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Dear Collegaues,

ekDRM conference 2011 will lead to a international charter for action during next 5 years. The concept note is placed for your comments and suggestions:

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge and Disaster Risk Management

(ekdrm2011)

10-11 May, 2011

Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi (www.ekdrm.net)

CONCEPT NOTE

Environment and Disasters

Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems, habitat and the loss of natural homeostasis. It is defined as any change or disturbance to the environment perceived to be deleterious or undesirable, be it quantitative or qualitative. Environmental degradation is one of the Ten Threats officially cautioned by the High Level Threat Panel of the United Nations including World Resources Institute, UNEP, UNDP and the World Bank. Disasters are the events of environmental extremes which are inevitable entities of this living world. Over the years, with the increasing human intrusion in the natural systems and the changing global environment, the frequency and impact of the disasters is augmenting. Environment and disasters are inextricably linked, particularly in context of hydro-meteorological hazards, climatic risks and epidemiological challenges. It is now widely recognized in terms of following interface:

(a)  Environmental degradation leads to disasters

Environmental degradation can occur owing to natural processes or due to human induced impacts. Alteration of natural systems and processes, destruction of habitats, loss of quality of environment and exploitation of resources are the broad indicators of environmental degradation. Climate-change, land-use and natural resource degradation are known to generate or aggravate disasters especially of the hydro-meteorological origin. Increasing trend in these disasters like floods, drought, cyclone, pest-attack and fires, worldwide and especially in continents of Asia and Africa is a serious concern for governments and communities.

(b) Environmental degradation causes vulnerability

Besides causing new hazards and aggravating precursors of disaster events, degradation of environment increases socio-economic vulnerability by reducing bioproductivity, livelihoods, water, food and nutrition, sanitation and health, housing, entrepreneurship, and thus, overall economics jeopardizing the coping capacity. Low capacities result in high exposures to hazardous prone locations and conditions of high disaster risk. Poor environmental quality and degraded natural resources also cause social conflicts and political instability.

(c)  Disasters impact environment

Disaster events are also known for causing serious impacts on environment affecting natural processes, natural resources and ecosystems, and thereby creating conditions for secondary or future disasters including complex emergencies. Natural disasters can also trigger chemical or technological disasters. Environmental sustainability is also compromised during disaster management operations and recovery process due to improper disposal of disaster and relief wastes, acute exploitation of natural resources and inappropriate land-use/landscape modifications.

(d)  Environmental Management and Disaster Management Cycle

Knowledge of environment is crucial in all stages of disaster management cycle including pre-disaster prevention and mitigation, and during post-disaster response, relief, reconstruction and recovery. Experience of the past disasters indicated that environmental services like shelter, water, food safety, sanitation and waste management form crucial components in emergency relief especially in case of water and climate related disasters. On the other hand, concern on disaster risk and mitigation is equally important in all stages of environment management from prevention of hazards and environmental degradation, control, impact minimization, remediation, rehabilitation overall sustainability in environmental systems.

A well-managed environment can act as a buffer against disasters. This can happen in two ways. A healthy or well-functioning ecosystem can regulate or mitigate the hazard itself, thus preventing a disaster from taking place or reducing its impacts. In addition, healthy ecosystems reduce people’s vulnerability to disasters by increasing the resilience of communities through meeting basic needs (water, food, health, fuel, etc.) and supporting sustainable local livelihoods and economies. Opportunities of integrating environmental management and disaster risk management together, hence, are a prime concern emerged globally. Environmental laws and instruments viz. EIA, Risk & Vulnerability Assessment, Ecological modeling and predictions, Auditing, Environmental Laws facilitate at key stages of disaster risk management.

Legal and Institutional Framework

Disaster management has primarily been a concern for emergency response and a post-disaster focused approach until the realization of paradigm shift from ‘response and relief’ to ‘prevention and preparedness’. The climate-change awareness globally has brought-in a greater understanding on role of global, regional and local environmental aspects in disaster management (risk assessments, mitigation, early warning and effective response). In many countries, the framework of disaster management has been functional in total separation from the systems that deal with environmental protection and natural resources management. However, at international level the guiding documents like Agenda-21, Hyogo Framework of Action, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, IPCC 4th Assessment Report, Ramasar Convention, Convention on Desertification, and many other strategic documents have recently emphasized environmental aspects of disaster management and vice versa with intense focus.

At national levels as well, for example in India, the disaster management act and policy has defined ‘substantial damage to….environment’ as a disaster, and has focused on environmental compatibility and sustainable development as strategic issue in disaster management cycle. On the other hand, policies and legal framework on environment – water, forests, agriculture, land-use, atmosphere and climate-change, waste management, besides constitutional provisions on environment, have provided options for reducing hazards and vulnerability in context of disasters. For example, the National strategy on climate-change actions and missions thereof, policy statement on conservation of natural resources, coastal zone regulation, area specific notifications like one on Doon valley, are of key importance in disaster risk management.

EIA as a decision making tool helps in identifying viable and sustainable option for structural or non-structural measure of disaster mitigation, whereas post-disaster EIA forms a part of damage, loss and needs assessment that enables planning for reconstruction and recovery. Although most EIAs implicitly have focus on natural disaster risk in the project site context and include a Disaster Management as part of EMP, the information contained therein the state of environment section and predictions under the section on environmental impacts can be used for carrying out detailed risk assessment and disaster management planning as well.  However, there is a need to carry out a systematic analysis of these policies and laws for applying these legal provisions for various activities under disaster management.

