All of us

The latest technologies have allowed the development of new generations of satellites that gather information unthinkable a few years ago. The increase in this apparatus’s measuring capacity and the ability to monitor any area of the planet provide a new outlook when it comes to considering strategies for preventing natural disasters. Calculating the amount of snow accumulated on the basis of the radiated energy allows an evaluation of the risk of avalanches. The amount of deforested land allows an estimate of the strength of floods. Monitoring hurricanes allows us to act to protect the population. Today there are satellites capable of capturing very high-resolution images; measurements invisible to the human eye can be made, and in general a large quantity of data is gathered. Like the SeaWiFs satellite, which has been monitoring the temperature and colour of the oceans, fires in Indonesia and floods in China.

Analysis of images from space helps to understand natural phenomena.

For one thing, the meteorological forecasts are more accurate, and for another, the results of treating the data allow us to take the right measures to avoid the scale of disasters. Many of these data appear on different pages on the Internet:

availability of water resources
Global Hydrology and Climate Center
http://www.ghcc.msfc.nasa.gov
temperature of the oceans
Marine geology & Geophysic images
http://web.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/images.html
land use
Global Land Cover characteristics Database
http://edcwww.cr.usgs.gov/landdaac/glcc/globe_int.html
soil types
FAO Soils Map
http://www.fao.org/icatalog/inter-e.htm

Bangladesh is a country which frequently suffers the effects of very powerful meteorological phenomena and in the last two decades has experienced large-scale migration towards the cities. The poor living conditions of the population in the cities, added to the cyclones, tornadoes and floods which periodically ravage this country, leave the people in a highly vulnerable situation. To avoid a repetition of the catastrophes that have taken place in recent years, the Bangladesh Urban Disaster Mitigation Programme (BUDMP) was started.

In Bangladesh, flooding is normal each year during the monsoon, but in a special year the consequences are very severe. This project foresees a series of measures to avoid the devastating effects arising from the floods. To achieve this objective the government collaborates with local organisations and town halls. The measures involve active participation by the population and are aimed at improving the natural defences. There are plantations to avoid erosion and protect homes; houses are raised to avoid water entering them; walls and drainage are built to conduct the water and drinking-water wells are protected from contamination. The results on a local level are quite remarkable.

The Secretariat of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction has carried out a project to promote activities all over the world. This will allow a reduction in the consequences of earthquakes in urban areas, mainly in developing countries. The project is called Risk Assessment Tools for Diagnosis of Urban Areas Against Seismic Disaster (RADIUS).

This project intends to put several of the world’s cities in contact so as to exchange experiences in the field of earthquakes. The project will publicise studies and technologies for the mitigation of seismological disasters in urban areas in the form of tools applicable in urban areas all over the world. These tools are developed on the basis of the experience of selected cities, so as to increase understanding of the risk of earthquakes and apply cutting-edge technology in developing countries. Taking part in this project were cities as varied as Addis-Ababa (Ethiopia), Antofagasta (Chile), Bandung (Indonesia), Guayaquil (Ecuador), Izmir (Turkey), Skopje (Macedonia), Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Tijuana (Mexico) and Zitong (China). There are also another hundred or so cities which belong to the project or are associated to it.

Switzerland is a very mountainous country and often suffers avalanches. The Swiss federal Institute for Forestry, Snow and Landscape Research monitors the risk situation with various means. Helicopter flights detected cracks which threatened the start of a very considerable avalanche. The monitoring and measuring of the cracks allowed the diagnosis that the avalanche was inevitable and also of a large scale. Even so, the moment of the avalanche was forecast and all the measures necessary for avoiding damage were taken.

If the necessary preventive actions are taken, the population is more protected and the results are more economic than the mitigate the effects of any natural disaster.

The avalanche filled the whole valley and the volume displaced was so large that changes had to be made in the course of the road, which was completely buried, but the destruction was minimal. Undoubtedly on this occasion prevention expenditure avoided far greater damage.


	PROTECTING URBAN AREAS

	Bangladesh is a country which frequently suffers the effects of very powerful meteorological phenomena and in the last two decades has experienced large-scale migration towards the cities. The poor living conditions of the population in the cities, added to the cyclones, tornadoes and floods which periodically ravage this country, leave the people in a highly vulnerable situation. To avoid a repetition of the catastrophes that have taken place in recent years, the Bangladesh Urban Disaster Mitigation Programme (BUDMP) was started. In Bangladesh, flooding is normal each year during the monsoon, but in a special year the consequences are very severe. This project foresees a series of measures to avoid the devastating effects arising from the floods. To achieve this objective the government collaborates with local organisations and town halls. The measures involve active participation by the population and are aimed at improving the natural defences. There are plantations to avoid erosion and protect homes; houses are raised to avoid water entering them; walls and drainage are built to conduct the water and drinking-water wells are protected from contamination. The results on a local level are quite remarkable. Asian Urban Disaster Mitigation Program P.O. Box 4 Klong Luang Pathumthani 12120 Thailand Tel.: 662 524 5376 Fax: 662 524 5360 E-mail: audmp@ait.ac.th


	THE RADIUS PROJECT

	The Secretariat of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction has carried out a project to promote activities all over the world. This will allow a reduction in the consequences of earthquakes in urban areas, mainly in developing countries. The project is called Risk Assessment Tools for Diagnosis of Urban Areas Against Seismic Disaster (RADIUS). This project intends to put several of the world’s cities in contact so as to exchange experiences in the field of earthquakes. The project will publicise studies and technologies for the mitigation of seismological disasters in urban areas in the form of tools applicable in urban areas all over the world. These tools are developed on the basis of the experience of selected cities, so as to increase understanding of the risk of earthquakes and apply cutting-edge technology in developing countries. Taking part in this project were cities as varied as Addis-Ababa (Ethiopia), Antofagasta (Chile), Bandung (Indonesia), Guayaquil (Ecuador), Izmir (Turkey), Skopje (Macedonia), Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Tijuana (Mexico) and Zitong (China). There are also another hundred or so cities which belong to the project or are associated to it. RADIUS Project IDNDR Secretariat United Nations Department for Humanitarian Affairs Palais des Nations CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland Tel.: 4122 798 6894 Fax: 4122 733 8695 E-mail: kenji.okazaki@dha.unicc.org Website: http://www.geohaz.org/radius