Parliamentarians focus on risk reduction at Rio

Photo credit

Palácio Tiradentes, the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

By Dizery Salim

RIO DE JANEIRO, 18 June 2012 - Around 200 legislators from 74 countries and the European Union met yesterday on the sidelines of the UN Rio+20 sustainable development conference this afternoon to approve a "Legislators' Protocol," containing a set of "Rio Scrutiny Principles" to strengthen legislators' capacity to hold governments to account on promises made at development conferences including Rio+20.

Addressing the gathering of parliamentarians at Tiradentes Palace, the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro, the UN Special Representative on Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, praised delegates for seeking more accountability from nations on sustainable development commitments.

"Parliamentarians can help governments connect the dots by passing legislation that links aspects such as natural capital accounting, disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and mitigation," she said.

The function of coordinating and overseeing disaster risk reduction is often placed with the wrong national entity -- usually the national disaster management body -- with little capacity for policy coherence, she told the parliamentarians at the end of their two-day World Summit of Legislators, which began on 15 June.

"One thing that would give immediate support for decision-making is understanding the scope and nature of losses from disasters. Very few countries today systematically invest in disaster loss accounting. For effective decision-making, you need to know what is the measure of the impact of a particular disaster on my country.

"Decision making and budgeting needs clear information. Lawmakers can help establish systematic disaster loss accounting. Knowing what is lost, when and where, will help identify priorities to protect development investments and the achievement of development goals," she said, urging them to pass laws mandating the establishment of disaster loss accounting.

With support from legislators who are also members of UNISDR's Parliamentarian Advisory Group for Disaster Risk Reduction, the newly agreed Protocol includes a commitment to mainstream disaster risk reduction into policy making.

In 2010, UNISDR worked with a group of parliamentarians on key messages to assist lawmakers to understand the links between disasters, disaster risk reduction and development, producing an advocacy kit for legislators to use when promoting the integration of disaster risk reduction in national development planning. This was framed to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals.

Saber Chowdhury, a founder member of UNISDR's Parliamentarian Advisory Group for Disaster Risk Reduction, articulated those messages with his peers at the World Summit of Legislators yesterday, at a session on climate change and disaster risk reduction where several delegates shared experiences on existing legislation and what were perceived as shortcomings in this field.

Read in detail at :- http://www.cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=24577

Severe Weather Warnings,India, DATE : APRIL 16, 2012

THUNDERSTORM/ SQUALLS

THUNDERSQUALLS WITH WIND SPEED REACHING 55-65 KMPH WOULD OCCUR AT ONE OR TWO PLACES OVER WEST BENGAL & SIKKIM,ORISSA, ARUNACHAL PRADESH,ASSAM & MEGHALAYA,NAGALAND, MANIPUR, MIZORAM AND TRIPURA DURING NEXT 48 HOURS.

Source:- http://www.imd.gov.in/section/nhac/dynamic/severe.htm

CLIMATE CHANGE: Farmers and forecasts

Unpredictable rainfall in parts of Côte d’Ivoire cost some farmers over half of their harvest in 2011 producers told IRIN, but, armed with more knowledge about how to get weather reports and interpret them, they might still have been able to boost their output, say agricultural specialists.

Marc Kouamé, a farmer in the north who grows okra, peanuts and cassava, told IRIN that farmers “no longer know where to turn” because of the changing seasons. "I lost half of my peanut production because I didn’t plant it at the right time,” he said. Many farmers feel more and more helpless in the face of such uncertainty.

Between 1971 and 2000, rainfall in Côte d’Ivoire dropped by 15 percent, according to Augustin Kouakou Nzue, head of agro-climatic studies in the National Weather Service (Direction Météorologie Nationale), although it has increased slightly since 2000.

In southern Côte d’Ivoire, farmers took clearly defined seasons for granted until the 1980s: rains from April to mid-July; a short dry season from mid-July to September; a short rainy season until November; and finally a long dry season from December to March. Now, the rains come later and finish earlier, with longer dry seasons and patchy distribution, says Nzue.

Most growers rely on rain-fed production, so the long-term impact of this shift could devastate Ivoirian farmers, who make up 60 percent of the workforce. Cocoa, the country’s main export crop, could also be affected - a September 2011 study by the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture, based in Cali, Colombia, predicts that rising temperatures may make it too hot to grow cocoa by 2050.

Sidiki Cissé, head of the National Agency to Support Rural Development (ANADER) in the commercial capital, Abidjan, is clearly worried. "The desperation of farmers is clear to see," he told IRIN.

Poor and erratic rainfall in 2011 and the subsequent poor harvests across the southern Saharan band have thrown 13 million people into a food security crisis in the Sahelian zones of Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Mali and Senegal.

Donors and investors are channelling climate adaptation funds into improved weather forecasting and more sophisticated climate science, but few groups are focusing on how climate information can better be used by farmers and communities in disaster-prone areas.

“People don’t see this kind of stuff as a critical research priority,” said Amane Tall, who is affiliated to the US-based Johns Hopkins University and the International Committee of the Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre in The Netherlands. “They invest in improving the science of climate change – which is great – but how do we make links between the science and the decision-making at all levels?”

The various communities working on climate change – scientists, environmentalists, humanitarian NGOs, disaster risk reduction experts – have tended to work separately, in their silos, but now dialogue is needed, said Emma Visman, Futures Group Manager at the Humanitarian Futures Programme (HFP), which tries to prepare the humanitarian community for future disaster scenarios. “Dialogue seems to be the key word,” she said, “but we don’t yet have the resources or space to do it.”

A few groups are attempting to bridge the information gap, including various national meteorological agencies, the World Meteorological Organization, the HFP, and some humanitarian and development NGOs such as Christian Aid.

Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Mali, Guinea and Togo, among others, are part of the West Africa Metragri programme, co-funded by the World Meteorological Organization and the State Agency for Meteorology (AEMET) in Spain. The plan is to train 200 farmers in Côte d’Ivoire to become more aware of rainfall patterns in their areas, and how to use rain gauges to monitor precipitation.

