understanding natural disasters

8/8/2019 Understanding Natural Disasters

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Understanding Natural Disasters

Ruins from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, remembered as one of the worst natural disasters in United Stat

history

A disaster is a perceived tragedy, being either a natural calamity or man-made catastrophe. It is a hazard whi

has come to fruition. A hazard, in turn, is a situation which poses a level of threat to life, health, property, or thmay deleteriously affect society or an environment.

In contemporary academia, disasters are seen as the consequence of inappropriately managed risk. These risks a

the product of hazards and vulnerability. Hazards that strike in areas with low vulnerability are not considereddisaster, as is the case in uninhabited regions.

Developing countries suffer the greatest costs when a disaster hits more than 95 percent of all deaths caused b

disasters occur in developing countries, and losses due to natural disasters are 20 times greater (as a percentage GDP) in developing countries than in industrialized countries.

A disaster can be defined as any tragic event with great loss stemming from events such as earthquakes, floodcatastrophic accidents, fires, or explosions

Etymology

The word derives from Middle French dsastre and that from Old Italian disastro, which in turn comes from t

Greek pejorative prefix -, (dus-) "bad" + (aster), "star". The root of the word disaster ("bad star" Greek) comes from an astrological theme in which the ancients used to refer to the destruction or deconstructio

of a star as a disaster.

Classification

For more than a century researchers have been studying disasters and for more than forty years disaster researchas been institutionalized through the Disaster Research Center. The studies reflect a common opinion when the

argue that all disasters can be seen as being human-made, their reasoning being that human actions before thstrike of the hazard can prevent it developing into a disaster. All disasters are hence the result of human failure

introduce appropriate disaster management measures. Hazards are routinely divided into natural or human-madalthough complex disasters, where there is no single root cause, are more common in developing countries.

specific disaster may spawn a secondary disaster that increases the impact. A classic example is an earthquathat causes a tsunami, resulting in coastal flooding.

Natural disaster

A natural disaster is a consequence when a natural hazard (e.g., volcanic eruption or earthquake) affects human

and/or the built environment. Human vulnerability, caused by the lack of appropriate emergency managemen

leads to financial, environmental, or human impact. The resulting loss depends on the capacity of the populati

to support or resist the disaster: their resilience. This understanding is concentrated in the formulation: "disaste

occur when hazards meet vulnerability". A natural hazard will hence never result in a natural disaster in are

without vulnerability, e.g., strong earthquakes in uninhabited areas.


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Natural disaster

A natural disaster is the effect of a natural hazard (e.g., flood, tornado, hurricane, volcanic eruption, earthquakor landslide) that affects the environment, and leads to financial, environmental and/or human losses. Th

resulting loss depends on the capacity of the population to support or resist the disaster, and their resilience. Thunderstanding is concentrated in the formulation: "disasters occur when hazards meet vulnerability." A natur

hazard will hence never result in a natural disaster in areas without vulnerability, e.g. strong earthquakes uninhabited areas. The term natural has consequently been disputed because the events simply are not hazards

disasters without human involvement.

Natural disasters

Land movement disasters

Earthquakes

An Earthquake is a sudden shake of the Earth's crust caused by the tectonic plates colliding.The vibrations m

vary in magnitude. The underground point of origin of the earthquake is called the "focus". The point directabove the focus on the surface is called the"epicenter". Earthquakes by themselves rarely kill people or wildlife.

is usually the secondary events that they trigger, such as building collapse, fires, tsunamis (seismic sea waveand volcanoes, that are actually the human disaster. Many of these could possibly be avoided by bett

construction, safety systems, early warning and evacuation planning.Earthquakes are caused by the discharge energy accumulated along geologic fault.

Lahars

A lahar is a volcanic mudflow or landslide. The 1953 Tangiwai disaster was caused by a lahar, as was the 19

Armero tragedy in which the town of Armero was buried and an estimated 23,000 people were killed.

Volcanic eruptions

An Eruption may in itself be a disaster due to the explosion of the volcano or the fall of rock but there are severeffects that may happen after an eruption that are also hazardous to human life.

Lava may be produced during the eruption of a volcano a material consisting of superheated rock. There are severdifferent forms which may be either crumbly or gluey. Leaving the volcano this destroys any buildings and plants

encounters.

