Disaster Management Programs Research Articles

Resilience Performance Scorecard: Measuring urban disaster resilience at multiple levels of geography with case study application to Lalitpur, Nepal

Making a city disaster-resilient means understanding the capacity of communities and decision-makers to actively adapt to, cope with, and transform in view of potential threats. Urban resilience needs to be considered a multi-dimensional concept, visible at multiple levels, and highly dynamic. Various indicator frameworks rely on pre-arranged indicator sets and beneficiaries to measure resilience neglecting the need to dynamically adjust indicators to the context of specific places or sub-city levels of geography. The purpose of this paper is to introduce an approach for measuring and monitoring resilience within cities. The Resilience Performance Scorecard (RPS) is a multilevel and multi-scale self-evaluation tool that empowers stakeholders to quantitatively assess resilience parameters based on primary source information. This scorecard approach will lead to a highly contextualized resilience appraisal reflecting the goals and objectives of the local actors and cannot be substituted by a ready-to-go, generic questionnaire. To demonstrate the RPS approach as a tool to guide and enable local policy makers and communities to establish priorities for more in-depth analysis, to allocate funds, and to develop emergency and disaster management programs more effectively, we implemented the RPS with city officials and community stakeholders of Lalitpur before and after the 2015 Nepal Earthquakes.

Participatory Vulnerability Reduction (PVR): an urban community-based approach for earthquake management

Participation of local people during any disaster is enormous. They possess better knowledge and information about their own community than anyone else from the outside. This study proposes Participatory Vulnerability Reduction (PVR), a community-based approach for disaster management. The concept of PVR was applied to an urban community of Dhaka city (Ward no. 06 of Dhaka North City Corporation) which has been identified by the Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme as one of the most vulnerable areas of the city for earthquake. PVR consists three steps, and in each step, different participatory urban appraisal tools were used. In the first step, the community people assessed the earthquake vulnerability. It was found that some certain parts of the study area are highly vulnerable due to lack of accessibility to the critical facilities, inadequacy of open space, poor construction practice and unsuitable soil condition for building construction. This was followed by analyzing the root causes and effects of these problems. Structural fragility of the buildings, construction of settlements by filling the low-lying areas and development of slums beside taller buildings are the three major causes behind the above vulnerable issues. In the second step, capacity of the community was assessed in terms of resources and their organizational structure. In the final step, local people developed the strategies to overcome the vulnerability and a community-based organizational set up was proposed to coordinate the collective actions. Although developed in local context, application of PVR is not limited for earthquake and it can be replicated for other communities as well.

Community resilience in Walkerton, Canada: Sixteen years post-outbreak

The implications of a public health emergency on a community may be devastating and long-term. The severity of the implications depends on the gravity of the emergency and the capacity of individuals and communities to respond to and recover from its effects. However, the long-term implications of emergencies are often excluded from disaster management research making it difficult to determine whether communities are truly able to achieve and maintain resilience post-crisis. This interdisciplinary, qualitative study examined the impacts of the May 2000 Escherichia coli outbreak in Walkerton, Canada sixteen years post-outbreak on the present-day resilience status of the community. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted with a purposeful sample of 29 Walkerton community members. The data were transcribed verbatim and coded using conventional content analysis to identify themes inductively. The study's findings reveal the importance of various elements of the social capital dimension in facilitating (i.e., capacity building, positive perspective) and hindering (i.e., ongoing health effects) the community's collective resilience status today both directly and indirectly. Some elements, including local economy, local government, rural community characteristics, preparedness, and reputation act as both facilitators and barriers to the social capital component of community resilience. The findings from this work are critical for designing preparedness and recovery programs for emergency situations, particularly in rural communities. They also suggest disaster management program plans and strategies for rural communities should encompass a proactive, long-term, community-centered approach integrating social capital.

Examining the influence of professional emergency management coordinators driving preparedness and resilience on university campuses.

