Copyright

© ekDRM Secretariat, 2011

Citation

Gupta, Anil K. and Nair, Sreeja S. (2011) Environmental

Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management,

Abstract Volume of International Conference,

10-11 May 2011, New Delhi P 64

Acknowledgements

Dr. Sandhya Chatterji, Dr. Florian Bemmerlein-Lux,

N. Raghu Babu, Reetika Goyal, Sunanda Dey,

Richa Arya, Hemant Kumar, Megha Kohli, J. N. Jha

Conference Organised by

NIDM & GIZ-ASEM

Editors

Anil K Gupta

Sreeja S. Nair

Design & Printed by

CELLULOID

318, Patparganj Industrial Area

Delhi - 110 092

e-mail: celluloid1@gmail.com

Concept Note - Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management 1

Thematic Session 1 Environmental Statistics and Decision Support Systems for Disaster Risk Management

ES-DSS -1 Flood Warning in Bavaria, Germany 5 Alfons Vogelbacher*

ES DSS-2 Extreme weather events in India- a preliminary analysis on Impact 5 Ajay Singh, Anand Patwardhan, Abhijat Arun Abhyankar, Nandlal L. Sarda

ES DSS-3 Knowledge and Data Integration for Modelling of Risk for Development of a DSS 6 J. Durgaprasad

ES DSS-4 Applications of Natural Disaster Database in Vulnerability mapping and Disaster risk reduction for the South Andaman Island, India – A GIS Based Probabilistic Risk Assessment study 6

Shrikant Maury, S. Balaji

ES DSS-5 Drought hazard and vulnerability analysis for Bundelkhand region using geo-spatial tools 7

Anjali Singh, Anil K Gupta, Sreeja S. Nair, P.K. Joshi, V.K. Sehgal

ES DSS-6 Environmental Statistics for Disaster Management – Indian Scenario 8 Sreeja S Nair & Anil K. Gupta

ES DSS-7 Application of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to dust storm risk assessment, Khuzestan province southwest of Iran 8

Fatemeh Matroud, Ahad Nazarpour

ES DSS-8 Hot Spot Analysis of Tornado Due to Climate Change for Bangladesh: A GIS and Remote Sensing Approach 9

Md. Abul Hasem

ES DSS-9 Handling of Uncertainty for Modelling of Risk for Development of a DSS 9

J. Durgaprasadand , P. Subba Rao

ES DSS-10 Landslide Hazard Zonation Mapping Using Remote Sensing and GIS in Kodaikanal Taluk, Dindigul District 10

N . Prabhakaran, K.S. Preethi Magdalene

ES DSS-11 Participatory GIS Approach for Flood Vulnerability Assessment 10 Arnab Kundu

Contents

ES DSS-12 Application of “High Tech Agriculture” to overcome Disasters in Agriculture Sector 11 Dhiren Vandra & Asha Tank

ES-DSS -13 Air Pollution Episode Prediction Using Extreme Value Theory 11 Pragati Sharma, Suresh Jain

ES-DSS -14 Air Quality Alerts Using Univariate Linear Stochastic Model 12 Pragati Sharma, Prateek Sharma, Suresh Jain

ESDSS -15 Macro-analysis of occurrence of climate extremes in India 13 Ajay Singh, Anand Patwardhan, Abhijat Arun Abhyankar, Nandlal L. Sarda

ESDSS -16 Contribution of Geographic Information Science (GIS) to Emergency Preparedness and Response 13

Alok Singh, Sunil Kumar Yadav

ESDSS -17 Estimating the Hazard from Landslides Using Historical Data and GIS Spatial Model 14

Janak Bahadur Chand, Yasuhiro MITANI, Ibrahim Djamaluddin & Hiro IKEMI

ESDSS -18 Vulnerable Communities and Disaster Management - A GIS based Decision Support Systems for slums and low income housing of Ahmedabad, India 14

Rutool Sharma & Somesh Sharma

ESDSS -19 Cyclone hazard risk profile of coastal districts of India 15 M. Mohapatra

Thematic Session 2 Spatial Planning and Information Systems for Industrial Disaster Risk Management

SPIDRM-1 Approach to Land-use planning at Major Hazard Sites in Germany 16 Christian Jochum*

SPIDRM-2 Geographical Information System (GIS) based Emergency Planning and Response System 16

S.S. Gahlout, Arpita Gupta

SPIDRM-3 Vulnerability Assessment of an oil storage terminal using multi temporal satellite data: A study of IOC, Sitapura, Jaipur 18

B.D Bharath, B.S. Sokhi & Shreya Roy

SPIDRM-4 Application of dense gas dispersion modeling and Consequence analysis of industrial hazard scenarios in spatial planning 18

Asit K Patra

SPIDRM-5 Risk Management Information System – a GIS enabled tool for managing chemical risks at Maximum Accident Hazard Industry Clusters in India 19

Debanjan Bandyopadhyay, Nilanjan Paul

SPIDRM-6 Evolving a methodology to factor chemical risk into land use planning decisions in India 19

Anandita Sengupta, Debanjan Bandyopadhyay, Cees J van Westen

SPIDRM-7 Applications of RS and GIS Technique in Ground Water Decontamination: Recent Trend In Disaster Management 20

Parul Sharma, Shalini Srivastava

SPIDRM-8 A System Approach to Manage Chlorine Emergencies in Chlor-Alkali plants 21 Harisaran Das 21

SPIDRM-9 Alang Ship Recycling Industry: Issues, Standards And Way Forward 21 Anil Kumar, Shivani Gupta

Thematic Session 3 Legal Framework and Regulations for Environment and Disaster Management

LFEDM-1 Effectiveness of Environmental Legal Systems for the Protection of Environment: A Study of the Tribal Areas of Himachal Pradesh 23

V.B. Negi, Jaishree

LFEDM-2 Legal Protection, Economic Gain and Right to Struggle: A Case study of mineral mining in coastal area of Kerala 24

S. Mohammed Irshad

LFEDM-3 Environmental Degradation and Interpretation of existing legal provisions 24 Somya Gupta & Tanya Verma

LFEDM-4 Disaster Management: its impact in Law and Development 24 Hitesh Agrawal

LFEDM-5 Evolution and Impact of International Environmental Jurisprudence in India 25 Archita Phookun, Sophia S Mustafa

LFEDM-6 Bhopal Gas Tragedy 26 Vijita S. Aggarwal

LFEDM-7 Sustainale Development and Natural Resource Management – A Legel Perspective 26

Archita Phookun and Anupam Pandey

LFEDM-8 Legal Framework and Regulations for Environment and Disaster Management (Safety and disaster laws) 27

Nishant Buragohain

Thematic Session 4 Environmental Services and EIA in Disaster Management

ESEIA-1 Environmental Disasters and EIA 28 Pavan Kumar Singh, Susanta Kumar Jena

ESEIA-2 An Overview of EIA study of Swan River Flood Management Project, District Una, Himachal Pradesh, India. 28

Madhuri Venu, S.Rishi, Abinder S. Chadda

ESEIA-3 The role of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) on Flood Risk in India 29 Alok Singh, Sunil Kumar Yadav

ESEIA-4 Waste Management and Disposal Services after Disasters in India 29 G. Niranjani

ESEIA-5 Role of EIA in Disaster Management 30 Aditi Madan

ESEIA-6 Floods in Gorakhpur: Applying EIA to Risk Mitigation 31 Richa Arya, Anil K. Gupta , M. Yunus

ESEIA-7 Vulnerability of critical infrastructures towards natural hazards 31 Claudia Bach*

ESEIA-8 Groundwater Management During Disasters In India 32 K. J. Anandha Kumar

ESEIA-9 Waste Management and Disposal Services Integral Part of Relief Measures 33 G Ravi

Thematic Session 5 Natural Resources Management - Linkage to Disaster Risk Management

NRMDRM-1 Sustainable Coastal Protection and Alternative Livelihood Option through Bamboo Bioshields 34

Thara K.G

NRMDRM-2 Water Harvesting Based Sustainable Farming System to Alleviate Drought 34 R.K. Sahu, K.K. Sahu

NRMDRM-3 Land & Water Management Strategies for Drought and Flood Proofing 35 K.K. Sahu, R.K. Sahu

NRMDRM-4 Protection of Mangroves and related species – A Natural Care to Avert the Damage of Tsunami 36

G. Vedanthadesikan , P. Murugesan

NRMDRM-5 Flood Management in GBM Basin: A Mechanism for Natural Resource Management between Co-Riparian 37

Priyanka Mallick

NRMDRM-6 Strengthening Adaptation Capacities and minimizing Risks of Vulnerable Coastal Communities 37

Ashish Chaturvedi, Rachna Arora*

NRMDRM-7 Ecosystem Approach to Disaster risk Reduction 38 Sunanda Dey

NRMDRM-8 Urbanisation, Water Scarcity and Climate Change: A Case from Rajasthan with Global Implications 39

M. S. Rathore

NRMDRM-9 Developing Effective Storm Water Drainage Systems Plan for Flood Management in the City 41

Anjana Vyas

NRMDRM-10 Ecological Social and Technological Dimensions of Resource Management for Reducing Disaster Risk 41

A. K. Choudhary

NRMDRM-11 Variability of the Thermohaline Structure in the Gauthami-Godavari Estuary 42 Thota V. Narasimha Rao

NRMDRM-12 Disaster Risk Reduction in the Himalayan context - relationship between NRM and Community Engagement 42

Gargi Banerji and Sejuti Basu and Abhinaba Chakravarti

NRMDRM-13 Water Resource Management for DRR - A Case study of Bero Block, Jharkhand State, India 43

Kiran Jalem, Purnima Kumari

NRMDRM -14 Natural Resource Management Policy Implications on Disaster Risk Management Practices: Insights from North-East Cambodia 44

Kathlyn K. H. Sumaylo

NRMDRM -15 Ecosystem approach to Disaster Reduction: Case of agroecosystems and drought in India. 44

Divya Agarwal, Anil K Gupta

NRMDRM -16 Flood Risk Mitigation Measures for the River Indus in Leh Town 45 Zainab Jalis, Amir Ali Khan, Sirajuddin Ahmed

NRMDRM -17 Role of Water bodies in Climate-Disaster Resilience in Urban Areas 46 BK Singh and Shiraz A. Wajih

NRMDRM -18 Agroforestry model to improve economic and ecological viability in degraded tea lands in mid country of Sri Lanka 46

Prasad Dharmasena, M.S.Bhat

NRMDRM -19 Decentralized Solid Waste Management: The sole option of Urban Disaster Resilience 47

BK Singh and Shiraz Wajih

NRMDRM -20 Disaster management in the Forestry Sector: Issues and Concerns 48 VRR Singh

NRMDRM -21 Addressing Disasters in Cold Deserts of Indian Himalayas 48 Gargi Banerji, Sejuti Basu, Abhinaba Chakravarti

NRMDRM -22 Community Based Mitigation and Preparedness for Disaster Risk Reduction based on Natural Resource Management 49

Dr. Sandhya Chatterji, Dr. Anil K. Gupta, Ms. Sreeja Nair

INTER DISCIPLINARY AREAS

IDDRM-1 Sustainable Urban Development: Integrating Land use Planning and Disaster Risk Reduction 50

Priti Attri, Anil K Gupta, Smita Chaudhry, Subrat Sharma

IDDRM-2 To Assess the Challenges Posed by Polluted Groundwater on Public Health – GIS Approach, Kanpur region, Uttar Pradesh 50

Deepshikha Purwar

IDDRM-3 The Treatment of the Liquid Rejects from The Petroleum Refinery of Arzew–Algeria to the Mediterranean Littoral 51

Menouar Hanafi

IDDRM-4 Correlation of Neotectonic activity with landslide occurrence along Main boundary thrust in Dehradun region 51

B. C. Joshi

IDDRM-5 Risk Perception of Inundation Events in Mumbai 52 David J. Hallau

IDDRM-6 In Search of Alternatives for Edge Old Disinfection technologies 52 Mrinal Kanti Ghosh

IDDRM-7 Mapping different types of Conflict related incidents in Manipur using GIS Techniques 52

Ankit Jaswal

IDDRM-8 Climate Change and Disasters in India R K Mall, R Bhatla, A K Gupta

Conference Committee

54

* Contributions made on behalf of GIZ

Foreword

Thirty years ago, half the developing world lived in extreme poverty today, a quarter. Now a much smaller share of children are malnourished and at risk of early death. Access to modem infrastructure is much more widespread. Critical to the progress is rapid economic growth driven by technological innovation and institutional reforms. Yet ,the needs remain enormous. With so many still in poverty and hunger, growth and poverty alleviation remain the overarching priority for developing countries. Climate change only makes the challenge more complicated. First, the impact of a changing climate are already being felt with more droughts, floods, strong storms, heat and cold waves -taxing individuals, communities and governments. People ex-

posed to various hazard prone environment with low capacity are more vulnerable. This poses a greater challenge for safe and sustainable living.

Societies dependant on the climate for their survival, continuity and growth are now coming to grips with the fact that the climate is now prone to their actions. The steep increase in green house since the industrial revolution has transformed the relationship between people and the environment. To put it differently, not only does climate affect development but development affects the climate.

During the last one and half decades, there has been a paradigm shift in India’s approach to both Disaster Management and Climate Change adaptation. Shifting the focus from a relief centric reactive approach, India has adopted a proactive, holistic and integrated approach encompassing disaster risk reduction with prompt and efficient response, relief and recovery. Disaster management now high-lights the inter dependence of economy, environment and inclusive development. In synergy with this approach, the National Environment Policy, 2006 lays emphasis both on risk mitigation and adaption of Climate Change, which has been further supplemented and reinforced through the National Policy on Disaster Management, 2009.

There is an urgent need to enhance knowledge base by taking up more research and development work focussed on all related fields and for developing new technologies including study of traditional wisdom and practices, tools and methodologies.

I am sure that the current endeavour of NIDM, jointly with GIZ and the Ministry of Environment and forest (MoEF) Advisory Services for Environmental Management (ASEM) programme, will facilitate the process of learning. Besides, conference aims at promoting tools and techniques based on space technology, environmental statistics, environmental impact assessment and environmental laws for di-saster management.

The present conference is a step forward towards developing conceptual framework, academic and institutional networks and drawing various case studies. I am sure that the conference would be extremely useful for all the stakeholders. I extend my best wishes to all the experts, delegates and team members of the conference for its grand success.

(R. K. Srivastava)

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DISASTER MANAGEMENT(Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India)

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 1

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management

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, habi-

tat and the loss of natural homeostasis. It is defined as

any change or disturbance to the environment per-

ceived to be deleterious or undesirable, be it quantita-

tive 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 inevi-

table 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. Following

are the three major faces of environmental change pri-

marily responsible for causing or aggravating hydro-

meteorological disasters:

� Climate-change

� Land-use changes

� Natural resource degradation

Environment and disasters are inextricably linked,

particularly in context of hydro-meteorological haz-

ards, 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 natu-

ral processes or due to human induced impacts. Altera-

tion of natural systems and processes, destruction of

habitats, loss of quality of environment and exploita-

tion of resources are the broad indicators of environ-

mental degradation. Climate-change, land-use and

natural resource degradation are known to generate

or aggravate disasters especially of the hydro-meteo-

rological origin. Increasing trend in these disasters like

floods, drought, cyclone, pest-attack and fires, world-

wide 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 precur-

sors 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 capac-

ity. 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 im-

pacts on environment affecting natural processes, nat-

ural resources and ecosystems, and thereby creating

conditions for secondary or future disasters including

complex emergencies. Natural disasters can also trig-

ger chemical or technological disasters. Environmen-

tal 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 Man-

agement Cycle

Knowledge of environment is crucial in all stages of

disaster management cycle including pre-disaster

prevention and mitigation, and during post-disaster

Concept Note

2 | Abstracts

response, relief, reconstruction and recovery. Experi-

ence of the past disasters indicated that environmen-

tal services like shelter, water, food safety, sanitation

and waste management form crucial components in

emergency relief especially in case of water and cli-

mate 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 over-

all sustainability in environmental systems.

A well-managed environment can act as a buf-

fer against disasters. This can happen in two ways. A

healthy or well-functioning ecosystem can regulate

or mitigate the hazard itself, thus preventing a di-

saster from taking place or reducing its impacts. In

addition, healthy ecosystems reduce people’s vul-

nerability 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 disas-

ter risk management together, hence, are a prime

concern emerged globally. Environmental laws and

instruments viz. EIA, Risk & Vulnerability Assessment,

Ecological modeling and predictions, Auditing, Envi-

ronmental Laws facilitate at key stages of disaster risk

management.

Legal and Institutional FrameworkDisaster 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 pre-

paredness’. 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 coun-

tries, 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 Assess-

ment, IPCC 4th Assessment Report, Ramasar Conven-

tion, Convention on Desertification, and many other

strategic documents have recently emphasized envi-

ronmental 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 disas-

ter, and has focused on environmental compatibil-

ity and sustainable development as strategic issue

in disaster management cycle. On the other hand,

policies and legal framework on environment – wa-

ter, forests, agriculture, land-use, atmosphere and

climate-change, waste management, besides consti-

tutional provisions on environment, have provided

options for reducing hazards and vulnerability in

context of disasters. For example, the National strat-

egy on climate-change actions and missions thereof,

policy statement on conservation of natural resourc-

es, coastal zone regulation, area specific notifications

like one on Doon valley, are of key importance in di-

saster 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 recon-

struction and recovery. Although most EIAs implic-

itly 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 disas-

ter 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.

ContextUnited Nations agencies including UNEP, UNDP, IUCN,

UN-ISDR and UNU Institute of Environment and Hu-

man Security, jointly with many international organi-

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 3

zations 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 em-

phasize 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 Au-

thority is the apex national organization for develop-

ing guidelines and plans on various aspects of disas-

ter 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 Develop-

ment (Deptt of Land Resources), Water Resources, Ag-

riculture, Earth Sciences, Science & Technology, Biodi-

versity Board, etc.

It has been experiences that the disaster manag-

er’s often fail to recognize the environmental dimen-

sions 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 method-

ologies, 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 re-

sult 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-meteo-

rological 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 frame-

works for utilizing environmental knowledge into di-

saster risk management activities in an international

forum of experts on environment and disasters, policy

makers, practitioners, scientists and academicians.

ekDRM projectThe ekdrm2011 international conference is being or-

ganized jointly by National Institute of Disaster Man-

agement (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 In-

dia (New Delhi). ‘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 Manage-

ment (ekDRM 2010-12) focusing on knowledge man-

agement for disaster risk management. The specific

components of project activities include the following:

� Environmental statistics and decision support sys-

tem including remote sensing and GIS application

for disaster risk management

� Spatial planning and land-use aspects for reduc-

ing risk of complex emergencies including Na-

tech disasters

� Environmental and natural resource legislation for

disaster risk management and post-disaster man-

agement

� Post-disaster environmental services and role of

EIA in context of disaster management.

� Linkages between natural resource management

and disaster risk management for climate-change

adaptation and sustainable development

Cooperation aims at promoting research/case

studies, developing and maintaining web-enabled hu-

man resource platform effective training methodolo-

gies including blended learning approach, tools and

methodologies, workshops, conferences and publica-

tion of reference literature.

4 | Abstracts

ObjectivesAim of the conference is to offer an international plat-

form for sharing of experience, knowledge, opinions

and initiate dialogues on various aspects of environ-

mental knowledge management, decision support

systems, planning and monitoring of implementation

The key objectives are:

� developing practically applicable conceptual

models of integrating environment and disaster

management including customization of tools

and methodologies

� analyzing need and availability of environmental

data for various stages of disaster management

planning and implementation – including risk as-

sessment, mitigation strategy, damage, loss and

needs assessment and recovery planning

� understanding role of environmental jurispru-

dence in disaster risk management and analytical

interpretation of environmental law provisions for

application in disaster management context

� Explore the various Spatial Planning/Information

Systems for Industrial (Chemical) Disaster Risk

Management , applicability and limitations

� developing a network of agencies and experts on

the subject for implantation of ekDRM project ac-

tivities on various aspects of environment – disas-

ters linkages

� Understanding the role of Environmental Impact

Assessment and Environmental Services (post di-

saster) in Disaster Management

� bringing out case studies of best paractices of link-

ages between environmental management and

disaster risk management

Expected OutcomeThe 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, meth-

odologies, legislation and approaches on various as-

pects 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 advo-

cacy shall also be discussed in context of applicability

of legal provision and tools in context of disasters. Sug-

gestions for customization of various environmental

instruments for use in different stages of disaster man-

agement cycle shall be drawn. The conference will fa-

cilitate 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 devel-

oping 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 sig-

nificant contribution to the reference literature on the

subject. The most important outcome of the proposed

conference shall be in form of promoting and motivat-

ing greater emphasis on environmental management

and disaster risk management integration into prac-

tice at all levels.

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 5

Thematic Session 1

Environmental Statistics and Decision Support Systems for Disaster Risk Management

ES-DSS 1

Flood Warning in Bavaria, Germany Alfons VogelbacherFlood Information Centre, Bavarian Environment Agency, Munich, Germanyalfons.vogelbacher@lfu.bayern.de

For more than 100 years, the flood warning ser-

vice in Bavaria has performed valuable work for suc-

cessful mitigation of flood damage. It covers the river

basins in Bavaria with response times ranging from 6

to 12 hours up to the larger basin of the Danube with

response times ranging from 1 to 3 days. After the big

flood in May 1999 in Bavaria, the action program 2020

was installed for a sustainable flood protection in Ba-

varia integrating structural and non-structural means

to minimize flood damage. The improvement of the

flood warning service was part of this program. As a

prerequisite for flood forecast a meteorological and

hydrological information system and database with a

fully automated data communication system has been

created in the last ten years. Following the lessons

learned during the floods of May 1999 and August

2002, the focus was set on the reliability and availability

of the main system-parts. Real-time data collection, on-

line data base, generation of automated products and

the dissemination of the data and products are based

on redundant systems at several locations. Hydrologi-

cal forecasts have become an important part of the

flood warning scheme. Numerical weather forecasts of

the German Weather Service are mainly used as input

to the hydrological forecast models. Experiences with

published forecasts during former flood events have

shown the need for communicating the uncertainties

associated with these forecasts to the civil protection

and the public. Therefore, methods for quantifying and

representing these uncertainties have been developed

and incorporated in the flood warning routine.

