practices takes time to replace external resources and political commitment for age-old relief culture.” Moreover, the approach building resilience, and turning policy into practice is often traditional – conceived within a narrow requires finding the appropriate balance between project-based framework, focusing on structural top-down and bottom-up engagement (Global risk reduction measures, particularly flood control, Network of Civil Society Organisations for Disaster enhanced early warning systems, and strengthened Reduction, 2009).
response capabilities.

National – local coordination gaps It is also important to acknowledge that subnational planning systems are often weak, and there are significant disconnects between different For risk and vulnerability reduction, governance levels of government.

In the Philippines, for systems need to be effective at local, national, regional and international levels.
Progress in risk example, provincial investment plans and regional and national investment plans are formulated reduction is particularly difficult and slow at local independently (ADB, 2007b).

It can also be difficult levels.


While Indonesia, Nepal, and the Philippines to implement national policies and regulations express clear institutional commitment to the at the local level in countries where local chief delegation of authority to local levels, all remaining executives, rather than national line agencies countries emphasize the importance of local and supervise local officials and largely determine the community level empowerment and the challenges use of funding (Benson, forthcoming).
of highly variable local level capacities.

Local officials are not necessarily familiar with new regulations Similar limitations are evident in programmes and and there is a lack of dedicated organizational local projects.

Many of the identification and appraisal capacity for planning and implementation.
In the processes pay little explicit regard to disaster risk absence of clear monitoring and evaluation criteria, concerns, missing the opportunity to optimize the enforcement of new regulations poses major projects and ensure that they do not inadvertently challenges.

This is compounded by a general lack aggravate vulnerability to natural hazards.

of clarity on the roles of local government and/or competition of different administrative levels over authority and resources (UNISDR, 2009d).
Typically, disaster risk concerns are limited to environmental assessments.

Even these may focus primarily on the impact of proposed projects on the These are supported by findings from the 2009 environment, rather than on the potential impact of study “Clouds but little rain: views from the environmental hazards on the project, for example, frontline - A local perspective of progress towards when schools are built in hazard-prone areas.
More implementation of the Hyogo Framework for fundamentally, the environmental assessment Action” by the Global Network of Civil Society process is often applied only loosely, particularly Organisations for Disaster Reduction.

This study at the subnational level, and the resulting found that nationally-formulated policies are not recommendations are not necessarily acted upon.
generating widespread systemic changes in local practices; resources are scarce and considered The situation is usually better for infrastructure.

one of the main constraints to progress.

However, Major roads, for example, are usually designed to there are also resources at local level which remain take into account the danger of floods.

However, 58 Chapter Ⅲ.


Reducing vulnerability, socio-economic perspectives this may not apply to small-scale constructions opportunities are there for information exchange and even for major infrastructure, the design and scaling up of actions and practices across parameters are typically based on historical records development, DRR and adaptation communities.
and do not take into account potential changes in What has not happened yet is a systematic the frequency and intensity of hazard events over approach to analyze what practices are best suited the life of an investment, particularly as a result of for sharing across these issues.

climate change.
climate change.

A summary of what would constitute inclusive The most fundamental task for integration is risk reduction that meets sustainable development to ensure that the importance of disaster risk goals is shown in Table III-2.

The table attempts to reduction is appreciated at all levels of government.
capture the characteristics of an “ideal scenario”: This is particularly important for ministries of characteristics of resilient communities and of finance and planning – which determine broad the enabling environment at national, regional or development objectives, coordinate sectoral international levels of resilience, and places them activities around cross-cutting issues, set guidelines against the five key themes of HFA.
Table III-2 is and criteria for designing and prioritizing individual development initiatives and allocate budgetary resources.
In practice, many finance and planning ministries still have relatively limited knowledge and adapted from the framework “Characteristics of a Disaster-Resilient Community” guidance note (Twigg, 2007)9 in order to list key aspects of DRR that effectively addresses vulnerability reduction understanding of the socio-economic impacts of and climate change in an inclusive development disasters and faced with many pressing demands context on the ground.
These were derived through on limited budgetary resources, giving a low the analysis of current thinking related to poverty, priority to disaster risk reduction.

development, disaster risk and impacts of climate Conclusions change.
The table facilitates the understanding of how interventions and practices for risk reduction in the region can contribute to moving a It is evident that progress on mainstreaming community towards resilience and a desired state disaster risk reduction and climate change into of development.

development planning and practice has been disappointingly slow.
However, it should be The analysis and the criteria presented in the emphasized that this process inevitably takes table can be used to help decision makers to get time, since it involves knowledge, awareness and capacities, changes in attitudes and thinking at all levels of government and civil society, as well a realistic indication about pace and direction of ongoing work, prioritise and target the gaps which are essential to achieve sustainable development in as changes in legislative, institutional and policy their individual countries and in Asia and the Pacific frameworks and adjustments in project and region.
budgetary procedures.

Opportunities for cross learning This section outlines socio-economic approaches needed to scale up work in reducing disaster vulnerability in Asia and the Pacific.

The next A number of overlapping experiences exist section outlines how we can take advantage of a between the three frameworks: sustainable disaster to make the recovery more resilient.

development, UNFCC and HFA in relation to reduction of vulnerability.
In areas, where more advanced learning has happened and lessons exist, 9 John Twigg, “Characteristics of a Disaster-Resilient Community”, A Guidance Note, for the DFID Disaster Risk Reduction Interagency Coordination Group, Version 1.
June 2007 59 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Table III-2 Key features of an inclusive and environmentally sustainable disaster risk reduction strategy Features of a resilient community Features of an enabling environment for gaining resilience Strong and representative community institutions that can engage with local governments, NGOs and other key actors.

Political consensus on reducing vulnerability: decision makers authorise policies and allocate budgets based on long-term cost benefit analysis.
Community institutions that represent the diverse members of the community and their priorities.

Policy makers use participatory methodologies and enable decentralized and community-based actions for effective planning and implementation of development work.

Local risk and vulnerability assessments through participatory analysis, with all stakeholders recognizing local knowledge.

Research and academic institutions see value in assessing risk through participatory research.
Budget allocations reflect cost of participatory risk assessments.

HFA Priority for Action 1 Governance HFA Priority for Action 2 Risk assessment HFA Priority for Action 3 Communities know of risks and options for vulnerability reduction.

Knowledge and education prioritized at national and local levels.

Knowledge and education Communities have climate information access and skills to interpret and use forecasting for community level decision making.
The links between development climate change and disaster risk reduction are taught in schools, universities and technical colleges.

Local politicians, officials, scientists, researchers, practitioners and community leaders have the knowledge and capacity to understand the linkages and act accordingly.

The media stimulate a culture of disaster resilience.

Vulnerability reduction is a poverty reduction and development target.

Officials have the necessary skills and engage in vulnerability reduction.
Tools and guidance for risk-sensitive planning and scenario-based planning is available.

Environmental and natural resource management is considered a core value in development programmes.

Project and programmes have adequate guidance to plan and implement risk-sensitive development.

Financial institutions and insurance companies align their services to promote risk-sensitive development.

The Local government leadership and decisions are respected.
Development plans and budgetary allocation include and facilitate community based preparedness.

Support for community based preparedness for uncertainty and aggravated disaster risk.

Early warning systems usefully serve communities.

Development targets reduce damage to lives and property through adequate emphasis on preparedness, and related education and skills development.

Practical plans that local stakeholders can adhere to.
Social networks help in skills and capacity development, and knowledge sharing.

Vulnerability reduction learning and practice are built on traditional knowledge systems.

The community can work effectively with markets and understand issues of financial risk transfer.

Sustained community engagement in public education, debates, campaigns and consultations.

HFA Priority for Action 4 Communities are aware of and understand risk management options.
Risk management and vulnerability reduction HFA Priority for Action 5 Disaster preparedness and response They adhere to agreed standards, and engage in sustainable risk management practices such as risk-sensitive housing construction, infrastructure development, and livelihood practice.

Communities engage in scenario-based plans and options, avoid damaging and risk-increasing practices.

Communities apply codes of practice to arrest risk increasing behaviour.
Communities are linked to government social protection and have their own risk sharing means.

Communities take responsibility for planning and implementing emergency, preparedness and contingency plans independently of NGOs and others.

Communities have scenario-based preparedness plans for unforeseen or unpredictable situations.

Community is active in early warning systems and works alongside local research and institutional mechanisms to predict local risks, vulnerability and solutions.
Community has skills to lead or contribute to handling emergency, preparedness and recovery actions.

Source: Duryog Nivaran 2010, derived from Twigg, 2007 60 Chapter Ⅲ.

Reducing vulnerability, socio-economic perspectives Box III-1 – Disaster risk reduction and poverty reduction One example of a project that embraces the concerns of resilient community is the food security project in Samoa.

This aims to reduce vulnerability while building sustainable livelihoods.
Organized by a civil society organization with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) assistance, this involves the supply of seeds and vegetables as well as their piggeries to support the needs of rural families.

Although the project focuses on food availability, it also addresses health and nutrition, income generation, budgeting and reduced reliance on remittances, and even household planning.
Vulnerable families are learning about ways to enhance their resilience to risks – be they related to disasters and climate change, or financial risks related to fuel and food prices (FAO, 2009).

There have been similar initiatives, related to drought recovery, for example, in Gujarat in India.

The district of Kutch has an arid coastal climate and has always been prone to droughts but the previous 5-year cycle has now fallen to two or three years.
In response, The Nehru Foundation for Development has introduced a “drought proofing programme” creating local dams to secure water, to decentralize rural drinking water and sanitation.

At the same time it has been promoting alternative livelihood options based on handicrafts, especially for women (Kyoto University, 2005).

Box III-2 – Mal development examples There are examples of how certain development decisions based on market demand tend to ignore increases in Vulnerability.
Narmada projects10 which caused a lot of debate and dissent amongst environmentalists and government is an example where development priorities were questioned in relation to its impacts on community, environmental degradation and vulnerability.
The proposed damming of Narmada river for electricity generation to support growth and industrial development, irrigation and drinking water would have caused eviction of one million people, mostly poor peasants and tribes, inundation of forests and heightened vulnerability.

The Government supported this option despite the possibility of achieving similar results with alternative options that are small scale, decentralized, ecologically sustainable and integrated with local communities.
Finally large-scale proposal was suspended after a long standing protest of community and a Supreme Court judgment.

Up to 1.6 million trees would have had to be cut to build New Murree City Pakistan11, a mega city, which would have caused severe ecological and social consequences.

This Punjab government project was only abandoned after a protest was held by civil society, environmentalist, media and local people, backed up by a Supreme Court Decision.
Box III-3 – Development projects contribute to disaster risk Development projects can contribute to the root causes of disaster risk.

For example, two reviews by the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group examined 7,000 projects from 1990 to 2007 worth $400 billion in investments.

One review found that the Bank and its sister institutions, including the International Finance Corporation, did not put into practice its own environmental policies.
Another review found that even within disaster response projects, the Bank did better at reconstructing damaged infrastructure and housing than it did in reducing vulnerabilities and addressing their root causes.

Moreover, in almost half of the countries where the Bank was later called on to finance disaster reconstruction projects, disaster prevention did not play any role in the country’s overall development strategy.
The reviews recommended that disaster risk be built into development planning from the start, and the Bank and its partners intensify their focus on measurable environmental protection.

10 The Right Livelihood Award; www.rightlivelihood.org\narmada.html 11 Duryog Nivaran Secretariat and Practical Action “South Asia Disaster Report 2008”.
p. 46 61 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Box III-4 – Economic benefits of investment in disaster risk management A number of international and regional organizations have carried out cost-benefit analyses on the value of investing in disaster risk management.

Indonesia – The German development agency, Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) has examined a number of large-scale flood protection measures.
It has, for example, estimated benefit to cost ratios of 2.5 for an integrated water management and flood protection scheme in Indonesia (Mechler, 2005).

The Russian Federation – The World Bank analysed a $110-million modernization programme of the Russian Federation’s National HydroMet system to improve the quality and timeliness of weather forecasts.
It found that, over a seven-year period, the benefit-cost ratio would between 5 and 10, as a result of reducing preventable losses in weather-dependent sectors, such as agriculture, power and gas and water resources (World Bank, 2005).

India – The NGO Tearfund analysed the net benefits of interventions to reduce the impact of annual flooding for periods of three to four months in five villages in Bihar.

These included placing hand pumps higher to protect them ensure year round water supplies.
An escape road was also installed and boats were provided for more rapid evacuation.

The analysis estimated that this package of interventions had a benefit cost-ratio of 3 (Cabot Venton and Venton, 2004).

Nepal – The Nepal Red Cross examined a disaster risk reduction programme in South East Nepal, focusing on those components for which costs and benefits could be easily quantified over the assumed 15-year project life.

Assuming a discount rate of 10 per cent this found a benefit to cost ratio of 18.6.
The analysis was re-run excluding a component involving the installation of gabion boxes, resulting in a benefit to cost ratio of two and an internal rate of return of 14 per cent (Cabot Venton and others, 2008).

Samoa – SOPAC analysed various structural and non-structural flood management options for the lower Vaisigano catchment area.

For an improved flood forecasting system the benefit to cost ratio ranged between 1.72 and 1.92 depending on the choice of discount rate.
For the construction of new wooden homes with elevated floor heights in the floodplain the range was four to 44.

And for cement block homes it was two to 28.

Two other options, involving the construction of floodwalls and a diversion channel, were not found to be economically viable (Woodruff, 2008).

Fiji – SOPAC analysed a flood warning system for the town of Navua where the last major floods in 2004 cost at least $8.7 million.
SOPAC concluded that a flood warning system, which would reduce loss of possessions, protect health, and reduce relief costs, would have a cost-benefit ratio of 3.7 to 7.3, depending on the frequency of major floods on the 2004 scale over the 20-year life time of the system.

The analysis ignored additional benefits in the event of other floods (Holland, 2008a).
Box III-5 – Planned adaptation to climate change While many forms of adaptation to climate change are undertaken by local communities others are planned using national planning processes like the UNFCCC National Adaptation Plan of Action (NAPA), or the UNCCD National Action plans (NAP).
South-East Asia – In Cambodia, the NAPA focuses on adaptive management systems of agriculture, water and coastal resources, forests, land use, health, forecasting and surveillance, together with research and capacity building measures to support these programmes.

While it discusses the social and institutional context the main focus is on improving physical infrastructure.
The NAPA in Lao PDR prioritizes agricultural interventions, water management strategies and infrastructure development, but there has been no study of the likely socio-economic impact of climate change.

At the national level, Thailand and Viet Nam have concentrated on agriculture and water interventions, including the development of resilient crop varieties, cultivation practices, irrigation measures and coastal zone management (Nguyen, 2007).
Planned adaptation in Indonesia includes the development of prediction and early warning systems, and forest and agricultural development plans that focus on rural irrigation and cropping management, although a broader adaptation plan is in development (Las, 2007).

South Asia – Here a major issue is water availability.

In India, for example, proposals include direct surface flows into aquifers (Gupta and Deshpande, 2004).

In Nepal, there is surprisingly little specific policy on climate change.
The primary focus has been on the risk of glacial lake outbreak floods, with a focus on structures to lower the water levels and prevent sudden breaches (Agrawala, 2003).

In Bangladesh, activities are almost entirely concentrated on engineered physical systems such as dykes, levees and emergency shelters, with some attention to ecosystem solutions such as mangrove protection, seacoast tree planting and alternative cropping (Ali, 2000).

62 Chapter Ⅲ.
62 Chapter Ⅲ.

Reducing vulnerability, socio-economic perspectives Box III-6– Integrating disaster risk reduction into development plans in the Philippines Over the years, development plans in the Philippines have put steadily more emphasis on disaster risk reduction.
The 1987-1992 Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) only mentioned natural hazards in the context of more effective assistance for “disasters victims”, further investments in flood control and efforts to improve disaster preparedness.

However, following particularly heavy disaster-related losses in 1991, the 1993-1998 MTPDP moved a step forward, identifying disasters as hindering social welfare and community development and hampering the development of infrastructure.
The plan identified a number of disaster-related needs, including investments in flood control; enhanced relief, rehabilitation and preparedness capacity and operations; the strengthening of crop insurance; and studies on disaster risk mapping, damage assessment and the socio-economic impact of disasters (Philippines, 1994).

The 1999-2004 MTPDP, following heavy agricultural losses after the severe 1997/98 El Niño event, placed further emphasis on risk reduction, particularly on resilience to drought.
The plan aimed to reduce vulnerability to adverse climatic conditions as a way of enhancing competitiveness and outlined the need for investment in various structural and non-structural flood control measures, farm reservoirs and small water impoundments.

It also identified the need to strengthen disaster risk management, put more emphasis on rehabilitation rather than relief alone improve the use of local calamity funds, and strengthen climate forecasting capabilities (Philippines, 1999).
The most recent MTPDP, covering the period 2004-2010, aims to integrate a “disaster preparedness and management strategy” into the development planning process at all levels.

Measures will include periodic risk assessments, updating land use policy, disaster management for local government officials, and community-based mechanisms for disaster management (Philippines, 2004).
The plan lays out a series of disaster risk reduction measures including flood control, geo-hazard mapping, and enhancing the resilience of the poor via training and education.

Source: Benson, 2009 Box III-7– Some issues arising from mainstreaming The chapter makes the case for disaster risk reduction to be mainstreamed in development assistance.

At the centre of the approach is the idea that disaster risk reduction should be related to reducing poverty and redressing socio- economic inequities.
Both developing and developed countries are called on to do certain tasks.

Developing countries should include disaster related spending in their development investments, for example by providing affordable insurance against disasters, ensuring that flooding and soil erosion damage is minimized through zoning laws, building adequate infrastructure and installing early warning systems that reduce loss of life and damages from these disasters.
Developed countries should be prepared to provide relief assistance quickly and attain their development assistance benchmark target of 0.7 per cent of GDP (most do not reach it).

Both for developing and developed countries the distinction between disaster assistance and development assistance is narrowing considerably.

One concern with this approach is that the case for disaster relief, both in its scale and urgency, could be diluted by mainstreaming in future.
Related to this is the question of whether exogenous events like disasters should be treated as separate and extreme events that merit their own attention and resources specifically dedicated to that acute emergency, or whether responses should be factored into overall development assistance.
Since speed and size of response are of the essence, one approach would be to build provisions into existing development assistance mechanisms that would automatically trigger minimum amounts of disbursements from Official Development Assistance (ODA) by each country when a disaster strikes.

An international cooperation agreement could be sought to resolve problems related to each country’s contribution of funds, how the minimum disbursement would be triggered and by how much.
Such an agreement could go a long way in building global solidarity around the sharing of disaster relief assistance, particularly for those disasters that are related to climate change, where there are common but differentiated responsibilities, while an immediate reaction to disasters would be guaranteed.
Some might contend that voluntary contributions should play a bigger role, citing highly successful fundraisers launched by various celebrities, actors, singers, artists, philanthropists, often in close cooperation with media networks.

