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LANDSLIDES

Landslides - the sliding down of a mass of earth or rock from a mountain or cliff.
(https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en)

Types of Slides (http://www.mrd.gov.fj/images/Brochures/Types_of_Landslide.pdf)

What are the characteristics of landslides? (http://helid.digicollection.org/)


These are sudden failures of vertical or near-vertical slopes that result in the loosening and free fall of a
block or several blocks of rock. Falling rock generally sets off a landslide. In soils, the slides are caused by
undercut slopes due to stream or human erosion.

- ground failure - is a general reference to landslides, liquefaction, lateral spreads, and any other
consequence of shaking that affects the stability of the ground.
DISASTER MANAGEMENT

“Disaster Management” according


to disaster management act 2005 means A
Continuous and integrated process of
planning, organizing, co-coordinating and
implementing measures which are
necessary or expedient for,
• Prevention of danger or threat of any
disaster.
• Mitigation or reduction of risk of any
disaster or its severity or consequences.
• Capacity building.
• Preparedness to deal with any disaster.
• Prompt response to any threatening disaster situation or disaster.
• Assessing the severity or magnitude of effects of any disaster.
• Evacuation rescue and relief.
• Rehabilitation and reconstruction.
Disaster Management activity basically comprises of three stages.
• Pre- Disaster Stage
• Emergency Stage.
• Post- Disaster Stage.

8. EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
The process of Emergency Management involves these following stages.

a. Mitigation:
Mitigation efforts attempt to prevent hazards from developing into disaster altogether or to
reduce the effects of disaster when they occur. The mitigation phase differs from the other phases,
because it forces on long term measures for reducing or eliminating risk. Mitigate measures can be
structural or non structural. Structural measures use technological solutions like flood leaves. Non-
structural measures include legislation, land –use planning and insurance.

b. Preparedness:
Preparedness is a continuous cycle of planning organizing, training, equipping, exercising
evaluation and improvement activities to ensure effective coordination and the enhancement of
capacities to prevent, protect against respond to recover from and mitigate the effect of natural
disasters acts of terrorism and other manmade disaster.
In the preparedness phase, emergency managers develop plans of action to manage and
counter their risks and take action to implement such plans common preparedness measures include:
• Communication plans with easily under and able terminology and methods.
• Proper maintenance and training of emergency services, including mass human resources such as
community emergency response teams.
• Development and exercise of emergency population warning methods combined with emergency
shelters and evacuation plans.
• Stock piling, inventory and maintain disaster supplies and equipments developing organization of
trained volunteers among civilian populations professional emergency workers are rapidly overwhelmed
in mass emergencies so trained organized responsible volunteers are extremely valuable organizations
like community emergency Response Team. “Red cross” is already sources of trained volunteers.

c. Response:
The response phase includes the mobilization of the necessary emergency services and final
responding in the disaster area. This is likely to include a first wave of core emergency services, Such as
Fire, Fighters, Police and Ambulance crews. When conducted as a military operation it is termed Disaster
Relief Operation (DRO) and can be a follow up to a Non- Combatant Evacuation Operation (NEO). They
may be supported by a number of secondary emergency services such as specialist resources teams.
A well emergency plan development as part of the preparedness phase enables efficient co-
ordination of rescue, where required search and rescue efforts commence at an early stage. Depending
on injuries sustained by the victim, outside temperature and victim access to air and water the vast
majority of those affected by a disaster will die within 72 hours after impact. Organizational response to
any significant disaster natural or terrorist borne
is based on existing emergency management organizational systems and processes. There is a need for
the both discipline (Structure, Doctrine, Process) and ability (Creativity, Improvisation, Adaptability) in
responding to a disaster, combining that with the need to on board and build a high functioning
leadership team quickly to co- ordinate and manage efforts as they grow beyond first responders
INDICATES the need for a leader and his or her team to craft and implement a disciplined iterative set of
response plans. This allows the team to move forward with co- originated disciplined responses that are
vaguely right and adopt to new information and changing circumstances along the way.

d. Recovery:
The aim of the recovery phase is to restore the affected area to its previous state, it differs from
the response phase in its focus recovery efforts are concerned with issues and decisions that must be
made after immediate needs are addressed recovery efforts are primarily concerned with actions that
involve rebuilding destroyed property re- employment and the repair of other essential infrastructure.
Efforts should be made to “Build Back Better” aiming to reduce the pre- disaster risks interest in the
community and infrastructure. An important aspect of effective recovery efforts is taking advantage of a
window of opportunity, for the implementation of mitigate measures that might otherwise citizens of
the affected area are more likely to accept more mitigate change
when a recent disaster is in fresh memory.

