On March 11, 2011, an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 occurred in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Japan's Tohoku region. The Great East Japan Earthquake was the first disaster ever recorded that included an earthquake, a tsunami, a nuclear power plant accident, a power supply failure, and a large-scale disruption of supply chains.
... See More + This report consolidates the set of 36 Knowledge Notes, research results of the joint study undertaken by the Government of Japan and the World Bank. It summarizes the lessons learned from the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami and provides guidance to other disaster-prone countries for mainstreaming disaster risk management in their development policies. It is clear that financial resources alone are not sufficient to deal with disasters and to spur development. Technical assistance and capacity building are equally important. In Japan's case, the project learned how communities can play a critical role in preparing for and coping with natural disasters. Communities can help prevent damage from spreading, maintain social order, and provide support to the vulnerable. Only through technical cooperation can such know-how be passed on to other countries and be adapted to their local circumstances. The chapters that make up the main body of this report are built around the disciplines employed in the traditional disaster risk management cycle. Grouped into seven thematic clusters that track that cycle, the chapters treat structural measures (part 1) and nonstructural measures (part 2) as preventive options. Also covered is the emergency responses put in place after March 11 (part 3) and described the planning behind the reconstruction process (part 4). The handling of risk assessment and communication before and after the disaster are the subject of part 5. Part 6 deals with risk financing, insurance, and fiscal and financial management; part 7 with the progress of recovery and relocation.
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Ratings for the Natural Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Project for Vietnam were as follows: outcomes were moderately satisfactory, risk to development outcome was moderate, Bank performance was moderately satisfactory, and Borrower performance was moderately satisfactory.
... See More + Some lessons learned included: DRM decisions should be made based on perceived risk reduction benefits and a combination of the physical and non-physical solutions in a context of larger integrated river-basin management scale. Existing institutional settings need to be leveraged to implement community-based (CB) DRM activities. Tailored public information and awareness-raising, including gender mainstreaming, are essential for commune participation, accountability, and investment ownership. Operating and maintenance (O and M) budget should be sufficiently allocated through the government annual budget planning cycle conducted in all levels. Strong institutional reform and leadership of the coordination agency is essential for project success and sustainability. Clear institutional arrangements and responsibilities need to be determined before project start. Achievement of the sustainable goal for post-disaster reconstruction should be monitored closely and properly throughout the implementation of both original credit and additional finance (AF). Comprehensive monitoring and evaluation (M and E) framework should be prepared and put in place before the project start.
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR3183 JUN 02, 2014
This issue focuses on emergency evacaution strategies for the people of Haiti. The country ranks as one of the countries with the highest exposure to multiple natural hazards in the world, with 96 percent of Haitians currently living at risk.
... See More + Of the 10 million people living in Haiti, two thirds live below the poverty line, and as a result, lack the capacity or resources to cope with the impacts of natural hazards. The challenge is to design evacuation strategies across different scales, with different elements from shelter facilities to open spaces to access systems that assume a flexible and comprehensive approach to the complex nature of risks in Haiti, and consider the environmental, temporal, social, economic and cultural dimensions. To develop this multi-scalar and multi-dimensional strategy to evacuation and emergency sheltering, the Government of Haiti, in partnership with the World Bank's Disaster Risk Management and Urban Development team, collaborated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Leibniz University of Hanover and the Harvard Graduate School of Design to better understand existing practices to cope with risk and inform an innovative, institutional approach to emergency evacuation systems. A three-stage approach was developed to design a series of hypothetical prototypes and conceive alternative evacuation strategies applicable to, and derived from various contexts across Haiti. These stages include: 1) strategic design research and case-study analysis, 2) pilot conceptualization and implementation methodologies, and 3) results and recommendations for scalability. The government of Haiti is transforming the concept of an emergency shelter from a basic, standalone building to a component of a broader evacuation system that entails geographic, temporal, cultural and socioeconomic factors, vital for decision-making in emergency situations. This new, and alternative thinking dramatically expands the vision of evacuation strategies to increase capacities of people to reduce loss of life, injuries, property damage, and productivity loss, and improve connectivity to the transportation network immediately after a natural hazard event.
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This issue focuses on ways to minimize impact on vulnerable populations living in the Rio de Janeiro's mountainous region, particularly in regards to extreme flooding and devastating landslides.
