2/28/2024

Lecture 5: Disaster Risk

Reduction
PLAN 471: Natural Hazards and Disaster Management

Prepared by:
Meher Afjun Faria
Lecturer, DURP,BUET.

Acknowledgement:
Dr. Ishrat Islam
Professor, DURP, BUET.

 Environmental management
 Land use planning
 Protection of critical facilities
 Networking and partnerships
 Financial and economic tools
 Early warning systems

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3 Environmental Management

 Environmental actions that reduce vulnerability need to be

identified and applied by disaster reduction practitioners.
 Environmental management tools for Disaster Risk Reduction –
▪ Environmental legislation, policies and planning
▪ Institutional arrangements
▪ Environmental impact assessments
▪ Reporting on the state of the environment
▪ Ecological/environmental economics

4 Environmental Management

▪ Environmental legislation, policies and planning–

• Legislative responses to environmental problems testify of
countries’ appreciation of the adverse impacts of
environmental degradation on socio-economic systems.
• Establishment of environmental code, norms, standards etc.
• It also provides a vehicle for disaster reduction strategies.

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5 Environmental Management

▪ Disaster Management
ACT 2012
▪ National Plan for
Disaster Management
2021-2025
▪ Standing Orders on
Disaster (SOD) 2019

6 Environmental Management
▪ Institutional arrangements –
• Environmental legislation and policies require coordinated
organizational structures to support their implementation.

▪ Environmental impact assessments –

• Legislative and regulatory frameworks for Environmental Impact
Assessments (EIA) already exist and require strong institutional support,
the commitment of governments, aid agencies and civil society, as well
as a monitoring processes.
• A more comprehensive EIA could evolve towards a periodic
vulnerability assessment to take into account the dynamic nature of
vulnerability.

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7 Environmental Management
▪ Reporting on the state of the environment–
• Given the importance of natural resources as
enduring ways to reduce disaster risk, it is vital
to have a regularly updated picture of their
health and ability to fulfill their buffering task.
• The objective of these reporting systems is to
assess the present and future situation of
natural resources and the environment,
including emerging issues on environmental
management and legislation and
development issues.

8 Environmental Management

▪ Ecological/environmental economics –
• Environmental economics, also referred to as ecological economics,
provides a visible way to link environmental management and
disaster risk reduction in sustainable development.
• It utilizes the tools and mechanisms of economics to measure in
currency terms, the value and costs regarding various aspects of
the environment such as well-functioning ecosystems, pristine
environments, biodiversity and the costs associated with resource
and ecosystem depletion.

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9 Land Use Planning

 While the application of informed and consistent planning

practices are crucial to minimize the potential loss of physical
assets or environmental capital, a greater principle lies in
treating the landscape itself as a valued resource to manage
risk.
 Some hazard specific examples –
▪ Earthquakes
• Seismic microzonation map
▪ Floods

10 Land Use Planning

Source: World Bank

and EMI

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Land Use Planning:
Risk Sensitive Land Use Planning (RSLUP)

 Risk Sensitive Land Use Planning (RSLUP)

▪ Integrates risk reduction
▪ One of the most important principles of RSLUP is to avoid
development in the hazard prone areas that are exposed to the
risk of natural hazards.
▪ Allows communities to find the right mix of both development
and risk reduction
▪ Sometimes permits some risks for economic gain and vice versa

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Land Use Planning:
Risk Sensitive Land Use Planning (RSLUP)

Source: Urban Development

Directorate (UDD)

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Land Use Planning:
Risk Sensitive Land Use Planning (RSLUP)

Source: Urban
Development
Directorate (UDD)

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Land Use Planning:
Risk Sensitive Land Use Planning (RSLUP)

Source: Urban Development

Directorate (UDD)

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Land Use Planning:
Risk Sensitive Land Use Planning (RSLUP)

Source: Urban Development

Directorate (UDD)

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Land Use Planning:
Risk Sensitive Land Use Planning (RSLUP)

Source: Urban Development

Directorate (UDD)

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Land Use Planning:
Risk Sensitive Land Use Planning (RSLUP)

Source: Urban Development

Directorate (UDD)

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Land Use Planning:
Risk Sensitive Land Use Planning (RSLUP)

Source: Urban Development

Directorate (UDD)

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Land Use Planning:
Risk Sensitive Land Use Planning (RSLUP)

Source: Urban Development

Directorate (UDD)

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Land Use Planning:
Risk Sensitive Land Use Planning (RSLUP)

Source: Urban Development

Directorate (UDD)