While such contributions have proven to be generous and laudable, private contributions could be captured by self-interest groups with unclear agendas.

The state remains the institution with the legitimacy, resources and clout to reach those in most need.
Insisting that developed countries meet their existing commitment to the 0.7 per cent of GDP target and building automaticity in disbursements for disasters would ensure more substantial and more predictable forms of financing for disaster relief and disaster risk reduction.

63 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Another issue that needs further resolution is to determine where does “relief assistance” end and where does “development assistance” start?
Even more difficult to determine is the point where relief start to impinge on autonomous development initiatives and possibly crowd out such efforts?

For example, when does food aid start to displace local agricultural production?

The question has not been answered properly, yet.

The experiences emerging from the 12 January 2010 Earthquake that devastated large swathes of Haiti and killed more than 220,000 people are relevant.
Two months after the quake struck, the President of Haiti asked for international food aid to be scaled back so that the quake-ravaged nation could find its feet through its own domestic production and employment.

President Rene Preval said that if food and water continue to be sent from abroad, that will undermine Haitian national production and Haitian trade.
He was of the view that Haiti would need to move more and more towards creating jobs so that people were paid, and that they themselves step in to help Haiti.

He noted that a historic opportunity of reinventing Haiti and reinventing Port-au-Prince had presented itself.
At the same time, the President warned that preparations for the hurricane season should start, and that external financing amounting to some 38 million dollars was still lacking.12 Box III-8 – Planning for flood management in Pune, India The city of Pune in India has a comprehensive climate change adaptation and mitigation plan.

The city had suffered a number of severe floods over the last six decades, the most significant being the 1961 flood that involved a major dam failure.
With the threat of more flooding due to climate change the city has developed a comprehensive plan, driven by the elected municipal government, the municipal commissioner and an active citizen group called Alert.

The first step was to assess the flood risks, by analysing hourly rainfall intensity and examining the impacts in low- lying areas and places where construction of houses or roads had blocked natural drainage.
The city then produced a detailed city drainage map and plans to restore natural drainage, widen streams, extend bridges and apply methodologies for natural soil infiltration.

For the hilly zone it also envisaged watershed conservation techniques such as forestation and building small earthen dams.

These efforts complemented other improvements in flood monitoring and warning systems and social protection for affected families.
Households were also given property tax incentives to encourage them to recycle wastewater or use rainwater harvesting by storing run-off from their roofs.

Source: UNISDR, 2009 Box III-9– Successful crop insurance in India An alternative source of funding is private-sector insurance.
In India, for example, the insurance company ICICI Lombard, in collaboration with a Hyderabad microfinance institution BASIX, has been providing rainfall-indexed insurance to protect farmers from drought during the groundnut and castor growing season.

This was the developing world’s first weather insurance initiative.

It started in 2003, with coverage for 230 farmers, but within three years had been extended to 7,685 policies in 36 locations across six states.
The Agricultural Insurance Company of India now offers similar products, and the scheme has achieved wide acceptance among farmers.

Indexing the insurance to the weather, rather than to individual crops simplifies the system since the weather indicators are easily measured and publicly available, so the system is transparent, transaction costs are low, and payments are triggered automatically.

However, it also has the disadvantage of a potential mismatch between losses and payout.
Some farmers may suffer losses in specific localities, but get no payment, while others might get a payout while suffering no losses.

This will increase the “basis risk” and the insurance will not be attractive if the basis risk becomes too high.

According to ICICI Lombard, weather insurance needs extensive government support.

In Haryana, for example, out of a total premium of Rs.
1,158 per acre, the government pays a subsidy of Rs 910, so the farmer pays only Rs 248 which provides coverage of up to Rs 15,000 per acre.

Nevertheless, weather-related insurance is likely to become more important when it comes to addressing climate change.

Source: Mechler and others, 2006 12 Reuters.


www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62752W20100308: (accessed 30 September 2010) 64 chapter Ⅳ Making the recovery resilient Allowing sufficient time ● 66 Finance ● 69 Building on cultural and social resilience ● 70 Gender imperatives ● 71 Recovery for resilient development ● 72 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Making the recovery resilient Countries afflicted by disasters have to address immediate issues of relief and reconstruction.
But they also have the opportunity to “build back better”, and in particular to improve their institutional and legislative arrangements for disaster risk reduction (aiding in making) and make a resilient recovery.

Much of this chapter is based on communications One frequent problem is conflict between donor with 40 people in key regional and national posts timeframes and real timeframes.

Donors are under in Asia and the Pacific.


Approximately one-third of pressure to disburse funds quickly, typically within respondents were from national governments or two or three years, whereas the recovery phase for the ASEAN secretariat, one-third from international a major disaster is likely to be three to five years.
agencies such as the International Federation of the The period required will depend on a number of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and factors, including the goals of the recovery, and international NGOs, and one third from the UN, how far the countries have progressed with pre- the World Bank, academia and donor communities.

disaster HFA policies.


Much too will depend on the Allowing sufficient time capacities of communities and local government and leadership – and a number of underlying risk factors, which may include centuries-old social One of the most important requirements for a fault lines, based on gender, social exclusion or resilient recovery is to allocate sufficient time.

This marginalization (Cosgrave, 2008).

represents something of a change in thinking.


Following the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, for Governments in disaster-hit countries have to example, some donors were initially allocating less observe both timetables, as well as balancing than one year, whereas for the Haiti Earthquake in 2009 they were proposing a recovery process of 10 the political expediencies of short-term measures against the needs for longer-term recovery.

The years.
World Bank’s evaluation of its disaster assistance noted that “It often happens that activities that If the time frame is too short, the danger is that the might contribute greatly to the recovery effort recovery processes may build back vulnerabilities (and to the borrower’s subsequent long-term or even increase them, while risk reduction will development) are not included in Emergency amount to little more than a series of add-on Recovery Loan (ERL) projects because they cannot training programmes (Tsunami Global Lessons be completed in the three years allotted” (IEG, Learned Project, 2009).
Short-term planning 2006).

and rapid disbursement also tends to focus on projects rather than adopt a systematic programme It takes time to build institutional capacity and to approach (International Recovery Platform, 2007).

mainstream disaster risk reduction and climate 66 Chapter Ⅳ.
Making the recovery resilient change adaptation into development policies, and regulatory frameworks, and low political and to align initiatives with local or national and administrative will and capacity as well as by government budget cycles.

It also takes time to nonchalant attitudes towards disasters.

After a pass the necessary laws and build the mechanisms disaster, however, attitudes change – from “it will to enforce local regulations.
After the tsunami not happen to us” to “what can we do about in Aceh Indonesia, for example, most people it?” This creates a window of opportunity to understandably wanted to get on with their lives.
remove barriers and creates new and enforceable However, “reconstruction is far more complex and regulations takes far longer than anyone would like or might imagine,” says Kuntoro, head of the Agency for the For example, following a major cyclone in 1991, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of Aceh and Nias the Bangladesh authorities reassessed their risk (BRR).

“The public, the media and the rest of the reduction strategies.
They redesigned cyclone world needed to be educated about the challenges shelters, enlarged them and relocated them and length of time required to deliver an effective closer to current population centres – taking into post-disaster reconstruction programme”.

While account cultural traditions and behaviour, as well it is extremely hard to win the battle to manage expectations, BRR was able, with time, to reduce as accommodation for economically important domestic livestock.
It was decided shelters and some of the pressures to show faster progress all new official buildings in the future are to be which could have led to bigger programmatic elevated two stories to protect families displaced by problems (Tsunami Global Lessons Learned Project, floods.

Shelters primarily took the form of schools, 2009).
subsequently for health dispensaries or other public facilities to ensure that they were well maintained, Local governments should therefore set the and more importantly, that the public associated timeframe for recovery based on community them with disaster preparedness.

Over the years, capacities and communicate this to donors and these community cyclone and flood shelters have other stakeholders.
Recent large disasters have become the integral part of an overall local risk shown that donors are becoming more aware of reduction strategy that has further developmental such concerns.

For example, during the response benefits.

Local preparedness committees also use to the Gujarat Earthquake, the UK’s Disasters them for emergency exercises and evacuation drills Emergency Committee (DEC) initially increased for people “living with floods” (IRP, 2007).
the maximum period during which funds should be spent from six to nine months.

An evaluation criticised even this period as being too short, and suggested doubling it to 18 months.

For the 2004 The recovery process can also be used to accelerate pre-existing development initiatives and incorporate stronger elements of disaster risk reduction.

Again, tsunami response, the DEC raised such a large sum, Bangladesh provides an example.
The largest NGO over £350 million that it increased the period of working in Bangladesh on DRR is the Bangladesh expenditure to three years.

An evaluation proposed Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), the BRAC raising this to five years, though this was not works with three million poor individuals, mainly accepted (Cosgrave, 2008).

A window of opportunity women.


Following flooding in 1998 BRAC was able to use its presence in 55 districts to assist 850,000 flood-affected women from landless and marginal farming households.
The strategy was Before a disaster, progress on the HFA is often to help people get back to their own homes with constrained by poor governance, weak policy regular income-generating activities, so most of the 67 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 activities also fed into longer-term development immediate attention.

However, the people with programmes that BRAC was already running fewer resources get the attention in later part.

(BRAC, 2000).
(BRAC, 2000).

People who are better integrated into economic and social network recover faster.

Recovery plans should also take into account climate change projections – especially critical In China, for example, following the Wenchuan in countries at high risk of hydro-metrological Earthquake, restoration and reconstruction disasters.

Planning for recovery planning started soon after the earthquake.
Starting early allowed both development and disaster managers to identify the problems, and it enabled decision makers to allocate the resources About half of respondents, mainly donors and to meet short, medium and long-term needs.

The governments, argued that countries could achieve process was led by the National Development more sustainable recovery if they had effective and Reform Committee which worked with 45 pre-disaster planning.
This would include building ministries, provincial governments, and state community and social resilience and investing in monitoring and learning systems.

National and institutes to prepare a recovery plan, while also seeking good practices and advice from the international actors can make efforts to predict international community.

When the consultations disasters, while also having in place recovery were completed, the authorities started to policies and strategies.
implement the recovery plan – “The State Overall Planning for Post-Wenchuan Earthquake Planning should also involve preparing for ex-post Restoration and Reconstruction”.

recovery.

This has been developed in other parts of the world.
In Latin America, the Organization of It should be emphasized, however, that such American States Unit for Sustainable Development assessments are not single events but ongoing and Environment has undertaken ex ante planning processes involving monitoring, evaluating and for housing reconstruction to ensure adequate learning.
This can be achieved by integrating materials are available following a disaster and that capacity building, disaster risk reduction, climate builders, homeowners and government agencies change scenarios and development plans into are aware of damage reduction measures and ongoing post-disaster assessments.

Initial rapid construction techniques that can result in more survey work should be followed up with more hazard-resistant housing.
This includes guidance for governments, the construction sector, the finance and insurance sectors, and homeowners, with in- detailed analysis to help identify corrective actions (Beck, 2005).

depth information on construction techniques, At present, however, recovery programmes standards and materials (OAS, 2001).

are rarely subject to systematic assessments.


Generally the reports are piecemeal and review Post disaster planning should aim to ensure the performance of one agency, rather than efficiency and public safety and take place swiftly the programme as a whole.

As a result, despite so as to preserve social and economic networks.
expenditures of billions of dollars, there is limited And from the outset authorities should be information on whether recovery programming concerned with equity, since those with the fewest has been pro-poor or supported livelihoods.

resources generally get less attention from aid Government, international agencies, and other organizations, and those with more resources get organizations active in recovery should jointly assess 68 Chapter Ⅳ.

Making the recovery resilient the programme as a whole.
After the 2004 Indian on media attention.

High-profile disasters such Ocean Tsunami, for example, key actors did invest as the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami will attract in an impact assessment and monitoring system.

much more funding than small or medium-sized Governance and local leadership disasters.

Typically, donors respond with only half of the funds requested by governments.
This may prove problematic – as it did, for example, for the Effective recovery depends on good governance, post earthquake housing programme in Pakistan particularly at the local level.

Strong local leaders (Beck, 2005).


Governments will therefore need will understand this and meet the needs of the mechanisms to allocate financial, human and affected population, listen to their concerns, ensure material resources and focus on the activities most that they are properly informed and engaged likely to reduce poverty and vulnerability.

and raise their awareness.


Local leaders can also ensure that the recovery incorporates measures to Governments, however, reallocate offer more address future multiple hazards including climate resources of their own by rearranging their change (Natural Hazards Research and Applications national development priorities.

They should also Information Center, 2001).

be able to rely on funds from local governments and communities.
For example, after the 2006 Local governments will also need to institutionalize Yogyakarta and Central Java Earthquake, the first disaster risk reduction into their day-to-day housing reconstruction programme for the people operations, including development planning, of Kasongan village, came from the government land use control and the provision of public of the province of Bengkulu.

Since these funds facilities and services.


In Indonesia, for example, were not sufficient to meet the housing needs, following the 2006 Java Earthquake, based on the community met to determine a fair way to its post-tsunami experience, the government distribute them.
They decided to use the funds to invested in local leadership – delegating to the purchase construction materials and rebuild the provinces the day-to-day management and houses themselves, organizing neighbours into decision-making, thus increasing their sense self-help labour groups.

Members of each group of ownership and responsibility.
The effective worked together to rebuild each other’s houses, recovery in Yogyakarta was in part the result of one at a time, giving priority to houses that were strong individual leadership, in particular from in poor condition and to households with elderly the Sultan as Governor; and secondly from the family members or children under five.

As a result, Bupati (district head) of Bantul, the worst affected district.
Nevertheless, almost all provincial and district government respondents spoke of the funding that was initially intended for 40 houses was used to build 70 (IRP, 2010).

continuing lack of clarity in the regulations covering Another option for financing the recovery is to twin responsibility for disaster response and recovery, provinces or municipalities.

This involves pairing an underlining the importance of effective laws and economically strong local government with a less local regulations.
Finance developed one.

China, for example, has introduced a twinning programme, which involves allocating one per cent of the annual income and technical capacity from the economically strong province The scale of financial resources available for to fund recovery projects in the less developed recovery, especially from non-governmental one for three years.
For example, after the 2010 sources, generally depends less on need and more Earthquake, Shandong Province and Shanghai 69 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Municipality provided assistance to Beichuan governments perform their proper duties to the County and Dujiangyan City.
They provided community in a transparent and accountable funds to rebuild schools and hospitals to higher manner, perceptions can soon start to shift (UNDP standards, as well as upgrade their management Early recovery Assistance programme, 2009).

and professional capacity.


They also deployed some of their own staff to the newly built institutes to Recovery thus provides an opportunity not just provide on-the-job guidance or brought teachers, to reconstruct physical infrastructure but also doctors and managers to receive training.

Such to build on community’s inherent cultural and twinning arrangements are best established before social resilience.
For this to happen, however, disasters, however, so as to be part of ongoing communities need to be involved very early in development programmes.

Building on cultural and social resilience the recovery process.
Governments therefore should develop standards and strategies for community participation and input, based on social mapping and a close understanding of community strengths and weaknesses – so that Almost half of the respondents contacted for this report, mostly international organizations, programmes can capitalize on local leadership and the often-latent capacities, especially of women.
This community-driven approach to post- community participation.

People and communities disaster recovery requires significant investments make decisions every day that will influence the of time and human resources but results in greater inherent risks.

Their choices will be influenced stakeholders satisfaction, quicker disbursement of by their available livelihood opportunities, their aid, and local empowerment.
One strategy is to living arrangements, their treatment of social support local networks – which may be as simple inequities, and the type of buildings they live in.
as enabling people to contact other members of Some people will be more vulnerable as a result of another network, or it may consist of strengthening social exclusion or marginalization – or of cultural such networks by asking for their assistance and attitudes and a lack of capacity to interact with providing them with some additional resources government and the outside world.

(Cosgrave, 2008).

Some may also be hampered by fatalistic thinking.


Communities can also be supported to enable But a disaster may offer an opportunity for them to respond better to a changing climate.

For people to change the way they think – if they are offered sufficient information and options.
In Indonesia, for example, up to two-thirds of example, floods are common in Asia and climate change is likely to alter rainfall patterns, affecting people’s livelihoods and food production capacities, people living in earthquake zones consider major especially in coastal deltas.

In Bangladesh, the disasters to be “takdir Tuhan” (“pre-ordained by NGO, Practical Action, helped families displaced God”).
Government and NGO representatives by flooding and river erosion to diversify their from faith-based and secular organizations have incomes by establishing a fishing scheme managed concluded, however, that such beliefs are not by a community committee.

The government has lasting constraints, but rather coping strategies granted them a lease to use a government-owned and symptoms of powerlessness.
And even if a pond and also trained women in cage aquaculture disaster is considered pre-ordained, this does not fishing techniques.

As a result they have been able imply that mitigation is impossible.

When religious to increase their income using resources created leaders take responsibility for explaining this, and by increased flooding, using closed fish cages in 70 Chapter Ⅳ.
Making the recovery resilient an existing pond without destroying sport fishing and without requiring large amounts of capital Gender imperatives (Practical Action, undated).

Disasters often kill more women than men, but organizations under time pressure tend to overlook gender-specific needs and capacities.
communities are: Following 1991 Cyclone and Flood in Bangladesh, for example, the death rate was almost five People consultations – developed by the Fritz times higher for women than for men.

Warning institute and used in Pakistan and Java (Fritz information was transmitted by men to men in Institute, 2006); public spaces, but rarely communicated to the rest of the family.
Many women do not leave the house Beneficiary surveys – used widely in the Maldives, without a male relative and consequently perished for example, following the 2004 Tsunami (Tsunami waiting for their relatives to return and take them Global Lessons Learned Project, 2009); to a safe place.

Moreover, as in many other Asian Beneficiary profiles – These can be used to develop specific recovery strategies for the landless swim, which significantly reduces their survival chances.
poor, squatters, and female-headed households, who may require different forms of assistance Gender concer ns should be integral to all countries, most women have never learned to (Beck, 2005); reconstruction programmes.
Culturally and gender appropriate protection and mitigation strategies Help desks – These are places where people can will not only promote gender equality and address enquire about eligibility for assistance, report gender-based vulnerabilities, but also ensure potential cases of corruption, or file a complaint.
faster, deeper recovery and are grounded in the After the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, By October coping strategies, knowledge, and energy of local 2006, such help desks had received 17,000 communities.

complaints and most were successfully resolved; Some governments and organizations invest Social equity audits – Used in Sri Lanka and in gender surveys to tap into gender specific India these can be carried out by trained auditors.

knowledge, resources, capacities and vulnerabilities.
Some NGOs have used such audits to increase the The National Committee of Women in Sri Lanka, proportion of assistance going to the poorest; Baselines – These should be based on relevant undertook a survey in early 2005 with UNIFEM support, involving more than 53,500 households and eliciting information on women’s pre-tsunami community indicators, developed at the start of the livelihoods, psychological effects of the disaster and recovery programme and against which progress preliminary data on gender-based violence.
The can be measured.

