Launch of the Risk Assessment Reference Guide from GFDRR
July 23, 2014 2:51 pm Published by Simone Balog Leave a commentIn 1999, the state of Odisha, India, was hit by the most powerful tropical cyclone ever recorded in the North Indian Ocean, causing nearly 10,000 fatalities and $5 billion in damages. For the next decade, the government of Odisha and partners worked to identify and mitigate cyclone risk. When the similarly intense Cyclone Phailin struck Odisha in October 2013, the region counted 99.6% fewer deaths.
Case studies like this clearly show the potential of targeted disaster risk management efforts. The motivation for change, however, is far too often a costly and devastating disaster that has resulted in substantial losses in lives and livelihoods. Actionable disaster risk information is the key to bringing about a safer world before these events impact vulnerable communities.
As part of their commitment to helping governments and other institutions better design, implement, communicate and use risk information to improve resilience, the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) and the World Bank have launched two publications to share and refine best practices for disaster risk assessments that highlight the potential risks of today and those of tomorrow.
The first is a reference guide which captures the evolution of public disaster risk assessment over the last 10 years, and features case studies of risk assessments from more than 40 countries conducted by the World Bank and more than 50 institutions worldwide. This publication highlights some of the influential efforts of technical specialists, institutions, and governments to create and communicate risk information quickly and at low cost, as well as to improve the quality and transparency of this information while better enabling local engagement.
GFDRR and the World Bank have also consolidated this collective experience into 10 actionable recommendations towards achieving higher quality, lower cost and better use of disaster risk information. These recommendations, highlighted in the Policy Note, ranging from cultivating and promoting open data practices to ensuring credibility and transparency in risk information, seek to inform the efforts of policy makers in the pursuit of more effective creation and communication of risk assessments and the disaster risk management policies they ultimately shape.
“To prepare communities to reduce the impacts from growing climate and disaster risk, we will need to prioritize disaster risk assessment to inform our collective resources, and enable risk management with unprecedented levels of innovation, cooperation, and scale,” said Francis Ghesquiere, Head of the GFDRR Secretariat and Manager of the DRM Practice Group at the World Bank. “These publications are a small but important contribution towards that effort.”
Both the Evolution of Disaster Risk Assessment reference guide and accompanying Policy Note were launched at the recent third biennial Understanding Risk Forum in London, which brought together more than 800 international experts and leaders from the public and private sectors, civil society and academia for the world’s premiere platform for collaboration and innovation in assessing disaster risk.
As rapidly increasing disaster and climate risk threaten to undo global development efforts, these timely publications will help government agencies and other institutions improve access to accurate and useful risk information, paving the way for more resilient communities.
Source: https://www.gfdrr.org/node/28322
Innovative Apps for Disaster Risk Reduction Win Global Attention
June 30, 2014 6:46 pm Published by Simone Balog Leave a commentAnnouncing the Code for Resilience Finalists
May 21, 2014 6:40 pm Published by Simone Balog Leave a commentCan Studying Tweets Lead to Faster Earthquake Recovery?
May 7, 2014 8:15 pm Published by Simone Balog Leave a commentHaitian students develop life-saving software
May 1, 2014 8:13 pm Published by Simone Balog Leave a comment- Dozens of Haitian students participated in the “Konbit Teknolojik pou Resilyans” Hackathon, which took place from April 12-13, 2014. A Hackathon allows developers to compete as teams to create a software application in a few days.
- The goal was to create a technological tool that will help the Department of Civil Protection have real time data on the risk and disaster preparedness situation in the communes.
- The winning software will allow important data to be collected and viewed using an interactive map.
To prepare for natural disasters, the necessary data must be up-to-date. In the case of Haiti, which is vulnerable to earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods, this is a matter of life and death.
Which communes are more at risk? What infrastructure should be put in place to respond to a disaster? It is virtually impossible to make a sound decision without having the data in hand.
Until now, this information, which was updated and evaluated each year, was available in hard copy only and it was difficult for the Department of Civil Protection to update it in real time and peruse it quickly.
Very soon however, with a mere click, these officials will be able to locate the risks facing a commune or department on an interactive map. This map will also allow the level of preparedness of local institutions to be viewed. The data will be entered directly by the communes and this system will therefore make the process of updating information more efficient.
