INTERNATIONAL FLOOD INITIATIVE (IFI)
Second Meeting of the Management Committee
5th May 2008, Toronto (ICLR)
LIST of PARTICIPANTS

UN/ISDR
Mr. Salvano Briceno
Mr. Yuichi Ono
UNESCO
Mr. Siegfried Demuth
Mr. Toshihiro Sonoda
UNU-EHSMr. Jörn Birkmann
Mr. Erich Plate
WMO
Mr. Avinash Tyagi
IAHS

Mr. Gordon Young
IAHR

Mr. Arthur Mynett
ICLR
Mr. Slobodan Simonovic
ICHARM

Mr. Kuniyoshi Takeuchi
Mr. Katsuhito Miyake
Mr. Ali Chavoshian

1Annex IIAgenda
Date: 5th May 2008
Venue: Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR-Toronto)(Host of the 4th International Symposium on Flood Defence)
20 Richmond Street East, Suite 210, Toronto, Canada
http://www.iclr.org

TimeItem

10:00 ~ 10:15

Welcome, self introduction and chair election

10:15 ~ 10:20

Adaptation of the Agenda

10:20 ~ 10:40

Secretariat review of the past meeting and ICHARM activity report

10:40 ~ 12:30

MC activity reports (UNESCO, WMO, UN/ISDR, UNU, IAHS, IAHR)

12:30 ~ 14:00

Lunch

14:00 ~ 17:00

Identification of the gaps and discussion on the future plan
including:- Progress related to Expected outputs of the IFI partners (seetables of Brochure p.18-21)- Improving communication with secretariat- IFI roles and exposures in the coming events (IAHS Hyderabad,ICWRDR, …)- Cooperation with national IHP committees- Any other items

2

Annex III

Proposal of Establishing Flood Disaster Preparedness ISO
Kuniyoshi Takeuchi, Director of ICHARM
Abstract: In order to implement the Hyogo Framework for Action, it isnecessary to establish an operational mechanism by which a community is
encouraged, directed and learn each other to take a rational procedure tomake themselves prepared for warning, information dissemination,evacuation, salvation, refugee sheltering, refugee support, recovery,
receiving official and volunteer helps, etc. Such procedure may be formallyorganized as an International Standard, i.e., Disaster Preparedness ISO andput to a political campaign for communities to take it. International Flood
Initiative (IFI) is an ideal framework to lead the flood part of its establishment,i.e., Flood Disaster Preparedness ISO.
Necessary Action to Implement the Hygo Framework for Action
One of the five priorities for action declared in the Hygo Framework for Action agreed at the United
Nations World Conference on Disaster Reduction held in Kobe Japan in January 2005 is to“Strengthen disaster preparedness for effective response at all levels” as “At times of disaster,impacts and losses can be substantially reduced if authorities, individuals and communities in hazardprone areas are well prepared and ready to act and are equipped with the knowledge and capacities
for effective disaster management.”
In order to implement this priority area of the Framework, it is necessary to establish a common
mechanism by which a community is encouraged, directed and learns each other to take a rational
procedure to make themselves prepared for such as warning, information dissemination, evacuation,
refugee sheltering, refugee supporting, recovery, receiving official and volunteer helps, etc. Suchprocedure may be formally organized as an International Standard, i.e., Disaster Preparedness ISO
and put to a political campaign for as many communities as possible to take it.
It is often the case where natural disasters occur, local communities affected are revealed to have
had no emergency preparedness and the aftermath becomes enlarged. Introduction of disaster
preparedness ISO would improve such situation serving as a guideline for those communities.
Outline of Disaster Preparedness ISO
The Disaster Preparedness ISO is an international standard that any community of any scale issuggested to follow in order to make it prepared for natural hazards and to minimize their negative
impacts on people, properties and activities and lead to quick recovery when they occur. The
standard is not a list of facilities nor equipments to be installed, but rather a list of institutional
procedure that any community commit to follow to assure a positive spiral be installed into its
community management system leading to a continuous improvement in disaster preparedness.
ISO is usually designed in the framework of market mechanism where the incentive of obtaining thelicense is to increase economic profit. In this Disaster Preparedness ISO is totally different. It
operates in the framework of public administration mechanism where the incentive is to get publicsatisfaction and political justification in their performance at the time of disaster.
If a community satisfies the disaster preparedness ISO, it may apply a license and, if awarded, thecommunity will get a visible reward of minimum losses when disaster does occur through well guided
community preparedness. The community may also get better support from internal budget allocation
or external funding. In addition, the community leaders get good reputation and public support within
the community which may lead the leading politicians’ re-election in their constituency.
In a sense, the ISO license acts as a guide for community administration to get its excuse for theirperformance when natural disasters do occur. If community administration has been doing proper
preparedness exercise following ISO, they certainly deserve for such excuse. But if they do not andencounter a big disaster, they will face a serious responsibility question.
Design of Disaster Preparedness ISOIn order to design a standard disaster preparedness procedure to assure a positive spiral installed
into community management system, the following principles may have to be taken:3(1) The procedure is designed, according to the local reality, manageable within the local context andadministrative framework. Especially it should be operational within the socio-economic
constraints of the community.
(2) The procedure is decided, implemented, checked and revised by the community authorities
regularly and have a built-in mechanism for continuous improvement in a positive spiral based onplan-do-check-action cycle.
(3) The procedure is linked to and consistent with the national and regional emergency management
scheme. In order to ensure the wide active linkage, the local procedure should be endorsed bynational and regional administration.
(4) The procedure is supported by the best practicable technology of early warning system available
to the nation/region.
(5) The procedure is regularly reviewed and checked internally and externally and the re-licensing
process should be built in.
(6) The procedure will evolve itself with a change of land use, development or installation of newcontrol measures and any other societal conditions.
Steps to Be Taken for Designing Flood Disaster Preparedness ISO
In order to design flood disaster preparedness ISO, the following steps may have to be included:(1) Form a community flood defense committee to maintain and improve the community disastermanagement.
It should start from community itself forming a committee made up of all the players including
community leaders, public officers, volunteers and residents who do the real labor work.
(2) Identify the goal of the locality.
The goal may be decided by the committee such as no human losses by any floods whileconstructing a sustainable flood safe community conserving the current ecological system.
(3) Design a set of rules of procedure for the community to reach the goal.
The ISO requires the committee to design a set of flood preparedness plan and the system toroutinely implement, record, review, improve and again implement to complete the plan-do-checkaction cycle. This is an important and difficult step necessarily carried out by participatory processwith strong support of worldwide preparedness knowledge base.
(4) Identify the annual objectives for improvement.
Once an initial rule is established and routine procedure is being exercised, the committee should
decide the short term objectives for improvement that may include concrete targets such as
development of some residential area in a flood proof design in accordance with a flood risk map
issued, the improvement of particular evacuation routes, the annual flood management training
participated by more than 10% of community population etc.
(5) Plan and materialize the administrative, technical and financial actions to achieve the annualobjectives.
The concrete actions should be decided to achieve the annual objective. The ISO requires the local
government provides the necessary resources for implementation for the actions committed. This is
why the committee has the local government leader as members.
(6) Establish a linkage with the national/provincial level administration.
This step will ensure the integrated emergency operation in nation wise in the case of large scalecatastrophic disasters. At the same time, it ensures legal and financial agreement for support with thenational/provincial level administration.
(7) Prepare the regular internal and external review process and re-licensing of ISO.
The review process is the key of the ISO. Licensing is just a start. The starting hurdle may be very
low but through the regular reviewing process, a positive spiral for continuous improvement of flood
preparedness is guaranteed. License may be renewed only if the positive spiral is proven functioning.
In order to prepare for review, all decisions and actions should be carefully recorded and filed. This
provides the opportunity for analyses and self review for continuous improvement.
Role of International Flood Initiative (IFI)
The establishment and activation of the flood disaster preparedness ISO require strong supportand promotion by national and international governmental and inter-governmental organizations. It
is only possible by a wide collaboration and a strong commitment by each player. For this purpose,
the International Flood Initiative (IFI) established by UNESCO, WMO, ISDR and UNU in 2005 is an
ideal framework to take a lead the flood part of its establishment.

