STRATEGIES FOR NATURAL DISASTGER MANAGEMENT AND MITIGATIO
STRATEGIES FOR NATURAL DISASTGER MANAGEMENT AND MITIGATION
* Jit Kumar Gupta
Introduction
?Natural disasters are closely related to and are integral part of the very processes, which have led to the formation of the earth, water and atmosphere. Because of the large scale destruction and damages caused to the built environment, economy, infrastructure, human life, social and economic fabric of a society or an area, disasters have emerged as an area of major concern and focus of international, national & state governments and community at large. Infact in large number of cases these disasters shatter the economy of the area and it takes long span of time to restore it back. Number of families are destroyed and social fabric in many cases is damaged beyond repair. In majority of cases development programs get shattered and the resources earmarked for development are consumed in repairing the damage caused to infrastructures and built environment. These disasters not only have local and national implications but also global due to the losses caused and needs of reconstruction and rehabilitation sometimes?exceeding even the capacity of the impacted country.
?As per Secretary General's Report in 43" U.N. General Assembly the main culprits identified for causing deaths due to natural hazards (1900-1987) were earthquakes (50.9%), Floods (29.7%) and Cyclonic Storms (16.8%), whereas Volcanic Eruptions (1.9%), Tsunamis (0.5%) and landslides (0.1%) caused only minor damages. Further, the report said that majority of destruction was caused in the developing regions of the World comprising of Asia, South and West pacific (85.5%) whereas Europe, America and Africa accounted for comparatively small share (14.5%) of the total loss. Economic losses due to these natural phenomena are also multiplying very rapidly and increasing at an alarming rate of 400 % for each decade . In 1991 & 1992 the losses on account of natural disasters were recorded at $ 100 billion .
?With the growing population and increasing economic activities along with their concentration in few pockets , the destruction of human lives and economic activities have also been rising very rapidly . It has also been observed that vulnerability of the poorer strata of society is much more in the face of these disasters and as such poorer people are hit much harder and suffer the maximum damage . It is , therefore , essential that appropriate strategies are worked out to minimise the adverse impact of the natural disasters and the loss and damage caused to the?built environment , economy and social fabric of the community . This would be essential to ensure sustainable development of the area , for making optimum utilization of scarce resources available with the developing countries and to safeguard the interest of vulnerable strata of society .
Disaster ?Management and ?& Mitigation
??Pre - Disaster Mitigation
?Most parts of India suffer from one or other natural hazards , most common among them are earthquakes , cyclones and floods . It has been estimated that 54 % of the land area of the country is liable to moderate and severe damage during earthquakes . Area prone to damage due to cyclonic winds and storm surges have been placed at 8.4 % and flood prone areas in the country are of the order of 4.9 % . Thus, more than two third area of the country does suffer from one or other natural disaster , accordingly steps are required to be taken to minimize losses to men and material in these areas . In fact, most of the damages caused in the country are due to the reason that present focus in disaster prone areas is to provide relief only after the disaster takes place but little efforts are made to prevent these losses . If a strategy of pre-disaster mitigation rather than post - disaster relief is adopted the loss to human life and property to a large extent can be avoided . Resources used in pre-disaster mitigation can yield much more dividends and would prove useful to community and the nation, even when such areas are struck by the disasters . Thus, approach has to be preventive rather than curative and efforts have to be focused on making pre - disaster mitigation rather than post - disaster relief .
Use of Vulnerability Atlas?Pre - disaster efforts would require identifying the areas , which are prone to disasters and the nature and severity of disasters , which are likely to hit the areas . If detailed information about these aspects is available then this could become a very handy and potent tool ?in the hands of?planners and administrators , to evolve strategies and initiate steps to mitigate the intensity of losses caused in the area . Vulnerability plans for various areas would be thus first pre - requisite to implement this approach . Though Vulnerability Atlas of India , covering floods , cyclones and earthquakes giving state wide maps and?tables for all districts in the country has been got prepared by Ministry of Urban Affairs and Employment but not much use of such a valuable ?document has been made . The Atlas needs to be circulated widely and made available to all the user agencies . Further, the Atlas should be made available to the academic institutions engaged in imparting education in the art and science of Architecture , Planning and Engineering so that students are made aware of various facets of natural disasters & areas hit by them . Disaster mitigation and management should be introduced as one of the subjects of study and included in the course contents of?all technical institutions involved ?in the disaster ?protection and management . The Atlas should be made more comprehensive by including information on various facets of disaster management and covering all human settlements, so as to enhance their usability . Support of media should also be taken to create awareness among masses about the Atlas and its usability .
