Natural hazards are naturally occurring processes forming an experience to human being, depending on where one lives. Floods, volcanoes, tornadoes, bushfires, and hurricanes are the possible threats, which affect the environment and thus our lives. Encircling the total area of the Asian and Pacific region, which is 35 million square kilometer, around 60 percent of the world population resides in this area.
In this particular region, 50 percent of the world’s disaster was recorded during past past two decades. On retrospection around 3 million lives have been claimed and the lives of around 1 million were grimly blown up during aforesaid period. To find out the outcome of problem, it requires exploring the reason of its origin and the possible antidotes so that it can dwindle to some extent.
Planning, managing and implementing environmentally sound strategies are the supreme measures in this concern. ESCAP (Economic and Social Commision for Asia and the Pacific) has established a Bureau for Flood Control, which is functioning well since 1949. Development of active sub-regional network through the Typhoon committee in typhoon tracking and flood forecasting, panelized work on tropical cyclone, its cooperation with IDNDR (International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction) in Asia and activities of Mekong River Commission are important appreciable agendas to its credit.
The cooperation from such organizations has amplified the importance of viewing the present driving forces, which are responsible to intensify the severity of their occurrence. For example, increase in population density, rapid economic and social development, deforestation due to urbanization and other global factors contribute to disaster directly or indirectly.
Information exchange in the developing countries has not yet reached the levels of developing countries. In this scenario, it is of utmost importance to gather information at one place, so that needs and problems of other could also be interacted and disseminated to national and international research bodies as well as social organizations. In this way the developing countries can pool their limited resources to its best in cure procedures.
In this context the Centre for Science and Technology of the Non-Aligned and Other Developing Countries (NAM S&T Centre) has brought out the present publication based on the proceedings of an international workshop organized by the Centre at the Asian Institute Technology (AIT), Bangkok, Thailand in January 2000. The material in this publication is arranged in a sequential manner beginning starting with several aspects of disaster management and continuing with the status reports from different countries with the lead paper giving the status of disaster management in India.
The volume contents mainly aim at identifying areas of mitigating flood, cyclone and storm surge disaster. The other status Reports are from well-known experts from different countries, namely, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Syria, Thailand, and Vietnam are included in this volume.
Editor: H.N. Srivastava, G.D. Gupta
Published By: Centre for Science & Technology of Non-Aligned and Other Developing Countries (NAM S&T Centre)
Year of Publication: 2006
Price: Rs. 695/ US $ 65 ISBN 81-7035-425-0