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21
Land Use Planning:
Risk Sensitive Land Use Planning (RSLUP)

Source: Urban Development

Directorate (UDD)

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Land Use Planning:
Risk Sensitive Land Use Planning (RSLUP)

Source: Urban Development

Directorate (UDD)

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23 Protection of Critical Facilities

 The concept of critical facilities and infrastructure is continuously

evolving, with no common definition.
 However, the list of critical facilities may vary from country to country
and between communities according to availability and needs.
▪ encompass a vast array of engineered systems, assets and facilities which
are essential for day-to-day functions, as well as continued economic
and societal function in the aftermath of a disaster event
▪ usually includes transport systems, water supply, food supply, public
health, telecommunications, emergency services, government facilities,
evacuation, energy, hospital and health clinics, banking and finance
▪ The absence and disruption of critical facilities can even lead to
secondary disasters.

24 Protection of Critical Facilities

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25 Protection of Critical Facilities

 Ways to achieve a safer built environment -

▪ If at all possible, critical facilities should be located outside all high-risk hazard
areas.
▪ the creation of both safe engineered as well as safe non-engineered buildings
▪ There is a need to recognize the three distinctive contexts for the introduction
of physical risk reduction measures into buildings or infrastructure, (each
possessing different levels of opportunities for application)
• Reconstructing through the repair of buildings
• Constructing new buildings, in normal circumstances
• Retrofitting existing building stock through strengthening programs
▪ need to be focused on lifeline buildings and infrastructure, rather than on
unrealistic projections addressed to all structures within all settlements

26 Networking and Partnerships

 Comprehensive disaster risk reduction covers a wide range of

disciplines, sectors and institutions, calling for diverse and
expanded forms of partnerships.
 The achievements from networking and resulting partnerships
can be far more powerful than the total of individual or
specialist contributions, alone.

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27 Networking and Partnerships

 The spectrum of collaboration, processes and activities goes from
various ways of sharing information to joint research and
integrated databases through to participatory strategic planning
and programming.
▪ communication networks/forums for dialogue
▪ institutional partnerships, memorandums of agreements between
agencies and organizations
▪ formalized joint mandates, legislation, policies and plans within
public authorities
▪ multi-disciplinary research projects
▪ integrated databases

28 Financial and Economic Tools

 In view of the exorbitant economic and social costs of recurring

disasters, development assistance and financial tools and
instruments for risk-sharing and risk-transfer are important for
the application of measures for disaster risk reduction.
▪ Economic mechanisms
• Livelihood diversification
• Protecting assets
▪ Financial mechanisms
• Insurance
• Micro-credit and other forms of micro-finance

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29 Financial and Economic Tools

▪ Economic mechanisms
• Livelihood diversification
• is central to poor people’s strategies for reducing their vulnerability to external
shocks
• increasing their sources of income, building up a strong and diversified asset
base, managing their money well and maintaining access to multiple sources
of credit
• Protecting assets
• Assets do not protect themselves against hazards: they have to be protected.
• Any project seeking to build up vulnerable people’s livelihoods must take the
hazard context into account.

30 Financial and Economic Tools

▪ Financial mechanisms
• Insurance
• Insurance is a standard and effective method of sharing risk, especially in
developed countries.
• Individuals and organizations buy it so that they can be compensated when
hazards lead to death, injury or ill-health, and loss of property or income.
• There has been little attempt to develop wholly commercial insurance programs
targeted at poor and vulnerable people.
• Micro-credit and other forms of micro-finance
• Although there are debates on the extent to which micro-finance contributes to
poverty reduction and its influence compared to other factors, it is generally
acknowledged to play a significant role.

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31 Early Warning Systems

 The ultimate goal of hazard forecasting and early warning systems

is to protect lives and property.
 Elements of the early warning chain -
▪ Forecast and prediction of impending extreme events, on the basis of
scientific knowledge and monitoring results
▪ Warning processing and dissemination of information from the first
segment together with information on the possible impacts on people
and infrastructure (i.e. vulnerability assessment) to the political
authorities and to the threatened population
▪ Reaction to warnings based on a proper understanding of the
information by the population at risk and local authorities, and
subsequent implementation of protective measures

32 Early Warning Systems

 Requisite for achieving an effective early warning system-

▪ recognition of the value of early warning in protecting the
interests of societies and communities
▪ public participation in the design, implementation and
assessment of warning formulation and dissemination
▪ support provided by international and regional institutions and
networks, for the emergence, maintenance and improvement

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Thank You, and

The End

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