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 (V) DISASTER MANAGEMENT V-MAM  HAZARD AND ITS DEFINITION:-

 DISASTER AND ITS DEFINITION :-  A hazard is a “process, phenomenon or human
 defined as an event which causes (w/c) loss of activity that may cause loss of life, injury or
human lives and assets . other health impacts, property damage, social
 so it is any calamity and catastrophe which and economic disruption or environmental
causes human injury, brings about human degradation.” The origins of hazards can be
causality, economic loss, infrastructure loss natural or human-made, and span a wide range
etc . it for sure result into loss. of environmental, technological and biological
 They are not natural event hazards, including meteorological, hydrological,
 Disaster:- {Hazard (threat/risk)+ vulnerability extra-terrestrial, geological, environmental,
(means Human exposure & susceptibility to chemical, biological, technological and societal
risk)} factors. Common examples include storms and
 The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk floods and also less-frequent events such as
Reduction (UNISDR- 2009) defines disaster as: “A pandemics and chemical accidents
serious disruption of the functioning of a  Hazard is an event which poses a risk/threat to
community or a society involving widespread human lives and assets.
human, material, economic or environmental  it has potential to result into loss.
losses and impacts, which exceeds the ability of  Hazard is natural.
the affected community or society to cope using  They arise because of two types of forces so
its own resources.” are categorised as
 Disasters are not “natural” events, but instead a) Geophysical hazards:- take place due to
are a function of how humans interact with their endogenic and exogenic forces. Like
environment tsunami, EQ, Landslides, Volcanoes
 The DM Act of India, 2005 uses the b) Climatic hazards:- like tropical cyclones,
cloud burst, atmospheric lightening.
following definition for disaster:
 “Disaster” means a catastrophe, mishap, calamity or  Take an example of Brahmaputra flooding:-
grave occurrence in any area, arising from natural or  Its catchment receives more than 200cm rainfall in
manmade causes, or by accident or negligence which monsoonal and all year around it has high sediment
results in substantial loss of life or human suffering or load, and during monsoon period this load becomes
damage to, and destruction of, property, or damage very high.
to, or degradation of, environment, and is of such a  Its valley is also a narrow river valley, during rainy
nature or magnitude as to be beyond the coping season in the steep gradients till state of Arunachal,
capacity of the community of the affected area. river does a lot of erosion and transportation of
sediments and once it reaches the Assam, gradient
becomes gentler and rivers starts doing siltation on
its river bed (deposition of sediments), consequently
height of river bed rises a little, and reduces the
channel capacity . results into flooding.
 So this is a natural hydro-meteorological
phenomenon which has occurred.
 Any river having characteristics like Brahmaputra will
behave exactly the same.
 This is definitely a hazard, and have potential to pose
a risk to human life and property.
 However, this hazard degenerates into a disaster as
people have settlements on the flood plains of
Brahmaputra
 It brings us to a conclusion that disaster is a
combination of :- hazard and vulnerability.
 Disaster:- Hazard (threat/risk)+ vulnerability (means
Human exposure & susceptibility to risk)
 VULNERABILITY AND ITS DEFINITION
 Vulnerability describes “the conditions
determined by physical, social, economic and
environmental factors or processes which
increase the susceptibility of an individual, a

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community, assets or systems to the impacts of for any country, so there should be standard
hazards”. Uniform operating guidelines for operation,
 Exposure is the “situation of people, supervision of these dams. Now India has a Dam
infrastructure, housing, production capacities Safety Act, 2021. The bill introduced in 2010, so
took India so many years to come out with a
and other tangible human assets located in
framework to scientific management of these
hazard- prone areas”. When hazards combine
dams, it is an example of inadequacy of
with vulnerability and exposure, disasters are regulatory framework for disaster management.
most likely to occur because exposure increases This exposes the population with higher degree
the impacts and vulnerability reduces coping of vulnerability
capacity b. In-effective implementation of rules and
 VULNERABILITY:- is the human dimension of regulations concerning with disaster
disaster and is context specific. It arises because management.
of following major factors.  however, inadequate implementation is
1) ECONOMIC FACTORS:- there
 Related to low income levels which reduce the  Examples are like there are fire safety
coping capacities of communities and countries. norms, say commercial buildings should get
{as people are aware about the situations of risk, their fire safety clearance, however they are
but due to poverty, they could not migrate or operating in country without this clearance,
resettle} and fire accidents are very common in India.
