Unit–IV : Disaster management

Disaster management – Concepts – Efforts to mitigate natural disasters – National and

global levels – Hazards – Risk – Mitigation.

12) Disaster management – efforts to mitigate disasters at national and global levels
13) Disaster response mechanism in India
Disaster management
Disaster Management refers to how we can protect or preserve the maximum
number of lives and property during a natural and man - made disaster. Disaster
management plans are multi-layered and are planned to address issue such as floods,
hurricanes, fires, and even mass failure of utilities or the rapid spread of disease.

Disaster Management  is a planned approach for the prevention of Disaster,

preparedness and response to Disasters, and recovery following Disasters.

Disaster Management is defined as the organization and management of resources and

responsibilities for dealing with all humanitarian aspects of emergencies, in particular
preparedness, response and recovery in order to lessen the impact of disasters.

Why disaster management

• To minimize deaths and losses.

• Minimum level of preparedness & planning can do it.
• Without identification of Risk & vulnerability, only knowledge of hazards is of no
use
• Normal procedures are insufficient to handle grave situations.
 The purpose of disaster management is reduction of harm to human life, property and the
environment. But the capacity to carry out this mission varies from country to country.
This is due to cultural, political, economic and social situations in different countries.
Definitions

• Risk is defined as the frequency of an event happening and its impact

• A Hazard is a physical or human-made event that can potentially trigger a
disaster.
 • Vulnerability is ‘Susceptibility to harm’ of those at risk
• Capacities are the qualities & resources of community ( or individual) to …
anticipate, cope with, resist & recover from the impact of hazards
Disaster Management refers to the steps taken for the safety and protection of life and
property from natural and man-made disasters. This largely refers to the systematic
organization and management of institutional roles and responsibilities involving actions, plans
and arrangements before, during and after a disaster situation.

This means:

i) combating disasters effectively

ii) being prepared for disasters

iii) providing for the safety of life and property and

iv) helping to rebuild the society after the disasters.

Hence modern disaster management efforts essentially consists of four phases:

1. Mitigation , 2. Preparedness

3. Response and 4. Recovery

1. Mitigation involves reducing the likelihood or the consequences of a hazard or both.

Mitigation includes prevention and risk reduction. Good evacuation plans,
environmental planning and design standards are part and parcel of mitigation efforts.
It is an important component of disaster management.
2. Preparedness involves equipping people who may be affected by a disaster. This also
includes equipping people who may be able to help those impacted with disaster.
3. Response are actions taken immediately preceding, during and immediately after a
disaster. The response function includes actions to limit injuries, loss of life, damage
to property and environment. Response is the most complex of the four functions.
This is because that it is done under very stressful conditions in a highly time
constrained situation with limited information and resources.
 4. Recovery involves returning affected people’s lives back to normal state after
disaster occurs. This phase begins after the immediate response has ended.
Recovery may last even for months or years.
The DM cycle indicated are generalizations. The order in which the actions are taken up
generally get intermixed. For example, recovery may start along with response and
preparation and mitigation may go hand in hand and so on.
Disaster Management means a continuous and integrated process of planning,
organising, coordinating and implementing measures which are necessary or expedient for

1) Prevention of danger or threat of any disaster.

2) Mitigation or reduction of risk of any disaster or its severity or consequences.

3) Capacity-building.

4) Preparedness to deal with any disaster.

5) Prompt response to any threatening disaster situation or disaster.

6) Assessing the severity or magnitude of effects of any disaster.

7) Evacuation, Rescue and Relief.

8) Rehabilitation and Reconstruction.

Disaster management includes administrative decisions and operational activities that

involve
● Prevention
● Mitigation
● Preparedness
● Response
● Recovery
● Rehabilitation

Key Phases of Disaster Management

There are three key phases of activity within disaster management:
 1. Pre-Disaster: Before a disaster to reduce the potential for human, material or
environmental losses caused by hazards and to ensure that these losses are minimized
when the disaster actually strikes.
2. During Disaster: It is to ensure that the needs and provisions of victims are met to
alleviate and minimize suffering.
3. Post Disaster: After a disaster to achieve rapid and durable recovery which does not
reproduce the original vulnerable conditions.
Traditionally people think of disaster management only in term of the emergency relief
period and post disaster rehabilitation. Instead of allocated funds before an event to ensure
prevention and preparedness. A successful disaster management planning must encompass the
situation that occurs before, during and after disasters.
Pre – Disaster Phase
Prevention and Mitigation
Reducing the risk of disasters involves activities, which either reduce or modify the
scale and intensity of the threat faced or by improving the conditions of elements at risk.
Although the term, prevention is often used to embrace the wide diversity of measures to
protect persons and property its use is not recommended since it is misleading in its implicit
suggestion that natural disasters are preventable. The use of the term reduction to describe
protective or preventive actions that lessen the scale of impact is therefore preferred.
Mitigation embraces all measures taken to reduce both the effects of the hazard itself and
the vulnerable conditions to it in order to reduce the scale of a future disaster.
In addition to these physical measures, mitigation should also be aimed at reducing the
physical, economic and social vulnerability to threats and the underlying causes for this
vulnerability.