Keywords: flood warning Bavaria, flood forecast,

flood information system, rainfall-runoff model, Dan-

ube river, uncertainty, ensemble forecast, transbound-

ary forecast system, flood preparedness, flood protec-

tion, realtime data collection, online data base.

ES DSS-2

Extreme weather events in India- a preliminary analysis on ImpactAjay Singh Post doctoral fellow, SJM SOM IIT Bombay-ajay@som.iitb.ac.in

Anand Patwardhan Professor, SJM SOM IIT Bombay-anand@som.iitb.ac.in

Abhijat Arun Abhyankar Post doctoral fellow, CSE IIT Bombay-abhijat@iitb.ac.in

Nandlal L. SardaProfessor, CSE IIT Bombay-nls@cse.iitb.ac.in

Extreme weather events have enormous impacts

to human society and environment. India is highly vul-

nerable to climatic extremes due to high population

density, poor infrastructure, low human development

index and minimal coping capacity. In this scenario

it is important to look at damage caused by climate

extremes over India spatially and temporally. Impacts

data constitute information about mortality, persons

6 | Abstracts

affected, village affected, crops affected and total eco-

nomic loss. All events combined show significant in-

creasing trend in impact. It was found that significant

increasing impacts are observed in case of dust storm,

flood, hail storm and lightening. Floods share maxi-

mum impacts caused by climate extremes. Total mor-

tality due to the extreme events is maximum in Orissa.

It also stands first in normalized mortality. Cold wave

has significant increasing trend in impact on Haryana,

Rajasthan and West Bengal, whereas significant de-

creasing trend in Madhya Pradesh. All the states have

shown increasing trend in heat wave occurrences. Fi-

nally policy implications of impacts of these events

and future work have been discussed.

ES DSS-3

Knowledge and Data Integration for Modelling of Risk for Development of a DSSJ. DurgaprasadProfessor, Civil Engg. Department, Gyan Ganga College of Tech., Jabalpur - 482 003, India. E-mail: jdprasad4@gmail.comP. Subba Rao Professor and Head, Civil Engg. Department, JNTU College of Engineering, JNTU Campus, Kakinada - 533 003, India.

East coast of India is frequently battered by in-

tensive tropical cyclones. Due to these natural haz-

ards, damage to infrastructure is predominant in-

cluding heavy losses of life and property. From post

disaster damage surveys, it is noted that many indus-

trial buildings, houses, roads, power and communi-

cation lines suffer varying degrees of damage result-

ing in socio-economic losses. How risky the system

is important for projects/problems, which are gener-

ally of high cost or unique or strategically important

and multidisciplinary in nature. One aspect of effec-

tive risk management is accurate risk analysis, which

is of vital significance to decision makers. Hence, it is

necessary to develop continually efficient method-

ologies and techniques for moderating risks to be

within acceptable limits. A storehouse of knowledge

of experts and data are now available in the area of

risk analysis, wherein extensive work has been done

by professionals and researchers who have also stud-

ied natural hazards and strategies for mitigating the

damage or loss. Acquired chunks of knowledge from

the domain expert’s must be processed to identify

the conflicting chunks of knowledge, gaps, and re-

dundancies and improved before using for risk anal-

ysis. Further, it is necessary to eliminate conflicts and

represent the knowledge in a consistent and com-

plete manner suitable for carrying out risk analysis.

The use of a graph theoretic technique is proposed

in this paper for processing of knowledge and its use

in the creation of a Knowledge Base (KB) for develop-

ing Decision-Support System (DSS). To demonstrate

the approach, a case study on risk analysis of a roof

structure against damage due to cyclonic winds is

used.

ES DSS-4

Applications of Natural Disaster Database in Vulnerability mapping and Disaster risk reduction for the South Andaman Island, India – A GIS Based Probabilistic Risk Assessment studyShrikant Maury*, S. BalajiDepartment of Coastal Disaster Management, Pondicherry University, Port Blair 744103Email: chrissmariah@yahoo.co.in

The South Andaman Island is one of the most

natural disaster prone zone and very frequent to

earthquakes which are often most destructive and

also inherently poses various vulnerable natural haz-

ards such as catastrophic tsunamis, coastal floods,

coastal land subsidence and landslides etc. The

South Andaman Island lies in the Bay of Bengal in

N-S direction and administratively ambit between

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 7

10°00’ to 12°12’ North latitudes and 92° to 94° East

longitude. Major landscape of these islands are di-

vided into low to moderately high and steep hills,

intermountain narrow valleys and gradually sloping

coastal tracts including swamps. The 26th December

2004 tsunami disaster not only posed geographi-

cal and environmental changes but it also infringed

the infrastructure of social life of this island. The

post math tsunami impacts still triggering imbal-

ance on various consequences and driving major

environmental and climatic change on this Island. A

GIS based Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) is an

ardent need for the assessment of the vulnerability

before work on any development policies and imple-

ment the development plans. Therefore to evaluate

the vulnerability risks, a culmination of available

disaster database from the past events in various

aspects and contemporary issues related to sustain-

able community developmental activities and their

scenarios on changing environment have been un-

dertaken. This article provides cognitive understand-

ing and integrates the perception on various aspects

of GIS based Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) and

its importance in disaster management, environ-

mental issues and developmental activities for the

South Andaman Island.

ES DSS-5

Drought hazard and vulnerability analysis for Bundelkhand region using geo-spatial toolsAnjali Singh TERI University, New Delhi 110 070, India

Anil K Gupta, Sreeja S. Nair National Institute of Disaster Management, New Delhi , India

P.K. Joshi , V.K. SehgalIndian Agriculture Research Institute, New Delhi, India

Drought is one of the most complex natural di-

sasters in the world in terms of the number of per-

son directly affected. It is considered to be least un-

derstood among all natural disasters due to wider

range of environmental inputs and influences over

the occurrences, impacts and mitigation strategies.

A major challenge for drought research is to devel-

op suitable methods and techniques for forecast-

ing the onset and termination points of a drought.

Drought indices plays an important role in drought

studies, they assimilate thousands of bits of data of

drought variable into a comprehensible big picture.

A drought index value is typically a single number, far

more useful than raw data for decision making. Since

drought studies require huge amount of continuous

data and because of its peculiar characteristics there

has been a lack of progress in drought management

throughout the world in general and in particular in

India. Present study has scientifically identified and

assessed the hazards and vulnerability on spatial and

temporal scales, by using (SPOT Vegetation images)

remote sensing and GIS techniques. The study has

developed a new methodology for a comprehensive/

detailed drought analysis covering three major types

i.e. meteorological, hydrological and agricultural with

limited and freely available data. It was an attempt to

fill the knowledge gap by using statistical techniques

and Geoinformatics tools and of drought monitor-

ing. Range of indices like Deciles of percentile, SPI,

Percent by normal SWLI, NDVI and VCI were used to

capture multi-dimension impact of drought. Differ-

ent software such as ArcGIS 9.1, ENVI 4.4, SPI_SL_6

etc, has been applied to analyse the nature of the

droughts and calculate their frequency and intensity.

The report ends with innovative presentation of haz-

ard, vulnerability and composite drought risk map of

the region to educate the reader and the decision

makers about the recurring nature of the drought. It

presents an intelligent information base to assist the

decision makers and mitigation analysts in taking in-

formed decisions in drought mitigation action. The

aim of the study was to develop a drought risk map

for the Bundelkhand region which is not available

and can serve as a major basis for risk management

planning and programmes along effective warning

and monitoring framework.

8 | Abstracts

ES DSS-6

Environmental Statistics for Disaster Management – Indian ScenarioSreeja S Nair & Anil K. GuptaNational Institute of Disaster Management

It has been increasingly recognized that develop-

ment, disaster risk and Environment are interlinked.

However the exact nature is poorly understood due to

the non availability of datasets. Disaster management

being a multi -disciplinary subject involving complex

subjects like Atmosphere, Water, Biodiversity, Land and

Soil and Human Settlements and socio economic fac-

tors it is difficult to collect, analyze and study relation-

ships among them. It, therefore, became necessary to

develop an efficient statistical system on environment

including the disasters that could meet the growing

demand of various governmental agencies, environ-

mentalists and general public for data on various as-

pects of environment and disasters.

The Central Statistical Organization has taken

various initiatives in close cooperation with various

data source line Ministries / Departments/ Organiza-

tion for the development of environment statistics in

the country. CSO created a division of environmental

statistics in 1996 and prepared broad framework for

capturing statistics. The Compendium of Environment

Statistics by CSO has been prepared under the broad

Framework for Development of Environment Statistics

provided by the United Nations Statistics Division and

adopted by the Steering Committee on Environment

Statistics set up by CSO during 1996.The five param-

eters of the framework, namely, biodiversity, atmo-

sphere, land/soil, water, and human settlements have

been used in this compendium. There is a dedicated

chapter on Land Uses, Agriculture, Mining and Natural

disasters included in the compendium. CSO in collabo-

ration with NIDM came up with a framework for devel-

oping a national disaster statistical system in India cov-

ering hazard related statistics and disaster statistics.

The present paper gives a detail analysis on how

the compendium of environmental statistics can

be utilized by the disaster managers for the various

phases of disaster management cycle. The paper also

highlights the limitations of the databases in the per-

spective of a disaster management professionals and

strategies to overcome the challenges.

ES DSS-7

Application of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to dust storm risk assessment, Khuzestan province southwest of IranFatemeh Matroud Department of mathematic Islamic Azad University (IAU), Abadan Branch

Ahad NazarpourDepartment of geology, Islamic Azad University (IAU), North Tehran branchCorresponding author: fati.matroud@gmail.com

Dust storm is the synthesize result of the action

of atmospheric motion and physical geographic en-

vironment. Formation dust storm depends on the in-

teraction between atmosphere and sandiness surface,

which are different physics medium in their density.

Recently Khuzestan province in southwest of Iran is af-

fected by dust storm phenomena. This feature makes

some problem in agriculture, Transportation, Commu-

nication and human health side effect in this province.

Evaluation, ranking and management strategies of en-

vironmental impacts of dust storms are the reasonable

ways to achieve sustainable development. These ways

can be as a management tools in decision making for

program planners. So they can be able to identify solu-

tions and logical and best choice option for reducing

potential environmental impacts from implementa-

tion of a plan or severity of the actual effects of a natu-

ral phenomenon. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is

an approach to decision making that involves structur-

ing multiple choice criteria into a hierarchy, assessing

the relative importance of these criteria, comparing

alternatives for each criterion, and determining an

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 9

overall ranking of the alternatives. In this investigation

ranking of environmental impacts in physicochemical,

biological, social, economic and cultural environmen-

tal has been done by using AHP methods. Results of

this study showed that dust has the greatest effects on

health than education.

Key words: Analytical Hierarchy process (AHP), Rank-

ing, dust storm, Environment

ES DSS-8

Hot Spot Analysis of Tornado Due to Climate Change for Bangladesh: A GIS and Remote Sensing Approach Md. Abul Hasem Dept. of Geography, M.Sc; Geography and Environment, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. e-mail : hasem058@gmail.com

Bangladesh ranked the top of among world’s ten

deadliest tornados from death toll with more than 16

million people stretching a small proportion of land-

mass and highly susceptible due to climate change.

It has the potential impact as there’s more energy

in the atmosphere, more water vapor evaporating

and greater likelihood for stronger heating events

that lead to stronger thunder storms-super cells

and tornado production. Death toll from tornados

is the highest due to lack of communication, informa-

tion, warnings, week housing and appropriate shelters

etc. Tornados and Norwester’s is a short lived event

and occurring regularly which is creating an adverse

situation to the poor people. The risk and vulner-

ability of tornado hazard is crucial and causing a

great proportion of economical, social, administra-

tive and health problems to the affected people.

Coping strategy for the development of household

employment, water supply and health is very

little in relation to damage and injuries. The study

aims to develop a tornado Hot Spot zone by cal-

culating Getis-ord Gi* statistics and Spatial Weight

Matrix. The Delauny _Triangulation conceptualization

ensured the relationships of neighborhood features. A

ranking matrix and linear interpolation method adopt-

ed to find the risk areas throughout the country. Data

over 40 years will help to analysis tornado hot spot

zone. Capacity building, damage management and

development are very important for the spatial allo-

cation of affected people which will help the decision

makers to launch multifaceted initiatives and projects

aiming at mitigation of risks.

Key words: Climate change, Hotspot zone, Weight ma-

trix, Shelters, Capacity Building and Development.

ES DSS-9

Handling of Uncertainty for Modelling of Risk for Development of a DSSJ. DurgaprasadProfessor, Civil Engg. Department, Gyan Ganga College of Tech., Jabalpur- 482003, India. E-mail: jdprasad2@yahoo.com

P. Subba RaoProfessor and Head, Civil Engg. Department, JNTU College of Engineering, JNTU Campus, Kakinada - 533 003, India.

One aspect of effective risk management is ac-

curate risk analysis. Decision Support Systems (DSS)

are being widely used for risk analysis. Risk arises from

uncertainty about the future behaviour of a system.

In the absence of uncertainty there would be no risk.

In spite of the great significance and practical success

of probabilistic information theory, it has increasingly

been recognized that probability theory captures only

one type of uncertainty, i.e., aleatory uncertainty. The

greater challenge is to treat epistemic (due to vague-

ness) uncertainties that come from incomplete (or lack

of ) knowledge about fundamental phenomena. And,

the problem of accounting for epistemic uncertainty in

risk management decisions is conceptually straightfor-

ward, but is riddled with practical difficulties. In addi-

tion, complexity is an important source of uncertainty

10 | Abstracts

and hence risk. Complexity makes it difficult to under-

stand or predict a system’s behaviour, thus giving rise

to epistemic uncertainty. The more complex a system

is, the more possibility for components to interact in

unforeseen and possibly undesirable ways. One goal

of risk management, and development of DSS and op-

eration in general, is to reduce uncertainty as much as

possible, and to make sure that the remaining uncer-

tainty is identified and understood. These issues are

addressed, in this paper, by making use of Bayesian

networks. And expert opinions are aggregated into full

(composite) probability distributions that can be com-

bined through Bayesian computations with the other

variables of the model. To demonstrate the approach,

a case study on risk analysis of a roof structure against

damage due to cyclonic winds is used.

ES DSS-10

Landslide Hazard Zonation Mapping Using Remote Sensing and GIS in Kodaikanal Taluk, Dindigul DistrictN . Prabhakaran, K.S. Preethi MagdaleneDepartment of Civil Engineering, PSNA College of Engineering and Technology, Dindigul

India is vulnerable to different natural hazards of

which 15% of total area of the country is susceptible to

landslides exceeding 0.49million km2. Landslide is de-

fined as “the movement of mass of rock, debris or earth

down a slope”. Landslides are caused in hilly terrains

due to factors like gravity, weathering, deforestation,

earthquake, heavy precipitation etc; Landslide may be

major or minor disaster which results in loss to prop-

erty and life. Kodaikanal is a Taluk division of Dindigul

district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. It lies between

10 0 6’38”N to 10 0 26’57”N Latitudes and 77 0 16’00”E

to 77 0 44’56”E longitudes, covering an area of about

1081.33 sq.km. The methodology involves generation

of drainage pattern map, geology, structural map, land

use/land cover map, slope angle, slope aspect, DEM,

lineament map, landuse/landcover, rainfall distribu-

tion and water level map. DEM of study area has been

generated from SRTM image and topographic map at

a scale of 1:25000. Landuse/landcover map has been

largely interpreted from Landsat TM and Cartosat im-

age. To identify the vulnerable areas, the above-men-

tioned parameters were analyzed in a GIS by assigning

appropriate ranks and weights. The result is a landslide

hazard zonation map showing regions with varying

degrees of vulnerability to landslides. It is opined that

such a map (which is derived from the analysis of the

causative factors) will enable to propose and imple-

ment suitable mitigating measures like blasting thus

preventing loss of life and property in the Kodaikanal

hills.

ES DSS-11

Participatory GIS Approach for Flood Vulnerability AssessmentArnab Kundu Research Scholar, Centre for the Study of Regional Development, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi-110067, India. Corresponding authors: arnknd@live.in

Flood is a most frequent and risky hazard as well as

a disaster in the world. In the present study, Participa-

tory GIS (PGIS) approach has been used to assess flood

vulnerability and risk. The application of Participatory

GIS is common and effective where local people have

the ability to accumulate knowledge and experiences.

The PGIS integrates qualitative information (mental

maps, public opinions) with quantitative data. The

main objective of this study is to design a method of

the vulnerability assessment and also for further risk

analysis and management. In this study, building ma-

terials, land use map, flood depth map, population (day

and night), building types of study area have used to

clarify social vulnerability. For the community based

study, sites or houses of the area have been selected

by Random sampling method. A questionnaire has

been prepared for the collection of qualitative as well

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 11

as quantitative data from the people. The vulnerabil-

ity maps and curves have been created using Spatial

Multi Criteria Analysis (SMCA) technique. For this, some

of the invented data has used together with the exist-

ing data. The PGIS survey of the area help in obtaining

many information which are needed for the assess-

ment of vulnerability of the study area.

Keywords: Flood, Vulnerability, Participatory GIS (PGIS),

Social Vulnerability, Random Sampling, Questionnaire,

SMCA, Risk Analysis and Management.

ES DSS-12

Application of “High Tech Agriculture” to overcome Disasters in Agriculture SectorProf. Dhiren Vandra & Asha Tank,35,Jaydeepnagar, Jail Road, At Mangrol Dist Junagadh (GUJARAT)E-mail : dhirenvandra@yahoo.com

Disasters are the events of environmental ex-

tremes which are inevitable entities of this living world.

The impact and frequency of the disasters is augment-

ing. During last decade, there has been greater focus

on the interface between environment, livelihoods

and disasters with environment and Disaster Risk Re-

duction for agriculture especially. Because Indian ag-

riculture is a field which is fully depends on rainfall,

temperature fluctuation, climate and other natural fac-

tors. The irrigation water is limiting factor of agriculture

production. In natural disaster Drought is most serious

disaster. 43% of total area and 60% of Agricultural area

are under Drought for ever. 27% of total population of

Gujarat state facing Drought Problems permanently.

During the 1960 to 1990 (30 yrs) were 18 droughts in

Gujarat. This ignored aspect need scientific study. With

the help of various references this study was carried

out with objectives to know proportion of farmers

who adopts High Tech Agriculture systems like Micro

Irrigation, Green / Glass Houses, Mulching etc in five

Talukas of Junagadh District of Gujarat State. The short

questioner giving farmers and data collected was ana-

lyzed by simple percentage/ proportion method.The

results shows that 50 to 60 percent farmers are adopt-

ing mulching to maintain soil temperature and soil

moisture in horticultural crops. It reduces 25 to 35 per-

cent water requirement of crops during drought con-

dition; 30 to 35 percent farmers are adopting low cost

Green houses which reduce 20% of water requirement

in controlled condition and increase 18 - 24 % agricul-

tural production; 70 to 80 percent farmers are adopt-

ing Drip Irrigation systems and 25 to 40 percent farm-

ers adopting sprinkle irrigation which saves 35 to 70

percent and 25 to 35 percent of water respectively. So

the suggestions are, every farmer should adopt mulch-

ing practices to maintain soil moisture and soil tem-

perature in water deficiency,Green House may be used

as and when require to create controlled atmospheric

condition to sustain crop yield in any disaster.,Every

farmer of arid region should adopt any Micro irrigation

system to minimize water requirement of crops during

drought condition.This way with the help of various

High Tech Agriculture systems, we can reduce effects

of any drought on agricultural productivity.

ES-DSS 13

Air Pollution Episode Prediction Using Extreme Value TheoryPragati SharmaAssistant Professor, Department of Applied Sciences, Bharati Vidyapeeth’s College of Engineering, Paschim Vihar, New Delhi Prateek SharmaAssociate Professor, Department of Natural Resources, TERI University, Delhi

Suresh JainAssociate Professor, Department of Natural Resources, TERI University, Delhi, 10, Institutional Area, Vasant Kunj, New DelhiEmail: pragatimails@gmail.com

The extreme air pollution event, i.e. the maxi-

mum Air Pollution Concentration (APC) is governed

by many complex and interrelated factors. In the

first place, the causative source emissions and sec-

12 | Abstracts

ondly, the cumulative effect of typically complex

climatological conditions such as low surface wind

speed, temperature inversion, anticyclonic condi-

tions, mixing height, atmospheric stability etc. exert

a large influence on the APC. As a result of this and

the inherent uncertainty associated with turbulent

flow, the deterministic models generally fail to pre-

dict extreme event adequately. Thus, on account of

these complexities, the statistical methods offer an

alternative and pragmatic approach to analyze the

extreme air pollution phenomenon.

The Extreme Value Theory (EVT) has mostly been

applied in hydrology for the statistical treatment of

floods and draughts. In air pollution literature many

studies applying Statistical Distribution Models

(SDMs) to air quality data, have been undertaken.

However, the EVT has not been applied in air pollu-

tion area that much frequently, perhaps because of

non-availability of adequate data set necessary for

its application. In the present study application EVT

has been described to through illustrative example

for making predictions of the expected number of

violations of the National Ambient Air Quality Stan-

dards (NAAQS), for two primary pollutants attributed

to vehicular sources – carbon monoxide (CO), and

nitrogen dioxide (NO2) monitored at a receptor lo-

cation near a busy urban road intersection in Delhi.