However, perhaps the most survey documented differential impacts, including valuable benefit of participation is something that disparities in loss of life among women, especially is not easily quantifiable: a feeling of individual women likely to have young children, obstacles to empowerment and of ownership of community economic recovery faced by women, the conditions resources, and the unleashing of people’s own facing female-headed households, and other capacities to cope.
concerns (Tsunami Global Lessons Learned Project, 2009).

71 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Some of the critical issues concerned land and arose along with a larger network of women’s inheritance rights, equitable access to decision- groups known as the Coalition to Assist Tsunami- making roles and livelihood opportunities.

Affected Women.
Affected Women.

They offered spaces for women Programmes should promote equity-based policy to discuss their experiences and challenge state changes, such as joint housing rights for spouses, officials on violations of women’s rights.

In addition, and funds for the education and resettlement of a representative of the network was present orphaned adolescent girls and unmarried women.
at all planning meetings of the post-tsunami In the state of Tamil Nadu in India, for example, psychosocial and protection task force.

Achieving following the 2004 Tsunami, the government gender equality will also require better data.

IFRC mandated joint housing rights for spouses, in Sri Lanka, for example, has established a gender- disallowed transfers of the wife’s share to the working group.
Moving beyond the baseline of husband, and ensured that reconstruction work sex-specific data in programme planning and included consultations with women.

In addition, management, the IFRC aims to develop gender it made abandoned and destitute women eligible indicators and reporting mechanisms (Tsunami for pensions; distributed initial relief packages to Global Lessons Learned Project, 2009).
women family members; and provided more than $6,800 to orphaned adolescent girls and unmarried women for education.

For equity gains to be sustained, it is necessary to anchor innovative practices in the institutional infrastructure rather than a piecemeal approach.

Similarly in Aceh, Indonesia, following the Countries succeed best, when high-level managers tsunami, women who had lost their husbands and are committed to gender equity.
children had no rights to the land on which they lived, so were ineligible for housing assistance.

In September 2006, therefore the government adopted a joint land titling policy for women and Recovery for resilient development men – the first for Indonesia.
Many people said Resilient recovery means compressing decades joint land titling “was impossible because Muslim of development into a few years while reducing Sharia law is very strong in Aceh,” noted Eddy future risks, including those from climate change.

Purwanto, BRR’s Chief Operations Officer, “But But disasters themselves also offer opportunities we saw the opportunity, as did many women at – driven by changes in attitude, technical and community level”.
Erna Heryani, BRR’s Director of financial resources, as well as political support.

Land Administration and Mapping agrees: “People generally understand this as a good thing, most wives or widows never expected they would get These changes can be short lived without an impulse for resilient development.

Despite the stresses after a disaster, it is still important land in their names” (Tsunami Global Lessons therefore to step back and plan a resilient Learned Project, 2009).
recovery based on local capacity and the pace and needs of the affected population.

Recovery It is also important to invest in women’s grassroots offers the opportunity to address the underlying organizations.

Women’s community organizations risk factors from multiple hazards as well as to have insights, information, experience, networks, “build back better.” For this purpose, there are and resources vital to increasing disaster resilience.
many opportunities to take advantage of new In Sri Lanka, for example, the Batticaloa Women’s technologies, which are the subject of the next Disaster Management Coalition, or Gender Watch, chapter.

72 Chapter Ⅳ.

Making the recovery resilient Box IV-1 – The cyclone preparedness programme in Bangladesh The government of Bangladesh has an extensive Cyclone Preparedness Programme.
This includes disseminating Cyclone warnings to 11 million coastal people to enable them to move to safe sites including cyclone shelters and buildings – along with procedures for evacuation, rescue, first aid and emergency relief work.

The system starts with the collection of meteorological data by the Bangladesh Meteorological Department, which issues bulletins, including the designated warning signals of an approaching cyclone.
The bulletins are transmitted to the six zonal offices and the 30 upazila (sub-district) level offices over HF radio.

The upazila office in turn, passes it to unions and other lower levels of administration through VHF radios.

The union team leaders immediately contact the unit team leaders who, with their volunteers, spread out in the villages and deliver Cyclone warnings almost door to door using megaphones, hand sirens and public address systems.
The programme has over 40,000 volunteers, of whom 15,000 are women who are becoming increasingly influential within their communities and with local government agencies.

Source: Miyan, undated Box IV-2 – Working with communities on climate resilient recovery in Viet Nam In the north-central coast of Viet Nam, villages have about 30 days of flooding each year.

In 1999, one of the worst floods cost hundreds of lives, along with property and other economic losses.
In future, climate change is expected to result in more frequent and intense cyclones, floods and droughts.

The government has responded with a community- based adaptation programme in four communes and eight villages.

Villagers contribute their time and resources to adaptation measures that address recurrent climatic catastrophes and minimize the loss of lives and property.
The process started with interviews, focus group discussions, field surveys and historical profiling, followed by mapping vulnerable sites to assess the current situation and future scenarios related to climate change.

The project also identified household and community adaptation mechanisms and the social institutions that could contribute to hazard and disaster management strategies.
This was followed by a planning stage involving leaders of social groups and organizations, such as farmers, women, youth, and other village political associations.

Local government officials were also engaged to ensure acceptance and implementation of the plan and increase the likelihood that the government would co-fund some subprojects.

The main output for each village was a “safer village plan”.

Source: Francisco, 2008.


Box IV-3 – The Tsunami Recovery Impact Assessment and Monitoring System The Tsunami Recovery Impact Assessment and Monitoring System (TRIAMS) is a project of the governments of India, Indonesia, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, with support from the IFRC, WHO, and other UN agencies, to measure the impact of the recovery efforts in response to the Indian Ocean Tsunami.
TRIAMS represented an important breakthrough by proposing one framework of core indicators for use across different countries.

The framework looks not just at infrastructure, but also at social services, livelihoods and vital needs from the relief phase.

TRIAMS includes output and impact indicators across the primary recovery sectors, quantitative and qualitative data on beneficiary perspectives, and additional qualitative data to help explain findings of key output and outcome indicators.
The overall aim of the TRIAMS process was to inform governments, donors, NGOs, civil society and other stakeholders about the progress of the recovery efforts, so that they could adjust their programmes to address un-met needs and the existing inequalities.
Source: Tsunami Global Lessons Learned Project, 2009 73 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Box IV-4 – Recovery and reconstruction of Tsunami-hit Samoa A tsunami generated by an 8.3 magnitude earthquake hit the southern coastal areas of Samoa on 29 September 2009, causing 143 deaths, with five people missing, and affecting about 5,274 people.

The Government of Samoa requested the UN system to develop a recovery framework and ESCAP and UNISDR joined the multi-agency Early Recovery Team.
ESCAP also joined the World Bank, ADB and the UN country team in a damage and loss assessment that would lead to a post-disaster needs assessment.

In cooperation with relevant line agencies, team members estimated sector-wise damage and losses and what it would take to achieve full recovery and reconstruction while increasing resilience to future hazards.

Disaster risk management will be based on the Strategy for the Development of Samoa 2008-2012, using a cross- sectoral and multi-hazard approach.
Key recommendations include strengthening national policies and institutional arrangements in disaster risk management, reducing immediate to longer term vulnerabilities, raising awareness of communities, and increasing their resilience and capacity in disaster preparedness.

An estimated $4.8 million is required to support disaster risk management efforts, to relocate some communities, and to “build back better”.
74 chapter Ⅴ Capitalizing on new technology Bridging information gaps ● 76 Recent advances ● 78 Disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation ● 81 Coping with major disasters ● 83 Initiatives for sharing space information and products ● 86 Regional cooperative mechanisms promoted by ESCAP ● 88 A learning experience ● 89 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Capitalizing on new technology The levels of risk and uncertainty on natural hazards can be reduced by making full use of information, communication and space technologies – particularly remote sensing, satellite and cellular mobile phones and Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
With disaster management information systems, satellite-based Earth Observation (EO) can be complemented with ground-based monitoring Bridging information gaps The starting point is to gather pre-disaster cross- and reporting to provide real-time information sectoral baselines data on hazards, vulnerabilities, about the severity of disasters.

Together with exposures and possible disaster risks and impacts.
vast pools of indigenous knowledge, background This can be used as fundamental information to information and decision supporting tools, the construct large-scale risk maps.

This involves GIS integrated information also assist pre-disasters risk which, together with digital elevation models, can mapping, vulnerability identification, risk mitigation give a picture of the infrastructure of roads, rail- and response planning and implementation.

lines and settlements.


They can also incorporate Communications, as one major life-saving capacity, scientific and indigenous knowledge, historical have demonstrated its critical importance in many records and other demographic, social and recent disaster response actions.

economic data to estimate the risks of possible disasters and their impacts.
The Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004 and Cyclone Nargis in 2008, for example, showed the disastrous At regional and national levels these maps can consequences of a lack of early warning and cover major hydro-meteorological and geological communication capacity.

On the other hand in hazards, while local-level maps can cover risks Bangladesh, the Cyclone Preparedness Programme of earthquakes, floods, sea wave surges and has demonstrated how high-end space and landslides.
These maps can then be used to communications technology can be seamlessly position early warning systems, to reach out to linked with community-based disaster management the communities at risk, and to build awareness in practices to build a strong and coherent system.

multi-hazard prone areas.

They can also be used Similarly, in China in 2008, the response to the during recovery and reconstruction to help restore Wenchuan Earthquake showed how such technology the flow of economy.
can be harnessed for an effective response.

76 Chapter Ⅴ.

Capitalizing on new technology Almost all countries in Asia and the Pacific have warning.

Early warning systems have three major conducted risk mapping and assessment.

But information components.

First, there is background many face severe limitations.

Most activities take information on the hazard and vulnerabilities – the form simply of hazard mapping and are often which is held in the early warning centre.
Second, too coarse, in terms of spatial and temporal there will be an information acquisition network – resolution, to provide sufficient information to ground-, satellite-, sea-surface- or seabed-based, address complex and dynamic risk patterns.

Many or various hybrids – which will detect and acquire countries also lack the appropriate cartographic precursors related to the hazard and transmit these and attribute data needed for complex modelling; rapidly to the early warning centre.
Third, there the geographical coverage may be incomplete, at will be comprehensive data analysis to create early unsuitable scales, outdated, or of dubious quality.

warning alerts which, when authorized by relevant Some countries also lack the technical capacity to government bodies, can be disseminated with use remote sensing and GIS tools operationally.

associated guidance for public action.


Integrated information systems with decision support tools Following the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004, many countries invested in national or subregional early tsunami warning systems.

These should Disaster management will also mean integrating be extended to cover all major disasters.

The information from many different sources – gaps are both technological and institutional.
governmental, academic and industrial – and To address these, ESCAP, the Intergovernmental comprehensive analysis of all relevant information Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC) and to simulate and visualize different disaster scenarios WMO have taken steps to strengthen coordination and compare various mitigation, prevention and and move towards a regional multi-hazard early response options, thus making relevant plans warning system.

and decisions optimized, and response drills be simulated.
These tools for information integration When a disaster occurs, it is important to have and comprehensive analysis can be combined into immediate and accurate reporting on the location, centralized or distributed information systems and nature and severity of the disaster.

For this purpose sub-systems using either powerful computers at some countries, such as China, are considering national level, or open-source disaster information disaster reduction information networks.
This will management software at local and community involve training a range of people in reporting skills level, such as Sahana, which was first used by Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and later adopted by Indonesia, and ensuring that they have the appropriate means of communication.

Pakistan and the Philippines.


These models can To understand the situation of major disasters that simulate different disaster scenarios, for example, cover large geographic areas, objective information compare various mitigation, prevention and are urgently needed: for assessing damages, losses response options, and optimize relevant plans.
The and the needs for rescue, relief and mitigation information can also be used to simulate response actions; for identifying locations for evacuation, drills and produce valuable feedback.

recovery and rehabilitation; for effective deployment One of the most important functions of these information for rapid mapping is provided information systems is to ensure adequate early complementarily from ground-, air- and space- of on-site human and material resources.
Such 77 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 based observations.

It is a challenge to less capable addition to telephony, can receive SMS messages countries in timely accessing and processing such and some have embedded GPS functions.

In Sri data and turning them into decision supporting Lanka, for example, a study by LIRNEasia tested products.
It is well recognized that EO satellite the use of mobile handsets for receiving disaster information are also important for rebuilding and warnings in tsunami-affected villages where the reconstruction phases.

participants had been trained for emergency response.

The study concluded that mobile phones The Figure V-1 gave an example of how timely are a reliable, effective and affordable solution.
acquired satellite data have assisted in determining Another useful complement to other public the affected areas of a major flood disaster caused warning methods, such as radio and television, by the Cyclone Nargis on 1 and 2 May 2008 is cell broadcasting, which involves sending text in Myanmar: the flooded areas of the central messages to all mobile telephones within a certain Irrawaddy division were derived from SAR data area (Rohan Samarajiva, and Nuwan Waidyanatha, of 6 May 2008 taken by Japan’s ALOS satellite (in 2009).
light blue), with normal water levels as shown by Landsat-7 data from 2000 (in dark blue).

Flooded areas may also contain regions covered by water The most widely used cellular mobile and broadband internet systems connect the local before the disaster due to the prevalence of wet networks to the global backbone mostly through rice cultivation.

terrestrial infrastructure like optical fibre.


In many emergency situations, however, this infrastructure The effectiveness of disaster reduction and response would either have been destroyed (e.g.

Wenchuan rely greatly on the effectiveness of managing Earthquake, 2008) or was not available even before relevant information.

In addition to building the disaster (e.g.

the Muzaffarabad Earthquake, infrastructure and accessing information resources 2005).
It is important therefore to have wireless and decision supporting tools, countries should backup systems with rapid deployment capacity also have disaster information strategies to manage - one of the most effective forms being satellite critical baseline information, which could be used communications.

The Asia-Pacific region has for pre-disaster preparedness, during-disaster more than 70 Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) emergency response, and post-disaster needs for communication satellites.
Of these, more than 10 damage and losses assessment, rehabilitation and are operated by government agencies; the others reconstruction.

Such baseline information could are providing various commercial services such as be collected through intensive risk mapping and assessment of major disaster prone areas.

Recent advances television and radio, internet and mobile telephony.
Internet Protocol (IP)-based services can also now reach under-serviced areas through satellite broadband, and during emergency response actions can be accessed using Very Small Aperture Recent years have seen rapid advances in Terminals (VSATs) or other mobile devices.

information, communications and space technology that have helped improve early warning systems The most popular media for delivering information and response actions.
before and after disasters to the public, however, is still television and radio.

Japan, for example, can The most dramatic change has been the spread disseminate disaster alert and relevant information of cellular mobile handsets, most of which, in through television and radio channels within 78 Chapter Ⅴ.

Capitalizing on new technology seconds of the warning being issued.

Most areas local airports for flight control and transportation are now covered by television and radio, though management.
some of the least developed low population areas may be out of range.

As they can also be at high While some of these preparations can be made risk in disasters, they will need to be identified in locally, most will need to take place at a national or risk mapping and given specific consideration in regional level, since few developing countries have disaster communication response plans.
the resources to deploy sufficient communication Regional communication capacity for emergency response means to support search and rescue field teams that should be dispatched within the critical first 72 hours after a destructive catastrophe.

During emergencies, it is important to ensure or The most convenient and rapidly deployable expand communications capacity.

This can involve means for telephony and internet access is satellite restoring or establishing wireless telephony and mobile.
This is particularly important where internet services; expanding the capacity of local terrestrial services are unavailable.

The two global cellular mobile systems and internet bandwidth to accommodate sudden increases in traffic; satellite mobile constellations are Inmarsat and Iridium, and the regional Thuraya has two satellites and deploying standby communication facilities cover most Asian and West Pacific countries.
All to service links between field teams and their have dual module handsets that automatically headquarters.

It may also be important to restore switch to cellular mobile systems when these are or expand the communications capacities of available.

Figure V-1 Rapid mapping image of Cyclone Nargis damage Credits: DLR ZKI, Charter and EO data of ALOS - JAXA 2008; Landsat-7 - USGS 2000.

(Extended cyclone relief efforts aided from space, www.esa.
int/esaEO/SEM68CSHKHF_environment_1.html#subhead4) 79 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 The most commonly used cellular mobile, which Another option is Citizens’ band (CB) radio which is may access SMS and internet services, could be used particularly in island countries, like Indonesia effectively used by field workers if the services and also by members of disaster response teams could be restored and handling capacity expanded for voice communications.
But there are a in a timely manner after major disasters.

limited number of channels, so there is a risk of interference among different user groups, and CB Most communication needs can be met through cannot thus be used for confidential topics.
IP platform which, when coupled with wireless facilities, can provide the most convenient, low- Field rescue and mitigation action teams also rely cost networking system connecting cellular mobile on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) to base stations to their networks, allowing the determine their positions and routes.

Access to GPS organizing of video conferences, accessing tele- is now included in many mobile handsets.
Many medicine support, and making IP phone calls more GNSS would soon be available to the Asia- around the world.

When ground-based broadband Pacific region, including those developed by China, internet is unavailable, such connectivity could India, Japan and the Russian Federation.

China’s be achieved through either satellite broadband services or terrestrial microwave relay from nearby Compass system is also stated to provide satellite short message service.

areas.
areas.

Many communication satellites provide such services with different geographical coverage and technical systems.

There are also many kinds of terminals suitable for rapid deployment, which can Earth Observation (EO) data for disaster risk and response be air-dropped or carried to geographically difficult Disaster risk reduction and management over large mountainous areas.

Thaicom’s IPStar satellite, for geographic areas rely critically on EO satellites.
example, has established the broadest service Without real-time or near real-time meteorological network and covers many Asia-Pacific countries.

satellite data, early warnings and monitoring of extreme weather-related disasters cannot be realized.

Their usefulness depends both on their communication vehicles.
Most have satellite accessibility and their resolution – how much of the communication capability now and some can Earth’s surface they cover in a single pixel.

A coarse provide comprehensive services with fast data resolution is over one kilometre provided by most transmission, including cellular mobile services and meteorological satellites, a moderate resolution is television transmissions.

In some cases they support private networks for field teams.
However, such vehicles might be unable to reach remote locations 250 metres by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard the Terra and Aqua satellites, medium resolution is at the order of due to obstacles, destruction of roads and/or tens of metres provided by most EO satellites, and difficult geographic conditions.

a high resolution is less than one metre provided mainly by commercial operators.
Satellite short message service through the compass satellite navigation system has proven its value as Within the Asia-Pacific region, China, India, Japan the only communication means not disrupted by and the Republic of Korea have geo-stationary the Wenchuan Earthquake in May 2008.

It may meteorological satellites.

Many polar and quasi- cover the region with a service network to be polar orbit meteorological satellites are operated by developed.
China, the Russian Federation, the United States of 80 Chapter Ⅴ.

Capitalizing on new technology America and Europe.


Since the 1970s, the coarse operated by Algeria, China, Nigeria, Turkey and data from meteorological satellites have been the United Kingdom - all manufactured by Surrey used to follow extreme weather events, such as Satellite Technology Ltd. Each partner agrees to tropical cyclones, windstorms and strong rainfall, provide satellite images to partners and non- and for slowly developed drought risks.

As with partners free of charge.


China is developing an the most widely accessible information, most of 8-satellite constellation, comprising four optical such satellite data are free for reception directly and four SAR satellites, to ensure a maximum 12- from the satellites, and are accessible through the hour revisiting interval during a disaster emergency.

web, or are broadcasted through satellite channels.
Under this constellation, two optical satellites are India, for example, broadcasts weather data to its already in operation and an SAR satellite will be network members, and China broadcasts such data launched soon.

across China and many Asian countries.


Most Asia-Pacific countries have developed For mapping vulnerability and risks, the most useful technical and institutional capacities in EO satellite data is of moderate and medium resolution, which applications – using them for managing natural can be used, for example, to monitor drought and wildfires and to estimate damages.

Many countries resources, for environmental monitoring and for disaster management (Box V-1).
Some countries in the region can receive data directly from the have full capacities in operating and applying polar orbit satellites and MODIS or get their data EO satellites for disaster risk reduction and and value added products from relevant websites.
management, though in many developing countries Almost all public operators of EO satellites from the least developed countries, Pacific Island states and countries in the Asia-Pacific region including China, economies in transition have yet to develop this the capacities are more limited while most of the India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Thailand capacity (Table V-1).

and Turkey, are committed to share their satellite information during major disasters.
On top of There have been significant efforts at regional these, in many disaster situations, some private cooperation in using space technology for disaster operators also provide additional supplemental risk reduction and management – promoted by the high-resolution imagery, though without full Regional Space Applications Programme of ESCAP, commitment.

the Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum and the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization.

Satellites do, however, have their limitations.


One is that those using optical sensors can only gather useful information during daytime and when there While human resources development is still a focus of the cooperation efforts (Box V-2), there have been some initiatives to help less capable countries are few clouds, though satellites using Synthetic establish collaborative operational capacities.

Aperture Radar (SAR) can penetrate clouds and work at night.
Another concern is the frequency of the imaging: an orbiting satellite may only cover a defined area every few days.

Having more Disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation satellites or harmonizing existing satellites to work Adaptation to climate change is closely linked as virtual constellations can address this, which with reduction of disaster risks, particularly is the approach taken by the Disaster Monitoring those related to hydro-meteorological hazards.

Constellation (DMC).


The DMC consists of satellites Assessments require, however, large amounts 81 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 of data on climate – on rainfall, tropical storms, as the Mekong River Commission, the Typhoon temperature, sea surface temperature, sea level Committee and the Panel on Tropical Cyclones, rise and the frequency - and intensity of events.
but there is considerable room for improvement at These need to be considered along with other data national, subregional and regional levels.

on water resources, agriculture, the environment and ecosystems.

These data and analysis can then Even when the data are available, many countries feed into climate-smart disaster risk reduction will find them difficult to analyze.

This demands a programmes.

range of models, tools and methodologies.


Most of existing ones operate at global and regional levels, Climatic data are mainly provided by national and are fairly coarse in scale.
Those at national meteorological and hydrological departments levels are more limited mostly drawn from global and relevant subregional, regional and global or regional models, though many countries lack networks – using many of the same systems or the data and technical expertise to downscale capacities that are used for disaster risk reduction.

the global or regional models to the national These include those for early warnings, weather level.
Some of these issues have been addressed forecasting, storm monitoring, flood management, coastal zone management and land use planning.

through regional cooperation.

The Mekong River Commission, for example, through its CCA Ensuring that all these data are harmonized and tools.

One of the priorities for the years ahead must consistent requires close coordination between data therefore be to develop a regional database on providers.
Considerable progress has been achieved climate change and the protocols for sharing the through regional cooperative mechanisms such data between countries and regional organizations.
Initiative offers knowledge, data and assessment Table V-1 EO satellite application capacities in the Asia-Pacific region Country Groups Operational EO data receiving facilities Operational MetSAT/ MODIS receiving facilities Operating EO satellites Operating MetSAT/ MODIS satellites Capacities in applications for DRR/M Operational service capacities for DRR/M Capacities in service development for DRR/M China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey Australia Singapore, Viet Nam (Hong Kong, China) Mongolia Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Developing No No Bangladesh, Islamic Republic of Iran Developing Developing Developing Philippines, Kazakhstan Sri Lanka Fiji, Samoa Myanmar, Nepal Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan Other developing countries of the region Source: ESCAP, IDD 2010 No No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Developing Developing Developing Developing Developing Developing Developing Developing Developing Developing Developing Yes Yes No Developing Developing No No No No No 82 Chapter Ⅴ.
Capitalizing on new technology The SAARC Action Plan on Climate Change, for example, has identified areas of action.

It Afghanistan drought, 20081310– Afghanistan had a severe drought in late 2007 and early 2008. recommends cooperation on climate risk modelling, The satellite-based drought early warning system sharing information and capacity building in early of the US Department of Agriculture enabled forecasting and warning and adaptation measures.
timely reporting of food and water insecurity A priority area of the Action Plan is the exchange and helped Afghanistan get $400 million in of meteorological data.

Integration with indigenous knowledge assistance for 4.5 million affected Afghans, from international donors, financial agencies and other governments.
Japan, flood early warning – Information Long before modern early warning systems, o b t a i n e d t h ro u g h r a d a r, r a i n g a u g e s a n d local communities used indigenous knowledge, telemeters at about 1,300 sites enables the Japan methods, tools and technologies to deal with Meteorological Agency to issue warnings about natural hazards (SDMC, New Delhi, 2008; heavy rain that could cause serious flooding, and Srivastava, SK, 2009).
These include: the Ministry of Land Infrastructure Transport and Tourism to provide hydrological assessments for - High-risk mountainous region – building selected rivers, lakes, marshes or sea coasts (OECD, technologies and land use 2009a).

Its website displays real-time information - Flood plains – low cost housing, land use and on river water level, rainfall and dam storage levels settlements on the website: www.river.go.jp.
Citizens are also - Drought-prone areas – water harvesting, warned through the Internet, mobile phones, cropping systems, prediction and early warning television and radio.

For large-scale flood disasters, - Coastal areas – land use, shelters, storm the Central Disaster Management Council takes prediction and early warning.

responsibility based on data collected around the clock by the Cabinet Information Collection I n d i g e n o u s k n o w l e d g e a n d f o r m s o f Centre.
communication can then be blended with modern scientific knowledge and equipment.
The Nepal-India, Kosi River Flood 2008 – On 18 flood warning in Dagupan City, the Philippines, August 2008 an embankment of the Kosi River for example, has an early warning system that in South Nepal inundated large areas of Nepal combines radio messaging with the use of the kanungkong, a bamboo instrument traditionally used to call people to the village hall for meetings and the state of Bihar in India, affecting nearly four million people.
Nearly one million people were evacuated to relief camps for more than (UNISDR, 2008).

Coping with major disasters three months.

The Response Force of India, along with armed and paramilitary forces carried relief materials to remote areas by helicopters and boats.
All these efforts were guided by the Flood ICT and space technologies thus have enormous Management Information System, which included potential for climate-smart disaster risk reduction but they have already proven their worth in many different environments: 13 United States Department of Agriculture, [Access on 8 October 2010], www.pecad.fas.usda.gov/highlights/2008/09/mideast_ cenasia_drought/ 83 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 satellite phones and satellite-based dynamic A u s t r a l i a , b u s h f i r e s , 2 0 0 9 – B u s h f i r e observation maps – with support from the National monitoring, management and analysis require Remote Sensing Centre and the Indian Space various kinds of information – on rainfall, Research Organization.
More than 200 maps vegetation, wind speed and direction, hot spots showing river course changes at three-to-four-day of present fires, historical fire areas - along with intervals were distributed to end users including other fundamental geo-spatial information.

The NGOs and international organizations.

State of Victoria has a bushfire control information system that assesses the areas prone to bushfires, China, Wenchuan Earthquake, 2008 – The and in 2009 identified 52 towns at high risk.
With response to this earthquake, 8.0 on the Richter the integrated analytical power of remote sensing scale in May 2008, involved many Information and GIS, the country’s fire authority is constantly and Communications Technology (ICT) and space identifying hot spots from remotely sensed images application tools (ESCAP, 2009).

Within two with information from meteorological services on hours the National Disaster Reduction Centre precipitation and wind direction.
As a result, a had submitted a map to the highest decision number of bushfires have been contained before makers.

In the following days, the Centre and its cooperative partners prepared 120 maps and they became disasters.

reports derived from satellite and aeroplane Bangladesh, Cyclone Sidr, 2007 – With wind images.

These provided critical information on the speeds of 240 kilometres per hour, this cyclone severity of the catastrophe, indicating collapsed hit the Bangladesh coast in November 2007.
It buildings, the dynamics of quake-lakes and was tracked by meteorological and oceanographic roadblocks, and helped identify relocation sites.

agencies at international, regional and national More than 1,300 images from 23 satellites were levels.

Based on previous experience, the used, including those from foreign space agencies Bangladesh national early warning system was able from which most images were free of charge.
to predict precisely the landfall and storm surges Manned aeroplanes and micro unmanned aerial and provide actionable information.

The warning vehicles equipped with remote sensors flew over messages were disseminated to 15 of Bangladesh’s the quake-hit-areas.

Around 25,000 persons were 64 districts, and a network of 40,000 Red Crescent mobilized to restore damaged telecom facilities, volunteers was mobilized.
Warning alerts were 383 emergency communication vehicles were cycled around the country using megaphones to dispatched and more than 2,000 satellite mobile order residents into the 1,800 cyclone shelters and handsets were deployed.

Broadband links were established by more than 1,300 VSAT terminals for networking, transmitting remote sensing images, 440 flood shelters.

More than 320,000 people were evacuated.


By the time Sidr slammed into the coast, around two million people were already holding videoconferences and using telemedicine sheltered.

Later, high-resolution satellite data were among field teams and major supporting hospitals.

used for damage and loss assessments to guide Decision makers used electronic maps and a three- efforts at recovery and reconstruction.
dimensional digital model of a quake-lake, which contributed greatly to the efforts of eliminating the Myanmar, Cyclone Nargis, 2008 – The cyclone risk of outburst.

Most rescue teams had compass struck the Ayeyarwady Delta and Yangon from satellite positioning handsets using short messaging 27 April to 3 May.

Wind speeds of 190 kilometres services.

per hour were reported by Myanmar’s Department 84 Chapter Ⅴ.

Capitalizing on new technology of Meteorology and Hydrology.
The Regional under the Rural ICT Strategic Plan were used to Specialized Meteorological Centre (RSMC) - Tropical disseminate early warning information.
Cyclones, New Delhi, under the WMO/ESCAP Panel on Tropical Cyclones, has the responsibility Pakistan, Muzaffarabad Earthquake, 2005 – of issuing tropical weather outlook and tropical At 7.6 on the Richter scale, this was the largest cyclone advisories for the member countries recorded seismic event in the Himalayas, killing bordering the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea: 87,352 people.
Most of the affected hilly areas Bangladesh, Pakistan, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, lacked effective communication networks and the Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Nargis was detected limited infrastructure was damaged.

In the absence by RSMC.

From 23 April, RSMC issued regular of satellite communication services, RF (ham) bulletins.

The Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) radio was used.
High-resolution satellite remote report used high-resolution satellite data for sensing data were used primarily for damage damage assessments, especially for the agricultural assessment and to the lesser extent for recovery and coastal sectors.

Other publications prepared and reconstruction.

by ASEAN, UNEP, UNISDR and the government of Myanmar, also relied on remote sensing and GIS- based damage assessment.
Indonesia, Earthquake Padang, 2009 – When this 7.6 magnitude earthquake hit Padang, Sumatra in September 2009, terrestrial communication Iran, Bam Earthquake, 2003 – This earthquake, infrastructure was interrupted or degraded, so at 6.6 on the Richter scale, struck South-Eastern search and rescue operations relied primarily on Iran on 26 December 2003, killing more than amateur radio.
Two non-profit organizations, the 26,271 people, more than a quarter of Bam’s Indonesian Amateur Radio Organization and the population, with huge losses to infrastructure Indonesian Inter-Citizen Radio, provided important a n d p r o p e r t y.

S i n c e l o c a l g r o u n d - b a s e d services (GTZ, 2009).
Amateur radio services, telecommunication networks were seriously including citizens’ band radio, were deployed damaged, HF radio and satellite handsets were swiftly for relief and rescue operations through the brought in to support rescue and relief actions.

established local community networks.

Recognizing Remote sensing and GIS tools were used for the importance of amateur radios, Indonesia in damage assessment and subsequent research.
2010 decided to launch an amateur radio satellite Satellite information, including high-resolution to further expand the communication network to products, was provided through the International remote districts.

Charter Space and Major Disasters, which was activated by France, Germany and Portugal simultaneously.

Rapid mapping products of the Indian Ocean Tsunami, 2004 – This was one of the region’s most destructive disasters.
Since mostly damaged areas, which were produced land-based communications infrastructure was based on EO satellite data, were delivered within a severely damaged, satellite links, including mobile very short time, and a fault undetected previously and internet services, demonstrated their value was found with new satellite technical tools.

in transmitting information among rescue and Other space-based technologies used were: three- rehabilitation teams.
High-resolution imagery dimensional imaging systems, Laser Imaging from many commercial satellites helped target Detection and Ranging, Web GIS and mobile rescue efforts in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, GIS systems.

Many rural ICT centres established Thailand, Maldives, Myanmar and Malaysia.

85 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Archived images from more than 30 EO satellites, adding partners responding to Cyclone Nargis including small satellites from the joint DMC, (Figure V-2).
were used to compare before and after conditions and to construct maps indicating the condition These initiatives include: of infrastructure and key facilities, identify croplands damaged by seawater, and assess the impact on wetlands, mangroves, forests and Sentinel Asia groundwater.

Commercial operators provided their Sentinel Asia is a voluntary initiative of the Asia- images immediately without seeking payment.
Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum for providing Furthermore, the tsunami provided a strong motive disaster-related satellite information and products for nearly 60 nations to reach an accord on a 10- (Sentinel Asia, 2010).

It is led by the Joint Project year programme of international cooperation on Team (JPT), which consists of 54 organizations EOs.

This agreement to establish a Global Earth from 23 regional countries and nine international Observation System of Systems was signed at organizations.
the Third Earth Observation Summit in Brussels in February 2005.

The response to this tsunami also set in motion the integration of space technology Many space-based images are currently provided by EO satellites operated by Japan, India, Thailand, with disaster reduction activities.

Republic of Korea and Taiwan, Province of China.


At the same time, various added-value products Turkey, 1999 Earthquake – The Marmara and are provided by more than 10 partner institutions Duzce Earthquakes caused economic losses of located in China, Indonesia, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, 11 per cent of Turkey’s GDP.

Following this, the Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet government reorganized the disaster management Nam.

When a disaster occurs, members of the JPT strategy.
This experience has proved that disaster- and ADRC may submit an emergency request to resilient societies can only be created by strong Sentinel Asia while others can also request support institutional bodies for information sharing and by email.

To improve access to less connected by enhancing public education and awareness, countries, the experimental Wideband International in addition to carrying out field exercises and Engineering Test and Demonstration Satellite of scientific research.
Turkey has established a new JAXA has been utilized from 2010 for transmitting disaster management system by giving greater disaster image data to around 10 Earth stations.

emphasis to disaster risk reduction (Abbas and Sentinel Asia is also providing precipitation data others, 2009).

and inundation information from GFAS and space- based three-dimensional images.
Initiatives for sharing space information and products These and future uses of technology have International charter space and major disasters benefited from a number of initiatives to share This charter, which has been operational since information and products, particularly in providing 2000, aims at providing a unified system for urgently acquired and achieved satellite data for rapid EO satellite data acquisition and delivery at free access to all stakeholders, as demonstrated by no cost to countries affected by natural or man- the initiatives of EO satellite operators and value- made disasters.
Currently, 10 of the world’s space 86 Chapter Ⅴ.

Capitalizing on new technology agencies are members, offering more than 21 EO (UN-SPIDER) is a gateway to space information satellites.

In Asia and the Pacific, the members for disaster management support and serves as are the China National Space Administration, a bridge between the disaster management and the Indian Space Research Organization and space communities (UNOOSA, 2010).
Promoted by JAXA, which between them have more than six the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), committed EO satellites.

The authorized users this will ensure that all countries and international of the charter are the space agencies and civil and regional organizations can use all types of protection, rescue, defence or security bodies space-based information.

UN-SPIDER is an open from the countries of charter members, as well network of providers.
Besides Vienna, where as some authorized United Nations entities and UNOOSA is located, the programme also has an international organizations like the UN Office for office in Bonn and an office in Beijing.

There is Outer Space Affairs, the United Nations Institute also a network of regional support offices in Asia for Training and Research (UNITAR) Operational and the Pacific, including offices in Iran, Japan Satellite Applications Programme and ADRC.

and Pakistan.
and Pakistan.

The UN-SPIDER achieves this by UN-SPIDER offering a technical advisory support at the national level, facilitating the capacity building efforts and ensuring cooperation with the UN, regional and The UN Platform for Space-based Information for international organizations/ initiatives involved in Disaster Management and Emergency Response disaster risk reduction and emergency response.
Figure V-2 Overview of all crisis mapping and damage assessment maps Produced by RESPOND partners using Charter data (in red) and pre-disaster topographic mapping delivered by RESPOND partner Keyobs (in green) a month before Cyclone Nargis hit.

(Credits: Infoterra UK) (Extended cyclone relief efforts aided from space, //www.esa.int/esaEO/SEM68CSHKHF_ environment_1.html#subhead4) 87 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Group on Earth Observations (GEO) estimates.
This system is currently running on a trial basis, posted on the website of the International The intergovernmental GEO was established by Flood Network (GFAS, 2010).

governments and international organizations for coordinating international efforts to build a Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) (www.earthobservations.org).

Many regional countries operating EO satellites are members.
Regional cooperative mechanisms promoted by ESCAP GEOSS promotes the sharing of information for As the regional arm of United Nations, ESCAP has climate change study and adaptation with linkages been promoting a number of regional mechanisms to disaster risk reduction.
GEO has recommended to help its members gain better and affordable that satellite data with spatial resolution coarser access to technical tools and data on space, than 30 metres should be shared free of charge or information and communication technology.

at minimum cost.
at minimum cost.