Volcanic ash - generally meaning the cooled ash - may form a cloud, and settle thickly in nearby locations. Whmixed with water this forms a concrete like material. In sufficient quantity ash may cause roofs to collapse under i

weight but even small quantities will cause ill health if inhaled. Since the ash has the consistency of ground glass

causes abrasion damage to moving parts such as engines.

Supervolcanoes : According to the Toba catastrophe theory 70 to 75 thousand years ago a super volcanic eventLake Toba reduced the human population to 10,000 or even 1,000 breeding pairs creating a bottleneck in hum

evolution. It also killed three quarters of all plant life in the northern hemisphere. The main danger from a supervolca

is the immense cloud of ash which has a disastrous global effect on climate and temperature for many years.

Pyroclastic flows consist of a cloud of hot volcanic ash which builds up in the air above under its own weight astreams very rapidly from the mountain burning anything in its path. It is believed that Pompeii was destroyed by

pyroclastic flow.


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Water disasters

Some of the most notable floods include:

flood of Pakistan in Indus River. this occur in August 2010, damaging crops of Pakistan. The Huang He (Yellow River) in China floods particularly often. The Great Flood of 1931 caused between 800,0and 4,000,000 deaths.

The Great Flood of 1993 was one of the most costly floods in United States history. The 1998 Yangtze River Floods, also in China, left 14 million people homeless. The 2000 Mozambique flood covered much of the country for three weeks, resulting in thousands of deaths, anleaving the country devastated for years afterward.

Tropical cyclones can result in extensive flooding and storm surge, as happened with:

Bhola Cyclone, striking East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in 1970, Typhoon Nina, striking China in 1975, Tropical Storm Allison, which struck Houston, Texas in 2001 and Hurricane Katrina, which left most of New Orleans under water in 2005. Much of the flooding was due to thfailure of the city's levee system.

Limnic eruptions

A limnic eruption occurs when a gas, usually CO2 suddenly erupts from deep lake water, posing the threat

suffocating wildlife, livestock and humans. Such an eruption may also cause tsunamis in the lake as the risin

gas displaces water. Scientists believe landslides, volcanic activity, or explosions can trigger such an eruptioTo date, only two limnic eruptions have been observed and recorded:

In 1984, in Cameroon, a limnic eruption in Lake Monoun caused the deaths of 37 nearby residents. At nearby Lake Nyos in 1986 a much larger eruption killed between 1,700 and 1,800 people asphyxiation.

Tsunami

Tsunamis can be caused by undersea earthquakes as the one caused in Ao Nang, Thailand, by the 2004 Indi

Ocean Earthquake, or by landslides such as the one which occurred at Lituya Bay, Alaska.

Ao Nang, Thailand (2004). The 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake created the Boxing Day Tsunami and disaster at thsite.

Lituya Bay, Alaska (1953). A mega-tsunami occurred here, the largest ever recorded.(This also fits within the "Land movement disaster" category because it started with an earthquak

Weather disasters

Blizzards

Significant blizzards in the United States include:

The Great Blizzard of 1888 The Schoolhouse Blizzard earlier the same year


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The Armistice Day Blizzard in 1940 The Storm of the Century in 1993

Cyclonic storms

Cyclone, tropical cyclone, hurricane, and typhoon are different names for the same phenomenon a cyclonic stor

system that forms over the oceans. The deadliest hurricane ever was the 1970 Bhola cyclone; the deadlie

Atlantic hurricane was the Great Hurricane of 1780 which devastated Martinique, St. Eustatius and BarbadoAnother notable hurricane is Hurricane Katrina which devastated the Gulf Coast of the United States in 2005.

Droughts

Well-known historical droughts include:

1900 India killing between 250,000 and 3.25 million. 1921-22 Soviet Union in which over 5 million perished from starvation due to drought 1928-30 northwest China resulting in over 3 million deaths by famine. 1936 and 1941 Sichuan Province China resulting in 5 million and 2.5 million deaths respectively.

As of 2006, states of Australia including Western Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland had beunder drought conditions for five to ten years. The drought is beginning to affect urban area populations for the fir

time.

In 2006, Sichuan Province China experienced its worst drought in modern times with nearly 8 million people anover 7 million cattle facing water shortages.

Hailstorms

Hailstorms (AKA hailstones) are rain drops that have formed together into ice. A particularly damaging hailstor

hit Munich, Germany, on July 12, 1984, causing about 2 billion of dollars in insurance claims.

Heat waves

The worst heat wave in recent history was the European Heat Wave of 2003.