2) ADMINISTRATIVE/GOVERNANCE factor This is an example of In-effective
 these are majorly of two types implementation of rules and regulations
a. Inadequacy of regulatory framework for  E.g:- Munka fire happened in Delhi.
disaster management:- As every country  E.g:- Morbi bridge collapse, after this
requires rules and regulations incident, Nagarpalika said that they have not
 Dams and reservoirs are examples of hazard got any fitness certificate (which is needed
prone infra. So they are prone to any hazard like before starting of operation of bridge) from
structure failure or collapse. us after the maintance work was done of
 2019:- Maharashtra had Tiware Dam, Cracks the bridge. But bridge was re-opened and
were developed, however the maintenance was after 2 days they bridge collapsed.
not done by Administration. 2019 due to heavy Nagarpalika was allowing the operation
rain on Western Ghats of Maharashtra, this Dam without the fitness available with the
collapsed and there were massive flooding in the contractor. This is an example of In-effective
downstream region and entire hamlet washed
implementation of rules and regulations (as
away.
the rule is existed)
 They themselves induce earthquakes in the
regions and earthquakes are known as RIS 3) RAPID URBANIZATION AND POORLY
(Reservoirs induced seismicity). E.g:-Koyna EQ. PLANNED URBANIZATION:-
 Sometimes because of mismanagement of dams  Urban areas are densely populated;
and reservoirs (how, when, what quantity of
therefore there is high concentration of
water etc), the losses get compounded. E.g 2018
Kerala floods happened. Historically heavy people and assets in urban areas. {If it is an
rainfall happened due to Climate change in uninhabited region, there will nobody be
Kerala. Post disaster assessment was conducted exposed to the risk and no headline is made,
by UN along with state govt of Kerala and they example we never see any news of an
found the reason for compounded loss is earthquake of 6.5 magnitudes at MoR of
mismanagement. {June,2018:-deficit rainfall was Atlantic. However it happens let say in delhi,
in Kerala, so reservoirs cannot be filled, followed so it becomes a very big headline as urban
by July, so state electricity board got anxious areas are prone to this risk due to high
about (whether rain comes or not) it in following concentration of people and assets }
months so they filled all reservoirs of Kerala to
 Example:- Corona pandemic hit the urban
their maximum capacity in July itself, but rain
happened historically at record level in august areas the more.
th
12-13 . ho reservoirs faced a lot of hydrostatic  Poorly planned urbanization means that
pressure and water of 40 reservoirs got released there is mis-governance when it comes to
at one go now and downstream of kerala got planning of urban areas and there will be
flooded with this water and completely washed unscientific land use planning (LUP)
away}.  Example:- Bhopal Gas tragedy, Styrene gas
 So these type of dams are high risk infrastructure leak incident at LG polymer plant of

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Vishakhapatnam , there were human which is the initial trigger for the
settlements next to these plants, that is an destabilization of hill slopes.
example of unscientific LUP.  Construction of HEPs, Hotels and resorts ,
 urban areas don’t have adequate urban connectivity infra like roads, illegal mining
infrastructure e.g drainage infrastructure and quarrying :- all this is happening in
a. storm water drainage infrastructure western Ghats.