This has been done fitting Type I asymptotic distri-

bution of extreme values, more popularly known as

the Gumbel distribution. The parameters of the dis-

tribution have been estimated using the Gumbel’s

method. A comparison of the predicted violations of

the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)

and the exceedence of the maximum pollution con-

centration with that of the observed data indicates

that Type I asymptotic distribution adequately fits to

the observed extreme value data. Finally applicabil-

ity of EVT for local air quality management has been

suggested.

Key words: extreme value theory, Gumbel distri-

bution, time series, statistical modelling, air quality

standards.

ES-DSS 14

Air Quality Alerts Using Univariate Linear Stochastic ModelPragati Sharma Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Sciences, Bharati Vidyapeeth’s College of Engineering, Paschim Vihar, New Delhi-110063.

Prateek SharmaAssociate Professor, Department of Natural Resources, TERI University, Delhi, 10, Institutional Area, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi

Suresh JainAssociate Professor, Department of Natural Resources, TERI University, Delhi, 10, Institutional Area, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi Email: pragatimails@gmail.com

Air pollution is relevant in urban regions in view of

the large number of people suffering from its effects

on health. Moreover, in many urban areas, pollutant

concentrations become really critical in the presence

of particularly unfavourable meteorological conditions.

Such conditions lead to the formation of an urban “heat

island”, where prolonged pollutant accumulation takes

place. In polluted areas there is, thus, a need for issuing

warnings to the general public so that sensitive individ-

uals can take necessary precautions. For an adequate

health warning system and for management of control

and public warning strategies for pollutant levels at

densely populated areas, reasonably accurate forecasts

of pollutant concentrations as a function of time and lo-

cation are necessary so that those persons with pollut-

ant affected health problems can plan their activities in

advance. There is also the possibility that foreknowledge

of high pollution potential could be used to reduce fu-

ture atmospheric pollutant concentrations through

timely reduction of emissions by traffic control or indus-

trial shut-down. The air quality “predictor” for pollutants

can be developed either by analytical or by statistical

means. Analytical models are, in general, more suitable

for making long-term forecasts/planning decisions. For

air pollution “episodes”’ characterised typically by fast

dynamics, these models do not give satisfactory results.

Moreover, in the absence of additional parameters re-

quired as input, such as, wind vector, temperature, traffic

characteristics (for emission factor computations), the

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 13

analytical models fail to provide quantitative descrip-

tion of the atmospheric pollution. Stochastic modelling

of the pollution time-series provides an alternative ap-

proach. In the present study, an attempt has been made

to determine the degree of prediction possible using

only a limited data set, restricted only to the past record

of CO and NO2 time series. For this purpose, the theo-

retical details of the univariate linear stochastic model

based on the Box-Jenkins modelling techniques has

been first described. The methodology has then been

described through an illustrative example in which

models for CO and NO2 for a major traffic intersection

in Delhi City (ITO crossing) have been developed. The

models can be utilised for supplying real-time forecasts

of extreme CO and NO2 concentrations, predicting fu-

ture concentration levels on the basis of data recorded

in previous periods.

Key words: Air quality alert, time-series analysis, real-time

prediction, linear stochastic models, early warning system

ESDSS -15

Macro-analysis of occurrence of climate extremes in IndiaAjay SinghPost doctoral fellow, SJM SOM IIT Bombay-ajay@som.iitb.ac.in

Anand PatwardhanProfessor, SJM SOM IIT Bombay-anand@som.iitb.ac.in

Abhijat Arun Abhyankar Post doctoral fellow, CSE IIT Bombay-abhijat@iitb.ac.in

Nandlal L. SardaProfessor, CSE IIT Bombay-nls@cse.iitb.ac.in

Climate change studies suggest shift in extreme

weather events. The changes in patterns in extreme

weather events would lead to issues related to energy,

water and food security including national security. In

the present study we have selected ten key climate

extreme events namely, flood, tropical cyclone, heat

wave, cold wave also gale, squall, lightning, dust-storm,

hailstorm and thunderstorm to study spatio-temporal

pattern over India. Data on the occurrence of extreme

climate events have been acquired from India Meteo-

rological Department and other relevant government

agencies. Flood constitutes major share of the events.

Cyclonic events which constitute only 1% of the events

have sizeable impact on socio-economic system of the

coastal region. Regression analysis on the total num-

ber of occurrences of these events reveals a significant

increasing trend. Among several events showing sig-

nificant increasing trend are flood, heat wave and light-

ning. Only cyclone among the all reported events has

insignificant decreasing trend. Leading states by event

category has also been computed and found that few

states are relatively more prone to the repeated occur-

rence of particular events. Finally, we have concluded

with the suggestions for the improvement in data col-

lection and key recommendations for further study.

ESDSS -16

Contribution of Geographic Information Science (GIS) to Emergency Preparedness and ResponseAlok SinghAssistant Professor, Accurate Institute of Advanced Management, Greater Noida, aloksinghiiit@gmail.com

Sunil Kumar YadavAssistant Professor, Greater Noida Institute of Technology, Greater Noida, yadavsoft@gmail.com

The emergency preparedness and response ap-

plication challenge is mainly concerned with the inter-

action between humans and their environment under

conditions thought to be hazardous either to habitat or

life. This application challenge is not only multifaceted

as its title implies but also covers a wide range of disas-

ters, many with fundamentally different underlying pro-

cesses (such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and wildfires).

Even though the processes that generate the disaster

might be fundamentally different, techniques to assess

risk, evaluate preparedness, and assist response appear

to have much in common and can share and benefit

14 | Abstracts

from advances in geographic information science (such

as data acquisition and integration; data ownership, ac-

cess, and liability issues; and interoperability).

Understanding geographic information is critical if

we are to build and maintain livable communities. Since

computing has become almost ubiquitous in planning

and managing our communities, it is probable that ad-

vances in geographic information science will play a

founding role in smarter decision making. This paper ex-

amines the challenges that occur between humans and

their environment under conditions thought to be haz-

ardous to life and habitat. Emergency preparedness and

response are reviewed, and recommended priorities for

research, educational, and policy contributions to emer-

gency preparedness and response are documented.

Keywords: Geographic Information Science (GIS),

Emergency Preparedness, Emergency Response, Risk

assessment, Emergency Planning.

ESDSS -17

Estimating the Hazard from Landslides Using Historical Data and GIS Spatial ModelJanak Bahadur Chand, Yasuhiro MITANI, Ibrahim Djamaluddin & Hiro IKEMIPhD Scholar,Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, Kyushu University, Motooka 744, Nishi-Ku, Fukuoka, JAPANe-mail: chand_jb@yahoo.com

Landslides are important natural hazards that often

result in significant damage to society every year in Ja-

pan. The nature of damage that can be caused by land-

slides is complex and diffuse because of the many inter-

acting factors that are involved, and it may involve loss of

life and injury or economic loss. For instance, in Itoshima

area, many landslides occur around residence buildings

and some of them have caused damage to the environ-

ment. A Japanese practical method for measuring slope

hazardous area in the vicinity of buildings has been es-

tablished for Itoshima area. A rational assessment of a

slope hazard, including the consideration of potential

travel distance of debris and spatial distribution of the

vulnerable building population is rarely carried out, and

landslide consequences are commonly gauged only the

basis of engineering judgment. Traditionally, the main

emphasis of this method has often been placed on the

evaluation of the likelihood of slope failure based on the

slope angle. However, in comparison with fairly advanced

geographic information system (GIS) technology that

has been developed and applied in the landslide hazard

assessment, there seem to be a lack of a systematic and

comprehensive framework for rigorous assessing the

likelihood of slope hazard on widely area. In addition, in

developing risk management methods, it is important

to keep in mind the wide range of landslide and slope

instability problems, which need to be considered. This

paper provides an overview of the factors that need to

be considered in landslide hazard and risk assessment

in Itoshima area, and the approaches that could be ad-

opted in quantifying whole area of the likelihood of

slope hazard around residence buildings. An integrated

methodology has been developed to generalize a land-

slide hazard assessment map based on historical data

and spatial criteria, and examples are given to verify the

slope hazard assessment by three-dimensional (3D) in-

stability analysis by GIS-based integrated tool.

ESDSS -18

Vulnerable Communities and Disaster Management - A GIS based Decision Support Systems for slums and low income housing of Ahmedabad, IndiaRutool Sharma & Somesh SharmaFaculty of Planning and Public Policy , CEPT University, Kasturbhai Lalbhai Campus ,University Road Navrangpura, Ahmedabad

It is a known fact that the vulnerable communities

like people living in slums, low income groups, migrant

colonies and EWS housing societies are much more

susceptible to disasters than other communities living

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 15

in the city. Also it has been witnessed that the impact

of any disaster is also much higher on this group of

people as they are at a higher risk of exposure. These

communities may be directly affected during the disas-

ter as they are generally not prepared and excessively

affected. In event of a disaster, they donot have enough

knowledge and resources to respond to these disasters.

These people may take several months or years to re-

habilitate completely, as they may loose multiple things

like livelihood means, house, other assets, important

documents or family member during the disaster. The

paper emphasis the need for developing a comprehen-

sive GIS based Decision Support System (DSS) focusing

specifically on vulnerable communities living in urban

areas. The developed DSS will enable urban local bodies

to identify vulnerable communities based on nature of

disaster, plan mitigative measures, which will ultimately

help to respond quickly to emergency situations. The

DSS can also be used to assist the urban local bodies for

post disaster planning like estimate losses, design R&R

packages and distribute resources like construction

of houses, social infrastructure etc. The GIS based DSS

can also be used for recording disaster related data and

also facilitate easy upgradation of records. The informa-

tion generation from DSS can be a base for preparing

environment action plans and environment manage-

ment plans of the city. The paper presents the need and

framework for preparing a Decision Support System

taking Ahmedabad (India) as case study.

Keywords: Disaster, GIS, Decision Support System, Vulner-

able communities, Slums, environment

ESDSS 19

Cyclone Hazard Risk profile of coastal districts of IndiaM. MohapatraIndia Meteorological Department, Mausam Bhavan, DelhiE-Mail: mohapatra_imd@yahoo.com

Hazards associated with tropical cyclones are long

duration rotatory high velocity winds, very heavy rain

and storm tide. India has a coastline of about 7,516 km

of which 5,400 km is along the mainland. The entire

coast is affected by cyclones with varying frequency

and intensity. The India Meteorological Department

(IMD) is the nodal government agency that provides

weather services related to cyclones in India. Howev-

er, IMD has not identified cyclone prone districts fol-

lowing any specific definition though the districts for

which cyclone warnings are issued have been identi-

fied. On the other hand, for the purpose of better cy-

clone disaster management in the country, it is neces-

sary to define cyclone proneness and identify cyclone

prone coastal districts. It is also necessary to decide

degree of hazard proneness of a district by considering

cyclone parameters so that mitigation measures are

prioritized. In this context, an attempt has been made

to prepare a list of cyclone hazard prone districts by

adopting hazard criteria.

In general, the coastal districts of West Bengal,

Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are more prone

and are in the high to very high category. The Prone-

ness factor is very high for the districts of Nellore, East

Godawari, & Krishna in Andhra Pradesh; Yanam in Pu-

ducherry and districts of north coastal Orissa & West

Bengal. The results give a realistic picture of degree

of cyclone hazard proneness of districts, as they rep-

resent the frequency and intensity of landfalling cy-

clones alongwith all other hazards like rainfall, wind

and storm surge. The categorization of districts with

degree of proneness also tallies with observed pic-

tures. Therefore, this classification of coastal districts

based on hazard may be considered for all the re-

quired purposes including coastal zone management

and planning. However, this classification is based on

only hazard criteria. Vulnerability of the place has not

been taken into consideration. Therefore, composite

cyclone risk of a district, which is the product of haz-

ard and vulnerability, needs to be assessed separately

through detailed study.

16 | Abstracts

SPIDRM-1

Approach to Land-use planning at Major Hazard Sites in GermanyChristian JochumChairman, German Commission of Process Safety, Bad Soden, GermanyEmail: chr.jochum@t-online.de

The European Seveso II directive, which covers ma-

jor hazard sites, regulates spatial planning. There shall

be appropriate safety distances between those sites

and sensitive neighbourhood like residential areas. In

Germany the Commission on Process Safety, which

advises the German Federal Government, has issued a

guidance on land-use planning. It covers the planning

of industrial zones, for which the concrete usage is not

yet known (greenfield developments), as well (and

even more important in Germany) developments in

the neighbourhood of existing major hazard sites.

The guidance recommends certain assumptions

to calculate safety distances. It takes into account tox-

icity, thermal radiation and explosion pressure and

gives the figures for important, representative sub-

stances. On reaching or exceeding these distances, it

may be generally assumed that the effects of a major

accident will not lead to a serious hazard for the popu-

lation. To cover a wide range of possible installations

for greenfield planning the assumptions are conser-

vative. For planning purposes around an existing ma-

jor hazard site a more specific approach is possible.

Whereas some European countries apply quantitative

risk assessment for this purpose, Germany uses a de-

terministic approach. If the “greenfield safety distanc-

es” cannot be met, “credible worst case” scenarios have

Thematic Session 2

Spatial Planning and Information Systems for Industrial Disaster Risk Management

to be defined on a case by case basis. Consequence

assessments then lead to more specific (and generally

shorter) safety distances.

Experience in Germany shows that a critical pre-

condition for effective land-use planning is a good

cooperation between the different authorities respon-

sible for spatial planning and environmental safety.

As many industrial zones in Europe traditionally

are in densely populated areas planning tools can-

not solve all existing problems. Relocation either of

hazardous installations or sensitive neighbourhood is

rarely possible, so that here the focus is on improved

safety measures and emergency preparedness.

SPIDRM-2

Geographical Information System (GIS) based Emergency Planning and Response SystemS.S.GahloutDeputy Director General, National Informatics Centre, New Delhi, gahlout@nic.in

Arpita GuptaScientist D, National Informatics Centre, New Delhiarpita@nic.in

Geographical Information System (GIS) based Emer-

gency Planning and Response System has been devel-

oped for Major Cluster of Industries in selected industri-

alized States in the Country. Project is sponsored by

Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF), Government

of India, which is nodal ministry for handling chemical

disasters in the country. Project is Developed by Nation-

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 17

al Informatics Center (NIC), Department of Information

Technology, Govt. of India along with expert consulting

organizations - M/s Associated Consulting Engineers,

Technosafe Consultants and IRG Consultants. System

has been developed as a complete software package

comprising of GIS tools and district databases. The pro-

gram is user-friendly and can be used along with district

level offsite emergency plan not only for planning and

mock trials of major chemical emergencies but also dur-

ing actual emergency.

In phase I the project is spread over four major in-

dustrialized states in the country viz. Gujarat, Maharash-

tra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh . Twenty districts

were identified based on large number of Major Accident

Hazard (MAH) industries to include in this project. These

districts covered were Kutchh, Ahmedabad, Vadodara,

Bharuch, Surat and Valsad in Gujarat, Nasik, Thane, Mum-

bai, Pune, Raigad and Ratnagiri in MaharashtraTiruvallur,

Chennai and Salem in Tamil Nadu, Rangareddy, Medak,

East Godavari, West Godavari and Vishakhapatnam in

Andhra Pradesh.In phase II the project is spread over

ten major industrialized states in the country viz. Punjab,

Delhi, Haryana , Rajasthan, Karnataka, Assam, West Bengal

,Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala . Twenty one

districts were identified based on large number of Major

Accident Hazard (MAH) industries to include in this proj-

ect. These districts are, Panipat in Haryana, Alwar and Jai-

pur in Rajasthan, Delhi, Ghaziabad and Bulandshahar in

Uttar Pradesh, Ropar and Hoshiarpur in Punjab, Dhar and

Bhind Madhya Pradesh, Bongaigaon and Guwahati in As-

sam Bangalore (rural and urban), Mysore and Mangalore

in Karnataka Ernakulam in Kerela, Burdwan, Hooghli, 24

Parganas (North and South), Kolkatta and Howrah in West

Bengal. Latest information was collected from Director-

ate of Factories of each state to identify MAH industries

to be covered as part of this project. Data on each MAH

industry was collected through a well-designed ques-

tionnaire and visits to industrial units. Data collected

pertain to chemical data - type of chemicals, quantities,

storage containers, storage conditions, etc. and response

data - PPEs, medical facilities, fire fighting facilities, ve-

hicles, etc. for each MAH unit separately. For all the Forty

identified districts, data was collected for “First Respond-

ers” and “Sensitive Area” district wise. First Responders

include Police, Fire Service and Medical Service (Gov-

ernment as well as Private). Relevant data was collected

with respect to contact information, facilities available to

combat chemical emergencies, etc. such as fire tenders,

BA sets, etc. with fire department, burn and chemical poi-

soning facilities with hospitals, etc. In addition, a separate

exercise requiring extensive fieldwork was undertaken

to mark the locations of MAH industries, first responders

and sensitive areas in terms of Latitude and Longitude

values so that they can be located on geo-referenced

digitized base maps. Such exercise was accomplished

with the help of handset GPS (Global Positioning System).

probable hazard zone, location of first responders (Police,

Fire and Medical Services), amenities and sensitive areas.

The aspect of continuity in display of areas for respective

districts has also been considered while identifying the

toposheets. All the essential features have been digitized

to develop base maps in different layers to which spatial

data can be attached. Field data collected with the help

of GPS pertaining to location of MAH industries and first

responders and other sensitive areas have been super-

imposed on digitized base maps in separate layers. Mo-

saicing and customization of digitized districts maps has

been done in order to get seamless maps of each indus-

trial pocket with an extent to cover all the MAH industries

along with MCL scenarios, police stations, fire stations

and hospitals. Data on all the chemicals stored at MAH in-

dustries has been compiled. Based on the MCL scenarios

computer modeling has been done using ALOHA and

ARCHIE for consequence analysis. Outcome is made com-

patible to complete software package and for display on

digitized maps. Outcome of all the relevant scenario are

stored in data base in the form of shape files and can be

displayed on digitized maps in separate layers as per the

user’s requirement. Users can view the district map on

their screens - these are digitized maps in layers superim-

posed on relevant sets of SOI toposheets for ease of use.

These GIS maps contain all the relevant data with respect

of location of MAH units and first responders, chemical

and response data, possible accident scenarios, hazard

zone under each scenario, etc. User can customize the

view based on choice of layers. Hazard zone in case of

toxic scenarios can be viewed with respect to user input

wind direction as well as a buffer to cater to complete

18 | Abstracts

hazard zone. Fire/explosion scenarios shall be depicted

as circular buffer zone around the point of accident.

Key words: MAH units, Emergency Planning and re-

sponse, Hazard Zone.

SPIDRM-3

Vulnerability Assessment of an oil storage terminal using multi temporal satellite data: A study of IOC, Sitapura, JaipurMr. B.D Bharath, Mr. B.S. Sokhi,& Ms. Shreya Roy Human Settlement Analysis Division, IIRS, DehradunEmail: hi_rumpa@yahoo.co.in

Fires in the form of Flash Fires, Pool Fires, Jet Fires,

Explosions are some of the most common types of acci-

dents in oil storage terminals handling petroleum hydro-

carbon mixtures. Thermal Radiation from Fire, Blast Over-

pressure from Explosion are the major types of threat

involved in this type of accident. The nature of vulnerabil-

ity also depends on the type of the substance involved,

its vapor pressure, rate of volatilization, flash point, flam-

mability limits, boiling point, molecular weight, chemical

composition as well as the micro-climatic conditions like

atmospheric stability, mixing height, wind speed, wind

direction, rain wash etc of the site.

A major accident involving Motor Spirit Vapor Cloud

Explosion and Fire occurred at Indian Oil Corporation’s

Petroleum Oil Lubricants Terminal, Sitapura, Jaipur on

October 29, 2009. There were 11 petroleum storage tanks

in the IOC terminal that includes 5 for MS and 3 each for

High Speed Diesel (HSD) and Kerosene with a stock ca-

pacity of 60,000 KL of petroleum products.

The project was attempted to utilize coarse reso-

lution multi temporal satellite data like Terra MODIS

to visualize post hazard smoke plume, to identify the

most vulnerable zones with medium to high resolu-

tion satellite imagery of LISS III/IV as well as in ALOHA,

a software developed by USEPA which uses chemical

data,metereological conditions, nature of accident as an

input, to give threat/ vulnerable zones as an output and

finally integrating them in GIS environment to prepare a

vulnerability zonation map..

Areas within 500 to 700 meters from the IOC storage

terminals were the most vulnerable zones as predicted

by ALOHA and facilities beyond 700 m upto 2km suffered

glass window pane breakages. The worst case scenario

was run for full capacity with highest ambient tempera-

ture recorded and it was found that had the accident oc-

curred in that condition then the dense areas of Pratap

Nagar would have been highly affected.

These types of studies can provide a good insight for

the decision makers to identify the possible threat zones

from hazards like fire, explosions which can be used as

an input before siting any storage installations handling

flammable products like gasoline, diesel and kerosene.

SPIDRM-4

Application of dense gas dispersion modeling and Consequence analysis of Industrial Hazard Scenarios in Spatial PlanningAsit K PatraDisaster Management Institute,P. B. No. 563, Paryavaran Parisar, E-5 Arera Colony, Bhopal. India.E-mail: asitkpatro@gmail.com

Consequence analyses due to accidental two-

phase superheated release from containers stored in

industries play vital role in spatial/off-site emergency

management planning. The results of dense gas dis-

persion modeling and effective analyses of loss sce-

narios can be applied to strengthen and modify the

administrative, legislative and spatial planning as-

pects required in preparedness and response stages.

