Unit 1

• Global and Indian scenario-:

The Indian scenario on disasters The Indian subcontinent is highly vulnerable to natural
disasters occur frequently in the Himalayan region. Among the states/ Union Territories in
the country, 25 are disaster prone. On an average, about 50 million people in the country
are affected by one or more disasters every year, besides loss of property worth several
millions (Table1). In the 1970s and the 80s, droughts and famines were the biggest killers in
India, the situation stands altered today. It is probably a combination of factors like better
resources management and food security measures that has greatly reduced the deaths
caused by droughts and famines. Floods, high winds and earthquakes dominate (98 percent)
the reported injuries, with ever-increasing numbers in the last ten years. The period from
2001 to 2011 has been associated with a large number of earthquakes in Asia that have a
relatively high injury to death ratio. Floods, droughts, cyclones, earthquakes, landslides and
avalanches are some of the major natural disasters that repeatedly and increasingly affect
India (Table 2). The natural disasters directly affect economies, agriculture, food security,
water, sanitation, the environment and health every year. Different natural hazards because
varying levels of physical damage to infrastructure and agriculture with implications for their
indirect impacts.
Global Context-: It has often been pointed out that most of the world's worst disasters tend
to occur between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn i.e., in the tropical areas.
Coincidentally, this is the area which contains the poorer countries of the world. A major
significance of this is, of course, that such countries find themselves facing repeated
setbacks to progress. Indeed, some countries seem destined to remain in the category of
developing nations primarily because of the severity and magnitude of their disasters. Seen
in this light, therefore, disaster can be a strong aggravating factor in the differences
between wealthy nations and poor nations.
On the other hand, the simple fact is that the more nations develop and the more assets
they build up, the more they stand to lose. It follows that any action that can be taken to
reduce disaster-related loss must be seen as logical and desirable in cost-benefit terms. This
applies to all countries, rich or poor, and it underlines the need for all countries to try to
develop and maintain an effective disaster maintenance capability appropriate to their
needs. It also underlines the necessity for cooperative and coordinated international action
order to strengthen all aspects of disaster management, wherever this is possible.
 • Role of the engineer in disaster management.
Engineers reflect the intellect of a country; an engineer is exposed to various
disciplines of science like electricity, magnetism, mechanics, computing, etc.
He is a production unit by himself, when he attempts to create a new product
while doing so he must keep in mind various disastrous that can occur in case
of any misconception.
Disasters can be human, material, economic or environmental. Once occurred
will leave a large impact on the lives of people.

• Construction of drones and helicopters for easy transportation of food

packets for all the victims who are in need is handled by the electrical
technicians.
• Power control during heavy rainfall resulting floods and prevention of
shocks with water being a good conductor of electricity is ensured by the
electricians by timely cutting off the electricity supply.
• They also make sure secure earthing pits during the electrical installation
which could be a major problem at the time of earthquake if not done right.
• Electrical motors and generator installation in drought-prone areas are
done by electrical engineers which eradicate the further drying up of the
region and provides the water supply for the victims.
• They have an important role in providing electricity to all kinds of disaster
hit zones and giving them the luxury of power at the time of crisis .

For example;
1. Incident of leakage in LG polymers at Vishakhapatnam,
There was a leakage of styrene gas at 3 o clock in the morning, which spread the
whole city and has taken many lives. The engineers would have been well informed
of the leakage issues and apt troubleshooting processes.
2. Bhopal gas tragedy,
This issue is well known all over the country, leak of iso-cyanate led to a disastrous
situation where people have to leave their homes and the area was not fit for living
for a prolonged period of time. It has affected soil, air, water in that area.
There are various examples as such, if an engineer is well informed and cautioned
about the disasters and educated on disaster management it can help in lessening
the impact of the disaster. Few disaster management techniques can be,

1. Regular inspection of the working condition of equipment, proper shutdown.

2. Knowing the climate changes, regularly following the updates of the weather
forecast.
3. Performing rigorous tests at lab scale for various combinations possible before
implementing at large scale.
4. Implementing stances like zero waste, on site wastewater treatment, treatment of
acid sludge's etc.
5. Regular checks on assets and liabilities and regular formulation of income and
balance sheets, can hamper the risks of economic disasters.
 • Importance of study in human life-:
1. Saves Lives-: Disaster management can help to enhance the ability of emergency
responders to save lives. When appropriate infrastructure is set up and training is completed
to improve disaster response, communities can survive the stress and distress caused by
disasters.

