UNIT -1 BTECH – 7 SEM DISASTER MANAGEMENT

UNIT-1 (Introduction of Disaster management)

OBJECTIVE AND OUTCOME
LECTURE NO: -1

INTRODUCTION OF DISASTER MANAGEMENT

Disaster is an undesirable catastrophe resulting from the forces that are largely beyond human
control, strikes quickly with little or no warning, and causes or threatens serious disruption of
life and property. For example, earthquake, tsunami, cyclone, flood, etc.

• Disasters are normally caused by nature (beyond human control); however, there are
many human-induced disasters. For example, Bhopal Gas tragedy, Chernobyl nuclear
disaster, wars, release of CFCs (Chlorofluorocarbons), releasing greenhouse gases, etc.
• Besides, some disasters are natural in occurence, but those are indirectly caused by
human activities. For example, landslides in hilly regions, droughts, and floods due to
deforestation and other environmental damage.
• On the other hand, Natural Hazards are the elements of circumstances in the Natural
environment that have the potential to harm people or property or both.
• The disasters are global in nature; hence, to combat with it, the United Nations made a
systematic strategy at the World Conference on Disaster Management held in May
1994 at Yokohama, Japan.
UNIT -1 BTECH – 7 SEM DISASTER MANAGEMENT

• The Yokohama conference however, is popular as the “Yokohama Strategy and Plan of
Action for a Safer World.”

Categories of Natural Disaster

• Natural Disasters are broadly categorized as
o Atmospheric Disasters
o Terrestrial Disasters
o Aquatic Disasters
o Biological Disasters
• Atmospheric disasters include blizzard, thunderstorm, lightning, tropical cyclone,
tornado, drought, hailstorm, frost, heat wave, cold waves, etc.
• Terrestrial disasters include earthquake, volcanic eruption, landslide, avalanches,
subsidence, etc.
• Aquatic disasters include flood, tidal waves, storm surge, tsunami, etc.
• Biological disasters include fungal, bacterial, and viral diseases (e.g. bird flu, dengue,
etc.).
• Very High Damage Earthquake Risk Zone in India include the north-eastern regions,
areas to the north of Darbhanga and Araria along the Indo-Nepal border in Bihar,
Uttarakhand, Western Himachal Pradesh (around Dharamshala) and Kashmir Valley in
the Himalayan region, and the Kachchh (Gujarat).
• High Damage Earthquake Risk Zone in India are parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal
Pradesh, Northern parts of Punjab, Eastern parts of Haryana, Delhi, Western Uttar
Pradesh, and Northern Bihar.
• Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions normally cause the sea-floor to move abruptly
resulting in sudden displacement of ocean water in the form of high vertical waves,
which are known as tsunamis (shown in the image given below).
• Tsunamis can be observed frequently along the Pacific ring of fire, particularly along the
coast of Alaska, Japan, Philippines, and other islands of Southeast Asia, Indonesia,
Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and India etc.
• Tropical cyclones are intense low-pressure areas, confined between $30^{\circ}N$ and
$30^{\circ}S$ latitudes.
• The center of the cyclone is mostly a warm and low-pressure, cloudless core known
as ‘eye of the storm’ (as shown in the image below) −
• The ideal location of the tropical cyclone in India is Bay of Bengal.
• Cyclones in the Bay of Bengal normally develop in the months of October and November.
UNIT -1 BTECH – 7 SEM DISASTER MANAGEMENT

Disaster Management
• The Disaster Management Bill, 2005, defines disaster as “a catastrophe, mishap,
calamity or grave occurrence affecting any area, arising from natural or man-made
causes, or by accident or negligence which results in substantial loss of life or human
suffering or damage to, and destruction of, environment, and is of such nature or
magnitude as to be beyond the coping capacity of the community of the affected area.”
• A situation when there is a prolonged period of inadequate rainfall is known
as Meteorological Drought.
• When soil moisture that is necessary to support the crops, is low or insufficient to
support crop cultivation, it is known as Agricultural Drought.
• When the productivity of a natural ecosystem fails because of the shortage of water and
as a consequence of ecological distress, damages occur in the ecosystem, it is known
as Ecological Drought.
UNIT -1 BTECH – 7 SEM DISASTER MANAGEMENT
UNIT -1 BTECH – 7 SEM DISASTER MANAGEMENT

LECTURE NO -2
(NATURAL AND MANMADE DISASTER )