(artificial)  Natural forest of WG have been replaced by
b. sewage drain Monocultures of Plantations
 Urban areas require both of them.  All this is beyond the carrying capacity of
Urbanization means concretization of Western Ghats, so hill cutting, hill
land, leads to poor drainage. fragmentation, large scale slope
 Therefore Urban areas also require modification had to be done.
natural drainage basins like the  2018-19:-for 2 consecutive years, abnormal
wetlands, lakes , flood plains of rivers heavy precipitation happened and attributed
 Urbanization happens in an haphazard to climate change. So Climate change is just
manner, poorly planned, there is illegal here acting as an risk amplifier (risk gets
encroachment starts to take place over compounded)
these natural drainage basins (as there is  DISASTER:- HAZARD = VULNERABILITY
no town planning).  Because of climate change:- H↑, V↑, so D will also ↑
 Examples:- Chennai, PallaiKarani  D↑:- H↑+V↑
wetland, encroachment over it has  So disasters globally are on the rise
happened and it has shank. Similarly  Question:-Vulnerability is an essential element for
happened with the lakes of the defining disaster impacts and its threats to people.
Bangalore (Bellan Dur lake and Varthur How and in what ways can vulnerability to disasters
be characterized ? discuss different types of
lake, both have shrunk)
vulnerability with reference to disasters.
 For Mumbai, flood plains of Mithi river  Answer:-
have encroached upon.
 Encroachment is possible is because of  2020THE REPORT BY UNDRR-
poor-urban governance.
 storm water drainage infrastructure
HUMAN COST OF DISASTERS-
(artificial)  (UNDRR, formerly known as UNISDR, is the focal
 Cities may not have adequate length of point of the United Nations system for disaster
storm water drain, if they have some risk reduction and the custodian of the Sendai
then may not be maintained well if they Framework, supporting countries and societies
have. in its implementation, monitoring and review of
 Now even the tier-2 cities are prone to progress. Unite Nations Office for Disaster
urban flooding because of these Reduction(UNISDR/ UNDRR) enables
reasons. communities to become resilient to the effects
of natural technological and environmental
4) ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION:- hazards and reducing the compound risks they
 Means development takes place beyond the pose to social and economic vulnerabilities
carrying capacity of a region /ecosystem within modern societies.)
 2018, flooding and landslides took place in 1) It confirms how extreme weather events have
Kerala, come to dominate the disaster landscape in the
 2019:- landslides took place in Kerala, Karnataka, 21st century.
MH 2) In the period 2000 to 2019, there were more
 E.g :- Western Ghats:- than 7000 major recorded disaster events
 Western ghats are ecologically fragile and claiming 1.23 million lives, affecting 4.2 billion
are economically important as well, as they people resulting in approximately US$2.97
are mineral rich, have hydroelectric trillion in global economic losses.
potential due to rivers, and have tourism 3) This is a sharp increase over the previous twenty
potential. years. Between 1980 and 1999, 4,212 disasters
 Over the years , development pressure is were linked to natural hazards worldwide
increasing on western ghats as the claiming approximately 1.19 million lives and
population is increasing. Construction on affecting 3.25 billion people resulting in
this hilly area is preceded by deforestation ,

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approximately US$1.63 trillion in economic million. And total number of deaths in the same
losses. period due to disasters was more than 79000.
 In terms of affected countries globally, China
(577 events) and the United States of America
(U.S.) (467 events) reported the highest number
of disaster events, followed by India (321
events), Philippines (304 events), and Indonesia
(278 events) (Figure 3). These countries all have
large and heterogenous landmasses and
relatively high population densities in at-risk
areas.
 Global Assessment Report by UNDRR
4) Much of the difference is explained by a rise in  The human race has never before faced such
climate-related disasters including extreme large and complex threats. The number of
weather events: from 3,656 climate-related weather and climate related disasters has more
events (1980-1999) to 6,681 climate-related than doubled in the last 40 years. Climate
disasters in the period 2000-2019. change is acting as a risk amplifier, thus making
5) More than 90% of the disasters in this period disaster management all the more critical
(2000-2019) were climate related. Rest 10%  INTERNATIONAL EFFORTS FOR
were geophysical.