Nzue told farmers at a training session in Bingerville, Côte d'Ivoire the best time to sow certain crops is one or two days after the first 20mm of rain has fallen. In 2011 this would have been on 21 March in Bouaké in central Côte d’Ivoire, and on 11 April in San Pedro in the southwest.

Farmers are asked to send the rainfall data they collect to the National Weather Service [Direccion Météorologie Nationale), so that agronomy research centres can draw up new crop calendars to help them adapt planting schedules to their particular micro-climate, said Amin Gbo, chief executive officer of ANADER.

Photo: Nancy Palus/IRIN

Studies predict cocoa plants may not withstand higher global temperatures

Sidiki Cissé, head of ANADER, says corn, rice, sorghum and millet are most affected by changing rainfall patterns. In Burkina Faso local corn varieties suffer most because unlike imported varieties, they have not been designed to grow more quickly with less water, said Judith Bienvenue Fanfo, head of the Burkina Faso National Meteorological Office, which also collaborated on a project that has trained 450 farmers since 2007 to use climate and weather information.

HFP has worked on pilot studies in the Mbeere district of eastern Kenya and flood-prone Kaffrine in central Senegal to bring together communities, humanitarian partners (Christian Aid Kenya and the Senegalese Red Cross) and National Met offices to determine how to improve the exchange and use of weather information.

In Senegal, weather forecasts are broadcast on national radio, in newspapers, on television and via the internet, but these avenues are not readily accessible by local communities, said Visman.

The Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD) makes available daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal forecasts, but most people are unable to access the channels it uses to distribute this information and find the format difficult to understand, so they resort to using inaccurate information in uncertified channels instead.

Catering to the information preferences of individual groups can be resource-intensive. In one Senegalese village, asked to set up a climate road show women traders wanted a face-to-face information exchange; men wanted to use the mosque, while youths thought it best to share information under “talking trees” where they gather in the late afternoons.

After just a few months, the information exchange in Senegal started paying off, said Tall. Families said they kept their children home from school when forecasts predicted strong winds and rain. “There is also a psychological element – people are relieved to have the information and it can be very empowering,” she said. In Kenya the project has run less than 12 months and it is too soon to measure the results.

The Met Offices in both countries have signed memorandums of understanding with the humanitarian partner involved to ensure better collaboration.

Funding

Richard Ewbank, Climate Change Coordinator at Christian Aid, says such projects are likely to remain limited, due to a lack of funding for mitigation and resilience-building. Despite a complex web of climate change adaptation funds – including those of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), money from foundations and multilaterals, and promises by developed countries to mobilize US$100 billion to boost adaptation efforts by 2020 – it took HFP two years to find funding for its 12-month pilot project, before it eventually tapped into the UK Department for International Development’s Climate and Development Knowledge Network.

Christian Aid has its own church-based funding source. “It’s hard to persuade donors to pre-fund season forecast information – they prefer to fund humanitarian situations when they hit,” Ewbank told IRIN.

However, as donors start to see the pay-off from more detailed weather information in the right hands, it may generate more interest. “If climate services get more accurate,” he said, “then clearly our scope to use these tools will also improve.”

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SOurce:- http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95214/CLIMATE-CHANGE-Farmers-and-forecasts

The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) published the first special report on the risks of extreme events and disasters

We did not start from scratch»

The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) published the first special report on the risks of extreme events and disasters (SREX). Together with the Australian climate scientist Neville Nicholls, ETH-Zurich professor Sonia Seneviratne was coordinating lead author of one of the nine chapters. She talks about her work and the report in an interview.

Simone Ulmer

Sonia Seneviratne is an assistant professor of land-climate interactions at ETH Zurich’s Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science (Photo: Toini Lindroos/Ringier). (gallery)

The new IPCC SREX special reportevaluates and summarises scientific literature on changes in weather and climate extremes, and assesses the consequences of such changes in the context of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. The chapter that Sonia Seneviratne coordinated provides the physical scientific basis regarding the observed and projected changes in climate extremes. It is the first IPCC report exclusively devoted to extreme events.

Ms Seneviratne, as coordinating lead author you supervised a chapter of this special report. The full title of the report is Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation. Writing a chapter within such a report sounds like a challenging task.
Although the topic of our chapter is related to my research, it was indeed a considerable additional work load. It may have partly been a disadvantage while I was working on it as I had less time for my own research. But in the long run, it was very useful to me as a researcher because I now have a much better overview of the entire field and can see where there are gaps and which areas are most in need of further research. Of course, it is also an honour to have been given this task.

How long did the project take?
The project began in 2009. In all, we worked on this special report for two and half years.

The chapter you supervised is entitled Changes in Climate Extremes and their Impact on the Natural Physical Environment. What does it mean?
The whole report was coordinated by IPCC Working Group 1, which addresses the physical science basis on climate change, and IPCC Working Group 2, which addresses climate change impacts on ecosystems and society, as well as climate change adaptation. Our chapter was the only one by Working Group 1 in the report. The term “natural physical environment” highlights that our chapter addresses the purely physical aspects, including physical impacts, but not impacts on ecosystems and society.

What are the purely physical aspects of climate extremes?
We distinguished three separate categories of events relevant to disasters: first, weather and climate extremes in temperature, precipitation and wind; then, phenomena that are linked to these occurrences: tropical and extratropical cyclones, as well as El Niño and other large-scale modes of variability; finally, impacts on the physical environment, such as droughts, floods, coastal impacts, or impacts in mountainous environment.

You and the other authors of the chapter considered around 1,100 publications on extreme events. How did you know where to start?
We did not start from scratch. There were previous reports by the IPCC that had addressed aspects of this topic. But this is the first IPCC report exclusively devoted to extreme events. Previously, the topic was divided into different reports and, in the Fourth Assessment Report, the AR4, into different chapters. We began with this material. Of the 1,100 publications, however, over seventy percent were published after the AR4, in other words since mid-2006. Even while we were compiling the report, new relevant literature kept on being published. We compared the new publications with the AR4 assessment and that of an IPCC technical paper from 2008 on the topic “climate change and water”. We checked what was new or what was no longer correct. We had for instance a significant amount of new literature documenting more extensive analyses on the topics of droughts and tropical cyclones.

