Vol. 10, No. 1 October-December 2004

Back to Contents
Editor's Corner
Theme
From the Grassroots
Insight
ADPC Programs & Activities
Training & Education
  Obituary
UDRM Making Cities Safer
Bookmarks
Book Review
WWW Sites

 

UDRM Making Cities Safer

Asian Program for Regional Capacity Enhancement for Landslide Impact Mitigation (RECLAIM)

In collaboration with the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI), ADPC started a three year program for Regional Capacity Enhancement for Landslide Impact Mitigation (RECLAIM) in July 2004. With core funding from the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the long term objective of the program is to reduce the landslide disaster vulnerability of human settlements, infrastructure and critical facilities in Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.

Asian countries have seen increased incidents of landslides, other mass movements and flash flooding causing considerable economic and human losses. Increased vulnerability is attributed to the growing anthropogenic activity in hilly areas and mountain slopes. However, few efforts have been made by stakeholder institutions to address the social and technical dimensions and to develop cost effective landslide mitigation solutions. The information needs required to implement these initiatives have not yet been fully taken up yet by professionals in developing countries. Because traditional ways of providing training to key stakeholder institutions, landslide mitigation professionals, the service sector and decision-makers is not effective, the project focuses on exchange of knowledge, face-to-face contact, discussion about capacity building, and knowledge management as measures for effective landslide mitigation.

The program started with a regional workshop for Landslide Risk Reduction in Asia from 13 - 15 September 2004 in Bangkok.

The program is being implemented under ADPC's Urban Disaster Risk Management (UDRM) Team. For more information on the program contact arambepola@adpc.net and rajesh@adpc.net or visit the world wide web at http://www.adpc.net/udrm/reclaim/introduction.html 

Land Use Planning for Disaster Risk Management
Two courses on Land Use Planning for Disaster Risk Management were held from 8 -12 November in Lao PDR and 13 - 17 December 2004 in Sri Lanka under ADPC's Urban Disaster Risk Management (UDRM) Team. The course was designed to merge experiences from two professional fields of practice: Land Use Planning and Risk Management, aiming at developing a framework to integrate a set of generic and hazard-specific risk management principles into the planning and management of land use.

The course was aimed at land use planners, urban planners, municipal engineers and other professionals, administrative and elected officers to urban, municipal, and local governments. The aim was to facilitate discussion about the ways cities and local governments can minimize risks in developing long-range land use policy strategies, and in carrying out day-to-day development review responsibilities. The course was delivered jointly by the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center and the GIS Application Center (GAC), Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand.

Fourth Regional Training Course on Earthquake Vulnerability Reduction for Cities (EVRC-4)
The fourth Earthquake Vulnerability Reduction Course was held in Jakarta, Indonesia from 29 November to 4 December 2004. The course was targeted at those concerned with the reduction of vulnerability to earthquakes in urban areas. It aimed at enlightening the participants about the causes and effects of earthquakes as well as the possible strategies and approaches to reducing the damage and loss of life caused by these destructive events.

The course was organized by the ADPC in collaboration with the World Seismic Safety Initiative (WSSI), Earthquake and Megacities Initiative (EMI), and Yayasan Inovasi Pemerintahan Daerah/Center for Local Government Innovation (YIPD/CLGI) Jakarta. It builds on past and ongoing endeavors such as EMI, UN, IDNDR, ISDR initiative for Risk Assessment Tools for Diagnosis, Urban Areas against Seismic Disasters (RADIUS), and Global Earthquake Safety Initiative (GESI) launched by UNCRD and Geo-Hazard International. The previous courses were conducted in Nepal and Bangladesh. The course offers an overview of urbanization, urban hazards, vulnerabilities, risk and disaster management, earthquake hazard and risk assessment methods, and plan implementation for vulnerability reduction.

The above course was conducted under ADPC's Urban Disaster Risk Management (UDRM) Team. For more information on training activities, contact Mr N.M.S.I Arambepola, Team Leader at arambepola@adpc.net 
 
Newsletter Disaster Links ADPC Home

Information and Knowledge Management Unit
Asian Disaster Preparedness Center
P.O.Box 4, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand.
Tel: (66-2) 516-5900 to 10; Fax: (66-2) 524-5360; E-mail: ambika@adpc.net