6) The last twenty years has seen the number of DISASTER MANAGEMENT:-
major floods more than double, from 1,389 to  1989:- UN declared 1990 to 1999 as the
3,254, while the incidence of storms grew from International decade for natural disaster
1,457 to 2,034. Floods and storms were the most reduction (IDNDR). Its aim was to generate
prevalent events. greater awareness among the countries for
disaster management. An International Decade
for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR),
beginning on 1 January 1990, was launched by
the United Nations. The Decade was intended
to reduce, through concerted international
action, especially in developing countries, loss of
life, poverty damage and social and economic
disruption caused by natural disasters
A. THE FIRST WORLD CONFERENCE
7) The report “The Human Cost of Disasters 2000- YOKOHAMA 1994:-
2019” also records major increases in other  1994:- first world conference on disaster
categories including drought, wildfires and reduction was held at Yokohama, Japan, 23-27
extreme temperature events. There has also May 1994. It provided Yokohama’s guidelines
been a rise in geo-physical events including for disaster prevention, mitigation,
earthquakes and tsunamis which have killed preparedness, and disaster risk reduction
more people than any of the other natural (DRR). The emphasis was given on disaster risk
hazards under review in this report. reduction (DRR) from a relief centric approach
8) For disasters since 2000, in low-income (post disaster focus).
countries, an average of 130 people died per  DRR is done prior to the disaster, therefore
million living in disaster-affected areas, Yokohama focused on both Pre and post
compared to just 18 in high-income countries. disaster focus.
That means people exposed to natural hazards  Means from infancy stage (before
in the poorest nations were more than seven yokohama’s), it was moving towards mature
times more likely to die than equivalent stage
populations in the richest nations.  It was based on following principles-
9) India specific statistics- Total number of a) The disaster prevention, mitigation,
disasters reported in India during 2000-2019 was preparedness and relief were identified as
321. Total number of people affected by four elements which contribute to and gain
disasters in India during 2000-2019 was 1083 from the implementation of sustainable
development policies.

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b) Disaster prevention, mitigation and a) Ability of a system to maintain equilibrium or
preparedness are better than disaster state of normalcy in its functioning in the event
response in achieving the goals and of a disaster.
objectives of the Decade. b) Ability of system to bounce back to the state of
normalcy whenever disruptions are caused
c) It highlighted socio-economic vulnerability.
because of a disaster
 UN along with Japanese think tanks have been  Yokohama focus was on DRR, but hyogo central
working on this, and they came to a conclusion that message was building resilience of nations and
disasters were on the rise and losses were on the rise. communities to disasters i.e resilience at grass level
However, UN identified that for most of the should be developed and countries must be resilient
countries, they were using a temporary approach for as well.
disaster management like disaster happened, loss has  Resilience in simple words:-Systems like
occurred, forces of those countries reached over administrative, communication systems, basic
there, carried out rescue operations, provided services like health and education, infrastructure like
medical aid and compensation to the victims. So this energy, power:- all of these are examples of systems
was a relief-centric approach. running in a country and all these seem to be working
 Disaster management and sustainable in a seamless manner when a disaster happens that is
development are mutually reinforcing what a disaster is.
because:-  E.g:- there are some countries affected by tropical
a) Disaster management is essential to save the human cyclones and one of the infrastructures gets affected
life and assets, as human capital and physical infra is are the power transmission lines. So many of the
an enabler of future growth. Disasters always countries are going with underground system of
undermine the growth and developmental process. power transmission lines for much resilience to the
b) For uninterrupted growth:- enablers are Human impacts of tropical cyclones
capital, economic capital, physical infrastructure  Hyogo says that sometimes disasters are going to be
capital. If these get compromised (by disaster or any large in magnitude and there will obviously be some
other way), would halt the development prospects of impact and some disruptions will happen, so to get
the future as well with present. back to normalcy is the resilience.