To characterize the compliance with disaster management recommendations of ensuring a full-time, dedicated professional is responsible for coordinating disaster management programs. This research targets a subset of institutions of higher education (IHEs) in the United States at risk of annual hurricane threats or having experienced an active shooter incident near campus. A comprehensive Web-based assessment was conducted to determine the Web presence of emergency management of 265 IHEs with student enrollment greater than 2,000 in coastal states at risk of annual Atlantic Hurricane landfalls. Results were displayed spatially using ArcGIS. Although the Web sites of 91 percent of IHEs with enrollment greater than 20,000 displayed easily accessible information on a dedicated professional leading emergency management, only 42 percent of the Web sites of those IHEs with enrollment between 10,000 and 20,000 did so. As enrollment declined, the compliance rate declined. Compliance rates for IHEs with different enrollments were as follows: 6,001-9,999, 30 percent; 3,001-6,000, 23 percent; 2,000-3,000, 13 percent. A full-time, dedicated professional coordinating emergency preparedness is a best practice as evidenced by various accrediting bodies, but this practice is not mandated for IHEs. Our results suggest that proximity to significant annual hurricane threats does not influence the adoption of this recommendation. Despite IHEs being core stakeholders in assuring disaster resilience, gaps exist in preparedness practice.

Effects of Disaster Management Programs on Individuals' Preparedness in Mount Merapi

Disaster management to mitigate or avoid impacts of hazards by reducing vulnerability has been conducted in Mount Merapi since 1969. Vulnerability introduced since 1980s has two main characteristics, such as physical vulnerability (i.e., impacts of hazards) and social vulnerability (i.e., composite characteristics including social, economic and environmental factors). As regulations in Indonesia, i.e. Law of Republic Indonesia No. 24 Year 2007, emphasizes the community involvement in disaster management, individuals or groups of individuals have significant roles in reducing social vulnerability. To promote the community involvement effectively in disaster management, this research hypothesized nine relationships between disaster management programs to assess effects of disaster management programs on the community involvement, such as individuals’ preparedness. Since disaster management programs are not measurable quantitatively, variance-based partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied to test hypothesized causal relationships between the programs. As a result, all nine hypotheses were substantiated. The model revealed that individuals’ preparedness is significantly influenced by emergency logistics and financial aid through self-efficacy, and contingency plans affect reconstruction significantly and successively reconstruction affects rehabilitation.

Assessment of Urban Physical Seismic Vulnerability Using the Combination of AHP and TOPSIS Models: A Case Study of Residential Neighborhoods of Mymensingh City, Bangladesh

Mymensingh, one of the oldest municipalities of Bangladesh, is at great risk against earthquakes because three major faults viz. Dauki fault, Madhupur fault, and Sylhet-Assam fault are located around it, and possesses liquefaction susceptible soil type. The city has great significance from the economic and administrative point of view and recently declared as the 8th administrative division of Bangladesh which directly stimulates the unplanned future expansion. Considering the potentiality of haphazard development and high seismic risk, it is crucial to assess the seismic vulnerability for taking the judicious decision regarding risk reduction measures for the city. The study combines Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution method (TOPSIS) and Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) models to assess the seismic vulnerability of residential neighborhoods of Mymensingh city as the probability of death and damage is remarkable in residential neighborhoods than other land use types. A combined quantitative methodology of AHP-TOPSIS is used in this study to quantify 13 important qualitative and quantitative factors of earthquake vulnerability, decided on expert opinions. The data of 13 vulnerability factors are collected from the Mymensingh Strategic Development Plan (MSDP, 2011-2031) database, done under Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme (CDMP)-II during 2012-2014. Geographic Information System is used in this study to analyze and mapping of seismic vulnerability. Results indicated that 37 residential neighborhoods are very highly vulnerable, 55 neighborhoods are highly vulnerable, 75 neighborhoods are moderately vulnerable and 74 neighborhoods are in the low vulnerable category.

Investigation of efficiency and effectiveness of the existing disaster management frameworks in Sri Lanka

In the recent past Sri Lanka has experienced several significant natural disasters. Above all others, the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004 had a devastating effect on more than one million people. With the aim of effectively managing all phases of a disaster and to enhance the resilience of the community, the Disaster Management Act was passed in 2005 to provide necessary immediate legal provisions, and was later revised into a national policy. Furthermore, the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) was also established. At present, the DMC and all the line agencies focus on disaster management functions under the ministry of disaster management. The comprehensive disaster management program was prepared in 2014 and it is to be used up until 2018. Furthermore, it was proposed to identify mechanisms to integrate the Sendai Framework into the Sri Lankan national disaster management framework. However, during recent disasters, the DMC and the disaster management framework was under severe criticism from the public as well as the technical community. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the efficiency and effectiveness of the existing disaster management framework in Sri Lanka in managing all phases of a disaster. Since the main governing policy for the DM and Disaster Risk Reduction in Sri Lanka is the Sri Lanka National Disaster Management Policy (SLNDMP), it was investigated whether the policy is applied effectively and efficiently. In addition, alignment with comprehensive global frameworks like the Sendai Principles was checked in parallel to identify its alignment with global standards. SLNDMP was evaluated against seven criteria, which were identified after carefully analyzing the requirements of the Sendai Framework. Applications of the SLNDMP was evaluated with respect to three disaster incidents which occurred recently; the collapse of the garbage dump in Meethotamulla on April 2017, the Colombo floods and the Aranayake landslide during May 2016. In addition, some of the 37 points indicated in the SLNDMP were also considered in this study. Finally, recommendations were provided for improvements to the policy.