This would be used for societal benefit areas, including climate change study and adaptation, and to better understand the behaviour of monsoons, high mountains, West Pacific warm Regional Space Applications Programme (RESAP) pools and sea currents.
GEOSS focuses more on The intergovernmental programme has been, large-scale scientific studies but also encourages since 1994, promoting regional cooperation countries to make the data available for a wide to assist ESCAP members in applications of variety of users – connecting them to existing space technology for sustainable development, databases and portals providing reliable, up-to-date environment and disaster management, in and user-friendly information.
World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Global Observation System the technical fields of remote sensing, satellite c o m m u n i c a t i o n s , G I S a n d s a t e l l i t e b a s e d positioning.
Its current focus is on promoting regional cooperative mechanism on key space application capacities for disaster risk reduction and WMO has a Global Observing System based on management, such as drought disaster monitoring a uniform international standard, using reliable and early warning, disaster communication facilities on land, at sea, in the air and in outer capacities and sharing of satellite information space.

It aims to analyze and forecast weather and products and services.
Under RESAP, a regional to release disaster warnings.

These facilities are owned and operated by member countries but they also undertake certain responsibilities in the training and education network is supported by China, India and Indonesia, which cover all local costs for trainees from least developed countries agreed global scheme (WMO, 2010).
and other developing countries, with current Global Flood Alert System (GFAS) relevant interest on the use of remote sensing and GIS technology for disaster management.
GFAS is an internet-based system developed by Japan, which converts satellite precipitation Asia-Pacific gateway estimates into useful information for flood The ESCAP Committee on DRR, at its first session forecasting and warning, such as global and in March 2009, recommended that the ESCAP regional rainfall maps with precipitation probability secretariat promote an Asia-Pacific gateway for 88 Chapter Ⅴ.

Capitalizing on new technology information sharing and analysis for DRR.
The cooperative mechanism for drought disaster gateway will provide a portal for easy access to monitoring and early warning.

This will help information, including space-based products countries develop operational capacity for drought and services, and will function as a platform for monitoring and early warning.

The permanent ESCAP-promoted activities and initiatives related secretariat, operational modalities and structure to DRR and development.
The gateway will have of the mechanism are to be finalized, but it will an emphasis on social and economic development include: an information portal for sharing national and will offer access to value-added services strategies, profile data, and mitigation experiences; and resources available from ESCAP, while also a technical support platform for no- or low- providing links to other resources.
The gateway cost space-based products for drought- relevant will target policy-makers but will also cater to analysis, particularly in those products derived from researchers, academics and staff of various NGOs medium resolution EO satellites; and a platform and Inter-Governmental Organizations and donor to encourage technology transfer and capacity agencies.

The public will also be free to visit the building.

web portal.
web portal.

Regional platform for sharing satellite information products and services Collaborative communication infrastructure Asia and the Pacific would benefit from a Many developing countries in the Asia-Pacific collaborative disaster communication capacity at region lack the technical capacity to access regional or subregional levels.
This could involve relevant satellite information sources and process national disaster and telecom authorities, public the information consistently from different and private service providers and equipment satellites for decision makers or the institutional vendors, UN entities, humanitarian assistance capacity to provide operational support to agencies and development assistant agencies.

For different departments.


Although much of the this purpose, ESCAP and relevant international final products will have to be processed locally, o r g a n i z a t i o n s , s u c h a s t h e I n t e r n a t i o n a l there is an opportunity to develop a regional Telecommunication Union and the Asia-Pacific platform, which could provide consistent interim Telecommunity, can work with national disaster products and services to these less capable management and telecom authorities to develop countries.
The platform could also serve as a strategy for incorporating collaborative disaster the basis for substantive national services with minimum technical capacities.

The platform will be developed as a core component of the Asia-Pacific communication capacities and resilient telecoms networks within disaster risk reduction frameworks.

Costs for equipment and services can be shared gateway, jointly supported by all contributing among relevant stakeholders, with the funding initiatives.
support of international/regional development assistance agencies.

Regional cooperation for drought monitoring and early warning A learning experience W ith technical support from China, India By using ICT, especially space applications, during and Thailand, and the cooperation of other major disasters, the region has gained much stakeholders, ESCAP has launched a regional experience and major lessons have been learnt.
89 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Building capacity – ICT empower the disaster finance arrangements.

At the same time, many management agencies and communities.

But such private EO satellite operators, such as DigitalGlobae capacities should be established beforehand as part and GeoEye, have recently provided high resolution of disaster reduction strategies and action plans.
satellite images (better than 1 metre) with no-cost While this is the responsibility of governments, or reduced price through the International Charter regional cooperation may assist in building such to many countries suffered from major disasters.

capacities more cost effectively, through sharing These positive actions of relevant private sector relevant technical and information resources.
Some have provided the basis for development of a key technical supporting capacities can be built more institutionalized public-private partnership at collaboratively at regional and subregional levels.

regional level.

ICT infrastructure – Critical telecommunications Ongoing access to satellite data – Disaster infrastructure needs to be resilient, with sufficient management authorities usually have good and back-up capacity.

free access to EO satellite data during emergencies.
But they also need better access before the Public-private partnerships – Governments can work with private satellite operators, equipment disaster, so they can maintain up-to-date baseline information, and afterwards be readily used during vendors and local service providers to make the response phase.

This can be arranged through relevant facilities and services more accessible and inter-governmental cooperation.
affordable with special arrangements for disaster early warning and reporting and collaborative Climate change adaptation – Ongoing access, standby capacity for emergency response.

Many using GIS databases can also help bridging the communication satellite operators, such as information gaps between disaster risk reduction Inmarsat, SpeedCast, Thuraya and ThaiCom, and and climate change adaptation.
wireless equipment vendor of Motorola have expressed interests to join the effort of building Technical support capacities for disaster risk collaborative disaster communication capacity.

reduction and climate change adaptation are Almost all governments have requested local thus closely linked – and also contribute to other telecom service providers to ensure emergency challenges in sustainable development.
Activities communication services as a condition for granting in this area, however, rely strongly on international operating licenses.

Governments can also work and regional cooperation, which is the subject of with the insurance industry to achieve long-term the next chapter.

90 Chapter Ⅴ.
90 Chapter Ⅴ.

Capitalizing on new technology Box V-1 – Technology for the Safe Island Programme in the Maldives With its low elevations and population dispersed across many small and remote islands, the Maldives is very vulnerable to natural hazards and climate change.

Its economy is too fragile, highly dependent on tourism and imports, and with few potential economies of scale.
In response, the government has developed the Safe Islands Programme, which involves building economic opportunities on the larger, safer islands that have greater environmental resilience, and offering incentives for voluntary migration from smaller to larger islands.

The programme has been supported by high-resolution satellite data which have been used for an island risk assessment prepared by UNDP, with technical support from RSMC.
This has resulted in detailed analysis of the risks and identified changing patterns of vulnerability.

It has also allowed the programme to recommend mitigation measures, including limits to expansion and regulations that take into account vulnerabilities of the natural and built environment.
Source: UNDP Maldives Box V-2 – Training on ICT for disaster risk reduction and management In partnership with the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), the Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information and Communication Technology for Development (APCICT) has prepared a new module on ICT for disaster risk management as part of its training programme.
APCICT, a regional institute of ESCAP based in Incheon, Republic of Korea, and its Academy of ICT Essentials for Government Leaders, aims to enhance the knowledge and skills of policymakers in ICT for development.

The new module offers a framework for matching available technology with disaster risk management processes, and provides examples of a range of ICT applications across Asia and the Pacific.
These will be presented as case studies on ICT for disaster preparedness, response and relief, and recovery and reconstruction.

The key message of the module is that disaster risk management can be significantly facilitated and enhanced through effective use of ICT.

Box V-3 – Indigenous forms of disaster risk reduction All over Asia and the Pacific, local communities have long experience of coping with disasters and reducing risks.
This includes water harvesting technology, management of land and cropping pattern, land use strategies and house building techniques.

Such practices can form the basis for a holistic approach to disaster reduction and climate change that links indigenous and modern technologies.

Floods – In Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea, Singas village is a small community situated along the banks of the Markham River which is affected by yearly flooding.
The community has been treating the flood not only as a potential hazard but also as the source of the community’s livelihood.

Their approach towards river basin management has helped in flood risk reduction.

Earthquakes and tsunamis – Tribes in the Andaman and Nicobar islands lost relatively fewer lives in the Indian Ocean Tsunami 2004 even though they were close to the epicentre.
The Simeulueans living off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia and the Moken, living in the Surin Islands off the coast of Thailand and Myanmar also used indigenous knowledge to survive the Tsunami 2004.

Similarly, when an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.1 and its subsequent tsunami hit the Solomon Islands in April 2007, both indigenous and immigrant coastal populations had little time to respond because their villages were very close to the epicentre.
Fortunately, the indigenous populations recognized the signs of the impending disaster and lost relatively fewer lives.

Droughts – There are some evidence of advanced water harvesting systems to mitigate drought even from pre-historic times.

Indigenous systems fit the ecology and culture in which they evolved.
They are based on sound principles of ecological conservation and include water conservation and harvesting, coping mechanisms, seasonal climate forecasts, long-term mitigation measures, and adaptation strategies.
91 chapter Ⅵ Cooperating across the region Drivers of regional collaboration ● 94 Architecture of regional cooperation ● 95 Regional intergovernmental organizations ● 97 Other regional organizations ● 105 Looking forward ● 112 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Cooperating across the region The hazards of nature are embedded deep in geography and geology, so disaster caused by natural hazards and climate change do not respect national boundaries.
This means that the response must also be at cross-national level, but more specifically at regional and subregional level, relying on cooperation between countries that share common geography, history, cultures and economies.

Regional cooperation among the nation states strengthening and sustenance of such cooperation in different geographic regions and beyond is in the Asia-Pacific region, especially in the context therefore emerging as an important and effective of climate change and disasters.
mechanism to address to the causes as well as consequences of disasters.
Such cooperation can take place among the government and non Drivers of regional collaboration government organizations of the region in diverse The regional collaboration for disaster reduction ways – through sharing of knowledge, information in the Asia-Pacific region, as in other regions of a n d g o o d p r a c t i c e s , d e v e l o p i n g c o m m o n the world, have been driven by the necessities frameworks and understandings, agreeing with of securing better living conditions of the people common laws, institutions and protocol and by that would be safe from the rising trends of pooling common resources, human, material disaster caused by natural hazards.
Large scale and financial, to address to the regional issues human sufferings caused by the loss of lives, of disaster risk reduction that cannot always be property and livelihood and the repeated setbacks effectively tackled at the national level.
Various to development due to damages to houses, types and forms of regional cooperation have infrastructure and other productive assets have been developed in different regions of Asia and triggered the process of a paradigm shift in the Pacific, with varying degrees of successes and disaster management.

The age old perception failures.


The strength and effectiveness of such that disasters are caused due to the angers of cooperation have been influenced to a large extent God or wrath of nature has given way to a more by the complementary, competing and sometimes rational understanding of the forces and factors conflicting political and economic interests and that contribute to the hazards of nature and the ideologies of the nations.
This chapter traces vulnerabilities of the socio-economic conditions the genesis and development of such regional of the people.

The same process has driven home cooperation, analyzes their achievements and failures, examines the constraints and challenges the realisation that the efforts of the national governments alone would not be adequate to and explores the future potentialities for growth, reduce the risks of disasters as some of the root 94 Chapter Ⅵ.
Cooperating across the region causes of disasters are transnational in nature and and support needs, and assist countries in the can only be addressed in regional settings through preparation of periodic national summaries of regional collaborations.
their programmes and progress; A number of initiatives had been taken by the d) Establish or strengthen existing specialized regional entities of the Asia-Pacific to strengthen regional collaborative centers to undertake cooperation among the member States for better research, training, education and capacity understanding, preparedness and management building in the field of disaster risk reduction; of disasters.

While the process has been ongoing, and two factors provided a big push to the momentum.
The first was the India Ocean Tsunami of December e 2004 that caused widespread devastations in at mechanisms and capacities for early warning to least eight countries of the South East and South disasters, including tsunami.

Asia.

It strengthened the resolve of the leadership to develop institutions, systems and processes that Based on the HFA, many regions of the Asia would strengthen the regional cooperation among the countries.
and the Pacific developed their own regional frameworks for disaster reduction.

The South Asian countries adopted a Comprehensive The second impetus came from the World Framework on Disaster Management.
The Pacific Conference on Disaster Reduction held in Kobe Island countries developed a regional framework Japan during January 2005 and the Hyogo for disaster risk management known as “An Framework of Action: Building the Resilience Investment for Sustainable Development in the of Nations and Communities to Disasters that Pacific Island Countries – Disaster Risk Reduction was adopted by the 168 participating countries and Disaster Management A Framework for Action including countries of the Asia-Pacific.
The 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and HFA called upon the regional organizations to Communities to Disasters”.
The ASEAN countries undertake the following five specific tasks within went a step ahead in signing an Agreement on their mandates, priorities and resources: Disaster Management and Emergency Response in a) Promote regional programmes, including programmes for technical cooperation, capacity development, development of methodologies and standards for hazard and vulnerability m o n i t o r i n g a n d a s s e s s m e n t , s h a r i n g o f July 2005.
Architecture of regional cooperation Regional cooperation among the countries and information and effective mobilization of the communities of the Asia-Pacific region, like in resources; other regions, has taken place in four different but interrelated circles.
b) Undertake and publish regional and subregional baseline assessments of the disaster risk The first and the foremost is the cooperation reduction status; among the sovereign states of the region through legally established regional Inter-Governmental c) Coordinate and publish periodic reviews on Organisations, like the ASEAN, SAARC, SOPAC, progress in the region and on impediments etc.
Different regions of the Asia-Pacific have 95 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 been able to achieve different levels of progress in around the United Nations and its various agencies, institutionalizing inter-governmental cooperation through the coordinated efforts of the ESCAP and on disaster risk management, based largely on UNISDR.
The multi-lateral financial institutions like the profile of risks of the region, vision of the the World Bank and its trust fund - the Global regional leadership and the history of conflicts or Facility for Disaster Recovery and Reduction - and cooperation among nations in the region.

the region’s own ADB have also joined the efforts of supporting the national and regional initiatives The second circle of regional collaboration has for disaster risk reduction in the region.
developed around a wide range of institutions and organizations that are regional in nature but are The fourth and the central circle of regional not based on the initiatives of the sovereign states, collaboration is a pan Asia-Pacific phenomenon of although national governments may be associated a more recent origin where all the stakeholders of with such ventures.
Such organizations may regional cooperation – the national governments, broadly be of four different types: (a) organizations the regional and subregional organizations, the created with support of national governments and non-government organizations including the other agencies, (b) scientific, technical, academic and professional organizations working on scientific, technical and academic institutions, the media, the corporate sector and the humanitarian different aspects of disaster risk management, (c) agencies and the international organizations regional associations of media, corporate sectors and the multi- financial institutions have joined etc taking occasional interests and initiatives in together to support the movement for regional disaster management, and (d) regional NGOs, cooperation.
voluntary and humanitarian organizations involved with disaster response, relief and community based A more detailed analysis of the achievements, disaster risk management.

strengths, limitations and challenges of each of these four tracks of regional cooperation in the The third circle of regional cooperation has evolved Asia-Pacific is provided in the following section.
Figure VI-1 Forms of regional cooperation on disaster risk reduction Regional Inter-Governmental Organisations Pan Asia-Pacific Cooperation REGIONAL COOPERATION ON DRR Other Regional Organisations International Organisations 96 Chapter Ⅵ.

Cooperating across the region Regional intergovernmental organizations reduction at the national level.
Japan has set global standards, and here, as in the Republic of Korea, the recurrent hazards of nature no longer create Subregional intergovernmental organizations have huge humanitarian or economic crises.

China too usually been created through regional treaties or has proactively reduced the risks of recurrent floods charters which establish a wide range of issues and droughts and is making the country safer from for cooperation, such as security, trade and earthquakes and landslides.
immigration, customs, environment, science and technology.

The charters do not usually mention On the other hand, the sub-region as a whole disaster risk reduction specifically but cover this has yet to develop even a rudimentary general under broader objectives such as “sustainable organization or a specialized body on disaster development”, “welfare of people” or “protection management.

Nevertheless, there have been some of environment”.
But many subregions, concerned efforts in the recent past to develop cooperation about the increasing incidence of disasters, are among the three major economies.

The first Japan- now strengthening cooperation for reducing the China-Korea Trilateral Summit in 2008 agreed risks of disasters and for responding to them in a coordinated manner.

to hold heads of government agency and expert level meetings in rotation.
In 2009, an expert level meeting in Seoul was followed by a ministerial level The extent and pace of cooperation varies between meeting in Kobe in October which adopted a Tri- on sub-region and another.

This partly reflects lateral Joint Statement on Disaster Management the overall general level of cooperation which is Cooperation.
This identified three broad areas conditioned by the countries’ strategic economic of cooperation: countering the disasters which and political interests, the legacies of past conflicts, are expected to increase due to climate change; and differences in the vision of political leadership.

promoting earthquake-proofing of buildings; But it also varies according to their recent and utilizing satellite technologies for disaster experience of disasters.

management.
management.

The next meeting will be in China in Cooperation usually follows a general pattern.

It starts with a phase of declarations and resolutions.

This is followed by the stage of building systems and institutions and finally by the creation of 2011.

South-East Asia – significant cooperation action plans and programmes.
Some regions have remained locked in the phase of declarations while others, with varying degrees of success, have The greatest subregional cooperation has been in South-East Asia under the aegis of ASEAN.

The ASEAN countries have benefited from graduated to active collaboration.

statesmanship from national leaders and from the North and East Asia – progress without cooperation relative absence of hostilities among the countries.
But they have also had much to gain from greater connectivity and share a need to cope with various types of disaster caused by natural hazards that East Asia has three of the world’s towering regularly straddle their borders.

ASEAN was economies – China, Japan and the Republic of established in 1967 by five countries – Indonesia, Korea – which together account for nearly 60 Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand per cent of the Asia-Pacific region’s total wealth.
– and gradually expanded its membership to 10 All three have made progress in disaster risk with the inclusions of Brunei in 1984, Viet Nam 97 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 in 1995, Lao PDR and Myanmar in 1997, and finally approved in December 2003.

ARPDM 2004- Cambodia in 1999.

ASEAN has had a phase of 2010 has five major components and 29 sub- declarations: Bangkok 1967, Kuala Lumpur 1976, components, as in Table V-1.

