Preparing For Earthquakes Lessons For India

The primary goals of this brief are to invoke alertness and solidarity among the public in earthquake prone areas of India, and to empower the community to prepare themselves to face and manage the aftermath of an earthquake. The work presented here sheds new light on the action plans to be taken by the common public and public agencies, before, during and after earthquakes to safeguard lives of people and minimize loss of assets. This carefully presented book articulates various factors related to earthquake preparedness, and develops guidelines and useful tips for communicating them to relevant stakeholders. The book has been divided into three parts: (i) the first providing background which explains earthquakes in general and seismicity of India (ii) the second explores earthquake preparedness intended for individuals, families and various stakeholders, and (iii) the final section which describes various strategies for communities to prepare themselves for a future earthquake.

This publication is a major contribution to earthquake recovery literature. It focuses on the Government of Maharashtra's housing rebuilding program, financed in large part through a World Bank credit, following the September 1993 Maharashtra, India earthquake. The project is one of the largest ever attempted in the world, particularly with its emphasis on nonengineered, unreinforced masonry construction. Ultimately, 27,000 new houses were built and another 189,000 were repaired. The sheer volume of houses rebuilt, repaired, or strengthened is impressive in speed, quantity, and general quality. These houses were rebuilt within the context of an even larger rehabilitation program that included other social and economic elements as well as the preparation of a disaster management plan. This report highlights observations that may be useful to earthquake risk reduction professionals. While this is a project carried out in a developing country with different construction materials and practices from developed countries, many of the strategies adopted are appropriate for consideration in all contexts.

This book – “Disaster Management in India: Challenges and Strategies” - provides a practical and realistic understanding of the evolving status of disaster management in India. The book discusses techno-legal systems for disaster management and their real-life effectiveness based upon the author’s own professional experience as well as available literature including studies, reviews and audits reports.A case study of the 2001 Bhuj Earthquake conducted by the author is at the nucleus of the book and provides a clear understanding on how interdependent sub-systems (social, organisational, infrastructure) can fail during sever incidents, and the consequences thereof.Lack of resources, lack of coordination, and poor communication are endemic to severely damaged disaster environments like the 2001 Bhuj earthquake and are very commonly seen across the world. What is more important for the future is that new methods are being evolved that overcome the potential risks posed by such initial conditions for improving organizational performance. Lessons from the 2001 Bhuj earthquake highlighted in this book are still relevant and provide directions for well-designed future interventions.The book critically examines performance status of disaster management in the post DM Act 2005 period and identifies many relevant issues and challenges – including development of effective institutions for disaster risk management.At the end, the book proposes intervention strategies for strengthening and improving disaster management systems keeping in mind the latest developments and best-practices suited to Indian conditions. Drawing on the author’s decades of experience both in the domains of disaster management and technology, the book provides tips on - Emergency Operations Center design and development; Media integration into DM, emergency Resources Management systems development and Crowd management.

The book is a comprehensive volume on multi-hazards and their management for a sustainable built environment. It focuses on the role of civil engineering in building disaster resilient society. This book brings together all diverse disciplines of civil engineering and related areas (for example, geotechnical engineering, water resources engineering, structural engineering, transportation engineering, environmental engineering, construction management, GIS, and remote sensing) towards a common goal of disaster resilience through an interdisciplinary approach. It contains methods and case studies focusing on civil engineering solutions to reduce the disaster risk. The book contents are aligned in line with the priorities set by UN-Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and UN-SDGs to promote a global culture of risk-awareness and disaster reduction. The book will be a useful comprehensive reference for disaster risk reduction beneficial for engineering students, teaching faculty, researchers, industry professionals and policymakers.

This book is a collection of twenty one papers presented during the symposium on Coping with Natural Hazards at University of Pune on 5 and 6 October 2001. This very successful symposium, organised by the National Academy of Sciences, outlined the strategies our country should adopt to be prepared to face hazards like earthquakes, floods, landslides, avalanches, cyclones, droughts and desertification. It contains papers by pre-eminent scientists and leading lights like Professors M G K Menon, P K Das, D R Sikka and R K Bhandari and many others. Each paper has been critically reviewed by atleast two experts in their respective fields.

Earthquakes come without warming, and often cause massive devastation, resulting not only in the loss of property but also of lives. Many of the survivors suffer from intense and lasting psychological trauma. This book covers the experience of recent earthquakes in India, and what has been learnt (and what we have failed to learn) in the process of managing the aftermath in each case. This includes immediate medical attention, long-term mental health care, and the reconstruction of housing and infrastructure in both rural and urban areas. The experiences of the contributors, many of whom have actively contributed their expertise to disaster management and recovery, help us understand what problems require a swift response and which aspects should be based on detailed analyses keeping in mind local conditions. Reconstruction is seen as offering an opportunity to rebuild society such that all sections of the population are empowered and brought into the community’s decision-making process. It is also an opportunity to develop construction techniques that are suited to local materials and skills but are also more earthquake-resistant than the old. And finally, there is the realisation that the best first responders are local community groups which need to be nurtured, and trained in crisis management and risk mitigation.