UP NOAH in Building Resilient Philippines; Multi-hazard and Risk Mapping for the Future

University of the Philippines’ Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards (UP NOAH) Center is a nationwide disaster management program that aims to improve the government and the Filipino people’s capacity to respond against the impact and effect of extreme weather conditions. NOAH is undertaking advanced disaster science research, comprehensive and multidisciplinary assessment of hazards while also developing accessible tools that enable local government units, community leaders, policy makers, planners, families, and individuals to prevent and mitigate disasters.UP NOAH’s initiatives on disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) have continually built individual and institutional capacities and resilience using multidisciplinary research and risk assessment. With the completion of its three component projects (flood, landslide, and storm surge hazards mapping) last December 2015, UP NOAH proceeded to its next step in innovation: From hazard mapping to risk mapping. This is to even more enhance the disaster mitigation plans of communities in the Philippines.Embracing and taking advantage of information communication technology, the content of this user-generated mapping data are indeed vital in DRRM.Using the existing tools, techniques, and innovations of UP NOAH, a community-based adaptation fit for all levels of practitioners was introduced through Integrated Scenario-based Assessments of Impacts and Hazards (ISAIAH). The project helped enhance the knowledge of policymakers on areas that are safe for habitation as well as those that are suitable for long-term development.ISAIAH highlighted the emphasis of DRRM on strengthening preparedness and building stronger community resilience through persistent and constant information, education, and communication campaign using the internet and social media, as well as continuous personal visits to local communities where mapping workshops were conducted.This is essential as it recognized the actions needed to address the underlying reasons of disaster risk: poor urban planning among other man-made factors. In this way, adapting to the challenges of climate change in addition to DRR is given emphasis to help prevent significant loss of lives wrought by future disasters.

Integration of Value Management (VM) Process in Bangladesh: Disaster Management (DM) projects

Over the past decades global leaders and communities’ attention have increased to the management of natural and human induce disasters because of significant intensity and frequency of disasters all over the world. Now a day’s disaster and its management have intersected and transcend country’s local boundaries and geographical area. From the time immemorial Bangladesh is one of the worst and wide varieties of disaster victim countries in this world which are tropical cyclones, floods, tornadoes, storm surges, river and coastal erosion, torrential rains, earthquake, droughts, epidemics and arsenic contamination. The main reasons behind this are – geographical location, multiplicity of rivers, land characteristics, coastal morphology and the monsoon climate. For that reason so many projects and programs are running in this country to face the problem and manage hazards. Critical learning from over decades with many programs and projects a mentionable initiatives “Comprehensive Disaster Management Program” (CDMP) in Bangladesh is a holistic collaborative effort of GoB, UNDP, DFID and a host of stakeholders. But overall result is still unsatisfactory. To overcome (DM) problems and establish an effective DM system in Bangladesh, it is important to evaluate current systems and projects structures. In contemporary world (VM) as a tool is now widely accepted for offering more values of the projects by engaging stakeholders at all stages of a project. VM always gives more emphasis on people’s participation from policy making to implementation. One of the most important matters in VM is quality assurance of project. Before initiating DM project, it also set plan or actions, workshops for feedback from all level stakeholders, assess needs, follow up meeting, training etc. to improve merit and adequate confidence about optimally fulfilling the customer’s expectation which carry out the spirit of VM. VM tools and techniques are generally used by practitioners to instigate projects providing support and adding value. So, for establishing an effective DM system in Bangladesh integration VM techniques in different stages of DM projects is very much essential.