Preparedness
This brings us to the all-important issue of disaster preparedness. The process embraces
measures that enables governments, communities and individuals to respond rapidly to
disaster situations to cope with them effectively. Preparedness includes for example, the
formulation of viable emergency plans, the development of warning systems, the
maintenance of inventories, public awareness and education and the training of personnel.
It may also embrace search and rescue measures as well as evacuation plans for areas that
may be, at risk’ from a recurring disaster. All preparedness planning needs to be supported by
appropriate rules and regulations with clear allocation of responsibilities and budgetary
provision.
Early Warning
This is the process of monitoring the situation in communities or areas known to be
vulnerable to slow onset hazards, and passing the knowledge of the pending hazard to
people in harm’s way. To be effective, warnings must be related to mass education and
training of the population who know what actions they must take when warned.
The Disaster impact
This refers to the “real-time event of a hazard occurring and affecting elements at
risk. The duration of the event will depend on the type of threat; ground shaking may only occur
in a matter of seconds during an earthquake while flooding may take place over a longer
sustained period.
During disaster Phase
Response
This refers to the first stage response to any calamity, which include for examples such as
setting up control rooms, putting the contingency plan in action, issue warning, action for
evacuation, taking people to safer areas, rendering medical aid to the needy etc., simultaneously
rendering relief to the homeless, food, drinking water, clothing etc. to the needy, restoration of
communication, disbursement of assistance in cash or kind.
The emergency relief activities undertaken during and immediately following a disaster,
which includes immediate relief, rescue, and the damage needs assessment and debris clearance.
The Post- disaster Phase
Recovery: Recovery is used to describe the activities that encompass the three overlapping
phases of emergency relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction.
Rehabilitation: Rehabilitation includes the provision of temporary public utilities and
housing as interim measures to assist long-term recovery.
Reconstruction: Reconstruction attempts to return communities to improved pre-disaster
functioning. It includes such as the replacement of buildings; infrastructure and lifeline
facilities so that long-term development prospects are enhanced rather than reproducing
the same conditions, which made an area or population vulnerable in the first place.
Development: In an evolving economy, the development process is an ongoing activity. Long
term prevention/disaster reduction measures for examples like construction of embankments
against flooding, irrigation facilities as drought proofing measures, increasing plant cover
to reduce the occurrences of landslides, land use planning, construction of houses capable of
withstanding the onslaught of heavy rain/wind speed and shocks of earthquakes are some of the
activities that can be taken up as part of the development plan.
Concept and Meaning
A disaster is a consequence of a sudden disastrous event which seriously disrupts the
normal function of the society or the community to the extent that it cannot subsist without
outside help. A disaster is not just the occurrence of an event such as an earthquake, flood,
conflict, health epidemic or an industrial accident; a disaster occurs if that event/process
negatively impacts human populations.
Disasters combine two elements: hazard, and the vulnerability of affected people.
"A disaster can be defined as any tragic event stemming from events such as earthquakes,
floods, catastrophic accidents, fires, or explosions. It is a phenomenon that disasters can cause
damage to life, property and destroy the economic, social and cultural life of people.
Disasters are often described as a result of the combination of: the exposure to a hazard;
the conditions of vulnerability that are present; and insufficient capacity or measures to reduce or
cope with the potential negative consequences. Disaster impacts may include loss of life, injury,
disease and other negative effects on human physical, mental and social well-being, together
with damage to property, destruction of assets, loss of services, social and economic disruption
and environmental degradation.
A disaster is a calamitous, distressing, or ruinous effect of a disastrous event which
seriously affects or disrupts (or threaten to disrupt) the critical functions of a community,
society or system, for a period long enough to significantly harm it or cause its failure. It is
beyond the capability of the local community to overcome it. The stricken community needs
extraordinary efforts to cope with it, often with outside help or international aid. It is a
situation resulting from an environmental phenomenon or armed conflict that produce stress,
personal injury, physical damage, and economic disruption of great magnitude.

