Vulnerability
Characteristics or circumstances of a community or an asset that makes it susceptible to the damaging effects of a hazard. Social, economical or environmental factors
Types of vulnerability
- Physical- ex: wooden house
- Geographical- ex: Bima fault
- Social - ex: oxfam report on tsunami
- Economic - ex: poor diluting Covid
Importance of vulnerability and risk assessment for pre disaster management
- Prioritisation of resources - ex : Govt scheme of sustainable risk reduction in 10 multi hazard districts
- Appropriate laws, rules, regulations - building bye laws, safety rules, environmental rules etc
- Disaster risk reduction
- accurate forecasting - EWS in place
- advance preparation - apada Mitra scheme
- disaster management plan - long term mitigation plan, disaster response plan
- citizens encouraged to take insurance - Govt schemes can be tweaked accordingly- Ex: PM awaas Yojana houses to be disaster resilient in vulnerable areas
Key elements of SENDAI framework
- 15 yr, voluntary, non binding
- 7 targets- 4 to reduce ( injury, mortality, damage to critical infra, economy),, 3 to increase ( ews, no of countries with DRR, intl Cooperation)
- 4 priority areas - understand the risk, governance strengthen, strengthen finance to build DRI, build back better)
Definition of drought
According to IMD - if monsoon rainfall dips 10% below the normal and span between 20-40% area- deficient year — no longer callled drought
Reasons for drought
Human
1. Climate change - dry, impermeable crust
2. Deforestation - imbalance in the hydrological cycle via decreased transpiration from leaves
3. Agriculture- intensive farming affects absorbency of soil
4. High water demand - socioeconomic drought
Natural
1. Eli nino- IMD data - 16/22 El Niño years in india led to drought like conditions
2. Jet stream - brings dry air from other parts of the world
Effects of drought
Environmental
1. Damaging biodiversity and ecosystems
2. Forest fires - lowers air quality
3. Rejuvenation of water cycle
Socio economic
1. Famines—> malnutrition
2. Lack of clean drinking water - disease like cholera and typhoid
3. Disproportionate impact on women
4. Conflicts - ex: evidence that drought contributed to conflict in Syria
Ndma guidelines on drought management
- Mitigation
- vulnerability maps
- watershed development approach
- drought resistant crop varieties
- crop diversification, micro irrigation - Preparedness
- drought monitoring cells at state level
- integration of ground based info with space based info
- insurance products designed for drought affected regio
- capacity building - Respond
- Recovery
- credit in drought affected areas
- fodder , cattle feed to productive animals to prevent distress sale
Why is India prone to floods
- Natural factors -
- brahmpautra youth in assam, guwahati bowl shape
Unnaturally high Rain - 2018 Kerala flood - Man made
-Poor operational decision - untimely release of water
- Climate change -
- Encroachment of urban wetlands - artificial floods
- lack of meaningful Cooperation among indian states
Issues with flood management in india
- Incomplete projects
- Unintegrated - flood management works entire river, tributary
- Dams lack emergency action plans
- Poor flood forcaste , poor flood risk mapping
- Recco of rashtriya barh ayog, 1976- flood plain zoining act— still not
Technology in disaster
- Big data - data from satellites+ social media + drone video
- Warning and aletrs - orissa satark app
DURING AND POST
- robots and drones - drop humanitarian aid.,
- Arogya setu
- Rescue - NASAs finder tool - nepal eq- heartbeat through rubble
- Rehabilitation- crowd funding
- Twitter alerts
Causes of landslides
- Geological - active Himalayas
- Earthquake
- weather related - cyclones, floods
- Snow avalanches
Man- made
1. Erosion due to deforestation
2. Loading of slopes
3. Mining
4. Cutting off toe of hills to construct road
Fire accidents - causes
Mundra fire in Delhi claimed 27 lives
- Building not complying to fire safety norms - Mundra fire
- Rising no. Of high rise buildings - lengthy exit route and more fire prone areas
- Underequipped fire service - municipal bodies
- Lackadaisical attitude of fire service to pursue non complaince
- Lack of awareness regarding fire fighting equipment’s
National building code 2016 fire safety guidelines and ndma guidelines
- Design and materials that reduce threat of fire disaster. Ex: fire resistant exterior walls
- The code classifies all building by nature of use and recommends location of buildings in specific zone according to use
- Technologies- fire detection and alarm systems, sprinklers, firemen’s lift etc
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has also provided mandatory requirements for fire safety in public buildings, including hospitals.
Such as, maintaining minimum open safety space, protected exit mechanisms, dedicated staircases, and crucial drills to carry out evacuations.
Steps taken by india to be disaster resilient
- Surveillance- national center for seismology under ministry of earth science
- National building code
- National retrofit prog - ndma along with specialists from IIT
- India quake mobile app- desiminates info about eq in real time
- sagar vani - ew for coastal community - Ndrf. Ndma
Gaps in India’s EQ preparedness
- Majority of eq zones - hilly - retrofitting difficult
- Shortage of skilled labor for Eq resistant designs
- Building codes not strictly enforced. Ex: according to NDMA AHMEDABAD’ ~ 4000 multi story buildings won’t withstand a high magnitude eq
- Process of raising money during Eq still not standardised- less awareness of NDRFUND
- Local populace not sufficiently trained
National disaster management plan 2016 ( reviewed in 2019 )
In line with Sendai - understand, strengthening, investing , BBB
- Dynamic document - continuous upgradation based on evolving knowledge base
- Roles and responsibilities at all levels of govt
- Regional approach
- takes note of impact of climate change on DRR
- Checklist for agencies - EW, info dissemination, medical care, search and rescue etc
- Community strengthening- IEC
- Provides a generalised framework for recovery and bbb
Loopholes
1. No exact time - only short, medium, long
2. Identification of DRR and disaster risk mitigation activities too generic
3. Not given prohjections of fund requirements or how the fund will be mobilised
4. Silent on monitoring and evaluation of the plan
Wf
1. Periodic goals and targets
2. Mainstreaming DRR into development
3,. Fund raising and dispersal- robust