Hurricane Katrina

A summer heat wave in Victoria, Australia, caused the massive bushfires in 2009. Melbourne experienced thrdays in a row of temperatures exceeding 40C. The bushfire, otherwise known as "Black Saturday" was alstarted intentionally.

Tornadoes

Different Types of Tornadoes:

Supercell Tornadoes

Some of the most violent tornadoes develop from supercell thunderstorms. A supercell thunderstorm is a lonlived thunderstorm possessing within its structure a continuously rotating updraft of air. These storms have th

greatest tendency to produce tornadoes, some of the huge wedge shape. The supercell thunderstorm has a lowhanging, rotating layer of cloud known as a "wall cloud." It looks somewhat like a layer of a layer cake that han


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below the broader cloud base. One side of the wall cloud is often rain-free, while the other is neighbored by denshafts of rain. The rotating updraft of the supercell is seen on radar as a "mesocyclone."

The tornadoes that accompany supercell thunderstorms are more likely to remain in contact with the ground f

long periods of timean hour or morethan other tornadoes, and are more likely to be violent, with windexceeding-200 mph.

Landspout

Generally weaker than a supercell tornado, a landspout is not associated with a wall cloud or mesocyclone. It mabe observed beneath cumulonimbus or towering cumulus clouds and is the land equivalent of a waterspout.

often forms along the leading edge of rain-cooled downdraft air emanating from a thunderstorm, known as a "gufront."

Gustnado

Weak and usually short-lived, a gustnado forms along the gust front of a thunderstorm, appearing as a tempora

dust whirl or debris cloud. There may be no apparent connection to or circulation in the cloud aloft. These appe

like dust devils.

Waterspout

A waterspout is a tornado over water. A few form from supercell thunderstorms, but many form from weathunderstorms or rapidly growing cumulus clouds. Waterspouts are usually less intense and causes far le

damage. Rarely more than fifty yards wide, it forms over warm tropical ocean waters, although its funnel is madof freshwater droplets condensed from water vapor from condensation - not saltwater from the ocea

Waterspouts usually dissipate upon reaching land.

The following are tornado-like circulations

Dust Devils

Dry, hot, clear days on the desert or over dry land can bring about dust devils. Generally forming in the hot s

during the late morning or early afternoon hours, these mostly harmless whirlwinds are triggered by light desebreezes that create a swirling plume of dust with speeds rarely over 70 mph. These differ from tornadoes in th

they are not associated with a thunderstorm (or any cloud), and are usually weaker than the weakest tornado.

Typically, the life cycle of a dust devil is a few minutes or less, although they can last much longer. Althoug

usually harmless, they have been known to cause minor damage. They can blow vehicles off the road and coudamage your eyes by blowing dust into them.

Firewhirls

Sometimes the intense heat created by a major forest fire or volcanic eruption can create what is known as

firewhirl, a tornado-like rotating column of smoke and/or fire. This happens when the fire updraft concentratsome initial weak whirl or eddy in the wind. Winds associated with firewhirls have been estimated at ov

100 mph. They are sometimes called fire tornadoes, fire devils, or even firenadoes.

Fire


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Wildfires are an uncontrolled fire burning in wildland areas. Common causes include lightning and drought bwildfires may also be started by human negligence or arson. They can be a threat to those in rural areas and al

wildlife.

A notable case of wildfire was the 2009 Victorian bushfires in Australia.

Nine elderly Russians have died in a blaze at a nursing home that may have been started by a resident settin

himself on fire.The fire at the facility in Tver, northeast of Moscow, injured two others and forced the evacuatioof some 480 people early on Monday,and investigators found a canister of flammable liquid in the room whethe fire started, leading to speculation the resident set himself ablaze.

Health and diseases

Epidemic

An epidemic is an outbreak of a contractible disease that spreads at a rapid rate through a human population. pandemic is an epidemic whose spread is global. There have been many epidemics throughout history, such

Black Death. In the last hundred years, significant pandemics include:

The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, killing an estimated 50 million people worldwide The 1957-58 Asian flu pandemic, which killed an estimated 1 million people The 1968-69 Hong Kong flu pandemic The 2002-3 SARS pandemic The AIDS epidemic, beginning in 1959 The H1N1 Influenza (Swine Flu) Pandemic 2009-2010

Other diseases that spread more slowly, but are still considered to be global health emergencies by the WH

include:

XDR TB, a strain of tuberculosis that is extensively resistant to drug treatments

Malaria, which kills an estimated 1.6 million people each year Ebola hemorrhagic fever, which has claimed hundreds of victims in Africa in several outbreaks

Famine

In modern times, famine has hit Sub-Saharan Africa the hardest, although the number of victims of mode

famines is much smaller than the number of people killed by the Asian famines of the 20th century.

