Disaster Mitigation
in Asia

30 September 2009
Issue No. 72

This newsletter is published through the Program for Hydro-meteorological Disaster Mitigation in Secondary Cities in Asia (PROMISE), funded by USAID/OFDA, commenced from October 2005.  The objective of the program is to contribute towards reduction of vulnerability of urban communities through enhanced preparedness and mitigation of hydro-meteorological disasters in South and Southeast Asia.

In this Issue:

• From the Region

• Calls for Submission

• Conferences and Courses

• Useful Resources

A. From the Region

(1) Indonesia struck by earthquakes
(based on reports from IRIN, Reuters and BBC)

A powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.3 struck Java on September 2.  At least 80 people died and at least 47 missing.  The quake displaced 186,637 people and damaged about 150,000 houses and other buildings, according to the National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB).  The quake was felt strongly in Jakarta, shaking buildings and sending residents fleeing their homes and high-rise office towers in panic.  The quake struck 142km southwest of Tasikamalaya, West Java, at a depth of 49.5km, according to geologists.

At the end of the month, a 7.9 earthquake struck at 1716 local time (1016 GMT) on September 30, some 85km (55 miles) under the sea, north-west of Sumatra’s provincial capital of Padang, while the second quake was on land and struck at 0852 local time (0152 GMT) on October 1, about 225km south-east of Padang at a depth of about 25km.  There were no immediate reports of damage from the second quake.  Hhowever the first quake brought down many buildings including at least two hospitals.  Thousands are trapped under rubble and at least 467 people were killed. 

(2) Cholera deaths in Afghanistan
(based on a report by IRIN)

The Ministry of Public Health of Afghanistan reported 28 deaths from cholera and/or acute watery diarrhea in the past two months.  Since there are strong diagnostic similarities between the two, health workers have difficulty in distinguishing one from the other.  Lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitation as well as poor awareness about personal hygiene appear to be major causes of the two.  

(3) Typhoon Ketsana killed at least 400 in Southeast Asia
(based on reports from IRIN, Reuters, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippine Star, BBC and CNN)

Millions of people are coping with the aftermath of a typhoon that cut a destructive path through parts of Southeast Asia at the end of September, killing 400 in the region.  Tens of thousands of families were affected in the Philippine capital Manila and in at least 24 other provinces and cities on the northern island of Luzon on 26 September. The death toll is at 277, and more than 40,000 people were moved to evacuation centers as the storm caught rescuers and emergency response teams off-guard and the Philippine government to appeal for international help.  With wind speeds of up 100 km per hour, the storm dumped one month’s worth of rain in just six hours over large parts of Luzon, including Metropolitan Manila.  The continuous heavy rains forced authorities to release waters from two dams just north of Manila that were threatening to overflow.  Government reports said 101 people had died and 18 were missing after typhoon Ketsana swept through the central Vietnam late on 29 September, affecting about 1.4 million people and damaging or submerging more than 350,000 houses and sources of livelihoods..The typhoon also left 11 dead in Cambodia. 

(4) Tsunami in the South Pacific
(based on reports by IRIN, Reuters and BBC)

On September 29, four powerful tsunamis generated by a huge undersea quake of magnitude 8.3 crashed into the islands of the South Pacific. Some 20 villages were destroyed in Samoa and scores flattened in nearby American Samoa.  Hundreds remained missing as the tsunamis tested the early alert systems set up since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.  The death toll is at 135 in Samoa, 32 in American Samoa, and nine in Tonga. 

(5) Vietnam releases report on sea level and storm scenarios
Last month, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) issued a set of scenarios for expected change in sea level, severity of storms and other climate change events to other ministries, as a first step in ‘mainstreaming’ climate change assumptions into long-range government planning.  The scenario-building work relies on extensive historical data and the best current estimates by the Vietnamese and international scientific community. MONRE Minister Pham Khoi Nguyen said they will continue to update the scenarios, especially on sea rise level, so that ministries, sectors and provinces can take specific actions to limit negative impacts of climate change.  Nguyen told reporters that in the last 50 years, Vietnam’s average temperature increased by 0.5-0.7oC while the sea level rose by 20cm. Both trends have intensified the impact of storms and floods.  Access the press release here: http://www.presscenter.org.vn/en/content/view/921/27/. 