How did you approach the evaluation of publications on the specific extreme events?
The evaluation process became very systematic compared to the AR4, and we used the new IPCC uncertainty guidance for the assessments. As a first step, we determined the confidence we had in the data basis available for the considered extreme events. For instance, if for a given extreme we had only few publications based on a limited number of datasets or if the process understanding still showed considerable gaps, the level of confidence was assessed as being low. If the quality of the underlying data basis was good enough for us to be able to evaluate the sign of the change in a given extreme but not sufficient to make quantitative assessments regarding the probability of change, then the level of confidence was assessed as medium. As an example, drought is an important topic, but we assessed the level of confidence in the projections as only medium given that there are not many relevant observations and that the involved processes are complex. It is also difficult to assess how good the models are in cases where there are strong natural fluctuations and few events for the analyses, such as for El Niño. Quantitative statements on the probability of a change are only provided in cases where we assessed that we had high confidence in the underlying evidence.

Can you give an example?
Based on the available evidence, we can state that a future increase in heat extremes on the global scale is virtually certain, that is that it will occur with a degree of certainty of ninety-nine to 100 percent.

You even provided assessments of observed and projected changes in extremes at the regional scale.
Yes, we provided such assessments for temperature extremes, heavy precipitation events and droughts for twenty-six regions. It is the first time that such detailed regional information on extreme events has been compiled. We also provided global-scale assessments for all considered types of extremes, which are summarized in another table.

How did you deal with contradicting studies?
We outlined the different views on the given topics and provided an objective synthesis on the available literature.

What are the underlying messages of your chapter?
The main message is that there are already changes in extremes that we can observe. How sure we are with regard to these changes depends strongly on the considered extremes and regions. For instance, we assess it as very likely that increases in hot extremes have been observed on the global scale. On the other hand, cold extremes have become less frequent. In the case of heavy precipitation events, we identify more regions with increases than decreases globally, hence an overall tendency for increases in these events at the global scale, but at the level of single regions it is often more difficult to identify a signal.

Why is that?
We have to determine the presence of a signal from statistical analyses. The identification of the signal depends on the signal to noise ratio. If the noise is large, for instance because there is a strong natural variability, it is harder to see a signal. The signal-to-noise ratio is generally larger at global than regional scale, because the regions present different types of background noise that cancel out when all the data is averaged on the global scale. Finally, there are also extreme events for which the data is still limited and for which we are thus still unable to assess whether they are influenced by the increasing greenhouse gas concentrations.

Were there some surprises?
No, with a few exceptions. Globally speaking, it is clear that there are changes for some extremes that are caused by humans, especially for temperature and heavy precipitation, and that we expect an increase of these trends for the future. But there were also some changes compared to the AR4 assessments. On the one hand, we have now in the SREX more detailed assessment for aspects that were not previously treated, for instance more detailed regional assessments as well as partly quantitative assessments on the magnitude of changes for temperature and precipitation extremes. These analyses reveal large regional differences in the data basis, the observed trends and the projected changes in extremes. On the other hand, the latest literature has also revealed a greater level of uncertainty for certain extremes than was discernable at the time of the AR4. This is especially the case for droughts and tropical cyclones. Nevertheless, we can also provide assessments for these extremes – for instance, with medium confidence, that some large regions, including Central Europe and the Mediterranean, will be at a greater risk of droughts in future.

Apart from the two coordinating lead authors, twelve lead authors and twenty-eight contributing authors worked on the chapter. Was there a clear division of responsibilities?
I was extremely lucky that we were two coordinating lead authors and that Neville Nicholls already had experience as lead author on previous IPCC reports. The main structure and title of the chapter were provided by the IPCC based on a scoping meeting for the report. We could provide some suggestions for the choice of some lead authors given their scientific expertise and country of origin. In particular, we had experts on specific extremes or specific methods in climate research.

The chapters of the special report were reviewed by other scientists and government representatives for quality check. How did that work?
We had first an informal review of the zero-order draft of the report. The first-order draft was then officially reviewed by scientific experts. Following this, the second-order draft was reviewed by scientists and government representatives. There were also separate reviews of the Summary for Policymakers, in which material from our executive summary was included. We received a total of ca. 5,000 comments, not all on content, as a few of them also pointed out typos. However, we had to answer them all in writing. All the authors from our team had to do this for their respective contributions. But in the end Neville Nicholls and I had to read through and check them all to make sure everything had been answered correctly. This represented a large amount of work, but it was a valuable process to ensure the quality of our chapter..

Is quality assurance new within the IPCC and a response to errors that were found in the AR4?
No, these were also the quality standards at the time of the AR4. But we were particularly careful in this context to make sure that there were no mistakes.

Source:- http://www.ethlife.ethz.ch/archive_articles/120329_Interview_Seneviratne_su/index_EN

NDMA encourages private sector involvement in disaster management

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Thursday urged the corporate sector to connect proactively for managing disaster.

The National Stakeholder Council meet of the Corporate Disaster Resource Network (CDRN) was held at NDMA Bhawan to engage private sector in the process for disaster mitigation and response activities.

Speaking at the occasion, M Shashidhar Reddy, vice chairman, NDMA, said, "CDRN is a platform that provides real time information which is critically required in times of emergencies to reach out to people and NDMA assures full support to CDRN for private sector dialogues on disaster preparedness and response."

J K Sinha, member of NDMA, said, "During the time of disaster, there is a lot of requirement of relief materials, services, personnel etc. However, lack of information about the available resources makes it complex and challenging. CDRN has helped to provide resources effectively and efficiently preventing disasters within disasters".

Dr. Muzaffar Ahmed, member, NDMA, said, "Private sector has pool of resources in all major areas with pan-India reach and to leverage the same in disaster management by supporting through NSC would definitely make an impact. Disaster management can only be successful when everybody joins hands together to support in any manner."