The present paper deals with the worst-case release

scenarios associated with bulk storages of flammable

and toxic chemicals including underground pipe-

line transportation of natural gas. Inferences of these

analyses are expressed in terms of the actions/mea-

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 19

sures to be taken by the administration (off-site), on-

site plant management, required changes in relevant

codes/rules etc. Special recommendations have been

given on the utilization of these results in strength-

ening infrastructure of an Emergency Control Centre

(ECC) suitable for effective control and coordination of

activities during chemical/industrial disasters. Proper

application of analysis results in consultation with

state Town & Country planning department/Municipal

corporation/village panchayet would not only help in

allocating/demarcating land for industrial estates or

for residential or for other purposes, but also can avert

Bhopal/IOCL Jaipur Fire type off-site casualties.

Keywords : Consequence Analysis, offsite emergency,

on-site plant management

SPIDRM-5

Risk Management Information System – a GIS enabled tool for managing chemical risks at Maximum Accident Hazard Industry Clusters in IndiaDebanjan BandyopadhyayPhD Student, Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, University of Twente, Netherlands

Nilanjan PaulManager – GIS & IT Solutions,SENES Consultants India, email: npaul@senesindia.com

Increasingly, all over the world, the need is ex-

pressed for integrated information system tools that

can assist in effective management of industrial acci-

dents originating from hazardous facilities. A number

of scientific and commercially available computerized

models currently exist which can simulate potential

risk scenarios like a toxic release, fire or explosion and

predict resulting end-point effect distances. Other

tools can spatially represent the area at risk by over-

laying an accident scenario footprint on a map to aid

the end-user in better visualizing the spatial extent of

risk. However, such modeling tools are seldom closely

coupled with updated GIS data and functionalities to

be able to estimate the extent of damage to human

life and property. We have developed a web-GIS en-

abled risk management information system (RMIS)

that integrates consequence modeling algorithms for

a range of technological hazard scenarios with a geo-

database containing repository of relevant hazard and

vulnerability data. The RMIS can be made available

through a customized user interface to decision mak-

ers, emergency responders and concerned stakehold-

ers, based on requirement. A pilot system has already

been deployed for the industrial town of Haldia, India.

We conclude that adoption of such an integrated ap-

proach will add considerable value to existing tools

for management of industrial risk, providing end-users

with more contextual information for decision making.

Keywords: risk scenario, hazard footprint, vulnerability,

simulation, geo-database, web-GIS, RMIS

SPIDRM-6

Evolving a methodology to factor chemical risk into land use planning decisions in IndiaAnandita Sengupta, Debanjan BandyopadhyayPh D student, Dept. of Urban & Regional Planning, Faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth observation (ITC), The Netherlands

Cees J van WestenAssociate Professor, Faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth observation (ITC), The NetherlandsEmail: sengupta15552@itc.nl; dbandyopadhyay@itc.nl

Industrial accidents like Bhopal (1984) and more

recently Jaipur (2009) have clearly shown how the con-

sequences of such accidents can severely be affected by

the juxtaposition of hazardous installations with high

population densities. In such cases, the risk posed by

industrial accidents rises as further industrial or urban

development takes place. This is particularly the case in

developing countries like India, where the lack of regu-

latory framework for land use planning results in the

20 | Abstracts

close proximity of hazardous industries to residential

areas with their vulnerable communities. Though land

use planning is widely accepted as an important plan-

ning measure for minimizing risk;however it is difficult

to implement because of the various considerations

involved with land use, especially in countries like India

where pressure on land tend to be high. India, one of the

most densely populated countries in the world, is also

witnessing rapid industrialization.Today India has more

than 1949 Maximum Accident Hazard (MAH) industries,

a number which is steadily increasing following the Pe-

troleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Re-

gion (PCPIR) Policy, for industries that store or process

considerable amounts of hazardous chemicals. In con-

tinuation of earlier practice, such MAH industries tend

to be clustered in some 90 industrial towns across the

country, thereby exposing the nearby resident popula-

tion to the adverse effects of releases of toxic substanc-

es, explosions and fires. Many of these towns are also

attracting new industries, including the MAH category,

because of availability of supporting infrastructural fa-

cilities, the availability of skilled manpower and other

locational advantages. In the absence of an appropriate

regulatory framework, such developments are leading

to a further increase in risk levels in such areas or towns.

It is after 25years of Bhopal Disaster; so far in India

no provision has been made to consider ‘risk’ in land use

planning decision. Recently, after concluding investiga-

tions into a major fire accident in a hazardous facility in

the city of Jaipur (India, 2009), the government is now

considering to draw up zoning regulations for the sur-

rounding areas of major petroleum and petrochemical

high hazard installations.

In this regard, we have made an attempt to formulate

a methodology to quantify industrial risk considering the

consequence of an accident scenario and vulnerability of

the neighbouring area.The authors have also examined

the basis for formulating a suitable risk zoning approach-

considering industrial risk-related criteria into account

and applied the result of such criteria to the industrial

town of Haldia in India. A scenario-based consequence

assessment was carried out for the identified reference

scenarios. Reference scenarios were selected based on

expert’s judgment. Based on available hazardous chemi-

cal inventories and their location, footprints of the refer-

ence scenarios were prepared and successively aggre-

gated into a consequence map of the study area. Using

a multi-criteria rating and ranking method, vulnerability

of the area was estimated considering building construc-

tion, number of people and sensible receptors etc. These

maps were subsequently multiplied using a risk matrix

to prepare the risk map depicting potential risks of the

area. Finally, the result was discussed to identify useful in-

puts for future land use planning of the area as well as for

risk mitigation interventions. The same framework can be

adopted for future land use planning exercises in other

industrial areas to minimize risk levels, thereby helping to

reduce the odds of another Bhopal like incident.

Key words: Industrial hazard, risk assessment, land use

planning, India

SPIDRM-7

Applications of RS and GIS Technique in Ground Water Decontamination: Recent Trend In Disaster ManagementParul SharmaDepartment of Chemistry, Amity School of Engineering & Technology, Amity University, Haryana

Shalini SrivastavaFaculty of Science, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, AgraEmail: sendtoparul@rediffmail.com

One of the most formidable challenges facing the

human kind in the 21st century is sustainable environ-

mental management. Ground Water quality manage-

ment is of prime concern since it affects all and the way

in which we live. The problem of ground water contam-

ination can be managed if the source of the contamina-

tion is known and managed. The level of problem can

be decrease to a very large extent by optimized siting

decision which has gained considerable importance as

they ensure minimum damage to the various environ-

mental sub components and also reduce the stigma as-

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 21

sociated with the residents living in its vicinity.

In order to manage and mitigate the impact on the

ground water environment, it is therefore required to

have new tools and the method of analysis, which help

us to collate, analyze, model and monitor diverse data

on the environment in a rapid and flexible manner. RS/

GIS (Remote Sensing/Geographical Information Sys-

tem) plays an important role in disaster management

as it can serve as a means to integrate ever increasing

volume of diverse spatial environmental data from nu-

merous sources at local, regional and national scales

into a manageable whole.

With this aim in view, the present study focuses the

utilization of GIS system in hazard identification and risk

assessment by siting areas of ground water contamina-

tion. Among dirty dozen club of toxic pollutants, heavy

metals are the most important source as ground water

contaminants. Thus their removal becomes an absolute

necessity. Slow but pervasive risks/hazards produce by

toxic metals [As, Cd, Cr, Pb and Ni] causes more casual-

ties than swift environmental hazards. The need of the

hour is to devise an efficient solid waste management

system wherein decision-makers and waste manage-

ment planners can deal with the increase in complex-

ity, uncertainty, multi-objectivity and subjectivity asso-

ciated with this problem.

Keywords: RS/GIS, ground water decontamination,

disaster management, heavy metals

SPIDRM-8

A System Approach to Manage Chlorine Emergencies in Chlor-Alkali plants Harisaran Das Joint Director (SHE), Alkali Manufactures India Limited hsdas@ama-india.org

Chlorine is a very useful and indispensable chemi-

cal but it is hazardous. Chlorine may leak in the plant

during it’s production & storage due to various rea-

sons. For any management to keep a track of all the

causes of leakage on a routine manner is not possible

and therefore there is likelihood of leakage during it’s

production, storage & filling.

Leakage of Chlorine will be a major catastrophe

and will be a havoc to the natural environment and hu-

man beings. Once chlorine gas leaks in the plant due to

any reason, there will be an emergency situation. The

severity of the emergency situation will depend on

the amount & duration of the chlorine gas release. It is

therefore desirable that a proper management system

should be built into the daily routine work schedule of

an organization to prevent chlorine leakage and han-

dle any emergency in case of chlorine leakage.

The paper discusses a Management System for car-

rying out day to day process activities in a Chlor-Alkali

Plant for ensuring adequate Safety System and preven-

tive control to avoid chlorine leakage incidents in the

Plant and also build up management system for han-

dling chlorine emergencies. Preventive Steps To Avoid

Chlorine Incidents In The Plant and Handling of Chlo-

rine Emergency were discussed in detail in the paper

SPIDRM-9

Alang Ship Recycling Industry: Issues, Standards And Way Forward Anil Kumar, Shivani Gupta Tata Institute of Social SciencesEmail anil.uasd@gmail.com, Email : shivanigupta6@gmail.com

Alang, situated on the western coast of India, is

one of the biggest ship breaking/recycling yards in

the world. The suitable geographical location, cheap

labour force and less stringent environmental regula-

tions have encouraged the industries to a stretch of

10 km in Alang and Sosiya. Hundreds of ships of vari-

ous categories dismantle in Alang from almost every

corner of the world. Current financial year (2010-11) is

going to be earmarked for Alang as the ship breaking

industry is expecting highest number of ships. Alang is

22 | Abstracts

also associated with various environmental concerns

raised over decades now. These range from liquid and

solid waste control management including hazard-

ous waste and transportation. This paper looks at the

trend of hazardous and non-hazardous waste gener-

ated from the industry. Thousands of workers work-

ing in this industry are constantly exposed to various

kinds of risks. Working under high risk conditions in

such industries has caused casualties on a regular

basis. This paper looks into the reported incidences

that happened over a period of time in these indus-

tries and various associated reasons. Gujarat Maritime

Board established a state of art institute for training of

the workers in the year 2003 in Alang. Regular train-

ings are being provided to hundreds of workers in var-

ious fields. Despite numerous trainings in the field of

ship recycling, incidences of various types of accidents

continue to occur. This paper also examines various

international conventions and national legislations in

the field of ship recycling and environmental pollu-

tion. In the end, the paper recommends certain mea-

sures which can be adopted for the safety of labourers

on a long term basis.

Key words : Hazardous waste, International conven-

tions, ship recycling

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 23

LFEDM-1

Effectiveness of Environmental Legal Systems for the Protection of Environment: A Study of the Tribal Areas of Himachal PradeshV.B. Negi Assistant Registrar, IGNOU Regional Centre, Chauhan Niwas Khalini, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, 171002, email: negivbhagat@rediffmail.com.

JaishreeAssistant Professor, Government P.G. Degree College Chamba, Himachal Pradeshemail: jaishree1.dhar@gmail.com.

The environment is a protean term as it readily as-

sumes different forms and characters but it is defined

to mean the natural and human made world of the

particular areas. Therefore, the environment includes

the ecosystem including biodiversity and natural re-

sources; all areas and structures modified or built by

humans; and all factors affecting human health and the

quality of human life including cultural heritage and

amenity exist within the area, however the economic

and social matters are excluded to confine the concept

of the environment to its common-usage. The human

impacts on the environment are not circular because it

simply focuses on regulating that part of the environ-

ment that can be controlled by humans. The develop-

ment activities in the present time are being carried

out without keeping in mind the consequences of the

ecological imbalance, by degradation of the environ-

ment for attaining over all socio-economic upliftment

of its masses in shortest possible time leading to natu-

ral disaster.

The hill state of Himachal Pradesh, like rest of the

states in the country, also embarked upon the path of

economic development for realisation of social uplift-

ment and could not escape the damage caused to en-

vironment by the development activities for the eco-

nomic benefit of its people particularly to the Tribal

areas of the state, which has now started making its

adverse impact on the state’s ecology. Further, popula-

tion pressure on land and other natural resources also

leads to degrade the environment for timber and fuel

wood etc. in addition to various development activi-

ties including construction of large scale Hydro Power

Projects being carried out in the state to achieve the

economic growth and to make Himachal Pradesh

Power state. Since the environment is one of the most

important feature for the survival of human life, which

is considered as a basic fundamental human right and

a social goal now a days, therefore, the damaged envi-

ronmental condition of these vulnerable areas can be

redirected by making a ecological sustainable devel-

opment by effective implementation of environment

legal system and properly enforcement and imple-

mentation of the provisions of Environmental Laws by

the state government to protect the natural resources

of the area. This paper is an attempt to address these

issues with particular emphasis to evaluate the effec-

tiveness of the response to overexploitation of natural

resources and environmental loss as well as climate

change. This paper also elaborates the best available

method that provides the simplest, most systematic,

comprehensive and meaningful framework with the

effective predictive system currently available to eval-

uate the effectiveness of an environmental legal sys-

tem, to protect the environment and natural resources

of this Hill State.

Thematic Session 3

Legal Framework and Regulations for Environment and Disaster Management

24 | Abstracts

LFEDM-2

Legal Protection, Economic Gain and Right to Struggle: A Case study of mineral mining in coastal area of KeralaS.Mohammed IrshadAssistant Professor, Jamsetji Tata Centre for Disaster ManagementTata Institute of Social Science, E-Mail: mohammed.irshad@tiss.edu

Mining areas in the country are characterized as

both an area of immense ‘development potential’ and

‘war zone’. This is a national picture of mining economy,

even if there are legal provision to protect the environ-

ment and displacement yet mining is continuing even

in the war zones. This paper is about the story of two vil-

lages in Kerala’s coastal area where mineral mining has

washed away to villages and the worst part is that late

2004 Tsunami causes some of the worst impact in these

areas. Seawater heavily flooded through the heavy pit

resulted by mining. The recent CRZ notification chal-

lenges the local people’s anti-mining struggle. The

modes of operandi of companies which are mining the

entire coastal area are not abided by the provisions of

the Minerals (Development & Regulation) Act 1957. This

paper discusses this issue in detail with case studies.

LFEDM-3

Environmental Degradation and Interpretation of Existing Legal ProvisionsSomya Gupta & Tanya VermaStudents of Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow

This paper seeks to deal with the various legal is-

sues that concern environmental degradation in India.

Environmental degradation happens through deple-

tion of resources such as air, water and soil, destruction

of ecosystems and the extinction of wildlife. There are

many factors like population growth, urbanization, etc.

that contribute to environmental degradation. Lack

of attention paid to the conservation of environment

leads to various natural disasters. Despite the many leg-

islations and laws that have been passed in India and

other countries to limit the problem of environmental

degradation, it still continues to be a huge threat to our

environment. Existing environment laws in India are

made up of a number of different instruments, which

is why it remains difficult to identify a coherent body

of comprehensive laws concerning the environment.

This is related to the fact that distinct concerns have

been addressed in different enactments. This is also

due to the division of powers between the centre and

the states and the fact that water regulation is mostly in

the hands of the states. The lack of a specified body of

laws concerning the environment leads to unsatisfac-

tory judicial decisions given in environment law con-

cerning case, like the Bhopal Gas Tragedy Case and the

Narmada Bachao Andolan Case.

There are many such loopholes that the environ-

ment laws provide, which need to plugged in if there

is anything concrete that wants to be done to protect

the environment. This paper highlights the various le-

gal aspects of this problem and also brings to light the

various reforms that could be made to make the laws

concerning this issue more concrete and also provides

methods for disaster risk reduction. That could be made

in order to deal with this problem more effectively.

LFEDM-4

Disaster Management: its impact in Law and Development Hitesh AgrawalIV Semester and Naiana Jain, II Semester, Nirma University, Ahmedabad

This paper discusses about Disaster manage-

ment, its Stages, Objectives, Authorities, Legal provi-

sions and cases related to it. Disasters result from the

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 25

combination of hazards, conditions of vulnerability

and insufficient capacity or measures to reduce the

potential negative consequences of risk. On the ba-

sis of origin, there are two types of disasters:bNatural

Disasters (earthquake, landslide etc.)and Human

Induces Disasters (Nuclear Disaster, Chemical Disas-

ter etc.)

There are various Vulnerability Zones shown in

the main paper with Diagrams. Section 2 Clause (e)

of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 defines Di-

saster management and why it is necessary.

Disasters are extreme events which cause a

great loss to life and property. They pose a serious

threat to the normal life as well as the process of

development and strike with sudden violence, tear-

ing bodies, destroying lives and structures.Disaster

Planning can be tacit in four stages viz

Mitigation - Minimizing the effects of disaster.

Preparedness - Planning how to respond.

Response - Efforts to minimize the hazards cre-

ated by a disaster.Recovery - Returning the commu-

nity to normal.

National Policy on Disaster Management has

many objectives, amongst some are Promoting a

culture of prevention, preparedness and resilience

at all levels through knowledge, innovation and

education. Encouraging mitigation measures based

on technology, traditional wisdom and environmen-

tal sustainability.• Mainstreaming disaster manage-

ment into the developmental planning process

and etc.Disaster Management Act, 2005 lays down

institutional, legal, financial and coordination mech-

anisms at across levels. The paper describes about

various Chapters given in the Act, from Chapter I to

XI, its diverse provisions, committees established

under and functions. One of the main goals of DM,

and one of its strongest links with development, is

the promotion of Sustainable livelihoods and their

protection and recovery during disasters and emer-

gencies.The paper also describes about Bhopal gas

disaster that how it was disaster and what relief has

been provided to victims and M.C.Mehta’s Case and

other cases

LFEDM-5

Evolution and Impact of International Environmental Jurisprudence in IndiaArchita Phookun, Sophia S MustafaDr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknowe-mail: archita.phookun@gmail.com

The difference between animals and humans is that

animals change themselves for the environment, but humans

change the environment for themselves. (Ayn Rand)

Through this paper, the researchers try to under-

stand the evolution of Environmental Jurisprudence

in India and how it has applied all the major environ-

mental principles and further interpreted their exist-

ing laws to bring the environment under its realm.

Firstly, the paper provides the historical back-

ground of how environmental jurisprudence became

a part of the global legal scenario with the help of

landmark cases; secondly, it discusses in detail, the

major environmental principles like sustainable de-

velopment, precautionary and polluters’ pay princi-

ples with reference to the major litigations that have

transformed these principles into legal norms. Fur-

ther, it emphasizes the impact of these cases on the

present Environmental Law regime. The paper also

includes the development of Indian Environmental

Law and how the judiciary has adopted and inter-

preted these aforementioned principles to suit the

needs in India to protect the environment and miti-

gate or prevent industrial disasters like the Bhopal

Gas Leak. The stand of the Indian judiciary on cases

relating to developmental projects on one side and

environmental protection on the other have been

critically examined and their implications have been

assessed.

The judiciary through Article 21 of the Indian

Constitution has played a key role in guaranteeing

wholesome environment as an important fundamen-

tal and human right. In conclusion, the paper deals

with the doctrine of Public Trust and how a balance

26 | Abstracts

needs to be created between development and envi-

ronmental well-being of the people. The researchers

have adopted the doctrinal method of research as it

proved to be an extremely useful mode which per-

tained to the needs and requirements of the paper.

LFEDM-6

Bhopal Gas TragedyVijita S. AggarwalUSMS, GGS Indraprastha University, Kashmere Gate, Delhi.vijitaaggarwal@yahoo.com

The Bhopal gas tragedy is the worst industrial

disaster in human history. Twenty-five thousand

people died and five hundred thousands were in-

jured. Furthermore, the victims of the tragedy had

to suffer an inordinate delay and tardiness in receiv-

ing either an adequate compensation or satisfaction

in bringing the erring to justice. The injustice done

to the victims of Bhopal raises important issues re-

lated to differences in corporate governance, the

regulatory environment and compliance, and juris-

prudence across developed and developing nations.

With the backdrop of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, this

paper attempts to investigate two different but re-

lated themes. These being, firstly, as to whether de-

veloping countries are more disposed to have such

disasters as compared to developed countries, and

secondly, whether the deleterious consequences of

these disasters are likely to be more serious in de-

veloping countries than developed countries. The

paper explores this by looking at differences in cor-

porate orientation towards safety, the enforcement

of the existing regulations by the regulatory bodies

as well as systems, processes, methods and practice

of the judicial systems in the developed country in

comparison to the developing countries to pre-empt

or to deal with such disasters.

LFEDM-7

Sustainale Development And Natural Resource Management – A Legel PerspectiveArchita Phookun and Anupam Pandeyarchita.phookun@gmail.com & anupam1090@gmail.com

Through this paper the researchers try to give

a brief insight into the evolution and growth of sus-

tainable development in the international as well as

national scenario with the help of legal instruments

and hallmark cases.Firstly, the paper gives a brief in-

troduction on what ‘sustainable development’ is and

the Brundtland Report of 1987 which brought out

this concept in the global arena. Secondly, the paper

talks about the growth of this concept with reference

to Rio Declaration and decided ICJ, WTO and other in-

ternational cases. Further, it talks about various factors

that have influenced legal change in this field. Another

important concept covered by this paper is the analy-

sis of the substance and current law on the subject. A

nominal law in force may fall short of the purpose to

achieve global natural resource management. Contri-

bution of various international agencies to the growth

of environmental and natural resource management

jurisprudence has also been dealt with in the paper.

Further the role of non- governmental organizations in

the furtherance of ‘sustainable development’ has also

been included. The paper emphasizes that the only

way of achieving sustainable development is through

participation of all sectors in genuine social partner-

ship and dialogue with a sense of common purpose.

Further, the paper gives an Indian perspective of the

concept of ‘sustainable development’ with reference

to municipal laws and important case laws. It also talks

about enhancing legislative and judicial capacities in

developing countries such as India. Lastly, the paper

includes the main areas of improvement and sugges-

tions and recommendations for the same. An all en-

compassing model Sustainable Development Act for

every nation and required conclusions have also been

included.