A natural disaster is a major adverse event resulting from natural processes of the Earth;
examples include floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, and other geologic
processes. A natural disaster can cause loss of life or property damage, and typically leaves some
economic damage in its wake, the severity of which depends on the affected population's
resilience, or ability to recover.
An adverse event will not rise to the level of a disaster if it occurs in an area without vulnerable
population. In a vulnerable area, however, such as San Francisco, an earthquake can have
disastrous consequences and leave lasting damage, requiring years to repair.
In 2012, there were 905 natural catastrophes worldwide, 93% of which were weather-related
disasters.
Overall costs were US$170 billion and insured losses $70 billion. 2012 was a moderate year.
45% were meteorological (storms), 36% were hydrological (floods), 12% were climatologically
(heat waves, cold waves, droughts, wildfires) and 7% were geophysical events (earthquakes
and volcanic eruptions). Between 1980 and 2011 geophysical events accounted for 14% of all
natural
During World War I, an estimated 40,000 to 80,000 soldiers died as a result of avalanches
during the mountain campaign in the Alps at the Austrian-Italian front, many of which were
caused by artillery fire.

Earthquakes
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates
seismic waves. At the Earth's surface, earthquakes manifest themselves by vibration, shaking
and sometimes displacement of the ground. The vibrations may vary in magnitude.
Earthquakes are caused mostly by slippage within geological faults, but also by other events
such as volcanic activity, landslides, mine blasts, and nuclear tests. The underground point of
origin of the earthquake is called the focus. The point directly above the focus on the surface
is called the epicenter. Earthquakes by themselves rarely kill people or wildlife. It is usually the
secondary events that they trigger, such as building collapse, fires, tsunamis.

VOLCANO

A volcano is an opening in the earth’s crust through which lava, volcanic ash, and gases escape.
Volcanic eruptions are partly driven by pressure from dissolved gas, much as escaping gases
force the cork out of a bottle of champagne. Beneath a volcano, liquid magma containing
dissolved gases rises through cracks in the Earth’s crust. As the magma rises, pressure decreases,
allowing the gases to form bubbles. How the magma (lava) behaves when it reaches the surface
depends on both its gas content and chemical composition.
UNIT -1 BTECH – 7 SEM DISASTER MANAGEMENT

Lavas with low silica contents have low viscosities and flow freely, allowing any gas bubbles to
escape readily, while lavas with high silica contents are more viscous (resistant to flow), so that
any trapped gases cannot escape gradually.

1. A low viscosity (runny) lava, like basalt that contains lots of gas, forms fire-fountains,
spewing spectacularly into the air and breaking into globs that solidify as they fall to the
ground. Small fire-fountain eruptions produce cinder cones (like Eve Cone in northern
British Columbia).
2. When runny lava contains less gas, however, it erupts in outpouring lava flows. Repeated
fire-fountain and lava flow eruptions over long time periods form gently sloping shield
volcanoes like Anahim Peak in central British Columbia, and the volcanoes of the Hawaiian
Islands.
3. Andesite, dacite, and rhyolite lavas are progressively higher in silica and more viscous, so
gases cannot escape gradually. If high-silica lavas contain little trapped gas, they may ooze
slowly onto the surface to pile up as steep-sided lava domes.
4. When high-silica lavas contain lots of trapped gas, the pressure builds up and is released in
explosive eruptions that produce volcanic ash. Some volcanoes experience both explosive
and non-explosive activity, alternating explosive eruptions with periods of dome-building,
forming stratovolcanoes like Mount St. Helens and Mount Garibaldi.
UNIT -1 BTECH – 7 SEM DISASTER MANAGEMENT

LECTURE NO -3

ENVIRONMENT HAZADS

Environmental hazard' is the state of events which has the potential to threaten the
surrounding natural environment and adversely affect people's health. This term incorporates
topics like pollution and natural disasters such as storms and earthquakes. Hazards can be
categorized in five types:

1. Chemical
2. Physical
3. Mechanical
4. Biological
5. Psychosocial

What are chemical hazards and toxic substances?

Chemical hazards and toxic substances pose a wide range of health hazards (such as irritation,
sensitization, and carcinogenicity) and physical hazards (such as flammability, corrosion, and
reactivity).

This page provides basic information about chemical hazards and toxic substances in the
workplace. While not all hazards associated with every chemical and toxic substance are
addressed here, we do provide relevant links to other pages with additional information about
hazards and methods to control exposure in the workplace.

A natural disaster can cause loss of life or property damage, and typically leaves some
economic damage in its wake, the severity of which depends on the affected population's
resilience, or ability to recover.
An adverse event will not rise to the level of a disaster if it occurs in an area without vulnerable
population.In a vulnerable area, however, such as San Francisco, an earthquake can have
disastrous consequences and leave lasting damage, requiring years to repair.
In 2012, there were 905 natural catastrophes worldwide, 93% of which were weather-related
disasters. Overall costs were US$170 billion and insured losses $70 billion. 2012 was a
moderate year. 45% were meteorological (storms), 36% were hydrological (floods), 12% were
climatologically (heat waves, cold waves, droughts, wildfires) and 7% were geophysical events
(earthquakes and volcanic eruptions). Between 1980 and 2011 geophysical events accounted
for 14% of all naturalDuring World War I, an estimated 40,000 to 80,000 soldiers died as a
result of avalanches during the mountain campaign in the Alps at the Austrian-Italian front,
many of which were caused by artillery fire.
UNIT -1 BTECH – 7 SEM DISASTER MANAGEMENT

Hydrological disasters
It is a violent, sudden and destructive change either in quality of earth's water or in distribution or
movement of water on land below the surface or in atmosphere.