Read in detail at :- http://www.cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=23398

Severe Weather Warnings,India DATE : MARCH 27, 2012

Severe Weather Warnings

DATE : MARCH 27, 2012

THUNDERSTORM/ SQUALLS

Dust storm/thunderstorm may occur at one or two places over Punjab, Haryana,Rajasthan and west Uttar Pradesh during next 24 hours. Source:- http://www.imd.gov.in/section/nhac/dynamic/severe.htm

Geologists urged to help prevent disasters

Geologists urged to help prevent disasters

Geologists must play a greater role to help prevent natural disasters and reduce their impact amid climate change worldwide, a regional congress was told yesterday.

Songpope Polachan, president of the Geological Society of Thailand, said geologists need to play more active roles in designing city planning to prevent possible geological hazards.

"They are satisfied if the government invites them to participate in decision-making about measures to prevent natural disasters and reduce their impacts, particularly flooding," Mr Songpope said.

Mr Songpope was speaking at the 12th regional congress on Geology, Mineral and Energy Resources of Southeast Asia under the theme of "Geoscience in Response to the Changing Earth".

The two-day congress, which ends today, aims to increase public understanding of scientific principles and natural disasters, boost the public's awareness of disaster prevention and reduction, and prepare the public to cope with rumours of disasters.

It is held every three years, with Thailand the host this year.

Attending the congress yesterday were geologists and scientists from 10 Southeast Asian nations.

Mr Songpope said geoscience, which involves all aspects of understanding the Earth, has much to contribute to risk reduction in geohazard processes.

He said this contribution will become more important in the 21st century as the global population approaches 10 billion, causing much greater use of the planet's geological resources such as petrol, coal, underground water, natural gas and minerals.

In addition, he said that climate change in countries around the world will affect the health, safety and well-being of societies.

"So, whatever attempts to preserve geological resources for future generations, to avoid natural disasters, reduce possible damages, and also city planning, those people involved must not forget to discuss [these matters] with geologists," he said.

Read in detail at :- http://www.cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=23364

UN-SPIDER supports Space Technology Applications in DRR

Fifth International UN-SPIDER Bonn Workshop
3rd Annual RSO Meeting conducted in Vienna
UN-SPIDER to carry out a Technical Advisory Mission to Tonga (20 – 26 March 2012)
Karoly Robert University of Hungary joins UN-SPIDER as an RSO
UN-SPIDER supports the Third Workshop on Space Technology Applications in Disaster-Risk Reduction and Emergency Response
VALID project update: Substantial scientific support.
European Seminar on Disaster Risk Management in Berlin.
UN-SPIDER participation in “Expert Group Meeting on Geo-reference Disaster Risk Management System in Asia-Pacific Region”, Bangkok, Thailand.
IGAC from Colombia becomes UN-SPIDER’s newest RSO


RSO News

Algeria inaugurated the Centre of Satellite Development (CDS)
ADRC conducted Training for Government Officials in Charge of DRM in Indonesia
RCMRD conducted “Workshop on Disaster Rapid mapping and International Charter Operations”
Iranian Space Agency, successfully launched the Navid-e-Elm and San'at (promise of Science and Technology) Satellite on February 3, 2012



COntinue reading the detailed UN SPIDER new letter at :- http://www.cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=23331

PRESS CONFERENCE BY SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR DISASTER RISK REDUCTION

PRESS CONFERENCE BY SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR DISASTER RISK REDUCTION




It pays to be well prepared, particularly where natural hazards and disaster risk reduction were concerned, the top United Nations official responsible for mitigating disaster risks worldwide, said today.


Addressing correspondents at a Headquarters press conference on the upcoming one-year anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11 2011, Margareta Wahlström, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, said Japan had shown the world that despite the major tragedy it had suffered on that day, prevention and preparedness paid off. “Building codes pay, early warning systems pay, it saves lives. Drills, training, public education and awareness also pay off and save lives,” she said.


If none of those things had been consistently implemented in Japan as they had been for decades, last year’s horror would have been much worse, Ms. Wahlström asserted. A remarkable testimony to the quality of the buildings was the fact that the tsunami, and not the earthquake, had been responsible for the main destruction to the buildings. Today, the main focus remained on the interaction between assets — in this case, the nuclear power plants and similar industries, such as the petro-chemical industry — with the potential to damage the environment.


She said there were many lessons learned from last year’s earthquake, and the marking of its first anniversary in a few days was an opportunity to again recognize the importance of Japanese education about disasters over hundreds of years, and to drive the work globally that was being done in the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) on how to reduce disaster risk in order to preserve the development assets of countries and communities.


The world had learnt, for instance, that the Japan disaster was one of the most globally destructive in history, she said. Last year was the peak year of disaster loses so far in recorded history, with total losses at a staggering $380 billion at least, two thirds higher than the previous record with Hurricane Katrina. The losses last year mainly stemmed from earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand, she said, explaining that earthquakes were the costliest and deadliest of disasters. In addition to those, the world had also experienced several other major events, including flooding in Thailand and many other countries.


“So the main message is that this is an increasing — and very rapidly increasing — trend, with increasingly economic losses,” she stated. Globally, the disaster mortality was proportionally declining because countries were getting much better at early warning systems and preparedness. But the economics of disasters was becoming a major threat to several countries, and today, 50 per cent of the world’s population lived in highly vulnerable areas and was thus exposed to hazards and disaster risk.


Read the detailed press briefing at :- http://www.cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=23335

Delhi to get major boost in disaster management; Army report awaited

The Delhi Government is awaiting a report by the Army, which had conducted a third-party evaluation of the mega mock drill carried out by the National Disaster Management Authority in Delhi on February 15, to finalise its plans for setting up a major emergency operation centre for disaster management and procurement of essential equipment.

“The Army had minutely monitored the mock drill and its report is expected soon. The Delhi Government had also carried out its own appraisal which revealed that there were several areas on which we need to act fast. I am sure now that the ball has been set rolling, things would move fast once the Army report also comes in,” said Divisional Commissioner and Secretary (Revenue and Delhi Disaster Management Authority) Vijay Dev talking to The Hindu on Monday.