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 27

LFEDM-8

Legal Framework and Regulations for Environment and Disaster Management (Safety and disaster laws) Nishant Buragohain M.A. in Disaster Management, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai E-mail: sunnybura@gmail.com

The current study, “Sustainability of Community

Based Disaster Risk Reduction (CBDRR) Programme:

The case of Duryug Pratirodh Samiti (DPS) in Dhemaji

District of Assam” is an attempt to study the factors

contributing to the sustainability of the CBDRR pro-

gramme which was implemented in Dhemaji district

of Assam. The National Disaster Management Act was

passed in 2005 in India. The state has taken up the re-

sponsibility of reducing the vulnerabilities of the com-

munities and thus, create a safer world for them. It has

been seen that implementing agencies have to follow

a strict deadline for the completion of the project. It is

well understood that the intent of the donor agencies

and the implementing agencies is good and to cre-

ate safer conditions for the communities through the

CBDRR programmes. This study tries to highlight the

importance of having a long-term approach and cus-

tomized programme based on the ground conditions.

The study also highlights other factors of sustain-

ability of the CBDRR programme such as the role of

Gram Panchayat, Linkages to Development Activities,

Focus on Vulnerability Reduction and not only on Risk

Reduction, and Incentives to the Community. The case

study is based on field data collected from 10 vil-

lages in Dhemaji district (Assam) between May-July

2010 and October-November 2010.

Keywords: Sustainability, CBDRR, Gram Panchayat, Vul-

nerability Reduction, Risk Reduction

28 | Abstracts

ESEIA-1

Environmental Disasters and EIAPavan Kumar SinghSenior Research Officer, National Disaster Management Authority, NDMA Bhawan, A-1, Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi-110029, drpavansingh@gmail.com

Susanta Kumar JenaSenior Research Officer, National Disaster Management Authority, NDMA Bhawan, A-1, Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi-110029, drmsusanta@gmail.com

Environmental protection and resource manage-

ment has conventionally been given importance all

over the world which has increased in recent time. In

India, a major legislative measures for the purpose of

environmental clearance was in 1994 when specific no-

tification was issued under section 3 and rule 5 of the

environment protection Act, 1986 called the “Environ-

ment impact Assessment Notification 1994”. Environ-

mental Impact Assessment (EIA) is the official appraisal

process to identify, predict, evaluate and justify the eco-

logical, social, and related biophysical effects of a pro-

posed policy, program or project on the environment.

EIA minimizes risks of environmental disasters as

the legislation provides opportunity for increasing pub-

lic awareness, initiatives of environmental groups and

to integrate environmental consideration into devel-

opmental plans and policies. Environmental clearance

for development projects can be obtained either at the

state level or at the central level depending on certain

criteria concerning the characteristics of the project.

However, for most projects the consent must first be

taken from the state pollution control board or pollu-

tion control committees in the case of union territories.

While the increased threat to the environment is

matched by the enactment of an increasing amount

of legislation, the responsibilities and capacities of the

various agencies, including the regional offices of the

MOEF, to monitor compliance has not been appropri-

ately strengthened.

The focus of EIA now therefore needs to shift from

utilization and exploitation of natural resources to con-

servation of natural resources. There is also an urgent

need to build capacities of government agencies, com-

munities, NGOs and the judiciary with regard to the

implementation of the existing EIA notification.

ESEIA-2

An Overview of EIA study of Swan River Flood Management Project, District Una, Himachal Pradesh, India. Madhuri Venu, S.RishiDepartment of Environment & Vocational Studies,Punjab University, Chandigarh,

Abinder S. Chadda IPH Department, District Bilaspur, Himachal PradeshEmail: venus.jun25@gmail.com

EIA assesses and predicts the impacts of a pro-

posed project or action on human well-being, as well

as the well-being of ecosystems on which human sur-

vival depends. Environmental Impact Assessment is

one of the major instruments integrated with a goal

of making economic development project, environ-

Thematic Session 4

Environmental Services and EIA in Disaster Management

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 29

mentally sound and sustainable. The main objective of

this paper is to give a combine and integrate overview

of environmental, economic and social impact assess-

ments of Swan River Flood Management Project-II. The

Swan River of district Una, Himachal Pradesh, once, was

known as River of sorrow as during monsoon period

the flood creates havoc in District Una. During past 10-

12 years loss of property due to floods in river Swan has

been estimated as more than Rs. 1,666 million (Rs. 166.6

crores). Human and livestock loss has been to the ex-

tent of 50 and 236 numbers respectively. But it was tak-

en under the reclamation process by Swan River Flood

Management and Integrated development Project and

turned to the gift for district. This would revolutionize

the economy of the farmers of Una district as it would

result in raising of 1,500 metric tonnes of fish, 14,450

metric tonnes of food-grains, pulses, vegetables and

7,700 metric tonnes of fruits every year besides mitigat-

ing miseries caused due to floods to life and property

both. This paper is an overview of EIA study of Swan

River Flood Management and Integrated development

Project -II. The EIA study gives the maximum thrust to

the impacts on water environment and its cascading

effects on the biotic as well as abiotic environment.

Keywords: - EIA, Environment, Sustainable, Flood Man-

agement, Economy.

ESEIA-3

The role of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) on Flood Risk in IndiaAlok SinghAccurate Institute of Advanced Management, Greater Noida, email aloksinghiiit@gmail.com

Sunil Kumar YadavGreater Noida Institute of Technology, Greater Noidayadavsoft@gmail.com

The research paper discusses flood risk in India,

which has increased alarmingly in recent decades

largely due to changing physical characteristics of the

hydrological system caused by human activities: con-

tinued development of already densely populated

flood plains, encroachment on flood prone areas, de-

struction of forests and hill slopes development.

Flood losses are high but disastrous flood events

which occurred in the past as a consequence of rapid

development and environmental degradation are for-

gotten quickly, people choosing to see only the posi-

tive benefits of a booming economy while turning

a blind eye to their negative effects. It suggests that,

within a climate of sustained economic boom, policy

makers as well as Indians from all walks of life are un-

derstandably less concerned about floods than they

are about the financial gains that can be reaped from

a booming economy. States that official solutions for

flood control are largely engineering based and are in-

effective to combat extensive monsoon floods.

In this paper we have used Environmental Impact

Assessment (EIA), is the official appraisal process to

identify, predict, evaluate and justify the ecological, so-

cial, and related biophysical effects of a proposed poli-

cy, program or project on the environment. It provides

insight on alternatives and measures to be adopted

before any commitment, thus helps in important de-

cision-making. The overall objective of the EIA is to de-

sign developmental projects and activities taking into

consideration the environmental perspective.

Keywords: Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA),

Flood Risk, Indian Context, Risk assessment, Risk Miti-

gation Strategy.

ESEIA-4

Waste Management and Disposal Services after Disasters in India G.Niranjani M.A. M.Phil. (PhD)Research and Teaching Assistant, Discipline of Public Administrationniranjinis@yahoo.co.in / niranjani.paranthaman@gmail.com

Disasters such as floods, fires, hurricanes, earth

quakes, tsunami, droughts, bomb blasts, and cyclones

30 | Abstracts

cause waste disposal challenges in communities

across the nation. These disasters result in the creation

of large quantities of new debris (construction and de-

molition materials, vegetation, hazardous waste, refrig-

erators and other appliances and electronic devices).

These materials must be separated from normal waste

and managed differently to ensure they are disposed

of safely. Mass feeding facilities and mass care centers

used during some disaster responses may also result in

the accumulation of large amounts of waste in a single

location. Some events do not produce new debris but

cause a problem by disrupting the waste management

system that normally stores, collects, and disposes of

solid waste. For example, an ice storm could disrupt

the collection and transportation of waste and an in-

fluenza pandemic could severely reduce the number

of waste management workers able to come to work.

The objectives of this research paper are to ana-

lyze the problem of the waste disposal after disasters

and find out a solution for it which is a timely need for

humanity. The study undertaken includes interviews

and observation methods which come under primary

data. Government records, website sources, magazines,

journals, periodicals, newspapers, books which comes

under secondary data. The method of research is de-

scriptive. Planning must be done to ensure availability

and use of the human and physical resources needed

for rescue work and provide preliminary needs as per

the requirement of the area. Accordingly in each area,

for possible calamities in the city, resources have to be

identified. Participative approach would be the right

attitude to face the challenges by waste management

after disasters. People have to come forward to help

one and all. Non Governmental Organizations should

participate voluntarily in helping according to the situ-

ation. Government organizations should act immedi-

ately to safeguard the situation. A participative process

of thinking and dialogue builds strategic capability and

can be more creative and important than analytically

derived plans. Collaboration in the planning process

establishes a common framework for communication

and decision-making and has wider team-building ef-

fects. Participation encourages initiative and responsi-

bility. Thus it is important for each and every individual

to participate for a good cause which will really help

the human affected in the past and try to create a pre-

paredness attitude for the future.

ESEIA-5

Role of EIA in Disaster ManagementAditi MadanM.A. Disaster Management,Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai

Recurrent disasters occur causing huge loss of life

and property. Following any disaster, Reconstruction

and Recovery policy is formulated providing a time-

frame for various activities to be undertaken within

planning and implementation framework. There is a

need for placing environment in the policy framework

to avoid further degradation of environment and to

ensure that the environment is included effectively in

both, within individual sectors, but also as a separate

sector.

The recovery strategy for environment as a cross

cutting sector, focuses on ensuring sound manage-

ment of the environment and natural resources at all

levels. For instance the environmental control author-

ity of Aceh (BAPEDAL) selected 86 major projects for

environmental impact assessment. To meet the urgent

needs of the situation, it used a method that focused

on key environmental factors and enabled a quick re-

action to the people’s need for reconstruction, while

keeping the negative effects on the environment to

a minimum. All the projects for the quarrying of sand

and gravel were carefully checked for controls on the

removal of sand and gravel from the river which could

have resulted in altering of the course of rivers leading

to flooding, landslides etc. The goal was to make those

responsible aware of possible damage to the environ-

ment, while offering possible solutions.

Thus to ensure that environmental considerations

are addressed and incorporated into the development

process, to anticipate and minimize environmental

impacts of development proposals, to protect the pro-

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 31

ductivity and capacity of ecological systems and to

promote development that is sustainable and optimiz-

es the resource in best possible way there is a need for

EIA in Disaster preparedness and Management

Key words: environmental impact assessment, recov-

ery strategy, ecological systems

ESEIA-6

Floods in Gorakhpur: Applying EIA to Risk MitigationRicha Arya, M. YunusDepartment of Environmental Science, Babasaheb Bhimrao

Ambedkar (A Central) University, Lucknow (U.P.)

Anil K. Gupta

National Institute of Disaster Management, New Delhi

The Gorakhpur district, a district in the eastern Ut-tar Pradesh, covers area of 3,483.8 square kilometres. Situated on the bank of rivers Rapti and Rohini, rivers originated from Himalayan foothills and the north-east-ern India influenced by the summer monsoon causing heavy rains during June – September, and the glaciers provide their greatest amount of water to the river dur-ing the this period. Floods in these regions are not new. Several part of the district is affected annually. Drainage congestion due to environmental degradation, land-use changes and deposition of silt in the channels aggravat-ed flood flows during monsoon season. Flooding in this region causes widespread loss of environment includ-ing agriculture, forests, soil, livestock, besides affecting habitations, infrastructure and thus, the human lives. Populations in rural area are living marginalised, below poverty and lack capacity to development flood resis-tance on their own. During and after flood the problems related to potable water, health, sanitation, water log-ging etc. make the situation worse. It usually takes more than two months period to return back into the normal routine life.

Impact of developmental projects, land-use chang-

es and environmental degradation has not only ag-gravated the impact of climate-change implications and disasters particularly flood, but also caused new hazards for water and climate related disasters. Thus, impact assessment approach is expected to be help-ful in understanding the phenomenon of risk building for flood disasters in the pre-disaster context. On the other hand, various mitigation measures – structural or non-structural, need to be screened for their ecologi-cal and economic compatibility where EIA plays a vital role. Rapid EIA of post-disaster situation helps in quick understanding of environmental needs, response, relief and recovery plan from environmental angle, which is very important for ensuring sustainability in livelihoods, health, agriculture and long-term sustainable develop-ment. Present paper examines the case of Gorakhpur flood from angle of applying EIA to the three stages of flood disaster management – risk analysis, mitigation and post-disaster, in order to develop a prototype for EIA application in flood disaster management in India.

ESEIA-7

Vulnerability of critical infrastructures towards natural hazardsClaudia Bach

In the light of climate change, temperature and precipitation weather patterns are changing in inten-sity and duration. Additionally, the number of extreme weather events including heat waves/droughts, storms, heavy precipitation and flooding (due to sea level rise) is increasing. At the same time, an increasing number of persons and values is being affected by such events due to socio economic changes such as urbanization, popula-tion growth or economic growth. However, the accumu-lation of values and population in urban (hazard prone) areas also involves infrastructures that have to be built to allow the functioning of such urban areas. Thus, in case of a hazardous event, these infrastructures can be affected, too.

32 | Abstracts

Besides the accumulation of infrastructures in urban areas, the mentioned socio-economic changes (also in-cluding globalization and technological changes) require increasingly complex systems of infrastructures that de-pend on each other as for example in the case of elec-tricity and information and communication technology (ICT). In parallel, an increasing number of infrastructures is being operated by privately owned companies which challenges the governance of these complex systems.

These developments make it necessary to have a closer look at the vulnerability of infrastructure services towards natural hazards and effects on the population affected in case of their black-out. Especially due to the fact that critical infrastructures and electricity supply in particular built the backbone of developed and devel-oping (urban) societies. Many sectors such as transport, health services and the economy depend on electricity and society. In case of a major black-out, neither banks nor electric light would work and stations as well as air-ports would face chaotic situations. At the same time, population and economy are highly dependent on the functioning of these services. Nevertheless, there have been few attempts to assess the vulnerability of critical infrastructures.

Developing a comprehensive assessment for infra-structures based on the understanding that vulnerability can be described as a function of exposure, susceptibil-ity and coping capacity, two steps have to be taken into account: First, the vulnerability of certain infrastruc-ture systems has to be evaluated. Second, the depen-dency of other systems and the population in case of infrastructure failure has to be assessed. The first step encompasses the physical assessment of components and their meaning for the whole process. It has to be identified whether components are exposed to certain hazards, if they would be affected by it and if they could technically and organizationally be replaced. Among these steps the whole system can be assessed. The sec-ond step comprises the assessment of a failures impact and interdependencies between different services and the population. At this stage especially mismatches be-tween demand and supply play an important role.

Referring to these steps, the paper will introduce potentials and limits of vulnerability assessments of

critical infrastructures and will introduce an approach to capture second- and third-order effects (for heat waves) which can be used for improvements in the planning process when developing infrastructure supply systems but also for improving disaster risk management by tak-ing effects of infrastructure failure into account.

ESEIA-8

Groundwater Management During Disasters In IndiaK. J. Anandha KumarAssociate Professor, National Institute of Disaster Management, New DelhiE-mail: kjanand@gmail.com

The disasters events that occurred in the last

three decades in India have also affected the water re-

sources of the respective areas in various ways, some

times in a deteriorating way, initiating response from

the stake holders of the area. So far, the action of these

stake holders in general, have been, playing the role

of a responder to the disaster. The learning from these

experience can be utilized for coping with such future

events. The Groundwater plays a vital role to restore

water supply in an area affected by disaster, especially

during the recovery and rehabilitation period. The ex-

perience of impact of disaster on groundwater regime and its management are discussed in this paper. The sci-entific knowledge of occurrence and movement of this precious, invisible resource through various hydrogeo-logical surveys, exploration and monitoring will help to protect and utilize this resource at the time of disaster. Further, in the changing scenario with paradigm shift in disaster management policy towards disaster pre-paredness from that of responsive role, the experience gained, knowledge, expertise and data base available, can help achieve the reduction of the impact of the di-saster by protecting the available fresh water sources and restoring the of potable water supply with minimal loss of time.

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 33

ESEIA-9

Waste Management and Disposal Services Integral Part of Relief MeasuresG Ravi (Indian Navy)Officer in Charge NBCD School, INS Shivaji, Lonavala – 410402,

Maharastra

Large quantities of waste is generated during nat-

ural calamities, it is both a threat to public health and

also hinders rescue and relief efforts. Waste generated

during disasters can be categorized under the follow-

ing broad classifications: a) Waste and debris as conse-

quence of calamity / disasters and b) Waste generated

by effected personnel at relief camps / disaster site

Natural calamities Tsunami, earthquake, cyclones,

draught, floods will generally result in localized gener-

ation of rubble, earth and vegetation. Man-Made Disas-

ters Industrial Accidents, sabotage and CBRN incidents

are potentially far reaching and will involve wastes

which are incident specific and can be far reaching in

extent , scale and duration.The extent of waste gen-

erated on account of a natural calamity or manmade

disaster cannot be predicted accurately. However the

waste generated on account of human activity post

disaster at site and relief camps can be minimized by

a well thought out disaster response plan and its ef-

ficient implementation, which is specific to an area and

type of disaster.

This paper will discuss the impact of disaster

waste on the environment and society with particu-

lar emphasis to our country. Also impact of incidents

such as the collision/ grounding of shipping, accidents

offshore resulting from oil exploration / extraction,

industrial accidents / possible sabotage will also be

examined.

Further measures to mitigate the effects of waste

generated post disaster through preparedness and ef-

ficient delivery of relief and rehabilitation measures

will be examined. This will put into perspective our

present relief and response model towards handling

disaster waste.

34 | Abstracts

NRMDRM-1

Sustainable Coastal Protection and Alternative Livelihood Option through Bamboo BioshieldsThara K.GHead , Disaster Management Centre and Member, State Disaster Management Authority, Government of Kerala.

The colossal destruction, loss of lives and liveli-

hoods which India faced during the 2004 Tsunami

emphasised the need for an integrated coastal zone

management and an Integrated Coastal Zone Man-

agement Plan (ICZMPs) in the coastal zones. The state

of Kerala (India) , which is surrounded on all the three

sides by the sea has a unique status in that it has a

very long sea coast ( 587 Km) , which hosts a very high

population (2000-3000/ km2 in a small geographical

area ( 38698 km2) and). About 800000 fishermen folk

live in this dynamic area of tsunami, flood and cyclone

disasters. As structural measures are prohibitively ex-

pensive and severely damage the natural beauty of the

beaches, promotion of non structural measures such

as development of green belts are increasingly becom-

ing more the order of the day. Mangroves and other

coastal forests have the limitation that they do not

grow in all soil and climatic conditions. Promotion of

bamboo cultivation as the bio-shield for coastal pro-

tection has the multi-faceted advantages of enhancing

employment opportunity and livelihood security of

the vulnerable communities. It also has an economic

imperative that it can revive and promote the tradi-

tional sector of bamboo based cottage and small or

large –scale industries, handicrafts etc. Cultivation of

bamboo trees along the coastal belt will also provide

food, ecological , livelihood and economic security to

rural artisans and industrial workers. Owing to the wide

adaptability of bamboo to various climatic conditions,

and soil types and its role as an effective carbon sink, a

slow and sustainable shift towards bamboo should en-

couraged. Durability of bamboo against wind, cyclone

and earthquakes also supports its wide use in disaster

resistant construction activities , concrete reinforcing

etc and can also serve as a tool for employment & I in-

come generation.

Key words: integrated coastal zone management,

bio-shield, coastal protection

NRMDRM-2

Water Harvesting Based Sustainable Farming System to Alleviate Drought

R.K. SahuDean, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering,

K.K. SahuProfessor, Department of Soil Science & Agril. Chemistry. Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur (Chhattisgarh)

Micro level water harvesting through farm

ponds and shallow dug wells has been proved to be

the drought proofing technology in watershed proj-

ects in Chhattisgarh and is found to be capable of re-

Thematic Session 5

Natural Resources Management - Linkage to Disaster Risk Management

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 35

ducing migration from the area as a result of in-season

droughts. Disasters like floods and droughts are the

major risk to sustainable agriculture and livelihood of

small and marginal farmers. Wide dissemination and

adoption of micro level water harvesting can be ac-

celerated by proper identification and evaluation of

potential areas for its use. Recent studies have estab-

lished that on-faSrm reservoirs and shallow dug wells

are economically viable and scale-neutral, to store and

conserve rainwater to alleviate drought and intensify

cropping. This system is generally i.e. it is suitable for

large as well as small farm. The present study was un-

dertaken in 4 micro watersheds of 1-2 ha size covering

Plains and Plateau areas of Chhattisgarh with the ma-

jor objectives to investigate the techno-economic fea-

sibility of runoff harvesting and its use for improving

the existing rainfed farming systems. In Chhattisgarh,

where average rainfed farm size is about 1.79 ha, the

average size of SFR is 2000 m3. About 10-12% land is

used for the reservoir construction, with 2.6 m depth.

It provides supplemental irrigation to entire rice farm

(1.5 ha) in wet season and meets the water require-

ments of about 40% of the farm for growing second

crop in post monsoon season. In addition, farmers

grow fish in the reservoir. Benefits from the use of res-

ervoir water for rice and fish productions in the two

seasons are higher than the investment needed for

reservoir construction. Alternative designs of small

farm reservoirs were attempted at four levels of prob-

ability viz. 80, 75, 60 and 50% of rainfall and runoff.

Evapotranspiration of crops were estimated, to work

out the water demand of crops for the expected de-

sign length of dry spells besides other factors. Similarly

alternate designs of drainage system were attempted

at four levels of recurrence intervals of daily maximum

runoff viz. 1.25, 1.33, 1.66 and 2 years. Crop perfor-

mance as a result of irrigation from reservoir and shal-

low dug wells were evaluated. The fish rearing in SFR

was introduced to enhance the overall productivity of

the production system. Considering water allocation

to different crop activity, optimal crop area and water

allocation model for maximizing net returns was made.

