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ICST in Hazards and Disaster Management
The earthquake and tsunami of 26 December 2004, shocked most people. ESCAP has been working on environmental issues and the use of information, communication and space technologies (ICST) for disaster management, including prevention, mitigation and improved response. This web site offers a summary of such activities and a link to resources which may help you to better understand the current situation and the potential for improved preparation for, and response to, disasters.
Recent ESCAP and other UN agencies' activities in ICST-enhanced Disaster Management
- High Level Expert Group Meeting on Technical Options for Disaster Management Systems: Tsunamis and Others , 22-24 June 2005, Bangkok .
- Meeting of Experts on Space Applications for Disaster Management, 25-28 July 2005 Chiang Mai , Thailand . This meeting was also organized by ESCAP under the project “Capacity-building for disaster management in Asia and the Pacific”, funded by the Government of France, concluding a series of regional workshops and consultations on regional cooperative mechanisms in space technology applications for disaster management, with emphasis on flood and drought.
- Additional meetings were organized on the environmental aspects of disasters by the regional offices of
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Information on disasters that impact Asia and the Pacific (External web sites) |
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The Asian Disaster Reduction Centre lists major disasters over the past century by type, impact and country in the region. It notes that floods, drought, storms, earthquakes and wildfires are the major disasters to impact the region, and low to lower-middle income populations are impacted far more by disasters than are upper-middle to high-income peoples. These are peoples who often have few, if any, resources for recovering from a disaster. Many studies indicate that impacted developing countries and communities are set back in their development plans for many years, if they are not well prepared for disasters. |
| Earthquakes are documented by the World Data Centre for Seismology. Information includes data on earthquakes of 2005 , 2004 , 2003 and earlier years (linked to at the bottoms of these linked-to pages). Several Asian-Pacific earthquakes have printable posters , including the 26 December 2004 earthquake and the 8 October earthquake in Kashmir . |
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| Tsunamis are described by the World Data Center , Boulder Centres. They include a table of historical tsunamis in the Indian Ocean . Note that there have been several other killing tsunamis in the Indian Ocean region in recorded history. |
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| Floods: are arguably the form of disaster that affect the most people in Asia and the Pacific in a typical year. Floods also benefit many people, as flood waters bring new deposits of soil that are vital to many agricultural communities. Nevertheless, millions of people in Asia and the Pacific are displaced by flooding in a typical year. The Dartmouth Flood Observatory has tables, maps, and other information on flooding (see the column on the left-hand side of their Home Page). |
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| Drought occurs in many parts of Asia , sometimes leading to famine and impacts large numbers of poor farmers and others. Go to a Website on global drought monitoring and related vegetation health. |
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| The International Charter Space and Major Disasters was created in 2001 to provide satellite imagery and derived information to support disaster response. |
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| UNOSAT was created in 2002 to help coordinate the provision of satellite imagery and cartographic tools for humanitarian purposes. The UNOSAT Website serves up such data for the general public. |
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Indian ocean Tsunami December 2004