A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land.The EU Floods directive defines a flood
as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water.In the sense of "flowing water",
the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Flooding may result from the volume of
water within a body of water, such as a river or lake, which overflows or breaks levees, with the result
that some of the water escapes its usual boundaries.[11] While the size of a lake or other body of water
will vary with seasonal changes in precipitation and snow melt, it is not a significant flood unless the water
covers

A limnic eruption occurs when a gas, usually CO2, suddenly erupts from deep lake water,
posing the threat of suffocating wildlife, livestock and humans. Such an eruption may also cause
tsunamis in the lake as the rising gas displaces water. Scientists believe landslides,volcanic
activity, or explosions can trigger such an eruption. To date, only two limnic eruptions have been
observed and recorded:

Tsunami
Tsunamis can be caused by undersea earthquakes as the one caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean
Earthquake, or by landslides such as the one which occurred at Lituya Bay, Alaska.

• The 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake created the Boxing Day Tsunami.
• On March 11, 2011, a tsunami occurred near Fukushima, Japan and spread through the
Pacific.
UNIT -1 BTECH – 7 SEM DISASTER MANAGEMENT

Cyclone, tropical cyclone, hurricane, and typhoon are different names for the same
phenomenon a cyclonic storm system that forms over the oceans. The deadliest hurricane ever
was the 1970 Bhola cyclone; the deadliest Atlantic hurricane was theGreat Hurricane of 1780
which devastated Martinique, St. Eustatius and Barbados. Another notable hurricane is
Hurricane Katrina which devastated the Gulf Coast of the United States in 2005.
Extra tropical Cyclones

Extratropical cyclones, sometimes called mid-latitude cyclones, are a group of cyclones defined
as synoptic scale low pressure weather systems that occur in the middle latitudes of the Earth
(outside the tropics) not having tropical characteristics, and are connected with fronts and
horizontal gradients in temperature and dew point otherwise known as "baroclinic zones". As
with tropical cyclones, they are known by different names in different regions (Nor'easter,
Pacific Northwest windstorms, European windstorm, East Asian-northwest Pacific storms,
Sudestada andAustralian east coast cyclones). The most intense extratropical cyclones cause
widespread disruption and damage to society, such as the storm surge of the North Sea
flood of 1953 which killed 2251 people in the Netherlands and eastern England, the Great
Storm of 1987 which devastated southern England and France and the Columbus Day
Storm of 1962which struck the Pacific Northwest
UNIT -1 BTECH – 7 SEM DISASTER MANAGEMENT

LECTURE NO -4

Droughts
Drought is unusual dryness of soil, resulting in crop failure and shortage of water for other
uses, caused by significantly lower rainfall than average over a prolonged period. Hot dry
winds, high temperatures and consequent evaporation of moisture from the ground can
contribute to conditions of drought.
Well-known historical droughts include:

• 1900 India killing between 250,000 to 3.25 million.

• 1921–22 Soviet Union in which over 5 million perished from starvation due to drought
• 1928–30 Northwest China resulting in over 3 million deaths by famine.
• 1936 and 1941 Sichuan Province China resulting in 5 million and 2.5 million deaths
respectively.
• The 1997–2009 Millenium Drought in Australian led to a water supply crisis across much
of the country. As a result many desalination plants were built for the first time (see list).
• In 2006, Sichuan Province China experienced its worst drought in modern times with
nearly 8 million people and over 7 million cattle facing water shortages.
• 12-year drought that was devastating southwest Western Australia, southeast South
Australia, Victoria and northern Tasmania was "very severe and without historical
precedent

• In 2011, the State of Texas lived under a drought emergency declaration for the entire
calendar year. The drought caused the Bastrop fires.

Hailstorms

Hailstorms are falls of rain drops that arrive as ice, rather than melting before they hit the
ground. A particularly damaging hailstorm hit Munich, Germany, on July 12, 1984, causing
about 2 billion dollars in insurance claims.
UNIT -1 BTECH – 7 SEM DISASTER MANAGEMENT

An exceptionally clearly developed single-cell Cumulonimbus incus Big displaying the classic
anvil shape; associated gusts may occur from the direct proximity to several times the height of
the cloud.

