W3 - Disaster Risk Management

Hazard

Potential for a process or object to cause harm

• Natural hazards: Earthquakes, tsunamis (e.g., Fukushima 2011, Banda Aceh 2004)

• Human-induced hazards: Oil spills (Deepwater Horizon, Exxon Valdez)

Disaster

Actual event causing harm to people, property, environments, or non-human life

• Hazards and disasters are physical and social constructs as both can exploit human vulnerabilities, and so …. Let’s check this out … Risk is as much a statistical probability as it is a socio-cultural phenomenon’

Risk

The likelihood or probability of a hazard/disater occurring

Key Point: Risk is both a statistical probability and a socio-cultural phenomenon because hazards exploit vulnerabilities

Dimensions and Distributions of Risk

• Pacific Ring of Fire: Tectonic plate boundaries generate high physical risk (earthquakes, volcanoes)

• Vulnerability: Differentiated by gender, class, age, disability, socioeconomic status, etc. → uneven risk between and within locations

• Measuring Risk: DRI and HDI

  • Human Development Index (HDI): Strong correlation between lower HDI and higher disaster risk

Disaster Risk Index (DRI)

• Calculates average risk of death per country from earthquakes, cyclones, floods (1980–2000 data)

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• 2) Disaster Risk Index (DRI) Compare with Standards of Living • The DRI enables the calculation of the average risk of death per country in large- and medium-scale disasters associated with earthquakes, tropical cyclones and floods, based on data from 1980 to 2000. • It also enables the identification of socio-economic and environmental variables that are correlated with risk to death, and which may point to causal processes of disaster risk.

• In the DRI, countries are indexed for each hazard type according to their degree of physical exposure, their degree of relative vulnerability and their degree of risk. Smith (2013, p.42)

Human Development Index (HDI)

Strong correlation between lower HDI and higher disaster risk

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• -Human development Index (HDI): Created in 1990, entity charged with measuring development worldwide by the UNDP and proposing strategies for improving it. Composite indicator incorporating information about standard of living, health and education of a country’s people. -Gross Domestic Product (Purchasing Power Parity) -Life Expectancy -Adult Literacy -Enrolment in Education

Case Studies Examples

• Philippines (Manila): High poverty, high exposure → high risk

• Naples, Italy: Even wealthy countries face high risk due to location near volcanoes like Vesuvius; people stay due to fertile soils, tradition, and tourism

Reasons to not live near a volcano

1. Geothermal Energy (hot water; heating ; clean energy; cool water pumped down into ground and heated by

2. Precious minerals and ore (sulphur mining; sand mining; precious minerals – gold, silver and copper)

3. Tourism: Economic stimulation • (Mt Etna (Sicily)) The Etna region contains about 20% of Sicily’s population, with rural population densities of 500-800 people per square kilometre. • Vesuvius (Pompeii) • Mt Fuji

4. Unwillingness to leave (home)

5. Fertile Soils (paddy fields – rice – on the slopes of Mt Merapi farmers can yield 3 crops a year).

Naturally Induced Hazard/Disaster

Earthquakes, tsunamis, liquefaction, floods, pandemics, fire

Human/anthropogenic

• Oil spills, chemical spills, wars, terrorism

• Example: Liquefaction in Palu, Indonesia – soil behaves like liquid during earthquakes, devastating poorly built housing

Critical thinking pt

Critical Thinking Prompt: If a tsunami wipes out a forest but no people are affected – is it still a disaster?

Disaster Risk Management (DRM)

Definition (UNDRR):

• A systematic process using directives, organisations, skills, and capacities to implement strategies and improve coping abilities, aiming to lessen impacts of hazards and reduce disaster probability

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MORE DETAIL:

“Disaster-risk management is the systematic process of using administrative directives, organisations, and operational skills/capacities to implement strategies, policies and improved coping capacities; in order to lessen the adverse impacts of hazards, and the possibility of disaster. • When successful, disaster-risk management efforts aim to reduce the effects of hazards, through activities and measures related to prevention, mitigation, and preparedness” • “While emergencies are events that can be managed with local resources, disasters are by definition those events that surpass the responders’ capacity on the ground to manage them locally, hence requiring external assistance to be managed.”

Purpose of DRM

• Increase survival chances.

• Improve living conditions.
  → Achieved through prevention, mitigation, preparedness, and collaboration across levels (individual to international)

Framework for DRM

• Hazards + Exposure + Vulnerability + Governance failure = ↑ Disaster risk

• DRM acts as a control/coordination mechanism

Governance - Who is responsible?

