Disaster Management: Applications and Case Studies Quiz

Early Warning Systems

• A new early-warning system connected with radio stations was implemented to alert people in low-lying areas, resulting in a dramatic difference in preventing casualties.
• The absence of an alert and warning system has led to huge number of casualties and extensive damage to property, as seen in examples like Bhopal gas leak, 1999 super cyclone in Orissa, and 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Role of Media in Disaster Management

• Media is defined as impersonal means of communication that transmits messages directly to the audiences.
• Two main characteristics of media are:
  • Reaching millions of people in a short time, even instantaneously.
  • Being cost-effective and generally user-friendly.
• Media provides one-way communication.
• In post-disaster situations, the informative role of media is to:
  • Provide correct information about the continuing impacts of the disaster and the actual needs of the affected people.
  • Keep a check on various agencies undertaking rehabilitation programs.
• The suggestive role of media is to:
  • Provide suitable suggestions for political attention and public understanding for most acceptable options.
  • Muster expert opinion and solutions for rehabilitation and reconstruction.

Disaster Management

• Intensity IX of a disaster can cause:
  • People to be forcibly thrown to the ground.
  • Most buildings to be totally damaged.
  • Bridges and elevated concrete structures to be toppled or destroyed.
  • Landslides and liquefaction to occur.
• Intensity X can cause:
  • Practically all man-made structures to be destroyed.
• Environmental causes of disasters are related to climatic conditions such as temperature, wind speed, and level of moisture in soil and atmosphere.
• Human-related causes of disasters result from human activity and methods of forest management.

Wildland Fire Behaviour

• The extension of a physical model for the spreading of surface fire at landscape scale has been validated at laboratory scale for fire spreading across litters.
• The model was modified to consider the structure of actual vegetation and was included in the wildland fire calculation system Forefire.

Space-Based Inputs for Disaster Mitigation and Management

• India is prone to many natural disasters like floods, landslides, cyclones, forest fires, earthquakes, and drought.
• Satellites provide synoptic observations of natural disasters at regular intervals, helping in better planning and management of disasters.
• The Disaster Management Support (DMS) Programme comprehensively addresses various aspects of natural disasters using space-based inputs.
• ISRO provides satellite-based near real-time information support to Central Ministries/Departments and State Ministries/Departments prior to, during, and after major natural disasters.