2. Improves Community Resilience-: When disaster strikes, response teams have the
unenviable task of trying to help people in extreme conditions. The task can be extremely
tough as an unprepared and untrained response team will have limited knowledge of the
people they are working with. However, training helps to improve the effectiveness of a
disaster management response team. Having the skills needed to help people in extreme
conditions is one of the key elements of disaster management training.

3. Promotes Disease Prevention-: Disasters cause an enormous number of deaths.

However, they also create an additional health risk to those affected. People affected by
disasters are frequently exposed to a range of illnesses which can cause further death.
Communicable diseases, such as malaria, are much more likely to occur during and after a
disaster because a lack of healthcare facilities, clean water, food and proper hygiene is
common. Through disaster management practices, communities can improve their health
and mitigate the impact of disasters.

4. Reduces Poverty-: A natural disaster can have devastating effects on a community. It

can push people into poverty and change the lives of entire communities. However, a lot of
people affected by a disaster are more likely to stay poor if they are not prepared. A lack of
planning prior to a disaster can leave people without basic emergency supplies like food,
water, clothing or medicine. By better preparing for disasters, communities can mitigate the
threat of poverty, hunger and disease.

5. Improves Health-: Disasters, along with their aftermaths, can have a negative effect on a
community’s health. Disasters, along with lack of health services and clean water can lead to
increased sickness, lack of immunity and a higher risk of infection. Therefore, it is essential
that communities have access to health professionals, have a good supply of water and
adequate sanitation facilities, and have access to emergency medical care during and after a
disaster.

6. Reshapes Communities-: Disasters can have a huge impact on the local economy.
Communities often suffer huge financial losses during a disaster and therefore may struggle
to cope with these losses. A disaster can also impact the social fabric of a community. In this
way, disaster management can help communities rebuild their communities and reconnect
people with each other. Communities can begin to rebuild their local infrastructure after a
disaster, which will also improve the economic health of a community.
 • Longer-run effects of natural disasters
In the longer run, natural disasters can increase the poverty rate—due to direct asset losses and
any income, losses that materialized—and can also have additional negative health
consequences. However, measuring these effects is difficult because of the need to track
disaster victims over a long period of time and to make assumptions of what would have
happened to them in the absence of the disaster.

To overcome these problems, researchers are increasingly turning to administrative data for
insights. For example, my coauthors and I used tax returns data to track working-age victims of
Hurricane Katrina and understand what happened to their earnings in the short- and long-run.
Comparing the earnings of victims initially residing in New Orleans to those of an unaffected
cohort of individuals, we arrived at a surprising conclusion—wage losses in the immediate
aftermath of the hurricane evolved into wage gains 4-8 years later (see Figure below). We
showed that the reasons for the gains were two-fold. First, wages in New Orleans itself
increased, partly due to an increase in the cost of living. Second, the hurricane induced
individuals to move to higher-wage areas, which increased their own earnings.

Finally, natural disasters are also costly to governments. In the US, the federal government
spends billions of dollars on aid to local governments and individuals. I have used county-level
data to understand the economic and fiscal implications of hurricanes in the US, demonstrating that
natural disasters can trigger other social safety net programs, such as unemployment insurance
and Medicaid, raising their fiscal costs even more. This is not necessarily a bad thing—being
insured against job loss in the aftermath of a natural disaster is valuable—but it adds to the
societal costs of natural disasters. More generally, researchers have shown that fiscal impacts of
natural disasters tend to be counter-cyclical in developed countries—when a disaster hits, tax
revenues fall and government spending increases—but pro-cyclical in developing counties. This
pattern suggests an additional challenge that lower-income countries face in dealing with such
events.