According to Mr. Dev, the disaster management scenario in Delhi is due for a complete facelift. “We intend setting up an Emergency Operation Centre which would be housed in an earthquake-proof building. It would connect the Divisional Commissioner and all the nine Deputy Commissioners in the revenue districts with the ambulance, hospital, fire and police services through a computerised system. This system would be global positioning system (GPS) enabled, have an online connectivity and various maps to guide the personnel and officials during an emergency.”

The EOC would also provide a complete link-up to the emergency vehicles services. “All agencies would also be brought on the same frequency through a dedicated communication system. At present we are using the Tetra sets but a new system would be required soon as it is not sufficient,” Mr. Dev said.

The official said the communication system would have to meet the needs of all the agencies, some of which like the Delhi Police do not wish to share all their communications with the rest. “So it would have at least one common frequency for all ‘emergency support functionaries' to communicate at the time of an emergency or disaster. Apart from that they would also be able to have their own secured frequencies.”


Read in detail at :- http://www.cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=23336

UN-SPIDER supports Space Technology Applications in DRR

UN-SPIDER News

Fifth International UN-SPIDER Bonn Workshop
3rd Annual RSO Meeting conducted in Vienna
UN-SPIDER to carry out a Technical Advisory Mission to Tonga (20 – 26 March 2012)
Karoly Robert University of Hungary joins UN-SPIDER as an RSO
UN-SPIDER supports the Third Workshop on Space Technology Applications in Disaster-Risk Reduction and Emergency Response
VALID project update: Substantial scientific support.
European Seminar on Disaster Risk Management in Berlin.
UN-SPIDER participation in “Expert Group Meeting on Geo-reference Disaster Risk Management System in Asia-Pacific Region”, Bangkok, Thailand.
IGAC from Colombia becomes UN-SPIDER’s newest RSO


RSO News

Algeria inaugurated the Centre of Satellite Development (CDS)
ADRC conducted Training for Government Officials in Charge of DRM in Indonesia
RCMRD conducted “Workshop on Disaster Rapid mapping and International Charter Operations”
Iranian Space Agency, successfully launched the Navid-e-Elm and San'at (promise of Science and Technology) Satellite on February 3, 2012
Community News

Secure World Foundation organizes a Round Table on “the Future of GMES”
A new generation of meteorological satellites
Advanced Tool for Weather Forecasting Turned On Aboard NPP
SMOS water mission turns hurricane hunter
GMES: e-GEOS wins contracts from the European Commission to provide satellite data and maps for emergency management
Princeton system tracks drought to aid disaster relief
Esri and GeoEye Developing Global Crisis Response Service
Timely Upgrade of Weather Information Systems
Earth Observation and Tsunami Warning System Seen as Critical to Revitalizing Japan
Romantis Provides Turnkey Satellite Telemedicine Network to All-Russian Center for Disaster Medicine
ISRO sets ball rolling for Indian ‘GPS' / navigation system
SAFER is activated for Bulgaria and Algeria
The International Charter is activated for Algeria and Peru
Sentinel Asia is Activated for Philippines



Read in detail at :- http://www.cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=23331

Best time to donate money is before crisis strikes

But aid groups find it harder to attract funds for prevention than for cure

BY CRAIG KIELBURGER AND MARC, EDMONTON JOURNAL FEBRUARY 27, 2012

Albert Einstein once said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

On Friday, Feb. 3, the UN declared the famine over in Somalia. All is not well yet. Some nine million people throughout the Horn of Africa still face a serious food crisis, but the worst of the disaster that has claimed as many as 100,000 lives - mostly children - has passed.

Now the world will turn its attention, resources and donations to the next disaster, like the growing hunger crisis in the Sahel region of northwest Africa.

We can predict how it will go.

Aid organizations will issue dire press releases for a month or two, which will be ignored at first. As the scale of the emergency grows, the media will discover the story and camera teams will rush to the scene. There will be a flurry of news stories. A burst of donations from the public will follow, with big funding announcements from governments. Depending on the profile of the emergency, after a few weeks, not much more, journalists will lose interest and donations will trickle off.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

We're caught in Einstein's loop of insanity, delivering emergency assistance over and over but never getting the result we want: stopping people from dying of hunger.

An often-repeated statistic in the development community is that every dollar spent on prevention will save four dollars in emergency response. After the 2005 drought in the Horn of Africa, another study found that it had cost $80 a day to treat a malnourished child, but it would have cost only one dollar a day to prevent the malnutrition in the first place with development programs.

We can't stop droughts from happening, but we can give communities the tools to survive so they are prepared and don't starve when the drought strikes.

The humanitarian news website AlertNet has released the results of a survey of 41 of the world's largest international aid non-government organizations.

Sixteen of these agencies said that 10 per cent or less of their spending goes to projects that help com-munities prevent or reduce the risk of disasters. Fourteen more NGOs weren't even able to get the information to answer the question. In other words, a majority of organizations are not making a meaningful effort to help communities prepare for and survive disasters.

Some organizations have made prevention a priority, and have had an impact because of it. In 1984, the famine in Ethiopia killed more than 400,000 people. Since 1984, these organizations have helped communities in the region become more prepared and resilient to drought. As a result, this time the drought affected more countries but the death toll was much lower.

Twenty-five of those NGOs polled by AlertNet said they would like to increase their disaster prevention work, if they can find the funding.

So what's the problem?

"Funding for disaster risk reduction and disaster preparedness is not very 'sexy' for donors - global, domestic and private," says Jouni Hemberg of FinnChurchAid, Finland's largest development organization, in the AlertNet report.

The 2011 Millennial Donors Report by the U.S. fundraising firm Achieve found that 77 per cent of people who give to charity would be at least somewhat likely to stop giving money if they didn't know what impact their money was having. When we give money to a charity, we want to know where that money is going, and what difference it is going to make.

