4/7/2020

1. Elements of Disaster Modeling – Disaster

Management Cycle & Key Terminology
Dr. S. Saravanan
Assistant Professor, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, Tamilnadu, India

வ ன காவாதா வா ைக எாி ன
ைவ ேபால ெக .- ற 435

“We are not preparing for the world we live in - we are

preparing for the world we find ourselves in.”
– Michael Mabee
Prepping for a Suburban or Rural Community: Building a Civil Defense Plan for a Long-Term Catastrophe

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Hazard
In the modern sense of the word, hazards are events or physical conditions that have
the potential to cause fatalities, injuries, property damage, infrastructure damage,
agricultural loss, damage to the environment, interruption of business, or other types
of harms or losses (FEMA, 1997). What determines whether a hazard becomes a
disaster are risk and vulnerability.

Hazard is a rare or extreme event in the natural or human made environment that
adversely affects human, plant and animal life, property to the extent of causing a
disaster.
It is essential to make a distinction between hazards and disasters, and to recognize
that the effect of the former upon the latter is essentially a measure of the society’s
vulnerability. Eg Floods, drought, earth quake, etc..
Some hazards are caused by humans, like
environmental protection, deforestation,
ethnic conflicts, war etc. However, a hazard by
itself is not necessarily a disaster. A hazard
only becomes a disaster when it adversely
affects people lives, cause damage to
property and or peoples livelihood.

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
livelihood & services, social & economic disruption or environmental
damage...

• Could be a potentially damaging phenomenon

• It could be natural or human-induced.

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Disaster
The term disaster is derived from the Latin roots dis- and astro, meaning “away from the
stars” or, in other words, an event to be blamed on an unfortunate astrological configuration.
Disasters occur when a hazard risk is realized.

Disasters are measured in terms of the lives lost, injuries sustained, property damaged or
lost, and environmental degradation. These consequences are manifested through both direct
and indirect means, and can be tangible or intangible. Understanding each of these
measures is of great importance in assessing vulnerability

Disasters may be sudden onset or “creeping.” Sudden-onset disasters often happen with little
or no warning, and most of their damaging effects are sustained within hours or days.
Examples include earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, landslides, tornadoes, and floods.

Creeping disasters occur when the ability of response agencies to support people’s needs
degrades over weeks or months, and they can persist for months or years once discovered.
Examples are drought, famine, soil salination, the AIDS epidemic, and erosion.

Strong building, Strict building

code, land use planning, DISASTER
Prevention structures etc

Vulnerability
There is a Potential for
an event to Occur

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Vulnerability is a concept which describes is the degree to which an economic, social,

physical or geographic nature, are susceptible to loss, damage, suffering and deaths
in the event of a hazard .

Vulnerability
vulnerability is a measure of the propensity of an object, area, individual, group,
community, country, or other entity to incur the consequences of a hazard. This
measurement results from a combination of physical, social, economic, and
environmental factors or processes.

There is a reason that two identical events will present as a minor issue in one country
and a disaster in another. This reason comes to mind when, in assessing damages from
a hurricane, one comes across a house completely destroyed right next to an
unscathed structure. We must also consider why two earthquakes, of almost equal
magnitude and intensity, could cause less than 100 deaths in Los Angeles but over
20,000 in Gujarat, India. The answer to all of these issues is vulnerability.

Vulnerability: Vulnerability is the extent or degree to which an individual,

community, structure, service or geographic area is likely to be damaged or
disrupted by the impact of a particular disaster.

Families and communities are said to be vulnerable when they are exposed to
known hazards and likely to be adversely affected by those hazards, if and when
they occur. But these vulnerable conditions are not for everyone.

A family living on the riverbanks for example, is vulnerable to specific hazards (in
this case floods) compare to a family whose house is located on the higher ground
that cannot be reached by floodwaters.

