Disaster Management Lifecycle

1. Disaster Management Lifecycle By Dr Richard Haigh – licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution – Non-Commercial – Share Alike License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

2. Disaster Resilience in the Built EnvironmentLearning Package 3: Disaster management lifecycle Dr Richard Haigh

3. Introduction • In this learning package you will: • Work to define the key stages of pre-disaster planning and post-disaster recovery • Learn more about the role of built environment professionals in the different phases of disaster management • Read about post-disaster reconstruction as a window of opportunity to address disaster risk • Check what you have learned so far with reflective exercises

4. Disaster management lifecycle Mitigation and Preparedness Disaster Reconstruction Response Transition

5. Mitigation and preparedness • Mitigation: Any action taken to minimise the extent of a disaster or potential disaster • before, during or after a disaster, but the term is most often used to refer to actions against potential disasters • physical or structural (such as flood defenses or strengthening buildings) • non-structural (such as training in disaster management, regulating land use and public education) • Preparedness: Specific measures taken before disasters strike • usually to forecast or warn against them • take precautions when they threaten • arrange for the appropriate response (such as organising evacuation and stockpiling food supplies) • Preparedness falls within the broader field of mitigation • Prevention: Activities to ensure that the adverse impact of hazards and related disasters is avoided • unrealistic in many/most cases, the term is not widely used nowadays

6. Disaster management lifecycle Mitigation and Preparedness Disaster Reconstruction Response Transition

7. Response and reconstruction • Emergency or humanitarian relief/early recovery phase • the immediate post recovery • can last days, weeks or months depending on the nature of the disaster and local conditions • Transitional phase • with the recovery of social institutions, the economy and the main infrastructure, transition to the longer-term recovery and reconstruction process can be implemented • if effective planning for longer-term recovery is a part of the early recovery, then the transition should be short, smooth and imperceptible • Reconstruction, medium-term and long-term recovery • normally anything from six months to many years

8. Disaster management lifecycle Anticipate, assess, prepare and prevent Sustainable development Disaster Medium term recovery Humanitarian aid & initial international response Transition

9. Disaster management lifecycle Continuous Many years Disaster Months A few days to a few weeks Weeks

10. Disaster management lifecycle • Scale of damage and capacity to manage may result in widespread variation in timescales across districts/regions • Planning for medium and long term recovery can be hindered by attention on humanitarian relief • Long-term planning is difficult after a disaster, which places emphasis on preparedness • Early attention should be paid to medium and long term recovery

11. Disaster management lifecycle • Externally driven reconstruction often takes place without proper consultation or local sensitivities • International agencies and NGOs are often able to manage and plan their own work effectively, but: • Frequently don’t have country or area specific plans • Coordination is often dependent on whether local institutional capacity is present

12. Reconstruct community so that it is better prepared for future disasters Mitigation and Preparedness Disaster

13. Increased community resilience Disaster Disaster Disaster

14. Example of measures in each disaster risk management phase What about for different disasters: flooding; a terrorist attack?

15. Built environment professional’s role in relief and reconstruction

16. Other learning material • Reading material • Reading list • Scenario • Case study • Activity