Note for Disaster Management - dm by Aalok Channar

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Dept. of Civil Engineering, MEAEC Module I MODULE 1 Syllabus: Fundamental concepts of hazards and disasters: Introduction to key concepts and terminology of hazard, vulnerability, exposure, risk, crisis, emergencies, Disasters, Resilience. Basic concept of Earth as a system and its component sub systems. Climate Change vis‐a‐vis the interrelationships of the subsystems‐ Green House Effect and Global warming, basic ideas about their causes and effects. DISASTER BACKGROUND Disasters are as old as human history but the dramatic increase and the damage caused by them in the recent past have become a cause of national and international concern. Over the past decade, the number of natural and man‐made disasters has climbed inexorably. From 1994 to 1998, reported disasters average was 428 per year but from 1999 to 2003, this figure went up to an average of 707 disaster events per year showing an increase of about 60 per cent over the previous years. The biggest rise was in countries of low human development, which suffered an increase of 142 per cent. Disasters are not new to mankind. They have been the constant, though inconvenient, companions of the human beings since time immemorial. Disasters can be natural or human‐made. Earthquake, cyclone, hailstorm, cloud‐burst, landslide, soil erosion, snow avalanche, flood etc. are the examples of natural disasters while fire, epidemics, road, air, rail accidents and leakages of chemicals/ nuclear installations etc. fall under the category of human‐made disasters. WHAT IS A DISASTER?  A disaster can be defined as “A serious disruption in the functioning of the community or a society causing wide spread material, economic, social or environmental losses which exceed the ability of the affected society to cope using its own resources”.  The Disaster Management Act, 2005 defines disaster as “a catastrophe, mishap, calamity or grave occurrence in any area, arising from natural or manmade causes, or by accident or negligence which results in substantial loss of life or human suffering or damage to, and destruction of, property or damage to, or degradation of, environment, and is of such a nature or magnitude as to be beyond the coping capacity of the community of the affected area”.  The United Nations defines disaster as “the occurrence of sudden or major misfortune which disrupts the basic fabric and normal functioning of the society or community”.  For a disaster to be entered into the database at least one of the following criteria must be fulfilled:  Ten (10) or more people reported killed  Hundred (100) or more people reported affected  Declaration of a state of emergency  Call for international assistance A disaster is a result from the combination of hazard, vulnerability and insufficient capacity or measures to reduce the potential chances of risk. A disaster happens when a hazard impacts on the vulnerable population and causes damage, casualties and disruption. For a better illustration of disaster is any hazard – flood, earthquake or cyclone which is a triggering event along with greater vulnerability (inadequate access to resources, sick and old people, lack of awareness etc) would lead to disaster causing greater loss to life and property CE 488 – Disaster Management 1 | Page

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Module I Dept. of Civil Engineering, MEAEC For example: an earthquake in an uninhabited desert cannot be considered a disaster, no matter how strong the intensities produced. An earthquake is disastrous only when it affects people, their properties and activities. Thus, disaster occurs only when hazards and vulnerability meet. But it is also to be noted that with greater capacity of the individual/community and environment to face these disasters, the impact of a hazard reduces. Therefore, we need to understand the three major components namely hazard, vulnerability and capacity with suitable examples to have a basic understanding of disaster management. Disaster is an event or series of events, which gives rise to casualties and damage or loss of properties, infrastructures, environment, essential services or means of livelihood on such a scale which is beyond the normal capacity of the affected community to cope with. Disaster is also sometimes described as a “catastrophic situation in which the normal pattern of life or eco‐system has been disrupted and extra‐ordinary emergency interventions are required to save and preserve lives and or the environment”. DISASTERS – GLOBAL SCENARIO Disasters ‐ natural or human‐made are common throughout the world. Disasters continue to occur without warning and are perceived to be on an increase in their magnitude, complexity, frequency and economic impact. Hazards pose threats to people and assume serious proportions in the under developed countries with dense population. During the second half of the 20th century, more than 200 worst natural disasters occurred in the different parts of the world and claimed lives of around 1.4 million people. Losses due to natural disasters are 20 times greater (as % of GDP) in the developing countries than in industrialized one. Asia tops the list of casualties due to natural disasters. Figure shows the Regional distribution of disasters by type, as prepared by Centre for Research on Epidemiology of Disaster. 2 | Page CE 488 – Disaster Management