Tornadoes

A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the
surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of cumulus. It is
also referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in
a wider sense, to refer to any closed pressure circulation. Tornadoes come in many shapes
and sizes, but are typically in the form of a visible condensation funnel, whose narrow end
touches the earth and is often encircled by a cloud of debris and dust. Most tornadoes have
wind speeds less than 110 miles per hour (177 km/h), are approximately 250 feet (80 m)
across, and travel a few miles (several kilometers) before dissipating. The most extreme
tornadoes can attain wind speeds of more than 300 mph (480 km/h), stretch more than two
miles (3 km) across, and stay on the ground for dozens of miles (perhaps more than 100 km).
Well-known historical tornadoes include:

• The Tri-State Tornado of 1925, which killed over 600 people in the United States;
• The Daulatpur-Saturia Tornado of 1989, which killed roughly 1,300 people in
Banglades
Unit-1 B-TECH -7 Sem Disaster Management

HEALTH DISASTER
An epidemic is an outbreak of a contractible disease that spreads through a human
population. A pandemic is an epidemic whose spread is global. There have been many
epidemics throughout history, such as the Black Death. In the last hundred years, significant
pandemics include:

• The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, killing an estimated 50 million people worldwide
• The 1957–58 Asian flu pandemic, which killed an estimated 1 million people
• The 1968–69 Hong Kong water flu pandemic
• The 2002-3 SARS pandemic
• The AIDS pandemic, beginning in 1959
• The H1N1 Influenza (Swine Flu) Pandemic 2009–2010
Other diseases that spread more slowly, but are still considered to be global health
emergencies by the WHO, include:

Impact events
One of the largest impact events in modern times was the Tunguska event in June 1908.

Solar flare
A solar flare is a phenomenon where the sun suddenly releases a great amount of solar
radiation, much more than normal. Some known solar flares include:

• An X20 event on August 16, 1989

• A similar flare on April 2, 2001
• The most powerful flare ever recorded, on November 4, 2003, estimated at between X40
and X45
• The most powerful flare in the past 500 years is believed to have occurred in September
1859

Gamma-ray burst
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are flashes of gamma rays associated with extremely energetic
explosions that have been observed in distant galaxies. They are the
brightest electromagnetic events known to occur in the universe.Bursts can last from

ten milliseconds to several minutes. The initial burst is usually followed by a longer-lived
"afterglow" emitted at longer wavelengths
(X-ray, ultraviolet, optical, infrared, microwave and radio).
All the bursts astronomers have recorded so far have come from distant galaxies and have
been harmless to Earth, but if one occurred within our galaxy and were aimed straight at us,
the effects could be devastating. Currently orbiting satellites detect an average of about one
gamma-ray burst per day. The closest known GRB so far was GRB 031203.

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LECTURE NO -5
DISASTER PHENOMENA AND EVENTS

One of the first things to understand when working with natural disasters is the difference
between natural phenomena, natural hazards, and natural disasters. Surprisingly, the definition
of and distinction between these concepts is poorly documented. Here we’ll try to clear some
things up, or at least give a sense of how muddy the water is.

Natural phenomena are physical events which are generally separated into categories such as
atmospheric, geologic, and hydrologic phenomena, as well as other categories and sub-
categories. Well-known examples of natural phenomena include hurricanes, earthquakes,
floods. Less common examples include debris flows, waterspouts, and insect plagues. Natural
phenomena are simply events; there is no implication about an event’s relation to humans. The
concept includes events with potentially minimal immediate risk to humans such as fog or a solar
eclipse. Defining individual phenomena can be tricky, because a single phenomena may trigger
several different natural phenomena. For example, a storm may trigger flash flooding, strong
winds, fires, hail, or other events.

Natural hazard is often treated as a synonym for natural phenomenon. However, the phrase
“natural hazard” usually includes an implication that the natural phenomenon under discussion
has the potential to cause damage to humans, human structures, or human activities. In this
sense, one could view natural hazards as a poorly-defined subset of “potentially dangerous”
natural phenomena. Some texts (ex. “Natural Disasters” by Patrick L. Abbott) refer to natural
hazards as measuring the probability of the occurrence of a dangerous event, rather than
referring to a subset of phenomena. This usage of the term is uncommon.

Natural disaster refers to an event which had a “major” impact on humans, and in that sense is
a subset of natural hazards, and in turn a subset of natural phenomena. It is widely agreed that
a natural hazard of a given magnitude is not necessarily a natural disaster. The line separating
natural disasters from natural hazards is purely a function of damages to people or human
infrastructure. However, there is no commonly agreed upon definition precisely separating
natural hazards from natural disasters.

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So each term is a subset of the term before, but the boundaries are unclear. A small dust devil
in an unpopulated desert is a natural phenomenon, but is unlikely to be regarded as a natural
hazard. A earthquake which causes no damage beyond knocking over a few bookshelf items is a
natural phenomenon and possibly a natural hazard, but certainly not a natural disaster. A flash
flood, landslide, or avalanche which occurs in an unpopulated region, causing no damage to
humans or structures, is a relatively clear example of a natural hazard but not a natural
disaster. A drought in which tens of thousands of individuals leave their homes and hundreds
die of starvation is widely agreed to be a natural disaster, in addition to being a natural
phenomenon and natural hazard.

Why should I care?

These definitions are more than some subtle academic issue. The issue of how to define these
terms appears indirectly every time we talk about collecting data on natural disasters. What
events should we collect data on? “All of them” is not even a clear answer, because (1) there is
a cost to data collection, and (2) all of what? How do we attribute deaths or injuries to particular
events? Was a person killed by driver error in a car crash or by the snow-storm in which they
were driving? Should the damages from a burned-down building count towards the fire or the
storm which produced the lightning that started the fire? Researchers using disaster data need
to understand how these decisions were made. For producers of disaster data, addressing these
issues in a consistent manner is essential to ensure the usefulness of the data.

Those are just direct effects. Attributing indirect effects (lost future income, long-run changes in
health, etc.) to particular events gets really messy, so most databases don’t include those
measures. Of course, these indirect effects may be quite important. A working paper by Jesse
Anttila-Hughes and Solomon Hsiang finds typhoons in the Philippines reduce household income
and expenditures, particularly on meat, education, and health. These reduced investments in
turn cause a large increase in female infant mortality, which the authors coin as “economic
deaths”. The authors estimate unearned income and economic deaths are 15 times larger than
direct monetary damages and deaths caused by the typhoons.
One organization which has to directly confront these issues is the Centre for Research on the
Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED). CRED maintains the Emergency Events Database (EM-
DAT) with support from the World Health Organization and the Belgian government. EM-DAT is
one of the largest databases for international disaster data. Other note-worthy databases
include Münich Reinsurance Company’s “NatCat” and Swiss Reinsurance Company’s
“Sigma”. You should be totally unsurprised that two of three leading databases on natural
disasters are owned and operated by private reinsurance companies (reinsurance companies
insure insurance companies, and hence care a lot about catastrophic losses).
So which events should these databases track? How do we quantitatively define a natural
disaster? Tschoegl et al. (2006) note that “there is a lack of international consensus regarding
best practice for collecting data on natural disasters.” They also note that collecting disaster data
involves timing and funding limitations, while complexity results in “huge variability in
definitions, methodologies, sources, and data points collected.” As an example, it is unclear
whether disasters should be recorded by country (ex. Honduras is struck by Hurricane Mitch in
year 1988) or by disaster (ex. Hurricane Mitch strikes Honduras, Nicaragua, etc.). Because much
data is being provided by national governments, the tendency is towards the former system.

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For one example, here’s how EM-DAT does things. They present a classification system which
places events in one of five categories: Geophysical, Meteorological, Hydrological,
Climatological, and Biological. These categories in turn are broken into disaster types, sub-types,
and even sub-sub-types. For inclusion in EM-DAT, at least one of the following criteria must be
fulfilled:
Ten(10) or more people reported killed.
One hundred (100) or more people reported affected.
Declaration of a state of emergency.
Call for international assistance.

Deaths and injuries measure only those directly attributed to the event. EM-DAT used to identify
records at the country level, but in 2003 switched to assigning identification codes by event.

In addition to how the numbers are reported, there are significant concerns about what numbers
are reported, even given clear definitions. Noy (2009) points out that developing countries have
less transparent statistical collection and an incentive to inflate their figures as a pitch for
increased international aid. Further, there are selection biases across countries and
time. Developed countries have better ability to measure and report disasters, and may be more
likely to report large numbers of small cases which developing countries would not report. As a
quick example of time bias, let’s look at NOAA’s Severe Weather Database Files which track
tornadoes across time. The below graph shows the number of tornadoes recorded across
decades, broken down by their Enhanced Fujita Scale ranking (we’ll talk more about the Fujita
Scale in a future post).

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Older data includes fewer tornado observations and a higher percentage of reported tornadoes
rank highly on the Fujita Scale. This does not necessarily reflect changes in the distribution or
number of tornadoes over time. The differences across decades are likely driven largely by
improvements in observation, measurement, and reporting methods. Smaller tornadoes are
simply more likely to be reported today than 40 years ago.

The moral of this story is to use caution when working with disaster data. Note that this is only
a subset of issues researchers should approach with caution when using weather data in
general. For a great overview of common errors in using weather data or climate models

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LECTURE NO -6
HAZARDS AND VULNERBILITIES

Hazard, vulnerability and risk analysis

This case study is intended to illustrate the meaning of hazard, vulnerability and risk, using a very
simple data set on the national-scale of Colombia (South America). The occurrence of a disaster
depends on two factors:
hazard: the probability of occurrence of a potentially damaging phenomenon,
vulnerability: the degree of loss resulting from the occurrence of the phenomenon.