 Therefore UN thought that awareness needs to be  E.g:- the Corona Pandemic, the disruptions were
increased among the countries and UN held three bound to happen. And like in Education ,online
conference till date, first was at Yokohama 1994. schooling (digital mode) happened in urban area
 Hazard cannot be controlled, we are going to target showing high resilience and this happened late in
collapsing structures and trying to reduce the risk rural areas showing less resilience
exposure of people is called as disaster risk reduction  The Hyogo Framework priorities for action
means trying to reduce the vulnerability 2005-2015 are
B. THE SECOND WORLD CONFERENCE:- a) ensure that disaster risk reduction is a
national and a local priority with a strong
HYOGO 2005:- institutional basis for implementation;
 2005- 2nd World Conference on Disaster b) identify, assess and monitor disaster risks
Reduction- 18-22 January 2005, Kobe, Hyogo, and enhance early warning;
Japan c) use knowledge, innovation and education to
 Second world conference on disaster reduction build a culture of safety and resilience at all
was held at Hyogo, it adopted Hyogo framework levels;
for action (2005-2015). Its aim was To build d) reduce the underlying risk factors; and
resilience of nations and communities to e) strengthen disaster preparedness for
disasters effective response at all levels
 It was now internationally acknowledged that
efforts to reduce disaster risks must be
C. THE THIRD WORLD CONFERENCE:-
systematically integrated into policies, plans and SENDAI 2015:-
programmes for sustainable development and  Third UN World Conference in Sendai, Japan, on
poverty reduction, and supported through March 14- 18, 2015
bilateral, regional and international cooperation.  3rd world conference of disaster reduction held
 The review of Yokohama Strategy stressed the at sendai (Japan), it adopted Sendai Framework
importance of disaster risk reduction being for disaster risk reduction (SFDRR), (from 2015-
underpinned by a more pro-active approach to 2030).
informing, motivating and involving people in all  The purpose of the conference was to adopt a
aspects of disaster risk reduction. concise, focused, forward-looking and action-
 Resilience is defined as the ability to withstand oriented post 2015 framework for disaster risk
stresses/shocks because of a disaster. It is of two reduction. For the first time it was recognised
types:-
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that addressing climate change as one of the them health and educational facilities, including
drivers of disaster risk, (while respecting the through developing their resilience by 2030;
mandate of the United Nations Framework e) Substantially increase the number of countries with
Convention on Climate Change,) represented an national and local disaster risk reduction strategies by
2020;
opportunity to reduce disaster risk in a
f) Substantially enhance international cooperation to
meaningful and coherent manner throughout developing countries through adequate and
the interrelated intergovernmental processes. sustainable support to complement their national
 The present Framework applies to the risk of actions for implementation of the present Framework
small-scale and large-scale, frequent and by 2030;
infrequent, sudden and slow-onset disasters g) Substantially increase the availability of and access to
caused by natural or man-made hazards, as well multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk
as related environmental, technological and information and assessments to people by 2030.
biological hazards and risks  More importantly, the Framework has
 This framework has provided 4 priorities for adopted following four priority areas
action for a robust disaster management across a) Priority 1: Understanding disaster risk.
the countries.  Implies identifying hazard prone areas of the country
 It has set 7 global targets which are to be through hazard zonation mapping and also asserting
achieved by 2030. vulnerability profile of a country, also called as
 Sendai is a voluntary instrument, India has Hazard risk vulnerability assessment (HRBA).
 vulnerability is context specific and is of following
signed it.
major types
Question:-Describe various measures taken in India
a. economic vulnerability
for DRR before and after signing sendai framework.
b. physical vulnerability related to infrastructure
How is this framework different from Hyogo
like power, communication etc.
framework for action
c. social vulnerability related to demographic
 How is this framework different from attributes like age, gender etc. (women, children,
Hyogo framework for action:- Physically disabled, older are more vulnerable, so
a) Sendai came in 2015, it is not legally binding are first to be rescued)
(voluntarily), but it encourages countries to  so Hazard is geography specific and identifying hazard
achieve some targets is known as Hazard zonation mapping. like east coast
is most vulnerable for cyclones in India, zone can be
b) Hyogo and yokohama didn’t set any targets
identified. So, hazard is based upon the physiography
(they only provided guidelines and
of the region
principles) whereas sendai set targets.  Vulnerability is context specific means it is situational
Sendai became action oriented. and it is circumstantial.
c) Sendai when it happened in 2015, same b) Priority 2: Strengthening disaster risk
time, Paris agreement came up, SDGs were governance to manage disaster risk.
