Urban and social safety in coastal cities: issues on coastal risk and vulnerability

Location: National Institute Of Technology, Kurukshetra ,India
Date: 14 - 15 October 2008
Organisation: Institute For Sustainable Development And Research

Pre–Open Meeting training seminar on 'Urban and social safety in Coastal cities: Issues on Coastal Risk and Vulnerability' will take place before the 7th IHDP Open Meeting 2008: Social Challenges Of Global Change. Jointly organised by The Institute For Sustainable Development And Research (ISDR); The National Institute Of Technology; Muktainagar Taluka Education Society; the Open University Geological Society; the Global Forum For Disaster Management; and ISDR-MTES-OUGS-UNMDGs Implementation Center, Muktainagar, India.

There will also be a field visit to a Himalayan Region on 9-12 Oct 2008.

This Pre–Open Meeting Training Seminar and Panel discussions deals with planning and management for natural and manmade disasters in urban coastal regions such as floods, tsunami , hurricanes, cyclones, droughts, coastal pollution and other natural disasters, mitigation of impacts , issues on economical ecological and social risk .

This seminar aims to start the Global initiatives through Global Forum For Disaster Management (GFDM) on the problem identifications in management of risks in coastal disasters and rehabilitation etc., to investigate problems related to social-economic and ecological risks and management issues resulting from the urban coastal disasters in Asia –Pacific and Europe region, recent Hurricanes and cyclones, to aid mitigation planning in affected areas and to educate scientists and local populations to form a basis for sustainable solutions through Global Forum For Disaster Management.

The seminar aims to assess the potential coastal risk and hazard , social, economic and technical arising from coastal disasters in the Asia–Pacific-Europe Region, particularly in urban regions issues, problems and damage and its impacts on urban services such as transportation, communication, water and drainage, electricity and urban infrastructure, using disaster mapping, GIS and GPS applications. This seminar reviews the status and issues of Geo-risks, marine risks for world cities focusing on technical issues, problems and damage arising from the extreme floods, hurricanes, cyclones, forest fires, flash floods, earthquake and tsunami etc.

The seminar emphasises capacity building through social response and participation of civil societies for mitigating the impacts of the disasters in world coastal cities through Global Forum For Disaster Management . The Global Forum for Disaster Management, GFDM , was initiated during the fourth World Water Forum at Mexico considering the global needs for costal disasters mitigation. In recent past the communities around the world witnessed number of disasters in coastal region like Tsunami, earthquakes, geo-disasters, cyclones, hurricanes, coastal pollution due to solid waste and urban drainage etc. The tsunami tragedy along the south Asian coast changed the lives of millions of affected people in Asian countries.

ISDR along with Muktainagar-Taluka Education society, National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra, Open University geological society, Switzerland has accepted the responsibility of providing necessary infrastructure and Institutional help for Global forum for disaster management for conducting research and development and work related to natural disaster management such as tsunami rehabilitation. This seminar presentations are based on the lesson learned from the GFDM - disaster management and mitigation in the Asia - Pacific –Europe region through the NGOs and academic and research institutions for social and ecological management during coastal and Geo - disasters.

The field visit to Himalayan region will study the Himalayan geology, socioeconomic and agricultural aspects of Himalayan region.

Shared Accommodation at Shimla for all participants will be arranged by the organizing institutes at the Guest House and Hostels. The cost of accommodation , food and training will be provided by the organising institutes. No other expenses will be provided by the organizers. The travel arrangements for all the participants from New Delhi to Kurukshetra and Himalayan region and back to Delhi will be arranged by the organisers by Bus. Number of participants: 20-30 .

Contact Details
Institute for Sustainable Development And Research (ISDR), 08, Rumani Manzil Link Road, Pipe Line, Barvenagar, Mumbai, 400084, India. Email: [email protected].