... See More + With the spotlight on Rio de Janeiro as a host city of the World Cup and Summer Olympics, government authorities need to protect residents and tourists from disasters and are striving to build resilience by improving land-use planning and implementing best practices in disaster risk management (DRM) to better prepare for climatological hazards. In the wake of the Rio flooding and landslide disaster in 2011, government authorities sought to understand the economic impacts and human losses triggered by extreme hazard events and the underlying causes of disaster risk. A number of DRM interventions, analytical studies, technical assistance, and capacity building activities include four main areas: risk identification; disaster preparedness and response; policymaking; and economic analysis. A culture of disaster risk awareness is growing in Brazil as urban planners are developing integrated and proactive approaches to development by institutionalizing DRM policies and building technical capacities to mitigate disasters. However, even with recent progress, much remains to be done to improve the performance and technical capacity of the institutions to integrate DRM principles into decision-making processes. The frequent and intense natural disasters in Brazil call for substantial investments including: studies to identify the best technologies; strategies for collecting and using data; development of land-use planning and urban policies that incorporate mitigation measures for existing hazards; and avoidance of settlements in high-risk areas.
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On 24th and 25th December, 2013 a tropical trough system produced heavy rains in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG). The ensuing rapid and intense flash flooding resulted in severe damage and 9 confirmed deaths with 3 persons still missing.
... See More + Additionally, there was widespread damage to road infrastructure, electricity and water infrastructure, housing as well as public and private buildings. This report serves as a reminder and proof of the Government (Go) SVG's resolve and commitment to risk reduction as well as the well-being of people. The GoSVG recognizes the necessity to better understand the climate and disaster risk context, and do best to reduce this risk and improve resilience across all sectors. On December 26, 2013, the GoSVG declared a national level two disaster in accordance with the National Emergency and Disaster Management Act, 2006. This report provides a rapid damage and loss assessment of the sectors affected - with a particular focus on infrastructure damage in order to inform the GoSVG's recovery, reconstruction, and financial planning. It also includes short and medium term recommendations designed to further incorporate disaster risk reduction and management into land use and physical planning decision-making processes so that the authors continue to develop into a country that is more resilient to natural disasters and climate change.
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Pakistan experienced severe flooding after torrential monsoon rains hit southern Sindh and the adjoining areas of Punjab and north-eastern Balochistan in August 2011.
... See More + Flash floods triggered by the monsoon rain caused severe damage to infrastructure in the affected areas. Entire villages and urban centers have been flooded, homes have been destroyed, and over a million acres of crops and agricultural lands have been damaged. A Damage and Needs Assessment (DNA) has been commissioned in the wake of the floods. The DNA assesses the extent of the damage and the needs for rehabilitation and reconstruction of the damaged assets and infrastructure, and restoration of livelihoods and economic productivity. It provides the strategic underpinnings for medium- to long-term post-floods reconstruction, recovery planning, prioritization, and programming. This report quantifies physical damage and presents sector level recovery and reconstruction strategies. Taking into account the extent of the damage and the proposed strategies, the report then quantifies corresponding needs.
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Disasters are increasing worldwide, with more devastating effects than ever before. While the absolute number of disasters around the world has almost doubled since the 1980s, the average number of natural disasters in Middle East and North Africa (MNA) has almost tripled over the same period of time.
... See More + In the MNA, the interplay of natural disasters, rapid urbanization, water scarcity, and climate change has emerged as a serious challenge for policy and planning. Projections by climatologists and United Nations specialists suggest that MNA economies and livelihoods will be the second most affected by climate change. Governments across the region have seen a progressive increase in demand for comprehensive disaster risk management (DRM) services. Since 2007, a range of country-level programs have been launched in Djibouti, Morocco, and the Republic of Yemen to increase their resilience to disasters due to Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR). Decentralization of the DRM agenda has progressed slowly, although some countries are making a progressive shift. This report aims to take stock of progress in risk management in MNA, while identifying gaps for future interventions, to broaden the dialogue for a more proactive and collaborative management of risks. This report builds on the strategic vision, principles, and goals of the MNA region's countries; the Islamic Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (ISDRRM); the MNA strategic framework for climate action; and the World Bank's strategy update for MNA. This report aims to establish a more strategic and collaborative framework between the World Bank and its international partners, particularly United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and UN Development Program (UNDP), in order to assist MNA countries to shift from disaster response to proactive risk management.
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Bulgaria is exposed to nearly all types of climate extremes, including floods, droughts, and others, as well as earthquakes. The combination of insurance products, early warning systems, information campaigns, infrastructure adaptation measures, and strict regulations can be very useful in tackling the negative climate change impacts.