However, most of and the concords of Bali 1976 and 2003.
It has these were largely intentions with no specific also had a Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (1976), regional projects and there was no mechanism for a Vision 2020 (Kuala Lumpur 1997), and a Plan of monitoring progress.

Action (Hanoi 1998).

These declarations culminated in 2007, on the fortieth anniversary, with the One programme that has achieved great success is adoption of the ASEAN Charter.

the ASEAN Regional Disaster Emergency Response Simulation Exercise.
Each year one country, by In 1976 in Bali, in Concord I, the leaders identified rotation, tests its own preparedness and that of the disaster management as one of the eight principles regional response team that could assist it, through and objectives for ASEAN cooperation – and issued a simulation exercise, with full logistics support the ASEAN Declaration on Mutual Assistance on on disaster response and relief, including search, disaster caused by natural hazards.
This called rescue and evacuation of affected communities.

for mutual assistance in mitigation, rescue and relief of victims.

From the 1990s leaders were So far, five such exercises have been conducted – in Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand, and very concerned about haze pollution and in the Philippines.
Based on these experiences, the 1998 produced the Regional Haze Action Plan, countries have developed and adopted the ASEAN which they institutionalized in 2002 by signing Standard Operating Procedure for Regional Standby the ASEAN Agreement on Trans-boundary Haze Arrangement and Coordination of Joint Disaster Pollution.

National leaders again emphasized Relief and Emergency Response Operations.
disaster management in 2003 in the Declaration of Concord II in which they resolved to establish an This ASEAN disaster management system was fully ASEAN Community by 2020. tested in May 2008 by Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar.

This system was especially valuable because the For over three decades, ASEAN’s disaster reduction government of Myanmar was reluctant to accept efforts were coordinated by one of the seven assistance from the UN and the World Bank.
ASEAN subsidiary bodies under the ASEAN Committee was able to act as a bridge between Myanmar and on Social Development: the ASEAN Experts the international community in the Post-Nargis Group on Disaster Management.

In 2003, this Joint Assessment and in coordinating international group was elevated as the ASEAN Committee on Disaster Management (ACDM) consisting of the heads of national agencies responsible for disaster management.

assistance on recovery and reconstruction.


A priority project under the ARPDM was the establishment of an ASEAN Regional Disaster Management Framework.

Work on this was already In 1996, with technical support from the Asian underway when four ASEAN countries were hit Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) and by the devastating Indian Ocean Tsunami.
On 6 financial support from the European Commission January 2005 the ASEAN leaders held a special Humanitarian Aid Office, the organization initiated meeting and issued the Aftermath of Earthquake the ASEAN Regional Programme on Disaster and Tsunami Declaration on Action to Strengthen Management (ARPDM).

This was then the subject Emergency Relief, Rehabilitation, Reconstruction of a series of meetings and workshops which and Prevention.
There then ensued a process of culminated in a draft ARPDM 2002 which was discussion and negotiation which resulted in the 98 Chapter Ⅵ.
Cooperating across the region ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and management starting with risk identification, Emergency Response (AADMER) which was signed assessment and monitoring, and continuing by member states in July 2005 and came into force with disaster prevention and mitigation, disaster in December 2009 after being ratified by all 10 preparedness, emergency response, rehabilitation, member states.
AADMER is the world’s only HFA- technical cooperation, and scientific research and related binding instrument.

institutional arrangements and procedures.

As a first step, Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, Secretary General of The AADMER has 36 articles, divided into 11 ASEAN, was appointed as ASEAN’s Humanitarian parts that deal with the whole cycle of disaster Assistance Coordinator.
Table VI-1 ASEAN Regional Programme on Disaster Management (2004-2010) Objectives Sub-components Component 1– Establishing the ASEAN Regional Disaster Management Framework Promote cooperation and collaboration among Member Countries in all areas of disaster management including joint projects, collaborative research and networking.
Component 2: Capacity Building Strengthen capacity building in areas of priority concern of Member Countries, and promote human resources development in disaster management in accordance with the needs of Member Countries Component 3: Sharing information and resources Promote sharing of information, expertise, best practices, and resources.
Establishing the ASEAN Response Action Plan (RAP) Enhancing Quick Response Capacities of Member Countries ASEAN Joint Simulation Exercises for Disaster Relief Technical Cooperation Projects ● Earthquake Vulnerability Reduction ● Flash Flood, Landslide, Sea/ River Erosion Preparedness and Mitigation ● Dissemination of Flood Early Warning ● Safety of Children in Flood-Prone Areas ● Typhoon and Cyclone Preparedness and Mitigation ● Early Warning System for Land and Forest Fire Management and Haze Preparedness ASEAN Disaster Management Training Institutes Network ● Specialised Disaster Management Training ● Specialised Training in Risk, Damage and Needs Assessment ● Specialised Training in Collapsed Structure Search and Rescue ● Specialised Training in Forest Fire Fighting ● Refresher Courses/ Expertise Development ● Training on the Management of Disaster Stress and Behaviour ASEAN Disaster Information Sharing and Communication Network (ASEAN DISCNet) ● Development of ACDM Website and NDMO Websites ● Establishing Effective Communication Systems ● Publication of ADMIN Newsletter ● ASEAN Inventory of Disaster Management Experts (Brain Bank) and Resources ● ASEAN Hazard and Vulnerability Mapping Project Research and Development and Dissemination of Good Practices Improved Use of Climate and Weather Forecasting Component 4: Promoting collaboration and strengthening partnerships Promote partnerships among various stakeholders (GOs, NGOs, and community based international organizations) Supporting Community-Based Management Programmes Partnerships with Relevant Organizations and NGOs Mobilising Financial Support and Resources Component 5: Public Education, Awareness and Advocacy Promote advocacy, public education and awareness programme related to disaster management ASEAN Day for Disaster Management Integration of Disaster Management in School Curricula Enhancing Disaster Management Public Education and Awareness Programmes Mainstreaming Disaster Management into Development Plans of ASEAN Member Countries Source: www.aseansec.org/18455.htm 99 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Figure VI-2 Overview of AADMER work programme (2010-2015) Strategic Components Risk Assessment, Early Warning & Monitoring Preparedness & Response Prevention & Mitigation Recovery Institutionalisation of AADMER Partnership Strategies Resource Mobilisation Outreach & Mainstreaming Building Blocks & Drivers Training and Knowledge Management Information Management and Communication Technology Implementation, Monitoring & Evaluation of the Work Programme Source: www.aseansec.org/18455.htm Earlier, in anticipation of the coming into force of needs, strengths and constraints of the system and the Agreement, the AADMER work programme its stakeholders.
The AADMER Work Programme, (2010-2015) had been developed through a promises to be a dynamic and participatory system consultative process.

The programme has four with the responsibilities for each component vested strategic components and six building blocks, each with working groups of the member states, with a covering a number of activities, with timelines “lead shepherd” for each activity.

and clearly defined milestones.


The programme is intended to be a dynamic rolling plan that will Another distinguishing feature of the ASEAN be updated and revised through a continuous p ro system of feedback, monitoring and evaluation.
organizations and multilateral institutions have The programme was formally launched in May been engaged in an open, transparent and 2010 and will be implemented in two three-year proactive fashion at every stage of planning and phases.

implementation.
implementation.

The system also benefits from a common understanding on the basic framework The growing maturity and confidence of the and from a clear delegation of powers and ASEAN system is evident from a comparison authorities in the ASEAN Secretariat – which has between its two work programmes – ARPDM eliminated most of the bureaucratic and time- and AADMER.

ARPDM took six years to develop, consuming processes of approval.

with external technical and financial support.


But consensus on the second programme was The Agreement provides for the establishment of reached within a year with little assistance from the ASEAN Co-ordinating Centre for Humanitarian outside agencies.

This was largely because the Assistance for the purpose of facilitating co- first programme had established the capacities, operation and co-ordination among the Parties 100 Chapter Ⅵ.
Cooperating across the region and with relevant United Nations and international organizations.

The Centre will have four divisions: South Asia – promising road maps (a) Preparedness, Response and Recovery, (b) South Asia is the Asia-Pacific sub-region most Risk Assessment, Early Warning and Monitoring vulnerable to disaster caused by natural hazards.
and Knowledge Management, (c) Prevention Subregional cooperation on disaster management and Mitigation, and (d) Partnership and Resource started in 1985 with the adoption of the Charter of Mobilization.

The Centre will work under an the SAARC by Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Executive Director with the oversight of a Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Afghanistan joined Governing Board and an Advisory Group.

in 2007.
in 2007.

The Charter does not mention disaster management but covers this under generic Complementing ASEAN’s disaster management objectives to: (a) promote the welfare of the efforts is the work of the ASEAN Regional Forum peoples and to improve their quality of life, (b) (ARF).

This draws together 27 countries that have a accelerate economic growth, social progress and bearing on the security of the Asia-Pacific region.
In cultural development and to (c) promote active addition to the ASEAN member states this includes collaboration and mutual assistance.
the 10 ASEAN dialogue partners (Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, Disaster management figured for the first time New Zealand, Republic of Korea, the Russian when the third SAARC Summit in Kathmandu in Federation and the United States of America), 1987, deeply concerned at the rapid environmental one ASEAN observer (Papua New Guinea), as well degradation that was leading to disaster caused as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, by natural hazards, commissioned from a Mongolia, Pakistan, Timor-Leste, Bangladesh group of experts a study for the protection and and Sri Lanka.
The ARF was established in 1994 preservation of the environment and on the causes to foster dialogue and consultation on political and consequences of disaster caused by natural and security issues of common concern, one of hazards.

The study report, finalized in 1991, which was disaster management.
In May 2009, recommended various measures for protecting and for example, an ARF “Voluntary Demonstration of managing the environment, and strengthening Response “ was conducted in the Philippines as a the disaster management capabilities of state and civilian-led, military-supported exercise designed to non-state actors.
The recommendations were demonstrate ARF national capabilities in responding endorsed by Heads of State or Government at their to requests for assistance, and in building regional Sixth Summit (Colombo 1991) and, as follow-up assistance capacity for major, multinational relief operations.
measures, the SAARC Meteorological Research Centre was established in Dhaka in 1995 and a SAARC Coastal Zone Management Centre was Subregional cooperation has also been evident established in Male in 2004. in other areas such as the management of water resources, notably in the Mekong River Following the Indian Ocean Tsunami, a special Commission.
This is an organization formed in session of the SAARC environment ministers in 1995 by the governments of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Male in 2005 decided that an expert group should Thailand and Viet Nam which have significantly formulate a Comprehensive Framework on Early reduced the risks of flood in the sub-region by Warning, Disaster Management and Disaster agreeing on joint management of shared water Prevention.

The expert group met in February 2006 resources.


in Dhaka and developed a SAARC Comprehensive 101 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Framework on Disaster Management for South SDMC Informs, and an annual South Asia Disaster Asia.

The framework, which is aligned with the Report.


It also publishes a bi-annual Journal of Hyogo Framework of Action, was approved by the South Asian Disaster Studies which has scientific SAARC environment ministers in July 2006 and and technical papers by reputed scholars, scientists endorsed by the fourteenth SAARC Summit in New and practitioners on various aspects of disaster risk Delhi 2007. reduction and management.
In 2005, the thirteenth SAARC Summit adopted The SDMC’s two flagship projects are the South the Dhaka Declaration which agreed to set up Asia Disaster Knowledge Network and the Digital a “permanent regional response mechanism Vulnerability Map of South Asia.

The South Asia on disaster preparedness, emergency relief and Disaster Knowledge Network is a virtual network rehabilitation”.
The SAARC Disaster Management of networks involving eight member countries Centre (SDMC) was therefore established in New of SAARC and hundreds of organizations and Delhi in the premises of the National Institute institutions within and beyond the sub-region.
of Disaster Management as a “vibrant centre When fully operational, it will connect the of excellence” to assist countries in formulating governments, research institutions, universities, policies, strategies, and disaster management community-based organizations and individuals, frameworks, in conducting research, studies, training enabling them to share information on natural and programmes, and in disseminating information and manmade hazards, risks and disasters.

good practices.
good practices.

The Centre comprises four divisions to look after: (a) water and climate related disasters, The Digital Vulnerability Atlas of South Asia will (b) geologically related disasters, (c) biological and integrate spatial data on the physical, demographic other man-made disasters and (d) policy planning and socio-economic features of each country.

This and related issues.


The professionals of the Centre will use a WebGIS platform showing geo-physical are recruited from all the countries of the region.

and climatic hazard zone classifications, and include As the host country, India provides the entire capital data on, for example, demography, socioeconomic costs while all the members share the programme conditions and housing types.

The first version was and administrative costs.

due to be launched in July 2010.


The SDMC has developed a perspective plan for the In 2008, the fifteenth SAARC Summit in Colombo period 2007-2015 to synchronize its activities with called for the creation, under the aegis of the the SAARC Comprehensive Framework for Disaster SDMC, of a disaster caused by natural hazards Management.

Through a broad consultative Rapid Response Mechanism.
In February 2009, an process, it has also developed Regional Road Maps expert group comprising representatives from the on six key areas of disaster management – outlining Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Ministries of Defence the tasks ahead in the short, medium and long and National Focal Points on disaster management term to be addressed by local authorities, national met in New Delhi and concluded that the best governments and subregional organizations.

Based option would be a Voluntary Response Model.


An on these road maps a number of projects have agreement is likely to be signed in the near future.

been taken up at the subregional level.

The SDMC would then have a Disaster Response Division and a serve as Regional Emergency SDMC compiles disaster events in the sub-region Operation Centre.
Within three years, SDMC has and publishes a weekly update on its website thus been able to create a strong foundation for every Monday, as well as a printed quarterly, supporting SAARC members, helping them cope 102 Chapter Ⅵ.

Cooperating across the region with disaster caused by natural hazards that might The five core Central Asian States have nevertheless create problems beyond the capacity of any single also been trying to improve cooperation among country.
Central Asia – cooperation in the making themselves.

In 1998, they signed a Cooperation Agreement for Prevention and Liquidation of Emergencies.
This was to include “a range of activities carried out well in advance, aimed at reducing to the maximum possible extent the risk The Central Asia sub-region – comprising of an emergency as well as preserving human Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan health, reducing extent of environmental damage and Uzbekistan – has yet to find a solid subregional and material losses in case an emergency occurs”.

mechanism for disaster risk reduction.


These However such cooperation did not significantly states have diverse political, security and economic extend to reducing disaster caused by natural interests that have encouraged them to seek hazards risks.
cooperation through various groupings – looking north to the Commonwealth of Independent In addition, three states, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan States (CIS), east to the Shanghai Cooperation and Uzbekistan, met in Osh in Kyrgyzstan in 2008 Organization, and South to Economic Cooperation and 2009 to reach a common understanding and Organization (ECO).

cooperate on a number of disaster concerns.

They Of these, only ECO has any significant programme agreed to: or agenda on disaster management.
Established ● Establish early warning systems; in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey, ECO now ● Make or revise inter-state agreements between includes Afghanistan and Azerbaijan as well as all the customs offices, ministries of internal affairs, five Central Asian States.
In 2006, at their Ninth and border-security forces; Summit in Baku, ECO leaders called for regional ● Train professional search-and-rescue teams; programmes for early warning, and practical steps ● Exchange information, including hydro- for disaster preparedness.

Since then ECO has meteorological data; organized annual International Conferences on ● Establish a working group for disaster risk DRM.

Although ECO leaders have emphasized the management for the Ferghana Valley.
need for cooperation on disaster management they have yet to place the issue on the organization’s Meanwhile, efforts are underway for developing active agenda.

full-scale regional cooperation among all the five Central Asian states.

Representatives have met One ad hoc initiative, affiliated to ECO, is the on the sidelines of various conferences: the Asian Regional Centre for Risk Management of disaster Ministerial Conferences in Delhi in 2007 and Kuala caused by natural hazards.
This was established Lumpur in 2008, and more recently in the regional in Mashhad in 2007 by the Government of Iran meetings in Almaty and Geneva in 2009.

Here to develop early warning mechanisms, to monitor they arrived at broad agreements on the legal and disaster caused by natural hazards, weather and institutional arrangements, principles and objectives environmental conditions and to help member and a framework of activities for the first eighteen states in capacity building.
But it has yet to report months.

It was expected that the much-awaited any significant progress, particularly for Central Central Asian Centre for Disaster Response and Asia.

Risk Reduction would be set up in 2010.

103 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 West Asia – looking for models Given this grouping’s economic potential, the GCC-DC should be a strong and vibrant centre for West Asia has seen hardly any significant progress disaster risk reduction.
in subregional cooperation on disaster risk management.

Indeed, discouraged by prolonged conflicts the countries of the sub-region have yet to develop a single subregional organization.

Pacific Island countries – partnerships and networks Instead, for addressing disaster risk management The main vehicle for cooperation on disaster risk they have looked to organizations beyond their reduction and management is SOPAC.

Established neighbourhood.


by the UN in 1972, SOPAC became an autonomous intergovernmental organization in 1984, initially One is the League of Arab States.

Set up in Cairo among 12 island countries along with Australia in 1945 this now has 22 member states of which and New Zealand.

Since then, seven other island 12 are from West Asia.
The League does not yet countries have joined and SOPAC has broadened have a proposal to set up a specialized disaster its focus from marine mapping and geosciences to risk agency.

However, in 2009 in Riyadh it held a include hazard assessment and risk management.
workshop on Disaster Reduction and Sustainable Development which articulated the need for an The Pacific island countries, confronted by the Arab strategy for disaster risk reduction and an geographical settings of “big ocean, small islands” executive programme, including technical and are exposed to multiple hazards and risks – financial mechanisms at national and regional environmental, economic and social.

Conscious levels.
Conscious levels.

At this workshop, the Islamic Development that they face common risks, they have been Bank in Jeddah also offered to support capacity keen to address these at the subregional level.

building for implementing the Hyogo Framework Following the adoption of the Hyogo Framework of of Action.
In addition, the Arab Academy for Action they have therefore adopted a subregional Science and Technology and Maritime Transport framework – “An Investment for Sustainable in Alexandria agreed to explore the possibility Development in the Pacific Island Countries – of developing regional capacity for disaster risk Disaster Risk Reduction and Disaster Management reduction through training and other programmes.
A Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to A second organization to which the countries of Disasters.” This was endorsed by leaders at the the sub-region have turned is the Gulf Cooperation Thirty-Sixth Pacific Islands Forum in October 2005.

Council (GCC).
Council (GCC).

The Foreign Affairs Ministers of The framework envisions building “safer, more GCC have appointed a Technical Committee to resilient Pacific island nations and communities to draft a proposal for setting up a GCC Disaster disasters, so that Pacific peoples achieve sustainable Centre (GCC-DC).

The committee is visiting livelihoods and lead free and worthwhile lives”.
various regional and national initiatives across the Its mission is to accelerate policies, planning globe before finalizing its recommendations.