“(This software) will allow us to adjust our responses to the needs of residents even in the most remote areas of the country. We could have spent a great deal of time developing software of this nature but Haitian youth have made the task easier for us,” says Roosevelt Compere, the Prevention Coordinator at the Department of Civil Protection.
This new software copped first place at a recent Hackathon, where Haitian students met for two days and one night to develop a technological tool to improve data collection in communes and to create a database through which information recorded on maps can be viewed.
Anne-Martine, 22 years old, is the only woman in the winning group, “Premium,” which she heads. A fifth- year student at Haiti’s State University, she galvanized her fellow students and encouraged them to participate. “Programming facilitates problem-solving,” she states. “Each project presents a new challenge.”
She is pleased that the software is being used to improve the State’s response to natural disasters and stresses the importance of team work—known as “konbit” in Creole.
(This software) will allow us to adjust our responses to the needs of residents even in the most remote areas of the country. We could have spent a great deal of time developing software of this nature but Haitian youth have made the task easier for us.
Roosevelt Compere
Prevention Coordinator at the Department of Civil Protection
Haiti and innovation—a bright future
On Sunday evening, with tired faces after 48 hours of work that included one sleepless night, the competitors submitted their software to a jury composed of representatives from the Department of Civil Protection, IBM, Surtab (a local developer of the first tablets made in Haiti), UNDP, and the World Bank.
“Haiti and innovation: these two words are rarely used together. Haiti does, however, have a vibrant community of programmers who are willing to offer new ideas and new perspectives,” stated Michel Matera, a World Bank Disaster Risk Management Specialist.
Anne–Martine is living proof of this. She has already developed software for the private sector and, in a few years, sees herself heading a company that provides technological services.
A similar example is Rachèle, 23 years old, who heads another Hackathon team. She comes from a modest family of eight children, all of whom have gone on to university. She has a strong commitment to service and community problems. In addition to her studies, she is working on a software project that would help the Ministry of Public Health better monitor hospitals, particularly those in remote areas.
Emmanuel, her brother, who also participated in the competition, sees himself as an entrepreneur working on technological products in a few years.
Stephen Claxton, the representative from Surtab, a Hackathon partner, states confidently that “if we encourage young people to remain in Haiti, the country will prosper. The future begins now.”
This Hackathon was organized on the margins of the Forum “Understanding Risk—Haiti 2014,” which will take place next May. “Premium,” the winning team, can participate in an international competition to showcase its project to the “Understanding Risk” international forum, to take place in London in June 2014.
The top five Hackathon teams received Surtab tablets and gift certificates. They are especially pleased to have internship opportunities at Surtab and the Department of Civil Protection.
The team work has only just begun.
Is Dhaka Ready? Towards Urban Resilience in Bangladesh
April 30, 2014 8:10 pm Published by Simone Balog Leave a commentBangladesh, the most vulnerable country in the world to the impact of natural disasters is also a leader in emergency preparedness and disaster response, particularly for cyclones, tidal surges and floods. This was achieved through 25 years of effort, which was catalyzed through two devastating cyclones, one in 1970 and 1991 that caused the deaths of approximately 500,000 and 300,000 people respectively. Part of what makes Bangladesh so strong at cyclone preparedness and response is the fact that major cyclones seem to hit Bangladesh every 3-4 years. Recurrence of this frequency is quite unique.
On the other hand, major seismic events that lead to major losses occur infrequently. Cities like Dhaka and Kathmandu, which are susceptible to major earthquakes, haven’t experienced a major shake in more than a generation. Unfortunately, a lack of frequency often leads to complacency amongst governments and citizens. Even more problematic is the very rapid accumulation of assets and population in urban environments in South Asia, including Dhaka.
Walking through the streets of Dhaka paints a picture of a city with significant structural vulnerabilities – where poor construction standards, lack of enforcement, and poor maintenance turn many buildings into potential hazards. When a building in Savar collapsed in April 2013 – killing over 1,100 people and injuring thousands more – it was a wakeup call for Bangladesh. The collapse was not triggered by an earthquake, it was the result of catastrophic structural failures, but it was a glimpse into what could happen in the event of a major earthquake.
