(Definitions are from the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction unless otherwise noted) Community based disaster management (CBDM)
An approach that involves direct participation of the people most likely to be exposed to hazards, in planning decision making, and operational activities at all levels of disaster management responsibility. International Institute for Disaster Risk Management Disaster A serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society causing widespread human, material, economic, or environmental losses which exceed the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources. Disaster risk management The systematic process of using administrative decisions, organization, operational skills and capacities to implement policies, strategies, and coping capacities of the society and communities to lessen the impacts of natural hazards and related environmental and technological disasters. This comprises all forms of activities, including structural and non-structural measures to avoid (prevention) or to limit (mitigation and preparedness) adverse effects of hazards. Disaster risk reduction The conceptual frameworks of elements considered with the possibilities to minimize vulnerabilities and disaster risks throughout a society, to avoid (prevention) or limit (mitigation and preparedness) the adverse impacts of hazards, within the broad context of sustainable development.
Emergency management The organization and management of resources and responsibilities for dealing with all aspects of emergencies, in particular, preparedness, response and rehabilitation. Emergency management involves plans, structures and arrangements established to engage the normal endeavors of government, voluntary and private agencies in a comprehensive and coordinated way to respond to the whole spectrum of emergency needs (AKA disaster management) Hazard A potentially damaging physical event, phenomenon or human activity that may cause the loss of life or injury, property damage, social and economic disruption or environmental degradation. Land use planning Branch of physical and socio-economic planning that determines the means and assesses the values or limitations of various options in which land is to be utilized, with the corresponding effects on different segments of the population or interests of a community taken into account in resulting decisions. Mitigation Structural and non-structural measures* taken to limit the adverse impact of natural hazards, environmental degradation and technological hazards. Preparedness Activities and measures taken in advance to ensure effective response to the impacts of hazards, including the issuance of timely and effective early warnings and the temporary evacuation of people and property from threatened locations. Prevention Activities to provide outright avoidance of the adverse impact of hazards and means to minimize related environmental, technological and biological disasters. In the context of public awareness and education, related to disaster risk reduction changing attitudes and behavior contribute to a "culture of prevention." Recovery Decisions and actions taken after a disaster with a view to restoring or improving the pre-disaster living conditions of the stricken community, while encouraging and facilitating necessary adjustments to reduce disaster risk. Relief/response The provision of assistance or intervention during or immediately after a disaster to meet the life preservation and basic subsistence needs of those people affected. It can be of immediate, short-term, or protracted duration. Risk The probability of harmful consequences, or expected losses (deaths, injuries, property, livelihoods, economic activity disrupted or environment damaged) resulting from interactions between natural or human0induced hazards and vulnerable conditions. Beyond expressing a possibility of physical harm, it is crucial to recognize that risks are inherent or can be created or exit within social systems. It is important to consider the social contexts in which risks occur and that people therefore do not necessarily share the same perceptions of risks and their causes. *Structural and non-structural measures
Structural measures refer to any physical construction to reduce or avoid possible impacts of hazards, which include engineering measures and construction of hazard-resistant and protective structures and infrastructure. Non-structural measures refer to policies, awareness, knowledge development, public commitment, and method and operating practices, including participatory mechanisms and the provision of information, which can reduce risk and related impacts.
Vulnerability The conditions determined by physical, social, economic, and environmental factors or processes, which increase the susceptibility of a community to the impact of hazards.
Brief narrative description of each model
Cuban model The authors of the report stress that the Cuban achievements in risk reduction come from a fundamental commitment on the part of the government to safeguard human lives. It is unusual in that its socio-economic development model and its disaster response policies combine to substantially reduce its population's vulnerability to hazards. The government is the sole provider of social services, plans and directs the economy, employs the majority, and controls the market. However, giving the whole population access to resources like literacy, roads and electricity, multiplies the effect of disaster preparation and response measures (Thompson, p. 15). Many of the community level organizations are completely embedded in the social life of the people, beginning with the local Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, or CDRs. It is not a stretch to see how the Cubans have adapted these social (and political) mechanisms to build up a network of relationships that seems to work well under disaster conditions especially. Project Impact This 'Disaster Resistant Communities Initiative' (as it was originally named) was launched by FEMA in 1995 in an attempt to reduce escalating disaster relief and recovery costs. It was novel in that it introduced the concept of pre-disaster mitigation and was designed to be a "bottom-up" approach to mitigation that gave local communities fairly wide latitude in deciding what mitigation goals they would pursue and how. Following the ubiquitous competitive grant model, communities were told that there were only four "simple steps" they would need to do to become a Project Impact community: 1) create a community partnership that included all sectors of the community (but especially the business sector); 2) conduct a comprehensive risk identification and evaluation; 3) identify what actions could be taken to mitigate the identified risks and develop a priority list for these mitigation actions; 4) generate the public and financial support needed to implement these mitigation actions. The Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware was tapped to conduct the assessments of the Project Impact Initiative, and reports were issued in 1998, 2000, 2001 and 2002. Project Impact was cancelled by the Bush Administration in 2001, for purported budget savings of $25 million dollars.
