Disaster mitigation and its strategies in a global context - a state of the art

Abstract

Disaster is an inherent part of the environment and society gets hampered with the frequent disasters which affects the human life/living organisms, properties/materials and economy of the country. Literature on the natural and manmade disasters involving high risks is examined and pre or post disaster activities are studied. Recent studies state that, the disasters mostly occur due to the man-made effects rather than natural causes. In order to manage the disasters caused by both unnatural and natural means, some mitigation strategies should be followed, that result in vulnerability reduction minimizing the losses and damages. This paper mainly focuses on giving wide knowledge on various strategies that have been used to manage the natural disasters from the studies carried out by many researchers and scientists. The mitigation planning for various sectors such as Engineering and Construction, Physical, Economical, Societal, Management and Institution have been clearly insighted and reported in this paper [9]. Mitigation measurements, sub divided into active and passive are identified and also described in this paper. Proposed disaster management strategies in terms of Preparedness cycle, Mitigation cycle, Response phase and Recovery phase have been clearly defined and presented. A brief overview of disaster mitigation and scope of the Indian scenario are presented in this paper.