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- Permanent Link:
- http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI13010963/00001
Notes
- Summary:
- This short note addresses the necessity of making critical infrastructures such as schools and hospitals resilient to disasters, a central component within Disaster Risk Management (DRM). It highlights the need for action considering the affect recent disasters in the East Asian and Pacific Region have had on these vital structures, and presents cases outlining best practices. The document begins by discussing how schools and hospitals are critical to DRM, often serving as shelters or coordination sites during disasters. The next section of the document outlines how to create a disaster risk reduction (DRR) plan beginning with a risk assessment identifying the nature, location, intensity, and frequency of hazardous events, along with the degree of exposure to such phenomena. The author stresses the need to pre-define risk reduction objectives. In the case of critical facilities, measures should aim at levels of performance that protect lives, ensure safe evacuation of populations, and continuity of operations during disaster. The document than moves to a discussion of mitigation measures from structural retrofitting aimed at improving capacities to withstand natural hazards to spatial measures involving relocating structures away from vulnerable sites and ensuring that furniture and equipment is fixed. Other measures include securing the continuity of water and electricity supplies, functional warning systems, and protecting safety equipment. The next priority highlighted is the construction of hazard-resilient structures, particularly after major disasters, when opportunities to incorporate DRR principles into national construction standards are highest. Construction of schools and hospitals should be held to a higher standard, subject to regular maintenance and inspection. Beyond structural measures, communities should play a central role in disaster risk management through emphasis on risk awareness and disaster preparedness. The document concludes by contending that improving the resilience of existing facilities is a cost-effective solution to reducing risks to disaster. Retrofitting significantly decreases potential losses, with losses for schools being reduced anywhere from 30 to 4 percent of asset value. While the introduction of hazard resistant design measures increases the costs of building new facilities by 5-24 percent, this is considerably lower than the cost of reconstruction after a major disaster. Its most compelling argument for committing to improving building designs is the role that having hospitals and schools that are safe and fully operational during disasters play in saving countless lives. ( English,English,English )
- Subject:
- Disaster Risk Management
- Scope and Content:
- The need for action p. 1; Improving the safety of existing facilities p. 2; Construction of new hazard-resilient facilities p. 3; How much does it cost? p. 5; A multi-hazard approach p. 5; References and key resources p. 6
- Citation/Reference:
- Ferrucci, M. (2010). Protecting schools and hospitals from natural hazards. The World Bank, Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR).
Record Information
- Source Institution:
- Florida International University
- Rights Management:
- This publication is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. For full details of the license, please refer to the following: http://creative-commons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode
- Resource Identifier:
- FI13010963
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