Optimal crop plans were formulated under 3 different

cases of crop area constraints with available water and

land. The study revealed that the B/C ratio was highest

(2.33-2.78) in reservoirs designed at 80% probability

of rainfall and runoff and it is very much comparable

to irrigated farming. The highest B/C ratio (2.49-2.78)

was found in the case when there was no restriction

on choice and area of crops, followed by the case (B/C

ratio 2.40-2.58) when there was restriction on rice area

(at least 15-20%). It was lowest in the third case (B/C

ratio 2.33-2.50) where farmers had strong affinity to

rice (at least 25-30%). The adoption of technology in-

creased B/C ratio (1.06-1.16 to 2.33-2.78) in reservoirs

designed at 80% probability of rainfall and runoff. The

cropping intensity increased from 70% to 200% after

adoption of this system. The economic analysis con-

ducted at Philippines on similar system, have shown

high returns (B/C ratio: 5.1, IRR:177%).

Key words: SFR: Small Farm Reservoir, B/C: Benefit Cost,

IRR: Internal Rate of Return.

NRMDRM-3

Land & Water Management Strategies for Drought and Flood ProofingK.K. SahuProfessor Deptt. of Soil Science & Agril. Chemistry,

R.K. SahuDean, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering IGKV, Raipur (Chhattisgarh)

India is one of the most disaster prone countries

of the world. Drought is a perennial and recurring fea-

ture in many parts of India. According to reports (Govt.

of India) about 68% of the country is prone to drought.

Drought leads to large-scale migration in search of al-

ternative livelihoods, loss of human life due to stress,

suicide, starvation or unhygienic conditions, and in-

creased social conflict. The emphasis, therefore, has to

move towards simple technologies to harness rainwa-

ter, against the large-scale exploitation of rivers and

groundwater through dams and tube-wells. Drought

and floods in India are a perennial phenomenon, re-

36 | Abstracts

curring with regular consistency every few years.

Rural Chhattisgarh is passing through an eco-

nomic crisis. Majority of the population(>60%) is still

dependent on agriculture for their livelihood . As a

result of population pressure on the land resources

to produce more and to bring un-culturable land into

cultivation. About 1.18 M ha of land in Chhattisgarh

(8.74% of geographical area) have been identified as

wastelands (Wasteland Atlas- 2005, MoRD). In addition

to these wastelands about 0.35 M ha of agricultural

lands are marginally productive, where agriculture

is generally uneconomical. The problems associated

with wastelands development can be grouped into

policy, management and technical aspects which

needs careful address of these issues.

After nearly three decades of satisfactory agricul-

tural growth, both production and productivity has

been stagnating during last 10 years. To overcome

the problems extending the technological gain to

new areas, particularly eastern India and dry farm-

ing areas. Eastern India has the largest untapped

production reservoir in agriculture. The strategy of

developing natural resources base such as land, soil

and water to ensure sustainable production and

productivity through watershed management pro-

gramme. ICRISAT’s experience in rainfed areas has

clearly demonstrated that more than water quantity

per se management of water resources is the limita-

tions in SAT (Wani et.al. 2003a). In Chhattisgarh state

77 per cent cropped area depends on rainfall for sup-

ply of moisture. Although the region receives high

amounts of rainfall annually (1200-1600mm), bulk of

precipitation occurs in high intensity storms of very

short duration. The water so received is prom to run-

off, seepages and percolation losses much faster than

its uptake by crops. This causes drought and flood

situation in the state. Situation is accelerated in case

of upland and barren Bhata land situations. Chhattis-

garh has a dense network of untapped perennial and

seasonal Nala/riverlets/streams/rivers. These are ma-

jor bottlenecks that have hindered growth in agricul-

tural productivity and farm income. Appropriate land

and water management strategies can be adopted to

mitigate these problems.

NRMDRM-4

Protection Of Mangroves And Related Species – A Natural Care To Avert The Damage Of TsunamiG. Vedanthadesikan, Senior Assistant Professor, Centre for Rural Development, Annamalai Univrsity, Annamalai Nagar email: drgvdesikan@gmail.com, profgvdesikan@rediffmail.com

P. MurugesanAssistant Professor, Centre for Rural Development, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar 608 002 email: palanivelmurugesan@gmail.com

Right from 2004 people of the world, particularly

people residing near the Coastal area are fearing

about the Tsunami, a natural and manmade disas-

ter. This not only takes the lives of human being and

also affects the livestock, cultivable land, drink-

ing water etc. Whenever there is an earth quake

occurred in the sea/ocean (epicenter) there is a

possibility of Tsunami. Now days, the warning system

is available and alert the countries which are at the

risk of Tsunami. In the context of developing coun-

tries, the warning system is an advance one. Due the

availability of this system, the tsunami cannot be pre-

vented or averted and at the same time the damage

could be reduced. Here reduction of damage means,

one can alert the people and make them to go to the

safest place. Tsunami. In the context of developing

countries, the warning system is an advance one. Due

the availability of this system, the tsunami cannot

be prevented or averted and at the same time the

damage could be reduced. Here reduction of damage

means, one can alert the people and make them to go

to the safest place. But the damage of buildings and

other things cannot be averted. (For example, on 10th

March Japan was totally collapsed by Tsunami,

though they have well built Tsunami Warning Sys-

tem). But due to the absence of mangrove/relat-

ed species, the complete coastal area, where the

developed systems are existing have been destroyed

completely The nature itself creates Tsunami and

other natural disasters. And at the same time it gives

the natural solution also. The mangrove forests which

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 37

are existing at Sundarban (West Bangal) and Picha-

varam (Tamil Nadu) and Carnicobar Islands (Andaman)

reduced the damage of Tsunami. It is witnessed

during the 2006 Tsunami. Where the Mangrove for-

ests are in dense, there the Killer waves are the blocked

by the mangroves, where the Mangrove was cleared

or removed by the human, there the people paid their

lives. Where the Mangroves or the related species are

not available there it can be grown. Now, the M.S

Swminathan Research Foundation are under taking

this project. Hence, in this paper an attempt is made to

explain the how the mangroves could be grown so as

to prevent the damage of Tsunami.

NRMDRM-5

Flood Management in GBM Basin: A Mechanism for Natural Resource Management between Co-RiparianPriyanka MallickPhD Student, South Asian Studies, School of International Studies, JNU.

Floods are an integral part of the inherent variabil-

ity of nature. It is an attribute of the physical environ-

ment and thus is an important component of hydro-

logical cycle of a drainage basin. It plays a major role

in replenishing freshwater resources, recharging wet-

lands and groundwater and supporting agriculture and

fishery systems, thereby making flood plains preferred

areas for human settlement and various economic ac-

tivities. However, floods have negative impacts as well,

such as on lives, livelihoods and economic activities and

in extreme cases they cause devastation. The way we

deal with floods co-determines whether water remains

a life-providing element or becomes a destructive force

against human life and economic development. Flood

hazards and disasters are the products of an interac-

tion between environmental and social, economic and

political processes. Disasters as multi-dimensional and

all encompassing occurrences influence every aspects

of human life. So a multi-dimensional approach, related

with the newly emerging concept of Integrated Flood

Management (IFM) should be analysed. The Ganga-

Brahmaputra-Meghana (GBM) basin is a major source

region of floods. Due to the excessive water flow in the

monsoon months in these three rivers, the people of

the riparian countries suffer from untold miseries due

to the occurrence of floods almost every year. Geo-

graphically the region is integrated. However, politically

this is the parts of different countries like India, Nepal,

Bhutan, and Bangladesh. Individual efforts of each

country to mitigate the flood hazards by adopting pre-

ventive measures did not prove much effective. Hence,

a region-wide integrated approach based on compre-

hensive data sharing and joint modeling and scenario

development efforts among the GBM countries would

be highly useful in managing floods and mitigating its

impacts in all the regional countries.

Key words: Integrated Flood Management, integrated

approach, riparian countries

NRMDRM-6

Strengthening Adaptation Capacities and Minimizing Risks of Vulnerable Coastal Communities Ashish Chaturvedi & Rachna AroraGIZ-ASEM,e-mail: ashish.chaturvedi@giz.de, Rachna.arora@giz.de

Adaptation to climate change requires commu-

nity-based, integrated and innovative solutions that

simultaneously address livelihood improvements and

environmental sustainability. Measures focusing on

preparedness for climate change and related disasters

will enhance proofing of communities and thus con-

tribute to livelihood security and poverty alleviation.

With this view, GIZ-ASEM implemented an adaptation

project, financed by the German Ministry of Develop-

ment Cooperation (BMZ) in the two Indian states of

38 | Abstracts

Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in the second half of

2010. The main goal was increasing the resilience of

local communities to current and projected climate

impacts. To achieve the goal, in addition to capacity

development measures, the project developed local

adaptation guides and implemented selected mea-

sures identified in the guides.

To develop the guides and identify adaptation

measures to be implemented, the project used the local

knowledge, together with scientific evidence and tools.

One such tool, the Klimalotse or the climate Navigator,

has recently been developed by the German Federal

Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt). The modular

Klimalotse has five parts that start from an introduction

about climate change and then in distinct steps move to-

wards the development of a strategy for climate change

adaptation. The interim steps include the identification

of risks and opportunities as well as the development of

potential measure to overcome them. It is important to

note that the audience for the Klimalotse are the heads of

environmental departments at companies and munici-

palities, who would like to make a self assessment on a

basic level. They get introduced into the topic of climate

change and then have to work through various parts of

the navigator by themselves.

The project adapted the Klimalotse to the context of

coastal communities in India by following a moderated

approach. The communities were supported in the vari-

ous steps of developing the local adaptation guides by

facilitators who were trained on the Klimalotse method-

ology by the project team. Further, due to the paucity of

scientific data, the risks and opportunities were mainly

based on the local community knowledge which was also

collated with the support of the same facilitators. Finally,

the communities were guided through the perceived

risks and identify pilot measures which could potentially

overcome the risks. The pilot initiatives were proposed by

the villages, then refined, planned and implemented with

assistance of the project team. Projects include elevating

a piped causeway to flood-proof it, renovating irrigation

bunds and desalinating soil as well as fortifying a fresh-

water reservoir against coastal erosion.

Keywords: Adaptation, climate change, coastal erosion.

NRMDRM-7

Ecosystem Approach to Disaster risk ReductionSunanda DeyResearch Scholar,Delhi Universitysunandadey2010@gmail.com

Natural disasters are increasing in frequency

and quantum day by day. For better preparedness

for and mitigation of impacts of disasters, disas-

ter risk reduction measures play critical role. The

ecosystem approach of indigenous communities

makes them resilient towards future disasters. The

ecosystem approach helps to manage resource

use more effectively and contribute to reducing

the risk and impact of disasters. It is a strategy for

the integrated management of land, water and

living resources that promotes conservation and

sustainable use in an equitable way. The indig-

enous communities all over the world are perfect

example from whom we can learn to utilize natural

resources more efficiently, in harmony with nature

leading to sustainable development. Humans are

an integral part of the ecosystem. Ecosystems are

closely linked with social systems such that people

receive substantial benefits of food, fiber, habita-

tion, tourism, climate moderation, flood reduction

etc. Endangering the ecosystems would impact

humans leading to their increased vulnerability

to natural disasters. Sustainable indigenous disas-

ter risk reduction measures reduce the impact of

hazard exposure and make the community ready

to bear the consequences more effectively. The

Mishing community affected by annual floods in

Brahmaputra river in Assam, with their indigenous

cultural practices have shown an example of living

with risk. The incorporation in development policy

and planning of such practices shall be highly ap-

preciable and a move towards more sustainable

development living.

Keywords : ecosystem approach, conservation, indig-

enous cultural practices

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 39

NRMDRM-8

Urbanisation, Water Scarcity and Climate Change: A Case from Rajasthan with Global ImplicationsM. S. RathoreSarah Opitz-Stapleton, Shashikant Chopde and Marcus Moench

The world is rapidly urbanising. At a global level,

over 50% of the world’s population already resides in

cities and urban areas, which have become the primary

engines of economic development (UN-Habitat 2009).

Migration into urban areas is high, as populations re-

spond both to the opportunities they present and the

pressures inherent in highly uncertain rural, agricultural

livelihoods. Yet, how solid is the foundation upon which

urbanisation rests? In many parts of the world, the basic

resources, such as water, required for burgeoning urban

populations are increasingly polluted, in limited supply

and facing intense competition from multiple users. Cli-

mate change is likely to substantially exacerbate the mul-

tiple challenges of providing adequate water resources

to urban populations and protecting ecosystems.

Fluctuating weather patterns - changes in temper-

ature, precipitation and other climatic variables - could

fundamentally affect the availability and quality of the

water supplies that are central to the survival of urban

areas. Many migrants from rural areas to urban areas

are already pushed to leave their homes by depleted

or degraded water resources and weather variabil-

ity. As the frequency and intensity of climate related

hazards, such as floods or droughts, changes, the rate

of migration from rural to urban areas is likely to in-

crease and further stretch the ability of urban areas to

supply water to their populations (Bordalo and Savva-

Bordalo 2007; Drechsel et al. 2007; Satterthwaite 2008).

Furthermore, because transitions to urban livelihoods

are pulsed and dynamic, urban water supply needs are

difficult to project and many populations remain un-

served by municipal systems. The problem is threefold:

� To project and define the relationship between cli-

matic and water resource conditions on one side

and likely population pulses between urban, peri-

urban and rural areas on the other side;

� To ensure clean and safe water supplies are physi-

cally available that can meet the changing needs

of migrants for domestic and livelihood uses; and

� To deliver supplies to vulnerable (often transient)

populations, particularly in areas that are not

served by formal piped systems.

Addressing the above problem in a way that cat-

alyzes attention and action requires approaches to

research that actively engage key private, public and

non-government actors. It also requires evaluation of

current policies and projects governing the provision

of water supplies to migrant populations.

Jaipur city in Rajasthan, India, represents a micro-

cosm of the dilemma faced by many urban areas. Rural

to urban migration rates are high and the city is grow-

ing rapidly, with settlement occurring both in the urban

centre and the surrounding peri-urban areas. Water

supplies are limited and often of low quality. Ground-

water mining over many decades has heavily drawn

down, and in some cases depleted, aquifers at both lo-

cal and district scales. The impacts of over-pumping are

further compounded by pollution and degradation of

recharge areas. These impacts are of particular concern

in the rapidly expanding peri-urban area surround-

ing Jaipur, where changes in land use are eliminating

groundwater recharge zones and sewage and commer-

cial effluents are discharged untreated. Surface water

sources are heavily developed. Bisalpur Dam, designed

to become the principal source of Jaipur’s municipal

water supply from 2010 onward, has only filled nine

times since it became operational in 1994 (Department

of Irrigation, Sechai Bhawan JLN Marg Jaipur 2010).

Rainfall distribution is spatially uneven throughout

the Banas River Basin, the river that feeds Bisalpur Dam,

and is highly variable. Approximately, 90% of the annual

precipitation falls in July-September as the basin lies at

the northwestern fringe of the South Asian Monsoon.

The basin is bounded by the Aravalli Range on the west,

which creates two rainfall zones in the area upstream of

Bisalpur Dam. One zone receives an annual average of

805mm and the other only 614mm. Sequential drought

years are common and some, such as 2000-2003 in

40 | Abstracts

which rainfall decreased almost 60%, are severe. The ex-

treme recent drought events resulted in a marked flight

from the rural areas to Jaipur city, and a significant draw-

down in groundwater. Slight changes in the dynamics

of the monsoon system as a result of climate change,

whether through general shifts in the starting date,

changes in overall rainfall amount and/or through rain

events becoming less frequent but more intense, could

have drastic implications for Jaipur’s water availability.

Given Jaipur’s dependence on this one source for much

of its water supply, any disruption could undermine one

of the most essential resources required for any city to

sustain itself – a secure source of water supply.

Jaipur’s potential vulnerability to climate change

and rapid population growth typifies that of many cit-

ies. The case study of Jaipur city provides an analysis of

the dynamic changes occurring in one specific location,

and at the same time, as shedding light on issues that

will be faced by many cities globally. Statistical down-

scaling of climate change scenarios to produce future

rainfall projections between 2009 – 2040 and Model-

ling and analysis of Jaipur’s current and future water

supply vulnerability through an integrated water re-

source software, the Water Evaluation and Planning

(WEAP) software developed by the Stockholm Environ-

ment Institute (SEI) were the tools used in the study.

A baseline characterization of Jaipur’s water sup-

ply context based on the above analysis was evaluated

and used to develop potential future scenarios of wa-

ter supply, demand, and migration patterns. Plausible

demand and supply-side scenarios were then devel-

oped and tested in an integrated water resource mod-

el to evaluate their ability to provide water to Jaipur’s

burgeoning population under various migration and

climate change scenarios.

Analysis of Jaipur’s water supply system highlights

the fundamental fragility of one of the basic systems

upon which the future of the urban area and the liveli-

hood and wellbeing of its residents depend. Both his-

torical experiences and modelling results highlight the

high possibility of sequential drought years in which

the current water supply system would fail severely to

meet the basic needs of urban residents. The ability to

respond to this situation is heavily undermined by the

unavailability, inaccessibility and lack of neutrality in

key data sets. Official estimates of water supply avail-

ability in key facilities, such as the Bisalpur dam, differ

by as much as two orders of magnitude depending

upon the data source. The uncertainties inherent in cli-

mate change projections further undermine the abil-

ity of key actors at the city level to adequately project

water supply availability for burgeoning urban popula-

tions in the future. Reliable quantitative estimates of

future stream flow are impossible to generate based

on currently available data and, even if substantial im-

provements in data availability and neutrality could be

assured, would remain limited due to uncertainties in

climate, demographic changes, and livelihood shifts.

The peri-urban areas surrounding the city are

both a major source of vulnerability and potential ar-

eas where innovations could transform Jaipur’s water

supply future. Land uses and institutions are changing

rapidly in these regions as migrants settle or cycle back

and forth between their rural homes and the city, and

urban forms of economic activity emerge. On one level,

these contribute heavily to degradation of the ecosys-

tems and local water resource base. On another level,

as institutions and water uses change, the peri-urban

areas are points of dynamic change where many of the

rigidities that have blocked innovative approaches to

water management in both rural and established ur-

ban areas are less entrenched. The common rule of

thumb is that 80% of India’s urban areas have yet to

be built (ISET 2010). This maxim applies as well in the

peri-urban areas surrounding Jaipur, which will likely

become part the future urban core. If key groundwa-

ter recharge areas can be protected in these areas, if

innovative and efficient water supply systems can be

established and if water quality can be protected, then

Jaipur’s future as city that is resilient to climate change

and other disruptions may be possible to ensure. The

future depends on the peri-urban regions and the

opportunities for change that may be inherent in the

transitions they are now undergoing. Understanding

these opportunities and developing mechanisms to

work with and take advantage of them is a fundamen-

tal challenge to building urban resilience.

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 41

NRMDRM-9

Developing Effective Storm Water Drainage Systems Plan for Flood Management in the City Anjana VyasFaculty of Geomatics and Space Applications, CEPT University, Ahmedabad - 380009, Email: anjanavyas@cept.ac.in

With rapidly increasing concentration of popula-

tion, economic activity, infrastructure and critical facil-

ities, the cities of Asia represent greater vulnerability

to disasters. Damage from floods has been increasing

in most countries. Floods are the most destructive

because they occur most frequently. Floods are ex-

cessive accumulations or flows of water which result

from heavy rainfall, cyclones, snow melt, high tides or

other causes, such as dam burst, embankment failure.

Although flooding is primarily a natural phenomenon

and occurs from time to time in all rivers and natural

drainage systems, human interventions such as de-

forestation, poorly developed land drainage systems,

greater agricultural land use and rapid urbanization

have exacerbated the occurrence and severity of

flood disasters. Mitigation offers the best and most

cost-effective approach to deal with floods.

Urban flood are of a different nature. It is an accu-

mulation of the rain water and parts of the city gets in-

undated for several days to a few hours. The impacts of

urban floods are widespread, but can include tempo-

rary relocation of people, risk of diseases, deteriorated

water quality and damage to infrastructure, crops,

buildings and vehicles. This paper emphasises on ur-

ban flood mapping, integrating storm water drainage

system with the rain fall, its intensity and time of con-

centration, based up on this the requirement of the

storm water drainage in the city identified.

This includes the use of remote sensing and GIS,

the scenario building of the flood occurrences as the

impact of varied rainfall intensities, the storm water

pipe lines, calculation of runoff and carrying capac-

ity, the identification of the deficit of storm water

lines, the identification of flood impact zones and

vulnerable land use. The model building is being car-

ried out using GIS.

NRMDRM-10

Ecological Social and Technological Dimensions of Resource Management for Reducing Disaster RiskA. K, Choudhary, DIRD, GGSIP, University, Delhi, Charulata, Swaimprabha IITT, PTU, Jalandhar.E.mail – anil5dird@gmail.com

Disasters are not random and do not occur by

accident. They are the convergence of hazards and

vulnerable conditions. Disasters not only reveal un-

derlying social, economic, political and environmen-

tal problems, but unfortunately contribute to wors-

ening them. Such events pose serious challenges to

development, as they erode hard-earned gains in

terms of political, social and educational progress,

as well as infrastructure and technological develop-

ment. Several studies have recently highlighted the

fact that investments in development are in jeopardy

unless precautionary action is taken toward reduc-

ing disaster risk Environmental degradation, settle-

ment patterns, livelihood choices and behaviour can

all contribute to disaster risk, which in turn adversely

affects human development and contributes to fur-

ther environmental degradation. The poorest are the

most vulnerable to disasters because they are often

pushed to settle on the most marginal lands and

have least access to prevention, preparedness and

early warning. In addition, the poorest are the least

resilient in recovering from disasters because they

lack support networks, insurance and alternative live-

lihood options.

The proliferation of new technologies and pro-

cesses for managing natural resources, including new

knowledge of the ecological, social and cultural di-

mensions of resource management, presents many

opportunities for reducing disaster risk.