The Role of Communication in Mount Kelud Eruption Disaster Management Program (Case Study in Ngantru Village, Ngantang District, Malang)

Mount Kelud erupted on February 13, 2014 causing severe damage to public and private facilities in 8 villages in Ngantang, a district in Malang. Post-eruption, the social system was severely damaged, while the local society attempted to survive the disaster. This study aimed to analyze the role of communication in disaster management assisted by the existence of social capital in the aspect of cultivation of crops and agricultural infrastructure. The method used was descriptive qualitative supported by scoring data. Thfindings revealed that the role of communication was to bridge the gap in every aspect of social capital. Besides that, communication functioned as a liaison from every aspect of social capital that was used as disaster management during Mount Kelud eruption The type of communication used was interpersonal communication, where members shared activities and information face-to-face or face-to-face activities on disaster management in Mount Kelud.

Fatal Drownings in Fiji.

Drowning is a newly comprehended public health concern in Fiji. Defined as "the process of experiencing respiratory impairment from submersions or immersion in liquid," drowning has been identified as one of Fiji's 5 leading causes of death for those aged 1 to 29 years. The aim of this article was to develop the most parsimonious model that can be used to explain the number of monthly fatal drowning cases in Fiji. Based on a cross-section of 187 drowning incidents from January 2012 to April 2015, this observational study found the number of monthly drownings in Fiji was significantly affected by monthly rainfall ( P = .008, 95% confidence interval = 0.10-0.62) and the number of days comprising public holidays/weekends ( P = .018, 95% confidence interval = 0.06-0.60). Furthermore, the multiple coefficient of determination ( r2 = .4976) indicated that almost half the variation in drownings was explained by rainfall and public holidays/weekend periods. Inadequate supervision, an inability to identify or carry out safe rescue techniques, and limited water-safety knowledge were identified as common risk factors. To overcome this preventable cause of death, technically guided interventions need to be actively embedded into a range of government policies and community health promotions, disaster management, and education programs.

Local Stakeholder Analysis of Tidal River Management (TRM) at Beel Kapalia and the Implication of TRM as a Disaster Management Approach

Beel Kapalia is basically a marsh land or natural depression which lies in Monirampur upazila under Jessore district to the direction of south eastern from Dhaka. Mitigation of water-logging problem getting suspended sediment deposit gradually under a simulated manner is the driving mechanism for adapting Tidal River Management (TRM) project in the vicinity of the area. Besides, annual rainfall to the respective catchment area resulting flooding problem may be alleviated under proper disaster management program via introducing TRM as a selective approach. But, a lot of disputes and social movement have been arrived considering the demerits of TRM project including destruction of shrimp culture, which could be conducted by channelling the tidal water to marsh land, wetland ecosystem adversity, and assortment of an approximately 750 hectors marsh land and so on. This paper mainly focuses on the feasibility analysis of TRM project influencing to the local community. The field data is being collecting by pursuing social survey as questionnaire method to reveal the inherent perspective of the local people in this regard. Result show that about half of the people have been putting a negative attitude and rest of the sample having a mixed judgments regarding TRM project installation on the respective area. This paper provides an overview regarding the significant implication in an effort to introduce TRM project development in area studied and the finding could be helpful to pursue TRM project analysis in other area to be studied.

Proactive and Reactive Role of Human Resource Professionals in an Aftershock Management

Disasters do not leave a business unaffected. When it is natural disaster, the effects are felt at various phases of life. Organisations, work, employee life and their psychological balance all get affected by natural disasters. The impacts of natural disasters like earthquake, hurricane, and tsunami and similar others can be severely damaging to a region, businesses, economy and people. Damage to homes, businesses and infrastructure on top of the damage to lives can continue for over quite a period of time. The important task here remains for businesses to have continuity plans to offer information on how to survive back as a resilient organisation, and their operations will be gradually restored. A successful response is the outcome of an inclusive corporate readiness and a well-structured disaster management programme that creates an overarching decision-making framework that orchestrates and supports an organisation's various incident and site-level response activities. Here, the role of human resource (HR) is immense. HR leaders have a strategic role and have to shoulder the accountability to make sure that their organisations are alert of internal vulnerabilities on the human side to different types of crises and to ensure their disaster management plan takes care of all potential risks and concerns. HR needs to make sure that the human capital is taken care of, given support in all disaster management and business continuity plans. HR has to offer real value protection or enrichment through disaster communication plans, disaster resource planning, and help with training in safety and security, manage internal talent and has relevant succession planning. The present conceptual paper discusses the role of HR in managing the risks, planning for the future, immediate responses to the victims and how they can extend the support to the employees and sail through smoothly in the disaster.