Re-orienting ?Master Plans / Development Plans?
Risk area maps, zoning and mapping can be very useful and handy tools to all planning departments at the state level, while preparing Regional Plans Master Plans and ?Development Plans for the state/local levels,?to minimize the adverse impact of natural disasters . All disaster prone areas should be safely avoided by not proposing these areas for human habitation and setting up industrial units and other economic activities . Present plans are area based and serve limited purpose because most of the damages are caused in the existing settlements . Thus, settlement level plans have to be prepared to identify areas , which are?prone to disasters . This information would be most useful in case of avoiding losses due to floods . Thus, while preparing Master Plans / Development Plans of any city , areas prone ?and subjected to disasters ?should be clearly identified in the plan and must be proposed for uses other than human habitation .
These areas could be conveniently marked for creating green spaces and recreational areas, whereas ?provision of housing and other uses should ?invariably be avoided. Authorities should ensure that these areas are not used for growth of slums. Land falling in the area prone to risk should be acquired and used for large scale afforestation and developing green lungs. These low-lying areas could also be used?for creating water bodies like lakes etc. on the pattern followed in creating Sukhna lake in Chandigarh. This would serve dual purpose of providing appropriate quality of living environment in the city, spaces for accumulating excess rain water, ground water recharging, rain water harvesting, modulating city temperature, ?besides saving city from the damages ?caused due to floods and natural disasters. The cost of land acquisition and developing these areas could be loaded on the city as a part of external development charges so as to generate necessary resources to implement the project.
Building Bye-Laws & Zoning Regulations
During natural disasters, the area prone to maximum damage is the built environment, which has wider implication of causing loss to human lives and property. It has been estimated that country loses more than a million housing units every year due to earthquakes, floods and cyclones, causing enormous strain on development efforts. In order to avoid losses on account of destruction of buildings it is important that all the built structures should be made disaster resistant to the extent possible. This could be done to a large extent by providing enough safeguards at the time of construction of buildings itself. This would require necessary provision to be made in the building bye-laws applicable at the settlement level. Thus, all building bye-laws and zoning regulations should be amended to include provisions relating to making buildings disaster resistant. However, this would require that model provisions in this regard are evolved and made available to all local level agencies so as to incorporate them in the local bye-laws etc. Further municipal staff should also be trained to ensure that the structural safeguards are adopted during the course of construction. People/users/builders/developers would have to be educated about the benefit and need for adopting disaster resistance technologies while creating built environment. The technologies would have to be cost-effective and simple to use for ensuring their early adoption. This would require detailed research into the area of building techniques used in construction so as to simplify them. Also it would require the training of manpower involved in the construction sector for ensuring the use of disaster resistance techniques. Engineers, Architects, Planners, Building Industry, Local Bodies( both urban and rural) and other users would have to be involved in ensuring the creation of safe built environment. In rural areas efforts should be to upgrade the locally available building materials and locally used building techniques to achieve the objective. In order to avoid the destruction of the existing built areas it would be desirable to evolve techniques to make these buildings also safe. Simple and most effective techniques of retro-fitting would be critical to achieve the objective. People should be educated about the availability of these techniques and their use should be made mandatory in areas of large concentration of human habitation in general and metropolitan and large cities in particular, falling in disaster prone areas, so as to minimize the losses on this account.
Model Houses & Town Planning Norms?
Technical guidelines on earthquake resistant construction, repair and retro-fitting and flood and cyclone resistant constructions have already been published by Bureau of India Standards. In light of these guidelines let Architects and Engineer prepare model house and building designs, which are not only cost-effective but are also earth-quake and cyclone resistant so that all future constructions are done on that pattern. Further let the town planner evolve model layout plans keeping in view the planning norms and standards for development in the disaster prone areas so that the adverse impacts of disasters are minimized. Technical guidelines regarding earthquake and cyclone resistant buildings should be made integral part of vulnerability Atlas already prepared. They should also form part of building bye- laws applicable to the settlements falling in the areas prone to these hazards. Town planning norms should also be defined and made part of the literature so that spacing. siting and location of buildings could be done in more scientific manner. Govt. of India should launch a scheme under which Model Houses should be constructed in each village prone to earthquake and cyclones, so that people could understand the context of safety and follow them.
