 Prof. N. Vinod Chandra Menon Member, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Government of India nvcmenon@gmail.com The United Nations observed the decade of the 90's as the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR). Ironically, this decade witnessed several devastating earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and cyclones, paralyzing the economies of the affected countries. The experiences of the IDNDR provoked debates on the need to strengthen preparedness and mitigation to minimize the loss of lives and damage to property and infrastructure. The increasing frequency of disasters in this period was also accompanied by an alarmingly high economic cost of disasters as can be seen from the fact that the real annual economic losses due to disasters increased from $ 75.5 billion the 1960's to $ 138.4 billion in the 1970's, further to $ 213.9 billion in the 1980's and still further to $ 659.9 billion in the 1990's. According to the World Bank, during 1990 to 2000, the damages due to natural disasters constituted between 2 to 15% of the Gross Domestic Product in the affected countries. 38% of all disasters occur in the South Asian region and almost 59.55% of the total deaths due to disasters worldwide happen in this region. The increasing human vulnerability due to disasters can be seen from the fact that 200 million people were affected by natural disasters in the world and over 45 million people were in need of life-saving assistance in complex emergencies in 2003. The Rio Earth Summit in 1992, the Yokohama Declaration in the World Conference in 1994, the launching of the International Strategy for Disaster reduction (ISDR) in the beginning of the 21st Century, the Political Declaration in the World Summit on Social Development in Johannesburg in 2002, and the Hyogo Framework of Action (2005-2015) at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe in 2005 have all been major milestones in the transition from a reactive, relief-centric approach to a more proactive approach for strengthening preparedness and mitigation for improving the effectiveness of disaster management. The World Bank and the United States Geological Survey estimate that an investment of $ 40 billion in mitigation efforts during the 1990's would have saved economic losses of $ 280 billion due to disasters during the decade. The devastating impact of the Indian Ocean Tsunami in December 2004 in several countries in the Asia Pacific region emphasized the need for strengthening early warning systems and the dissemination of warning and alert messages to the disaster-prone communities. This Tsunami also illustrated that front line successes in emergency response in the tsunami affected countries depended largely on the extent of their back room preparedness. If the topography and the architecture of the buildings are known, 3D Visualisation can help the search and rescue teams to take more informed decisions to plan their strategy to rescue victims in collapsed structures. This will also be very helpful in the event of man-made disasters. The articles in this issue explore some of these critical areas and I hope would contribute to a better understanding of the potential applications of such tools and techniques in disaster management. |