It and programmes for disaster risk reduction and is envisioned that the GCC-DC will be managed management for all hazards, taking a “whole of by a board of governors comprising ministers of government” approach.

foreign affairs and will have a steering board with one representative from each member state.
As The framework has six themes, closely aligned with currently conceived, the Centre will focus on all the five themes of the Hyogo Framework of Action.

risks including natural and technological threats.

Each theme lists key national and regional activities 104 Chapter Ⅵ.

Cooperating across the region along with outcome expected by 2015.

The themes be the most comprehensive information resource are: to support national action planning, and decision making.

It provides in-country information for 1.


Organizational, institutional, policy and decision- distribution within the sub-region.

The web making frameworks portal and database system were developed with 2.

Knowledge, information, public awareness and assistance from UNDP, IFRC and UNOCHA.

education 3.

Analysis and evaluation of hazards, vulnerabilities SOPAC has also developed various tools and and risks guidelines for the regional framework.

One is 4.
One is 4.

Planning for effective preparedness, response Mainstreaming DRR Conceptual Framework.

and recovery Another is Guidelines for Development of DRM 5.

Effective, integrated and people-focused early- National Action Plans, which is an eight-step process warning systems from initial planning, to advocacy, situation analysis, 6.
Reduction of underlying risk factors development, costing, implementation, monitoring In February 2006, at the behest of Pacific leaders, agencies have also provided expert technical and to support the subregional framework, guidance for preparing national action plans and SOPAC facilitated the establishment of the Pacific mainstreaming DRM into development plans.

and evaluation.

Various regional and international Disaster Risk Management Partnership Network.
The membership is open ended and voluntary SOPAC is also working on local-level risk and comprises international, regional and national assessment and early warning systems.
In this gover nments as well as non-gover nmental sub-region it will be particularly important to organizations, all of which have comparative understand the implications of global warming and advantages and interests and can contribute climate change and the precise impacts of sea level resources and technical expertise to develop joint rise in different islands.
A number of studies have programmes and projects that respond to the been commissioned to study the local-level impacts evolving needs of member countries.

Funding and the required measures for mitigation and will be on a shared basis and consistent with the adaptation.

mandate of the individual partners.

To assist in the implementation of the framework SOPAC has worked with partners to develop a set of tools.
These include: Other regional organizations Disaster reduction in Asia and the Pacific is also supported by a number of other regional - Pacific Disaster Net – www.pacificdisaster.net organizations, including intergovernmental groups, - A Partnership Capability Matrix, outlining the academia, the media, the private sector and NGOs.
projects and areas of expertise and interests of each partner - Online Monitoring of the Regional Framework for Action The Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) - A reporting system for progress on the Regional ADPC was established on the recommendation Framework for Action which feeds into the HFA.

of UN Disaster Relief Organization in 1986 to strengthen national disaster risk management Pacific Disaster Net is a virtual centre of excellence systems.
Initially it was an outreach activity of for disaster risk management and is designed to the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok, 105 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 supported by the government of Thailand, but ADRC’s most significant contribution is the Sentinel in 1999 it became independent.
ADPC is now Asia project, which uses data from EO satellites as governed by a board of trustees, with 21 members the basis of a disaster management support system representing 15 countries, and is advised by a (see Chapter VI).

ADRC maintains a repository of regional consultative committee, with 32 members data and good practices on disaster management, from 26 countries, as well as an advisory council, conducts studies on disaster reduction, develops with 55 members from a wide range of agencies.
education and training materials and organizes The regional consultative committee holds annual various conferences and workshops.

Each January, meetings on specific themes.

Since 2000 there on the anniversary of the Kobe Earthquake, ADRC have been eight such meetings, each contributing convenes the annual Asian Conference on Disaster to better understandings of the current and future Reduction, bringing together disaster management disaster risk management challenges and issues.
officials from member countries and experts from international organizations sharing information and Over the years, ADPC has also shifted its focus opinions and enhancing partnerships.

from disaster response and preparedness to risk reduction and mitigation and has made a strong contribution in developing capacities, systems and processes across Asia and the Pacific but particularly The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in South-East Asia and South Asia.
Its vision, which ICIMOD was established in 1983 in Kathmandu, is in tandem with the Hyogo Framework of Action, Nepal.

ICIMOD studies the dynamics of mountain is “Safer communities and sustainable development ecosystems and livelihoods in the Hindu Kush- through disaster risk reduction”.

Its mission is to Himalaya region in the contexts of climate change mainstream disaster reduction in development, build and globalization.
It has eight member countries and strengthen capacity, and facilitate partnerships – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, and exchange of experiences.

For this purpose, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan.
Between 1995 ADPC has implemented cross-sectoral programmes and 2002, ICIMOD implemented, in two phases, and projects in a number of thematic areas: climate a Regional Collaborative Programme in three risk management; community-based disaster risk strategic areas – water, environmental services, management; disaster risk management systems; and livelihoods – which significantly enhanced the public health in emergencies; training resources; knowledge and capacity of the mountain people to and urban disaster risk management.
understand the changes they were facing, adapt to The Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC) them, and make the most of new opportunities.

From 2002 onwards, ICIMOD started working on a new programme aligned with the Hindu Kush- ADRC was set up in 1998 in Kobe by the Himalaya region’s physical, social, and economic Government of Japan.

Its mission is to enable vulnerabilities.


This involved six integrated Asian countries and communities to be more programmes: natural resources management; disaster resilient and to establish networks among agriculture and rural income diversification; countries through various programmes including water, hazards and environmental management; exchange of personnel.
So far the network involves culture, equity, gender and governance; policy and 28 countries: nine from South- East Asia, six from partnership development; and information and South Asia, four from East Asia, seven from Central knowledge management.

Asia and one each from West Asia and the Pacific.

106 Chapter Ⅵ.

Cooperating across the region ICIMOD mobilizes its resources from donor hazards and the tools and techniques of their countries and organizations.

Initially there was remediation.


Much of their collaboration has taken some apprehension that the organization might place under government patronage, but they also be used to influence policy decisions on strategic have a momentum and potential of their own.

issues.
issues.

But over four decades of research and Many universities in Asia and the Pacific have programmes, the Centre has established its set up regional studies centres which conduct credibility and value as a knowledge-based research on a range of regional issues and often organization that can supplement the efforts of advise national and regional organizations.

The government and other agencies in improving Graduate School of Global Environment Studies of people’s living conditions.
ICIMOD has however Kyoto University, Japan, for example, is involved been constrained by the reluctance of member with various initiatives on cooperation on disaster countries to share with their neighbours critical reduction in the Asia-Pacific region.

information on such issues as rainfall and water.

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) There is also collaboration among the electronic and print media.
A number of media groups are aiming to increase awareness about disasters and are developing appropriate standards and codes Another intergovernmental organization that of ethics for reporting disaster events.

The South has shown considerable interest in disaster Asia Free Media Association, for example, has management is APEC.

APEC was set up in 1989 organised various programmes and events to create to enhance cooperation among 21 Pacific Rim awareness among journalists.
countries, mostly covering East Asia, South- East Asia and the Pacific countries, as well as the Federations of chambers of commerce and United States of America, Mexico and Peru.
APEC industries have also been exchanging information has identified disaster management as critical for sustainable economic growth and has adopted responsibility, public-private partnerships and an APEC Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction business continuity planning for reducing the risks and Emergency Preparedness and Response: of disasters.

2009-2015.
2009-2015.

The strategy aims to promote risk management, business resilience and public-private sector partnerships, and has initiated long-term Non-governmental organizations capacity building projects for accelerating recovery in disaster-affected areas.
The APEC countries have endorsed an Australia-Indonesia proposal for a M a n y i n t e r n a t i o n a l n o n - g o v e r n m e n t a l organizations (NGOs) have been working with vulnerable communities for many years and have Disaster Risk Reduction Facility linked to the APEC implemented innovative community-based disaster Task Force on Emergency Preparedness.
risk management programmes, not just highlighting Academia, the private sector and the media weaknesses and vulnerabilities, but also showing how community strength can be harnessed for better preparedness and response.
Among the most prominent is the International Federation The Asia-Pacific region has a large number of of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies; most scientific, technical, academic and professional countries also have national societies with branches organizations that are concerned with the causes in their provinces and districts.
After catastrophic and consequences of disaster caused by natural disasters, the Federation’s Asia-Pacific Zonal Office, 107 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 based in Kuala Lumpur, works with the national Colombo, this was established in 1995 as a South societies in issuing flash appeals for humanitarian Asian network of individuals and organizations assistance.

It has also forged partnerships with the committed to an “alternative perspective” on ADB and ASEAN.
The regional office also provides disasters and vulnerability.

The network has national societies with guidance and technical undertaken a number of studies on disaster assistance on disaster preparedness programmes preparedness and mitigation, regional cooperation, and has produced excellent knowledge sharing gender and livelihoods.

It has also organized materials highlighting experiences and lessons several policy discussions and debates on learned.
institutionalizing and mainstreaming disaster risk reduction in development in South Asia.

The most In addition, many local NGOs and civil society important, organized in collaboration with the organizations have supplemented government National Institute of Disaster Management India efforts and also pushed for greater transparency and and Practical Action Sri Lanka, was in New Delhi in accountability in government-driven programmes 2006 – the South Asia Policy Dialogue.

Here, policy and initiatives.


Some now have a presence in several makers, scientific and technical organizations, countries in the region and beyond.
They have also developed significant coalitions and partnerships media, and civil society organizations adopted the Delhi Declaration which provided a vision which have become significant stakeholders in and blueprint for disaster management in South regional cooperation on disaster risk reduction, Asia, particularly for SDMC which was established notably the Asian Disaster Reduction and Response in New Delhi soon after.

Duryog Nivaran took Network and Duryog Nivaran.


another pioneering initiative of bringing out the South Asia Disaster Report.

The two editions of The Asian Disaster Reduction and Response this report, released in 2006 and 2009, have added Network (ADRRN) is a network of 34 national NGOs considerably to the understanding of disaster risk from 16 countries across Asia and the Pacific, with and vulnerabilities in South Asia.

its secretariat in Kuala Lumpur.


ADRRN promotes coordination and collaboration among NGOs and other stakeholder.
It has four principal objectives: United Nations organizations first, to develop an interactive network of NGOs Regional cooperation on disaster reduction has also committed to achieving excellence in the field of been a priority of the United Nations and its various disaster reduction and response; second, to raise agencies, particularly following the Indian Ocean the relevant concerns of NGOs in the Asia-Pacific region to the larger community of NGOs globally, through various international forums and platforms; Tsunami.
Their collaboration has been facilitated by UNISDR and ESCAP.

third, to promote best practices and standards; and UNISDR, created in 1999, is the focal point in fourth to provide a mechanism for sharing reliable the UN System for disaster reduction activities.

information and facilitating capacity building Following the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004 and among network members and other stakeholders.
the World Conference on Disaster Reduction in ADRRN has been active in various regional and January 2005, in June 2005 UNISDR established global conferences, workshops and platforms on an Asia-Pacific regional unit in Bangkok hosted by humanitarian response and disaster risk reduction.

ESCAP.

This has three areas of focus: (a) promoting the HFA and forging regional partnerships to Another network is Duryog Nivaran, meaning facilitate its implementation; (b) following up “disaster mitigation”.
With its secretariat in and strengthening projects carried out under the 108 Chapter Ⅵ.

Cooperating across the region United Nations Flash Appeal for the Indian Ocean the Arabian Sea; and, in 1994, the Regional Space Tsunami Early Warning System; and (c) developing Applications Programme which enables countries an effective regional information management to benefit from advances in space technology for system with comprehensive databases.

UNISDR has disaster risk reduction.


also been supporting other regional organizations through a range of activities, including developing ESCAP’s most recent initiative has been the tools, methodologies and good practices for Tsunami Regional Trust Fund for developing a projects such as safety in schools and hospitals, tsunami early-warning system in the Indian Ocean.

and policy advocacy, knowledge management By the end of 2009, the Fund had mobilized $12.7 and networking.
In addition, the agency has been million in contributions from the governments of supporting a number of campaigns, workshops Thailand, Sweden, Turkey and Nepal.

The Fund has and conferences on disaster risk reduction and supported a number of projects, for disseminating enabling the participation of regional stakeholders.

and communicating warnings, for example, and for improving sub-national and community- The Asia-Pacific regional unit has also established level responses.
Among other things, the Fund the UNISDR Asian Partnership on disaster reduction (IAP).

Through the IAP, national governments, is supporting a Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (RIMES) in the Indian Ocean and South-East Asia (Box VI-1).

organizations and the international organizations meet periodically to review the progress of In 2008, ESCAP established a Committee on implementation of HFA.

The IAP also provides DRR.


At its first session in March 2009, this technical, operational and secretarial support for recommended, inter alia, that the ESCAP the implementation of decisions taken at the Asian secretariat should: (a) continue to promote regional Ministerial Conferences on Disaster Reduction.
cooperative mechanisms and knowledge-sharing arrangements, including those on information communications and space technologies; (b) coordination on disaster reduction is ESCAP.
Set establish an Asia-Pacific gateway on disaster risk up in 1947, ESCAP has 53 member states and reduction and development for information sharing nine associate members and is charged with and analysis (c) launch a publication focusing on supporting inclusive and sustainable economic and best practices and lessons learned in various aspects social development.
ESCAP focuses particularly on of disaster risk reduction and management in the issues that are addressed most effectively through regional cooperation – which includes natural hazards and the management of disasters.
To Asia-Pacific region; (d) further enhance partnerships and collaboration with UNISDR and other United Nations entities as well as regional and subregional fulfil this objective the Commission has helped organizations and (e) build regional consensuses to create a number of important regional institutions.

serve as inputs to major regional and global events.
These include: in 1957, the Mekong Committee which eventually grew into the Mekong River In May 2008, following Cyclone Nargis, ASEAN, Commission; in 1968, the ESCAP/WMO Typhoon the Government of Myanmar and the United Committee whose 14 members work to minimize Nations established a working-level mechanism to loss of life and property by typhoons; in 1971, the facilitate collective efforts in urgent post-Cyclone ESCAP/WMO Panel on Tropical Cyclones whose Nargis humanitarian relief and recovery work.
eight members have helped to improve tropical The Tripartite Core Group (TCG) of the ASEAN Cyclone warning systems in the Bay of Bengal and Humanitarian Task Force, which was formed 109 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 immediately after the disaster, proved to be an supported other agencies in the region.

effective model for cooperation between the three parties.
One of the first TCG activities was to Countries in the region can also rely on support conduct a Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA), to from the multilateral development banks.

The determine the scale of the damage and provide the World Bank, for example, in 2006 created GFDRR basis for humanitarian and recovery programmes.
– a trust fund through which it extends technical The results of PONJA were taken into account and financial support to UNISDR and other by UNOCHA when it launched a revised flash organizations for transborder risk reduction.

In appeal for $482 million on 10 July 2008.


ESCAP 2008, this facility also provided crucial assistance to and ASEAN jointly assisted the TCG activates by ASEAN for coordinating international assistance to organizing the ‘Regional High-level Expert Group Myanmar following Cyclone Nargis.

Meeting on Post-Nargis Recovery and Livelihood Opportunities’ in October 2008 and the ‘Post-Nargis Another major source of support is the ADB.
Lesson Learning Conference’ in August 2010 when In June 2004, ADB approved a comprehensive the TCG mandate came to the end.

Disaster and Emergency Assistance Policy, with Various UN agencies also have significant regional three main objectives: (a) strengthening support for reducing disaster risk; (b) providing rehabilitation programmes to support country offices and and reconstruction assistance following disasters, national governments.
The UNDP Regional Centre and (c) leveraging ADB’s activities by developing in Bangkok, for example, focuses mainly on Crisis partnerships.

In April 2008 this was complemented Prevention and Recovery and supports UNDP with an Action Plan that will embed disaster risk country offices in a number of cross-cutting areas management within ADB’s operational practices.

of prevention and mitigation of disasters.
The Following the India Ocean Tsunami, for example, United Nations Office for the Coordination of ADB reacted swiftly, creating the Asian Tsunami Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) also has a regional Fund with an initial $600-million contribution office for Asia and the Pacific to support regional for financing rehabilitation, reconstruction, and organizations, governments, UN agencies, NGOs associated development activities in the most and other humanitarian actors in their responses to severely affected countries – India, Indonesia, major disaster caused by natural hazards and can Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.
deploy staff with a range of technical expertise.

The UNOCHA regional office also works to build In April 2009, ADB established the Asia and the response capacity by strengthening emergency preparedness.

The UNESCO regional office in Bangkok has worked closely with UNISDR in Pacific Disaster Response Fund to help countries offer life-preserving services to disaster-affected communities.
This should bridge the gap between promoting school safety and integrating disaster existing ADB loans and grants for hazard caused by natural hazards concepts in school mitigation and longer-term loans for post-disaster curricula.

WFP has recently established its first reconstruction.

ADB is further negotiating with Humanitarian Response Depot in Asia, based in regional organizations like SAARC and ASEAN to Subang, Malaysia.

This is the fifth such hub in offer assistance for various regional programmes.
WFP’s global emergency response arsenal and will provide storage and logistics support and services to UN and other humanitarian agencies in Asia, Pan-Asia-Pacific Cooperation and possibly beyond.

UNHCR also has considerable The Asia-Pacific region has always taken the lead experience on relief management and has in promoting disaster risk reduction globally.

It was 110 Chapter Ⅵ.

Cooperating across the region the Asian city of Yokohama, for example, that in implementing the HFA.
1994 hosted the first World Conference on Disaster Reduction which adopted the “Yokohama Strategy The same model was followed in the third and Plan of Action for a Safer World: Guidelines conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in December for disaster caused by natural hazards Prevention, 2008 and will be followed in the forthcoming Preparedness and Mitigation”.

It was the Asian fourth conference in Inchon, Republic of Korea in city of Kobe that in 2005 hosted the second World October 2010.
Conference on Disaster Reduction which adopted the HFA 2005-2015 – the world’s only international The Third AMCDRR was held in Kuala Lumpur legal instrument for disaster reduction.

Asian in 2008.

The Declaration here took the process leaders have also been meeting periodically to further by highlighting six important issues: (a) review implementation of the HFA and to discuss public-private partnerships; (b) high technology measures to enhance cooperation.
and scientific applications including climate change adaptation; (c) involvement and empowerment of At the same time, governments of the region have local governments and civil society; (d) mobilization been promoting cooperation across Asia through a series of biennial conferences.

In 2005, China took of resources; (d) engaging the media; and (e) creating public awareness and education for the lead in convening the First Asian Conference disaster risk reduction.
The Declaration invited on Disaster Reduction in Beijing, with delegations the Asia-Pacific regional office of UNISDR, in from 42 Asian and South Pacific countries, of collaboration with members of the IAP, to follow which 33 were represented at ministerial level.