10. DISASTER RISK REDUCTION


Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is a systematic approach to identifying, assessing and reducing the
risks of disaster. It aims to reduce socio-economic vulnerabilities to disaster as well as dealing with the
environmental and other hazards that trigger them: here it has been strongly influenced by the mass of
research on vulnerability that has appeared in print since the mid-l97Os.It is the responsibility of
development and relief agencies alike and it should be an integral part of the way such organizations do
their work, not an add-on or one-off action. DRR is very wideranging, therefore. Its scope is much
broader and deeper than conventional emergency management. There is potential for DRR initiatives in
just about every sector of development and humanitarian work.

Some issues and challenges in DRR


• Priorities.
It is unrealistic to expect progress in every aspect of DRR: capacities and resources are
insufficient. Governments and other organizations have to make what are in effect ‘investment
decisions’, choosing which aspects of DRR to invest in, when, and in what sequence. This is made more
complicated by the fact that many of the interventions advocated are developmental rather than
directly related to disaster management. Most existing DRR guidance sidesteps this issue. One way of
focusing is to consider only actions that are intended specifically to reduce disaster risk. This would at
least distinguish from more general efforts towards sustainable development. The concept of
invulnerable development’ attempts this: in this formulation, invulnerable development is development
directed towards reducing vulnerability to disaster, comprising ‘decisions and activities that are
intentionally designed and implemented to reduce risk and susceptibility, and also raise resistance and
resilience to disaster.
• Partnerships and inter-organizational co-ordination
No single group or organization can address every aspect of DRR. DRR thinking sees disasters as
complex problems demanding a collective response. Coordination even in conventional emergency
management is difficult, for many different organizations may converge on a disaster area to assist.
Across the broader spectrum of DRR, the relationships between different types of organization and
between different sectors (public, private and non-profit, as well as communities) become much more
extensive and complex. DRR requires strong vertical and horizontal linkages (central-local relations
become important). In terms of involving civil society organizations, it should mean thinking broadly
about which types of organization to involve (i.e. not just conventional NGOs but also such organizations
as trades unions, religious institutions, amateur radio operators as in the USA and India, universities and
research institutions).
• Communities and their organizations.
Traditional emergency management/civil defense thinking makes two misleading assumptions
about communities, first, it sees other forms of social organization (voluntary and community-based
organizations, informal social groupings and families) as irrelevant to emergency action. Spontaneous
actions by affected communities or groups (e.g. search and rescue) are viewed as irrelevant or
disruptive, because they are not controlled by the authorities. The second assumption is that disasters
produce passive ‘victims’ who are overwhelmed by crisis, or dysfunctional behavior (panic, looting, self-
seeking activities). They therefore need to be told what to do, and their behavior must be controlled - in
extreme cases, through the imposition of martial law. There is plenty of sociological research to refute
such myths. An alternative viewpoint, informed by a considerable volume of research, emphasizes the
importance of communities and local organizations in disaster risk management. The rationale for
community-based disaster risk management that it responds to local problems and needs, capitalizes on
local knowledge and expertise, is cost-effective, improves the likelihood of sustainability through
genuine ‘ownership’ of projects, strengthens community technical and organizational capacities, and
empowers people by enabling them to tackle these and other challenges. Local people and
organizations are the main actors in risk reduction and disaster response in any case.

https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/97142/10/10_chapter%202.pdf

P.C. Sinha, Encyclopedia of Disaster Management, Vol-1,New Delhi, Anmol Publications,


1998.

S.L. Goel, Encyclopedia of Disaster Management,Vol-1,Deep and Deep Publications, New


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Disaster Management Act - 2005

Keith Smith, Environment Hazards-Assessing Risk and Reducing Disasters (Newark Rout Ledge
Publications), 1996

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Awareness, Jaipur, Rawat Publications, 2000.

.Singh R.B, Disaster Management, Rawat Publishers, 2000. p.16

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disasters, Rutledge, 2004, ISBN 0-415-25216-4.

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ISBN 1-85383-964-7.

www.unep.org /compound/complex/ visited on 15-11-12 at 7.p.m

www.reliefweb.int/displaced/persons pdf visited on 2-12-21 at 12p.m

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D. Alexander, Principles of Emergency planning and Management,2002, ISBN, p 127

Disaster management preparedness plans under Risk management.


Middleton Neil, Disaster and Development, Pluto press, London, 1998, p 45

Federal Response Plan (FRP) and the Incident Command System (ICS). These
systems are solidified through the principles of unified command (UC) and Mutual
Aid (MA).50

Tandon O.P, Disaster Management-An Integrated Approach for Disaster Preparedness, Mitigation
and Awareness, (Jaipur Rawat Publications), 2000.p.45

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2007

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