Floods
Traditional contributions in
these areas have focused on flood control and management in particular
and
water resources management in general with strategies for disaster
reduction.
Water
disaster management and mitigation encompasses many diverse needs to
include
sustainable and equitable growth, social environment and living
conditions,
rural and urban needs, sustaining natural resources and environment,
effective
and dynamic sector management emphasizing both decentralization and
centralization,
stake holder decision inclusion in decision making, regulation, and
service
delivery and monitoring.
Climate change and increasing variability ensures water-related hazards will not abate any time soon and that disaster risk reduction will be called on more and more to improve our capacity to cope. Reducing the risk of water-related hazards means, on the one hand, developing our capacity to monitor their magnitude, duration, timing and location, and on the other, assessing and reducing our vulnerability.
The economic cost of
water-related natural disasters is
considerable. As more and more people live on marginal land, there is
increasingly greater risk from flooding or drought. Worldwide, there is
a
shortage of effective disaster preparedness and mitigation methods,
since risk
reduction is not an integral part of water resource management, as it
has
mainly been viewed as a technical problem, unrelated to the factors
that force
people to live in risky areas. Lack of political will is also a factor. However, appropriate
risk-mitigation
investment, and the redirection of resources into prevention, offers
significant economic benefits, as well as reduction in loss of life,
improvements in welfare and social stability.
There is a link
between water resources, variability and
risk. Investment is
needed to mitigate
the risks and affect the large opportunity costs of adapting to the
effects of
water-induced shocks on economies. As
such, water is a non-fungible resource for human existence and
development.
A key counter measure to solve
water resource issues
is sustainable
utilization of
water resources. In
view of the
coordinated arrangement of population, resources, environment and
economic
development, principles must be formulated to include overall planning
while
considering all potential development, reuse, treatment and their
integrated
development to provide for future needs.
Influenced
by the natural conditions and climate, the distribution of
precipitation is
often very uneven during any given year and also among periods of years. About 70% of the total
annual precipitation
is concentrated mainly in flood season.
That is to say, about
2/3 of the total
amount of water resource are
flood runoff, which often cause flood disasters during any flood season. This is especially true
for the middle and
lower reaches of large river systems.
These same areas often
contain more than
half of a states total
population and a majority of the total cultivated land while producing
a
plurality of the gross economic product.
At the same time, much
of the ground
elevations in these regions are
located below flood level. This
results
in the potential flood disaster always threatening the economic,
construction,
sustainable live cycle as well as the inhabitant’s normal
life cycle.
A balance between top
down management and
bottom up management is an increasing challenge to this process. Most
Sustainability
will require traditional flood retardation portions of river basins be
protected against encroachment, preparation for global and regional
climate
change and sea level rise, and preparation of el Nino and La Nina
effects on
floods, storms and draught.
Water
disaster management and mitigation and sustainability encompasses many
diverse
needs to include sustainable and equitable growth, social environment
and
living conditions, rural and urban needs, sustaining natural resources
and
environment, effective and dynamic sector management emphasizing both
decentralization and centralization, stake holder decision inclusion in
decision making, regulation, service delivery and monitoring.
Water
is the global commodity
consumers, industry and
agriculture all scream for and about at the same time.
It faces scarce
supplies, rising prices
and
government intervention and needs more factories to meet growing
demand.
Water
the resource by which all life thrives and without which all life dies,
covers
75 percent of the planet’s surface, yet only 1% is fresh
water. The world
population is sky rocking and estimated to be around 8 billion by 2025. The demand for water to
sustain, fed, and
employ the population is projected to double.
It is estimated that
at this time as
much as 40% of the estimated world
population will living in “water-stressed”
countries having inadequate
quantities or quality of water supplies.
Agriculture
gulps down more water to feed more people, as cities and sprawl alike
draw off
more water for their residents, industries and power plants, increasing
susceptible to water stresses. Water
disaster such as floods, draughts, storms, global warming, sea rising,
lack of
treatment and distribution facilities, and management may make water
the next
oil type economy. Understanding the risk and integration of risk
management in
the socio-economic development process while including both inter and
intra
basin driven sustainability is vitally important.
Key
elements and topics:
· Living with
risks.
· Integration of
disaster risk management into socio-economic development process.
· Regional and
local cooperation strategy.
· Partnerships for
disaster reduction.
· Strengthening
institutional and policy teamwork for effective Regional partnerships
on early
warning and preparedness.
· Promotion of best
practices on effective systems of assessment of socio-economic impact
of
disasters for policy and decision making.
· Support regional
efforts to link rehabilitation and reconstruction to risk management
for
sustainable development
· Application of internet computer technology and space technology for more effective disaster information management.