Dhaka has been identified by Stanford University, the leading school on seismic risk management, as one of the 20 most vulnerable cities in the world. The concentration of seismic risk in urban centers of Bangladesh is a major source of concern; continued and unplanned urbanization is adding to the threat. With the current regulatory and enforcement structure for urban development, authority and accountability is not clearly defined, making effective resilient development planning difficult.
However, urban vulnerability to disasters is not new; during the period of 1875 to 1925, cities across the world, particularly in the United States, experienced catastrophic disasters, particularly fire-related. In this short period of time, Boston, Chicago San Francisco, Tokyo, Baltimore, Houston, Atlanta, Toronto and Seattle all burned completely to the ground. Then, after enough was lost, they stopped burning. Why?
After great fires, governments responded, and the following changed: i) building codes were improved and rigorously enforced; ii) land plans became more technical and were implemented without excessive rent seeking, which meant the expansion of roads and increase in public spaces; iii) infrastructure to support emergency services was well built and adequately maintained; and iv) emergency service providers were professionalized, with sufficient training, and provided with the incident command and communication resources required to effectively respond to major events. As a result, the fires stopped.
In Dhaka, a foundation to address urban resilience was established in 2012 by the joint collaboration between the Government of Bangladesh and the World Bank through the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) technical assistance to address seismic risk. The program is supporting the Government in the increasing awareness of seismic risk through a participatory approach that ensures ownership of the risk amongst government officials and decision makers. The program emphasizes collective problem-solving, shifting mindsets, and building consensus through multi-stakeholder thematic ‘focus groups.’
Supported by this initiative, an investment program is now being developed to materially increase the resilience of cities in Bangladesh. The program seeks to support the city-level actors who are critical players in the effort to develop resilient and livable cities in Bangladesh. The overall program focuses on the three core pillars of disaster resilience in urban settings including: i) effective emergency management; ii) improved structural resilience through reduction of existing physical vulnerability; and iii) risk-sensitive land use planning and safe construction standards and practices to ensure sustainable growth.
A comprehensive approach to increasing urban resilience requires coordinated, long-term investment across all three pillars. The framework described draws from the experience in urban earthquake resilience in other countries, notably the World Bank’s Istanbul Seismic Risk Mitigation and Emergency Preparedness Project. With the key elements of effective urban response in place, future attention could then shift to reversing the trend of risk accumulation, and to increasing physical resilience through broader investments in priority sectors.
Press Release: World Bank Providing Support to Enhance Earthquake Preparedness for Dhaka
Earthquakes, hurricanes, cyclones and tsunamis: the world’s 10 riskiest cities
April 14, 2014 5:52 pm Published by Simone Balog Leave a commentOCHA’s new report Saving Lives Today and Tomorrow: Managing the Risk of Humanitarian Crises calls for a fundamental shift in the way that humanitarian and development actors operate
April 1, 2014 8:11 pm Published by Simone Balog Leave a commentOCHA’s new flagship report Saving Lives Today and Tomorrow: Managing the Risk of Humanitarian Crises, launched in New York on 31 March 2014, calls for a fundamental shift in the way that humanitarian and development actors operate.
The report calls for aid groups and donors to begin the shift away from responding to crises in a purely reactive manner and to instead adopt an approach that proactively anticipates and prevents crisis through effective risk management.
The report presents new evidence, trends and analysis to argue that the humanitarian system is at a crossroads. The combination of emerging global challenges such as water scarcity, climate change, population growth and rapid urbanization, has increased the complexity and risk of crises. Humanitarian actors are being asked to do more, and at a greater cost, than ever before.
These trends, the report argues, have created a need for enhanced investment in risk mitigation and crisis management, which existing structures are not equipped to provide.
In order to overcome this challenge, humanitarian, development and government actors must work together to identify risks and align planning cycles, increase aid effectiveness, build the resilience of affected populations and, where possible, focus on preventing disasters.
Some key findings from the report include:
- Funding for disaster risk reduction is woefully inadequate. Between 2004 and 2013, the increase in the frequency and severity of crises has seen annual inter-agency humanitarian appeals grow by 430 per cent. Yet only 0.5 per cent of all international aid between 1991 and 2010 has been allocated towards prevention.