Assessing hamedan hospitals disaster preparedness

Background: Hospitals play a critical role in national and local responses to emergencies and whose preparedness and offering on-time services play a vital role in the reduction of injuries and death. Aims: This study aimed to determine the hospital disaster preparedness in Hamedan. Materials and Methods: The research has been descriptive-analytic type performed by a cross-sectional study in 2015. The research community contained all hospitals of Hamedan, and the data were collected through a questionnaire containing 33 questions and evaluating list containing 129 specialized questions through interview and the documents about the preparedness of the hospitals. The data analysis was performed using the SPSS version 19, and the findings were shown through diagrams and tables. Results: According to the results, 33% of hospitals were teaching hospitals and 67% were therapeutic. Preparedness average of programing support for vital services was 88.23%, for natural disaster management programs in hospital was 82.77%, for programing for environmental health activities against disasters was 65.83%, for security of equipment and hazardous material was 56.10%, for programing for reduction in structural dangers was 52.50%, for evacuation and field treatment was 32.27%, and average score for hospital education planning to deal with disasters was 78.14%. Province hospitals with 67.64 ± 9.84 averages attained medium level against disasters. Conclusions: Since the disasters are really destructive and affect the health and treatment systems, their effects remain for a long period, and by taking into account that the preparedness rate of the hospitals of the province is middling, paying more attention to the hospitals in the field of preparedness against disasters is mandatory.

What constitutes successful participatory disaster risk management? Insights from post-earthquake reconstruction work in rural Gujarat, India

Although for decades, public participation in disaster risk management has been strongly advocated for, in reality, it remains elusive. Planners and practitioners are still struggling to find ways to meaningfully involve the local community in disaster management programs; so far, apparently successful projects and initiatives have seldom been scaled up or replicated. The reason for this is that no comprehensive framework for participatory disaster risk management exists, and no systematic evaluation has been made to assess the necessary elements and appropriate paths for meaningful public participation in disaster management. This study attempts to examine the process and identify outcome-based factors that account for successful participatory disaster risk management. To accomplish this, we have evaluated reconstruction projects in earthquake-affected rural Gujarat, India, where the government envisioned a people-centric reconstruction project, but provided no public participation framework or guidelines. As a result, several reconstruction models pursuing different levels and types of public participation ultimately emerged. We selected three dominant reconstruction approaches and examined the extent to which various processes and outcome-based factors were successful in promoting ideal levels of public participation during these reconstruction projects. This study is considered an example of pioneering research in defining factors that account for successful participatory disaster risk management.

A New Semiautomated Detection Mapping of Flood Extent From TerraSAR-X Satellite Image Using Rule-Based Classification and Taguchi Optimization Techniques

Floods are among the most destructive natural disasters worldwide. In flood disaster management programs, flood mapping is an initial step. This research proposes an efficient methodology to recognize and map flooded areas by using TerraSAR-X imagery. First, a TerraSAR-X satellite image was captured during a flood event in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia, to map the inundated areas. Multispectral Landsat imagery was then used to detect water bodies prior to the flooding. In synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery, the water bodies and flood locations appear in black; thus, both objects were classified as one. To overcome this drawback, the class of the water bodies was extracted from the Landsat image and then subtracted from that extracted from the TerraSAR-X image. The remaining water bodies represented the flooded locations. Object-oriented classification and Taguchi method were implemented for both images. The Landsat images were categorized into three classes, namely, urban, vegetation, and water bodies. By contrast, only water bodies were extracted from the TerraSAR-X image. The classification results were then evaluated using a confusion matrix. To examine the efficiency of the proposed method, iterative self-organizing data analysis technique (ISODATA) classification method was applied on TerraSAR-X after employing the segmentation process during object-oriented–rule-based method, and the results were compared. The overall accuracy values of the classified maps derived from TerraSAR-X using the rule-based method and Landsat imagery were 86.18 and 93.04, respectively. Consequently, the flooded locations were recognized and mapped by subtracting the two classes of water bodies from these images. The acquired overall accuracy for TerraSAR-X using ISODATA was considerably low at only 57.98. The current research combined the methods and the optimization technique used as an innovative flood detection application. The successful production of a reliable and accurate flood inventory map confirmed the efficiency of the methodology. Therefore, the proposed method can assist researchers and planners in implementing and expediting flood inventory mapping.