You will first generate a qualitative hazard map by combining several factor maps. Then a
vulnerability map is made. Finally, the hazard and the vulnerability map are combined into a risk
map.

CREATION OF HAZAD MAPS

First, attribute tables are created for the following input maps: seismic hazards, landslide
hazards, volcanic hazards, tsunami hazard, beach erosion/accumulation hazard. To all classes in
these maps, different weight values are assigned in their attribute table.

Then, attribute maps of the weight values are derived from all these maps; these are the first
factor maps. Further, with mapcalc, factor maps are obtained from maps on inundation hazard,
rivers, and for altitudes above 1000m.

Finally, all factor maps are summed with a mapcalc statement and a hazard map is obtained.
The hazard map is then classified

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CREATION OF VULNERBILITY MAPS

First, the population density of each department (province) in Colombia is calculated in a table:
for each department the population figure has to be entered while the area of the departments
is joined from the histogram of the departmental map. Population density is then calculated
through a simple tabcalc formula.

Next, attribute tables are created for input maps depicting industrial regions, concentration of
economic activities and main infrastructure. To all classes in these maps, weight values are
entered in their attribute table. Subsequently attribute maps of the weight values are derived.
These are the first factor maps.

In the Colombia table with the population densities, weight values are assigned through a tabcalc
formula; then an attribute map is derived. This is another factor map. All factor maps are
summed with a mapcalc formula and the vulnerability map is obtained. This vulnerability map is
then classified.

CREATION OF RISK MAP

A two-dimensional table is created in which for each combination of hazard classes and
vulnerability classes an output risk class is assigned.

The two-dimensional table is applied on the classified hazard map and the classified vulnerability
map, and the risk map is obtained.

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LECTURE NO -7

FREQUENCING AND FOREWARNING LEVEL OF HAZARDS

Early Warning Systems (EWS) for different types of hazards

Improving EWS will enhance the capacity of all appropriate national agencies to deliver early
warnings in a timely and effective manner. These projects are designed to help with risk
reduction, improved safety, and increased awareness in disaster-prone and climate change-
affected regions. The provision and enhancement of observation and monitoring technologies,
as well as the capacity building and technical training in how to maintain weather stations and
use recorded data, will support communities in becoming more resilient.

These projects seek to create institutions and infrastructure that address such disasters as Glacial
Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs), wildfires, floods, and other climate-related hazard risks. Providing
communities with the knowledge they need to respond to such risks will reduce material losses
and threats to human livelihoods, and ultimately it will make the most vulnerable communities
more resilient to climate shocks. Lessons learned from these initiatives will enable the scaling-
up of early warning systems in regional and sub-regional disaster-prone areas.

Climate variability, especially during El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) episodes, results in

droughts that cause significant losses, particularly affecting the agricultural sector on which
Nicaraguans' food security depends. This project is designed to reduce drought and flooding
risks generated by climate change and variability in the Estero Real River watershed. To reach
this objective, this project relies upon a coordinated set of interventions designed to implement
new public policies for addressing climate change by introducing agro-ecological practices and
participatory watershed management in highly vulnerable rural communities. Through targeted
investments in water retention, long-term farm planning, and institutional capacity building in
local communities, municipalities and government agencies, the project will validate an
adaptation scheme as a vehicle for implementation of the national climate change strategy.