Context

United Nations agencies including UNEP, UNDP, IUCN, UN-ISDR and UNU Institute of Environment and Human Security, jointly with many international organizations like ADPC, WWF, GFMC, ProAct Network, SEI, and the Council of Europe, have formed a Partnership for Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction (PEDRR) in year 2008 with headquarter at Geneva. UN-OCHA has setup a joint Environment Unit with UNEP to emphasize environmental aspects of disasters and their management. UN-ISDR and IUCN have come up with a number of publications on linkage of environment and disasters. However, at national levels the initiatives for emphasizing the linkages between the two are yet to be understood.

In India the National Disaster Management Authority is the apex national organization for developing guidelines and plans on various aspects of disaster management, whereas Ministry of Environment & Forests is nodal agency for environmental protection including dealing with issues of climate-change, forest and habitat conservation, environmental quality, EIA, etc. Various aspects of land-use and natural resources are dealt by different Ministries like Rural Development (Deptt of Land Resources), Water Resources, Agriculture, Earth Sciences, Science & Technology, Biodiversity Board, etc.

It has been experiences that the disaster manager’s often fail to recognize the environmental dimensions of disaster risk, vulnerability and also of the post-disaster actions, whereas environmental managers seldom focus on evaluating disaster risk aspects within their studies. There is also a need to analyze and/or to develop approaches, tools, techniques and methodologies, legislative framework, statistical and decision support systems of environmental management for their role in disaster risk management.

Since the environmental degradations resulting into disaster risk are either slow onset process or have wider geographic extents, local administrators and planner’s understanding usually not sound enough to analyze cause-consequence relationship may result in inappropriate strategies for disaster mitigation and response. However, many good case examples of utilizing environmental knowledge and management into disaster risk management and also disaster risk reduction’s significance in sustainable environment are available particularly in context of hydro-meteorological disasters in mountain and coastal areas and also in context of urban flooding, epidemics and agro-ecosystems. Therefore, it is necessary to deliberate and discuss case studies, conceptual and strategic frameworks for utilizing environmental knowledge into disaster risk management activities in an international forum of experts on environment and disasters, policy makers, practitioners, scientists and academicians. 

Objectives

• The ekdrm2011 conference aims at bringing out case studies of good or bad examples of linkages between environmental management and disaster risk management
• Conference aims at developing practically applicable conceptual models of integrating environment and disaster management including customization of tools and methodologies
• Conference aims at analyzing need and availability of environmental data for various stages of disaster management planning and implementation – including risk assessment, mitigation strategy, damage, loss and needs assessment and recovery planning
• Conference aims at understanding role of environmental jurisprudence in disaster risk management and analytical interpretation of environmental law provisions for application in disaster management context
• Conference aims at developing a network of agencies and experts on the subject for implantation of ekDRM project activities on various aspects of environment – disasters linkages
• Conference aims at offering an international platform for sharing of experience, knowledge, opinions and dialogues on various aspects of environmental knowledge management, interpretation, decision support systems, planning and monitoring of implementation

Expected Outcome

The ekdrm2011 Conference shall be attended by more than 150 delegates from India, Germany and other countries across the world representing scientists, academicians, practitioners, policy makers, multilateral agencies, UN agencies, government officials, disaster responders, NGOs and scholars. Conference will be a forum for presentation and deliberations on various case studies of good and bad examples, tools, methodologies, legislation and approaches on various aspects of the environmental knowledge for disaster risk management from across regions of India, Germany and many other countries of the world. Role of various agencies and institutions and issues for policy advocacy shall also be discussed in context of applicability of legal provision and tools in context of disasters. Suggestions for customization of various environmental instruments for use in different stages of disaster management cycle shall be drawn. The conference will facilitate a network of resources and experts on different thematic areas for academic and research advances.

Literature generated from the conference papers and presentations/discussions shall be used in developing a compendium of case studies and knowledge base for planning activities and to be used as training materials. Proceeding volume containing full papers shall be published in form of book and shall be significant contribution to the reference literature on the subject. The most important outcome of the proposed conference shall be in form of promoting and motivating greater emphasis on environmental management and disaster risk management integration into practice at all levels.

Organizers

The ekdrm2011 international conference is being organized jointly by National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM New Delhi), GIZ (Berling, Germany), GIZ-ASEM (New Delhi, India) and the programme implemented facilitated through the consortium of Ifanos Concept & Planning (Germany) and Ifanos India (New Delhi). NIDM is a Govt. of India statutory body mandated by NDMA to be a Deemed University on Disaster Management. ‘German Technical Cooperation and Capacity Building’ (GIZ Germany, formerly GTZ and InWEnt) have entered in cooperation with National Institute of Disaster Management for a joint project ‘Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management (ekDRM 2010-12) focusing on environmental statistics, decision support system & spatial planning, environmental legislation and post-disaster environmental services in context of disaster management. Cooperation aims at promoting research/case studies, effective training methodologies including blended learning approach, tools and methodologies, workshops, conferences and publication.

Conceptnoteekdrm-v1fb[1].pdf