Selected key features of each model
The challenge in this section is to try to distill from the two 60 page-plus reports, some of the key features that provide a clear illustration of community based disaster management principles - as well as illuminating the differences and similarities between the Cuban model vs. Project Impact. The framework chosen is to use the first two of the four main phases that already exist in disaster management, i.e., disaster preparedness and disaster mitigation. This is a thumbnail view of the two programs and is necessarily sacrificing detail in favor of a broader look for the sake of comparison and contrast.
Preparedness
Cuban model
The National Civil Defense is a combination of national structure and grassroots organization. It builds upon the municipal and administrative structures already in place.
In practice, the head of the Civil Defense in any given province or municipality is someone closely familiar with how government works in that province. Local groups are taking orders from someone familiar to them, not a stranger brought in for the duration of the emergency.
There is a clear and effective communication system in place with alternative systems of communication place if the power lines are disrupted by the hazard.
There are three community-level exercises in which a significant number of the population participate: community risk-mapping, annual updating of the emergency plan, and a national simulation exercise.
Project Impact
The rough equivalent to the notion of 'preparedness' is the risk and vulnerability assessment activities carried out by the communities in Project Impact.
These activities included identifying hazards associated with critical facilities; determining the vulnerability of public infrastructure, populations, or businesses; or assessed risks to transportation or utility systems.
Listed examples include: develop watershed study and restoration project; identify single family homes for retrofitting; create a community-wide local mitigation strategy; conduct a generator capability assessment; set up a GIS mapping system; build an inventory of at-risk structures and hazardous buildings.
It was noted in the Report that few communities included a socio-economic analysis as part of their risk and vulnerability assessment projects.
Mitigation Cuban Model
At the national level, Cuba has put a number of national institutions and mechanisms in place for disaster mitigation, including a legal framework that mandate requiring all adult citizens to receive civil defense training; physical planning and land use regulations embedded in government structures; measures in place to prevent overpopulation of high risk areas.
At the community level, development of a "culture of safety" through education and reinforcement of human capital.
Project Impact
Accept, screen, and approve loan/grant applications.
Elevation, relocation, and retrofit projects.
Creation of a tool-lending library.
Acquire flood-damaged structures and established buy-out programs.
Replacement of non-flexible gas lines/installation of automatic gas shut-off valve.
Strengthen or establish land use regulations and building codes.
Develop criteria for inspections on retrofitted homes.
Concepts
(Definitions are from the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction unless otherwise noted)Community based disaster management (CBDM)
An approach that involves direct participation of the people most likely to be exposed to hazards, in planning decision making, and operational activities at all levels of disaster management responsibility. International Institute for Disaster Risk Management
Disaster
A serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society causing widespread human, material, economic, or environmental losses which exceed the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources.
Disaster risk management
The systematic process of using administrative decisions, organization, operational skills and capacities to implement policies, strategies, and coping capacities of the society and communities to lessen the impacts of natural hazards and related environmental and technological disasters. This comprises all forms of activities, including structural and non-structural measures to avoid (prevention) or to limit (mitigation and preparedness) adverse effects of hazards.
Disaster risk reduction
The conceptual frameworks of elements considered with the possibilities to minimize vulnerabilities and disaster risks throughout a society, to avoid (prevention) or limit (mitigation and preparedness) the adverse impacts of hazards, within the broad context of sustainable development.
Emergency management
The organization and management of resources and responsibilities for dealing with all aspects of emergencies, in particular, preparedness, response and rehabilitation. Emergency management involves plans, structures and arrangements established to engage the normal endeavors of government, voluntary and private agencies in a comprehensive and coordinated way to respond to the whole spectrum of emergency needs (AKA disaster management)
Hazard
A potentially damaging physical event, phenomenon or human activity that may cause the loss of life or injury, property damage, social and economic disruption or environmental degradation.