Space

Gamma ray bursts

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are flashes of gamma rays associated with extremely energetic explosions in dista

galaxies. They are the most luminous electromagnetic events known to occur in the universe. Bursts can last fromilliseconds to several minutes, although a typical burst lasts a few seconds. The initial burst is usually followe

by a longer-lived "afterglow" emitted at longer wavelengths (X-ray, ultraviolet, optical, infrared and radio).

Most observed GRBs are believed to be a narrow beam of intense radiation released during a supernova event, a rapidly rotating, high-mass star collapses to form a black hole. A subclass of GRBs (the "short" bursts) appe

to originate from a different process, possibly the merger of binary neutron stars.


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The sources of most GRBs are billions of light years away from Earth, implying that the explosions are boextremely energetic (a typical burst releases as much energy in a few seconds as the Sun will in its entire

billion year lifetime) and extremely rare (a few per galaxy per million years[1]). All observed GRBs havoriginated from outside the Milky Way galaxy, although a related class of phenomena, soft gamma repeat

flares, are associated with magnetars within the Milky Way. It has been hypothesized that a gamma-ray burst the Milky Way could cause a mass extinction on Earth.[2]

GRBs were first detected in 1967 by the Vela satellites, a series of satellites designed to detect covert nucleweapons tests. Hundreds of theoretical models were proposed to explain these bursts in the years following thediscovery, such as collisions between comets and neutron stars.[3] Little information was available to verify the

models until the 1997 detection of the first X-ray and optical afterglows and direct measurement of their redshiusing optical spectroscopy. These discoveries, and subsequent studies of the galaxies and supernovae associate

with the bursts, clarified the distance and luminosity of GRBs, definitively placing them in distant galaxies anconnecting long GRBs with the deaths of massive stars.

Impact events

One of the largest impact events in modern times was the Tunguska event in June 1908.

Solar flares

A solar flare is a phenomenon where the sun suddenly releases a great amount of solar radiation, much mo

than normal. Some known solar flares include:

An X20 event on August 16, 1989 A similar flare on April 2, 2001 The most powerful flare ever recorded, on November 4, 2003, estimated at between X40 and X45 The most powerful flare in the past 500 years is believed to have occurred in September 1859

Supernovae and hypernovae

Future of natural disasters

The United Kingdom based charity Oxfam publicly stated that the number of people hit by climate-relatdisasters is expected to rise by about 50%, to reach 375 million a year by 2015.

British defence secretary Liam Fox has pubilicly warned that a massive solar flare may occur in 2013, causing widespre

damage to the world's electronic and communications infrastructures.

Human-made disaster

Human-made earthquakes are well documented even though less known by the general public.

An anthropogenic hazard is a threat having an element of human intent, negligence, or error, or involving

failure of an anthropogenic system. Anthropogenic disasters are disasters resulting from the same factors, opposed to natural disasters resulting from natural hazards.

Sociological hazards


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Crime

Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority (via mechanisms such as legal systemcan ultimately prescribe a conviction. Individual human societies may each define crime and crimes differentl

While every crime violates the law, not every violation of the law counts as a crime; for example: breaches contract and of other civil law may rank as "offences" or as "infractions". Modern societies generally rega

crimes as offenses against the public or the state, distinguished from torts (offenses against private parties that ca

give rise to a civil cause of action).

In context, not all crimes provide man-made hazards.

Arson: Arson is the criminal intent of setting a fire with intent to cau

damage. The definition of arson was originally limited to setting fire

buildings, but was later expanded to include other objects, such as bridge

vehicles, and private property. Arson is the greatest cause of fires in da

repositories. Sometimes, human-induced fires can be accidental: faili

machinery such as a kitchen stove is a major cause of accidental fires

Civil disorder: Civil disorder is a broad term that is typically used by laenforcement to describe forms of disturbance. Although civil disorder do

not necessarily escalate to a disaster in all cases, the event may escalate into general chaos. Rioting has many causes, fro

low minimum wage to racial segregation. And example of riots were those in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angel

California in 1965 and 1992. The 1992 riots, which started at the intersections of Florence and Normandie streets, start

immediately after the Rodney King verdict was announced on live TV. Approximately 50 people died in the 1992 riots.