The up on the Beijing, Delhi and Kuala Lumpur Conference adopted a framework of strategies declarations by preparing a Kuala Lumpur Regional and objectives, the Beijing Action for Disaster Action Plan (KLAP).
The task of preparing the plan Reduction.

The second conference was hosted by was entrusted to the ADPC, which has submitted a India in 2007, as what would be known henceforth draft with seven components: as the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR).

The conference adopted 1.

Accelerating HFA implementation through the Delhi Declaration on Disaster Reduction in Asia national action plans; which affirmed that the biennial conference would 2.
Empowering local government and civil society be expanded as the Regional Platform for DRR, in DRR; with the participation of national governments, 3.

Mobilizing resources and promoting public regional and subregional organizations, the UN agencies, IFIs and other stakeholders including civil society, scientific and technical organizations, the private partnerships for DRR; 4.

Linking climate change adaptation to DRR; 5.

Protecting critical infrastructure private sector and the media.
Political leadership 6.

Public education, awareness and engaging the for the regional platform would come from the media in DRR; and ministers in charge of disaster reduction, while 7.

High technology and scientific application for technical, operational and secretarial support would DRR be provided by the Asia-Pacific regional office of UNISDR.

The declaration added that there would F o r e a c h c o m p o n e n t , t h e re w o u l d b e a n also be conferences at the subregional level.
The implementation cluster, with a further cluster Delhi Declaration thus ensured that decisions of the charged with steering the overall plan.

Each AMCDRR would be followed up on a continuing cluster would comprise one or more lead mentor basis, with regular stakeholder consultations for countries, one or more lead support agencies and 111 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 several partner support agencies.
The lead mentor various initiatives taken at the local, national, countries would guide and direct the support subregional and regional levels.

Progress has, agencies and help mobilize inputs and resources.

however, varied between subregions.
Some Resources would be mobilized from five sources: have created the legal-institutional framework national governments; ongoing DRR programmes for cooperation and for developing regional being implemented in partnership with UN programmes and action plan, while other regions Agencies, bilateral donors, regional organizations are still seeking viable models that would work and NGOs; new national DRR programmes in their prevailing political, security and economic implemented in relation to these components; situations.
synergistic implementation with ongoing regional programmes; and new regional programmes.
Regional cooperation for implementing global framework for disaster reduction has also The draft KLAP, with such modification as may be benefitted from the support of international decided by the IAP, is likely to be submitted to the organizations and multi-lateral funding institutions fourth AMCDRR in Inchon in October 2010 for a n d v a r i o u s r e g i o n a l n o n - g o v e r n m e n t a l consideration and approval.

Looking forward stakeholders.


This has created the necessary climate for more concerted action.

There is now huge scope for sharing experiences across regions both within and outside the Asia-Pacific.

The coming The Asia-Pacific region is the most vulnerable to years will offer many more opportunities to make disaster caused by natural hazards.

But it has also Asia and the Pacific safer from the risks of disaster resolved to reduce the risks of disasters through caused by natural hazards.
Box VI-1 - Regional Integrated Multi-hazard Early Warning System Regional Integrated Multi-hazard Early Warning System (RIMES) has evolved from the efforts of 26 countries to establish a regional tsunami early warning system within a multi-hazard framework, in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.
ESCAP supported these efforts through the Tsunami Regional Trust Fund, which was established in 2005 with an aim to build and enhance tsunami early warning capabilities in accordance with the needs of Indian Ocean and Southeast Asian countries.

The Fund has been a resource mechanism to narrow the capacity gaps in the region, through building institutional, technical, system-wide and other types of capacity for the development of early warning systems for tsunamis in a multi-hazard context.
In addition to Cambodia, Comoros, Lao PDR, Maldives, and Seychelles, three more countries, namely, Bangladesh, Philippines, and Timor-Leste signed the RIMES Cooperation Agreement during the 66th Commission session of ESCAP in May 2010.
The services provided by RIMES include the provision of regional tsunami watch information, capacity building and technology transfer in support of localized hydrometeorological disaster risk information, capacity building to respond to early warning information at the national and local levels.

The RIMES products are viewed in a multi-hazard framework with regional, national and local elements of an end-to-end early warning system.
In fact, RIMES works in conjunction with the national and regional tsunami watch providers in Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and share information with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre (PTWC) based in Hawaii and the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) in Tokyo.
112 Way forward Socio-economic impacts of disasters - threats to development ● 114 Opportunities after a disaster - making the recovery resilient ● 117 Capitalizing on new technology ● 118 Cooperating across the region ● 118 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 Way forward Asia and the Pacific is a region vulnerable to natural hazards of almost every kind – from earthquakes to droughts, from floods to tsunamis.

And with the prospect of climate change, the situation could become even more hazardous.
The risks depend, however, not just on natural phenomena but also on the political, economic and social environment in which disaster events occur.

This report considers ways of reducing vulnerability to disasters, building resilience and protecting hard-won development gains.

Over the period 1980-2009, Asia and the Pacific cope and recover.
For flooding, for example, the suffered 45 per cent of global disasters, 42 per Asia-Pacific region has the world’s top 10 most cent of the economic losses and around 60 per exposed countries and for cyclones six Asia-Pacific cent of disaster-related deaths.

Eighty-six per cent countries are in the top 10 – reflecting the high of the total population was affected by disasters.

concentration of people living in river flood plains As might be expected, in terms of absolute and deltas.
Despite the efforts to improve multi- numbers the countries worst affected tend to hazard warning systems, between the periods be the largest and most populous.

In relative 2000-2004 and 2005-2009 the risks from these terms, however, the smaller countries can be the disasters do not appear to have been reduced.

hardest hit.
hardest hit.

In 2008, Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga were among the world’s top 10 countries Nowadays, disasters have increasingly been and territories in terms of number of deaths per linked to climate change.

While it is not possible 100,000 inhabitants.


to establish this relationship conclusively, there is evidence suggesting that climate change could The most common form of disaster in the region is affect GLOFs, droughts, extreme precipitation flooding, followed by cyclones, though the greatest events, and forest fires.

loss of life has been from earthquakes.

The Asia- Pacific region also experiences many frequent but low-level disasters that inflict serious damage for highly vulnerable populations.
Socio-economic impacts of disasters – threats to development Overall disaster risk depends on three factors: the Disasters not only cause immediate economic natural “hazard”; the “exposure”, which is the damage and loss of life, but they also have a deep number of people and assets exposed; and the and lasting impact on development.
People who “vulnerability” which represents the capacity to are constantly exposed to natural hazards are more 114 Way forward likely to stay poor, perpetuating a vicious cycle that by setting up social provisions of cash and in can be extremely difficult to break.

kind support for vulnerable groups prior to the occurrence of a disaster.

Furthermore, social Many disaster losses are direct – in terms of injuries protection systems for the elderly should be seen and loss of life as well as physical damage.
But they in terms of compensation for the contributions can also be indirect – through disruptions in the that a long life brings to society – providing social flow of goods and services that cause additional protection for the elderly is therefore an issue of losses in earnings and jobs.

There can also be social justice.

secondary effects on economic factors such as GDP growth rates, indebtedness levels and fiscal deficits.
The poor also have fewer opportunities to recover so in many cases the effects are permanent.

Almost everywhere the people most vulnerable When it comes to humanitarian assistance and are the poor.

They often live in substandard reconstruction once again, some groups, such as housing in dangerous locations – on flood plains, women, children, the elderly and the disabled are riverbanks or steep slopes.
Without secure land often more vulnerable as humanitarian assistance ownership rights, they also have less incentive to invest in risk reduction.

And with limited livelihood and support for reconstruction tends to mirror existing societal inequities.

For example, in 2008 in opportunities they may be forced to over-exploit Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar women accounted for the environment, making both the environment 61 per cent of deaths.

Women are also affected and their situations even more vulnerable.
As well differently during the recovery as caretakers; as causing hardship and distress, disasters can also they have to take most responsibility for sick and tip those on the brink of poverty into poverty.

injured family members while having less access to formal recovery assistance.

Furthermore, the Of even more concern is that typically most post- death or disability of a spouse may result in disaster efforts go into rebuilding the economy, women becoming a family’s sole source of income.
even though the damage and loss can be even Under these circumstances, children may also greater in the social sectors – a divergence that become vulnerable as they are forced to take on risks widening levels of inequity.

There are concerns responsibilities that are not appropriate for their for health, for example, through contamination ages.

of water supplies, or for education, as schools are destroyed.
Disasters also have profound Overall, in the period 1980 to 2009 all Asia- psychosocial impacts, which frequently go underreported but in the long run can be even more insidious and destructive.

Children may be Pacific subregions have shown some reduction in vulnerability.

Progress has been fastest in South-East Asia though slower among the Pacific developing especially vulnerable as they react differently to countries.
There is thus nothing inevitable about a adults and may therefore not be recognized as country’s level of vulnerability to natural hazards: experiencing psychosocial disorders.

The elderly governments can help make their countries more who are already susceptible to health problems disaster resilient.
and malnutrition deficiencies, may experience further vulnerabilities, especially if income support previously provided by children is no longer available or if the state has no social protection Improving risk reduction further – scaling up vulnerability reduction programmes in place.
It is therefore incumbent In the past, most governments typically considered upon state organs to anticipate these impacts disaster risk reduction within the framework of 115 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 environmental assessments.

Now, through the HFA the HFA.

They have also been making disaster risk and other initiatives at regional and national levels, reduction a more significant part of PRSPs.

But the need for broader and more comprehensive there is still a long way to go.
Governments have socio-economic perspectives is moving up policy been slow to integrate disaster risk reduction and agendas.

Since the poor are the most vulnerable, climate change fully into development planning one of the key strategies for minimizing the and practice and for many programmes and impact of natural hazards should be the reduction projects, disaster risk concerns are generally limited of poverty.

But this is unlikely to reduce disaster to environmental assessments.

losses on its own.
losses on its own.

Indeed, even well intended development initiatives can unwittingly exacerbate Disaster risk reduction and preparedness requires existing forms of vulnerability or create new ones.

strong, capable institutions.

Ideally, national Development action needs to centre on broader disaster management offices should be located and more comprehensive strategies that address into ministries of planning.
Here progress has been the complex and multifaceted nature of people’s mediocre and there has been little political support vulnerability to hazards.

Disaster risk reduction will for building coherent administrations.
Disaster risk thus have to be considered within development frameworks with budgetary processes that address management policies also need to be supported by strong legislation, backed by enforcement in other economic inequities, and social and environmental areas including building codes, land use planning imbalances resulting from past development and environmental assessment.

strategies.
strategies.

Making adaptation more inclusive Losses from disasters can be reduced substantially by making adequate preparations and establishing early-warning systems.

These activities should be As climate change adaptation action is mostly based on an understanding of local capacities local, there is a need to link organized and and knowledge.

Communities can work with autonomous (or independent) adaptation strategies governments on participatory risk assessment and approaches.
This will not only provide the and integrate local knowledge and stakeholder necessary understanding of how to improve coping perspectives into more technical assessments.

and adaptation strategies by communities already This kind of participation can also be encouraged impacted by climate change, it will also support by introducing disaster risk reduction into school an enabling environment to make such practices curricula.
sustainable and more effective by fostering better participation, incorporating indigenous knowledge and empowering those who are actually taking action.

Improving further vulnerability reduction along the lines of the HFA In the past many countries lacked data on disaster- related losses, and did not have guidelines for systematic damage assessment.
Now, however, more countries employ comprehensive disaster damage and loss and needs assessments, which they have been using to design appropriate relief and reconstruction programmes as well as The overall international strategy for reducing to highlight the links between disasters, socio- disaster risks is the HFA, 2005-2015.

In response economic development and growth.


to this, a number of Asia-Pacific countries have produced comprehensive disaster risk management The importance of community engagement to programmes or action plans along the lines of resilience building cannot be overemphasised.

116 Way forward Often such participation is limited to consultation.

risk reduction will amount to little more than a This is better than not engaging with communities series of add-on training programmes.
A frequent at all, but does not contribute fully towards local problem is a conflict between donor time frames empowerment and decision-making.

It is also and real time frames: donors are under pressure important to ensure that such consultations reflect to disburse funds quickly, typically within two or the needs and priorities of vulnerable groups.

three years, whereas the recovery phase for a major disaster is likely to be three to five years.
Cost-benefit analyses show that it pays to invest in risk reduction.

Yet governments seem reluctant to The scale of financial resources available for do so, perhaps fearing that this will be expensive recovery, especially from non-governmental – and that the benefits may only be reaped many sources, generally depends less on need and years ahead under the watch of succeeding more on media attention.

Governments can, administrations.


But the costs may not be as however, also offer more resources of their own by high as feared.

Disaster risk reduction can be less rearranging their national development priorities.

about expenditure than about a different attitude They should also be able to rely on funds from local to development.

It may, for example, only entail altering the design of a building, re-siting a road or governments and communities.
Another option for financing the recovery is to twin provinces or altering an agricultural development project, with municipalities.

This involves pairing an economically minimal cost implications.

strong local government with a less developed one.

For disaster preparedness and response, there are Post-disaster planning should aim to ensure a number of budgeting options.
Countries that efficiency and public safety and take place swiftly so experience frequent disaster losses every year could as to preserve social and economic networks.

And, spread the budget over several years while making from the outset, authorities should be concerned plans for catastrophic events to ensure that some with equity, since people with the fewest resources funds are immediately available.
At the same time, generally get less attention from aid organizations, they will need to establish simple, low-technology and get it later.

Organizations under time pressure but practical systems for tracking the use of relief also tend to overlook gender-specific needs and and reconstruction funds that come from diverse capacities.

Instead gender concerns should be sources.


Opportunities after a disaster - making the recovery resilient Countries afflicted by disasters have to address integral to all reconstruction programmes.

Culturally and gender appropriate protection and mitigation strategies will not only promote gender equality and address gender-based vulnerabilities, but also ensure faster, deeper recovery.

immediate issues of relief and reconstruction.


But Recovery provides an opportunity not just to they also have the opportunity to improve their reconstruct physical infrastructure but also to build arrangements for disaster risk reduction and make on the community’s inherent cultural and social a resilient recovery.

resilience.

For this to happen, however, local people need to be involved very early in the recovery One of the most important measures is to allow process.
This requires significant investments of sufficient time.

If the time frame is too short the time and human resources but results in greater danger is that the recovery processes may build client satisfaction, quicker disbursement, and back vulnerabilities or even increase them, while greater local empowerment.
One strategy is to 117 THE ASIA-PACIFIC DISASTER REPORT, 2010 support local networks – which may be as simple the Republic of Korea, Thailand and Turkey, are as enabling people to contact other members of committed to share their information during major the network.

disasters.

During emergencies it is also important to ensure or expand local communications capacity.
Resilient recovery means compressing decades This can involve restoring or establishing wireless of development into a few years while reducing telephone and internet services, expanding the future risks, including those from climate change.
capacity of local cellular mobile systems and But disasters themselves also offer opportunities to internet bandwidth to accommodate sudden address the underlying risk factors from multiple increases in traffic, and deploying standby hazards and to “build back better.” communication facilities to service links between Capitalizing on new technology field teams and their headquarters.
The uses of technology have benefited from a Improving the gathering and sharing of number of initiatives to share information and hazard and risk information, early warning products.
These include: Sentinel Asia which and awareness raising provides disaster-related satellite information and International Charter Space and Major Disasters The levels of risk and uncertainty arising from which aims at providing a unified system of space natural hazards can also be reduced by making data acquisition and their products for disaster full use of information and communication response.

There is also a UN Platform for Space- technologies.
The most dramatic recent change has based Information for Disaster Management and been the spread of cellular mobile handsets, most Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER).

of which, in addition to telephony, can receive SMS messages; some have embedded GPS functions.
Nevertheless, the most popular and depending Cooperating across the region on the location of the disaster, the most effective Strengthening the enabling political media for delivering information before and after environment for national level risk reduction disasters remain television and radio.
The hazards of nature are embedded deep in The starting point is to establish data baselines on geography and geology, so disaster caused by hazards, vulnerabilities, exposures and possible natural hazards and climate change do not disaster risks and impacts.

Almost all countries in Asia and the Pacific have conducted risk mapping and assessments.

But they can face respect national boundaries.

This means that the response must also be cross-national, but more specifically regional and subregional.
Such severe limitations.

Most hazard mapping is often cooperation can take place in many ways – at too low a resolution to address complex and through sharing knowledge, information and good dynamic risk patterns.

Many countries also lack the practices; developing common frameworks and appropriate data or capacity needed for complex understandings; reaching agreements on common modelling or for using remote sensing and GIS.
laws, institutions and protocols, and by pooling All these forms of communication, however, now depend critically on EO satellites.

Almost all public The principal means of cooperation is through operators of satellites, satellites in Asia and the regional intergovernmental organizations.

In Pacific, including those of China, India, Japan, Asia and the Pacific, the most highly developed common resources – human, material and financial.
118 Way forward cooperation has been in South-East Asia under Himalaya region.

Many local NGOs and civil society the aegis of ASEAN, which has a Regional organizations have also supplemented government Programme on Disaster Management and runs an efforts and have developed significant coalitions annual emergency response simulation exercise.

and partnerships notably the ADRRN and Duryog SAARC has also been active.

It has developed a Nivaran.


At the same time, governments of the SAARC Comprehensive Framework on Disaster region have been promoting cooperation across Management for South Asia and has established Asia through the biennial Third AMCDRR which a Disaster Management Centre to assist countries was held in Kuala Lumpur in 2008. in formulating policies, strategies, and disaster management frameworks.

In the Pacific, the main Regional cooperation on disaster reduction has also vehicle for cooperation is SOPAC.
The countries been a priority of ESCAP, for example, has been of the region have also adopted a subregional instrumental in founding a number of regional framework to accelerate policies, planning and organizations and has been promoting mechanisms programmes for disaster risk reduction taking a to help its members gain access technical tools and “whole of government” approach.

data on space, information and communication Disaster reduction is also supported by a number technology.
One recent ESCAP initiative has been the Tsunami Regional Trust Fund for developing an of other regional organizations.

These include early-warning system in the Indian Ocean.

ADPC, which has members from 26 countries and aims to mainstream disaster reduction in Another major resource is UNISDR, which in development, build and strengthen capacity, and 2005 established an Asia-Pacific regional unit in facilitate partnerships and exchange of experiences.

Bangkok.
Bangkok.

Among other activities UNISDR focuses In addition, there is the ADRC in Kobe, Japan, on following up the HFA and on building a which establishes networks among 28 countries regional information management system with and has established the Sentinel Asia project.

comprehensive databases.

Other UN agencies also Another major regional resource is ICIMOD in have significant regional programmes, including Nepal.
ICIMOD studies the dynamics of mountain the UNOCHA, which deploys staff with a wide ecosystems and livelihoods in the Hindu Kush- range of technical expertise.

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