Hydro-meteorological Disasters Research Articles

Managing extreme natural disasters in coastal areas

Extreme natural hazards, particularly the hydro-meteorological disasters, are emerging as a cause of major concern in the coastal regions of India and a few other developing countries. These have become more frequent in the recent past, and are taking a heavy toll of life and livelihoods. Low level of technology development in the rural areas together with social, economic and gender inequities enhance the vulnerability of the largely illiterate, unskilled, and resource-poor fishing, farming and landless labour communities. Their resilience to bounce back to pre-disaster level of normality is highly limited. For the planet Earth at crossroads, the imminent threat, however, is from a vicious spiral among environmental degradation, poverty and climate change-related natural disasters interacting in a mutually reinforcing manner. These, in turn, retard sustainable development, and also wipe out any small gains made thereof. To counter this unacceptable trend, the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation has developed a biovillage paradigm and rural knowledge centres for ecotechnological and knowledge empowerment of the coastal communities at risk. Frontier science and technologies blended with traditional knowledge and ecological prudence result in ecotechnologies with pro-nature, pro-poor and pro-women orientation. The rural communities are given training and helped to develop capacity to adopt ecotechnologies for market-driven eco-enterprises. The modern information and communication-based rural knowledge centres largely operated by trained semi-literate young women provide time- and locale-specific information on weather, crop and animal husbandry, market trends and prices for local communities, healthcare, transport, education, etc. to the local communities. The ecotechnologies and time- and locale-specific information content development are need-based and chosen in a 'bottom-up' manner. The use of recombinant DNA technology for genetic shielding of agricultural crops for coastal regions against abiotic stress (induced by the water- and weather-related natural disasters), strengthens the foundations of sustainable agriculture undertaken by the resource-poor small farm families.

Japanese Special Issue Volume 6. From the 4th World Water Forum in Mexico—a strategy for the prevention of hydro‐meteorological disaster through establishment of the UNESCO–PWRI Centre

Hydrological ProcessesVolume 20, Issue 6 p. 1249-1250 Preface Japanese Special Issue Volume 6. From the 4th World Water Forum in Mexico—a strategy for the prevention of hydro-meteorological disaster through establishment of the UNESCO–PWRI Centre Yosuke Yamashiki, Corresponding Author Yosuke Yamashiki Editor in Chief International Journal & JSHWR Special Issue Volume 6 Department of Civil Engineering, College of Science and Technology, Nihon UniversityInternational Journal & JSHWR Special Issue Volume 6 Department of Civil Engineering, College of Science and Technology, Nihon University.===Search for more papers by this authorKoichiro Kuraji, Koichiro Kuraji Vice Editor in Chief International Journal University Forest in Aichi, The University of TokyoSearch for more papers by this authorAkira Kawamura, Akira Kawamura Editor in Chief Board of Japan Society of Hydrology & Water Resources Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan UniversitySearch for more papers by this author Yosuke Yamashiki, Corresponding Author Yosuke Yamashiki Editor in Chief International Journal & JSHWR Special Issue Volume 6 Department of Civil Engineering, College of Science and Technology, Nihon UniversityInternational Journal & JSHWR Special Issue Volume 6 Department of Civil Engineering, College of Science and Technology, Nihon University.===Search for more papers by this authorKoichiro Kuraji, Koichiro Kuraji Vice Editor in Chief International Journal University Forest in Aichi, The University of TokyoSearch for more papers by this authorAkira Kawamura, Akira Kawamura Editor in Chief Board of Japan Society of Hydrology & Water Resources Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan UniversitySearch for more papers by this author First published: 16 March 2006 https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.6087AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume20, Issue6Special Issue: Japan Society of Hydrology and Water Resources Annual Issue VI15 April 2006Pages 1249-1250 RelatedInformation

RISK FACTORS FOR MORTALITY DURING LANDSLIDES-STATE OF CHUUK, FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA, 2002

Introduction Hydrometeorological disasters, which have occurred twice as frequently since 1996, kill almost 1,200 people worldwide per week. These events often precipitate massive landslides, whose role in overall mortality has not been established. We investigated deaths from landslides in Chunk during Tropical Storm Chata'an July 2–4, 2002, to characterize mortality and formulate preventive strategies. Methods We reviewed death certificates identified by the state hospital and calculated mortality rates using the state population census. We defined case subjects as people who died from trauma or suffocation due to landslides and control subjects as people present at the site and time of the landslide. We interviewed case proxies and control subjects to compare demographic, behavioral, and structural characteristics. Unconditional logistic regression was used to obtain effect estimates. Results We identified 43 deaths from 12 landslides occurring on six islands, with an overall mortality of 1.47 deaths per 1000 habitants. Almost 90% died immediately, 56% were female, and 52% were children < 15 years of age. We interviewed 40 case proxies and 52 control subjects. Though the landslides occurred over a 12-hour period, 74% of interviewees were previously unaware of other landslides, and 83% did not know that landslides could accompany tropical storms. Prior awareness of landslides (odds ratio [OR]=0.21; 95% confidence interval [CI] =0.06-0.77) was protective, and attention to warning signs such as rushing water and rumbling earth remained protective even after adjustments for age and awareness (adjusted OR=0.09; 95% CI=0.02-0.45). Conclusions Our results suggest that viable risk reduction strategies include improving communication systems and targeting community preparedness to include knowledge of landslide hazards during tropical storms.

Forecasting the Conditional Probabilities of Natural Disasters in Canada as a Guide for Disaster Preparedness

A variety of natural disasters occur in Canada. Yet apart from simple ``return period'' calculations, no apparent research seems to have made systematic use of the OCIPEP database on all natural disasters in Canada over the period of 1900 to 2000. This paper (a) describes the main characteristics of natural disasters in Canada, and (b) presents a methodology that is a first attempt to use the database to forecast conditional probabilities of each type of natural disaster. The forecast probabilities can then be used to work out the expected social costs of each type of natural disaster. The expected costs in turn suggest what kind of policy priorities are indicated for disaster preparedness. The key results of this methodology are that Hydrometeorological Disasters are increasing over time and of these, the ranking in order of priority for preparedness should be droughts, heat waves, floods and ice storms.