• Geological Mass Movement

Mass movements are massive failures of slope masses including rock, debris, soils and snow/ice
(Prakash, National Institute of Disaster Management, New Delhi). These mass movements are
sometimes associated with other disasters such as earthquakes, floods, thunderstorms, heavy
rainstorm, etc. Mass movements also associated with manmade hazards like construction roads,
buildings, structures, infrastructure facilities, etc. Mass movements are a variety of processes by
which materials move through the hillslope system because of instability in the hillslope system.
Mass movements occur based on several factors and causes differ depending on different
regions. Mass movements are affected by the slope gradient, climate, rock type and structure,
physical setting and geological and geomorphological outlines. One of the common mass
movements are landslides.
1. Landslide
A landslide is the movement of rock, debris or earth down a slope. They result from the failure of
the materials which make up the hill slope and are driven by the force of gravity. Landslides are
known also as landslips, slumps or slope failure. Landslides can be triggered by natural causes
or by human activity. They range from a single boulder in a rock fall or topple to tens of millions
of cubic meters of material in a debris flow. They can also vary in their extent, with some
occurring very locally and impacting a very small area or hillslope while others affect much larger
regional areas. The distance travelled by landslide material also can differ significantly with slides
travelling from a few centimetres to many kilometres depending on the volume of material, water
content and gradient of the slope.

Characteristics -: The basic types of landslide movement are:

• Fall. This is generally characterized by rapid or extremely rapid rate of movement with
the descent of material characterized by a freefall period. Falls are commonly triggered
by earthquakes or erosion processes.
• Topple. This is characterized by the tilting of rock without collapse, or by the forward
rotation of rocks about a pivot point. Topples have a rapid rate of movement and failure is
generally influenced by the fracture pattern in rock. Material descends by abrupt falling,
sliding, bouncing and rolling.
• Flow. This is the most destructive and turbulent form of landslides. Flows have a high
water content which causes the slope material to lose cohesion, turning it into slurry.
They are channelled by the landscape and move rapidly.
• Slide. This is one of the most common forms of failure and can be subdivided into
translational and rotational slides
• Spread. This phenomenon is characterized by the gradual lateral displacement of large
volumes of distributed material over very gentle or flat terrain.

Impacts/damages

• Anything on top of or in the path of a landslide will suffer damage.

• Rubble may block roads, lines of communication or waterways. Indirect effects may
include loss of productivity of agricultural or forest lands.
• Flooding.
• Reduced property values, destruction of buildings.
• Casualties- fatalities may occur due to slope failure.

2. Land Subsidence
Land subsidence occurs when an amount of groundwater withdraws from certain types of rocks.
The rocks compact because the water is responsible for holding the ground up. When the water
is withdrawn, the rocks fall in on it. Common causes of land subsidence are from human activity
such as pumping water, oil, and gas from underground reservoirs; dissolution of limestone
aquifers (sinkholes); collapse of underground mines; drainage of organic soils; and initial wetting
of dry soils (hydrocompaction)

Impacts/damages

Land subsidence causes many problems including

1. changes in elevation and slope of streams, canals, and drains;

2. damage to bridges, roads, railroads, storm drains, sanitary sewers, canals, and levees;
3. damage to private and public buildings; and
4. in some coastal areas, subsidence has resulted in tides moving into low-lying areas that
were previously above high-tide levels.
5. failure of well casings from forces generated by compaction of fine-grained materials in
aquifer systems.

Mitigation-: Some mitigation plans that can reduce land subsidence hazard include:

• Identify and map areas with soil and geologic hazards and soil contamination.
• Require development proposals to assess soils and geologic hazards such as shrinks
well potential, soil contamination, erosion, landslide and earth fissures from land
subsidence.
• Require prevention measures when locating public facilities in areas subject to soils or
geologic hazards, in order to avoid extraordinary maintenance or replacement cost.