also adopted. And all three were mutually  Governance refers to the legislative and regulatory
reinforcing because disaster management is framework along with institutional and financial
actually climate adaptation. Sendai arrangements for disaster management.
recognised how climate adaption is  governance broadly is functions, functionaries and
important for disaster management (Hyogo funds , i.e. is the role and responsibilities for
and Yokohama didn’t take climate into management
 For example we have NDM Act2005. The Act specifies
consideration)
what are the authorities in country responsible for
 Sendai Framework aims to achieve the DM and what are they mandated to do.
following outcomes over the next 15 years-  1999:- Odisha was hit by Super cyclone (named
a) Substantially reduce global disaster mortality by as 1999Super-cyclone), India's cyclone earning
2030, aiming to lower the average per 100,000 global warning systems were not very advance. IMD
mortality rate in the decade 2020–2030 compared to provided a warning time of 2 days, however, Odisha
the period 2005– 2015; govt failed to understand the disaster is.
b) Substantially reduce the number of affected people unfortunately this cyclone proved to be catastrophic
globally by 2030, aiming to lower the average global as it had 260km/hr (maximum recorded wind speed),
figure per 100,000 in the decade 2020–2030 and continued for 48hours and when this was
compared to the period 2005– 2015; happening , CM was on holiday, so no one in the
c) Reduce direct disaster economic loss in relation to administration had any clue of how the rescue and
global gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030; relief is to be carried out. First line of relief of was in
d) Substantially reduce disaster damage to critical food packets and water packets, dropped off airily by
infrastructure and disruption of basic services, among a foreign NGO, not by ODISHA and Indian govt, total
10,000 people died and entire Odisha seen like a sea
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of floating dead bodies from the air. failure of disaster response forces (like NDRF), the para
governance was seen as govt had not done any medic staff to treat the injured
recusal work  UN has now dedicated funds for installing this
 {Note:- Naming of Cyclone for entire Indian ocean early warning systems among different countries
region started in 2005-06, based upon wind speed
they are named and categorised, like super cyclone is ……..1st class ended, 2nd started…….
when wind speed exceeds 222km/hr} 
 2013:- ODISHA:- PHAILIN (super cyclone) again 
hit the Odisha , IMD was able to make a forecast
about it and provided warning 3-4 days in advance,
CM Naveen P, took steps prior the cyclone hit and the
entire administration got into action and Odisha
carried out largest ever evacuation drive (of world)
for DM, in 24 hours 1million people were evacuated ,
mortalities happened in 2 digit numbers as compared
to 1999, just because of the governance
 so good governance mitigates and bad compounds
the loses
c) Priority 3: Investing in disaster risk reduction
for resilience.
 Investing in DRR for resilience, DRR comprises of
following measures
a. Structural measures:-
 Refers to engineering solutions to reduce the
disaster risk.
 e.g seismic shock absorbers for EQ resilient
infrastructure.
 e.g tsunami walls or sea walls for coastal regions
 e.g:-most of the buildings constructed in Japan
have seismic shock absorbers fitted inside the
foundations of buildings, so when EQ rays travel
through this, the shock absorbers absorb the
energy of EQ and reduces the chances of collapse
of the building, this engineering solution is called
as structural measure
b. Non-structural measures:-
 they are further of two types
1) techno legal framework:- which mandates
compliance with structural measures
2) bio-shields:-ecosystems which reduce the
risk of disasters like mangroves, coral reefs,
wetlands, flood plains of rivers, forests over
the hill slopes
d) Priority 4: Enhancing disaster preparedness for
effective response and to “Build Back Better” in
recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction.
 Disaster preparedness refers to state of readiness to
face a disaster and to carry out efficient rescue and
relief operations,(means how ready we are to face
something which is about to happen) it includes the
following
a. Installing multi-hazard early warning systems
which provide warning about an impending
disaster e.g:- tsunami , cyclone, floods early
warning system
b. Capacity building with logistical and human
resources to carry out timely and effective rescue
and relief operations. Like you need staff for
evacuating, firefighting etc e.g cyclone shelters ,
fire tenders, fire safety staff, firefighting staff,

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