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LECTURE NO -8

RADIOLOGICAL AND NUCLEAR DISASTER

• The growth in the application of nuclear science and technology in the fields of power
generation, medicine, industry, agriculture, research and defence has led to an increase
in the risk of occurrence of Nuclear and Radiological emergencies.
• India has traditionally been vulnerable to natural disasters on account of its unique geo
climatic conditions and it has, of late, like all other countries in the world, become equally
vulnerable to various man-made disasters.
• Any radiation incident resulting in or having a potential to result in exposure and/or
contamination of the workers or the public in excess of the respective permissible limits
can lead to a nuclear/radiological emergency.
• Sad memories of the use of nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and
the wide publicity given to the reactor accidents at Three Mile Island (TMI) in USA and
Chernobyl in erstwhile USSR, have strongly influenced the public perception of any
nuclear emergency or disaster to be most often linked, erroneously though, to only these
events. Even though such situations may not easily be repeated, one must be prepared
to face nuclear/radiological emergencies of lower magnitudes and ensure that the impact
of such an emergency (which,for a given magnitude, is likely to be much greater today
because of higher population densities coupled with an enhanced urban infrastructure
due to economic prosperity) is always kept under control.
• For improving the quality of life in society, India has embarked upon a large programme
of using nuclear energy for generation of electricity. As on date, India has 17 power
reactors and five research reactors in operation along with six power reactors under
construction. It is also planned to explore setting up Thorium based reactors to meet its
ever increasing energy needs. Further, the country utilises adioisotopes in a variety of
applications in the non-power sector, viz., in the field of industry, agriculture, medicine,
research, etc. Due to the inherent safety culture, the best safety practices and standards
followed in these applications and effective regulation by the Atomic Energy Regulatory
Board, the radiation dose to which the persons working in nuclear/radiation facilities are
exposed to, is well within the permissible limits and the risk of its impact on the public
domain is very low.
• However, nuclear emergencies can still arise due to factors beyond the control of the
operating agencies; e.g., human error, system failure, sabotage, earthquake, cyclone,
flood, etc. Such failures, even though of very low probability, may lead to an on-site or
off-site emergency. To combat this, proper emergency preparedness plans must be in
place so that there is minimum avoidable loss of life, livelihood, property and impact on
the environment.

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Handling Off-Site Emergencies

On recognising the potential for an uncontrolled release of radioactivity into the public domain,
the concerned district authorities are alerted to be on standby for emergency response
operations. In addition to all the provisions applicable in plant emergency and site emergency,
the following additional provisions are to be ensured for handling a nuclear emergency in the
public domain:

• Pre-identification of plant conditions which can lead to an emergency in the public

domain.
• An assessment of the radiological status at the site boundary and in the public domain.

For handling of an off-site emergency condition in an NPP, there is an off-site emergency

committee headed by the district magistrate of the concerned district and supported by the
district subcommittee, which include chiefs of all public service departments relevant to
emergency management in the district and also the Head of the Site Emergency Committee of
the nuclear facility for technical advice. This committee takes decisions pertaining to the handling
of a nuclear emergency outside the site boundary and ensures implementation of
countermeasures such as sheltering, prophylaxis and evacuation and resettlement, including
maintenance of law and order and civil amenities. All the activities pertaining to the handling of
an off-site emergency are guided and coordinated from a pre-designated emergency response
centre located outside the boundary of the nuclear facility. The information and broadcasting
department of the district, in association with an authorised information officer, ensures the
smooth flow of information to the media to avoid panic and spreading of rumours.

Handling a Plant Emergency

When the radiological consequences of an abnormal situation are expected to remain confined
to the plant boundary or a section of the plant, it is described as a plant emergency. Nuclear
facilities in the country already have the following provisions for the detection, classification,
notification and mitigation of any emergency situation:

• Emergency operating procedures for the assessment of an emergency condition and its
mitigation.
• Pre-identification of any facility-specific, abnormal situation for classification of a plant
and site emergency. \
• Facility-specific, approved nuclear emergency response plans specifying the jobs of all the
functionaries who have assigned roles during the emergency.
• Alerting the plant personnel by sounding the emergency siren and making an emergency
announcement.
• Adequate means for communicating a notification to the emergency response
organisations at the facility, the district and state authorities, CMG of DAE and the central
government authorities.
• Identified assembly locations for plant personnel and casual visitors for their accounting,
and assessment of persons trapped in the radiological areas.

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• Formation of rescue teams and activation of a treatment area and decontamination

centre.
• Radiation survey around the plant and outside the plant and site boundaries.
• Assessment of wind speed, wind direction and the affected sector around the nuclear
facility.
• Whenever required, the nuclear facility is able to mobilise the services of the ambulance
and paramedical staff at its site.
• Equipment and materials for handling a nuclear emergency are kept at a designated place
of the nuclear facility and ERC.

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LECTURE NO -9

FIRE AND ACCIDENTS

Many cities in the United States are expanding and are incorporating areas that contain
environments with which city fire department personnel are inexperienced. Expanding cities
typically incorporate suburban and rural areas, and many firefighters, while experienced in
responding to urban emergencies, are unfamiliar with the alternate firefighting tactics that
suburban and rural environmental hazards require.
DIFFERINGCONSTRUCTION

Suburban and urban environments have more similarities than the rural environment,
so it is much easier for firefighters to adjust to the suburban hazards than to rural hazards.
Moving from an assignment on an engine company in the downtown urban area of a city to an
engine company in a newly incorporated suburban and rural area of the city requires major
adjustment. There are numerous differences, both in the response area and in the actions
required in an emergency response. The tactics used at structure fires need to be different in a
rural area than they would be downtown, and the threats might vary as well.

As a firefighter or officer making the adjustment from an urban environment to a suburban or

rural environment, you must understand that you will face different hazards and work to
understand these new hazards. Building construction and material can vary greatly in different
environments. In the downtown area, there are high-rise buildings, apartment complexes,
industrial complexes, housing projects, and one- and two-family dwellings. These building are
often constructed from older brick and wood.