Delivering food and water to tens of thousands of families, as most organizations do in an emergency, has an obvious impact. When you donate to support emergency relief, you know exactly how your money is going to save lives.

Teaching sustainable farming practices or supporting local governments to manage water resources better - that's a little more complex and the impact isn't quite so obvious and immediate. Come the next drought, fewer people will need us to deliver emergency food and water. You can save more lives more effectively by helping communities prepare to survive a drought, than by rushing in with emergency aid after the drought has started.

However, many organizations are sending donors the exact opposite message with their marketing.

In every disaster, all the ads from aid groups say: "Now is the time to give!" and "We need your donations more than ever!"

What's the message behind this urgency? That it's more important to give to emergency aid than ongoing development that could prevent the emergency in the first place.

Let's turn it on its head. Why not buy the full-page newspaper ad after the drought, saying now is when we need your donations the most. By giving now, you are ensuring no one starves during the next drought.

Aid groups then need to do a much better job of explaining the impact of prevention work to their donors. With the effects of climate change, disasters are only going to become more frequent. In regions like the Horn of Africa, where droughts used to come every five to seven years, now they're coming every two to three.

We will fail if we keep trying to do the same old emergency response and expect different results.

Working with communities to prepare for disasters will save more lives, and will be a much more effective use of our aid dollars.

An ounce of prevention really is going to be worth a pound of cure.

Marc Kielburger and Craig Kielburger co-founded Free the Children.


Source:- http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Best+time+donate+money+before+crisis+strikes/6214286/story.html

UN climate chief turns to CEOs for way forward

Christiana Figueres told The Associated Press that her efforts to reach out to high-profile executives from companies such as Coca-Cola, Unilever and Virgin Group represent “a deeper recognition of the fact that the private sector can contribute in a decisive way.” Since the start of 2012, the Costa Rican head of the UN climate agency has met corporate leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos and on a cruise to Antarctica organized by Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former US Vice President Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project.

“I’m hoping to accelerate what I call the push and pull process,” Figueres told the AP in a phone interview Tuesday from her agency’s secretariat in Bonn, Germany.

Governments act as a pull factor by shaping the policies that promote green technology and help renewable energy sources like solar and wind power compete with the fossil fuels that scientists say contribute to global warming through the release of greenhouse gases.

“But the companies, particularly these very, very high-powered companies that ... have the ear of many of the decision-makers and the opinion leaders of different countries, they can act as a push factor,” Figueres said.

She mentioned Walmart, Coca-Cola and Unilever as examples of companies that have “looked at their own production and up and down their value chain” for ways to reduce their carbon footprints.

Underscoring the focus on businesses, the U.N. climate agency last month launched an online database showcasing examples of companies making efforts to help vulnerable communities adapt to climate change.

The heightened attention to the role of corporations in addressing climate change comes amid a realization that the 2-decade-old U.N. climate talks are unlikely to achieve the goal of keeping temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels. Scientists predict further warming could lead to severe damage from extreme weather, droughts, floods and rising seas.

Last year, governments agreed to draw up a new climate pact by 2015 that would enter into force five years later. But major hurdles remain, including the difficulty in getting the United States to sign up to legally binding emissions cuts.

The US doesn’t want to commit to a binding deal unless it also imposes strict emissions targets on China and India, while the latter insist their targets should be more lenient because, historically, the West has a bigger share of the blame for man-made warming.

Figueres said it is up to the US electorate to decide in the presidential election this year “how they would like to see their national leadership treat this issue.” However, there are no signs from the presidential campaigns that the US stance is going to soften. Republican candidates have expressed doubt over, or flat-out rejected, the notion that human activities contribute to warming.

And Democratic President Barack Obama, facing Republican criticism for locking up the nation’s energy resources, has embraced increased oil and gas production on the campaign trail.

“What is always astonishing to me is how the US citizen is willing to diminish the possibility that the United States has to be a leader in the technologies of the future,” Figueres said. “And it also has implications for the world - because this world would profit from the technical and intellectual capacity that is in the United States.”



Source:- http://www.timeslive.co.za/scitech/2012/02/22/un-climate-chief-turns-to-ceos-for-way-forward

PPP Days 2012 hosts first business forum

By David Singh

GENEVA, 23 February 2012 - A Business Forum featured for the first time at today's opening in Geneva of the biennial Private Public Partnership event, PPP Days 2012.

"This is an opportunity for national and regional governments to present their projects to the business community," said Geoffrey Hamilton, Chief, Partnerships and Cooperation Section, Economic Cooperation and Integration Division of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) as he opened the special session on Japan and the role of PPPs in disaster risk reduction (DRR) and post disaster reconstruction.

PPP Days 2012, jointly hosted by the UNECE, World Bank Institute, and Asian Development Bank is the global meeting place for public sector practitioners. Since 2006, PPP Days has become the place for practitioners to network and learn from peers and counterparts from other countries.

In the keynote address, UNISDR Chief, Margareta Wahlström, said "Private sector involvement in risk reduction is far too small. By 2015 and in the lead-up to determine a successor to the Hyogo Framework for Action [the 10 year international blueprint for disaster risk reduction], I would like to see the private sector step up in both the discussions and the contributions. The knowledge and evidence to reduce disaster risks are here -- the question is what is the PPP doing?"

At the opening session, Japan's Permanent Representative to the International Organizations in Geneva, Kenichi Suganuma, said that the outcome of "today's discussions must be used in future reconstruction plans, stressing that private sector knowledge and initiatives help national efforts and stimulate the economy". He recalled that during the relief period following the Great East Japan earthquake last year, over 44,000 convenience stores became community lifelines "as important as electricity and water services".

Ambassador Suganuma highlighted the amendment of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) which was passed in May last year which now enables use of private sector expertise and capital instead of government expenditure to facilitate the restoration of public infrastructure and services after disasters.

Sandra Wu Wen-Hsiu, President and CEO of Kokusai Kyogo Holding Co, Ltd., and member of UNISDR's Private Sector Advisory Group (PSAG), said her company, which provides engineering and consulting services has "been involved with government infrastructure projects from our beginnings 65 years ago, and this of course includes disaster preparedness planning."