4Collection, analyses and archiving of past knowledge of preparedness worldwide are the key to theproper design of any local preparedness procedure. The IFI can contribute for such aspect of theneeds a great deal.
Final Remarks
There have already been quite many practices and attempts of standardization of preparedness
although focuses are different. Such includes:
National Fire Protection Association (NFPA): NFPA 1600: Standard on Disaster/Emergency
Management and Business Continuity Programs, 2007 Edition
ISO (2006): International Workshop Agreement, Ref number IWA 5:2006(E) Emergency
preparedness
ISO 9001 and 9004: A framework for disaster preparednessDisaster Countermeasures Basic Act of 1997, Japan.
Such related efforts should carefully be studied and analyzed.
In order to bring this proposal into reality, it is necessary to make disaster risk reduction
mainstream of decision making at all levels. The establishment and participation to the disaster
preparedness ISO is part of it.

5Annex IV
TEMPLATE
Format for Mapping of Activities(based on the first IFI meeting report )Expected Output No. 1 (e.g. Research Agenda – Short term Point 4 “Establishment of floods
susceptibility indicators based on community vulnerability and resiliency”) OR (new Activity)
ACTIVITY (A)1) Objectives:-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2) Type of IFI activity (please mark the relevant, please prioritize)
Research

Education/Training

Information Networking

Technical Assistance3) Thematic Dimension of IFI (please mark the relevant, also multiple answers)
Flood Vulnerability

Flood Risk Management

Governance and Participation

Early Warning / Emergency Management

4) Geographical Scope (international, national, sub-national, local)----------------------------------------------------------5) Expected Outcomes:------------------------------------------------------------6) Time Schedules:-------------------------------------------------------------7) Methodologies used/ applied:---------------------------------------------------------------8) Partners involved:----------------------------------------------------------------9) Related Events (conferences, other projects, initiatives)---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10) Target Group/End user (e.g. disaster management, urban planning, science)--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------11) Report / Output documents / Website-------------------------------------------------------------------------12) Interlinkages between activities / Overlaps----------------------------------------------------------------------------6

ACTIVITY (B) …………………..
- Same Format

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