Land use planning
Branch of physical and socio-economic planning that determines the means and assesses the values or limitations of various options in which land is to be utilized, with the corresponding effects on different segments of the population or interests of a community taken into account in resulting decisions.
Mitigation
Structural and non-structural measures* taken to limit the adverse impact of natural hazards, environmental degradation and technological hazards.
Preparedness
Activities and measures taken in advance to ensure effective response to the impacts of hazards, including the issuance of timely and effective early warnings and the temporary evacuation of people and property from threatened locations.
Prevention
Activities to provide outright avoidance of the adverse impact of hazards and means to minimize related environmental, technological and biological disasters. In the context of public awareness and education, related to disaster risk reduction changing attitudes and behavior contribute to a "culture of prevention."
Recovery
Decisions and actions taken after a disaster with a view to restoring or improving the pre-disaster living conditions of the stricken community, while encouraging and facilitating necessary adjustments to reduce disaster risk.
Relief/response
The provision of assistance or intervention during or immediately after a disaster to meet the life preservation and basic subsistence needs of those people affected. It can be of immediate, short-term, or protracted duration.
Risk
The probability of harmful consequences, or expected losses (deaths, injuries, property, livelihoods, economic activity disrupted or environment damaged) resulting from interactions between natural or human0induced hazards and vulnerable conditions. Beyond expressing a possibility of physical harm, it is crucial to recognize that risks are inherent or can be created or exit within social systems. It is important to consider the social contexts in which risks occur and that people therefore do not necessarily share the same perceptions of risks and their causes.
*Structural and non-structural measures
Structural measures refer to any physical construction to reduce or avoid possible impacts of hazards, which include engineering measures and construction of hazard-resistant and protective structures and infrastructure. Non-structural measures refer to policies, awareness, knowledge development, public commitment, and method and operating practices, including participatory mechanisms and the provision of information, which can reduce risk and related impacts.
Vulnerability
The conditions determined by physical, social, economic, and environmental factors or processes, which increase the susceptibility of a community to the impact of hazards.
Brief narrative description of each model
Cuban model
The authors of the report stress that the Cuban achievements in risk reduction come from a fundamental commitment on the part of the government to safeguard human lives. It is unusual in that its socio-economic development model and its disaster response policies combine to substantially reduce its population's vulnerability to hazards. The government is the sole provider of social services, plans and directs the economy, employs the majority, and controls the market. However, giving the whole population access to resources like literacy, roads and electricity, multiplies the effect of disaster preparation and response measures (Thompson, p. 15). Many of the community level organizations are completely embedded in the social life of the people, beginning with the local Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, or CDRs. It is not a stretch to see how the Cubans have adapted these social (and political) mechanisms to build up a network of relationships that seems to work well under disaster conditions especially.
Project Impact
This 'Disaster Resistant Communities Initiative' (as it was originally named) was launched by FEMA in 1995 in an attempt to reduce escalating disaster relief and recovery costs. It was novel in that it introduced the concept of pre-disaster mitigation and was designed to be a "bottom-up" approach to mitigation that gave local communities fairly wide latitude in deciding what mitigation goals they would pursue and how. Following the ubiquitous competitive grant model, communities were told that there were only four "simple steps" they would need to do to become a Project Impact community: 1) create a community partnership that included all sectors of the community (but especially the business sector); 2) conduct a comprehensive risk identification and evaluation; 3) identify what actions could be taken to mitigate the identified risks and develop a priority list for these mitigation actions; 4) generate the public and financial support needed to implement these mitigation actions. The Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware was tapped to conduct the assessments of the Project Impact Initiative, and reports were issued in 1998, 2000, 2001 and 2002. Project Impact was cancelled by the Bush Administration in 2001, for purported budget savings of $25 million dollars.
Selected key features of each model
The challenge in this section is to try to distill from the two 60 page-plus reports, some of the key features that provide a clear illustration of community based disaster management principles - as well as illuminating the differences and similarities between the Cuban model vs. Project Impact. The framework chosen is to use the first two of the four main phases that already exist in disaster management, i.e., disaster preparedness and disaster mitigation. This is a thumbnail view of the two programs and is necessarily sacrificing detail in favor of a broader look for the sake of comparison and contrast.Preparedness
Cuban modelProject Impact
Mitigation Cuban Model
Project Impact
To continue, go to p. 3