India has been traditionally vulnerable to the natural disasters on the account of its
unique geo-climatic conditions. Floods, droughts, cyclones, earth quake's and landslides
would have been recurrent phenomena. About 59% of the landmass is prone to
earthquakes of various intensities; over 40 million areas are prone to floods; about 8% of
the total area is prone to cyclones and 69% of the area is susceptible to drought.

In the decade 1990-2000, an average of about 4344 people lost their lives and
about 30 million people were affected by disasters every year. The loss in terms of private,
community and public assets has been astronomical. At the global level, there has been
considerable concern over natural disasters. Even as substantial scientific and material progress
is made, the loss of lives and property due to disasters has not decreased. In fact, the human
toll and economic losses have mounted up. It was in this background that the United Nations
General Assembly, in 1989, declared the decade 1990-2000 as the International Decade for
Natural Disaster Reduction with the objective to reduce loss of lives and property and
restrict socio-economic damage through concerted internationally action, was specially
certified in developing countries.

The super cyclone in Odissa October, 1999 and the earthquake in Bhuj (Gujarat) in
January, 2001 underscored the need to adopt a multidimensional endeavor involving diverse
scientific, engineering, financial and social processes; the need to adopt multi disciplinary and
multi-sectoral approach and incorporation of risk reduction in the developmental plans and
strategies.

Over the past 4 years, the Government of India gave brought about a paradigm shift in
the approach to disaster management. The new approach proceeds from the conviction that
development cannot be sustainable unless mitigation is built into the development process.
Another corner stone of the approach is that mitigation has to be multi-disciplinary spanning
across all sectors of development. The new policy also emanates from the belief that investments
in mitigation are much more cost effective than expenditure on relief and rehabilitation.

Disaster management
Definition and concept
Disaster management includes sum total of all activities, programs and measures
which can be taken up before, during and after a disaster with the purpose of avoiding,
reducing the impact or recovering from its losses.
According to Kelly (1996),"Disaster management" can be defined as the range of
activities designed to maintain control over disaster and emergency situations and to
provide a framework for helping those who are at risk to avoid or recover from the impact
of the disaster.
Disaster management means managing resources and various responsibilities to deal
with all humanitarian aspects of emergencies. This may include preparedness before
disaster, response and recovery i.e. rebuilding and supporting society. The purpose of this is
to lessen the impact of disasters.
‘Disaster management can be defined as the organization and management of resources
and responsibilities for dealing with all humanitarian aspects of emergencies, in particular
preparedness, response and recovery in order to lessen the impact of disasters.
The various aspects of disaster management:
⮚ Disaster Prevention
⮚ Disaster preparedness
⮚ Disaster response
⮚ Disaster mitigation
⮚ Rehabilitation
⮚ Reconstruction
The aims of disaster management are to:
⮚ Reduce (avoid, if possible) the potential losses from hazards;
⮚ Assure prompt and appropriate assistance to victims when necessary;
⮚ Achieve rapid and durable recovery.
Importance and relevance of disaster management in the present environmental scenario
⮚ Over the past 20 years disasters have affected 4.4 billion people, caused $2 trillion of
damage and killed 1.3 million people.
⮚ These losses have outstripped the total value of official development assistance in the same
period.
⮚ Natural disasters disproportionately affect people living in developing countries and the
most vulnerable communities within those countries.
⮚ Over 95 per cent of people killed by natural disasters are from developing countries
(Extreme Weather and Natural Disasters, 2012).
⮚ In developing countries, the incidence of natural disasters, the impact of climate changes
and the management of the natural environment strongly influence the rate of development
progress
⮚ In the last decade, an average of about 30 million people were affected by disasters every
year. The loss in terms of private, community and public assets has been astronomical.
⮚ It was in this background that the Nations General Assembly, in 1989, declared the decade
1990-2000 as the International Natural Disaster Reduction with the objective to reduce
loss of lives and property and restrict economic damage through concerted
international action, especially in developing countries.
⮚ India has been traditionally vulnerable to natural disasters on account of its unique geo-
climatic conditions. Floods, droughts, cyclones, earthquakes and landslides have been
recurrent phenomena.
⮚ About 60% of the landmass is prone to earthquakes of various intensities; over 40
million hectares is prone to floods; about 8% of the total area is prone to cyclones and
68% of the area is susceptible to drought.
⮚ Disaster management occupies an important place in this country's policy framework as
it is poor and the under-privileged who are worst affected on account of
calamities/disasters.
⮚ The steps being taken by the Government emanate from the approach outlined above. The
app: has been translated into a National Disaster Framework [a roadmap] covering
institutional mechanic; disaster prevention strategy, early warning system, disaster
mitigation, preparedness and response human resource development.
⮚ The expected inputs, areas of intervention and agencies to be in at the National, State and
district levels have been identified and listed in the roadmap. This road has been shared with
all the State Governments and Union Territory Administrations.
⮚ Ministries Departments of Government of India, and the State Governments/UT
Administrations have been to develop their respective roadmaps taking the national roadmap
as a broad guideline. There is, therefore: now a common strategy underpinning the action
being taken by the entire participating organisation' stakeholders.
Disaster Management has to be a multi-disciplinary and pro-active approach. Our
vision 2020 is to build a safer and secure India through sustained collective effort, synergy of
national capacities and people’s participation.
Efforts to mitigate natural disasters – National and global levels – Hazards – Risk –
Mitigation.
Natural disasters have caused enormous losses in many countries and have set back
economic progress in developing countries by years. The future looks even worse, as
populations in many parts of the world migrate into hazard-prone regions and into major
urban centers, which are particularly vulnerable because of their dependence on complex
infrastructures. These exposed situations motivated international organizations of scientists and
engineers to focus world attention on the threat and the opportunities to avert losses.