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Dept. of Civil Engineering, MEAEC Module I There have been several natural, as well as, man‐made disasters. Records of natural disasters can be traced way back to 430 B.C. when the Typhus epidemic was reported in Athens. Ten deadliest natural disasters recorded in the world are dated back to 1556 when an earthquake in Shaanxi province of China occurred on 23rd January, 1556 and 8,30,000 casualties were recorded. List of ten deadliest disasters which have occurred across the world and in India in the known history and in the last century may be seen from the respectively. World Disaster S.No Name of Event Year Country & Region Fatalities 1. Earthquake 1556 China, Shaanxi 830000 2. Earthquake 1731 China 100,000 3. Cyclone 1737 India, Calcutta 300000 4. Yellow River flood Messina Earthquake 1887 China 900,000–2,000,000 1908 Italy 123000 Earthquake 1920 China, Gansu 235000 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Great Kanto Earthquake Great Chinese Famine 1923 Japan 142,000 1958‐ 1961 China 15,000,000–43,000,000 Bhola Cyclone 1970 West Bengal, India & East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) 500,000 Tangshan Earthquake 1976 China 242,419 In Last Century S.No Name of Event Year Country & Region 1. China Floods, 1931 China 1,000,000–2,500,000 2. Floods 1954 40,000 3. Cyclone 1970 4. Bangladesh Cyclone, 1991 China Bangladesh, Chittagong, Khulna Bangladesh 5. Earthquake 1999 6. Tsunami 2004 7. Hurricane Katrina 2005 Turkey Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia, Somalia,Bangladesh, Thailand United States of America 8. Sichuan Earthquake 2008 China 9. Cyclone nargis 2008 Myanmar Haiti Earthquake 2010 Haiti 10. CE 488 – Disaster Management Fatalities 300,000 139,000 17,000 230,210 1,836 87476 deaths including missing More than 138000 deaths 31600 3 | Page

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Module I Dept. of Civil Engineering, MEAEC Indian Disasters S.No Name of Event Year State & Area Fatalities 1. Earthquake 1556 China, Shaanxi 830000 2. Earthquake 1731 China 100,000 3. Cyclone 1737 India, Calcutta 300000 9. Bhola Cyclone 1970 West Bengal, India & East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) 500,000 10. Tangshan Earthquake 1976 China 12. Cyclone 1977 Andhra Pradesh 13. Latur Earthquake 1993 Latur, Marthawada 14. Orissa Super Cyclone 1999 Orissa 15. Gujarat Earthquake 2001 Bhuj, Bachau, Anjar, Ahmedabad, surat Gujarat 2004 Coastline of TamilNadu, Kerala, AP, Pandicherry, as well as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India 242,419 10000 deaths hundreds of thousands homeless 40000cattele deaths. Destroyed 40% of India’s food grains 7928 died & 30000 were injured 10000 25000 deaths 6.3 million people affected 10749 deaths 5640 persons missing 2.79 million people affected 11827 hectares of crops damaged 300000 fisher flok lost their livehoods 1094 deaths 167 Injured 54 Missing 8600 deaths 527 deaths 19323 Live stock 222754 Houses damaged 3329423 persons affected 204 deaths 800 million worth damages 65 Deaths 16. Tsunami 17. Maharshrta floods 18. Kashmir Earthquake 2005, July 2005 19. Kosi Floods 2008 North Bihar 20. Cyclone Nisha 2008 Tamil Nadu 21. Cyclone Laila 2010 Srilanka and India 22. Cyclone Lehar 2013 India 23. Cyclone Hud‐Hud 2014 India/Nepal 24. Cyclone Komen 2015 W.B/Bihear‐Odisha 25. Cyclone Roanu 2016 Bangladesh, India, Myanmar 26. Kerala floods 2018 Kerala 417 27. Cyclone Titli 2018 Andhra Pradesh & Odisha 89 MP state Kashmir None 124 Deaths None 227 Deaths Figure below shows the vulnerability scenario across the globe in terms of events and India has faced more than 260 events of disasters and over 3.5 million people affected from 1975 ‐ 2001. It further analyses that the vulnerability of people and severity of disasters. 4 | Page CE 488 – Disaster Management