There is a Potential for

an event to Occur

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Disaster: A serious disruption of society, causing widespread human, material or

environmental losses that exceed the capacity of the affected society to cope with
unaided.

Disaster: A disaster can be defined as the serious disruption of the functioning of a

community, causing widespread human, material or environmental losses, which
exceed the ability of the effected people to cope using their own
resources.

Emergency: Risk that can be managed using existing resources and support in a
given condition and situation.

Response: Actions taken immediately following the impact of a disaster when

exceptional measures are required to meet the basic needs of the survivors

Rehabilitation: Actions taken in the aftermath of a disaster to:

Assist victims to repair their dwellings;
Re-establish essential services;
Revive key economic and social activities

Reconstruction: Permanent measures to repair or replace damaged dwellings and

infrastructure and to set the economy back on course.

Development: Sustained efforts intended to improve or maintain the social and

economic well- being of a community.

Disaster Preparedness: Ability to predict, respond to and cope with the effect
of a disaster.
Disaster mitigation: Measures taken in advance of a disaster aimed at reducing
its impact on society and the environment.

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Prevention: Activities designed to provide permanent protection from disasters.

Disaster Risk Reduction: It is a conceptual framework to include comprehensive
set of activities & elements so as to minimize vulnerabilities and disaster risks
throughout a society, to avoid (prevention) or to limit (mitigation and preparedness)
the adverse impacts of hazards, within the broad context of sustainable
development.

Disaster Risk Management: The systematic process of using administrative

decisions, organization, operational skills and capacities to implement policies,
strategies and coping capacities of the society and communities to lessen the impacts
of natural hazards and related environmental and technological disasters.
Resilience: The ability of individuals, communities, organizations, or countries
exposed to disasters and crises and underlying vulnerabilities to:
Anticipate; Reduce the impact of; Cope with; and Recover from the effects of
adversity without compromising their long term prospects

Hazard Identification and Risk, Impact, and Vulnerability Analysis All preparedness
activities must be based on knowledge about hazards, the likelihood of different
types of disaster events, and likely impacts on the natural and built environment,
households, organizations, community institutions and communities.

Resilience, Resilience: The ability of individuals, communities, organizations, or

countries exposed to disasters and crises and underlying vulnerabilities to:
anticipate; Reduce the impact of; Cope with; and Recover from the effects of
adversity without compromising their long term prospects

Risk
Just as all life is full of hazard, all life is full of risk. However, the concept of risk
can have varying meanings depending on the context. Just as it is used differently
by insurance specialists versus stockbrokers or physicians, disaster managers
employ their own deviation on risk.

Contingency planning: Contingency planning is a tool to anticipate and solve

problems that typically arise during humanitarian response.

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Compound (Combination) Disaster

Disasters are not always limited to a single hazard. Sometimes two or more
completely independent disasters occur at the same time; for instance, an
earthquake strike during a flood. It is more common that one disaster triggers a
secondary hazard.

Some secondary hazards only occur as result of a primary hazard, such as a

tsunami (from earthquakes, volcanoes, or landslides), while others can occur either
because of or independent of other disasters (such as landslides, which can be
triggered by heavy rains, earthquakes, volcanoes, or other reasons, or occur purely
on their own).

Compound disasters, which can occur either sequentially or simultaneously with one
or more disasters, have a tendency to exacerbate consequences and increase
victims’ issues (such as stress and isolation).

They can make search and rescue and other response and recovery tasks more
difficult, and, most important, can significantly increase the risk of harm to victims
and responders alike.

Reli ef
Relief Phase – During relief phase, there should be a need assessment of survivors
and based upon that immediate relief like food, clothing and shelter must be
provided. Depending on the initial needs assessment, relief is provided to the
survivors.

The relief must be adequate and appropriate to the culture of the affected
community. The relief is generally provided by external agencies (NGOS, INGOs)
and Government resources.