Measuring disaster resilience in communities and households

Purpose This paper aims to discuss the development of two toolkits that were designed to help communities and households measure their level of disaster resilience and provide practical tools to help them increase and maintain these levels. Design/methodology/approach The toolkits were developed across two studies, with the community toolkit development being undertaken first. A literature review was conducted to develop a definition and model of community disaster resilience; and a Scorecard was designed to assess levels of existing community disaster resilience. The definition and Scorecard were reviewed and refined with the help of two communities before a final version was trialled in four communities across Australia. The household toolkit project followed a similar approach, with trialling being undertaken in conjunction with two non-government organisations that carry out outreach work in the community. Findings The development and trial of the Scorecards was extremely valuable. The conclusion voiced by communities and reached by the study project teams was that the user-friendly Scorecard is a workable tool for people to assess their household and community disaster resilience and to come together to plan what might further strengthen resilience. Critical to the Scorecards’ success was an understanding of the purpose of the assessment tool and the meaning of resilience. Originality/value The toolkits take an all-hazards approach and help community members, individuals and local policymakers to set priorities, allocate funds and develop emergency and disaster management programmes that build local community resilience.

Household Disaster Resiliency on Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda): The Case of Manicani Island, Guiuan, Eastern Samar, Philippines

A survey of 114 households residing in Manicani Island on their capital assets and coping strategies as determinants of their resiliency on Typhoon Haiyan was undertaken. KII and FG validated the survey results. Relationship between capital assets and coping strategies was determined using chi-square test and their degree of association was determined using phi coefficient and Cramer's V. Results showed that (a) the households' house condition before the typhoon and knowledge of the typhoon were moderately associated (0.22 to 0.23) with securing houses at 0.05 significance level; (b) the educational attainment of household head was moderately associated (0.34) with safekeeping of household assets/personal belongings at 0.01 significance level; (c) the condition of the house after the typhoon, length of time before house reconstruction and person in-charge in reconstruction have moderate to relatively strong association (0.28 to 0.44) with the housing recovery of the households at 0.01 significance level; and (d) livestock ownership after the typhoon and person in charge in house reconstruction were weakly to moderately related (0.17 to 0.26) with the household's income recovery at 0.10 and 0.05 significance level, respectively. This implies that capital assets are important in coping with disasters. The local government can use these results for planning and improving its disaster risk reduction and management program especially on extreme events similar to Typhoon Yolanda.

Developing disaster management and first aid guidelines for school teachers in Cairo Egypt

Background : Each year, schools all over the world suffer from disasters, ranging from small to large damaging disasters that affect children safety and health. Teachers play significant roles in child protection. Therefore, teachers’ training is very important for effective school disaster management. Aim: This study aims at evaluating the effectiveness of educational guidelines on school teachers’ knowledge and skills regarding disasters and first aid management of school children. Methods : Quasi-experimental design utilized for conducting the study. Purposive sample of 59 school teachers from Mostafa Kamel preparatory school and Emad Ali Kamel primary school, Cairo Egypt allocated. Data were collected through demographic data, school teachers’ first aid and disaster management knowledge, observation checklist for first aid and disaster management. Results : The study revealed that, regarding knowledge, 18.6% of teachers had satisfactory first aid knowledge pre intervention; meanwhile post intervention was 66.1%. For practice, 59.3% of them gained adequate first aid practice after implementation of program, while pre intervention only 10.2% of them had. Also 1.7% of them had satisfactory disaster management knowledge and practice pre intervention, meanwhile post intervention 61% of teachers got with statistical significant difference pre and post intervention. Positive correlation found ( p > .000) among demographic characteristics, school teachers' knowledge and practice of first aid and disaster management. Conclusions : The study concluded that a disaster management and first-aid training program for school teachers improved their knowledge and practice. Recommendation: Implementation of this program is highly recommended for all school teachers to enhance their knowledge and practice regarding disaster and first aid management. Further research needed to assess the impact of such programs on school health safety and child health.

Business Continuity and Disaster Risk Management in Business Education: Case of York University

Increasing levels of business disruptions and disaster events on one hand while local, national and international campaigns on the other have increased businesses’ awareness, attention and demand for the need for business continuity management. As more and more businesses are looking to integrate disaster risk and business continuity management into their business operations and decision making processes, the need for such expertise has also increased. Despite these needs, many business schools around the world have not fully identified, realized or addressed them. While there are several models for integrating disaster risk and business continuity management in business education, York University has established undergraduate and graduate level disaster and emergency management programs in a business school setting to address these growing needs. Through this integration, considerable numbers of business students enroll in disaster risk management, and business continuity courses. Knowledge and skills that students acquire through these courses make them informed and knowledgeable players in business continuity management teams in their varied work places.