?Sharing Experience & Studies
?Large number of case studies have already been conducted, locally and globally, in the domain of pre-disaster and post-disaster mitigation and??post-disaster relief besides ?studying various facets and impacts of these disasters. These studies have brought out number of conclusions leading to emergence of valuable suggestions to mitigate and manage the adverse impact of natural disasters. These studies must be compiled and recommendations, ?made available to various agencies involved in disaster management. Suitable mechanism for sharing the valuable experiences at the global level should be evolved so that ?knowledge acquired ?and experience gained can be ??appropriately shared?and used by various national, state and local level governmental, non-government agencies, NGO, educational, research & technical institutions and public at large The studies will have to be backed by ?research and development ?conducted on regular basis so as to upgrade the knowledge on the subject, considering their relevance for the area where they are to be used.
Involving Professionals
Natural disasters mitigation and management is not related to merely built environment or has only physical implications rather it has much wider ramifications. It revolves around and focuses on human beings and has social and economic implication. Accordingly approach to the problem and solutions to mitigate the hardships cannot merely be technical one devoid of social issues. Accordingly, approach has to be holistic involving not only scientists, architects, planners, engineers, administrators, local leaders, NGO's, voluntary organizations and people at large. Each one's role is complementary to another and accordingly suitable mechanism has to be created at various levels to ensure their effective coordination to achieve the end result.
C?NCLUSION
Targets to be achieved
Considering the wider and massive physical, social, economic, infrastructural, developmental and environmental implications of natural hazards and enormous losses caused to men and materials at local, national and international level, United Nation General Assembly decided to name the current decade (1990-2000) as the international decade for Natural Disaster Reduction so as to focus the global efforts on evolving strategies and solutions and making efforts to achieve the target of disaster mitigation for minimising damages caused on this account. Scientific and Technical Committee appointed by the UNO has already fixed following targets to be reached during the decade:
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By the year 2000, all countries, some through regional arrangements, should have in place, as part of their plan to achieve sustainable development:
(1) National assessment of risk due to various types of disasters.
(2) National and/ or other local prevention and preparedness plans.
(3) Access to global, regional, national and local warning systems.
?Multidisciplinary Approach
Thus, the approach enunciated is first to assess, identify delineate and demarcate the quantum of risk and the extent of area prone to natural hazards by collecting relevant data and by conducting detailed studies and analysis. Based on the findings and preparedness, contingency plans needs to be prepared at the local, district, state and national level. The end result has to be achieved based on a coordinated effort and adopting a multi-disciplinary approach. The solutions will have to be an appropriate mix of technical and social inputs so that humane aspect is not ignored.
Disaster Mitigation as Priority Area
India has much larger stakes in the issue since natural disasters are playing havoc in few areas repeatedly, year after year. Economy gets shattered whenever such a disaster takes place and it takes years to put it back on rails. Development efforts are brought to naught and infrastructures developed in the area are destroyed in the face of the natural hazards. Accordingly, disaster mitigation and management will have to be declared as a priority area and appropriate institutional framework for management of the natural disasters have to be created at national, state and local level. The institutional network has to be provided with adequate resources and manpower so as to ensure that ?effective and efficient disaster preparedness plans are put in place at various levels. Disaster management requires committed effort on the part of governmental, non-governmental, educational and voluntary agencies, which is totally lacking. Sooner it is placed in position better it would be for the health and economy of the nation and people.
Bibliography
·??????Arya; Keynote address; Seminar on Built Environment & Natural Hazards; Indian Building Congress
·??????Gupta JK; ?; Built Environment ?in the face of Natural Hazards; Indian Building Congress; Published paper
·??????Dutta B C; Planning and Management for Reduction of Natural Hazards in Urban Areas; Indian Building Congress; Published paper
领英推荐
·??????Jain AK; ?Fighting against Natural Disaster - A Management Approach Disasters and prevention; Indian Building Congress; Published paper
·??????Cunny, Freteric C; Disaster and prevention; Oxford University Press;
·??????Indian Building Congress; Seminar papers- Built Environment and Naturals Hazards
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Author:
* Ar. Jit Kumar Gupta???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
?Founder Director; College of Architecture, I.E.T, Bhaddal???
????????#344, Sector 40-A; Chandigarh- 160036??Email; [email protected]
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