Community Based Disaster Risk Management for Earthquake Risk Mitigation Planning in Historic City Core area, Kathmandu, Nepal
Jeny Shrestha
DMHA Capstone
Spring 2014
Jeny Shrestha
1
Problem Statement
Due to the unpredictable nature of sudden earthquakes, humans are often caught by surprise. The issue is even more pressing as researches highlight a direct link between disaster risk and vulnerability within vulnerable local communities in developing countries (Dixit, et al., 2013; Uprety and Yoshida, 2009). This was evident in the cases of the Haiti Earthquake in 2010 and the Gujarat Earthquake in 2006. Geologically crushed between the Indian and the Tibetan plateaus, Kathmandu stands at the highest risk of earthquake (GHI, 2001; IDRL, 2011). Rapid urbanization, increasing urban growth rate at 6%, haphazard construction, lack of land use plan and building code implementation, lack of emergency facilities and policy implementation further exacerbate the vulnerability (Bhattarai, 1999; JICA, 2002). According to NDR (2011), an earthquake of magnitude greater than 8 occurs in Kathmandu in every 75 years. The 1934 earthquake took 8,500 lives, destroyed 20% buildings along with significant damages to cultural and critical infrastructures. According to an estimation by NSET (2002), in case of an earthquake of similar magnitude in the present context, Kathmandu would experience 100,000 deaths, 300,000 injuries, the displacement of over a million residents along with higher chances of liquefaction. Thus, as the main hub for trade, commerce, education and administration, any future large earthquake in the capital city is likely to cause serious effects to its citizens if the country fails to make adequate preparedness in advance.
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...se the vulnerability to disasters. (IDRL, 2011). While the role of national government is appropriate to develop plans, policies and programs that guide the actions of local government, it is important to focus at a local level to reduce the scale of the disaster. Thus, CBDRM could be an effective step towards resiliency, as local people are the first ones to experience and respond to disasters. Such approach could act as a nexus of local knowledge and existing capacities to balance the conventional top-down approach. The paper, thus, emphasizes the need to focus towards integrating local people in awareness and decision making activities to act towards earthquake risk and their involvement in the execution of disaster risk reduction
Jeny Shrn Disaster Mitigation Program. Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC). Program Completion Report. 26 March 2004. URL: htt
The Haitian government’s lack of preparedness for earthquakes despite the fact that earthquakes are common to the region is indicative of the governments inability and lack of resources to properly plan and protect it’s population against natural disasters. This lack of preparedness is not an isolated incident. Prior to the disaster, the World Bank and others were working with the Haitian government to incorporate disaster risk management into Haiti’s development strategy and to develop its capacity for disaster response. This capacity building was in its early stages of development when the earthquake hit, on January 12, 2010, and was mainly focused on hurricanes, which are the most common cause of natural disaster on the island (Margesson, 2010, p. 4).
The article, “Nepal Quake: Death Toll Passes 3,200 as Nation Struggles with Devastation”, talks about the first earthquake and how people are joining together for the sake of survival.
Bissell, R. (2010). Catastrophic Readiness and Response Course, Session 6 – Social and Economic Issues. Accessed at http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu/crr.asp
After a disaster hits, it takes a long time for the local and state government to regain its basic functions and to draft redevelopment plans (Olshansky et al., 2008). With malfunctioning government, it is hard to start the recovery process promptly and citizens who are in need of immense amount of economic and social support suffer from lack of resources and public services.
Hazards pose risk to everyone. Our acceptance of the risks associated with hazards dictates where and how we live. As humans, we accept a certain amount of risk when choosing to live our daily lives. From time to time, a hazard becomes an emergent situation. Tornadoes in the Midwest, hurricanes along the Gulf Coast or earthquakes in California are all hazards that residents in those regions accept and live with. This paper will examine one hazard that caused a disaster requiring a response from emergency management personnel. Specifically, the hazard more closely examined here is an earthquake. With the recent twenty year anniversary covered by many media outlets, the January 17, 1994, Northridge, California earthquake to date is the most expensive earthquake in American history.