42 | Abstracts

NRMDRM-11

Variability of the Thermohaline Structure in the Gauthami-Godavari EstuaryThota V. Narasimha RaoDeputy Director, National Institute of Oceanography,E-mail: tvnrao@nio.org, tvnrao@yahoo.com

Observations of temperature and salin-

ity made during December, 1989 to October,

1990 at four anchor stations have been uti-

lized to describe the thermohaline structure in

the Gauthami-Godavari Estuary. The thermo-

haline distribution is dominated by the pres-

ence of two intrusions of cold high saline water

into the area at the bottom. The intrusion of cold

water (26.90C) of high salinity (32.8x10-3) was

maximally developed during April. This intru-

sion of cold high salinity water during April may

be due to upwelling into the estuary. Seasonal

variations in river flow caused marked changes

in the extent of salinity intrusion resulting in

vertical stratification. The upstream limit of the

mean position of the salinity intrusion is located

about 40 km from the mouth of the Gauthami-

Godavari River during low river discharge pe-

riod. The estuary could be classified as Type

A, a highly stratified or salt wedge estuary

during the flood season especially in the lower

reaches of the estuary and Type B, a partially

mixed estuary during the winter and dry sea-

sons. The estuary appears as a line on the

stratification-circulation diagram. Stratification

is stronger during the flood season than during

the winter and dry seasons. The stratification is

classed as Type 4 (Salt wedge) during the flood

season and Type 1b (Partially mixed) during the

winter and dry seasons.

Key words : Salinity intrusion, salt water

intrusion, salinity distribution, thermohaline

structure, Gauthami-Godavari Estuary, Gautha-

mi-Godavari River

NRMDRM-12

Disaster Risk Reduction in the Himalayan context - relationship between NRM and Community EngagementGargi Banerji and Sejuti Basu and Abhinaba ChakravartiPRAGYA

To share understanding of mountain environment is-

sues and strategies for DRR in view of increasing degrada-

tion of watersheds, and climate change impacts causing

increasing intensity / frequency of floods and landslides,

water scarcity and livelihood challenges in the cold desert

areas in the Himalayas and come out with concrete steps

for the way forward.

A four pronged approach involving a) field work

across 56 micro watersheds in the Western Himalayas [Kin-

naur, Chamba in Himachal Pradesh] and Trans Himalayas

[Ladakh in J & K and Lahaul & Spiti in Himachal Pradesh] to

collect the necessary data for the study; b) a PRA initiative

covering 65 villages to understand the socio-economic

issues on the ground; c) a multi-stakeholder workshop

involving state agencies, academicians and community

participants to gain an understanding of the interplay of

various factors; d) Mix of various mitigation interventions

carried out across 7 pockets across the target areas.

Based on the study a model relating environment

threat and adaptive capacity has been developed. The pa-

rameters considered were a) altitude bands; b) eco-deg-

radation; c) anthropogenic pressure; d) resource stress;

e) climate change; and f ) disaster risk for the threat ele-

ments. For the adaptive capacity the parameters consid-

ered were a) resource availability; b) ecological balance is-

sues; c) development status. Deliberation by the working

groups at the workshop has resulted in a set of actionable

elements being identified for a) preparedness; b) adapta-

tion; c) relief and d) recovery. Field trials for a mix of in-

terventions relating to water, fodder, rangeland regenera-

tion and food security issues have provided the means for

scaling and replication. The first hand involvement with

the disaster relief efforts during the flash floods in Leh in

Aug ’10 and the learning has been integrated.

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 43

NRMDRM-13

Water Resource Management for DRR - A Case study of Bero Block, Jharkhand State, IndiaKiran JalemAssitant Professor, Disaster Management Centre (DMC), Shri Krishna Institute of Public

Purnima KumariAdministration Research Scholar, Ranchi University, Ranchi

A resource is any useful information, material

or service. Natural resources are the components

of the environment (i.e. atmosphere, hydrosphere

and lithosphere), which can be drawn upon for

supporting life. In other words, natural resources

are goods and services supplied by our environ-

ment (including sinks for wastes). These include

energy, mineral, land (soil), food, forest, water, at-

mosphere (air), plants and animals.

The whole world is conscious about the con-

servation of our earth resources (all resources natu-

rally present over earth). Actually all these resourc-

es are for the earth dwellers whether it is an ant

or an elephant. The human is major manipulator of

all these naturally occurring resources that may be

water, air, soil or minerals. Exhaustible resources are

the earth’s geologic endowments i.e. minerals, fos-

sil fuels, non-mineral resources and other materials

which are present in fixed amounts in the environ-

ment. Unlike renewable resources, non-renewable

resources are finite in quantity and quality.Inex-

haustible resources have the inherent ability to

reappear or replenish themselves by recycling,

reproduction or replacement. These renewable re-

sources include sunlight, plants, animals, soil, wa-

ter and living. Due to its great abundance, water is

generally a very inexpensive resource. Compared

with other natural resources, water is used in tre-

mendous quantities. On a global scale, total water

abundance is not the problem; the problem is wa-

ter’s availability in the right place at the right time

in the right form. Global water is unequally distrib-

uted. Precipitation is seasonal land, therefore, the

amount of water in inland bodies (surface and

ground water sources) is variable. Irregularity in

the duration and intensity of rainfall often causes

floods and droughts. Scarcity of fresh water results

in serious regional disparities.

Thus visualizing the needs of our future genera-

tions and the importance for present generations,

we should use our water resources quite carefully,

logically and ethically. Such an approach of use of

water resources from the concept of management

and conservation of water resources. Thus man-

agement and conservation mean scientific utiliza-

tion of resources while maintaining their sustained

yield and quality. The exploitation of subterranean

water reserves is contributing to desertification in

many parts of the world, and as the subterranean

water level recedes, the soil near the surface dries

out and plants wither and die. This has already hap-

pened in many parts of India. If deforestation and

the indiscriminate exploitation of subterranean wa-

ter reserves continue, it is likely that many parts of

the world will face severe water shortages. The day

is not so far when water crisis is going to be a issue

of civil war. So, the only way to avoid such a catastro-

phe is to immediately implement a decentralized

approach and a proper management for water con-

servation. Successful management of resources for

water to satisfy the changing human needs, while

maintaining or enhancing the quality and quantity

of water and conserving water resources.

This paper is drawn from the original site re-

search work of Bero Block, that is 30 km away from

the Ranchi City in the state of Jharkhand. Case

studies were undertaken looking into the aspects

of go-environmental, hydrological and the system

involving. Master plan provisions are taken, good

practices and lessons and the suggested strategies

have been covered. The problem and challenges

of Global Water Crisis that aggravate disasters like

flood and drought have been discussed in this pa-

per. The broad methodology includes digitization

of water resources and attribute addition is done

with the help of GIS based on the information col-

lected during the field survey.

44 | Abstracts

NRMDRM -14

Natural Resource Management Policy Implications on Disaster Risk Management Practices: Insights from North-East CambodiaKathlyn K. H. SumayloProject Manager, IOM Cambodia’s Building Resilience to Natural Hazards in North-East Cambodia e-mail: sumaylo.kathlynkissy@gmail.com

Located in the fertile Mekong River Basin, Cambo-

dia is one of the most disaster-prone areas in South-East

Asia (IOM, 2010; NCDM PDNA, 2010). The kingdom, con-

sidered a Least Developing Country, has very high vul-

nerability levels in terms of human development indices

(NCDM and WFP, 2003a; MoP and WFP, 2003b) and low

adaptive capacity of institutions, livelihoods, commu-

nities, and ecosystems to natural disasters and climate

change (Helmers and Jegillos, 2004; Yusuf and Francisco,

2009).Cambodia suffered from deep social and cultural

intergenerational trauma, economic stagnation, large

population displacements into the Thai borders and

movements outside of the country, and institutional

fragmentation as a result of nearly twenty years of civil

war from 1975 to 1991. Following the signing of the Paris

Peace Accords in October 1991, which gave then State

of Cambodia its first comprehensive political settlement,

the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia

(UNTAC), was formed under UN Security Resolution No.

745 to “lead peace restoration efforts, to hold free and

fair elections leading to a new constitution and to spear-

head the rehabilitation of the country” (UN website). The

holding of Cambodia’s first democratic elections under

the auspices of the UNTAC in 1993 also paved the way

for the foundations of decentralized governance. With

the completion of the post-conflict repatriation of dis-

placed Cambodians, the multi-donor integrated devel-

opment project phases, Cambodia Area Rehabilitation

and Regeneration Project (CARERE) 1 and 2 and the

Partnerships for Local Governance, shifted their focus

from emergency post-war recovery and rehabilitation

to a developmental approach. This new approach ad-

dresses Cambodia’s long-term challenges and needs for

institutional governance, planning systems, infrastruc-

ture and capacities delivered under the government

program SEILA. Natural resource management was a

key output under the program’s objective on poverty al-

leviation, alongside delivery of rural infrastructures and

de-mining. Community-based natural resource manage-

ment was the centrepiece of the SEILA/CARERE’s NRM

program in Ratanakiri Province to address communal

lands, forests and water resources management (UNDP

CARERE website). The program, which was piloted in

Ratanakiri Province in the north-eastern region and in

two north-western provinces, produced trained Depart-

ment of Environment staff in forest protection; 12 com-

munity forest pilots; formation of two Provincial Land

Use Planning committees; and issuance of 7,600 land ti-

tles. At the height of the SEILA program implementation,

the first policy stipulation for disaster risk management-

the National Committee for Disaster Management Policy

Paper- was also released in 1995. Insights presented in

the paper were drawn from the findings of IOM’s vul-

nerability assessments to natural hazards in Ratanakiri,

Mondulkiri and Stung provinces in 2009 and 2010,

NRMDRM -15

Ecosystem approach to Disaster Reduction: Case of agroecosystems and drought in India.Divya AgarwalAccurate Institute of Management & Technology, Applied Sciences & Humanities Department, Greater Noida. 201 306, (NCR) India.

Anil K GuptaNational Institute of Disaster Management, New Delhi, India.

Pressure on natural resources is tremendous to

fulfil the demands of exponentially rising population.

Biogeochemical processes of clean-up are under vari-

ety of obstructions. Ecosystem services are constantly

perturbed resulting in frequent occurrences of a list

of hazards. Due to increasing tremendous pressure on

land and water resource, one of the most vulnerable

ecosystems is agro-ecosystems. Major biophysical fac-

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 45

tors are Drought, excessive evaporation due to global

warming, reduced soil fertility and soil erosion and pest

attack. Growing High Yielding varieties which are irriga-

tion and chemical fertilizer intensive is an unsustainable

proposition with a high frequency of periods of Droughts

in India. Modern agricultural techniques also cause vari-

ous environmental hazards, which in turn reduce the eco-

system resilience. An example of sustainable agro-eco-

system is described in order to reduce the vulnerability

of crops towards associated disasters in farms and vice-

versa. An approach to healthy ecosystem dynamics in

order to ensure positive multidimensional interactions is

devised based on the feed-back mechanisms of the com-

ponents. Depending upon the topographical factors, nu-

tritional requirements of soil, temperature, humidity, rain-

fall and other abiotic & biotic components, sustainable

agroecosystems forms the basics of respective Disaster

Reduction Framework with benefits in social, economic

and environmental integrity. Mixed-cropping, crop-ro-

tation, contour farming, terrace farming, drip-irrigation,

strip cropping, mulching, gully reclamation, horticulture,

use of scare-crows, biopesticides, biofertilizers are the

traditional innovative techniques. Ecological interactions

once strengthened will generate gradual mutual positive

feed-back mechanisms, a sustainable approach towards

Disaster Reduction.

NRMDRM -16

Flood Risk Mitigation Measures for the River Indus in Leh Town Zainab JalisStudent, M. Tech. (Environmental Science and Technology), Department of Civil Engineering, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi

Amir Ali KhanAssistant Professor, NIDM, New Delhi

Sirajuddin Ahmed Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi

Due to its geo-climatic conditions and geo-

graphic location, the historic town of Leh, in Lada-

kh Region of Jammu and Kashmir, is highly prone

to natural hazards, which often converts into di-

sasters, sometimes of unprecedented nature. One

such disaster was faced by the town of Leh on Au-

gust 5, 2011in terms of flashflood resulting due to

cloud burst in the region. The impact of disaster

was very severe in the region due to exceptional

floods and lack of preparedness and mitigation

measures to handle such situations. The disaster

resulted in huge devastation in terms of human

lives lost and damage and destruction of physical

infrastructure.

The Indus River is the lifeline of the Ladakh

Region, which originates from a point near the

Mount Kailash and joined by a number of streams

and rivulets forming overall hydrological character

of the this Region. It flows south of Leh town, from

east to west. Its water is used for drinking, irriga-

tion and generation of power. In the north of Leh

town, rivulet namely Leh Nallah (Gangles Tokpo)

with its tributary streams form the natural drain-

age system with their own valley formation. The

Leh town has been growing in the Gangles valley.

Due to cloudburst, very high discharge in the

tune of 584 cum/sec was observed in the Leh Nal-

lah. The observed velocity of gushing water was

observed in the range of 7 – 20 m/s. The highest

flood level (HFL) in the Leh Nallah was GL+ 0.6 - 1.1

m along the various sections with average scour

depth varying from 1.1 - 2.9 m in habited areas.

High quantities of water entering the Nallah with

a very high speed resulted in devastating flash

flood, which swept away everything in its path. To

meet the challenge of flash floods in expending

town of Leh, a number of mitigation measures are

required to be taken up. The paper will attempt to

propose height of protection bunds to train the

river based on calculation of design discharge for

100 year return period with the help of extreme

value distribution function. Besides, the paper will

highlight other flood risk mitigation measures.

Further the paper will include channelization of

the Nallah and water storages to collect additional

amount of water during flashfloods.

46 | Abstracts

NRMDRM -17

Role of Water bodies in Climate-Disaster Resilience in Urban Areas

The Ramsar convention on wetland 1982, advocate

for conserving the wetlands of the country to maintain

the ecosystem. The increasing urban growth and esca-

lating demand of land and water has threatened the

existence of these water bodies. The Gorakhpur, located

in the tarai belt of Himalaya, is naturally endowed with

plenty of perennial freshwater ponds and lakes of dif-

ferent dimensions emerged by abandoned channels of

rivers. Ramgarh lake, one of the biggest in eastern Uttar

Pradesh, located in the south eastern part of the gora-

khpur city, plays an important role in the city’s drainage.

The waterbodies in the urban area enhance the water

holding capacity of the city in the disaster (floods) prone

city. The disposal of untreated domestic wastes dis-

charged into such water bodies, solid wastes dumping

on its banks, continuous encroachments due to increas-

ing land pressure etc are severely affecting the life of wa-

ter bodies including Ramgarh lake. Residents of several

localities depend on this water for their domestic needs.

Drinking and using the polluted water has affected the

health of these people. The lake plays an important role

in the city’s ecology and provides livelihoods to hun-

dreds of people living around. Ramgarh lake along with

103 other water bodies in the city are dying due to land

pressures and short term developmental policies. The

lake area has decreased from 1900 acres to 1700 acres in

last few decades and pollution level has crossed the per-

missible limit which severely affected only its flora and

fauna but snatches the livelihood of the people living

around it. Till the 1980s, there was considerable diversity

in the flora and fauna of the lake. Human interference

since then has affected both the fish, the fish trade and

those dependent on fishing for a living. Only a few fish

are saleable. Before 1980, there were 40 species of fish in

the lake. In 1990, 28 species were reported but by 2006

just 18 were reported existing. Commercially only three

indigenous species, rohu (Labeo rohita), catla (Gibelion

catla) and magur (Clarius batrachus) and three other hy-

brid varieties are found. Eight species have disappeared

and 14 are on the verge loss. Crabs, prawns and frogs too

are disappearing fast thereby affecting the overall ecol-

ogy of the lake and its sustainability.The present paper

argues that to enhance the resilience of cities like Gora-

khpur, to climate change and flood impacts, the natural

water ecosystems have to be protected and rejuvenated

through measures that include proper treatment of ef-

fluents (sewage) and solid waste management. The pa-

per also deals with the efforts of mobilized citizens of

Gorakhpur to save the lake and the approval of Govt of

India programme in this regard.

NRMDRM -18

Agroforestry model to improve economic and ecological viability in degraded tea lands in mid country of Sri LankaPrasad Dharmasena Department of Geography and Regional Development, University of Kashmir,Srinagar India

M.S.BhatDepartment of Geography and Regional Development, University of Kashmir,Srinagar India

Since the privatisation of most of the estates of

the plantation sector in Sri Lanka in 1994s profit mak-

ing became priority. This led to a rapid deterioration of

soil and other natural resources. However an exercise

on soil and environment conservation has been begun

by both the Tea Research Institute and Plantation Com-

panies in the country and understood the ill effects of

neglecting soil conservation, it is one of major reason

to decline annual income expected.

Soil is one of the most vital of our natural resources.

Together with water and air, it forms the very basis of life.

From the soil come food and other crops and plants that

provide medicine, clothing and so many other things we

need for daily life. And the retention of soil in its natural

condition and habitat prevents erosion, rivers and reser-

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 47

voirs silting and flooding this study was carried out in Wa-

tawala tea region of Sri Lanka. It is precious location envi-

ronmentally and geographically in respect of tea industry.

Otherwise, as a region the environmental impact

on the countries of the South Asia by soil erosion and

other forms of land degradation is all too familiar. Land

degradation causes $10 billion loss to South Asia annu-

ally. And soil erosion in marginal tea plantations con-

tributes $ 2.62 billion damage to south Asia annually as

a percentage it is 26.2% of total cost of erosion in the

region. So, this is not a regional issue, it became today

as a global economic and environmental issue. (FAO)

Agro forestry, which has direct and indirect ben-

efits to the user, is not only a soil conservation method,

but can be used as a system to increase economic vi-

ability of abandoned lands belonged to tea plantations

in Sri Lanka. This project has attempted to test the ap-

plication and viability to mid grown tea region of Sri

Lanka where steep slopes are the dominant landform.

In a period where conservation has become a

global activity, Sri Lanka should also make its contri-

bution to this global effort. This research attempts to

provide the reader with the importance of Agroforestry

in controlling soil erosion and environmental manage-

ment in Sri Lanka by analysing an Agroforestry model

which can be seen in Watawala Tea region.

Keywords: Soil erosion, economic viability, Agrofor-

estry, tea plantations

NRMDRM -19

Decentralized Solid Waste Management: The sole option of Urban Disaster ResilienceBK Singh and Shiraz A. WajihGorakhpur Environmental Action Group

The inevitable urban growth will increase the

heaps of solid waste in the city. The Gorakhpur city,

one of the fastest growing cities in the middle Ganga

plain, is experiencing unplanned development of ba-

sic urban system and poor waste management. At

present the Municipal Corporation Gorakhpur has not

operationalized any solid waste management plan in

the city. The city generates 350 tonnes of solid waste

daily. The whole garbage of the city is either dumped

into the low lands or remains on the road. This has led

its citizen a tough time in negotiating huge mounds

of garbage in going about their daily business. If it in-

creases with the same pace, then it is no doubt that

the load of solid waste will be ruinous to all- human,

animal and the entire ecosystem. This grim situation is

going to be aggravated due to climate change impact

including greater flood and water logging resulting in

a higher incidence of vector borne diseases.

In the vulnerability assessment conducted under

the ACCCRN (Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience

Network) process, it was revealed that the floods re-

lated city vulnerability is increasing due to three main

inter-related factors. The prevalence of open drains in

the city and non availability of solid waste manage-

ment cause the dumping of solid wastes in the open

drains and hence reducing the flow and water holding

capacity of drainage channels. The changing climate

characteristic are expected to exacerbate the vulner-

ability of the city by enahancing water logging and

vector and water borne diseases.

The present paper, based on the experiences of a

pilot project, will contribute to access the various fac-

tors that govern the sustenance of decentralized man-

agement of urban solid waste management. The com-

munity driven -and owned- model of the decentralized

solid waste management has proved to be a successful

model of community partnership in enhancing the ef-

fectiveness of basic services and contributing to reduce

the vulnerability of the city. The paper also highlights

the parameters about the technology and technical ex-

pertise, managerial influence, economic viability, com-

munity support including the socio-economic status

of the community and the influence of parallel gov-

ernment schemes. Our findings indicated that success

and long term sustainability of the model depends on

the sustenance parameters to a varying degree. It also

seeks out those factors that need to be addressed if the

system is replicated in other urban settings.

48 | Abstracts

NRMDRM -20

Disaster management in the Forestry Sector: Issues and ConcernsVRR SinghSilviculture Division, Forest Research Institute, Indian Council of Forest Research and Education, P.O. New Forest. Dehradun, 248006 e-mail: vrrsingh@icfre.org

Exponential increase in human population,

shrinkage in available forests and natural resources,

splurge in human activities in the field of agriculture,

industry and urbanization, has led to prolific habitat

loss and degradation, pollution, land use and land

cover change, and habitat fragmentation. This has

in turn led to a multifaceted disaster in the form of

extinction of species and populations, degradation

of ecosystems, erosion of genetic diversity and envi-

ronmental potential, loss of ecosystem services and

erosion of support for human societies. With 60% of

the Indian landmass prone to earthquakes, 40 mil-

lion hectares prone to floods, 8% of the total area

prone to cyclones and 68% of the area susceptible

to drought, India has been placed in zones IV and VI

and the most affected are the forests and commu-

nities depended on forests. Forests are buffers be-

tween the society natural and anthropogenic disas-

ters such as forest fires, epidemics, invasive species,

man animal conflict, climate change, earthquakes,

landslides, flash floods, cloud bursts, avalanches and

droughts. These hazards kill hundreds of people and

destroy habitat, leads towards environmental degra-

dation with increasing poverty each year in the area.