Terrorism

Terrorism is a controversial term with multiple definitions. One definition means a violent action targetin

civilians exclusively. Another definition is the use or threatened use of violence for the purpose of creating fear order to achieve a political, religious, or ideological goal. Under the second definition, the targets of terrorist ac

can be anyone, including civilians, government officials, military personnel, or people serving the interests governments. In the early 21st century, terrorism has been considered by some a constant threat to all people

the world, after the worst disaster of its kind struck on September 11, 2001 (known primarily as 9/11).

War

War is conflict between relatively large groups of people, which involves physical force inflicted by the use weapons. Warfare has destroyed entire cultures, countries, economies and inflicted great suffering on humanit

Other terms for war can include armed conflict, hostilities, and police action. Acts of war are normally exclude

from insurance contracts and disaster planning.

Technological hazards

Industrial hazards

Industrial disasters occur in a commercial context, such as mining disasters. They often have an environmenimpact. The Bhopal poisoning is an extreme example, as is the Chernobyl failure. Hazards may have longer mo

dispersed effects, such as dioxin and DDT poisoning.


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Structural collapse

Structural collapses are often caused by engineering failures. Bridge failures may be caused in several ways, suas under-design (as in the Tay Rail Bridge), by corrosion attack (such as in the Silver Bridge), and b

aerodynamic flutter of the deck (as in Galloping Gertie, the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge). Failure of damwas not infrequent during the Victorian period, such as the Dale Dyke dam failure in Sheffield, England in th

1860s, causing the Great Sheffield Flood. Other failures include balcony collapses.

Power outage

A power outage is an interruption of normal sources of electrical power. Short-term power outages (up to a fehours) are common and have minor adverse effect, since most businesses and health facilities are prepared to de

with them. Extended power outages, however, can disrupt personal and business activities as well as medical anrescue services, leading to business losses and medical emergencies. Extended loss of power can lead to civ

disorder, as in the New York City blackout of 1977. Only very rarely do power outages escalate to disastproportions, however, they often accompany other types of disasters, such as hurricanes and floods, whic

hampers relief efforts.

Electromagnetic pulses and voltage spikes from whatever cause can also damage electricity infrastructure anelectrical devices.

Fire

A forest fire

Bush fires, forest fires, and mine fires are generally started by lightning, balso by human negligence or arson. They can burn thousands of squa

kilometers. If a fire intensifies enough to produce its own winds an"weather", it will form into a firestorm. A good example of a mine fire is th

one near Centralia, Pennsylvania. Started in 1962, it ruined the town ancontinues to burn today. Some of the biggest city-related fires are The Gre

Chicago Fire, The Peshtigo Fire (both of 1871) and the Great Fire London in 1666.

Casualties resulting from fires, regardless of their source or initial caus

can be aggravated by inadequate emergency preparedness. Such hazards a lack of accessible emergency exits, poorly marked escape routes, or improperly maintained fire extinguishers

sprinkler systems may result in many more deaths and injuries than might occur with such protections.

Events like this have happened as the Australian Bush fires in 2009.

Hazardous materials

Radiation contamination

When nuclear weapons are detonated or nuclear containment systems are otherwise compromised, airbor

radioactive particles (nuclear fallout) can scatter and irradiate large areas. Not only is it deadly, but it also haslong-term effect on the next generation for those who are contaminated. Ionizing radiation is hazardous to livin

things, and in such a case much of the affected area could be unsafe for human habitation. During World War I


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United States troops dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As a result, thradiation fallout contaminated the cities' water supplies, food sources, and half of the populations of each ci

were stricken with disease. The Soviet republics of Ukraine and Belarus are part of a scenario like this afterreactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant suffered a meltdown in 1986. To this day, several small towns a

the city of Chernobyl remain abandoned and uninhabitable due to fallout. In the 1970s, a similar threat scarmillions of Americans when a failure occurred at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant in Pennsylvania. T

incident was fortunately resolved, and the area retained little contamination.

A number of military accidents involving nuclear weapons have also resulted in radioactive contamination, fexample the 1966 Palomares B-52 crash and the 1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash.

