Knowing sufficient and applying more: challenges in hazards management

Abstract

The hazard management problem presents a curious pair of phenomena: common agreement that something bad is happening, and universal inability to stop the growth of human and economic losses. White et al. (2001) argued in their statement ‘‘knowing better and losing even more’’ that improved knowledge about disaster management was not by itself sufficient to reverse the upward trend in disaster statistics. The fact that property losses caused by natural hazards have been increasing, while the volume of research on natural hazards is greater than ever, raises some questions about the adequacy of tools and techniques used in hazard research and disaster management. In our brief analysis that complements White et al. (2001), we would like to focus on the social dimension of knowledge, in the sense of being cognizant, conscious, and aware of natural disasters and their implications for development. Risks of disaster arise out of the combination of natural hazards and human vulnerability, and we argue that by divorcing the natural disaster debate from the development debate, half of this disaster equation is ignored. The current pace of disasters is undermining markets and safety nets of developing countries and reducing their capacities to provide basic services for their people. Far greater policy coherence is needed between economists, development planners, natural scientists, and disaster managers in order to prevent catastrophic losses to human lives, livelihoods, and natural and economic assets. There are at least three reasons that could explain these phenomena: