Last updated: 08 October, 2008    

Disaster Mitigation in Asia
Issue No. 9 
24 December 2003

A. From the Region
B. Calls for Submission 
C. Conferences & Courses
D. Useful Resources

FROM THE REGION

ADPC attended the 8th Inter-Agency Task Force Meeting The 8th Inter-Agency Task Force Meeting was held at the United Nations in Geneva on November 5-6, 2003.

ADPC, being one of the member of the ISDR Task Force participated in the meeting. During the meeting, ISDR programs and activities were reported, which included an update on the review of the Yokohama Strategy and Plan of Action and the preparatory process leading to the World Conference on Disaster Reduction foreseen to be held on January 18-22, 2005 in Kobe, Japan. With regard to the ISDR regional programs, it should be noted that an Open Partnership for disaster reduction in Asia has been launched by ISDR, ADPC and ADRC with the support of UNDP/BCPR and UN/ESCAP, which is represented in the publication "ISDR Informs Newsletter for Asia, Issue 0". Reports from the four working groups (WG1: Climate and Disasters, WG2: Early Warning, WG3: Risk, Vulnerability and Impact Assessments, WG4: Wildland Fires) were presented. Substantial discussion took place on the topic of the review of Yokohama Strategy and preparations for the World Conference on Disaster Reduction.

Southeast Asia Regional Water Forum focused on best practices in IWRM

The First Southeast Asia Regional Water Forum was convened by the Global Water Partnership - Southeast Asia Technical Advisory Committee (GWPSEATAC) in Chiang Mai, Thailand, from 17 to 21 November 2003. Over 400 delegates from various water resource and environmental agencies, development organizations, water related ministries from Southeast Asian countries as well as representatives from local and regional NGOs attended the meeting. The main theme of the Forum was "strengthening regional capacity through best practices in integrated water resources management (IWRM)" in recognition of the need for capacity building in IWRM in the region. The Forum focused on best practices on IWRM as derived from various programs, projects, and cases that are being or have been conducted in the region. The Forum featured six thematic sessions focusing on the following key water management issues in the region:

Humanitarian Information in Asia-Pacific A 2-day workshop "Spread the Word - Humanitarian Information in the Asia-Pacific" was organized in Bangkok, Thailand on 28-29 November 2003.

Designed for hands-on professionals who work in humanitarian information management or emergency response, the workshop aimed at improving emergency response by enabling staff based in the Asia-Pacific to share experience and good practice in humanitarian information exchange. About 40 participants from United Nations agencies, NGOs, government, the media and private sector actively participated by sharing lessons learned, case studies and good practices. Workshop discussion was focused on the following themes:

• On- and off-line disaster preparedness
• Disaster onset: Who is doing what, where?
• Using technologies to improve humanitarian response
• Designing a user-friendly humanitarian information system
• Common problems and innovative solutions
• Information quality, reporting and accountability
• Building a network of humanitarian information professionals

Total Disaster Risk Management Conference was held in Kobe, Japan

The International Conference on Total Disaster Risk Management (TDRM) was jointly organized by the Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC) and UN OCHA/ADRU during 2-4 December 2003, in Kobe, Japan. The conference intended to further promote TDRM approach among non-traditional yet critical stakeholders and exponents of disaster reduction. Essentially, it aimed to develop among all concerned sectors a strategic understanding of how to integrate TDRM into the national planning process and disaster reduction and response systems of the participating countries. The conference came to a conclusion with an emphasis on the following issues:

More on this article on the ADRC website
<http://www.adrc.or.jp/>

Reducing Urban Risk through International Cooperation

An International Workshop on Disaster Management, with the theme Reducing Urban Risk through International Cooperation was organized during 4-6 December 2003 at Mumbai, India by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), in cooperation with the Government of Maharashtra, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mumbai, and Earthquakes and Megacities Initiative (EMI). The workshop had a very comprehensive agenda covering almost all aspects of disaster management. This was the first workshop under EMI´s Asian Cities Cluster of the Cluster Cities Project (CCP), which aims at bringing together decision makers, scientific community and experts to discuss and share knowledge to reduce the risk in the cities. The Asian Cities cluster members consist of Mumbai, Dhaka, Kathmandu, Tashkent and Beijing (as observer). The workshop discussion revolves around four aspects of disaster management:

• Administrative structure and procedures for implementing disaster management plans
• Development control regulation and techno-legal issues
• Role of corporate sector in urban disaster risk reduction
• Role of NGOs and media in urban disaster risk reduction.

Workshop on GIS Applications in Land Use Planning for Natural Disaster Risk Reduction, Sri Lanka

Recognizing this fact, a three-day workshop was jointly organized by the Asian Institute of Technology - GIS Application Centre (GAC) and Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC), in association with the Centre for Housing Planning and Building of Sri Lanka in Colombo, Sri Lanka during the period 17-19 December 2003. With the sponsorship of JAXA/RESTEC, Japan, the objective of the workshop is to provide an orientation to the officials of government sector user agencies about the the potential application areas of GIS and Remote Sensing (RS), such as land use planning for natural disaster risk reduction. In addition to concepts and theoretical aspects of GIS/RS applications, there were presentations based on case studies from the region showcasing different application areas. At the concluding session, a GIS user group was established in Sri Lanka to serve as a forum for discussions on usage of GIS in various disciplines and problems associated such as data sharing, maintenance of standards, coordination for better understanding of information sources and needs by different stakeholders, cost effectiveness, ways of procurement of software and hardware at reasonable prices etc.

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