Capacity Crisis in Disaster Risk Management

Question: Discuss about the Capacity Crisis in Disaster Risk Management. Answer: Introduction Risk is an important concept in every field. Risk management is the process of identifying and assessing the risks for minimizing the impacts of the disastrous event or to increase the understanding of new opportunities. The major objective of risk assessment is to guarantee that uncertainty does not repel the efforts from the business goals. The risk management in the disaster and emergency situations includes reducing the damage, which is caused by the natural hazards like; flood, drought, earthquakes, and cyclone or any emergency event. This report on risk management includes the critical elements, which guide the risk of emergency or disaster. Furthermore, it discusses the impacts of emergency situations and disaster on local communities. The report will help in understanding various key concepts regarding the risk assessment and management in the emergency situations and disaster. Emergency and disaster situation can arise anytime. It can disturb your life or can put you in the danger. Emergency is a circumstance, which poses risk to life, property, health, environment and life. There may be some emergency situation, which need urgent involvement to inhibit this bad situation (National Center for Disaster Preparedness, 2017). Natural disaster can include various events related to the weather and regulated by the geographic location. Most of the disaster situations can be expected allowing the individual and communities the chance to prepare earlier for the event. Difference between Emergency and Disaster There are some differences between emergency and disaster, even though an emergency situation can feel like the situation of disaster to the people, those are involved in it. Disaster is described as a sudden disastrous event, which brings loss, damage or a failure, whereas emergency can be defined as an unexpected mixture of the situations of the situation, which calls for instant action. It needs a relief and assistance. A situation of disaster can impact more people and can have disturbing consequences, which that of an emergency (Paton, 2007). The emergency situation can convert into a disaster whereas a disaster is naturally a situation of emergency. It can be said that the results of emergency situation will lead to the disaster. Thus, the situation of disaster and emergency are two different things and sometimes they are confused, but both are related to each other. Among other factors, risk perception is supposed to impact the preparedness of the people for, reactions to and reclamation from the natural disasters. It is very important for implementing effective risk management strategies. In the process of handing with the happening of natural disasters, New Zealand has gained a better experience in managing the resources to combat the disaster risks (Lawrence, 2016). Though, the risk management is controlled by the technocratic pattern. The social facet is generally unnoticed. The government in the country has made efforts time to time for the publics good, but is does not give attention to tat how the community looks at these disasters. Various studies have been conducted to know about the perceptions of people about the natural disasters risk in New Zealand. It is revealed that the public in the country is aware of the natural emergencies and disasters and associated risks. After conducting a study of eight New Zealand groups, it is analyzed that earthquakes got the highest risk exposure ranking over the 24 hazards. Trends in Emergency and Disaster Occurrence The population of New Zealand is at the risk from variety of hazards. Many infrastructures, industrial and residential areas, situated in New Zealand are affected by these hazards. Country is facing increasing trends in emergency and disaster occurrence. The country is affected by the technology and other human-made events (Edens, 2016). The emergency and disaster occurrence in New Zealand includes various events, like; landslides, Coastal hazards, snow fall, droughts and severe winds. Coastal hazards: In the New Zealand, there is 18000 kilometers of coastline, which is continuously changing through high storm surges. So, it is very challenging to manage economic and residential use of this coastal atmosphere. With the increase in the seaside residential area, people, infrastructure and property are at risk. Landslides: landslides in the New Zealand are caused by the earthquakes or extreme rainfall. There are two major landslides happened in New Zealand; are in Matata, Eastern Bay of Plenty (North Island) in the year 2005 and Abbotsford, Dunedin in south Island in year 2005. Snowfall: Snowfall in winter is very common above 1000 meters in the North Island and Southern Alps. There may be Snowstorms, which can rarely bring the snow to lower heights (Wilson, 2006). For example, there was a case in New Zealand in the June 2006 (Canterbury Snowstorm). Droughts: Drought is one of the most common and expensive hazards in New Zealand, because it can impact a large area and the effects of them can be felt for several years of occurrence. It causes shortage of water and affects the irrigation supplies. It affects the rural and agriculture sector primarily (Edens, 2016). The electricity generation in the country depends on the levels of river and lakes. It was seen in the hydroelectric drought in 1991 and Auckland water supply drought in the year 1993. Earthquake: Earthquake is badly damaged the people, property and assets in the city. Currently, the earthquake occurred in the year 2011, i.e. Christchurch earthquake. In this, 185 people were killed and several thousand people were injured. Thus, the country is facing different types of natural hazards. It is affecting the lives of people, residing there. The Below- mentioned graph shows trends in natural disaster in New Zealand. It also indicates the number of deaths in a particular disastrous event. World Health Organization/ International Disaster Database Without understanding the risk or uncertainty, it is difficult to know about the risk management in the unfortunate situations. The concept of risk is somewhat different in different situation. Risk is the uncertainty or threat of loss, damage, danger and injury, which is caused by any internal or external exposures (Jorgustin, 2012). The risk can be avoided by taking any preventive action. The meaning and causes are