Shared responsibility – from individuals and families to local/national governments, NGOs, UN bodies

Building Standards Change

Shift to fire-resistant materials, planning regulations, and safer designs (learning from past disasters like London fires)

Local Planning Change

Examples in Perth (Mirrabooka) and Indonesia show zoning, green belts, and codified regulations to mitigate floods/fires

Ventilation and Disease

Failures like Melbourne’s 2024 Legionnaires outbreak show ongoing vulnerability

Poverty and Vulnerability

Hurricane Katrina exposed how disasters disproportionately harm poor, marginalised communities; critiques of “disaster capitalism”

Challenges: Changing Society

South Africa’s informal settlements heightened fire and sanitation risks

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South Africa. Have we learnt? - informal settlement in South Africa, near Johannesburg - Johannesburg was developed in 1886, like Perth, - late in the colonial period - it was quite modern - built with very high building standards - So, risk of fire was quite low - created a few fire stations, far apart. - now large informal settlements with highly combustible houses - cooking with paraffin lamps. - government had to change the way they deal with fire because society changed. - put in vital infrastructure, such as roads, to help emergency services - Sanitation services to prevent diseases.

Challenges: Technology Shifts

Past (horse manure) vs. present (vehicle pollution, urban heat) → new risks emerge as old ones are solved

Local Examples

Perth flooding (Elizabeth Quay, Riverside Drive, Ashfield Flats) shows continuing urban risk

Innovative Approaches - Engineering Solutions

Thames flood barrier (London) – protects floodplains but redistributes risk upstream

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A key element re landslides, floods and tsunamis is where you build. If you build on a flood plain, like New Orleans, you need to deal with the risk. Or if you build near a place with seismic activity, you need to deal with earthquake and even tsunami risks. Historically, people tended to build near or on the banks of the rivers (main mode of transport). For example, in London many buildings such as wharfs, warehouses and commercial buildings were built riverside.

FLOOD PROTECTION OF THAMES:

- huge flooding problems. - from exceptionally high tides and storm surges - built the Thames flood barrier, - retractable barrier system built to protect the floodplain of most of Greater London - but it is positioned well-inland - all the water flow stays inland - decision to flood upstream, because there are less people there So they are protecting downstream by protecting who get flooded. You can’t solve the problem of flooding, but you can choose where and what to flood.

Innovative Approaches to Challenges - Flood Lines

- Perth has a green belt on both sides of the river all the way up. - dealing with the flooding problem. What’s missing here? PERTH • Elizabeth Quay? Langley Park? • Perth’s solutions to local flooding sustainable??

Innovative Approaches to Challenges - Local Adaptation

Housing rebuilds in Palu after tsunamis – uniform government housing, but limited choice and social issues

DRM Today and Tomorrow

• 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami was a global wake-up call → led to frameworks for coordinated DRM

  • Targets: reduce mortality, affected people, economic loss, and damage to infrastructure; expand early warning systems; increase cooperation

    GEOG 1104_Wk 3_Disaster Risk Ma…

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• Capacity building: Requires holistic, cross-sector work, attention to local contexts, and fostering ownership

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• Local knowledge & sociopragmatism: Indigenous and community perspectives must be integrated into DRM for culturally effective strategies

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Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030):

• Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015–2030):

  • Roles for everyone (state, local gov, private sector, communities).

  • Priorities:

    1. Understanding risk.

    2. Strengthening governance.

    3. Investing in resilience.

    4. Enhancing preparedness

• Targets: reduce mortality, affected people, economic loss, and damage to infrastructure; expand early warning systems; increase cooperation

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Seven global targets to be achieved by 2030, including: - the reduction of global disaster mortality - number of affected people globally - economic impact in relation to GDP. - Reduce disaster damage to critical infrastructure… • It also aims to increase: - the number of countries with disaster risk reduction strategies - enhance substantially international cooperation for developing nations - increase the availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning systems

Capacity Building

Requires holistic, cross-sector work, attention to local contexts, and fostering ownership

• s the process of developing and strengthening the skills, knowledge, resources, and systems that individuals, organizations, and communities need to achieve goals, adapt to change, and thrive. It involves enhancing a system's ability to perform, often through long-term strategies like training, mentoring, and improving processes to achieve sustainable result

Building Capacity for Disaster Managment

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Local Knowledge and Sociopragmatism

• Indigenous and community perspectives must be integrated into DRM for culturally effective strategies

SUMMARY

• Risk = hazard probability + vulnerabilities; measuring it is complex.

• DRM aims to reduce disaster impacts through prevention, mitigation, preparedness, and collaboration.

• Governance (or its failure) is central to outcomes.

• Learning from past disasters has improved building, planning, and responses – but challenges remain (poverty, inequality, climate change).

• Future resilience requires innovation, capacity-building, and inclusion of diverse knowledge systems

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ACTUAL SUMMARY

• Learn from previous disasters.

• Solve one issue – is another issue created?

• DRM reduces impacts of hazards through mitigation and preparedness,

• Capacity building at all levels.

• Building resilience is a continual process.

• Local knowledge – sociopragmatism – is key!!