- Risk-management and prevention are more cost-effective than response. Research in Kenya and Ethiopia shows that early drought preparedness activities are around three times more cost-effective than emergency response. According to the World Bank, the benefits can be even greater, with some reports suggesting benefits of between four and 36 times the savings.
- Humanitarian leaders and organizations are ill-equipped to use risk analysis to make decisions.Information is available but it does not always translate into action, in part because underlying financial structures do not allow for it, but also due to institutional obstacles. For example, 258,000 people died as a result of famine and food insecurity in Somalia between October 2010 and April 2012, despite timely and accurate early warnings.
Why is this report important?
Shifting from cure to prevention presents political challenge at multiple levels. It has implications for politics in the affected countries, between and within aid agencies and in donor countries. Making this shift will be complex and challenging.
But the timing is right. The world is gearing up to create a new post-2015 global development framework, which is likely to demand that poverty reduction and sustainable development efforts are more closely integrated. Governments are also set to agree on the replace of the Hyogo Framework for Action on Disaster Risk Reduction in 2015. And, in 2016, the international community will gather for the first ever World Humanitarian Summit, where managing crisis risk will be a top item on the agenda.
White House Climate Data Initiative Launches with Strong Public and Private Sector Commitments
March 25, 2014 7:51 pm Published by Simone Balog Leave a commentClimate Data Initiative Launches with Strong Public and Private Sector Commitments
Across the country, state and local leaders are on the front lines of climate change—and it is impossible for them to ignore the consequences. In 2012 alone, extreme weather events caused more than $110 billion in damages and claimed more than 300 lives.
While no single weather event can be attributed to climate change, we know that our changing climate is making many kinds of extreme events more frequent and more severe. Rising seas threaten our coastlines. Dry regions are at higher risk of destructive wildfires. Heat waves impact health and agriculture. Heavier downpours can lead to damaging floods.
Even as we work to curb greenhouse-gas emissions and expand renewable energy generation, we need to take steps to make our communities more resilient to the climate-change impacts we can’t avoid—some of which are already well underway.
That’s why today, delivering on a commitment in the President’s Climate Action Plan, we are launching the Climate Data Initiative, an ambitious new effort bringing together extensive open government data and design competitions with commitments from the private and philanthropic sectors to develop data-driven planning and resilience tools for local communities. This effort will help give communities across America the information and tools they need to plan for current and future climate impacts.
The Climate Data Initiative builds on the success of the Obama Administration’s ongoing efforts to unleash the power of open government data. Since data.gov, the central site to find U.S. government data resources, launched in 2009, the Federal government has released troves of valuable data that were previously hard to access in areas such as health, energy, education, public safety, and global development. Today these data are being used by entrepreneurs, researchers, tech innovators, and others to create countless new applications, tools, services, and businesses.
Data from NOAA, NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Department of Defense, and other Federal agencies will be featured on climate.data.gov, a new section within data.gov that opens for business today. The first batch of climate data being made available will focus on coastal flooding and sea level rise. NOAA and NASA will also be announcing an innovation challenge calling on researchers and developers to create data-driven simulations to help plan for the future and to educate the public about the vulnerability of their own communities to sea level rise and flood events.
These and other Federal efforts will be amplified by a number of ambitious private commitments. For example, Esri, the company that produces the ArcGIS software used by thousands of city and regional planning experts, will be partnering with 12 cities across the country to create free and open “maps and apps” to help state and local governments plan for climate change impacts. Google will donate one petabyte—that’s 1,000 terabytes—of cloud storage for climate data, as well as 50 million hours of high-performance computing with the Google Earth Engine platform. The company is challenging the global innovation community to build a high-resolution global terrain model to help communities build resilience to anticipated climate impacts in decades to come. And the World Bankwill release a new field guide for the Open Data for Resilience Initiative, which is working in more than 20 countries to map millions of buildings and urban infrastructure.
Every citizen will be affected by climate change—and all of us must work together to make our communities stronger and more resilient to its impacts. By taking the enormous data sets regularly collected by NASA, NOAA, and other agencies and applying the ingenuity, creativity, and expertise of technologists and entrepreneurs, the Climate Data Initiative will help create easy-to-use tools for regional planners, farmers, hospitals, and businesses across the country—and empower America’s communities to prepare themselves for the future.
John Podesta is a Counselor to the President. John P. Holdren is Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.