Disaster Management and Governance

Study Notes

Integrated Governance

Linkage of climate change adaptation, ecosystem management, and disaster risk reduction
Increases the resilience of ecosystems and communities to climate change impacts and supports disaster risk reduction

Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction

Climate change adaptation increases the resilience of ecosystems and communities to climate change impacts and supports disaster risk reduction
Ecosystem management increases the resilience of ecosystems and communities to disasters and complements climate change adaptation efforts

Examples of Resource Affecting Adaptive Capacity

Human

Knowledge of climate risk, conservation agriculture skills, and good health to enable labor

Women's savings and loans groups, farmer-based organizations, and traditional welfare and social support institutions

Physical

Irrigation infrastructure, seed and grain storage facilities

Natural

Reliable water resources, productive land, vegetation, and trees

Financial

Micro-insurance, diversified income sources

Major Challenges and Possible Pathways

Adaptation/development dilemma
Uncertainty in characterization of current/future climate variability
Deficits in adaptive capacities
Up-scaling
Inadequacies in research
Incoherent policies
Cost allocation
Possible pathways:
- Integration of climate risks into development priorities and decision processes
- Strengthen micro-level planning to facilitate better adaptation
- Sharing of best practices
- Increase local government capacity (PRI)
- Develop climate-sensitive research infrastructure
- Education and awareness of communities
- Building relationships between policy makers, researchers, and communities

Key Concepts for Climate Change Adaptation

Adaptation: actions taken to reduce vulnerability to actual or expected changes in climate
Mitigation: actions to reduce the sources or increase the sinks of greenhouse gases
REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation): actions designed to use market and financial incentives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation
Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR): aims to reduce socio-economic vulnerabilities to disaster as well as dealing with the environmental and other hazards that trigger them
Maladaptation: an adaptation action that leads to increased vulnerability to climate
Community-based Adaptation (CbA): a community-led process based on communities' priorities, needs, knowledge, and capacities
Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA): the use of biodiversity and ecosystem services as part of an overall adaptation strategy to help people to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change
Coping: refers to actions taken in response to an extreme event, like a storm or drought, to ensure survival and often results in a long-term decrease in wellbeing
Resilience building: helps ensure that ecosystems and communities can return to a normal state of wellbeing following an extreme event or other climate-related disturbance

Community-Based Adaptation

To make "climate resilient" communities
Impacts will affect different communities differently based on their specific circumstances
Solutions must be location-specific

Four Elements for Successful Adaptation

Social mobilization
Skill development
Appropriate technology
Awareness

Description

This quiz covers the concepts of Early Warning Systems, Concessionary Arrangements, Integrated Governance, and Community-based initiatives in Disaster Management, including Private-Social Partnerships and Market-based approaches.