In order to raise awareness and take action on

interlinking and integrating environmental concerns

in disaster management, we need to ask and address

a number of critical questions. These range from or-

ganization involved, to targets, scales of operation,

disseminated messages, delivery mechanisms, in-

tended effects, and partners. The answers to these

questions will help us identify the critical lacks, gaps

and mismatches, and develop viable policies and

strategies to not only increase environmental sus-

tainability, but also reduce the risks involved and en-

hance the security of people’s lives.

This paper addresses the complexity of issues

in implementing disaster management policies

in the forestry sector. Issues on methodology and

knowledge dissemination have been given special

emphasis. Examples have been drawn from field ex-

periences in handling disease epidemics in forestry

plantations, flash floods, cloud bursts, forest fires,

man animal conflict, earth quakes, landslides and in-

vasive species.

Key words: Forestry disaster management, issues and

concerns

NRMDRM-21

Addressing Disasters in Cold Deserts of Indian HimalayasGargi Banerji,Sejuti Basu, Abhinaba ChakravartiPRAGYA

To share understanding of mountain environ-

ment issues and strategies for DRR in view of increas-

ing degradation of watersheds, and climate change

impacts causing increasing intensity / frequency of

floods and landslides, water scarcity and livelihood

challenges in the cold desert areas in the Himalayas

and come out with concrete steps for the way for-

ward.

A four pronged approach involving a) field work

across 56 micro watersheds in the Western Himalayas

[Kinnaur, Chamba in Himachal Pradesh] and Trans Hi-

malayas [Ladakh in J & K and Lahaul & Spiti in Himach-

al Pradesh] to collect the necessary data for the study;

b) a PRA initiative covering 65 villages to understand

the socio-economic issues on the ground; c) a multi-

stakeholder workshop involving state agencies, aca-

demicians and community participants to gain an un-

derstanding of the interplay of various factors; d) Mix

of various mitigation interventions carried out across

7 pockets across the target areas.

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 49

Based on the study a model relating environment

threat and adaptive capacity has been developed. The

parameters considered were a) altitude bands; b) eco-

degradation; c) anthropogenic pressure; d) resource

stress; e) climate change; and f ) disaster risk for the

threat elements. For the adaptive capacity the pa-

rameters considered were a) resource availability; b)

ecological balance issues; c) development status. De-

liberation by the working groups at the workshop has

resulted in a set of actionable elements being identi-

fied for a) preparedness; b) adaptation; c) relief and d)

recovery. Field trials for a mix of interventions relat-

ing to water, fodder, rangeland regeneration and food

security issues have provided the means for scaling

and replication. The first hand involvement with the

disaster relief efforts during the flash floods in Leh in

Aug ’10 and the learning has been integrated.

NRMDRM-22

Community Based Mitigation and Preparedness for Disaster Risk Reduction based on Natural Resource Management

Dr. Sandhya Chatterji, Dr. Anil K. Gupta, Ms. Sreeja Nair

This paper is a case study based on the final eval-

uation of the Natural Disaster Risk Reduction through

Policy Change, Capacity Building and Community

Based Mitigation and Preparedness (NDRR) Project1

that aimed at supporting direct implementation of

the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) down to the

grassroots level. The project helped in increasing re-

silience of rural communities to address vulnerabili-

ties and reduce risks associated with natural hazards

through a combination of policy level work with

practical, risk-reduction initiatives in the four states

of Assam, Bihar, Orissa and Rajasthan that are prone

to flooding, drought, earthquakes, cyclones and fire.

The physical infrastructure constructed in Bihar,

Assam and Orissa under the project such as escape/

evacuation routes, protective stone bunding along

roads/fields or bamboo piling along river banks to

stem erosion, community shelters in safe places, cul-

verts and bridges to allow flood waters to recede, the

provision of boats for evacuation particularly of the

most vulnerable – aged, pregnant women, handi-

capped – and the provision of safe drinking water

from community raised tube wells have been par-

ticularly appreciated by people in increasing their

preparedness to deal with floods. In Rajasthan, the

cisterns and farm ponds have been a boon for com-

munities in water management and dealing with

drought conditions. The project has also led to some

improvement in farming systems for mitigating the

impacts of climate change. With assistance from

government agricultural institutions such as ATMA

in Bihar and CAZRI in Rajasthan, communities have

diversified crop production (such as introduction of

new variety of potatoes as a cash crop or flood re-

sistant paddy in Bihar and water retaining farming

method (farm bunding) in Western Rajasthan), and

taken up new techniques to improve overall crop

productivity.

The local institutions promoted by the project-

Village Disaster Management Committees and Task

Forces, and capacity building of members in early

warning, resource mobilisation, rescue and evacua-

tion, first aid, has promoted an attitude of self reli-

ance and provided communities with the opportu-

nity of being prepared and living in a safer future.

The ability of the VDMC and task forces to prepare a

village contingency plan to deal with disasters, and

establish a contingency fund, is a direct impact of the

project. The formation of CBOs has increased the ca-

pacity of targeted community considerably thereby

reducing the existing vulnerability to natural disas-

ters. SHG started for women have encouraged some

savings and credit activities though it is too early to

judge the financial viability of IGA. More important

however is that these groups have enabled women

to come together to voice collective opinion besides

building leadership qualities among the women

which in turn increased resilience and reduced vul-

nerabilities.

1In India the NDRR project is being implemented by Tearfund UK through two partners: Evangelical Fellowship of India Commission on Relief (EFICOR)and DiscipleshiCentre

(DC) in the four states of Assam, Bihar, Orissa and Rajasthan that are prone to flooding, drought, earthquakes, cyclones and fire.

50 | Abstracts

INTER DISCIPLINARY AREAS

IDDRM-1

Sustainable Urban Development: Integrating Land Use Planning and Disaster Risk ReductionPriti AttriInstitute of Environmental Studies, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra

Anil K GuptaNational Institute of Disaster Management, New Delhi – 110 020

Smita Chaudhry, Subrat SharmaG.B. Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development, Almorapritiattri8@gmail.com,envirosafe2007@gmail.com,smitachaudhry@rediffmail.com, subrats@rediffmail.com

Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is an important

component for achieving sustainable development of

cities and making progress towards the implementa-

tion of the Millennium Development Goals. Despite the

growing understanding and acceptance of the impor-

tance of DRR and increased disaster response capaci-

ties, disasters and in particular the management and

reduction of risk continue to pose a global challenge.

Disaster risk arises when hazards interact with physi-

cal, social, economic and environmental vulnerabilities.

Urbanized areas have higher concentrations of people

and human- made structures including industrial fa-

cilities, therefore increasing the natural disasters risk

and secondary effects such as technological disasters.

Hazardous industrial sites have always represented a

threat for the community often provoking major acci-

dents, affecting the surrounding urban areas.

To ensure disaster resilient development in cit-

ies, there is need for better inter-agency coordination

across Ministries and various departments at national,

state and local level.

Convergence of DRR and land use planning is es-

sential not only for managing current risks but also

potentially higher risks in future. Effective land man-

agement can help to mitigate disasters and reduce

risks by avoiding human settlements in hazard prone

areas, control of population density and expansion.

Identification of disaster-prone areas as well as al-

ternative sites that are more suitable for development,

retrofitting and building of settlements and homes

adapted to disaster conditions, relocation of popula-

tion vulnerable to disasters, engineering measures and

construction of hazard-resistant structures are some

effective tools and strategies of DRR. Disaster risk con-

siderations should be integrated into sustainable de-

velopment policies, planning and programming at all

levels, with a special emphasis on disaster prevention,

mitigation, preparedness and vulnerability reduction.

Database of disasters in the urban context will help in

developing feasible multi-hazard risk and vulnerability

assessments for urban areas and likely hazard-scenarios.

Keeping these points into consideration, this paper dis-

cusses about integration of disaster risk reduction and

landuse planning for sustainable urban development.

Keywords: Disaster Risk Reduction, Urbanization, Vul-

nerability, Land use planning

IDDRM-2

To Assess the Challenges Posed by Polluted Groundwater on Public Health – GIS Approach, Kanpur region, Uttar PradeshDeepshikha PurwarM.Sc (Disaster Management), Jamshetji Tata Center for Disaster Management, Tata Institute of Social Sciences

Kanpur (India) is one among the most polluted

city in the world, and the main cause for this pollution

is tannery industry, flourishing since late 60s. The waste

effluents released by these industries are not only pol-

luting various surface and groundwater sources but are

also affecting human health and their socio-economic

well being. A hydro geochemical analysis conducted in

two such affected villages (study area), found fluoride

content in region’s groundwater was 8% more than

the permissible limit. Hexavalent chromium, used as

basic chrome sulphate in tanneries, which should be

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 51

nil in drinking water, was found beyond the limits.

The research paper aims at establishing a relation-

ship between the distribution of hazardous chemicals

in groundwater and the occurrence of various health

challenges for human health in the study area. The

absolute location of study area is (latitude 26.39622,

longitude 80.44092), eastern part of Kanpur city. This

study shows the incidence of various diseases in the

region, on the basis of distribution of hazardous chem-

icals in the groundwater, by mapping the population

affected by bone deformities and skin diseases on the

contour maps using kriging, a geostatistical gridding

method. Geographical information system and remote

sensing images were used to identify, locate, map and

analyze the hydro geochemical data and field health

data for modeling the hazard zones in the study area,

which would be helpful in targeting and planning the

remedial measures for health challenges and conser-

vation of groundwater and surface water sources.

Keywords: Kanpur, Public health, Pollution, Geo-

graphic information system, Hydro-geochemical

IDDRM-3

The Treatment of the Liquid Rejects from The Petroleum Refinery of Arzew–Algeria to the Mediterranean Littoral Menouar HanafiDepartment of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences,The University of Science and Technology of ORAN ( ALGERIA ) E-mail : hanafi951@yahoo.com

During the process of transformation in the refin-

ery of Arzew, some chemical products are brought into

the industrial water treatment, which reaches the long

term at their effectiveness, are rejected because they

are polluted. This pollution is known on the practical

level by the deterioration of the quality of the water

rejected into the natural environment and to the sea,

which bring to a degradation of the environment and

with a reduction of oxygene dissolved in aquatic en-

vironment. Large quantities of used water , domestic

and industrial , are cast each day, without any treat-

ment, directly to the sea, which can be a serious source

of pollution according to the degree of harmful effect

of products (used oils, solvents, various muds and dan-

gerous waste). The pollution in Algeria, is the origine

thus, of the serious medical dangers to the population,

and on the littoral, especially on the tourist structures

. ALGERIA currently follows a very severe and rigorous

environmental policy to fight the pollution.

In all the production factories, it is required to have

stations of processing waste and especially to treat the

used water. In the refinery of Arzew, which is on the

Mediterranean littoral, the waste water coming from

the zones of the production, is treated in two stations ,

where oils are recovered and the solid waste is eliminat-

ed, before this water is rejected to the sea . The station

contains two basins, first basin PPI (Parallel Plaques Inter-

ceptor) to eliminate the bulky solid waste . The second

API basin is a separator by gravity, which removes the

free compounds of oil and other solids. In end the water

purifyed will be evacuated towards the sea. The refinery

of Arzew works for a protection of the environment, and

to protect the littoral against the pollution, by the instal-

lation of the stations for the purifying of the used water.

Key Words : Pollution, Environment, Purifying,

Waste Water

IDDRM-4

Correlation of Neotectonic activity with landslide occurrence along Main boundary thrust in Dehradun regionB.C. Joshi Institute of Earth Sciences, Bundelkhand University, Jhansi

Significant neotectonic activity has been observed

in different parts of synclinal intermontane Dehradun

valley. Whole Dehradun region is undergoing strong

52 | Abstracts

denudation and contributing large amount of debris

which is being transported to the Doon Valley through

number of streams. Sahanshai Ashram, Shastradhara

and Maldeota Raipur section is marked by number of

prominent landslides showing active process along

faults. The area is characterised by phyllites, quartzite,

blainis, limestone, slates, sandstone and shale. Most

of the slides are noticed on the jointed and shattered

rocks. However, failure of slope on Doon gravel is due

to deformed sediments or action of water on the slope

or at toe portion during rainy season. This section is

marked by patches of flat surface at varying elevations

resting over the Pre Tertiary rocks. These deposits are

considered as part of Doon piedmont which has been

uplifted due to movement along Main Boundary Thrust.

IDDRM-5

Risk Perception of Inundation Events in MumbaiDavid J. HallauSPA Delhi, hallau.david@gmail.com

Risk perception is considered as being crucial for

the behaviour towards risks and for the decision to take

preventive measures. In order to develop an effective

risk management, the understanding of risks and the

influencing factors should be known. In this context

the issue of differences in risk assessment seems to be

important and the role it thereby plays in the respec-

tive living conditions of the people.Hence, the present

analyses the risk perception of the inundating events

in Mumbai in particular. By means of an empirical data

acquisition the perception is examined and compared

with four different population groups. Thereby, con-

siderable differences in the perception of risks can be

determined between the individual groups; which indi-

cates a close connection to their respective living con-

ditions.Therefore, an effective risk management has to

recognize these differences in the local perception and

respective assessment in individual groups of the risk

situations. In order to be able to offer an appropriate

assistance in coping with risk events like inundations, it

is crucial for the risk management to consider the indi-

vidual living conditions of every population group.

IDDRM-6

In Search of Alternatives for edge old disinfection technologiesMrinal Kanti Ghosh,Director, Dr. Ghosh Laboratories

For more than a century, the addition of chlorine

to drinking water has been saving millions of lives by

destroying microorganisms in unsafe water sources.

Substantial progress in innovation and technology has

been made ever since. Nonetheless, disinfection of wa-

ter, our most precious resource, is still usually accom-

plished by dosing either hypochlorite solution or chlo-

rine gas into the water. Amid rising quality standards,

the increasing magnitude of clean and safe water in

the food chain and growing health and environment

conscience, a different answer is required to address

the challenges of water disinfection in the 21st centu-

ry. I will discuss here, the alternative technologies and

methods along with the most suitable substitute for

chlorine. I will focus on delivery systems to generate al-

ternative solutions and outline the modern disinfection

proposition vis-à-vis the classical ways of disinfection.

IDDRM-7

Mapping different types of Conflict related incidents in Manipur using GIS TechniquesAnkit Jaswal, MA Disaster Management StudentJamshetji Tata Center for Disaster Management

Becoming an integral part of life in today’s sce-

nario, GIS plays a very important role in understanding

the basics of spatial patterns for having an in-depth

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 53

knowledge and clear understanding. Conflict is a so-

cial construct with social disagreement and when

taken in political terms, it can refer to war and even

to implication, and it can be one of the fields which

can be understood with help of GIS and through its

revolution and struggle for independence. It’s a very

relative term, dependent on contextual mechanism.

Dealing with the types of conflict incidents in north-

east region of India, GIS as a tool helps us to understand

the reasons behind the origin of conflict in the region

and the patterns in which the types of incidents took

place from one district to another in the state of Manipur.

As this research is a pilot project to develop a GIS

based methodology to study the conflict affected re-

gions in northeastern region of India, we took Ma-

nipur state as our research area, because it is one of

the most severely affected states of northeast for the

past few years. The purpose of the study is to under-

stand how conflict can be studied utilizing GIS.

Keywords: GIS, Conflict, Northeast, and Manipur.

IDDRM-8

Climate Change and Disasters in IndiaR K MallInstitute of Environment and Sustainable Development, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi – 221005 Email: mall_raj@rediffmail.com

R BhatlaDepartment of Geophysics, BHU, Varanasi-221005

A K GuptaNational Institute of Disaster Management, Ministry of Home Affairs, IIPA Campus, IP Estate, New Delhi -110 002

Climate change is evident from the observations

of increase in global average air and ocean tempera-

tures, precipitation and extreme rainfall, widespread

melting of snow and ice, storms/storm surges/coastal

flooding and rising global mean sea level, as recorded

in the Fourth Assessment Report of IPCC. In future, Cli-

mate change is expected to increase the frequency

and intensity of current extreme weather/ hydro-me-

teorological events, greater monsoon variability and

also the emergence of new disaster i.e. sea level rise

and new vulnerabilities with differential spatial and

socio-economic impacts on communities. This unprec-

edented increase is expected to have severe impact on

the hydrological cycle, water resource (drought, flood,

drinking water, forest & ecosystems, sea level / coastal

area /losses of coastal wetlands and mangroves), food

security, health and other related areas.

The impact would be particularly disasters for

developing countries, including India and further

degrade the resilience of poor, vulnerable communi-

ties, which make up between one quarter and one

half of the population of most Indian cities. Low level

technology development in the villages together

with social, economic and gender inequities enhance

the vulnerability and sufferings of the largely illiter-

ate, unskilled, and resource-poor fishing, farming

and landless labour communities. Their resilience

to bounce back to pre-disaster level of normality is

highly limited. These, in turn, impede sustainable de-

velopment widely undertaken in accordance with

the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Under

these circumstances, the largely modern science

and technology-based sophisticated early warning

systems are unlikely to be of help to their fullest po-

tential. The Super Cyclone in 1999, Drought in 2002

/2009, Tsunami in 2004, Heat & cold wave and Flood /

flash flood in recent years in rural & urban areas are a

‘wake-up call’ from technological, social and econom-

ic points of view. This brings out the urgent need to

address sustainable alternate livelihoods to enhance

resilience. In these circumstances, vulnerability as-

sessment is a powerful tool in the examination of

societal well-being in the face of climatic change for

better management which must integrate knowl-

edge about the environment (climate, ecosystems,

water, associated pollution and change) with knowl-

edge about humans and their activities (agriculture/

forestry/fishing, resource management, political gov-

ernance, energy use, culture) to determine a holistic

picture of how sensitive particular places are and

how resilient to the kinds of changes that might be

associated with climate change.

54 | Abstracts

Advisory Committee

� Shri R.K. Srivastava (IAS), Executive Director of NIDM, Ministry of Home Affairs,

New Delhi

� Shri P .G Dhar Chakrabarti, Former Executive Director of NIDM and Director SAARC

Disaster Management Centre, New Delhi

� Dr. Dieter Mutz, Director, GIZ, Advisory Services in Environmental Management

(ASEM)

� Dr. Christina Kamlage, Senior Project Manager, Division of Environment, Energy and

Water, GIZ Berlin, Germany

Academic Advisory Council

� Prof.(Dr.) N.R. Madhava Menon, Former Dr. S. Radhakrishnan Chair on Parliamentary

Studies

� Dr.(Smt.) Indrani Chandrasekharan, Advisor (E&F), Planning Commission, Govt. of

India, New Delhi

� Prof. D. P. Singh, Vice,Chancellor, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi

� Prof. S .S. Singh, Director,The National Law Institute University, Bhopal

� Dr. S.S. Negi,Director, Forestry Research Institute, Dehradun

� Prof. V. K Sharma, Centre for Disaster Management and Environment Climate

Change and Drought, Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi

� Prof. Christian Jochum, Director German Accident Commission / European Process

Safety Centre, Germany

� Prof. Santosh Kumar, National Institute of Disaster Management, New Delhi

� Prof. Dilanthi Amaratunga, Head, Centre for Disaster Resilience, University of Salford,

UK

� Prof. Mohammad Yunus, Head of Environmental Sciences, Babasaheb Bhimrao

Ambedkar (Central) University, Lucknow

� Dr. Luther Rangreji, Senior Legal Advisor, Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi

Scientific Advisory Council

� Shri S. K. Das, Director General, Central Statistical Organisation, New Delhi

� Maj. Gen.(Dr.) R. Siva Kumar, Director NRDMS, Department of Science and Technology

� Dr. Akhilesh Gupta, Advisor to Minister of Science and Technology, Climate Change

Programme Department of Science & Technology

� Dr. K. J. Ramesh, Advisor, Ministry of Earth Sciences, New Delhi

� Shri K.C. Gupta, Former Director General National Safety Council, Mumbai

� Dr. Sanjay Singh Gahlout, Deputy Director General, National Informatics Centre,

New Delhi

Conference Committees

International Conference on Environmental Knowledge for Disaster Risk Management | 55

� Mr. N. M. Prusty, Chief Mentor cum Director, Centre for Development and Disaster

Management Support Services, New Delhi

� Prof. Chandan Ghosh, National Institute of Disaster Management, New Delhi

� Dr. Rakesh Dubey, Director, Disaster Management Institute, Bhopal

� Dr. S S C Shenoi, Director, Indian National Centre for Ocean information Services,

Hyderabad

� Dr. Alfons Vogelbacher, Head of Unit Flood Information Centre, Flood Forecast Rivers

Danube and Inn at the Bavarian Environment Agency

� Dr. P. K. Aggarwal, Regional Facilitator, International Water Management Institute,

New Delhi

Organizing Committee

� Dr. Anil K. Gupta, Associate Professor, National Institute of Disaster Management

� Ms. Sreeja S. Nair, Assistant Professor, National Institute of Disaster Management

� Mr. Björn Kalscheuer, Project Manager, GIZ, Division Promotion of Democracy,

Administration Reforms, Economic, Environmental and Social Statistics Friedrich,

Ebert, Allee 40, 53113 Bonn, Germany

� Ms. Steffi Mallinger, Project Manager, GIZ, Division Environment, Energy and Water

Lützowufer 6,9, 10785 Berlin, Germany

� Mr. N. Raghu Babu, GIZ, Advisory Services in Environmental Management (ASEM).

� Dr. Sandhya Chatterji, Director, ifanos concept&planning, India (Consultants on

behalf of GIZ)

� Mr. Florian Bemmerlein- Lux, Director, ifanos concept & planning, Germany

(Consultants on behalf of GIZ)

ekDRM Secretariat

National Institute of Disaster Management

IIPA Campus, 5B – IP Estate, New Delhi 110002, India

Ph: +91,11,23725517, 91,11,23702443, 45,32

Fax: +91,11,23702442. 23702446

ekdrm2011@gmail.com

56 | Abstracts