CBRNs

A catch-all initialism meaning Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear. The term is used to describe a no

conventional terror threat that, if used by a nation, would be considered use of a weapon of mass destruction. This term

used primarily in the United Kingdom. Planning for the possibility of a CBRN event may be appropriate for certain hig

risk or high-value facilities and governments. Examples include Saddam Hussein's Halabja poison gas attack on Kurds, t

Sarin gas attacks in Tokyo and the preceding test runs in Matsumoto, Japan 100 kilometers outside of Tokyo,[2], and Lo

Amherst giving smallpox laden blankets to Native Americans.

Transportation

Road: Road accidents are leading cause of death, and road based pollution creates a substantial health hazard, especially

major conurbations. The greenhouse effect of road transport is a significant fraction of the anthropogenic warming effe

and the rapid consumption of fossil fuel accelerates the Hubbard peak.

Aviation

An aviation incident is an occurrence other than an accident, associated with the operation of an aircraft, whic

affects or could affect the safety of operations, passengers, or pilots. The category of the vehicle can range fromhelicopter, an airliner, or a space shuttle. One of the more devastating events occurred in 1977 on the island

Tenerife of the Canary Islands, when miscommunications between and amongst air traffic control and an aircrecaused two fully loaded jets to collide on the runway, killing over 500 passengers.

Railroad

A railroad disaster is an occurrence associated with the operation of a passenger train which results in substantloss of life. Usually accidents with freight (goods) trains are not considered disasters, unless they cau

substantial loss of life or property. One of the more devastating rail disasters occurred in 2004 in Sri Lanka wh1,700 people died in the Queen of the Sea train accident. Other notable rail disasters are the 1989 Ufa accident

Russia which killed 574, and the 1917 Modane train accident in France which killed 540.

Space

Space disasters, either during operations or training, have killed around 20 astronauts and cosmonauts, and

much larger number of ground crew and civilians. These disasters include either malfunctions on the groun

during launch, or in orbit with technology, or of natural forces. Not all space disasters result in human fatalitiefor example, unmanned orbiting satellites that drop to the Earth can incinerate and send debris spewing across th

sky. One of the worst manned space disasters, the Space Shuttle Challengerexplosion of 1986, cost all of tlives on board. The shuttle exploded several seconds after taking off from the launch pad in Cape Canavera


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Florida. Another example is the Space Shuttle Columbia, which disintegrated during a landing attempt over Texin 2003, with a loss of all 7 astronauts on board. The debris field extended from as far as eastern New Mexico

Mississippi. An example of a space disaster killing nearby residents occurred on February 15, 1996, in SichuProvince, China, when a Long March 3B rocket crashed during takeoff. Then in 1960 also killed 126 when an R

16 ICBM exploded on the launch pad.

Disaster management

With the tropical climate and unstable landforms, coupled with high population density, poverty, illiteracy an

lack of adequate infrastructure, India is one of the most vulnerable developing countries to suffer very often frovarious natural disasters, namely drought, flood, cyclone, earth quake, landslide, forest fire, hail storm, locu

volcanic eruption, etc. Which strike causing a devastating impact on human life, economy and environmenThough it is almost impossible to fully recoup the damage caused by the disasters, it is possible to (i) minimi

the potential risks by developing early warning strategies (ii) prepare and implement developmental plans provide resilience to such disasters (iii) mobilize resources including communication and telemedicinal service

and (iv) to help in rehabilitation and post-disaster reconstruction. Space technology plays a crucial role in efficiemitigation of disasters. While communication satellites help in disaster warning, relief mobilization and tel

medicinal support, earth observation satellites provide required database for pre-disaster preparedneprogrammes, disaster response, monitoring activities and post-disaster damage assessment, and reconstructio

and rehabilitation. The article describes the role of space technology in evolving a suitable strategy for disastpreparedness and operational framework for their monitoring, assessment and mitigation, identifies gap areas an

recommends appropriate strategies for disaster mitigation vis--vis likely developments in space and grounsegments.

Various disasters like earthquake, landslides, volcanic eruptions, flood and cyclones are natural hazards that kthousands of people and destroy billions of dollars of habitat and property each year. The rapid growth of t

world's population and its increased concentration often in hazardous environment has escalated both tfrequency and severity of natural disasters. With the tropical climate and unstable land forms, coupled wi

deforestation, unplanned growth proliferation non-engineered constructions which make the disaster-prone aremere vulnerable, tardy communication, poor or no budgetary allocation for disaster prevention, developin

countries suffer more or less chronically by natural disasters. Asia tops the list of casualties due to naturdisaster.