Rural and suburban construction can include strip malls, type II construction, industrial
complexes, one- and two-family dwellings, apartment complexes, trailer parks, and barns. While
some of the building construction is similar to that found in the city, many in the area are
different, and each different building construction presents its own set of hazards and requires
its own set of firefighting tactics.

DISTINCTHAZARDS

In a rural area, access to water might be limited. In the city, there is often a hydrant located
within a block or two of every fire, and more often than not a 300- to 500-foot supply hoselay is
adequate. A rural fire could require more hose to reach hydrants that are located farther away;
there could also be areas that do not have hydrants within reach of a fire. Water supply can be
a major challenge for rural responders, as access to water might be limited to the water in the
tank. With limited access to water, first responders must consider alternate strategies for getting
water to an emergency location, including relay, drafting, and water tanker operations.

The types of crimes that require fire response can also differ depending on location. In the city,
drug crimes might require emergency medical and fire responses. In a suburban or rural area,

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the hazard of clandestine drug labs could be more prevalent. A fire in a building being used to
produce drugs typically contains flammable liquids and the potential for explosions, and the
buildings may also be booby trapped.

The last major difference between the urban and the newly incorporated suburban and rural
environments is the urban wildland interface. An urban firefighter might encounter a grass fire,
while a suburban or rural firefighter can face the threat of large wildland fires, and those fires
might encroach into residential areas. Response to a wildland fire can differ greatly from
response to a structure fire and requires different tactics.

STRUCTUREFIRES

Responding to structure fires in suburban and rural environments can also differ. Beyond
building construction and water supply, there are additional factors that make responding to
structure fires in these environments different. Some of these differences include longer
response times, fewer resources at the fire scene, access, and terrain.

When a new area is incorporated into a city, especially a rural area, emergency response times
can be longer. Fire companies in these areas typically cover a larger area than companies in an
urban environment, as the population of rural areas is not as dense as in urban areas. In the
urban environment, because response times can be shorter, fire companies are sometimes able
to arrive at a fire during the early stages of fire development. In a rural environment, firefighters
often arrive at a fire that has developed and spread to a large portion of the structure.

Longer response times can also mean that there are fewer resources available on scene. While a
structure fire has a set number of resources that will respond, longer response times can result
in the first-arriving company on scene operating without additional resources for some time. This
lack of rapid access to initial resources must be accounted for in the tactics chosen at a fire.

Access and terrain in suburban and rural environments can vary greatly from those in urban
environments. In an urban environment, most structures are close to the street and are
accessible from many different streets. In suburban and rural environments, structures are often
a much greater distance from the street, and access to these structures is frequently limited. In
rural environments, firefighters are also faced with narrow roads that restrict access to the
incident scene as well as dirt roads.

KNOWLEDGEANDTRAINING

The keys to adjusting to these new environments are training and developing knowledge of the
response area. Training is imperative to allow first responders to adjust to the new type of
response area, as many of the tactics used at fires in these areas vary from those of urban fires.
Gaining knowledge and understanding of the response area is equally important. Learning the
response area will not only identify new hazards and the need for different tactics but also will
allow firefighters to protect themselves from those hazards and perform effectively.

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Overview of Road Accidents in India

In 2015, there were about five lakh road accidents in India, which killed about 1.5 lakh people
and injured about five lakh people. India, as a signatory to the Brasilia declaration, intends to
reduce road accidents and traffic fatalities by 50% by 2022. The Motor Vehicles (Amendment)
Bill, 2016 has been listed for consideration and passage in the current Budget Session of
Parliament. It seeks to address issues related to road accidents, third party insurance and road
safety measures. In this context, we present some data on road accidents, causes of accidents,
and motor vehicle third party insurance.

• Road length in India has increased from about 4 lakh kilometres in the 1950s to about 55
lakh kilometres in 2015. Majority of this growth has been in rural roads and roads
constructed by the Public Works Department (PWD). Rural roads account for 61%, and
PWD roads for 20% of the total road length. In comparison, urban roads have a 9% share
in the road network. The growth in rural roads may be attributed to schemes such as the
Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, which was launched in 2000 and aimed to improve
road connectivity in rural areas.

• National Highways constitute 2%, and State Highways 3% of the total road length. Project
Roads, account for 7% of the total road length, and include roads built by various state
departments such as forest, irrigation, electricity, public sector undertakings such as Steel
Authority of India, and the Border Roads Organisation.

Since 2000, while road network in the country has grown by 39%, the number of registered
vehicles has grown by about 158%. While growth in road network will be limited (due to physical
constraints), a constant increase in the number of vehicles on roads may lead to congestion and
road fatalities.

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