Immediate medical need includes immediate medical assistance, safe drinking water,
nutritious food, temporary shelters, food, clothing, information on missing relatives,
psycho-social assistance to trauma victims, special care to children, elderly and
physically challenged special attention to pregnant and lactating women.

Measures that are required in search and rescue of

survivors, as well to meet the basic needs for shelter,
water, food and health care.

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Recovery phase – When the immediate needs of the population are met, when
all medical help has arrived and people have settled from the hustle – bustle of the
event, they begin to enter the next phase, the recovery phase which is the most
significant, in terms of long term outcome.

It is during this time that the victims actually realize the impact of disaster. It is now
that they perceive the meaning of the loss that they have suffered. They are often
housed in a camp or in some place which is often not their house, along with other
victims.
When the victims have recovered from the trauma both physically and mentally, they
realize the need to return back to normal routine. That is, to pre-disaster life.

During this phase, they need resources and facilities so as to enable them to return
back to their own homes, pursue their occupation, so that they can sustain their
life on their own, as the help from the government and other non-governmental
organizations is bound to taper in due course.

Thus, they are provided with a whole new environment, adequate enough to pursue
a normal or at least near normal life. This is called rehabilitation.

R esponse
Actions taken immediately following the impact of
a disaster when exceptional measures are
required to meet the basic needs of the survivors.

Recovery
The process undertaken by a disaster affected
community to fully restore itself to pre-disaster level
of functioning.

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Capacity
Those positive condition or abilities which increase
a community’s ability to deal with hazards.

Rehabilitation
Actions taken in the aftermath of a disaster to:
• assist victims to repair their dwellings;
• re-establish essential services;
• revive key economic and social activities

Reconstruction
Permanent measures to repair or replace
damaged dwellings and infrastructure
and to set the economy back on course.

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Prevention Strong building, Strict

building code, land use
planning, Prevention
structures etc

Measures taken to avert a

disaster from occurring, if
possible (to impede a hazard
so that it does not have any
harmful effects).

Mitigation

Measures taken prior to the impact

of a disaster to minimize its effects
(sometimes referred to as structural
and non-structural measures).

Strong building, Strict building code, land

use planning, Prevention structures etc

Mitigation

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Preparedness

Measures taken in anticipation of a disaster

to ensure that appropriate and effective
actions are taken in the aftermath.

Watch our ! The rock is

falling

Preparedness

Elements at Risk

Persons, buildings, crops or other such like societal components exposed to known
hazard, which are likely to be adversely affected by the impact of the hazard.

The degree to which the element at risk are likely to experience hazard events of
different magnitude.

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Phases Of Disaster Management

Disaster Preparedness

Disaster impact
Pre-impact phase

Disaster Response

Rehabilitation

Disaster Mitigation
Impact phase
Disaster impact
Search, rescue and first aid
Field care
Triage Post-impact phase
Tagging
Identification of dead

Containment
Containing the disease and reducing its spread
• Vector control
• Isolation and Quarantine
• Vaccination and antiviral prophylaxis
• Border control
• Social isolation
• Equipment including PPE

Continuity
Maintenance of essential services
• Workforce protection with enhanced infection control, PPE, isolation of patients
and anti-viral’s
• Access to business
• Maintenance of the food supply
• Creating capacity
• Protecting essential services

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Capability
Increasing the capability of the system to manage bypreparation
• Information and awareness of personnel through education
• Vaccination
• Preparation and possible stockpiling of equipment and consumables.
Health Capability
• Level 1 concentrate expertise utilising existing infrastructure
• Level 2 Preserve infrastructurefor the event by early discharge, limiting non-urgent
activity
• Level 3 Expand health infrastructure through system wide management, growing
capacity and importing capacity
• Level 4 Ration access to health infrastructure through triage of patients

Recovery
• Restore essential services & • Community rehabilitation
• Counselling & • Temporary housing
• Financial support or assistance & • Health and safety information
• Long-term medical care & • Physical restoration/re-construction
• Public information & • Conducting economic impact studies

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