CITIES AND RESILIENCE

Summary report and policy brief
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This climate policy brief uses the Copenhagen Agreement as an opportunity to significantly advance the climate change agenda and to establish a solid enabling environment for climate change adaptation. It asserts that combining local knowledge and global support to tackle climate change issues would enable cities to be in a position to lead successful adaptation and sustain those gains through proactive ‘climate-proof’ development policy and planning. It highlights critical issues raised in the Cities and Resilience Dialogue held in Bangkok, Thailand September 28-29, 2009, which reviewed the progress of cities in addressing the consequences of climate change with city representatives from India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam; their respective national climate change negotiators; and key supporting institutions active in the region.

Good practices and tools on disaster risk reduction in education in Central Asia: compendium

This document addresses the issues of disaster risk reduction (DRR) in the area of education in the form of a compendium of various educational activities and initiatives, both in the formal and informal spheres of education, being implemented at regional level in the Central Asian countries. The compendium gathers materials on good practices, methodologies and tools on DRR in education, examples of which may be replicated in other parts of the Central Asian region in the future.

Riflessioni sul terremoto a Haiti del 12 gennaio 2010

Al momento di scrivere queste parole, ancora una volta un grande disastro sismico è appena successo in un paese afflitto da povertà e destituzione. Haiti è una nazione di 10 milioni di abitanti, la più povera nell'emisfero occidentale. Essa gode il rango di 149 su 182 paesi elencati nell'indice di sviluppo umano (human development index) dell'UNDP, di un reddito pro capite di $610, di una durata media della vita di 61 anni e di un'analfabetismo tra adulti del 38%. Le statistiche, comunque, sono troppo aride da poter spiegare le sofferenze inerenti in questa situazione. Inoltre, Haiti è soggetta a frequenti alluvioni e talvolta a uragani, come Jeanne del 2004. Non aveva avuto un grande terremoto quasi dalla sua fondazione, ovvero dal 1770, ma così si trova nei 'gap' sismici dei margini delle zolle tettoniche, le zone dove la deformazione della crosta terrestre aumenta al punto di una gigantesca e brusca rottura.

Reflections on the Haiti earthquake of 12 January 2010

As I write, a major earthquake has once again caused devastation in yet another country afflicted by poverty and destitution. Haiti is a country of ten million inhabitants, the poorest in the western hemisphere, ranked 149 out of 182 in UNDP's Human Development Index, with a per capita GDP of $610, a life expectancy at birth of 61 years and an adult literacy rate of 62 per cent. The statistics are too arid to say much about the suffering. Moreover, Haiti has frequent floods and occasional hurricanes, such as Jeanne in 2004. It had no major earthquake between 1770 and 2010, but that is typical of seismic 'gaps' at the tectonic plate margins, areas where strain builds up to the point of a mighty rupture.

Early warning, early action!!!

An evaluation of IFRC West and Central Africa zone flood preparedness and response

This report examines how the West/Central Africa Zone (WCAZ) used climate information in 2008, as well as the decisions for action, which were made based on seasonal forecasts. Interviews were conducted with a number of WCAZ staff, as well as the Disaster Managers and Coordinators in the National Societies (NS) of the Gambia, Ghana, Togo and Senegal. In addition, the report identifies what the Zone did well, opportunities for improvement, and the concrete benefits from the WCAZ’s first-time implementation of early warnings into early action (EW>EA). A framework is also proposed for future quantitative monitoring and evaluation of the value of climate information and EW>EA in improving disaster management. In the future, data collected in the areas of flood severity, the extent of EW>EA implementation, timeliness of RC response, and resource requirements would enable more quantitative impacts of EW>EA to be monitored.

Information and communications technology for disaster risk reduction

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Aimed at policy- and decision-makers from developing countries working on disaster risk reduction in the Asia and the Pacific region, this policy brief discusses Information and communication technologies (ICT) infrastructure and applications for disaster risk reduction.
The main functions supported by the tools presented in the present policy brief include the following: (i) information collection and sharing; (ii) decision support systems, through the integration of geo-spatial data; (iii) communication and dissemination; and (iv) emergency preparedness and response.

Children and disaster risk reduction

Taking stock and moving forward

This report reviews child-focused and child-led disaster risk reduction approaches and techniques. It documents a number of case studies across a range of interventions, dividing these into three main areas: Knowledge, Voice and Action. It makes some observations regarding current practice and recommendations that imply a shift in emphasis going forward.

testo completo: http://www.preventionweb.net/files/12085_ChildLedDRRTakingStock1.pdf

Guide to developing national action plans

A tool for mainstreaming disaster risk management based on experience from selected Pacific Island countries
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Il testo, curato dagli autori Sikivou e Mosese è stato edito nel mese di ottobre 2009 dal  Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC)

This document is a guide to assist Pacific Island Countries (PICs) to prepare disaster risk management (DRM) National Action Plans (NAP). The NAP development process is supported by the Pacific Disaster Risk Management Partnership Network (PPN) and is considered a key instrument in facilitating DRM mainstreaming.


First global scientific effort to examine the linkages between disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation

More than 90 world experts have assembled today in Panama City to start a new assessment on how climate change will affect disaster risks in future and how countries can better manage the expected increases in damaging weather events due to climate change. The meeting is being convened by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which decided in April 2009 to prepare a new IPCC Special Report called: “Managing the Risk of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation”. The assessment was proposed by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and the government of Norway in response to the predictions in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report that more frequent and severe extreme events such as droughts, floods, storms, heat waves were likely in the future warmer world.

Know disaster, tell disaster risk reduction: training handbook for media professionals

Manuale realizzato da ISDR area Asia-Pacifico, nel 2009.
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This handbook is designed for media professionals who are interested in issues regarding disaster risk reduction. It aims to help conceptualize the risks, expand knowledge on how to incorporate disaster risk reduction in current programmes, and design and develop appropriate programmes to communicate the risk with relevant audiences.