different in different areas; like insurance, finance, food industry and any other industry. There may some events, which generate the risk of natural disaster or emergency situations, like; flood, drought, earthquakes, and cyclone. Risks from emergency situations and natural disaster are very common in the New Zealand. It can be from the storms, landslides, floods, severe weather, earthquakes and tsunami. Increasing awareness and knowledge about the risk and risk management is necessary to minimize the vulnerability of the local communities (Tiwari, 2015). Hazard is an important concept of risk management. It can be defined as a human activity or occurrence that may lead to injury, loss of life, damage to the property, environmental deprivation or impact on human health. These hazards may be combined, single or sequential in their impact. Each and every hazard is categorized by its geographical location, frequency, probability and intensity (United Nations, Office for Outer Space Affairs, 2015). Hazard has been identified as the risk, but it is accepted that it is a component of risk not the risk. There are some examples of socio-natural hazards, like; flooding, landslides, which are associated with the human brought environmental changes and hazards related to climate changes. Vulnerability can be defined as the situations, which are determined by the social, physical, environmental and economic factors, which surge the exposure of a community, people, resources or systems to the effects of hazards or risks (Campbell, 2009). This situation is multi-dimensional in the nature. People differ in their susceptibility to the risk as a result of their gender, social group, age, ethnic and some other factors. It can differ in its types, like; poverty means that housing is not able to bear an earthquake; it may result in the slow response to the situation of disaster. It can lead to a great loss of life. Examples of vulnerability include like; less protection of resources or assets, poor construction of buildings or houses, high level of education or poverty and lack of awareness and information among population (Shaw, Pulhin Joy, 2010). Capacity defines the ability of an individuals and communities to deal with the hazards, which depends on the exposure, level of impact and capacity to adjust in the situation of damage and taken the benefits of opportunities and handle the impacts of alteration. Like concept of vulnerability, capacity is dynamic and it will change according to the situations (Gaillard, 2010). The individuals and communities must have some specific capacities, like; capacity to foresee the risks, capacity to give responds to the natural hazards and capacity to recover or adapt the changes. Resilience can be defined as the capacity to withstand, adapt to or fast recovery from an emergency or disaster situation. According to a research, the communities with the greater ability, who have better access to the social, human, economic and political capital and the people who have the abilities in developing and getting these resources are more resilient in the situation of disaster (Kenney, Phibbs, Paton, Reid Johnston, 2015). There are many researchers, who defined the disaster resilience as an outcome and a process. Outcome has inclined to implement the reactive methods which can serve that situation and take focus from imbalances, which result from disaster. As a process, creating the resilience in situation of disaster includes assisting the abilities of people, communities. Impact of Emergency situations and disaster on local communities Communities play an important role in the emergency situations. At local level, there are so many things, which can be done to fortify the capacity of communities and moderate the impacts of disasters and emergencies. Emergency situations and disaster have large impact on the people of the community. It affects all the classes of community in different way. The people may face the loss of their property and assets, injury and death of their loved ones. Occurrence of droughts affects the rural agricultural sector severely (American Museum of Natural History, 2017). These droughts also have social and psychological impact on the communities, which are engaged in the farming process. There may be some complex emergencies, which have major impact on the public health system. For example, a significant decrease in the resources, changes in the management of heath care services and development of health services delivery. Furthermore, the affected people in the community can be categorized in three groups, like; primary victims, observers and emergency responders. The primary victims are the people, who have been affected by the loss and damage (Johnston, Becker Paton, 2008). The emergency responders are the people, who provide services in the situations, such as; police, medical group, Red Cross and local emergency services. These people support the population in the disaster area. Disaster risk management is a process of utilizing organizations, services and operations to implement the policies and strategies for reducing the negative impacts of emergency situations and disasters, hazards and probability of hazards (Fiilho, 2012). Generally, emergency and disaster management goes through three phases. These phases are; response, rehabilitation and recovery. While the rehabilitation and response efforts are completed in the days or weeks and recovery efforts are conducted in months. This includes redesigning the infrastructure and resettlement of livelihoods (Kelman, Mercer Gaillard, 2012). Conclusion This report has provided overview about the key concepts of emergency and disaster management in New Zealand. This includes the discussion about the hazards, vulnerability and resilience in the context of emergency management. The country is facing various challenges due to disasters, like; foods, landslides, droughts, earthquakes and snowfall. The communities in the country have large impact on the community and other supporting people. The prevention teams in New Zealand are playing an important role in the protection of people, property and infrastructure after the occurrence of disaster. The graph shows the trends in the emergency and disaster occurrence in New Zealand. Thus, an effective risk management is important for handling these risks. References American Museum of Natural History. (2017). Psychological effects of Emergencies. 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