... See More + This note provides an overview of the insurance sectors contribution to climate change - related risk prevention and highlights some of Bulgarias ongoing disaster risk management (DRM) efforts. The note aims to raise awareness and emphasize the role that financial disaster risk management (FDRM), including insurance, can have in climate change adaptation. Based on a desk review and preliminary in-country stakeholder consultations, the notes findings are meant to motivate new thinking and serve as an engagement tool for ongoing in-country discussions, as well to help identify analytical work to be carried out in the future. Based on the preliminary review of Bulgarias specific context, several ideas are being put forward to be further explored in the ongoing discussions toward creating FDRM products to address the major natural disasters (in particular, floods, droughts, and earthquakes) and improving adaptation to climate change. Potential areas of analysis that can be further explored and, as such, plant a seed for future action can focus on promoting risk prevention and deploying insurance instruments, including issues around traditional risk management, technology innovation, compulsory disaster insurance, forecast insurance, and disaster insurance pools. The analysis which will assess the extent of vulnerability of the subjects covered by existing insurance products, can subsequently lead to the decisions on priority insurance products to be introduced in the future.
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Winter storm Alexa, which hit the West Bank and Gaza from December 11 to 14, 2013, was one of the strongest storms to arrive in five decades. Coordination during the emergency highlighted the inadequacy of the region's disaster preparedness plans - neither the West Bank nor Gaza had a disaster risk management (DRM) framework or policies in place.
... See More + The report lays the groundwork for implementing a longer-term DRM framework within the West Bank and Gaza, and for international partners' assistance in doing so. It estimates the physical damages and economic losses in the water and sanitation, transport, energy, housing, and agriculture sectors because they endured most of the storm's impacts. Furthermore, the report explores ways to strengthen emergency management capacity, improve coordination between central and local governments, and establish a decentralized decision-support system. One of the major findings of the report was that agriculture and livestock was the most affected sector, accounting for 65 percent of the total damages and losses. Given the increased frequency of extreme weather events, and the increased economy shocks that follows, the assessment strongly recommends developing and adopting a DRM policy, which would comprise of both a legal framework and risk reduction activities across sectors. The assessment is organized into four sections: (i) an introduction that includes an overview of disaster facts and an assessment methodology; (ii) economic and social impacts; (iii) damage and losses and impact on human development, broken down into sectors; and (iv) recovery and needs, broken down into sectors. There are also two appendixes, one on "Participants in the Rapid Assessment," and the other on "Existing DRM Initiatives in West Bank and Gaza." Included are also maps, photographs from a spacecraft, tables, and charts.
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Costa Rica is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the World due to the tectonic interaction of the Cocos and Caribbean plates. Earthquakes, and other natural hazards, place major stress on the countrys population, infrastructure and economy, and often result in the disruption of basic services.
... See More + In response to this, the Government of Costa Rica is continuously working to build the capacity of technicians to design effective disaster risk management policies and investments to reduce seismic risk. Through the technical assistance projects (TAP), Costa Rican Water and Sanitation Institute (AyA) gained capacity to perform probabilistic seismic risk assessments for the water supply and sanitation (WSS) networks. The risk assessments provide AyAs technical team with critical information about the most vulnerable assets and areas that may concentrate higher economic losses, which will inform decisions about infrastructure investments and emergency preparedness. The Costa Rica TAP serves as a capacity-building model for the WSS sector that can be replicated in Costa Rica and other countries of the Latin America region, as well as for other natural hazards.
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Costa Rica is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the World due to the tectonic interaction of the Cocos and Caribbean plates. Earthquakes, and other natural hazards, place major stress on the countrys population, infrastructure and economy, and often result in the disruption of basic services.
... See More + In response to this, the Government of Costa Rica is continuously working to build the capacity of technicians to design effective disaster risk management policies and investments to reduce seismic risk. Through the technical assistance projects (TAP), Costa Rican Water and Sanitation Institute (AyA) gained capacity to perform probabilistic seismic risk assessments for the water supply and sanitation (WSS) networks. The risk assessments provide AyAs technical team with critical information about the most vulnerable assets and areas that may concentrate higher economic losses, which will inform decisions about infrastructure investments and emergency preparedness. The Costa Rica TAP serves as a capacity-building model for the WSS sector that can be replicated in Costa Rica and other countries of the Latin America region, as well as for other natural hazards.
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