• Atmospheric disasters
A significant perturbation of the atmospheric system, often involving
Storm
heavy precipitation and violent winds
A violently rotating column of air pendant (normally) from a
Tornado
cumulonimbus cloud and in contact with the surface of the earth
A significant perturbation of the atmospheric system, in which
strong updrafts occur within convective storms where there is an
Hailstorm ample supply of supercooled water droplets, resulting in heavy
precipitation of hailstones when they have sufficient mass to leave
the atmospheric system
A significant perturbation of the atmospheric system, with heavy
Snowstorm
precipitation of snow
The atmospheric discharge of static electricity, occurred when the
Lightning resistance of the intervening air between areas of positive and
negative charge is overcome
 • Disaster Mitigation
Mitigation means the lessening or limitation of the adverse impacts of hazards and related
disasters. The adverse impacts of hazards often cannot be prevented fully, but their scale
or severity can be substantially lessened by various strategies and actions. Mitigation
measures encompass engineering techniques and hazard-resistant construction as well as
improved environmental policies and public awareness. It should be noted that in climate
change policy, "mitigation" is defined differently, being the term used for the reduction of
greenhouse gas emissions that are the source of climate change.

Types of disaster mitigation-: Disaster mitigation measures may be structural (e.g.

flood dikes) or non-structural (e.g. land use zoning). Mitigation activities should
incorporate the measurement and assessment of the evolving risk environment.
Activities may include the creation of comprehensive, pro-active tools that help decide
where to focus funding and efforts in risk reduction.
Other examples of mitigation measures include:

• Hazard mapping
• Adoption and enforcement of land use and zoning practices
• Implementing and enforcing building codes
• Flood plain mapping
• Reinforced tornado safe rooms
• Burying of electrical cables to prevent ice build-up
• Raising of homes in flood-prone areas
• Disaster mitigation public awareness programs
• Insurance programs

• Disaster Management- Terminology

Acceptable risk: The level of potential losses that a society or community considers acceptable given
existing social, economic, political, cultural, technical and environmental conditions.

Capacity: The combination of all the strengths, attributes and resources available within a
community, society or organization that can be used to achieve agreed goals.

Capacity development: The process by which people, organizations and society systematically
stimulate and develop their capacities over time to achieve social and economic goals, including
through improvement of knowledge, skills, systems, and institutions.

Contingency planning: A management process that analyses specific potential events or emerging
situations that might threaten society or the environment and establishes arrangements in advance
to enable timely, effective and appropriate responses to such events and situations.

Coping capacity: The ability of people, organizations and systems, using available skills and
resources, to face and manage adverse conditions, emergencies or disasters.

Critical facilities: The primary physical structures, technical facilities and systems which are socially,
economically or operationally essential to the functioning of a society or community, both in routine
circumstances and in the extreme circumstances of an emergency. Disaster risk: The potential
disaster losses, in lives, health status, livelihoods, assets and services, which could occur to a
particular community or a society over some specified future time period.
Disaster risk management: The systematic process of using administrative directives, organizations,
and operational skills and capacities to implement strategies, policies and improved coping
capacities in order to lessen the adverse impacts of hazards and the possibility of disaster.

Disaster risk reduction: The concept and practice of reducing disaster risks through systematic
efforts, to analyse and manage the causal factors of disasters, including through reduced exposure
to hazards, lessened vulnerability of people and property, wise management of land and the
environment, and improved preparedness for adverse events.

Emergency services: The set of specialized agencies that have specific responsibilities and objectives
in serving and protecting people and property in emergency situations.

Environmental degradation: The reduction of the capacity of the environment to meet social and
ecological objectives and needs.

Environmental impact assessment: Process by which the environmental consequences of a proposed

project or programme are evaluated, undertaken as an integral part of planning and decision-making
processes with a view to limiting or reducing the adverse impacts of the project or programme.

Forecast: Definite statement or statistical estimate of the likely occurrence of a future event or
conditions for a specific area.

Hazard: A dangerous phenomenon, substance, human activity or condition that may cause loss of
life, injury or other health impacts, property damage, loss of livelihoods and services, social and
economic disruption, or environmental damage.

Mitigation: The lessening or limitation of the adverse impacts of hazards and related disasters.
Natural hazard: Natural process or phenomenon that may cause loss of life, injury or other health
impacts, property damage, loss of livelihoods and services, social and economic disruption, or
environmental damage.

Retrofitting: Reinforcement or upgrading of existing structures to become more resistant and

resilient to the damaging effects of hazards.

Risk: The combination of the probability of an event and its negative consequences.

Sustainable development: Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising
the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Vulnerability: The characteristics and circumstances of a community, system or asset that make it
susceptible to the damaging effects of a hazard.