Analysis of disaster management frameworks to evaluate the hazard induced risks of coastal communities

Abstract

Natural hazards were recognized globally as the most pressing risk in terms of impact and probability of occurrence. This context presses the need for strong, effective risk management mechanisms in the field of disaster management. Yet the ever increasing casualties, economic losses due to natural hazards raise the question on the effectiveness of respective mechanisms to mitigate such. That leads to the objective of this research work, to find engineered solutions for the disaster risk management mechanism to be more effective. The research work conducted in three phases. First a literature survey to identify the risk management principles, disaster management principles, and disaster and risk relativity and evaluation methods. The next phase is framework development. Number of frameworks were developed as part of the research work to evaluate the effectiveness of a disaster management mechanism and to capture the details of a given mechanism. Third phase is the three case studies in three countries, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Maldives. Collected data were then analyzed to capture an ideal disaster management mechanism. It was identified that there are number of factors can include in to a disaster management mechanism from a risk management perspective. Also it was identified that the developed frameworks do capture the details of a disaster management mechanism in a satisfactory way. There are number of practices countries can share within to enhance the mechanisms. Also the research work concluded with an institutional ideal arrangement in a disaster risk management perspective.