(6) Anti-H1N1 flu measures stepped up in Central Asia
(based on reports by IRIN and AFP)

Health authorities across Central Asia have launched a series of measures to tackle the spread of H1N1.  The Kazakh Ministry of Health is advising Muslims not to do the `Hajj' pilgrimage to Mecca this year because of the epidemic. Schools could also be temporarily closed to contain the virus.  Some 171 people had been quarantined in Astana and Almaty, but the quarantines were lifted in early August.

In addition to public awareness efforts, borders across the region have become the focus of attempts to minimize the spread of H1N1.  The Kyrgyz Health Ministry has drawn up an action plan against the disease's possible outbreak; thermal scanners have been introduced at Osh and Manas airports in Kyrgyzstan and at crossings with Kazakhstan, and border personnel have been instructed to wear face masks.  Tajikistan has opened additional medical centers at its northern airport and railway station in Sughd Province.  Uzbekistan will check all `Hajj' pilgrims before they leave and upon their return for symptoms of H1N1.

Meanwhile, the People’s Republic of China has approved a homegrown H1N1 flu vaccine called Sinovac, and is said to be effective after only one dose.  This vaccine is a potential major breakthrough, as most experts had assumed that two doses per person would be needed. 

(7) Bangkok Climate Change Talks
Some 2,500 participants are currently attending the Bangkok Climate Change Talks, from 28 September to 9 October; this gathering is  the penultimate round of negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change treaty (UNFCCC).  It aims to advance a negotiating text for the deal ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen December, when 192 nations will try to sign off on the deal before the 2012 expiry of the Kyoto Protocol.

B. Calls for Submission

(8) Call for abstracts: MapIndia 2010

Organizer: GIS Development.  The 13^th Annual International Conference and Exhibition on Geospatial Information Technology and Applications is accepting abstracts for its upcoming event on 19 - 21 January at Epicentre, Gurgaon, India.  It has a visionary theme 'Defining Geospatial Vision of India'..Deadline for abstracts is 24 October 2009.  For more information, go to:  http://www.mapindia.org/2010/conference/theme.htm. 

(9) Call for Papers: ISCRAM 2010

Organizer: International Systems for Crisis Response and Management.  Papers are now being accepted for the 2010 ISCRAM conference May 2-5 in Seattle. Full research papers, works-in-progress, and practitioner reports will be accepted. Papers focusing on the conference theme of how rapidly changing technology affects crisis response are preferred, although any work on crisis response and management systems is welcome. More information, including track descriptions, submission guidelines, and a calendar of important dates, is available here: http://www.iscram.org/ISCRAM2010/ISCRAM2010_full_call_for_papers.pdf.

C. Conferences and Courses

(10) Strategic Approaches to Sustainable Urbanization Course – Gangwon Province, Korea: 16 – 21 November 2009

Organizer: International Urban Training Center.  Registration is still open for this course.  Its objective is to strengthen problem-solving and policymaking abilities with better understanding of the key environmental challenges faced by cities and towns for sustainable urbanization and their inter-linkages with local economic and social issues.  Module themes include urban environment and sustainable urbanization concepts, and planning and management instruments.  For inquiries and to download the application form, go to: http://www.iutc.org. 

(11) 10^th Regional Training Course on Flood Disaster Risk Management – Bangkok, Thailand: 6-17 October 2008

Organizer: Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC).  The course is an integrated approach to developing flood risk reduction strategies that involve engineering, settlement, development, public administration, and community-based land use planning with environmental consideration. This multidisciplinary treatment of flood problems and flood risk management gives a holistic view of the situation and preparedness needs. Case examples of various national and local responses will be presented.  For more information, please go to: http://www.adpc.net/v2007/Downloads/2009/Aug/FDRM%20for%20web%20use%20for%20email.pdf.

D. Useful Resources

(12) CBDRM-TLC newsletter

CBDRM-Trainers Learning Circle releases its first newsletter this September 2009. The newsletter highlights the various accomplishments and activities of the TLC program in the Philippines to date since the program started in 2007.  The TLC responds to the ongoing demand for evidence-based, context-specific, up-to-date and applied CBDRM resources / tools for training, education and learning in Asia. Within 2008 – 2009, the TLC Philippines works for and strengthens its functionality, the publication of a gender-sensitive knowledge product, and the institutionalization of CBDRR curriculum and programs in universities and training institutions.  You can download the newsletter here: http://www.cdp.org.ph/pubs/tlc-newsletter-v1n1.pdf. 

(13) IRIN videos

IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, has developed several new films.  They have one set on the profile of activists against AIDS (found here: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=85824) and on climate change (found here: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84716). 