Among various natural hazards, earthquakes, landslides, floods and cyclones are the major disasters adverse

affecting very large areas and population in the Indian sub-continent. These natural disasters are of (i) geophysicorigin such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, land slides and (ii) climatic origin such as drought, flood, cyclon

locust, forest fire. Though it may not be possible to control nature and to stop the development of naturphenomena but the efforts could be made to avoid disasters and alleviate their effects on human live

infrastructure and property. Rising frequency, amplitude and number of natural disasters and attendant problecoupled with loss of human lives prompted the General Assembly of the United Nations to proclaim 1990s as t

International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR) through a resolution 44/236 of December 22, 19to focus on all issues related to natural disaster reduction. In spite of IDNDR, there had been a string of maj

disaster throughout the decade. Nevertheless, by establishing the rich disaster management related traditions anby spreading public awareness the IDNDR provided required stimulus for disaster reduction. It is almo

impossible to prevent the occurrence of natural disasters and their damages.


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However, it is possible to reduce the impact of disasters by adopting suitable disaster mitigation strategies. Thdisaster mitigation works mainly address the following:

minimise the potential risks by developing disaster early warning strategies prepare and implement developmental plans to provide resilience to such disasters, mobilise resources including communication and tele-medicinal services to help in rehabilitation and post-disaster reduction.

Disaster management on the other hand involves

pre-disaster planning, preparedness, monitoring including relief management capability prediction and early warning damage assessment and relief management.

Disaster reduction is a systematic work which involves with different regions, different professions and differe

scientific fields, and has become an important measure for human, society and nature sustainable development.

ManagementThe local communities at the time of disaster or before the disaster make groups for helping the people fro

suffering during the disaster. These groups include, First Aid group, Health group, Food and Welfare group e

They all are well trained by some local community members. All the groups are sent for helping any other loc

community that is suffering from a disaster. They also migrate the people from the area affected from disaster

some other safe regions. They are given shelter and every possible facilities by those local manageme

communities. Today, Government is also making effort to provide good facilities during the disaster. In India,

the rural areas, the community(group of families) are choosing a leader and developing their Disast

management skills to protect themselves and other local communities as well.

Guidelines and operational procedures for disaster management:

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, oad k; Zeksad ksd k; kZfUo r d j u s g sr q i zko / kku Hkh d j u k gSA fc g kj v ki n k i zc a /ku v f/ kfu ; e& 2004 d s }Hkh i zR; sd u x j fu x e @ u x j i kfy d k@ LFkku h; fu d k; , oa i ap k; r d s } kj k v ki n k i zc a /ku ; kst u k r S;d h t ku h gSA b l d s i wo Z Hkkj r l j d kj } kj k v ki n k i zc a / ku i j mPp ' kfDr l fe fr u s i zR; sd foHkkx dv i u h v ki n k i zc a /ku ; kst u k gsr q d qN fu/kZkfj r i zfr ' kr ; kst u k mn ~O; ; d . kZkfd ar d j u sd h v u q' kal k d hA ; kst u k v k; ksx d h n l oh ; kst u k d sn Lr ko st e sav ki n k i zc a /ku ; kst u k i j , d v y x v / ; k; ' kkfe y g Sfcgkj esav ki n k i zc a/ ku v c r d , d x S j ; kst u k x fr fo f/ k j g h g SA e x j v c d ku wu h < kap k y kx wgks t ku sd kj . k i zR; sd fo Hkkx d s fy ; sv ki n k i zc U/ku ; kst u k c u ku k v fuo k; Zgksx ; k gSA v ki n k t ksf [ ke U; qu hd jd sfy , ; g t : j h gkst kr k gSfd v ki n k i zc U/ku d ks fo d kl d k; Zeksal sv y x u ghan s[ kk t k, c fYd b