Mitigation of natural disasters

The growing impact of natural disasters demonstrates the need to further advance
mitigation through well-coordinated activities.
(i) Advancing the frontiers of hazard mitigation science and technology; (ii) implementing
programs of education, training, and technology transfer;

(iii) Monitoring hazards phenomena and providing early warning where possible; and

(iv) Promoting and implementing mitigation as an integral part of economic development.

Mitigating the Impacts of Natural Disasters

a) World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) - the need to mitigate the effects of
droughts and floods through improved use of climate and weather information and
forecasts, early warning systems, land and natural resource management, agricultural
practices and ecosystem conservation.
b) New technologies have brought about an accelerated increase in our knowledge of
the climate system. – Satellites – Ocean buoys and expendable bathythermographs –
Hundreds of specially equipped commercial aircraft, – Manned and automatic weather
stations on land .
c) Planning, early warning and well-prepared response strategies are the major tools for
mitigating the losses.
d) The scientific understanding, the accuracy and timeliness of weather and flood
warnings have significantly improved over the last few decades.
e) Today the accuracy of forecasts of large-scale weather patterns for seven days in
advance is the same as those for two days in advance only 25 years ago.
f) The accuracy of tropical cyclone track forecasts and the timeliness of warnings have
been steadily improving in the past few years.
g) The evolving Internet has proven to be an invaluable tool in facilitating the exchange
of global and regional climate monitoring and prediction information.
Another stone of the approach is that mitigation has to be multi-disciplinary spanning
across all sectors. The new policy also emanates from the belief that investments in mitigation
are much cost effective than expenditure on relief and rehabilitation.
Over the past couple of years, the Government of India has brought about a paradigm
shift in approach to disaster management. The new approach proceeds from the conviction that
develop cannot be sustainable unless disaster mitigation is built into the development process.
 India is vulnerable to a wide range of natural hazards, particularly flooding, cyclones,
drought, extreme heat waves, landslides, wildfire, and earthquakes. Studies show that, as a
result of climate change, the intensity, duration and frequency of weather-related shocks are
likely to increase.  

In 2013, India experienced the double shock of severe flash floods in the state of
Uttarakhand and Cyclone Phailin in the state of Odisha. The flooding and associated
landslides in Uttarakhand caused over 4,000 deaths and $661 million in damage and loss,
resulting in the country’s worst disaster since the 2004 tsunami.  In India, vulnerability to natural
hazards is exacerbated by high population density and growth in urban and coastal areas.  