(14) TVEAP Saving the Planet TV series

TVE Asia Pacific (TVEAP) is delighted to announce the global release of its latest Asian regional television series, Saving the Planet.  The six-episode series features outstanding efforts in education for sustainable development (ESD) in South and Southeast Asia.  The stories – drawn from Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, the Philippines and Thailand – were selected through competitive public nominations in 2007. Each 10-minute story is a self-contained documentary, filmed on location by a local film crew with the participation of local organizations whose work was being profiled.  Saving the Planet is available for broadcast, civil society and educational use anywhere in the world.  The entire series can be viewed on line at: http://www.savingtheplanet.tv.  Broadcasters may requests tape copies from: sales@tveap.org.  Educational and civil society users may directly order the series on DVD from TVEAP's online film catalogue at http://www.tveap.org/?q=buy_films.php.  

(15) UNOOSA/UN-SPIDER promotional movie on YouTube.

Produced in April of this year, the movie tries to capture the essence of what UN-SPIDER is all about.  Additionally, it offers a brief overview of the disaster management and space communities, depicting ways in which these two can be brought together, with a peek at UN-SPIDER’s response following the Namibia 2009 floods.  Moreover, it familiarizes the viewer with the unfolding version of the UN-SPIDER Knowledge.  Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAnEZU5BIXM. 

(16) Free Landsat Scenes Go Public by the Million

The U.S. Geological Survey opened its full Landsat archive to user access at no charge last October 2008, and the response from across the nation and around the globe has grown exponentially.  Even the very oldest data in the archive, dating to over three decades ago, is being downloaded at unprecedented levels – with land-surface change detection emerging as a primary use of Landsat data.  Landsat 1 was launched on July 23, 1972, and subsequent Landsat missions have continually acquired land-image data across the globe. Scientists, educators, and the general public use these data for a wide array of activities ranging from supporting disaster relief efforts to making agricultural crop assessments to identifying sites for cell phone towers.  Landsat scenes can be previewed and downloaded through the USGS Global Visualization Viewer (http://glovis.usgs.gov/).  Additional information on satellites, sensors, data, and the Landsat Program, which is managed by the USGS in partnership with NASA, can be found at the Landsat Missions Web site here: http://landsat.usgs.gov/. 

(17) Sahana Free Open Source Disaster Management Tool

The tool has an easy-to-use interface, and has been successfully applied in the responses to the Philippine mudslides, Sichuan earthquake, and the Sri Lanka tsunami.  Developed by Lanka Software Foundation, its features are: 1. Missing Person Registry ; 2. Organization Registry; 3. Relief Request Management System; 4. Camp Registry; 5. Volunteer Management; 6. Inventory Management; and 7. Situation Awareness.  For more details go to: http://www.sahana.lk/node/12. 

(18) Safer Cities 24: Learning to Act Together: Disaster Mitigation in Hyderabad, Pakistan through Collaborative Initiatives, 2009

This is a case study of Hyderabad District in Pakistan that shows that flood disaster mitigation and risk reduction can be the starting point for urban communities to act together to resolve a common problem.  To download, please go to: http://www.adpc.net/v2007/Programs/UDRM/PROMISE/INFORMATION%20RESOURCES/Safer%20Cities/Downloads/SaferCities24.pdf. 

(19) Safer Cities 26: Using Risk Assessments to Reduce Landslide Risk, 2009

This case study discusses risk assessment and the subsequent methodologies and approaches for landslide risk reduction. The Baguio City landslide risk mitigation project in the Philippines focused on strengthening community capacity and enhancing local commitment. The project for Kaluthara District in Sri Lanka developed a landslide early warning system through a school-based network of rainfall monitoring stations. Finally, the project for Patong City in Phuket, Thailand relied more on instrumentation and technical risk assessment as the basis for structural mitigation measures.  To download, please go to: http://www.adpc.net/v2007/Programs/UDRM/PROMISE/INFORMATION%20RESOURCES/Safer%20Cities/Downloads/SaferCities26.pdf. 

(20) This month in Asia’s disaster history

Haiphong, Vietnam, in the Gulf of Tonkin was hit by a typhoon on 15 September 1881 that was so powerful, 300,000 people were killed.  Not much is known about the circumstances.  However, the event is ranked as the 8th deadliest tropical cyclone based on death toll.  Read about this and other deadly cyclones at:

• http://scienceray.com/earth-sciences/meteorology/top-10-worst-hurricanes-in-world-history/

• http://sybbys.cafe24.com/2009/data/History-Encyclopedia%20of%20Disaster.pdf