Explaining how that worked she said that during a disaster, "Many of you in the public sector might think that the amount of time necessary to meet procurement regulations makes it all but impossible to call upon the private sector in a timely manner when a disaster occurs. In Japan, we have gotten around this through a system called emergency agreements, where services to be provided are agreed upon prior to the occurrence of an emergency. These are standing agreements that kick in when there is a disaster."

Peter Williams, Chief Technology Officer for the IBM programme, "Big Green Innovations", and also a member of the PSAG, highlighted floods as a major issue for IBM. "For any given flood prone location, how can we create a global community platform that enables better understanding of the complex causes behind the risk of flood impact -- the better to support the decisions, and also the education and communication, needed to mitigate that risk before, during and after the flood itself?" he asked.

IBM is working on a Global Flood Model (GFM) which will assess flood risks and devise long-term mitigation strategies such as land use changes and infrastructure improvements, according to Williams. This model, due to be launched in March, will "comprise an integrated set of modules, each composed of models and data. For each module there are two core elements: a specification, and a live 'reference version' (a worked example). Users will be able to work with the reference version, or substitute their own models and data."

The business model is derived from open source software and the specifications and reference version of the GFM will be licensed free for non-profit usage. The GFM is proposed by Willis Ltd, the UK Met Office, Esri, Deltares and IBM who are all committing substantial pro-bono resources to the initiative. They are looking for donor funding "to confirm the feasibility of the concept, to create the GFM organization, and to commence the process of building the GFM."

EU aid to tackle climate induced natural disasters branded 'inadequate'

EU aid to tackle climate induced natural disasters branded 'inadequate'

By Martin Banks - 23rd February 2012
Climate change is very likely to intensify the water cycle
Konrad Adenauer Stiftung

A conference in Brussels heard that EU overseas aid is "not sufficient" to prevent climate induced humanitarian crises.

The conference on Thursday was told that the EU is an "important provider" of humanitarian aid and has recognised that an emergency response is vital.

But a report presented to the event said, "This is not sufficient and droughts are intensified by climate change."

It went on, "There is an urgent need to focus more on preparedness, disaster risk reduction and sustainable development."

The conference heard that the European commission has been actively involved in disaster risk reduction in the Horn of Africa.

It was said that this initiative had focused on drought preparedness and aims to make local communities more resilient while building their capacity to cope with the impact of recurrent drought.

The report said, "The immediate objective is to reduce the need for emergency response to future droughts."

The report said, "The question has to be asked whether enough has been done in order to improve crisis preparedness in the region.

"Only long term action by development agencies and national governments can deliver effective and sustainable results.

"This can be done by investing in local coordination, better resource management, animal health and planning for contingency measures."

The east African region is one of the so-called hotspots threatened by both droughts and floods, the event heard.

One of those participants, Solomon Abebe Tessema, deputy head of mission at the Ethiopian embassy to the EU, focused on the impact of climate change on natural catastrophes.

He said, "Climate change is very likely to intensify the water cycle, thereby increasing the risk of floods and tropical cyclones.

"Research suggests that both at high latitudes and over most land areas increases in average river runoff and rising sea surface temperature will occur."




Source:- http://www.theparliament.com/latest-news/article/newsarticle/eu-aid-to-tackle-climate-induced-natural-disasters-branded-inadequate/

"The east African region is one of the hotspots where the risk of flash floods is on a very high level."

The conference was organised by the Brussels-based think tank Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.

South-East Asian Nations Call for Greater Investment in Disaster Risk Reduction to Protect Economic Growth

Bangkok (UN ESCAP Strategic Communications and Advocacy Section) – The 2011 floods that caused unprecedented devastation across South-East Asia have highlighted the need for stepped up investment in disaster risk reduction to protect social and economic assets, top government officials from the subregion agreed at a United Nations forum here today.

Representatives of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Philippines, Timor-Leste, Thailand and Viet Nam met at the one-day South-East Asia Flood Risk Reduction Forum organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in cooperation with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM), to discuss the lessons from the 2011 flooding in South-East Asia and ways to make their nations more resilient to future flood risks.

Opening the meeting, Dr. Noeleen Heyzer, the Executive Secretary of ESCAP and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, called for faster implementation of regional and national disaster risk reduction frameworks. She highlighted the relationship between disasters and development, saying: “Hazards become disasters in the absence of development and with inadequate investment in risk reduction. This knowledge-sharing meeting presents us with the opportunity to address gaps in regional and national disaster preparedness, management and response.”

In his remarks to the Forum, Mr Kittirat Na-Ranong, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Thailand, also reiterated the importance of investing appropriately in disaster risk reduction and emphasised Thailand's full commitment to prevent flooding in the upcoming monsoon season.

Making the link between disaster risk reduction and regional performance on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Dr. Heyzer added: “Our newly launched Asia Pacific Report on the MDGs is very clear – countries with the biggest economic and social disparities are those most likely to be off-track to meet their development targets. The impacts of disasters are worst on the least developed communities, but disasters themselves make development more difficult.”

The key message emerging from Forum presentations and discussions was that the 2011 South-East Asia floods were a “wake-up call to policymakers, governments, private sector and civil society that there is a gap between rapid economic growth and investment in disaster risk reduction”.

More investment is needed to fill this gap in order to protect social and economic assets from floods and other disasters in the region, in particular for those areas with rapid economic growth.

The solutions must be built on sound scientific and technical knowledge. A balanced approach consisting of structural and non-structural measures could constitute short, medium and long-term interventions. These measures must be implemented at the regional, national and local levels and require strong leadership for their success.

As the causes and impacts of floods extend beyond national boundaries, international cooperation is also an important factor. Regional collaboration, facilitated by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United Nations would ensure that a common set of achievable and deliverable regional goals to reduce risk and promote inclusive and sustainable development are put in place and actions to achieve these goals are implemented.