Earlier, the approach to Disaster Management has been primarily reactive and relief
centric. A paradigm shift has now taken place at the national level from the erstwhile response
centric approach to holistic and integrated management of disasters with emphasis on
prevention, mitigation and preparedness. These efforts are aimed to conserve developmental
gains and also minimize losses to lives, livelihood and property.
Importance of natural disasters
● Natural disasters are on the rise and they continue to target the world's poorest and least-
developed.
• There must be greater investment in disaster reduction rather than high-profile response
efforts.
• Improved data on past disasters would help inform investment and policy decisions and thus
help secure more appropriate levels and forms of disaster prevention, mitigation and
preparedness.
• It is important to develop mechanisms for more efficient assessment and documentation of
natural disaster impacts in agriculture.
● A comprehensive assessment of impacts of natural disasters on agriculture requires a multi-
sectoral and integral approach involving key organisations
● Priority should be given to supporting research with practical applications since
research is needed to understand the physical and biological factors that contribute to
disasters.
● Since major impact of the natural disasters is on poor farmers with limited means in
 developing countries, community-wide awareness and education programs on natural
disasters should be a priority.
● Programs for improving prediction methods and dissemination of warnings should be
expanded and intensified. Efforts are also needed to determine the impact of disasters on
natural resources.
Prevention and mitigation contribute to lasting improvement in safety. 
Project on deployment of Mobile Radiation Detection Systems(MRDS) to handle
Radiological Hazards in Metros/Capital Cities/Big Cities in India:- To detect unclaimed
radioactive materials/substances and save public from its hazardous effects,NDMA has chalked
out a plan to provide States/UTs Mobile Radiation Detection Systems to be deployed in
Metros/all Capital Cities and Big Cities in India and also train personnels as ‘Trainer of
Trainers’.
Landslide Risk Mitigation Scheme (LRMS)The Scheme envisages financial support for site
specific Landslide Mitigation Projects recommended by landslide prone States, covering
“disaster prevention strategy, disaster mitigation and R& D in monitoring of critical
Landslides” thereby leading to the development of Early Warning System and Capacity
Building initiatives. The Scheme is under preparation.
Flood Risk Mitigation Scheme (FRMS)The Scheme covers activities like a) Pilot Projects for
development of model Multi-Purpose Flood Shelters and b) Development of River Basin
specific Flood Early Warning System and Digital Elevation Maps for preparation of Inundation
Models for giving early warning to the villagers for evacuation in case of flood. Under the
Scheme, financial support is to be provided to the Flood prone States for undertaking pilot
scheme in respect of above two activities. The Scheme is under preparation.
Core Group for Preparation of Guidelines to avert Boat Tragedies in India:- In view of
some serious boat tragedies taking place in the country, including the boat tragedy in Dhubri,
Assam in May, 2012, leading to loss of lives of people.
Hazard, Risk and Vulnerability Profile
Multi-Hazard Vulnerability As per the definition adopted by UNISDR, hazard is a
dangerous phenomenon, substance, human activity, or condition that may cause loss of
life, injury or other health impacts, property damage, loss of livelihoods and services,
social and economic disruption, or environmental damage. India, due to its, physiographic
and climatic conditions is one of the most disaster prone areas of the World. Of the nearly 7,500
km long coastline, close to 5,700 km is prone to cyclones and tsunamis. Nearly 68 percent of
the cultivable area is vulnerable to drought. Large tracts in hilly regions are at risk from
landslides and some are prone to snow avalanches. Heightened vulnerabilities to disaster risks
can be related to expanding population, urbanisation and industrialisation, development within
high-risk zones, environmental degradation, and climate change. The hazard vulnerability maps
of India for a) Earthquake b) Flood and c) Wind and cyclone.
Disaster risk reduction
Disaster risk reduction includes disciplines like disaster management, disaster
mitigation and disaster preparedness, but DRR is also part of sustainable development. In
order for development activities to be sustainable they must also reduce disaster risk. On the
other hand, unsound development policies will increase disaster risk - and disaster losses. Thus,
DRR involves every part of society, every part of government, and every part of the
professional and private sector.
Disaster Risk Reduction "is aimed at preventing new and reducing existing disaster
risk and managing residual risk, all of which contribute to strengthening resilience and
therefore to the achievement of sustainable development".  The UNISDR definition further
annotates that “disaster risk reduction is the policy objective of disaster risk management, and
its goals and objectives are defined in disaster risk reduction strategies and plans".
Disaster Risk Reduction strategies and policies define goals and objectives across
different timescales, with concrete targets, indicators and time frames. 
Disaster Risk Management is the application of disaster risk reduction policies and
strategies, to prevent new disaster risks, reduce existing disaster risks, and manage
residual risks, contributing to the strengthening of resilience and reduction of losses. Disaster
risk management actions can be categorized into; prospective disaster risk management,
corrective disaster risk management and compensatory disaster risk management (also referred
to as residual risk management).
Risk Mitigation. 
Natural hazards have been the cause of the vast majority of
Federal Disaster Declarations.Hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes and other natural
hazards cannot be prevented. Some technological hazards such as a regional power outage
cannot be prevented by an individual business.