How would you react if an earthquake caused you to lose your home, all of your belongings, and even your family? Many people lost everything they had, their family, their house, all their food, water and even some of their clothes. In a matter of seconds people have lost their lives by an earthquake, they didn’t even know would happen. In 1990 a magnitude-6 struck Bohol injuring 300 people and costing $154 million to repair the city. Bohol and Cebu were both severely damaged, ruining schools, houses, airports, and hospitals, which collapsed killing 18 people. There were very powerful aftershocks causing the city to be even more destroyed. People react to disasters caused by mother nature by gathering supplies, finding shelter, and relief efforts.
Perry, R. W., & Lindell, M. K. (2007). Disaster Response. In W. L. Waugh, & K. Tiernery, Emergency Management: Principles and Practice for Local Government (pp. 162-163). Washington D.C.: International City/County Management Association.
...fited from the integration of the other’s since Erikson’s approach integrated the key aspect of response to changing conditions, which is something the city of Chicago desperately needed to work on. And Klinenberg’s approach integrated the key aspect of construction as a public event, which, media coverage is something, the Buffalo creek flood lacked. The themes derived from both authors approaches; historical groundwork, relationship to land, choices we make, problematic development, media coverage and physical/social vulnerability allow us to generate knowledge on the loss of community and production of disaster within the social world. Although, natural disasters are inevitable, many people see them in different ways but both of these authors and approaches offer citizens take accountability and learn the degree of lessons in order to be prepared for the future.
An earthquake of magnitude 7.0 hit the island of Haiti on January 12, 2010, killing anywhere from 100,000 to 300,000 people, injuring another 300,000 others, and leaving over 1.5 million without homes (Fleddermann, 2012, p.116). The majority of the destruction and human toll occurred in Port au Prince, the capital city of Haiti, although the effects of the earthquake were spread throughout the island. Aside from the many people who died, were injured, or left homeless, those involved in this disaster are the Haitian government, the United Nations, civil engineers, the press, relief organizations, and the United States. Although initially perceived as simply a natural disaster, it becomes apparent through further research that the degree of loss experienced might have been lessened if certain procedures and codes were in place and followed to increase the safety and integrity of the buildings in Haiti.
Now days, government as well as people have been aware of the potential risk and have been active in disaster risk mitigation. Nepal conducted different programme and plans for mitigation of disaster risk. Some of them are: Natural Calamity(Relief) Act,1982, Prime Minister natural calamity Rescue fund, Local Self Government act, 1999, Three Year interim plan 2007-2010, National Strategy for DRM 2009, Sectoral laws and policies: health, Environment and building, District Disaster Preparedness plans and present Disaster management agreement. Various Non-governmental organizations are also actively involved in different disaster
Authorities have attempted to implement codes or regulations, but that has proved to be very difficult tasks becasue there are many variables that effect the dynamic response of buildings. One way to try to avoid disaster is to evaluate seismic risk is to look at a buildings hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and location. Hazards are, for example, landslides ad soil type. Exposure is a building's occupancy and function. Vulnerability is the expected performance of a building's system, and location is how often earthquakes occur in the area. (Lagorio)
Earthquakes belong to the class of most disastrous natural hazards. They result in unexpected and tremendous earth movements. These movements results from dissemination of an enormous amount of intense energy in form of seismic waves which are detected by use of seismograms. The impact of earthquakes leaves behind several landmarks including: destruction of property, extensive disruption of services like sewer and water lines, loss of life, and causes instability in both economic and social components of the affected nation (Webcache 2).
Communities throughout the country and the world are susceptible to disasters. The environment and location of a community often predisposes a greater susceptibility to the type of disaster. For example Central Pennsylvania would not be susceptible to an avalanche however communities in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado would have increase vulnerability. Understanding the types of disaster for which the community is susceptible is essential for emergency preparedness (Nies & McEwen, 2011). All communities are susceptible to man-made disasters; terrorism, fires, and mass transit accidents and emergency preparedness are essential. The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) is responsible for disaster planning.
Taher, R. (2011). General recommendations for improved building practices in earthquake and hurricane prone areas. San Francisco, CA: Architecture for Humanity Retrieved from
Of the four phases of emergency management, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery, perhaps the place that individuals can make the biggest difference in their own state of resiliency and survival of a disaster is in the preparedness phase. Being prepared before a disaster strikes makes sense yet many people fail to take even simple, precautionary steps to reduce the consequences of destruction and mayhem produced by natural events such as earthquakes, volcanos and tornados (see Paton et al, 2001, Mileti and Peek, 2002; Tierney, 1993, Tierney et al, 2001).