The 2011 South-East Asia Floods affected millions of people with more than one thousand lives lost and damages estimated in billions of US dollars. Torrential rains and floods of historical scale spread throughout parts of Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam, while Typhoon Washi inflicted a heavy toll on the Philippines, over-all affecting almost 20 million people in the subregion.

The Forum will be followed by a two-day “Workshop on Flood Risk Reduction through Space Applications in South-East Asia” which will provide technical training on the use of space applications during floods, including Geographic Information Sytem (GIS)-based disaster information, the Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation, the Integrated Flood Analysis System and Flood Forecasting Model.



Source:- http://www.unescap.org/unis/press/2012/feb/g08.pdf

Hunger in the Delhi slums

Save the Children is warning that half a billion children around the world could be physically and mentally stunted unless more effort is made to fight malnutrition.
After conducting a survey across five developing countries it concluded that rising global food prices are largely to blame along with the failure of the international community to tackle the problem.
Many people questioned in India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Peru said they were unable to afford nutritious foods like milk, meat and vegetables. Some revealed their children were skipping meals to help their families earn money for food and often went to bed hungry.
The charity says that children under two are most in need of help because the body and brain are developing fast at that age. Prolonged malnutrition for these children can irreversibly stunt their growth and reduce their IQ by as much as 15 points.
India is home to a third of the world's malnourished children. Some 43% of them suffer from malnutrition and three out of four are anaemic.
More than half of adults there polled by Save the Children said food prices have become their biggest worry and one in four said their children often have to go without meals, sometimes for a whole day.


I thought it was some curse, some kind of evil spirit.
Nasreen Khatoun
Nasreen Khatoun lives in Bhagwanpura slum, one of the worst of many in New Delhi.
The 24-year-old's tiny home is crammed between other flimsy structures made from canvas, plastic and whatever can be found. Like most in this deprived area it has no electricity or running water.
But feeding rather than housing her family is Nasreen's biggest concern after already having lost two of her children to malnutrition. Both were two years old. Her daughter was the first to pass away.
"She died of acute malnutrition, she seemed to have dried up. She was just skin and bones," Nasreen told me.
"I thought it was some curse, some kind of evil spirit. The son who died was also acutely malnourished. One day all of a sudden he got pneumonia and he died."
There is little work in this area of Delhi and what there is pays a pittance. With her husband unable to work at the moment, Nasreen says getting food on the table is a permanent struggle.
"Prices have doubled of everything in the last one year. Everything is expensive the children eat only one meal a day. There is no assistance. We don't know what to feed our children," she explained.

Malnourished children go to slum feeding centres for food
Not far away crowds of young children and their mothers squeeze into a small government run feeding centre, one of more than 10,000 in Delhi.
The scrawny youngsters jostle for ladles of dhal in an area where nine out of 10 children need help.
"There are a lot of children who come here who are extremely malnourished," said Seroja, a helper at the feeding centre.


"Their eyes stand out and their bones stand out and their legs are really thin. So you can see them and tell obviously that they are extremely seriously malnourished."
Malnutrition does not only leave children hungry. It also lowers the body's resistance to disease, leaving children open to contracting serious conditions like TB and pneumonia.
Delhi paediatrician Dr RK Gupta confirms that it also can ruin the long-term physical and mental health of suffers under two.

Conditions are desperate for children living in the Delhi slums
"If a child is malnourished in the first two years he's likely to remain malnourished in later life," he said.
"And definitely if he suffers from any disease he's likely to take longer to recover. In infancy or the first two years of life if malnutrition is there then intellectual capacity or physical development is all hampered."
A few miles away the damage done by early onset malnutrition is visible in the classroom, according to the vice-principle of a government school there.
Due to the stigma attached to the condition, the teacher concerned asked to remain anonymous.
"If poor parents are not able to give children a fully-balanced diet that has a great impact on their leaning ability," he told me.

Childhood malnourishment takes a physical and mental toll
"In language some of them can read but not write. In mathematics for instance, I ask them to write 305 but instead of writing 305 they wrote 300 and five, as in three zero zero and five"
The result of all this, he says, is that few of these children will be able, when adults, to get jobs enabling them to escape the poverty that surrounds them and their families.
Save the Children says that, in addition to rising food prices, there are several other factors that put children at risk of malnutrition across the developing world.
These include the reluctance of some mothers to breast feed their children and a lack of access to fortified foods.

The charity is calling on the British government to stage a world summit on hunger in London around the time of the Olympics when leaders from around the globe will be gathered there.
In the meantime, having already lost two children, Nasreen Khatoun from Bhagwanpure will need all her energy to stop the same happening to the two she has left.
"Every evening I come back worried for my children, there is nobody to take care of them while I'm away. I'm worried for their health.
"I skip my meals so that I can feed my children. I borrow, I even lie to somehow get money to feed them. Poverty breaks you down but you should be hopeful and strong.
"Till the time I have the strength and the will, I will fight. With whatever means I can manage, I will carry on."

Source:- http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9696000/9696493.stm

Risks Rise from Urban Flooding in East Asia and Pacific

Urban flooding is a serious and growing development challenge for fast growing low and middle-income countries in East Asia, underscoring an urgent need to build flood risk management into regular planning of cities and towns, says a new World Bank guidebook released today.



Titled “Cities and Flooding: A Guide to Integrated Urban Flood Risk Management for the 21st Century”, the book provides operational guidance on how to manage the risk of floods in the face of urbanization, growing populations and long-term climate change trends.



“Urban expansion often creates poorer neighborhoods which lack adequate infrastructure and services, making them more vulnerable to floods. The poor are hit hardest, especially women and children,” said Pamela Cox, World Bank Vice President, East Asia and Pacific Region.“But rapid urbanization also means we have the opportunity to do things right the first time, so cities and towns can support sustainable development, saving lives and money.”



Floods are the most frequent among all natural disasters, and the East Asia and Pacific region, along with South Asia, is particularly vulnerable. In the past 30 years, the number of floods in Asia amounted to about 40 percent of the total worldwide. More than 90 percent of the global population exposed to floods lives in Asia.


Read in detail at :- http://cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=23239