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, d l e sf d r c g qv k; ke h x fr fo f/ k d s : i e sad k; kZfUo r fd ; k t k; A d sUn zh; v ki n k i zc U/ku v f /kfu; e& 20d s} kj k j kT; v ki n k i zc U/ku i zkf /kd kj r Fkk ft y k v ki n k i zkf/ kd kj x fB r d j u s d k i zko/ kku fd ; k x ; k gSfo Hkkx ksa } kj k r S; kj d h x ; h v ki n k i zc U/ku ; kst u kv ksa d ks j kT; , oa ft y k v ki n k i zc a /ku i zkf /kd kj } kv u qe ksfn r fd ; k t ku k g SAv ki n k i zc U/ku ; kst u k d k l w= hd j . k v fu o k; Zg ks t ku s d s d kj . k v c ; g v ko ' ; d g Sfd i zR; sd foHkkx fy , l ax r x fr fo f/ k; ksa d h i g p ku d h t k; ] ft l d k , d i z; kl ; g ka fd ; k x ; k g SA ; g l ad y u el q> ko d sfy , gS, oafoHkkx fo' ks"k } kj k x fr fof/k; ksad h l wp h l a' kksf/ kr r Fkk Lo ; ai g p ku d j u s d h Lo r a=d ks fd l h i zd kj c kf/ kr u g ha d j r k g SA l ad y u e sa n h x b Z d b Z x fr fo f/ k; ka { ks= h; ; kst u k gsr q Hkh l axgksx h A b u x fr fo f/ k; ksad h l wp h d ks fofHkUu foHkkx v i u h v ki n k i zc U/ku ; kst u k , o al ke kU; ; kst u k dl e fUor d j u s e sa mi ; ksx d j l d r s gSa( gky kfd bu esa l s d bZ x fr fo f/ k; ksa d k d k; kZUo; u foHkkx } kl ke kU; r % i woZ l s g h fd ; k t k j gk gksx k A {ks= h; Lr j d h x fr fo f/ k; ksa d s fy ; s Hkh ; kst u k c u u s dv ko ' ; d r k gkx h] D; ksaf d d sUn zh; v f/ kfu ; e d s v u ql kj ft y k Lr j d h ; kst u k r S; kj d j u h gS, oa ft yv ki n k i zc U/ku i zkf/ kd kj d h mu d k v u qe ksn u i zkI r d j uk gSAv ki n k i zc U/ ku f o Hkkx d s } kj k j kT; , o a ft y k Lr j i j v ki n k i zc U/ku i zkf/kd kj ksa d s x Bu gsr q i zkj fEHkd kj Zo kb Z i zkj EHk d j n h x b Z g S , o a o s ' kh?kz g h d k; kZfUo r g ks t k; sax s A ; g v k' kk d h t kr h gSfd ;v fHky s[ k fo Hkkx ksa d ks o"kZ2006& 2007 d h ; kst u k esa v ki n k i zcU/ku d h x fr fo f/ k; ksa d ks ' kkfe y d j u smi ; ksx h g ksx k A , d l qn


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3 i zHkkfor l eqn k; ksa d s i qu Zokl fd fy , i wo Z r S; kj h v u qf ; k , o ac p ko d k; Z e d h v o / kkj . kk ,

: i kad . k e sat ksf [ ke U; wuhd j . k fop kj / kkj k d ksv r %fu fg r d j d ze c ) ' kkfe y d j u k A

v ki n k i zc a /ku d s {ks= e sa u b Zv o /kkj . kk ; g Li "V : i l s Lo hd kj d j r h g Sfd i zkd fr d v ki n kv ksa dfod kl d k; Zd ze ksal sv y x u ghan s[ kk t k l d r k A ; w0, u 0Mh0i h0 } kj k gky esat kj h v ki n k t ksf [ ke U; wu hd j . kl ac af/ kr i zfr osn u e sa fod kl , o a v ki n k t ksf[ ke e sa i j Li j l ac a / k d ks x g j kg Z l s fo ' y sf"kr fd ; k x ; k g SA ;

f o ' y s"k. k Li "V : i l s n ' kkZr k g Sfd v u qi ; qDr fo d kl d kj ZokbZ; ks v ki n k l s t ksf[ ke d ks c < kr h g h g SA b l fyv ki n k i zc a /ku ; kst u kv ksad ks, d n wg j k y { ; g ksu k p kfg ; sfd l e kt i zkd fr d v ki n kv ksad k l ke u k d j u s d h ' kfDi zkIRk d j sav kS j l kFk l kFk fo d kl d s i z; kl ksal s bu v ki n kv ksad h Hks| r k e sao f) u g ks A

mi j ksDr d Fku ] v ki nk i zc a / ku d ks fo d kl l s e k= t ksM+r k gh ug hagSex j l kFk l kFk ; g Hkh bafx r d j r k g Sfbu d k l gh v u qi ky u u d j u k , oax S j o SK kfu d fo d kl g ky d s fn u ksae sal e qn k; d h c

understanding natural disasters

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